April 23, 2013

Contaminated Nation: Inhuman Radiation Experiments

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/15857-contaminated-nation-inhuman-radiation-experiments



Contaminated Nation: Inhuman Radiation Experiments
Sunday, 21 April 2013 09:38
By John LaForge, Counterpunch | News Analysis

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the declassification of top secret studies, done over a period of 60 years, in which the US conducted 2,000 radiation experiments on as many as 20,000 vulnerable US citizens.[1]

Victims included civilians, prison inmates, federal workers, hospital patients, pregnant women, infants, developmentally disabled children and military personnel — most of them powerless, poor, sick, elderly or terminally ill. Eileen Welsome’s 1999 exposé The Plutonium Files: America’s Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War details “the unspeakable scientific trials that reduced thousands of men, women, and even children to nameless specimens.”[2]

The program employed industry and academic scientists who used their hapless patients or wards to see the immediate and short-term effects of radioactive contamination — with everything from plutonium to radioactive arsenic.[3] The human subjects were mostly poisoned without their knowledge or consent.

An April 17, 1947 memo by Col. O.G. Haywood of the Army Corps of Engineers explained why the studies were classified. “It is desired that no document be released which refers to experiments with humans and might have adverse effect on public opinion or result in legal suits.”[4]

April 23, 2013

Gitmo Dilemma Remains a Monkey on the Back of US Democracy

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/15858-gitmo-dilemma-remains-a-monkey-on-the-back-of-us-democracy



A guard watches from a tower at Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on June 9, 2010.

Gitmo Dilemma Remains a Monkey on the Back of US Democracy
Sunday, 21 April 2013 09:50 By Megan Cowell, Council on Hemispheric Affairs | News Analysis

~snip~

With every year that passes, prisoners of the detention camp have grown more and more restless with the uncertainty of their status and treatment while in the prison. This culminated on February 6, 2013, when a small number of Guantanamo prisoners began an internal protest by refusing to eat their meals. In the days that followed, solidarity among prisoners grew, resulting in a large-scale demonstration. The exact number of those involved is unclear, but on April 1, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that roughly 40 prisoners are taking part in the strike and 11 have needed to be force-fed liquid nutrients to keep them alive. [2] This is a very different story than what is being told by some lawyers of the detainees who have declared that the strike, in reality, involves the majority of the inmates, with the exception of the elderly and ill, bringing the total to 130 of the 166 inmates. [3]

The protest allegedly began as a result of detainees’ unrest regarding their current status in the prison, as well as a recent seizure of the prisoners’ personal belongings. For some, the strike is fundamental in nature in that their motivation for protest stems from their ongoing imprisonment. Many, like Marine General and Commander of SOUTHCOM John Kelly, an overseer of Guantanamo Bay, are frustrated by the lack of movements coming out of the U.S. government to close the camp, “‘They had a great optimism that Guantanamo would be closed’ based on President Obama’s pledge in his first campaign, but now they are “devastated” that nothing has changed.” [4] Captain Robert Durand, a U.S. military spokesperson, in an April 13 statement announced that the strike began after Guantanamo Bay prison staff had seized prisoners’ letters, photos, and other personal belongings. Most notably, detainees became enraged by the treatment of personal copies of the Koran that have been used in the course for personal worship. According to Guantanamo lawyers, prisoners feel as though the manor in which their Korans were handled during the seizer was not only inappropriate, but also sacrilegious. [5]

On Saturday, April 13, tensions reached an all time high. Early that morning, a new series of cell raids took place at the prison, a measure deemed necessary by guards after detainees allegedly covered window and security cameras installed at the compound. Violence erupted when troops arrived to transfer prisoners out of Camp 6, a communal section of the prison reserved for well-behaved detainees to enjoy additional freedoms, such as additional recreation time and access to T.V.s and computers were recalled. When prison guards arrived for the transfer of detainees back to their individual cells, the detainees began to fight the prison guards with broomsticks and mop handles, while guards responded by firing four nonlethal rounds, including a modified shotgun shell that fired small rubber pellets as well as a bean-bag projectile, according to a spokesman for the Florida-based U.S. Southern Command Army Colonel Greg Julian. [6]

U.S. authorities have stated that Camp 6, though closed indefinitely, will reopen when prisoners are obedient once again. For now, Durand believes that keeping prisoners in individual cells is the best way to keep an eye on the protesting detainees, as prison personnel are hoping to avoid the spread of the hunger strike through interactions between prisoners granted access to Camp 6. Lawyers, however, do not see this action as a means to an end, but rather of pushing the prisoners to new extremes. One federal public defender in Ohio, Carlos Warner, stated, “This is exactly the opposite of what they should be doing. As of last week, the strike would end if they allowed the men to surrender the Koran. Instead the military is escalating the conflict.” [7] In contrast, it has been suggested that a negotiation between prisoners and prison guards as a method of finding an end to the ongoing hunger strike; however, hatred and distrust between the two groups will likely impede any negotiations from being fruitful.

