Tuesday, September 30, 2014

INTERVENTION! United Nations Style



Oh what fun, the United Nations Security Council met last week for some kind of United Nations Intervention for dysfunctional world leaders.  And what a dissing, pissing match it was.  First off America’s top stooge took precious time from his vacations and basketball games to present the case for America’s illegal bombing of a sovereign nation, Syria.  Obama ordered the bombing of Syria without prior approval of the U.S. Congress or the United Nations, something any other world leader would be on trial in The Hague for.



Yet, after arming the Syrian rebels for three years to remove their elected president, after countless civilian deaths and destruction that will last for centuries, Obama’s address to the United Nations was a big “fuck you!”  Here’s Dana Milbank’s take at the WashingtonPost.


Excerpt:


This is how a Nobel Peace Prize laureate goes to war.


He smiles warmly at the members of the U.N. General Assembly. He mentions his grandmother’s village in Kenya and notes that “Islam teaches peace.” He admits his country’s own flaws, praises “the path of diplomacy and peace,” and asserts that lasting gains cannot be “won at the barrel of a gun.”…


“In the most horrific crimes imaginable, innocent human beings have been beheaded, with videos of the atrocity distributed to shock the conscience of the world,” he says.






Has Obama ever heard of Mexico?  There are beheadings of people there all the time?  Are we going to bomb Mexico?  In 2013 the BBC had a story



Facebook beheading video: Who was Mexico's Jane Doe?  By Will Grant BBC News, Mexico City

Excerpt:

In the grainy footage, the woman is on her knees in jeans and a pink top, before a masked man holding a knife behind her says in a gruff voice: "Well, gentleman, this is what happens to all those in the Gulf Cartel. On behalf of Los Zetas."


The rest of the video is a gruesome 40 seconds of cold-blooded murder, which caused international controversy recently when it was posted on Facebook.


"Irresponsible" was the word used by the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, about the social network's policy permitting the video to be uploaded. After a day or so of impassioned debate on both sides, Facebook reversed its decision and took the video down.


Yes, that’s the extent of the outrage of all of the beheadings in Mexico that have been taking place for years.  But, anyway back to Obama’s sermon:


 “No god condones this terror. No grievance justifies these actions. There can be no reasoning, no negotiation, with this brand of evil. The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force. So the United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death.”


Good God, that paragraph is so full of contradictions it’s crazy.  Let’s start with “no god condones this terror.”   That’s absolutely right, Pope Francis said so.  February 25th, Religious ServiceNews:


Excerpt:


VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Francis on Tuesday (Feb. 25) lashed out at public indifference to the many wars raging around the globe, with especially harsh words for arms makers who he said profit from the violence and suffering.


 “Think of the starving children in the refugee camps. Just think of them: this is fruit of war!” Francis said at the daily Mass he celebrates in the chapel of the Vatican guesthouse where he lives.


“And if you want,” he continued, “THINK OF THE GREAT DINING HALLS, OF THE PARTIES THROWN BY THE BOSSES OF THE WEAPONS INDUSTRY THAT MAKES THE ARMS THAT WIND UP (IN THOSE CAMPS). A sick child, starving, in a refugee camp — and the great parties, the fine life for those who manufacture weapons.”


But Francis did not spare the public, either.


“Every day, in the newspapers, we find wars,” he said, “and the deaths seem to be part of a normal day’s tally. We are accustomed to reading these things.” It seems, he added, “as though the spirit of war has taken control of us.”


Pope Francis is right, all this war is the fault of the people, because they just don’t care.  When Obama went to congress to get permission to bomb the shit out of Syria in 2013 the public overwhelmingly objected and the bombing was put on hold until the public could be “softened up.”   The most recent Fox polls show around 70% of the American people want to bomb Syria. 


This article by Glenn Greenwald at the Intercept is sooo on point.


Excerpt:


The U.S. today began bombing targets inside Syria, in concert with its lovely and inspiring group of five allied regimes: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Jordan.


That means that Syria becomes the 7th predominantly Muslim country bombed by 2009 Nobel Peace Laureate Barack Obama - after Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and Iraq.


