A Better World

CBC-TV - The Brainwashing of Canadians

Supported by Canadian tax dollars to the tune of almost $1b per year, CBC-TV English language news has been crafted to serve the same purpose as Joseph Goebbel’s Ministry of Truth - a true propaganda organ. Below runs a letter of outrage sent by author and activist Robert S. Rodvik to the news network. With Canada increasingly moving in lock-step with the United States on virtually all issues, the letter shows that this mainstream outlet has sacrificed its independence not to serve Canada’s national interests but the imperial agenda of a foreign nation. Gone are the days when U.S. Army deserters could find asylum under the maple trees.
Voltaire Network | 2 June 2012

Ms. Jennifer McGuire
Editor in Chief
CBC Television News - English

As we both know, CBC is funded by Canadian taxpayers, told they would be continuously informed to the highest standards of news broadcasting. Which, to my mind, means no propaganda but rather the dissemination of truth without any political interference in that goal. Individuals being interviewed, aside from the political scrums that appear daily between MPs, should be obtained from a wide, intellectual and knowledgeable base, to be able to inform Canadians as they surely need to be. It seems a particular dilemma for CBC-TV as the best minds in the world are never sought out to dispell the lies, distortions and fabrications that regularly appear as purportedly educated comment by way of my tax dollar.

For instance, widely regarded as the world’s leading intellectual and author of many books on the political morass waylaying us, MIT’s professor Noam Chomsky gets short shrift from CBC. Or, more accurately, no recognition at all. Close at hand, in Ottawa, sits professor Michael Mandel, another genius of logic and investigation as well as author of the seminal volume: How America Gets Away With Murder. These are but two of the many intellectual forces available for alternative comment to offset the jaundiced commentary regularly supplied by CBC-TV.

Now I have spent years monitoring CBC television national news and never once have I observed any depth of background analysis to accompany a news item - such as going to war - which always seems to come out as "we good guys are going to send our warriors to kill bad guys." Which is, in fact, the reason I have finally given rise to my disgust and ire, as Canadian warriors are unfortunately not given to deep thought, reflection, and logical analysis on their own. So when the Prime Minister and fellow flunkies in Cabinet - the ones that claim to converse with God - give orders to go and kill tens of thousands of people and destroy a country - all based on lies and fabrications, the warriors follow their orders and bomb and kill, not really knowing what they are doing. None of these war crimes would or could likely occur if CBC did its job to investigate and tell the truth rather than continue to flog CIA propaganda on behalf of the killer terrorists residing in the White House, Pentagon and CIA Langley.

Back in 1953 the CIA (Kermit Roosevelt et al) overthrew the democratically elected government of Iranian Prime Minister Molhammad Mosaddegh and the US then installed the puppet Reza Shah Palahvi, with the CIA and Mossad teaching the Shah’s newly-taught torturerers, SAVAK, the manner by which to control protests of the people. Tens of thousands were tortured and murdered in order that the US and Britain continue their oil exploitation on the same pattern of theft that Mossaddegh had promised to reverse. Blood for oil was the formula that ever after guided the poltroons of the West in their empire-driven goals.

In 1954 the CIA mounted a coup d’etat against the democratically elected Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala, installed their puppet Castillo Armas and thus ushered in a 50-year reign of terror that was true genocide against the Maya indigenous peoples, hundreds of thousands dead thanks to US terrorism. Arbenz’s crime was to attempt to redistibute fallow land to landless peasants, an affront to United Fruit and the Dulles brothers; Alan running the CIA and John Foster as Secretary of State. Socialist ideas were pegged as "communistic" and had to be halted immediately less others in Latin America arrive at similar incentives for the masses.

The US also invaded the Republic of North Korea on behalf of their brutal, torturing puppet Syngman Rhee, (read I.F. Stone, The Hidden History to see who really started that war) and as always, Canada’s satrap government sent troops to kill and die in Korea, while their puppet masters committed every war crime known to man and caused the deaths of some four million Koreans, the US even gunning down civilian populations at places like No Gun Ri, Cheju, and Daejon. When an individual has a grade 12 education or less and is brainwashed to kill, these massacres are but a byproduct of the system. This is why Americans will never be given a proper education, the ill-informed bodies are needed for all the wars yet to come in a society of never ending wars.

Add in the invasions of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia - based on the fabricated Tonkin Gulf Incident - and we have another four million deaths attributable to Yankee insanity and immorality. I cannot recall any condemnation of the US mass murder genocide by CBC television throughout the decade of terror unleashed in those countries.

