July 13, 2014

Those Kids Crossing the Border From Mexico Wouldn't Be There If Obama Hadn't Supported a Coup the Me

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/07/12-4



Supporters of ousted Honduras' President Manuel Zelaya clash with soldiers near the presidential residency Tegucigalpa, Monday, June 29. 2009. Police fired tear gas to hold back thousands of Hondurans outside the occupied presidential residency as world leaders appealed to Honduras to reverse a coup that ousted the president.

Those Kids Crossing the Border From Mexico Wouldn't Be There If Obama Hadn't Supported a Coup the Media Doesn't Talk About
by Ted Rall
Published on Saturday, July 12, 2014 by Common Dreams

If you're reading this, you probably follow the news. So you've probably heard of the latest iteration of the "crisis at the border": tens of thousands of children, many of them unaccompanied by an adult, crossing the desert from Mexico into the United States, where they surrender to the Border Patrol in hope of being allowed to remain here permanently. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's detention and hearing system has been overwhelmed by the surge of children and, in some cases, their parents. The Obama Administration has asked Congress to approve new funding to speed up processing and deportations of these illegal immigrants.

Even if you've followed this story closely, you probably haven't heard the depressing backstory — the reason so many Central Americans are sending their children on a dangerous thousand-mile journey up the spine of Mexico, where they ride atop freight trains, endure shakedowns by corrupt police and face rapists, bandits and other predators. (For a sense of what it's like, check out the excellent 2004 film "Maria Full of Grace.&quot

~snip~

The fact that Honduras is the biggest source of the exodus jumped out at me. That's because, in 2009, the United States government — under President Obama — tacitly supported a military coup that overthrew the democratically elected president of Honduras. "Washington has a very close relationship with the Honduran military, which goes back decades," The Guardian noted at the time. "During the 1980s, the US used bases in Honduras to train and arm the Contras, Nicaraguan paramilitaries who became known for their atrocities in their war against the Sandinista government in neighbouring Nicaragua."

Honduras wasn't paradise under President Manuel Zelaya. Since the coup, however, the country has entered a downward death spiral of drug-related bloodshed and political revenge killings that crashed the economy, brought an end to law, order and civil society, and now has some analysts calling it a "failed state" along the lines of Somalia and Afghanistan during the 1990s.

July 12, 2014

(S Korea/China) Torn between two giants

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2014/07/202_160830.html

There is no hurry about joining China-led bank

Torn between two giants
Posted : 2014-07-11 16:08
Updated : 2014-07-12 12:06

Korea is being driven into a situation where it may have to choose between the United States and China, and on the agenda is whether Seoul has to join a China-led regional development bank.

During his summit with President Park Geun-hye in Seoul last week, China's President Xi Jinping expressed the hope that Seoul will take part in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) he hopes to launch next year as a founding member. President Park took the proposal as "well-timed'' but didn't respond to it immediately.

The U.S. is adamant in opposing the bank out of fear that China intends to grow its clout in the global financial market and take the lead in reshaping Asia's economic order. Washington, in particular, appears sensitive because Beijing reportedly intends to exclude the world's largest economy from the new bank. Jen Psaki, spokeswoman of the State Department, expressed skepticism about the bank at a press briefing Tuesday, saying, "There is already the ADB, which plays a critical role in regional infrastructure development … that's the bar we believe it (AIIB) should pass.''

American officials are bluntly calling for Korea not to join the AIIB. On Monday, Sydney Seiler, director for Korea at the National Security Council, cautioned Seoul to be prudent in joining the AIIB in an interview with Yonhap News. U.S. President Barrack Obama reportedly conveyed his concern about Seoul's participation in the proposed bank during his visit to Korea in April.

July 11, 2014

55 Years Since Miyamori Elementary School Crash

http://watchingamerica.com/News/241893/55-years-since-miyamori-elementary-school-crash/



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1959_Okinawa_F-100_crash

55 Years Since Miyamori Elementary School Crash
Ryukyu Shimpo, Japan
By Editorial
Translated By Courtney Coppernoll
1 July 2014
Edited by Gillian Palmer

What place should be safer for children than an elementary school? In 1959, when children at Miyamori Elementary School were waiting for the milk to drink with their school lunches, the school was suddenly engulfed in flames, and the children struck by a “ball of fire.” There is no way that such an outrage can ever be forgiven. Still less can such an event ever be repeated.

