Warplane delivery makes Italy complicit in Israeli crimes

From the Electronic Intifada (author Stephanie Westbrook):

Italy has offered more concrete support for Israel’s latest attack on Gaza than perhaps any other European Union country. As the massacres began earlier this month, two Italian-made M-346 jet trainer aircraft were delivered to Hatzerim, an Israeli Air Force base in the Naqab (Negev).

These warplanes — the most “advanced” of their type, according to their manufacturers — will be used to train pilots for similar operations to the one now being carried out against Gaza’s 1.8 million people.

The Rome authorities cannot seriously claim that the timing of the 9 July delivery — two days after the assault on Gaza began — is a pure coincidence. Israel has undertaken offensives against Gaza and Lebanon, and committed countless human rights violations over the past decade. And yet Italy has deepened its military cooperation with Israel.

... continue reading at EI.

USA: leak at Hanford Nuclear Facilit only gets worse

From King5 news (via EneNews):

The new video of the waste also shows much more bright green liquid than workers had seen before. The presence of green, wet material means it is new.

This particular tank (AY-102) is not the only one leaking. On February it was reported that at least six of the Hanford tanks are leaking and that the leaks cannot be contained apparently.

The tanks were designed to last just 20 years but nuclear mismanagement has allowed the facility to continue operating for more 70 years now. This is one of the major unrecognized problems (hidden costs) of nuclear industry: that facilities that are originally designed for a few decades, get their licenses extended once and again, and that theoretically acceptable management policies fall into routine, corruption and cost-reduction vices that pose immense risks to all. In the mid or long term all nuclear operations are extremely dangerous, if not outright catastrophic, and most extant nuclear facilities on Earth have long exhausted their optimal working periods, being totally senile and therefore a major local and global danger.

Venezuela: bourgeois opposition bought 18 war aircraft in USA

This is absolutely irregular and, if confirmed, it means a declaration of civil war.

According to José Vicente Rangel (former Vice-President of Venezuela and a journalist by profession, pictured), the bourgeois opposition of Venezuela purchased nothing less than 18 war aircraft in the USA, which are to be stationed in a Colombian base.

In his weekly TV program José Vicente Hoy, Rangel declared that the purchase was signed in San Antonio, Texas, in a meeting between opposition leaders and members of the US military-industrial complex. 

The new rebel 'air force' would be located at a Colombian air base with the coordinates P 11° 25′ 31”, M 72° 7′ 46”. P and M surely stand for parallel and meridian, in Colombia meaning N and W respectively, what means a location in the Guajira Peninsula, North of Maracaibo, just a few kilometers away from the Venezuelan border (→ map).

The rebellious purchase is meant to be effective by November this year and may signal the beginning of an armed rebellion of some sort.  

The veteran journalist did not reveal the source of his information but asked the security agencies to check the veracity of it.

Rangel also mentioned that the travels and expenses of the bourgeois opposition coalition MUD are financed by the US Congress via the National Democratic Foundation. 

Sources[es]: TeleSur, Tercera Información, El Diario.

Terror scare provides pretext for militarization of police and exceptional legislation, just one step short of outright Fascism

I was just raising the question of why all these false flag terror attacks? What do they want with them? 

One aspect of the answer is the militarization of police forces in the USA and other countries and therefore the generalization of excessive force response by over-equipped police. Because it is well known that when a bureaucracy does not have a role, it creates it. 

This most serious issue of the militarization of the police forces in the USA is discussed in depth by The Real News:

The video is just part of a wider report, which you can find in full at The Real News, with emphasis on the new legislation allowing for indefinite military detention, just one step short of total Fascism.

USA: federal cops piling up ammo

While the US administration continues trying to remove weapons from the hands of the citizens, their forces (the Gestapo-like US Homeland Security Department, specifically) are piling up ammunition enough to shoot every US resident five times with no obvious or known reason. 

Source: IBD. 