"Tricky Dicky" Nixon continued the devastation unleashed on Southeast Asia that had started under Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson and which resulted in millions dead and toxic ruination of the countryside via the 2-4D defoliant Agent Orange (just one of many war crimes), and still found time to destroy the social experiment begun by president Salvador Allende Gossens in Chile. Especially reprehensible to Nixon, Kissinger and the killers running US foreign policy was the fact that Allende had promised a daily cup of milk to poor Chilean women with children; a horrific "communist" idea. And so it was that a CIA-fomented coup was undertaken resulting in the bombing of the presidential palace, the death of Allende, the installation of the terror regime of Augusto Pinochet and the murder and torture of tens of thousands by the US pal and his killer henchmen. No condemnation by CBC back then either.

Soon enough Ronald Reagan was running wars throughout Central America with his Death Squad pals in Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua. And, after these impoverished countries were brought to their knees with little left of their economies, Reagan had yet another project ahead - Grenada.

Maurice Bishop and the New Jewell Movement had decided that the country’s minimal water resources would better serve the island’s small farmer population than for the golf estates of the tourism industry. At the same time, however, he figured a new airport serving larger planes would be good for the island’s tourism industry and sought a Cuban company to construct it. Welcome Ronnie Reagan once more. "The airport could be used for long-range Russian bombers," the President declared. So a massive invasion force attacked the island, killed the Cubans building the runway, a small number of mental patients who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and a number of cows roaming the fields.

The icing on the cake was the fact that "Russia’s" runway was then completed - by US contractors. Water meant for family farmers ended up on Golfing estates and soon planeloads of Yankee golfers were dogging the sunny fairways on Grenada. Nor did the Russkys invade as Reagan suggested. All’s well that ends well. CBC-TV uttered nary a word of condemnation.

Then came Bill Clinton and the Balkans. Slovenia and Bosnia decided to unilaterally separate (think Quebec and the FLQ) which left Bosnian Serbs outnumbered and remembering WWII when Croat Nazi divisions and Nazi Bosnian Muslims massacred hundreds of thousands of Serbs. One of the leaders of the Muslim SS Division Handzar was the then president Alia Izetbegovic, somehow elevated to head the province of Bosnia. Although the opportunity to end the ethnic conflict was introduced early on by Britain’s Lord Owen, Bill Clinton secretly informed Izetbegovic that if he could produce enough Muslim victims, the Yankees would take over. Thus began a series of marketplace bombings in downtown Sarajevo - later proved to be Muslim shellings of Muslim civilians - and the US killing machine moved in. A supposedly "safe-haven" was created in the town of Srebrenica with Dutch troops manning the enclave. Among those gathered in Srebrenica, however, were the ruthless, bloodthirsty paramilitary killers run by Islamist Naser Oric. This gang of murderers regularly slipped out of Srebrenica and raided Serb towns in the vicinity, cutting off the heads of old women and men before retreating back to the safe haven of Srebrenica, killing thousands in the process. Since this is a story in itself and takes too long to delineate, I will leave it there; except to say that CBC-TV reports none of this reality to this day.

In the Mideast meanwhile, Saddam was getting too uppity for proper puppet behaviour. He needed taking care of. Besides, there was all that oil sitting under Iraq’s deserts. A plan was needed, and arrived at. Harken Energy, a Bush family oil company, had pioneeed the use of slant-drilling into oil deposits, and it seemeds that this new technology had been adapted by the Emirs of Kuwait - directly into the Rumallah oil fields under Iraq’s side of the line. Saddam was enraged, especially since he had been promised funds by the Kuwati Royals to help defray the enormous costs of the eight year war against Iran that was promoted by the US. Saddam called in the US Embassador, April Glaspie, to feel her out as to his options. The trap was being set and Saddam fell hook, line and sinker. "We have no opinion as to Arab to Arab conflict," Ambassador Glaspie stated, then quickly left town. Undoubtedly no deep thinker, Saddam believed he had been given the right of way to seek monetary revenge and thus came his downfall.