April 23, 2013

Soldier pleads guilty to murdering five colleagues in Iraq

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/22/soldier-pleads-guilty-to-murdering-five-colleagues-in-iraq/



Sgt. John Russell

Soldier pleads guilty to murdering five colleagues in Iraq
By Agence France-Presse
Monday, April 22, 2013 19:40 EDT

A US soldier pleaded guilty Monday to killing five of his colleagues in Iraq four years ago, in a plea deal to escape a death sentence, a military spokesman said.

Army Sergeant John Russell was accused of the May 2009 killings at a clinic for soldiers suffering from war-related stress at Camp Liberty, the largest US base in Iraq.

Russell, who has previously denied responsibility, “said ‘I killed these people,’ he acknowledged that,” said Gary Dangerfield, a spokesman for the Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM), south of Seattle.

He added, however, that Russell has not admitted premeditated murder, which prosecutors have been trying to prove.

April 22, 2013

Where did they find the money to send troops to Jordan?

http://agonist.org/where-did-they-find-the-money-to-send-troops-to-jordan/#comment-244204



Where did they find the money to send troops to Jordan?
By Michael Collins, on April 20th, 2013

That’s your Sunday moment of Zen. We have sent troops to Jordan, specifically to the Jordan – Syria border.

The United States budget is in an state of disarray. The crazies and the sleepwalkers in Congress can’t engage in rational analysis and planning, so we’re forced into robo-budget cutting. Even without the histrionics of historic proportion, it is time to pay close attention to expenditures based on priorities for the vast majority of citizens.

The real unemployment rate is 23% when you count all those once employed who would work and those forced into part time employment. Our neglect of the environment and de facto stupidity has advanced climate change beyond the point of no return unless very prompt action is taken to correct the situation.

So what do those in power do? Send troops to Jordan.

April 22, 2013

Nearly half of Guantánamo prisoners now on hunger strike

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/04/21/189253/nearly-half-of-guantanamo-prisoners.html

Nearly half of Guantánamo prisoners now on hunger strike
Carol Rosenberg | Miami Herald
Posted on Sunday, April 21, 2013

Nearly half the war-on-terror captives at the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, were considered hunger strikers Saturday, and more than 10 percent of all detainees were being tube fed, according to the military.

Army Lt. Col. Samuel House released the hunger strike figure — 77 of the 166 captives considered hunger strikers, 17 being force-fed via tubes snaked up their nose and into their stomach — in an email Saturday morning from the remote base a day after reporters left the island.

The hunger strike figure rose by 14 prisoners overnight. The military reported the hunger-strike figure at 63 on Friday.

A total of five captives were hospitalized Saturday, said House, deputy prison camps spokesman. None of the hospitalized captives “have any life-threatening conditions,” he added.

April 21, 2013

Good Bomb, Bad Bomb

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Good-Bomb-Bad-Bomb-by-William-Boardman-130420-508.html



Texas Fertilizer Plant Bomb Kills More Than Boston, But It's One of Ours

Good Bomb, Bad Bomb
By William Boardman
General News 4/20/2013 at 19:37:24

Boston's bombings have brought out all kinds of conspiracy theory and bigoted reactions, even though nobody knows anything with much certainty yet. The West Fertilizer Company explosion on April 17 resulted from an actual, American conspiracy of a very familiar sort, a conspiracy of deliberate corporate denial or deceit -- for an example, think about tobacco companies -- combined with government inaction.

When an explosion in Texas kills an as yet uncertain number of people, leveling almost half the town, that's just as sad as the Boston event for those directly involved, but it doesn't make as compelling television. And it doesn't make compelling politics.

~snip~

Almost ten times as many people run in the Boston Marathon as live in West, Texas. The Boston event draws about half a million spectators to a city of 625,000, numbers that dwarf the Texas town that is home to little more than one one-hundredth of one per cent of the total Texas population of more than 26 million.

