Update:

Claude Choules passed away. He was the second to last veteran of WWI to remain alive. Please give this article by Evan Fleischer, The Last Two Veterans Of WWI a read if you have the time.

“War is the deliberate and condoned slaughter of human beings. . . War is organized murder and nothing else.” – Harry Patch

“The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa .”

George W. Bush, ‘ State of the Union ,’ 28 January 2003

. . . at April’s Nuclear Security Summit, we will bring forty-four nations together behind a clear goal: securing all vulnerable nuclear materials around the world in four years, so that they never fall into the hands of terrorists.

These diplomatic efforts have also strengthened our hand in dealing with those nations that insist on violating international agreements in pursuit of these weapons. That is why North Korea now faces increased isolation, and stronger sanctions – sanctions that are being vigorously enforced. That is why the international community is more united, and the Islamic Republic of Iran is more isolated. And as Iran’s leaders continue to ignore their obligations, there should be no doubt: they, too, will face growing consequences.

Barack Obama ‘ State of the Union ,’ 27 January 2010

We continue to assess Iran is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons in part by developing various nuclear capabilities that bring it closer to being able to produce such weapons, should it choose to do so. We do not know, however, if Iran will eventually decide to build nuclear weapons.

Admiral Dennis Blair – 2010 Annual Threat Assessment

…the Obama administration is asking Congress to increase spending on the US nuclear arsenal by more than $7 billion dollars over the next five years. …despite a pledge to cut the US arsenal and seek a nuclear weapons-free world. The Obama administration argues that the boost in spending is needed to ensure that US warheads remain secure and work as designed as the arsenal shrinks and ages. … Part of the proposal includes large funding increases for a new plutonium production facility…

Despite Non-Proliferation Pledge, Obama Budget Request Seeks Additional $7B for Nuclear Arsenal Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!

A tip of the hat to Montag and Charles Davis.

The West Begins to Doubt Georgian Leader

“Today, we are all Georgians,” Republican presidential candidate John McCain declared. The neoconservative commentator Robert Kagan compared the Russian action with the Nazis’ 1938 invasion of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. And in a meeting with US Vice President Richard Cheney, Saakashvili was assured of Washington’s support for his most fervent wish: admission to NATO.

But now, five weeks after the end of the war in the Caucasus, the winds have shifted in America. Even Washington is beginning to suspect that Saakashvili, a friend and ally, could in fact be a gambler — someone who triggered the bloody five-day war and then told the West bold-faced lies.

-Shoot your mouth off, ask questions latter. Shit I’m surprised anyone is asking questions. Who wants to prove the dirty hippie bloggers right again.

“I’ve never seen a man so broken up and ripped apart…”

Pakistan soldiers ‘confront US’

Pakistani troops have fired shots into the air to stop US troops crossing into the South Waziristan region of Pakistan, local officials say.

Reports say nine US helicopters landed on the Afghan side of the border and US troops then tried to cross the border.

South Waziristan is one of the main areas from which Islamist militants launch attacks into Afghanistan.

The incident comes amid growing anger in Pakistan over increasingly aggressive US attacks along the border.

The latest confrontation began at around midnight, local people say.

They say seven US helicopter gunships and two troop-carrying Chinook helicopters landed in the Afghan province of Paktika near the Zohba mountain range.

US troops from the Chinooks then tried to cross the border. As they did so, Pakistani paramilitary soldiers at a checkpoint opened fire into the air and the US troops decided not to continue forward, local Pakistani officials say.

Reports say the firing lasted for several hours. Local people evacuated their homes and tribesmen took up defensive positions in the mountains.

The incident happened close to the town of Angoor Adda, some 30km (20 miles) from Wana, the main town of South Waziristan.

A Pakistani military spokesman in Islamabad confirmed that there was firing but denied that Pakistani troops were involved.

-Are you ready for this whole bloated corpse to split open and send its stink far and wide? Watch as before your eyes Pakistan turns into Cambodia.

Click to enlarge.

Strip of Iraq ‘on the Verge of Exploding’
Kurds Extend Role Beyond Autonomous Borders, Angering Arabs

By Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, September 13, 2008; A01

JALAWLA, Iraq — Kurdish leaders have expanded their authority over a roughly 300-mile-long swath of territory beyond the borders of their autonomous region in northern Iraq, stationing thousands of soldiers in ethnically mixed areas in what Iraqi Arabs see as an encroachment on their homelands.

The assertion of greater Kurdish control, which has taken hold gradually since the war began and caused tens of thousands of Arabs to flee their homes, is viewed by Iraqi Arab and U.S. officials as a provocative and potentially destabilizing action.

“Quickly moving into those areas to try and change the population and flying KRG flags in areas that are specifically not under the KRG control right now — that is counterproductive and increases tensions,” said Maj. Gen. Mark P. Hertling, commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, referring to the Kurdistan Regional Government, which administers the autonomous region.