The utter lack of interest in what possible legal authority Obama has to bomb Syria is telling indeed: Empires bomb who they want, when they want, for whatever reason (indeed, recall that Obama bombed Libya even after Congress explicitly voted against authorization to use force, and very few people seemed to mind that abject act of lawlessness; constitutional constraints are not for warriors and emperors)…


It was just over a year ago that Obama officials were insisting that bombing and attacking Assad was a moral and strategic imperative. Instead, Obama is now bombing Assad's enemies while politely informing his regime of its targets in advance. It seems irrelevant on whom the U.S. wages war; what matters is that it be at war, always and forever.


Yes, if at first you don’t succeed use the press to “soften up” the public’s appetite for war.  Greenwald ends his article with:


If there is anyone who actually believes that the point of all of this is a moral crusade to vanquish the evil-doers of ISIS (as the U.S. fights alongside its close Saudi friends), please read Professor As'ad AbuKhalil's explanation today of how Syria is a multi-tiered proxy war. As the disastrous Libya "intervention" should conclusively and permanently demonstrate, the U.S. does not bomb countries for humanitarian objectives. Humanitarianism is the pretense, not the purpose.


Yes, Dana Milbank, Pope Francis and Glenn Greenwald all can see through the bullshit being tossed around at the U.N Intervention.  So who’s next at the Intervention?  


Oh, oh it’s Abbas of Palestine.  That’s interesting, I’m sure he’s got some shit on his mind.  Here’s an opinion piece from The Guardian Liberty Voice by Mathew Channer.   


Excerpt:

               Palestinian People Victims of Israeli Genocide


President Mahmoud Abbas’s declaration that his Palestinian people are the victims of “genocide” at the hands of the Israeli military has caused a global uproar this week. After the President’s address at the United Nations, furious Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu is already on his way to appear before the U.N. on a mission to defend his people and refute what he says are lies directed at his country.


Ha ha ha, I wish I could have been there.  You betcher ass Netanyahu’s on his way. 


Such an accusation is not to be taken lightly. Defined as the deliberate murder of large masses of people, especially those of particular nationality or ethnicity, there are many who would argue that genocide is a very appropriate term for the crisis in Palestine, especially in the Gaza Strip.


The most recent conflict in Gaza claimed the lives of over 2,100 Palestinians in just 50 days. Even though Israel’s Operation “Protective Edge” was launched to combat Hamas fighters that were firing rockets across the border from within Gaza, the excessive tally of civilian deaths drew international condemnation.


Yes, international condemnation but not in the good old U.S. of A.  In America our response to the slaughter of the Palestinians was quite different, just ask Information Clearing House:

US Complicit In Gaza Slaughter Supplies Israel With Bombs Amid Gaza Blitz

Pentagon says Israel allowed to tap local US arms stockpile in past week to resupply it with grenades and mortar rounds.
By Al Jazeera and Agencies

July 31, 2014 "ICH" - "Al Jazeera" - The United States has allowed Israel, waging an offensive in the Gaza Strip, to tap a local US arms stockpile in the past week to resupply it with grenades and mortar rounds, Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon's press secretary, has said.

The munitions were located inside Israel as part of a programme managed by the US military and called War Reserves Stock Allies-Israel (WRSA-I), which stores munitions locally for US use that Israel can also access in emergency situations.

Israel, however, did not cite an emergency when it made its latest request about 10 days ago, a defence official said on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Channer ends his article with:

It appears that Abbas does not need to look very far to find an overwhelming amount of evidence that his Palestinian people are victims at the hands of an Israeli genocide. And while Netanyahu flies angrily towards New York where he will no doubt deliver a passionate and well-rehearsed account of Israeli morality and Palestinian evil, innocent civilians will continue to die in the Gaza Strip. 


While the U.N. may yet decide that Abbas is out-of-order and that his accusations must be withdrawn, there is no changing the fact that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip will remain the victims of a very real and very obvious war crime.

Opinion by Mathew Channer


Being that this is a U.N. Intervention, it’s only fair to let Netanyahu respond to Abbas.  This is the take of the JerusalemPost: 


 Excerpt:

In far-reaching speech to General Assembly, Netanyahu slams Abbas, indicating way to peace is no longer through direct talks, but via wider rapprochement with Arab world…


Though he never mentioned Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas by name, Netanyahu leveled a blistering attack on charges the PA leader made last week at the UN, charging that Israel was a racist state committing genocide.