Fifty-five years have passed since that incident, in which a U.S. military aircraft crashed into the Ishikawa (modern day Uruma) school, killing 18 and injuring more than 200. At a recent memorial service, those affected were given an avenue to express themselves. That the children of those who survived the Battle of Okinawa should fall victim to such an accident is surely a “double victimization.” I want to deeply impress such outrageous post-war Okinawan history on others' hearts and minds.

According to those enrolled at the school at the time of the accident, their first alumni meeting was held the day before the memorial service. The fact that they were finally able to hold a meeting themselves only after 55 years have passed illustrates the depth of their emotional scars. Their eyes swim with tears as a military aircraft flies in the sky overhead. When talk turns to the accident, tears naturally well up. When you hear these sorts of stories from those who personally experienced it, you understand that even now the emotional trauma caused by the event has not been healed.

The people that day couldn't help their sons and daughters, the children under their care or their classmates. Even now, the bereaved families and teaching staff reflect regretfully upon the children who died. Yet, it's someone else who's forcing these painful thoughts upon people who have no fault or responsibility in the matter. It's both the Japanese and American governments who brought about this sort of postwar history in Okinawa, and it's they who should have the guilty conscience.

July 11, 2014

Parts Fall from Osprey: Withdrawal Desired before Major Accident Occurs

http://watchingamerica.com/News/241775/parts-fall-from-osprey-withdrawal-desired-before-major-accident-occurs/



The $100+ million dollar MV-22 Osprey

Parts Fall from Osprey: Withdrawal Desired before Major Accident Occurs
Ryukyu Shimpo, Japan
By Editorial
Translated By Maisha Kuniyuki
22 June 2014
Edited by Eva Langman

During general training, a metal part fell from a U.S. Marine Corps V-22 Osprey vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft stationed at the Marine Corps Air Base at Futenma.

~snip~

Last October, the U.S. Department of Defense’s Office of the Inspector General announced that it had found a few errors in the Marine Corps V-22 Osprey’s maintenance operations and records between October 2008 and September 2011. It also indicated that "senior DoD and Marine Corps officials could have deployed MV-22 squadrons that were not prepared for missions."

Surprisingly, aircraft status information was recorded improperly 167 out of 200 times, while 112 out of 907 aircraft work orders were inadequately prepared.

In addition to the Osprey, there have been 21 confirmed incidents of objects falling from U.S. aircrafts around Okinawa since 2003. The lives and livelihoods of locals are undeniably being exposed to danger. We cannot afford to let this issue go unchecked..

July 11, 2014

The Iraqi Disaster and US Responsibility

http://watchingamerica.com/News/241835/the-iraqi-disaster-and-us-responsibility/



Eleven years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, who will return the half a million lives lost, directly or indirectly, from this war? Who will give back the billions of wasted dollars?

The Iraqi Disaster and US Responsibility
Los Tiempos, Bolivia
By Raúl Peñaranda
Translated By Courtney Cadenhead
3 July 2014
Edited by Lau­rence Bouvard

The U.S. invasion of Iraq was ordered in 2003, under the government of George Bush, with the pretext that Saddam Hussein, its then president-dictator, had weapons of mass destruction under his control. Whether he had them or not was unclear, as all the world — except the U.S. government — knew.

~snip~

The real reasons for the invasion, confirmed almost immediately afterward, were to get rid of an inconvenient Arabic leader at the head of an oil country, as Hussein was, and to control a part of those million-dollar resources.

First, the United States utilized air raids to destroy highways, schools, refineries, bridges and factories; then, with the resources that came from Iraqi oil, the U.S. hired North American companies with ties to their military complex in order to … rebuild those highways, schools, refineries, bridges and factories — all under allegations of price inflation. And inefficiency. Many works remain half-done despite the fact that they have been in progress for years.

A little more than a decade after the U.S. invasion, Iraq is in danger of having its unified state dissolved. The Kurds, savagely hounded by Saddam, seek their independence — something they in fact already have to a high degree. The Kurds control Kirkuk in the north of the country, along with its enormous oil reserves.

July 11, 2014

The Most Expensive Warplane in American History Is Too Dangerous to Fly and Just Caught Fire (Again)

http://www.commondreams.org/further/2014/07/10-2



The Most Expensive Warplane in American History Is Too Dangerous to Fly and Just Caught Fire (Again) But They Plan to Spend $1 Trillion On It Anyway
by Abby Zimet
07.10.14 - 3:10 PM

Last week, just days before its long-planned, much-hyped international debut at a U.K. airshow, the entire fleet of the endless boondoggle known as the F-35 II Lightning, or Joint Strike Fighter, has been grounded after one caught fire on a runway, the latest in a years-long series of disasters almost every time it's tried to leave the ground. The plane's current pricetag of $398.6 billion equals a cost of about $49 billion a year since work began in 2006 on a project now seven years behind schedule and estimated to cost over $1 trillion when done. No doubt entirely coincidentally and in no way connected to the fact that the project is still alive, its maker Lockheed has spread its jobs, suppliers and contractors across almost every state, thus ensuring broad support in a Congress whose members want to keep their jobs. If that doesn't make you angry enough, here are a lot of cool things we could have done - provide every homeless person with a $600,000 home, feed every hungry child, fund every current humanitarian crisis - with the money.