The explosion in West, Texas, was so powerful it blew out windows two miles away. People heard it for miles, and some felt it as much as a hundred miles away. It destroyed perhaps more than a third of the town, including a school (empty) and a retirement home (133 residents). Railroad tracks were destroyed some distance from the blast, which pushed the closer rail across the ties against the farther rail.

April 21, 2013

US National Security State Fails in Boston: Brothers Tsarnaev Victorious!

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/john-stanton/49160/us-national-security-state-fails-in-boston-brothers-tsarnaev-victorious

US National Security State Fails in Boston: Brothers Tsarnaev Victorious!
by John Stanton | April 20, 2013 - 8:19am

The American National Security State failed to protect the American people yet again, this time in Boston, Massachusetts. Twelve years of ramping up federal, state and local venues with billions of dollars worth of anti-terrorism training, intelligence fusion centers, and equipment was for nought. Chasing “the terrorists” around the world for ten years whether by remotely piloted vehicles (Drones), or Special Forces, could not prevent the carnage of 15 April 2013 at the Boston Marathon.

The USA is bloodied again this time showing that it was unable to provide security at one of the world’s most publicized legendary athletic events.

The Brothers Tsarnaev succeeded. The mainstream media assisted in the process by channeling their thoughts and emotions of fear and anger that were likely aimed at the elimination of civilians around the globe by the US military and intelligence machinery. The mainstrem media was a force multiplier for the Tsarnaev’s as they fanned the flames of their anger rattling American leadership and an intellectually challenged public.

Who designed the security plan for the Boston Marathon? Was it designated a National Special Security Event by the US national government? Should security personnel be fired, demoted? No, wait. There is the lesson of 911: no one was held accountable for the destruction of two of America’s symbols of national power—the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

April 21, 2013

Why We Should Reduce the Defense Budget

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/bob-burnett/49164/why-we-should-reduce-the-defense-budget

Why We Should Reduce the Defense Budget
by Bob Burnett | April 20, 2013 - 8:50am

~snip~

For the past 70 years, the U.S. has been the world's police force, whether in Germany, Korea, Vietnam, or most recently, Afghanistan, and the defense budget has grown accordingly. President Obama's proposed 2014 defense budget is $527 billion. That's a slight increase over 2013, holding the baseline defense budget steady after a decade of humongous growth. (The $527 billion budget does not include costs of the Afghanistan war or DOE nuclear weapons work.)

Since America has left Iraq and plans to leave Afghanistan in 2014, it seems logical that the U.S. could reduce the size of its military forces. This is what happened after the end of the War in Vietnam and the end of the Cold War. But when it comes to the defense budget, deliberations are seldom rational.

There are several reasons for the contentious nature of defense budget deliberations. One is that U.S. defense allocations are so enormous their size warps perspective. Writing in The New Yorker, journalist Jill Lepore observed, "Between 1998 and 2011, military spending doubled, reaching more than seven hundred billion dollars a year--more, in adjusted dollars, than at any time since the Allies were fighting the Axis." The Council on Foreign Relations reported that in 2011 the United States had 4 percent of the world's population, accounted for 22 percent of the gross domestic product, yet was responsible for 42 percent of military spending. Lepore observed that what drives our defense budget is "the idea that the manifest destiny of the United States is to patrol the world... six decades after V-J Day nearly three hundred thousand American troops are stationed overseas, including fifty-five thousand in Germany, thirty-five thousand in Japan, and ten thousand in Italy." Former Republican Congressman Ron Paul claimed the U.S. military operates out of 900 bases deployed in 130 nations.

Another reason why it is difficult to trim the defense budget is because discussions are heavily politicized. Ever since 1952, when Republicans won the presidency by accusing Democrats of being soft on Communism and having "lost China," Republicans have dogmatically advocated for gigantic defense budgets and attacked the manhood of all those who oppose this notion.

April 21, 2013

Imperial Overreach: Forces Driving Pentagon Spending and US Asia-Pacific Military Strategies

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/15821-imperial-overreach-forces-driving-pentagon-spending-and-us-asia-pacific-military-strategies


Imperial Overreach: Forces Driving Pentagon Spending and US Asia-Pacific Military Strategies
Friday, 19 April 2013 00:00
By Dr Joseph Gerson, Truthout | Op-Ed

~snip~

Unfortunately, US citizens have not been sufficiently alert, knowledgeable or powerful to contain the influence of the military-industrial-Congressional complex. Instead, adjusted for inflation, Pentagon spending has grown from just over $300 billion in 1960 to today's post-Cold War $711 billion.

