The new chief of the UN nuclear agency, Yukiya Amano, is portrayed in leaked US diplomatic cables as “solidly in the US court” on Iran. A 2009 American diplomatic cable indicates Amano to be in lockstep with key aspects of US policy. The cable reportedly stated: “Amano reminded [the] ambassador on several occasions that he […]
Posts Tagged ‘US’
US drones kill 85 in Somalia
October 16, 2011A US drone strike has killed at least 15 civilians and injured dozens of others in the southern region of war-torn Somalia, Press TV reports. This recent strike follows a similar strike in the same region on Friday, which killed at least 70 people. This latest attack, besides leaving at least 15 people dead, injured […]
Why can an US President place an American citizen on an assassination list?
October 2, 2011Michael Ratner, president of the Centre for Constitutional Rights asks: Is this the world we want? Where the president of the United States can place an American citizen, or anyone else for that matter, living outside a war zone on a targeted assassination list, and then have him murdered by drone strike. [In an earlier […]
9/11 helped US achieve its goals in Afghanistan and Central Asia
September 13, 2011Some political analysts say the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan was aimed at protecting and promoting its interests in the region, not defeating Al Qaeda and Taliban. Muhammad Ameen Wakman, professor of political science at Kabul University, said the US had planned to come to the region before 9/11. The US objectives in the region […]
US Military contracting swindles
September 7, 2011After three years, the bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting completed its business this week. In its final report to Congress (PDF), it estimates that the federal government has lost between $31 and $60 billion to contractor fraud and waste since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq started. Its “greatest-hits list” of expensive bloopers make that […]
Israel an ungrateful US ally
September 6, 2011Robert M. Gates, the now-retired secretary of defense, got upset with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In a meeting of the National Security Council Principals Committee held not long before his retirement this summer, Gates coldly laid out the many steps the administration has taken to guarantee Israel’s security — access to top- quality weapons, […]
FBI Entrapment as Government Policy
September 1, 2011From Trevor Aaronson’s expose entitled “The Informants” published in the September/October 2011 issue of Mother Jones, we learn the FBI has concluded that Al-Qaeda as an organization is no longer a major threat to the US. The threat now comes from the “lone wolf,” the person who is angry at or frustrated by their life […]
Federal Reserve Audit Reveals Trillions in Secret Bailouts
August 31, 2011The first-ever audit of the U.S. Federal Reserve has revealed 16 trillion dollars in secret bank bailouts and has raised more questions about the quasi-private agency’s opaque operations. “This is a clear case of socialism for the rich and rugged, you’re-on-your-own individualism for everyone else,” U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, said in […]
Secret pact reveals US troops stuck in Afghanistan until 2024
August 27, 2011If you thought President Obama was ending the war in Afghanistan, think again. Your children will be fighting it in 2024 if the Pentagon has its way. Maybe you thought we’d get out of Afghanistan this very year, the drawdown date President Obama set as he surged U.S. troops into the country in December 2009; […]