July 10, 2014

Blackwater: Contract Hit

http://watchingamerica.com/News/241784/contract-hit/

Contract Hit
Junge Welt, Germany
By Rainer Rupp
Translated By Ron Argentati
1 July 2014
Edited by Gillian Palmer

According to an article published in The New York Times last Sunday, a senior employee of the infamous private mercenary company Blackwater — since rechristened with the posh-sounding name “Academi” — threatened a U.S. government official with murder unless he stopped investigating the company. The Blackwater official's threat was even supported by the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, which in turn forced the inspector to terminate his investigations in Iraq. Official government documents that have become public in the murder trial of four Blackwater mercenaries support this charge. The trial, which began June 11 in U.S. district court in Washington, D.C., rekindles memories of U.S. actions in Iraq, which were characterized by extreme and inhuman brutality against the civilian population.

It has been nearly seven years since the four mercenaries — along with several other “companions” now standing trial for the Sept. 16, 2007 act in Baghdad's Nisur Square —began firing wildly, an action that resulted in the deaths of 14 civilians (men, women and children) and the serious wounding of another 18 people. Several investigations took place at the time — one by the Iraqi government and others done by The New York Times and Washington Post — revealed that there was no provocation to justify the shooting of unarmed civilians by Blackwater mercenaries and that at no time were they ever under threat. Under public pressure, the George W. Bush administration dispatched a team of investigators to Iraq under the direction of Jean C. Richter, a special agent in charge of providing security for U.S. diplomats, to look into the charges made against Blackwater.

In this connection, attention began focusing on repeated meetings between U.S. inspector Richter and his assistant with Iraq's Blackwater boss, Carroll, who was concerned about his billions of dollars in contracts to protect U.S. diplomats. According to Richter, Carroll threatened he could “shoot him here and now”* with no one ever questioning it because, as he said, they were in Iraq. Richter took Carroll's threats seriously, according to memorandums written, and informed the State Department of the threats. Richter felt that in a war zone anything could happen, especially wherever there might be a possibility of interfering with lucrative contracts.

What is noteworthy in this story is the fact that despite this disturbing incident the U.S. State Department did not react and continues to award contracts to Blackwater and its successor up to the present day. This is an indication that corruption and moral decadence had long since permeated even the upper levels of supposedly sacrosanct American diplomacy. And it's typical that the Nisur Square killers are on trial today not because of the efforts of the U.S. government, but due to the efforts of Iraqi survivors of the massacre and their relatives, who are supported by U.S. human rights activists.

July 10, 2014

Is Japan's peace constitution dead?

http://atimes.com/atimes/Japan/JAP-01-100714.html



Is Japan's peace constitution dead?
By John Feffer
Jul 10, '14

WASHINGTON - Japan has functioned under its "peace constitution" for nearly 70 years. The distinctive Article 9, which prevents the country from conducting war as a means of resolving international conflict, is showing its age. Over the last several decades, after repeated "reinterpretations, the peace constitution has become increasingly enfeebled. With its latest decision, the government of Shinzo Abe has quite nearly euthanized the document.

The Abe government recently announced a Cabinet decision that commits Japan to the principle of collective self-defense. Tokyo, in other words, can use force not only in self-defense but also to help an ally in peril, even if Japan itself is not under attack.

Prime Minister Abe has stressed that this reform reduces the risk of Japan being involved in war. He has also emphasized that this is not a major change in how Japan handles its foreign and military policy - and thereby does not violate the peace constitution. But the changes will in fact have significant implications.

The United States, which has long prodded Japan to shoulder more security responsibilities, immediately praised Abe's bold move. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel called it "an important step for Japan as it seeks to make a greater contribution to regional and global peace and security".