Once Saddam ’s troops were inside Kuwait Bush senior knew he had the dictator trapped. A whole US Army was rushed to the region and now Saddam tried to negotiate his own army back to Iraq. "We’ll retreat," he promised former CIA head Bush. "Just don’t shoot us in the back," indicating how delusional he was about natural born killers. When the pullout began US planes flew ahead of the lengthy column and bombed the lead trucks. Other warplanes bombed the end of the line and trapped the approximately 100,000 vehicles and occupants that were locked in place. This roadway became known as "The Highway of Death" with US bulldozers later working overtime to bury the huge masses of incinerated bodies. Shooting turkeys in a barrel is a Yankee Skull and Bones (and western) thrill.

After years of sanctions, resulting in the deaths of at least a half million children (Madeleine Albright said she felt it was necessary), the neocon Zionist gang running the White House decided it was time for "Shock and Awe" and a march right up into Baghdad. The end result was over a million Iraqis killed, millions more displaced into Jordan, Syria and Iran, and the countrey ruined - as always. Bush jr. and his poodle Tony Blair had topled the dictator that they had helped install to manage Iraq, but their latest plans were to control all the oil, cutting Saddam out of the equation. No deep analysis by CBC of the forces at work in this genocidal operation, they had plenty of US propagandists to turn to.

Equally, prior to the criminal invasion of Iraq, US forces invaded Afghanistan ostensibly to kill Osama bin Laden who was taking the heat for the 9/11 attacks, even though no proof of this has ever been offered. The thousands of Afghanis being killed every year - naturally to bring peace and stability - is yet another testimony to US and Canadian benevolence, since we are all such good folk.

But where has CBC been through all these criminal invasions and occupations. Has the CBC ever cited any of the various international laws that the US and Canada break on a daily basis? When the CIA decides it’s time to steal the resources of yet another country, take Libya for instance, and fabricates still another lie and distortion in order to do so, is CBC news asking any of the right questions? Is it questioning the allegations leading to UN Resolution 1973, an R2P construct which also makes it a war crime to arm one side of a civil war (fomented by the CIA), a war crime to bomb and kill to enact regime change and a war crime to bomb any area populated by civilians, who are to be protected by all means, even if fighters are in the area. A war crime to join the terror unleashed in Iraq and Afghanistan for which Bush and his fellow torturers were found guilty by the Tribunal just held in Malaysia, totally ignored by CBC-TV.

Instead we had Canadian pilots bombing men, women and children in the thousands, with PM Harper celebrating the murders by holding a parade and flyby for the returning "conqerors" - and did CBC ever utter one complaint on behalf of us Canadians who are outraged at the criminal Steve Harper Gang and fellow supporters in Parliament. As George Orwell famously said: "Omission is the worst form of propaganda." By my calculations, CBC is a jaundiced source of information for Canadians. The world’s leading terrorists get applause and the victims get victimized yet again. And I’m paying for it. Sickening! Expect to watch the destabilization of Syria by NATO and the Capo di Tutti Capi without a word of condemnation from CBC’s propaganda meisters; serving the war criminal that is Stephen Harper and his toadies keeps CBC’s funding to the corporation intact, the better to "inform" us all.

NATO glorifies its decline

by Thierry Meyssan

The 25th NATO summit ignored the nagging question which has haunted the Organization since the collapse of the Soviet Union: what is its real utility to the ensemble of its members, outside the United Kingdom and the U.S. Any questions concerning the massacre of 160,000 Libyans or a cessation of the attack on Syria having been disallowed, the heads of state were simply commanded to finance the military industrial complex of the U.S.
Voltaire Network | Damascus (Syria) | 2 June 2012
français عربي italiano

The NATO summit draws together not only the heads of state of its 28 member states but also the delegates of 32 other countries, revealing the global dimensions of the Organization.

Officially, it was to consider three main issues:
How to exert control over Central Asia?
How to deal with [impose?] more efficiently [with] the budget restraints imposed by the financial crisis?
How to deploy an offensive weapon system against Russia and China?

The choice of Chicago for the NATO summit is obvious given President Obama’s political origins and that it is today governed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, former Obama chief of staff, hawk and Israeli army officer.

A host committee was composed by the Bilderberg Group [1] centered around Madeleine Albright, Chairman of the NDI/NED [2] and John H. Bryan, who sits on the Board of Directors of Goldman Sachs.

Outside the conference hall, there was no lack of opposition groups demonstrating against the NATO Alliance [3]. The unrest challenged the city’s ability to maintain order and tarnished the image of the summit. Notwithstanding, NATO used the disturbance to keep the press occupied; while the journalists were focused on police excesses going on outside the conference [4], the heads of state could discuss their arrangements in secret.

