Military Industrial Complex

The Buried Lede on Iran: All Nuclear Sites Routinely Inspected, No Violations

There are some “scary” reports out in the last few days about Iran beginning uranium enrichment at an underground bunker at the Fordow site near Iran’s holy city of Qom and “diplomats” are saying it is “particularly worrying because the site is being used to make material that can be upgraded more quickly for use in a nuclear weapon than the nation’s main enriched stockpile.”

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You have to read on – like, you know, beyond the headline and the first paragraph – to understand that it was back in February 2011, almost a year ago, that Iran sent a letter to IAEA explaining that they would begin enrichment for medical radioisotopes to treat cancer patients “by this summer” (which makes them 5 months late). Iran agreed in August that Forodow fell under IAEA safeguards and would not be making highly enriched uranium needed to build a bomb. In fact, the underground enrichment site at Fordow has been inspected at least ten times since October 2009. In fact, all of Iran’s 15 declared nuclear sites are routinely inspected by the IAEA, making cheating nearly impossible (these links are all from the twitter account of Micah Zenko, Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, who has been great on this issue in the last few days). And, to reiterate, the last IAEA report again confirmed the non-diversion of nuclear materials from any of these declared sites, meaning that all of it is accounted for and none is confirmed as being highly enriched anywhere close to the point needed for weapons-grade material.

Jeremy Scahill

Scott Horton Interviews Jeremy Scahill

Jeremy Scahill discusses Yemen, President Saleh, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Al Qaeda, Obama, Bush, Ed Schultz, Libya.
Source: Scott Horton Interviews Jeremy Scahill

Congressman Dennis Kucinich

Scott Horton Interviews Rep. Dennis Kucinich

Rep. Dennis Kucinich discusses his attempt to provoke debate in Congress concerning the authority to declare war. He voted to defund the Libyan War.
Source: Scott Horton Interviews Rep. Dennis Kucinich

Glenn Greenwald

Scott Horton Interviews Glenn Greenwald

Glenn Greenwald talks about Obama and War Powers Act and the Libyan War. He also comments on WikiLeaks Julian Assange and journalism.
Source: Scott Horton Interviews Glenn Greenwald

Nick Turse

Scott Horton Interviews Nick Turse

Nick Turse discusses how JSOC, the Joint Special Operations Command became the president’s own private army. He also comments on why the precision airstrikes in Libya were probably guided by special operations forces on the ground.
Source: Scott Horton Interviews Nick Turse

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Scott Horton Interviews Francis Boyle

Francis Boyle discusses how in 2004 the FBI and CIA tried to make him an informant to betray his Arab and Muslim legal clients. His refusal landed him on several terrorism watch lists and guaranteeing him a lifetime of harassment when traveling. He asks if we are already living in a police state, which will become a military dictatorship after one more major terrorist attacks. Currently Professor Boyle lectures on international law at the University of Illinois College of Law.
Source: Scott Horton Interviews Francis Boyle

Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader talks with Bob McChesney

Ralph Nader was named by The Atlantic as one of the 100 most influential figures in American history, and by Time and Life magazines as one of the hundred most influential Americans of the twentieth century. Nader has organized millions of citizens into more than 100 public interest groups to advocate for solutions. His efforts have helped create laws, regulatory agencies, and federal standards that have improved the quality of life for generations of Americans. Because of Ralph Nader we drive safer cars, eat healthier food, breathe better air, drink cleaner water, and work in safer environments.
Source: Ralph Nader on Media Matters with Bob McChesney

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Mohandas K. Gandhi

Gandhi was born Oct. 2, 1869. In celebration of his 142nd birthday, this program explores non-violent resistance through the eyes of Gene Sharp and includes a few short excerpts from the movie Gandhi.

Gene Sharp

What Would Gandhi Do About Iraq and Weapons of Mass Deception?

It doesn’t have to take guns and tanks to effect change, according to Sharp. Sharp was interviewed by Tom Ashbrook in late 2002 before the second Iraq War.

Gene Sharp is president and founder of the Albert Einstein Institution, a nonprofit organization that promotes non-violent struggle in the face of dictatorship, war, genocide and oppression.
Source: What Would Gandhi Do?

Gene Sharp speaks on civilian-based defense

He asks why hasn’t war been abolished? He notes that nuclear deterrence is a desperate and bankrupt policy and power derives from obedience and cooperation of people, not from violence.
Source: Gene Sharp Lecture on Civilian-Based Defense

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President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Farewell Address was delivered January 17, 1961. He explains the military-industrial complex to a U.S. audience.
Source: Dwight D. Eisenhower's Farewell Address

Gareth Porter

Scott Horton Interviews Gareth Porter
Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses Eisenhower’s extraordinary farewell address and the overblown Soviet threat and missile gap hoax scare. They discuss the revelations that the British mission in Afghanistan was simply to give the Army something to do and the three choices for fighting back against state militarism: abolish government, protest for change, or expatriate.
Source: Scott Horton Interviews Gareth Porter

Ray McGovern

Scott Horton Interviews Ray McGovern

Ray McGovern is a former senior analyst at the CIA. He discusses the Dept. of Justice's decision to use military tribunals instead of federal court trials for the alleged 9/11 plotters. He also discusses where the U.S. empire of bases intersects with the domination of oil and gas resources.
Source: Scott Horton Interviews Ray McGovern

Originally published in the California Progress Report
By Karen Bernal
Progressive Caucus of the CA Democratic Party

We've had enough. The country has had enough.