The long-cherished dream of many of the world’s 25 million ethnic Kurds is an independent state that encompasses parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. All but Iraq adamantly oppose Kurdish autonomy, much less a Kurdish state. Iraqi Kurds continue to insist they are not seeking independence, even as they unilaterally expand the territory they control in Iraq.

The predominantly Arab-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in recent weeks has sent the Iraqi army to drive Kurdish forces out of some of the lands, ordering Kurdish troops, known as pesh merga, to retreat north of the boundary of the Kurdish autonomous region.

The face-off between the Iraqi army and pesh merga has stoked fears of Arab-Kurdish strife just as Iraqis begin to recover from years of sectarian violence between Shiites and Sunnis.

Without doubt the surge as a military tactic has been a successful exercise. As just a piece of an overall strategy–an ill defined, ideologically bankrupt, failing strategy–it has done all that anyone could ever expect. Now, how do you define victory in an occupation?

Bush Praises Pakistan Just Hours After U.S. Strike
By STEVEN LEE MYERS

WASHINGTON — President Bush on Monday praised Pakistan’s commitment to fighting extremists along its deteriorating border with Afghanistan, only hours after an American missile strike destroyed what American and Pakistani officials described as a militant outpost in the region, killing at least six fighters.

Mr. Bush, meeting with Pakistan’s prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, at the White House, sought to minimize growing concerns that Pakistan’s willingness to fight extremists was waning, allowing the Taliban and Al Qaeda to regroup inside Pakistan and plan new attacks there and beyond.

Senior American officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice just three days ago, publicly scolded Pakistan for not doing more to root out safe havens like the one bombed on Monday in Azam Warsak, a village in South Waziristan near the Afghan border.

Among those believed to have been killed in the missile attack, evidently carried out by a remotely piloted aircraft operated by the Central Intelligence Agency, was an Egyptian identified as a senior Qaeda trainer and weapons expert, according to residents and officials in the area, as well as American officials. Neither the operative’s identity nor that of the others has been confirmed.

The officials spoke anonymously because of the political and diplomatic sensitivities of attacking targets in Pakistan.

Juxtapose that with the following:

Doubts Pakistan can assert control over spy agency
Mon Jul 28, 2008 7:29pm EDT
By Simon Cameron-Moore

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistanis doubt whether their new civilian leaders are capable of asserting control over a powerful military spy agency after what was widely seen as a botched attempt at the weekend.

The timing could not have been more embarrassing for Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, in the United States for a meeting with President George W. Bush on Monday that focused on Pakistan’s role in the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

Last week, Washington demanded Pakistan investigate Indian and Afghan accusations that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was involved in a Kabul suicide bombing that killed 58 people outside the Indian embassy, including two diplomats.

Gilani’s four-month-old government has issued denials of ISI complicity but can say only what the spies and army divulge.

The United States and its Western allies have trusted the ISI to help combat al Qaeda, but there have long been suspicions that it takes a permissive line over the Taliban, allowing the militants freedom to attack Afghanistan over the border.

There is mounting apprehension that Pakistan’s generals are becoming less cooperative because the country fears Washington has allowed rival India to extend influence in Afghanistan.

With Pakistan in a fragile transition to democracy after President Pervez Musharraf’s eight years of military rule, Washington has been talking to various parties in the nuclear-armed nation about closer coordination on security.

On Saturday night, while Gilani was still en route to Washington, his government dropped a bombshell with a decree that the Interior Ministry would oversee spy agency activities.

The government said the ISI and its civilian counterpart, the Intelligence Bureau (IB), would be brought under the “administrative, financial and operational control of the Interior Division with immediate effect”.

On Sunday, the government issued a clarification saying it had been “misinterpreted” and that the decree “only re-emphasizes more coordination” between the ministry and the ISI on internal security matters.

It said another detailed decree would be issued later.

“I think the ISI immediately got into the act and did what they thought was best to have the decision reversed,” said Najam Sethi, editor of the Daily Times newspaper.

“AMATEURISH”

Defence analyst Nasim Zehra said the government’s action had been “amateurish, thoughtless and hasty”, though there was a good case for streamlining the security apparatus and drawing more rigorous reporting lines.

Newspaper editorials saw the chain of events as farcical.

Why would the “Paper of Record” be brushing the Bush Administration dirt under the rug? Or the struggle for Democracy in Pakistan? It feels like there has been a media black out since the immediate aftermath of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. Why is no one asking about this? Thanks again, Corporate Media.

Update: Via Crooks & Liars the Los Angeles Times steps up…

This stuff has happened before. And it’ll happen again. Happy Fourth of July.

THE WORLD FROM BERLIN

‘Nature Has Dealt the Burmese Junta a Devastating Blow’
The cyclone that hit Burma over the weekend has killed tens of thousands and made more than a million homeless. The Burmese government has asked for international help — and the consequences could be remarkable.

Days after Cyclone Nargis devastated the southeast Asian nation of Burma, aid agencies are rushing to help millions of people affected by the storm. The death toll is already more than 22,000, and as towns and villages isolated by the storm are contacted the number of confirmed deaths is expected to rise. The Burmese government says more than a million people are homeless.