The Summit of the CSTO, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, meeting on May 15, 2012. It may be less grandiose than NATO but it is capable of mounting resistance to it.
Controlling Central Asia

The allied intervention in Afghanistan was planned by the Anglo-Saxons even before the September 11th attacks although these were used to justify it and bring its Allies on board. [5] It was tailored to respond to the specific interests of the Coalition—as a pincer maneuver against Iran once Iraq was invaded; as a way of limiting the Russian zone of influence in the Muslim states formerly in the U.S.S.R.; as a means of opening a pathway for the exploitation of Caspian petroleum; as a way of controlling the world market of drugs derived from poppies; and lastly, to obtain access to huge reserves of precious minerals.

Ten years later, the attack on Iran remains postponed while the relations of the U.S. with Russia and China become ever more strained. Just before the summit, Washington concluded an emergency strategic pact with Kabul. The recent troop withdrawal cannot conceal the Pentagon’s long-term plans to remain in-country. Ironically, the Western countries need to maintain troops in Afghanistan to threaten Russian interests in Central Asia but need to pass through Russian territory in order to provision those same troops.

In recent years, Moscow created a military pact with its old Soviet partners, the Collective Treaty Security Organization, the CTSO. Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan joined, though without Azerbajan. Moscow and Bejing then established the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Its initial goal was narrowly conceived to prevent Anglo-Saxon interference in Central Asia but it is evolving into a military pact. The SCO came to include, either as observers or partners, Mongolia and the states of the Indian sub-continent, still without Azerbajan.

The principal question of the Chicago summit was not to establish if Allied troops are necessary for the stabilization of Afghanistan or whether their mission is finished [6] but whether the Allies are prepared to carry forward an encroachment on Russian territory (and Chinese while they’re at it). Since then, the decision of President Francois Hollande to pull French troops out as soon as possible should be understood for what it is, not simply to bring an end to an aberrant colonial expedition but above all to refuse to participate in Anglo-Saxon imperial strategy arrayed against Russia and China in Central Asia.

Russia’s response to the Anglo-Saxon plan was made clear in the agenda of its president.
May 7—President Putin is inaugurated.
May 8—Dmitry Medvedev is nominated Prime Minister
May 9—Commemoration of victory over Nazi Germany
May 10—Visit of the Russian military-industrial establishment
May 11—Reception for the President of
May 12—Reception for the President of South Ossetia
May 14-15—Informal meeting with heads of state of the CTSO

Things couldn’t be clearer. The new mandate of Vladimir Putin will be directed towards protecting Russian markets and defending its Allies.

In a gesture of appeasement, NATO invited to the Chicago Summit the presidents of the member-states of the CTSO, who all made the trip, with the exception of Vladimir Putin.

Signing ceremony of the aerial ground surveillance program, the AGS. Those who will pay its costs are here nailed to the pillory by photographers: “Smile, you’re going to pay. And cut expenses.”
Slashing expenditures

While the Pentagon itself has been calling to cut expenditures, the ex-Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, demanded that the Allies make a significant effort to expand their military budget to compensate for reductions by the United States [7]. The Pentagon was later obliged to witness the sight of its Allies in their turn succumb to the U.S. financial crisis. Since then, the thinking has turned to the possibilities of spending reductions (what the spokespeople refer to as “intelligent defense”) it being construed that up to this point they were stupidly just throwing more money out the window [8].

In terms of armament, spending less implies buying weapons manufactured in in very large series. In practice this means that the Allies should abandon producing their own weapons and must instead buy from the largest manufacturer, that is to say the USA. The problem is that for the Allies this involves a loss of sovereignty, loss of jobs, and the obligation to continue supporting the dollar and thus the U.S. deficit. In summary, to be defended, the Allies have to sacrifice their defense industry - if they still have one - and offer their currencies to the Big U.S. Brother.

President Obama was awaiting his guests, sales catalogue in hand. This year, drones were at a premium. The summit approved a purchase program of aerial surveillance that has been under discussion for a decade [9]. The idea of combining drones with the purchase of cargo planes built by Euro-American consortiums was abandoned exclusively in favor of drones made in USA. This is a long-expected catastrophe for the firms EADS (Germany), Thales (France), Indra (Spain), Galileo Avionica (Italy), Dutch Space (Netherlands) and General Dynamics (Canada). The great victors of the summit were the U.S. firms, Northrup Grumman and Raytheon, which received 3 billion Euros in orders. The total cost is to be divided by NATO’s thirteen member states. France and Britain succeeded in escaping this hornet’s nest and will contribute their own materiel to the program.