As elated as we were when President Obama was elected in 2008, after a disastrous eight years under the repressive and war-mongering Bush Administration, the Obama Administration has been a major disappointment to the working class and Progressives of this country.

So much so that on July 30, the Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party adopted a resolution criticizing President Obama for negotiating away Democratic Party principles to extremist Republicans, and suggesting that we may explore steps to "effect necessary change, including a possible primary challenge to President Obama." The resolution, overwhelmingly adopted at a meeting of the Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party July 30, did not say President Obama would not be that candidate.

The officers and members of the caucus are willing to meet with the President if he wishes to discuss our concerns. In fact, we would welcome the opportunity. Our Caucus leadership wishes HOPE BEYOND HOPE that President Obama will rework his priorities to respond to the needs of working class Americans in order to get progressive support in 2012.

Dmitry Orlov

Dmitry Orlov interviewed by Bonnie Faulkner

Dmitry Orlov is an engineer and a writer on the potential economic, ecological and political decline and collapse in the United States. Orlov believes collapse will be the result of huge military budgets, government deficits, an unresponsive political system and declining oil production.
Bonnie Faulkner is the host and producer of KPFA's Guns and Butter radio program.
Source: Dmitry Orlov Collapse Gap interview downloadable mp3 file Guns&Butter

Chris Hedges

Chris Hedges: The World As It Is with Laura Flanders

Chris Hedges' new book is The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress explores the problems of a crumbling empire, inside and out. Chris joins Laura in studio for a conversation about the murder of Bin Laden and the continuing concern over terrorism and the end of empathy in the U.S.
Source: Chris Hedges: The World As It Is

Music includes Charlie Parker - Hot House, Great Anthem, We'll Met Again, Let's stop the war, Willie Nelson - Bridge Over Troubled Water, Down By The Riverside, El Mariachi, Joan Baez -There but for fortune, Jeff Foxworthy - victoria's secret, Larry Verne - Mr. Custer, Monty Pythons - The Galaxy Song, War Warning from Madison 4th U.S. President

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King George III Won: Happy Fourth of July!
By David Swanson
http://warisacrime.org/node/58333

The Declaration of Independence is best remembered as a declaration of war, a war declared on the grounds that we wanted our own flag. The sheer stupidity and anachronism of the idea serves to discourage any thoughts about why Canada didn't need a bloody war, whether the U.S. war benefitted people outside the new aristocracy to whom power was transferred, what bothered Frederick Douglas so much about a day celebrating "independence," or what the Declaration of Independence actually said.

When you read the Declaration of Independence, it turns out to be an indictment of King George III for various abuses of power. And those abuses of power look fairly similar to abuses of power we happily permit U.S. presidents to engage in today, either as regards the people of this nation or the people of territories and nations that our military occupies today in a manner uncomfortably resembling Britain's rule over the 13 colonies.

Or perhaps I should say, a large portion of us take turns being happy or outraged depending on the political party with which the current president is identified.

This post might upset some people, because for many, going after Kadaffi is a good thing. But I'm not so sure he's the monster he's been portrayed to be. And it's a long story to explain what, and who's behind "The Arab Spring" movement (sounds like a commercial for a bar of soap) throughout the Middle East. For background go through the archives here and make up your own mind. For a quick overview, watch the video; here's the youtube version

NATO's Terror Over Tripoli

The Fragile Vanity of the War Criminal

I wrote the following almost five blood-soaked, barbaric, murderous, goddamned, fucking years ago:

If you have ever wondered how a serial murderer -- a murderer who is sane and fully aware of the acts he has committed -- can remain steadfastly convinced of his own moral superiority and show not even the slightest glimmer of remorse, you should not wonder any longer.

The United States government is such a murderer. It conducts its murders in full view of the entire world. It even boasts of them. Our government, and all our leading commentators, still maintain that the end justifies the means -- and that even the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocents is of no moral consequence, provided a sufficient number of people can delude themselves into believing the final result is a "success."

Andrew Bacevich

Harry Kreisler talks with Andrew Bacevich, Professor of International Relations and History at Boston University, for a discussion of the causes and consequences of the militarization of U.S. foreign policy. Bacevich explores the origins of militarization and the factors that sustained their existence for more than six decades.
Source: Conversations With History: America's Path to Permanent War

Ray McGovern

Scott Horton Interviews Ray McGovern

Ray McGovern, former senior analyst at the CIA, discusses why the corrupted mainstream U.S. media needs to be supplanted by WikiLeaks. They comment on the State Department’s successful interference with Spanish and German courts seeking to indict U.S. officials.
Source: Scott Horton Interviews Ray McGovern, December 13, 2010

Music includes Earth Anthem, house on fire, Waist Deep in the Big Muddy, Robin Williams on Reagan, Freedom Trilogy, Who's Next, 900 Miles, We'll Meet Again