Aid officials fear the situation could go from bad to nightmarish if something isn’t done soon. But the aid effort is coming up against one of the most secretive, isolationist regimes in the world. Burma is ruled by a military dictatorship that has regularly used force to suppress democracy activists and monks. Foreign reporters are banned from the country, and aid workers are having a hard time getting in as well.

Burmese government officials have offered an unprecedented level of cooperation, perhaps an indication of the disaster’s scope. “The task is very wide and extensive,” Information Minister Kyaw Hsan told Reuters on Tuesday. “The government needs the co-operation of the people and well-wishers from at home and abroad. We will not hide anything.”

Iran offers nuclear deal but refuses to stop enrichment

• British officials say plan is a ‘spoiler’ to west’s proposal
• Breakthrough in deadlock thought to be unlikely

Julian Borger, diplomatic editor
The Guardian,
Thursday May 8 2008

Iran said yesterday that it is to present the international community with a new package of proposals aimed at breaking the diplomatic deadlock over the country’s nuclear programme.

Rasoul Movahedian, Iran’s ambassador in London, told the Guardian: “My government has worked out a new package, a new initiative, which is going to be put forward in the near future to deal with all aspects of our relationship [with the international community].”

He said he was not permitted to give details before the initiative is presented “before the end of next week” to the five permanent members of the UN security council – the US, Britain, France, Russia and China – as well as Germany, who together constitute the “5+1″ group leading nuclear negotiations with Tehran.

However, Movahedian said the initiative would cover the nuclear programme, the security of energy supplies in the Middle East, counter-terrorism and joint efforts to control the drugs trade.

The ambassador said Iran’s proposal would address western concerns that the rapidly developing nuclear project could be used to make weapons, hinting that his government would agree to extensive safeguards required by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

But he insisted that Iran would not surrender the right to enrich uranium, as the security council has demanded.

“My government is going to continue along the enrichment path. We do not accept any preconditions for negotiations,” he said. That continued refusal suggests that the new initiative is unlikely to break the deadlock but may simply add to the war of words over Iran’s programme.

Israel marks its 60th anniversary
Celebrations are under way across Israel to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state.

Israelis thronged Jerusalem’s streets as fireworks opened the celebrations on Wednesday, while an aerial display is planned over Tel Aviv on Thursday.

Israel declared itself an independent state on 14 May 1948, three years after the end of World War II and the death of six million Jews in the Holocaust.

But Palestinians know the foundation day as al-Nakba, or “the Catastrophe”.

The anniversary is calculated according to the Jewish lunar calendar.

The celebrations began at sunset on Wednesday at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl memorial, named after the founder of modern Zionism, where soldiers raised the Israeli flag from half to full mast amid tight security.

China may be hoping to present itself in a postive light when it hosts the Olympic Games in August (more…), but it is increasingly having to defend itself against international criticism of its human rights record, pollution and presence in Tibet.

On Wednesday, Beijing lashed out at US criticism of its human rights record — despite the fact that an annual US State Department report published Tuesday had actually removed China from its blacklist of worst human rights abusers.

China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi described the 2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices as having a “Cold War mentality,” and said that China was ready to have a dialogue on human rights with the US based on “equality and mutual respect.” He also lashed out at groups who sought to “politicize” the forthcoming Beijing Olympics, which kick off on Aug. 8.

“We welcome suggestions and criticisms offered out of goodwill,” Yang said, but added that those “who want to tarnish the image of China … will never get their way.”

Chinese police teargas protesting monks in Tibet
Rosalind Ryan and agencies
Wednesday March 12 2008

New Delhi police officers arrest female activists during a pro-Tibet demonstration outside the Chinese embassy in the Indian capital. Photographer: Manish Swarup/AP

Chinese police fired teargas into crowds of monks who took to the streets of Lhasa yesterday for a second day of protests in the Tibetan capital.

Around 500 monks were marching near a police station to demand the release of fellow monks who had been held after protests on Monday. Eyewitnesses told Radio Free Asia they were chanting “we want freedom” and “free our people or we won’t go back”.

The monks from the Sera monastery were surrounded by more than 1,000 armed police who fired tear gas into the crowd and used electric prods to disperse the protesters.

U.S. drops China from list of top 10 violators of rights
By Helene Cooper
Published: March 12, 2008

WASHINGTON: The State Department no longer considers China one of the world’s worst human rights violators, according to its annual human rights report released Tuesday, a decision that immediately earned the ire of human rights groups.

In the annual report on more than 190 countries, the State Department did say that China’s “overall human rights record remained poor” in 2007. China, the report said, tightened media and Internet curbs and increased controls on religious freedom in Tibet and the Xinjiang region. The report said China’s abuses also included “extrajudicial killings, torture and coerced confessions of prisoners, and the use of forced labor.”

But the report dropped China from a list of 10 countries that it deemed the worst offenders: North Korea, Myanmar, Iran, Syria, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Eritrea and Sudan.

Interesting sequence…