Netanyahu said that while in the past the Jews were demonized with blood libel charges and accused of deicide, “today the Jewish state is demonized with the apartheid libel, and charges of genocide”…


Then, referring to Israel’s actions in carrying out the Gaza operation in the summer, he asked, “In what moral universe does genocide include warnings to the enemy civilian population to get out of harm’s way, or ensuring that they receive tons of humanitarian aid each day, even as thousands of rockets are being fired at us, or setting up a field hospital to aid their wounded?”…


Enemy civilian population gets out of way

Netanyahu slammed the UN Human Rights Council for setting up a team to investigate Israeli “war crimes,” not those of Hamas, and said this sent a message to all terrorists everywhere that they could use civilians as human shields.


Christ, this world is run by lunatics.  So while the Intervention doesn’t seem to be helping Israel and Palestine, who else has something they want to talk about at the Intervention?  Russia?  USA Today weighs in with this article.  


Excerpt:


Russia, Cuba give views on Ukraine, Syria


UNITED NATIONS -- The foreign ministers of Russia and Cuba Saturday delivered scathing critiques of U.S. support for the Ukrainian government and U.S. military action against radical Islamist terrorists in Syria.


"The U.S.-led Western alliance that portrays itself as a champion of democracy, rule of law and human rights within individual countries, acts from directly the opposite positions in the international arena," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The West rejects "the sovereign equality of states" and is "trying to decide for everyone what is good or evil."


Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez depicted Western accounts of what's happening in Ukraine and elsewhere as a result of corporate-controlled international media that "manipulate facts."


Oh, oh, danger, danger someone is telling the truth.





The conflict in Ukraine is the result of an "attempt to deploy NATO up to the borders of Russia" and "will have serious implications for the peace and security of Europe," Rodriguez said. Sanctions imposed on Russia to punish it for its meddling "are immoral and unjust," he said.


Rodriguez also described the three year Syrian civil war that grew out of a peaceful democracy movement the result of "foreign intervention" in Syrian affairs that he said "must come to an end."


"It is inconceivable that Western powers arm terrorist groups to pit them against one state while fighting to counter them in another state, when it comes to Iraq," Rodriguez said, referring in one sweep to Western-backed opposition forces seeking to oust Syria's Assad regime and radical extremists who've used the conflict to seize large swaths of territory straddling the Iraqi-Syrian border.


Good point, it reminds me of an article by Glen Ford that I read in Black Agenda Report called “ISIS Who’s Your Daddy.”


Obama and His Head-Chopping Friends




President Obama has declared war on ISIS, the renegade jihadists that have turned on their former masters in NATO and the royal courts of Arabia. Nearly four decades ago, the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Pakistan spent billions to create, from scratch, an international jihadist network to torment a leftwing government in Afghanistan…


Until the advent of ISIS, Saudi Arabia led the world in executions by beheading, often leaving the decapitated bodies on display in public squares. The Saudis have hired American public relations outfits to plant articles in the U.S. corporate press, disavowing any connection between the royal family and its wayward children in ISIS and other al Qaida off-shoots – while, at the same time, stepping up the pace of their own beheadings…


The royal Arabian fat cats who, along with the U.S., have funded the proxy war against Syria for the last three years, are now embroiled in a proxy war against each other in both Syria and Libya.


Yes, lie in bed with dogs and get fleas.  That should be a lesson to you Saudi Arabia.


The U.S. wants to get on with regime change in Syria, but ISIS has even bigger plans for regime change in the Arab world, including lopping off the heads of America’s friends. But, Washington will not give up its dirty war against Syria.


Instead, Obama is attempting to merge that war with the fight against ISIS, by somehow making stupid Americans believe that Syrian President Assad is secretly allied with the same jihadists that have been beheading Syrian soldiers and civilians since 2011.


Well you know something Glen, it isn’t going to be very hard to make “stupid Americans believe” anything.  Just throw it into the Rupert Murdoch echo chamber and voila, beheading, war, war, war.




So, is there anyone else at the U.N. Intervention worth hearing from?  Why yes there is.  Let’s hear from Argentina’s President, Kirchner.  From Yahoo News:

Excerpt:


At UN, Argentina's Kirchner slams debt 'vultures'


United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, addressing the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, lashed out at "vulture funds" that are pursuing her country for payment on Argentine bonds they hold.