What does the Pentagon's base budget, excluding funding for actual wars, purchase? On an annual basis it pays for an estimated 1,000 foreign military bases costing at least $170 billion, depending on how you count; preparing for nuclear war at $60 billion; 1,419,000 warriors at $136 billion; new weapons and weapons systems for $114 billion; research and development at $61 billion; and new construction, military family housing and much much more.

In fact, we don't know how much the Pentagon really spends. Estimates, including "black box" secret budgets, run as high as a trillion dollars. The Pentagon concedes that it cannot account for hundreds of billions of dollars, and in desperation, one member of Congress has introduced legislation (doomed to fail) requiring an audit of Pentagon spending.

In addition to the imperial imperative of ensuring that the United States has the weapons needed to enforce "full spectrum dominance" - from modernized nuclear warheads and drones to cyber warfare and Prompt Global Strike (an effort to deliver a conventional weapon strike anywhere in the world within one hour) - two other dynamics have been at play: military Keynesianism and the armament industry's cunning strategy of subcontracting new weapons systems' production to a majority of Congressional districts.



unhappycamper comment: There is a reason for all the obfuscation around the DoD budget and what things actually cost:

April 21, 2013

U.S. Helps Push Privatization Scheme in El Salvador

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/04/20-1

A cross-border fight erupts against a public-private partnership law.

U.S. Helps Push Privatization Scheme in El Salvador
by Hilary Goodfriend
Published on Saturday, April 20, 2013 by Dollars & Sense

Unions in El Salvador are on high alert, fighting a privatization scheme that has the full weight of the U.S. government behind it. Led by the Salvadoran Union Front, a militant coalition of public- and private-sector unions, workers are mobilizing against a proposed Public-Private Partnership (P3) Law, drafted by Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes’ office with U.S. Treasury Department assistance. The law is an initiative of the bilateral development agreement called the Partnership for Growth, which the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador calls a “signature effort of President Obama’s development policy.” With everything from ports, airports, and roads to municipal services and higher education on the auction block, the P3 law threatens public-sector workers with layoffs, wage cuts, and union busting. In the face of aggressive U.S. pressure for the law’s passage, Salvadoran workers are counting on international solidarity to protect their jobs and defend state services.

“For us,” says José Alberto Cartagena Tobias of the SITEAIES airport workers union, “a public-private partnership is nothing more than privatization.” Workers like him know firsthand the cost of privatization. After state banks, telecommunications, electricity, and pensions were sold off under the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) administrations of the 1990s, labor conditions plummeted. Five thousand workers were laid off at the telecommunications company, and those remaining saw salary reductions, the loss of seniority, and their union dissolved. Nearly 1,000 workers were laid off at the Acajutla port following privatizations in 2001; dock workers’ daily wages dropped by 90% and their union was dismantled. At the airport, security, cargo, and cleaning services were privatized that year; these workers now earn $240/month, while the unionized airport workers earn a minimum of $552/month.

Soaring utility rates and rising unemployment soon turned public opinion against privatization. In 2003, 150,000 Salvadorans took to the streets to shut down ARENA President Francisco Flores’ attempt to privatize the health-care system; little has been privatized since.

Today, the U.S. government and Salvadoran economic elite are trying a different tack. The new strategy, explains Gilberto García of the Center for Labor Study and Support (CEAL), “appears more ‘lite’.” The P3 Law is designed to shield new contracts from the controversies that damned past concessions. Currently, all privatizations and concessions require legislative approval. The proposed law, however, would create a body in the executive office to approve concessions, with many contracts bypassing the legislature entirely. And the bill is more generous to corporate bidders than it is to state budgets; for larger concessions requiring legislative approval, a bidding corporation would be guaranteed a 1% return on bid value if debate extends past 45 days, or if the bid is rejected. Furthermore, equal-treatment stipulations ensure a major bidding advantage for transnational corporations, which generally have more capital than local companies. Workers like Cartagena fear that with concessions funneling former sources of state funding into foreign bank accounts, vital social programs will inevitably suffer: “The few resources that remain with the State will be in private hands—people who come from other countries to exploit (us) and then take our money who-know-where.”