Additionally, the Pentagon succeeded in imposing rule modifications governing the internal functioning of the Alliance to ensure the possibility of using NATO effectively “a la carte”. Historically, the organization was established to mobilize as an ensemble if one of its members was attacked. Today, Washington determines its colonial objectives and then creates a coalition ad hoc. For example, an alliance centered on France and the United Kingdom was formed to destroy Libya. The Germans did not participate. Yet they did assemble the fleet of AWACS surveillance planes. A moment of disorganization occurred before the coalition was able to utilize the materiel. Consequently, the Pentagon demanded the right to requisition materiel from their Allies should they refuse to take part in a coalition. From this perspective, “intelligent defense” basically means treating the Allies like idiots.
Threatening Russia and China

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO Secretary General (shown here in conversation with Thomas Vecchiolla, sales director at Raytheon) inaugurating an exhibition that will explain the benefits of the “anti-missile shield” to Alliance members.

To eliminate the Russian and Chinese nuclear deterrent, the United States envisions protecting itself from enemy missiles to be able to launch theirs without fear of reprisals. This is the underlying principle of the “missile shield.” At the moment, interceptor missiles capable of destroying the ultra-sophisticated Russian and Chinese anti-ballistic missiles in flight do not exist. Under the phony rubric of “missile shield”, the Pentagon plans to deploy a radar system capable of surveilling global airspace and installing as closely as possible a ring of threatening missiles aimed at Russia and China.

The U.S. Defense Department has already negotiated with a great number of countries agreements to install the missile shield. It also promotes military pacts among those states that enter into them. For example, the U.S. invited Jordan and Morocco to join the Cooperation Council of the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC), making it into a sort of refurbished Bagdad Pact [10]. In short, it employs a soothing discourse to mask its real intentions. Directed at people what haven’t looked at a globe lately, it explains with a straight face that installations positioned in Central Europe are not aimed at Russia but instead are there to intercept Iranian missiles launched at the U.S taking the long way around.

The Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, expressed the support of Russia for the Syrian President Bashar el-Assad. (Damascus, February 12, 2007) More than 100,000 Russian nationals reside in Syria. They deploy notably the S300 antimissile system capable of holding NATO at bay.
No accountability

The Chicago Summit is important for the subjects it broached, and as important for the issues it dodged: the destruction of Libya and the pull-back from Syria. In every organization, the leaders are obliged to present an annual report on their activities. Not NATO. That is probably a good thing giving that their recent record is not flattering.

Since the last summit was held, the Alliance has won a war against an enemy that did not fight a battle. Muammar Kadhafi, believing he could negotiate until the end, forbade his army to counterattack the fleet and forces of the Alliance. The war, the real one, was limited to the siege of Tripoli. Everyone knew that the population was armed and that entering the city would result in a bloodbath. Knowing that the Allies were opposed to such a course, NATO Supreme Commander Admiral James Stavridis therefore did not bring the subject up before the Atlantic Council. Instead, he organized a secret meeting in Naples where only states already fully aligned were present. According to our sources, France was represented by Alain Juppé [11] The decision therefore was taken unbeknownst to certain Allies. In the aftermath, NATO conquered Tripoli within a week, the military commander of the capital, General Albarrani Shkal, having demobilized his men and offered the city to the invading force for several million dollars. Drones and combat helicopters easily massacred tens of thousands of inhabitants who thought they could defend their country with Kalachnikovs. NATO, supposedly intervening to protect civilians, killed in total 160,000 people, officially without suffering any losses.

In Chicago, the heads of state might discuss the logistical challenges of the war on Libya but not the Supreme Commander’s coup de force nor the political outcome that followed the annihilation of the Libyan state and the installation in power of the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda.

The same limits on discussion were placed at the summit with respect to Syria. The spokesmen who had employed the same pretext to target Damascus that they had for Tripoli—the so-called “Arab spring—had a ready-made explanation for backing down: any international military intervention on their part might unleash a civil war. It is obviously more convenient to say this than to acknowledge a pull-back due to a shift in the balance of power. Russia has deployed in Syria one of the world’s best system of anti-aircraft defenses. It may not prevent the bombing of the country but is capable of inflicting severe losses on NATO air forces. The game’s not worth the candle, as can be seen in the final declaration of the Summit which in its substance did not justify a reunion of sixty heads of state: “We are following the evolution of the Syrian crisis with growing concern and firmly support the current efforts of the U.N. and the Arab League and the full implementation of the Annan 6-point plan.” [12]
Thierry Meyssan


[1] “What you don’t know about the Bilderberg-Group,” by Thierry Meyssan, Komsomolskaïa Pravda, Voltaire Network, 9 May 2011.