But she said her government, which fell into default on its borrowings at the end of July due to a US court ruling supporting the funds' complaint, would make good on its debt whatsoever.


I’ll just bet Kirchner was slamming debt “vultures.  Remember the article in July where a crooked NY judged ordered Argentina to default on their creditors payments unless they paid off some vulture hedge funds?   Y


Excerpt:


The hedge fund firm of billionaire Paul E. Singer has about 300 employees, yet it has managed to force Argentina, a nation of 41 million people, into a position where it now has to contemplate a humbling surrender.


Argentina on Wednesday failed to make scheduled payments on its government bonds. The country has the money to pay the bonds. But a federal court in Manhattan has ruled that unless Argentina settles its debt dispute with Mr. Singer’s firm, Elliott Management, it is barred from paying its main bondholders.


Yes, Argentina is getting the full “mobster treatment” from the American courts.  You either pay the mafia or we break your knees.


The government of Argentina now faces a stark choice: Try to restart negotiations with investors it has repeatedly called “vultures,” who have insisted on full repayment. Or it can remain ensnared in a default that could weigh on the country’s fragile economy and unsettle global markets.



Nice choices.  So let’s see what Kirchner had to say at the U.N. Intervention.


Argentina is "a country that is willing to pay and is able to pay. And will pay despite the harassment of the vulture funds," she said.


Argentina is still struggling with the aftermath of a default on nearly $100 billion in debt in 2001, with the two hedge funds it labels vultures battling the country in US courts.


Kirchner blamed as well the "complicity of the US justice system" in supporting the claims of the hedge funds, which bought defaulted Argentine debt on the cheap, and then sued the government for full payment in US federal court after refusing to join most of the country's creditors in restructuring its debt.


A New York judge has forbidden the country from servicing its mainstream debt unless it first pays at least $1.3 billion to the hedge funds.


The judge also blocked agent banks from transferring debt service payments from Buenos Aires to its regular creditors, creating a complex legal battle that has set back the struggling Argentine economy and prevented it from accessing global capital markets.



And guess what?  As of today, September 30th Argentina has been held in contempt of court, albeit a crooked American court.  From BBC News:


Excerpt:


Argentina found to be in contempt of court by US judge


A US judge has ruled that the Republic of Argentina is in contempt of court for refusing to obey an order to repay the debt it owes to two US hedge funds.


Argentina has been mired in a US court dispute with the funds, which bought the country's debt at a discount after its default in 2001.


In July, Judge Thomas Griesa ruled that Argentina must repay the funds before it can repay other bondholders.


Argentina refused, sending the country into default.


Earlier on Monday, Argentina's ambassador to the US warned in a letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry that if the country was found to be in contempt of court, it would represent "unlawful interference" in Argentina's domestic affairs.


Well, Argentina if you think that lying crook John Kerry is going to go against those crooked hedge funds, well let's just say “it ain’t gonna happen.”


So how did they wrap up this Intervention?  U.S. News:  


Excerpt:


Obama Leads Security Council to Denounce ISIS


Heads of state express support at Security Council session, except for Argentina's Kirchner, who uses cannibal analogy.


One of the few departures from the unified rhetoric came from Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who delved into a lengthy, at times incongruous series of remarks about terrorism and its history in Argentina.


She said she had been directly targeted by extremist groups simply because she knows Pope Francis…


Kirchner also criticized the international response to the Islamic State group threat in Iraq and Syria, particularly the U.S.-led mission to arm and train Syrian opposition rebels at camps in Saudi Arabia.


She referenced other historical missions, such as the U.S. effort to arm the Afghan mujaheddin against Soviet invaders, or providing military aid to Saddam Hussein’s government in the 1980s.  These missions paved the way for the creation of groups such as al-Qaida, she said.


In the end, sanity was the loser at the UN Intervention.  As a matter of fact, it became less of an Intervention and more of a Meeting of Enablers.  Too bad.  Then it was off for the feast that Pope Francis spoke of:


“THINK OF THE GREAT DINING HALLS, OF THE PARTIES THROWN BY THE BOSSES OF THE WEAPONS INDUSTRY THAT MAKES THE ARMS THAT WIND UP (IN THOSE CAMPS). A sick child, starving, in a refugee camp — and the great parties, the fine life for those who manufacture weapons.”

Amen


By:  Patricia Baeten






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