Skip to main content

Posts

Depleted Uranium

By William Bowles April 02, 2013 "Information Clearing House" -" w illiambowles .info " -   Under the title ‘Fallujah’s children’s ‘genetic damage’ that old war horse ‘literally’ of the BBC’s foreign propaganda service, John Simpson, manages not to mention the phrase ‘depleted uranium’ when allegedly reporting on the alarming rise in birth defects that include cancer, leukaemia and a horrific rise in child mortality since the US demolished the city of Fallujah in 2004. And it’s not until right at the end of the piece that the US attack on Fallujah is even mentioned, let alone depleted uranium! Simpson says: “Even if it’s possible to produce watertight scientific proof that American weapons were responsible for the genetic damage it will be almost impossible for the people who suffered to get any redress. American legislation makes it extremely difficult to sue the US government over acts of war.” Well that takes care of that little problem then, doesn’t it. ...

Camp Nama: British Personnel Reveal Horrors of Secret US Base in Baghdad

Detainees captured by SAS and SBS squads subjected to human-rights abuses at detention centre, say British witnesses By Ian Cobain April 02, 2013 "Information Clearing House" - "Guardian" -  British soldiers and airmen who helped to operate a secretive US detention facility in Baghdad that was at the centre of some of the most serious human rights abuses to occur in Iraq after the invasion have, for the first time, spoken about abuses they witnessed there. Personnel from two RAF squadrons and one Army Air Corps squadron were given guard and transport duties at the secret prison, the Guardian has established. And many of the detainees were brought to the facility by snatch squads formed from Special Air Service and Special Boat Service squadrons. Codenamed Task Force 121, the joint US-UK special forces unit was at first deployed to detain individuals thought to have information about Saddam Hussein 's weapons of mass destruction. Once it was realised tha...

Beyond the Post-Cold War World

An era ended when the Soviet Union collapsed on Dec. 31, 1991. The confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union defined the Cold War period. The collapse of Europe framed that confrontation. After World War II, the Soviet and American armies occupied Europe. Both towered over the remnants of Europe's forces. The collapse of the European imperial system, the emergence of new states and a struggle between the Soviets and Americans for domination and influence also defined the confrontation. There were, of course, many other aspects and phases of the confrontation, but in the end, the Cold War was a struggle built on Europe's decline. Many shifts in the international system accompanied the end of the Cold War. In fact, 1991 was an extraordinary and defining year. The Japanese economic miracle ended. China after Tiananmen Square inherited Japan's place as a rapidly growing, export-based economy, one defined by the continued pre-eminence of the Chinese Communist ...

N Korea vows to 'strengthen nuclear weapons'

North says nuclear armed forces 'should be expanded' and reiterated its atomic weapons are not a bargaining chip. North Korea has pledged to strengthen its nuclear weapons programme, a day after announcing it is in a "state of war" with South Korea, as the region remains tense amid a military build-up by both North and South Korea. A meeting on Sunday of the central committee of the ruling Workers' Party, headed by leader Kim Jong-Un, decided that the country's possession of nuclear weapons "should be fixed by law", the official KCNA news agency reported without elaborating. The nuclear armed forces "should be expanded and beefed up qualitatively and quantitatively until the denuclearisation of the world is realised", it added. Tensions have risen sharply on the peninsula since the UN tightened sanctions in response to the North's nuclear and missile tests, and the US and South Korea carried out military drills near the border with th...

North Korea to restart nuclear facilities

Reopening of major facility north of Pyongyang follows weeks of warlike rhetoric towards South Korea and the US. North Korea will restart all nuclear facilities at its main Yongbyon complex, in the latest move which is likely to escalate tensions further with South Korea and the United States. North Korea plans to rebuild and restart of its nuclear facilities including its uranium enrichment facility and the 5 MW Yongbyon reactor which it closed in 2007, the state news agency KCNA quoted a spokesman at North Korea's atomic energy agency as saying. The report said the "readjusting and restarting" of nuclear facilities, including a reactor shut down in 2007, would be used for electricity shortages and military development. The move was being made in line with a policy of "bolstering the nuclear armed force both in quality and quantity" as well as solving "acute" electricity shortages, the spokesman said. The facilities were closed in 2007 as part of a...

U.S. hands over Afghan district after ‘abuse’ row

AFP, Kabul - The U.S. military pulled out of a strategic district in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday as part of a deal with President Hamid Karzai, who alleged that soldiers had mistreated locals. Karzai had at first accused Afghan militia working with elite U.S. units of torturing and murdering civilians, but later changed his allegations to focus on unproven claims of “harassment” by American troops. The president issued an ultimatum that U.S. commandos leave the province of Wardak, a key region close to the capital Kabul, raising concern that the pullout would create a major security opening for Taliban insurgents. A compromise deal was reached in which U.S. troops would leave Nerkh, one of Wardak’s eight districts, as the U.S. and Karzai tried to smooth over a series of damaging public rows. “Our forces have transitioned Nerkh district to Afghan National Security Forces and they have now assumed full responsibility for security in this key district,” General Joseph Dunford, command...

Billions needed to remove Afghan kit

US soliders on patrol in Afghanistan. (File, AFP) Kabul - The US operation to remove military hardware and vehicles from Afghanistan as troops withdraw after 12 years of war, will cost $5- to $6bn, officials said on Sunday. Among statistics released by the military about the process known as a "retrograde" was that 25 000 vehicles have been shipped out of Afghanistan in the last year and another 25 000 remain in the country. About 100 000 containers are also still in Afghanistan, and will be used to remove mountains of equipment ranging from fighting gear to fitness machines, furniture and computers. "The retrograde from Afghanistan is one of the most challenging military transportation operations in history in terms of scale and complexity," Brigadier General Steven Shapiro said in an email. "Our number of vehicles in Afghanistan has dropped by nearly half in the past year." Shapiro said decisions were being made on what equi...

Preacher, 6 others killed in Iraq

Baghdad - Iraqi officials said seven people were killed in attacks in the capital and in the western city of Fallujah on Sunday, including a mosque preacher who was gunned down outside a sweets shop. A police officer said assailants shot dead the preacher, Sheik Talib Zuwayid of the al-Baraa mosque in Fallujah, along with his nephew and another man. A health official confirmed the deaths and said another man was injured. Residents said Zuwayid was one of the organisers of weekly Sunni demonstrations against the Shi'ite-led government that have been taking place for the past three months. The police officer however said it was unclear if the killings were related to the protests. Immediately after he was killed, residents hung up posters announcing the man's death on Fallujah's main road. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release information. In the Iraqi capital, two separate explosions killed four people and woun...