[2] “The networks of "democratic" interference,” by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network, 22 January 2004.

[3] “Massive anti-NATO protests in Chicago,” Voltaire Network, 21 May 2012.

[4] “The Empire Holds Its War Council in Chicago”, by Glen Ford, Voltaire Network, 18 May 2012.

[5] L’Effroyable Imposture, by Thierry Meyssan, 2002; English edition: The Big Lie, published in 2003.

[6] “NATO Chicago Summit Declaration on Afghanistan,” Voltaire Network, 21 May 2012.

[7] "Les gros bras Gates et Rasmussen tentent un nouvelle extorsion de fonds," by Lucille Baume, Réseau Voltaire, 16 juin 2011.

[8] "Quel est le prix de la ’défense intelligente’ de l’Otan?," by Manlio Dinucci, Tommaso di Francesco, Réseau Voltaire, 21 May 2012.

[9] “Summit Declaration on Defence Capabilities: Toward NATO Forces 2020”, Voltaire Network, 20 May 2012

[10] Signed in 1955, the Baghdad Pact was a complement to NATO grouping together Iraq (King Faisal II), Turkey (Adnan Menderes), Pakistan (Governor General Malik Ghulam Muhammad) and Iran (Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi), under the leadership of the Anglo-Americans.

[11] This point has been formally denied by his secretariat, who maintained that the minister was on vacation on that date.

[12] "NATO Chicago Summit Declaration," Voltaire Network, 20 May 2012.

French intellectual, founder and chairman of Voltaire Network and the Axis for Peace Conference. His columns specializing in international relations feature in daily newspapers and weekly magazines in Arabic, Spanish and Russian. His last two books published in English : 9/11 the Big Lie and Pentagate.

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Source : “NATO glorifies its decline”, by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network, 2 June 2012, www.voltairenet.org/a174389

Obama plans war on Syria

31.05.2012 16:02

by Stephen Lendman

Guilty of war crimes multiple times over, Obama plans more death, destruction, conquest, colonization, resource control, exploitation, and dominance. Syria is target one, then Iran, then other nations. It follows Washington's longstanding pattern of waging war on humanity. Iran's peaceful nuclear program is pretext for post-November war. Syria's Houla massacre draws it closer against Assad.

Since early last year, thousands of Syrian civilians and security forces died. Daily body counts mount. Western-enlisted insurgents bear most responsibility. Assad is wrongfully blamed for their crimes. Houla represents the largest incident so far. At least 109 deaths were reported. Most were killed at point blank range.

According to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) spokesman Rupert Colville, over 80% "were summarily executed in two separate incidents."

"What is very clear is that this was an absolutely abominable event that happened in Houla and at least a substantial part of it was summary executions of civilians, including women and children."

Entire families "were shot (in cold blood) in their houses," or murdered other ways. Western-enlisted death squad assassins, not Assad, bear full responsibility. Spurious accusations blamed pro-Assad Alawites. Claims about tanks and artillery "pounding" Houla were exaggerated. Bodies found were intact. Bullet, stab, and other wounds reflect close-range killing. Insurgents went house to house. Victims had no place to hide.

Nonetheless, Washington, Britain, France, and rogue partners reacted as expected. Ambassadors were expelled. Syria hasn't had one in Washington since last year. Its charge d'affaires got 72 hours to leave. A White House statement condemned Assad for killer gang crimes he tried to stop, saying:

"These acts serve as a vile testament to an illegitimate regime that responds to peaceful political protest with unspeakable and inhuman brutality."

Since violence erupted last year, Washington orchestrated events on the ground. Obama officials bear full responsibility for mass murder, destruction, mayhem and instability. America is directly or indirectly involved in virtually all regional conflicts. It's the world's leading human rights abuser. Longstanding war plans target Assad. Houla may be used as trigger to launch it. Inflammatory scoundrel media reports make war more likely. It wouldn't be the first time.