July 10, 2014

Not Serious re: Terrorism: GOP House Cut out funding for al-Qaeda, Iraq Records & Research

http://www.juancole.com/2014/07/terrorism-funding-research.html

Not Serious re: Terrorism: GOP House Cut out funding for al-Qaeda, Iraq Records & Research
By Juan Cole | Jul. 8, 2014

Representatives on the Hill talk a good game about going back into Iraq or pursuing a global war on terror, but they aren’t actually very interested in all that. Exhibit A: they’ve applied the same austerity to the Conflict Records Research Center as they did to the working poor and Veterans on food stamps.

~snip~

“CRRC CRRC@ndu.edu
date: Tue, Jul 8, 2014 at 4:22 PM
subject: CRRC Status Update July 2014

CONFLICT RECORDS RESEARCH CENTER Institute for National Strategic Studies National Defense University Fort Lesley J. McNair Washington, D.C. 20319

We are writing to provide you with a brief update on the status of the Conflict Records Research Center (CRRC). The CRRC, which has previously received generous funding from the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy (OSD(P)), has no funding beyond the end of the current fiscal year. Unless something changes immediately, the center will close its doors sometime prior to September 30, 2014. Throughout the remainder of the fiscal year, CRRC personnel shortages will severely and adversely affect the center’s ability to host researchers, respond to e-mails, update the center’s website, or conduct other CRRC operations.

The CRRC, which focuses on al-Qaeda affiliated terrorism and Iraq, is on the verge of closing its doors just as battlefield victories by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), fighting alongside former elements of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist regime, remind observers of the continuing need for precisely the sort of research that the CRRC enables and provides. The CRRC has been honored to support innovative research and scholarship on these and other important topics since 2010.

If the CRRC does not receive funding immediately and hire personnel prior to September 30, it will shut down and the National Archives (NARA) will take ownership of all existing CRRC records. As explained below, the records will not be available to researchers for a considerable number of years. In addition, current CRRC holdings, which constitute less than one percent of the records that the center has been working to make available, will be frozen in time. No new records will be added.

July 9, 2014

Bush Trifecta lands on Obama: Gaza, Iraq and Afghanistan Imploding

http://www.juancole.com/2014/07/trifecta-afghanistan-imploding.html

Bush Trifecta lands on Obama: Gaza, Iraq and Afghanistan Imploding
By Juan Cole | Jul. 9, 2014

President Barack Obama of Hawaii had fondly dreamed of bidding turbulent and unrewarding West Asia farewell and turning the attentions of American diplomacy to East and South East Asia. From his point of view, the Bush administration had unwisely entangled the US too deeply in the Middle East, where no good deed goes unpunished. He had opposed the Iraq War, and thought the latter diverted attention from Afghanistan and the hunt for Bin Laden. He was willing to do a bit of Israel-Palestine diplomacy but not to really put his presidential prestige on the line the way Jimmy Carter had. And after all, Carter got almost no credit for averting decades more of Israel-Egypt wars.

~snip~

1.

In January 2006, the Palestine Authority held elections in Gaza and the West Bank for the first time since 1996, when President Mahmoud Abbas had been elected along with a parliament dominated by the Palestine Liberation Organization. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon did not want Hamas (the Movement for Change) to be allowed to run, since the far-right Muslim fundamentalist organization had never accepted the Oslo Peace Process. Although back in the 1980s the Israelis had backed Hamas against its secular, nationalist rival, the PLO, by 2006 the two had fallen out.

~snip~

2.

In Afghanistan, the Bush administration should have used the Northern Alliance to overthrow the Taliban and then just left. Anand Gopal has argued convincingly that US troops left in Afghanistan got drawn into tribal feuds and destabilized the south and east of the country, whereas in the north, NATO forces that were less kinetic managed to keep calm. Bush’d decision to leave tens of thousands of US soldiers in Pushtun areas, engaging in the same sort of search and destroy tactics as had turned the South Vietnamese against the US military in the late 1960s, led to a neo-Taliban resurgence.

~snip~

3.

Having illegally invaded and occupied Iraq, the Bush administration originally wanted phony ‘caucus-based’ elections in Iraq, wherein hand-picked elite Iraqis would elect corrupt financier and inveterate prevaricator Ahmad Chalabi as prime minister. Some say Chalabi was a double agent, working for Iran. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the spiritual head of Iraq’s majority Shiite population, over-ruled Bush and insisted on one-person one vote parliamentary elections. Being the majority, the Shiites won in January 2005, but not just any Shiites. It was the pro-Iran fundamentalist Shiites that Bush inadvertently brought to power. Ooops. They went on deeply to alienate the formerly dominant Sunni minority, leading to the present Sunni rebellion in northern and western Iraq, in alliance with an al-Qaeda offshoot None of this would be happening if Bush hadn’t invaded on false pretenses.