Former New York Times writer Judith Miller fell from grace. She was directly complicit in promoting war against Iraq. Her daily front page features read like Pentagon handouts. She sacrificed journalism for warmongering. Times editors let her. She's gone, but they're still at it. Last year they targeted Gaddafi. This year they promote war on Iran and Syria. Shameless propaganda encourages what they should oppose. Times' correspondents, op-ed contributors, and editorial writers comprise a virtual Noah's Ark of scam artists. Journalistic ethics aren't tolerated. Subservience to wealth and power is mandated. So is lying for a living.

On May 30, several featured articles and one inflammatory editorial targeted Assad. One headlined "Western Nations, Protesting Killings, Expel Envoys," saying:

On Tuesday, Washington "joined with 10 nations...." They expelled Syrian diplomats. Fingers pointed the wrong way. Heated rhetoric substituted for truth. War drums were clearly audible.

Journalism is support to accurately inform, agenda-free. Advocacy shouldn't be tolerated. Taking sides veers far from good reporting. Too often it's featured on Times pages. Calling Houla "a tipping point" comes dangerously close to advocating war. Blaming Assad for insurgent killings draws it closer. No publication has more global influence than The Times. Government officials follow its articles, commentaries and editorials. Agendas they advocate affect policies. Promoting war makes it more likely.

The Times strayed far from June 13, 1971. It became the first broadsheet to begin publishing the top secret Pentagon Papers. At the time, publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger said, "What was revealed, had to be revealed....people had the right to know."

In a 1996 article, The Times said:

The Pentagon Papers "demonstrated, among other things, that the Johnson Administration had systematically lied, not only to the public, but also to Congress, about a subject of transcendent national interest and significance."

Did misreporting about nonexistent Iraq WMDs matter less? Were lies about Gaddafi acceptable? Was getting the Afghanistan wrong good journalism? Are rule of law principles unimportant? Is sanitized news without truth and full disclosure proper on Times' pages? Obvious questions go answered.

Another headline read "Romney Calls for Action on Syria, but His Party Is Divided," saying: He and other congressional hawks want war on Syria. John McCain, Joe Lieberman, and Lindsey Graham are especially belligerent. They bluntly support air strikes. Romney stops short of their rhetoric but not their agenda to topple Assad. Most others in Congress support it. So does Obama. Romney wants faster action.

Joint Chiefs Chairman General Martin Dempsey said:

"Of course, there is always a military option....It may come to a point with Syria because of the atrocities."

He added that Friday's massacre made intervention more likely.

War plans were prepared months ago. They're also ready against Iran. Key NATO partners and regional allies support it. So do the Turkish-based Free Syrian Army (FSA) and Syrian National Council (SNC).

Another Times article headlined "Israel's Defense Minister Calls for More Action Against Assad," saying:

Houla "compel(s) the world to take action - not just talk, but action," he said. He stopped just short of urging war, but imagine what's said privately.

Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz said:

"The West must intervene, either directly, or indirectly." He added that Israel must get involved. These type comments suggest war draws closer. When rhetoric gets this heated, bombs away usually follows. At this point, it looks almost certain. Whether Russia and China can prevent it remains to be seen.

On May 30, a Times editorial headlined "The Massacre at Houla," saying:

Expelling Syrian diplomats stops short of tougher measures needed. Russia remains a "roadblock." Fingers pointed solely at Assad. Houla "was just the latest evidence that he never intended to" pursue peace.

The editorial suggested "shabiha, or government thugs" did "at least some of the killings by shooting people - including entire families - at close range." The most obvious question went unanswered: Cui bono? Clearly not Assad. Like previous hostile editorials, this one stopped short of urging war. Given its tough rhetoric, it's just a matter of time. Calls overall grow louder.

On May 29, a Washington Post editorial headlined "Time for US leadership on Syria," saying:

Body counts mount. An "illusory cease fire" exists. Houla wasn't unique. It's "just better documented than (other Assad) crimes....in towns and cities across Syria."

"The Obama administration persists, too, in declining to exercise the U.S. leadership that would be required to stop the massacres. For the past two months it hid behind Mr. Annan. Now....his plan has become an embarrassment...."

"The reality is that the killing in Syria will continue, and the threat to vital U.S. interests across the Middle East will grow...."

The Washington Post also barely stopped short of urging war. At issue is how much longer? Harsh commentaries and political rhetoric suggest what peace advocates fear most.

A hawkish Haaretz article intensifies it. Headlined "On Syria, the world prattles on," saying:

"The Syrian threat doesn't just hover over Syrian cities and towns; it is also warming up the engines of Israel's fighter jets" to attack Iran.

Full of misinformation, it feigned concern for regional security and stability. When irresponsible commentators and political officials promote wars, spurious reasons are given. Deception substitutes for truth and reason. Bad policies usually follow. Only imperial interests gain. People on both sides lose. One conflict begets others. Endless turmoil and violence persist. Advocating them is unconscionable. Calls for war grow louder. A large-scale false flag attack blamed on Syria could cinch it. It wouldn't be the first time America manipulated events to wage war and won't be the last. Odds look like it's coming.

A Final Comment

For months, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been under house arrest in London. Sweden wants him extradited on spurious charges. They include unlawful coercion, sexual molestation and rape. Allegedly it's for having sex without a condom. Since when is condomless or consensual sex illegal? A honey trap snared him. At issue isn't sex. Washington wants him extradited to stand trial for whistleblowing. Obama officials want him put away and silenced. Sweden is a way station. On May 31, Britain's Supreme Court ordered Assange extradited to Stockholm. Its 5 - 2 decision rejected his argument about an invalid European arrest warrant.

His lawyers got two weeks to contest. Earlier, two lower courts ruled for extradition. Washington exerted pressure and got what it wanted. Summary judgment awaits Assange in America. Maybe Guantanamo or Bradley Manning-style. Kid gloves treatment won't await him. Claims about putting lives at risk are spurious. At issue is silencing whistleblowers. Assange and Manning are best known. Assange may appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Doing so could delay extradition for months.

Per Samuelson, one of his lawyers, said whether he'll appeal isn't decided. At the same time, he believes he'll be cleared in Sweden. Whether true or not won't matter if authorities there order him extradited to America.

At this point, it looks likely, but resolution may be months away.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled "How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War" http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
Дмитрий Судаков

Copyright © 1999-2012, «PRAVDA.Ru». When reproducing our materials in whole or in part, hyperlink to PRAVDA.Ru should be made. The opinions and views of the authors do not always coincide with the point of view of PRAVDA.Ru's editors.

Anti-Iranian Propaganda in High Gear

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Capitalism is a dead end for working-class people: Fred Weston opens Canadian tour in Toronto
Written by Roya Ahmadi
Wednesday, 30 May 2012


On 23rd May, a group of approximately 50 people gathered on a Wednesday evening in downtown Toronto to hear Fred Weston, the managing editor of In Defence of Marxism, speak on the crisis in Europe. Aside from the faces of the dedicated activists who are present at most Toronto rallies and events, there were many new faces, especially from youth. The presentation by Fred was very insightful in regard to the enormity of the financial and political crisis, but at the same time positive in terms of the way forward.


Fred Weston speaking in Toronto
Fred went into great details outlining the depth of the crisis in Greece. He related the desperate challenges faced by working-class Greeks, including individual shopkeepers. Fred stated how the suicide rate in Greece has skyrocketed as a result of people no longer being able to find jobs or even afford basic foodstuffs. And, the situation is little better in the rest of Europe, including Spain, Italy, Portugal, France, and even Britain.

The enthusiasm of the crowd was the high point of the event. People were sympathetic to the plight of our brothers and sisters in other countries, but also optimistic that there is a solution. The issues in Europe were linked to ones across the world including the problems of police repression, and austerity faced by people in Canada. When Marxist alternatives such as the nationalization of corporations were put forth, there was affirmative nods and applause from the audience.

Numerous contributions from the audience, and within Fred’s sum-up, outlined how the world has entered a revolutionary epoch. The breakthrough by Syriza in Greece, the spread of the Arab revolutions, and even the development of the Quebec students’ movement all show the possibilities for organizing a fight-back against capitalism.

Furthermore, people's dedication and interest was evident in their willingness to further their own knowledge on relevant topics. About two dozen literature materials (small booklets, papers, and books) were purchased, as well as over $150 collected to help pay for Fred’s tour across central Canada. The working class, making up the majority of the population, is fed up with the corporate solution and is looking for alternatives.

Fred’s tour continues with events in Montreal on Thursday, Ottawa on Friday, and a final Montreal event on Saturday.
Fight corporate control of Canadian society! Nationalize the banks!
For workers’ democratic control of the economy!
Victory to the working class in the struggle for socialism!

To get involved in the fight against capitalism, contact us!

For more pictures from Fred's event, visit our Flickr site.

Source: Fightback (Canada)