Bharain: minor murdered by police while protests continue in the 2nd anniversary of the beginning of the revolution

I say the beginning because, quite obviously, it is still ongoing in spite of all the repression. The popular movement's claims have also escalated from demanding mere democratic reforms to now calling for the overthrown of a most hated regime that nevertheless sticks to its guns with the help of very powerful allies (USA, Saudi Arabia, UK). 

Notice also that Cypriot, Italian and German weapons were used in the latest crimes of the Khalifa totalitarian regime. Incidentally Cyprus has the only communist-led government in all the European Union, someone should tell them.

From the Bahrain Center for Human Rights:

Bahrain: Minor Killed And Human Rights Violations Escalate During the 2nd Anniversary of 14Feb Mass Protests

European Weapons Aid the Authorities’ Crackdown

Photo: Peaceful protestor standing in front of riot police on 14Feb in Duraz Village Date: 14 February 2013

(Bahrain) – The human rights situation is rapidly deteriorating in Bahrain on the second anniversary of the pro-democracy movement. Security forces in full riot gear have swarmed the streets with armored vehicles and helicopters; many streets are filled with tear gas. The government’s response has been, throughout the day, wildly out of proportion to the largely peaceful demonstrations.

Since the earliest hours of the day around dawn, protesters took to the streets in large numbers, groups of hundreds gathered in all parts of the country, the vast majority of which were peaceful. Protesters have established roadblocks of their own to prevent riot police from driving at high speed into the villages. The security forces used consistently excessive and disproportionate force against protesters across Bahrain throughout the day.

Photo: Hussain Al-Jazeeri photos

Due to the culture of impunity being practiced by Bahrain authorities and the continued use of excessive force, a 16 year-old protester, Hussain Ali Al-Jazeeri, died this morning as a result of a close-range direct hit from a police officer’s shotgun to his abdominal area (Copy of the death certificate). He was shot while he was peacefully protesting in the area of Daih. There is no evidence that AlJaziri was representing any kind of threat to the policeman who fired on him and killed him. Al-Jazeeri died in the ambulance before reaching the hospital. This video shows the medic who was trying to rescue Al-Jaziri in the ambulance ( http://youtu.be/76dYQPj5Sbw ). The Bahraini riot police continue to use the birdshots against the peaceful protests in Bahrain even after 2 years, during which dozens were killed with shotgun, including the first man who was killed on Feb 14, 2011, Ali Mushiama.

... continue reading at BCHR.

Italy: military industry CEO arrested for corruption

Would he be in Spain he'd get free on bail almost for sure, in Britain a condecoration from the Queen. 

But in Italy sometimes the corrupt ones do hit the dungeons. 

Busto Arsizio, CEO of Finmeccanica SpA was arrested after prosecutors found that he had paid bribes to Indian officials in order to secure the sale of 12 executive helicopters, when he was head of AugustaWestland, a division of Finnmecanica. The current head of this division, Bruno Spagnolini, is under home arrest. 

Source: Al Jazeera.

Spain: growing military and police budgets

While there are budgetary cuts for every sector, the Armed Forces are instead being well fed in what the Basque antimilitarist committee Gasteizkoak compares to a military coup against the populace and their interests. While everything else is cut down brutally, no matter if its pensions or solar energy, the Armed Forces and the Police are totally unscathed (at most with purely aesthetic retouches).

They also warn to the very unusual accumulation of military voices, very specially against Catalan independence, in what seems a clear attempt to take the power back into military hands.

In 2012 alone the real military budget has grown 40% by means of extraordinary credits which total € 2,537 billion. These include € 755 billion for foreign missions (notably Afghanistan but also Bosnia and Kosovo), while € 1,783 were approved, in the very eve of the two-million demo of Barcelona for Catalan independence, to buy new weaponry, in what Gazteizkoak interpret as an attempt to limit military discontent by buying new toys for the angry kids. 

The situation is similar in the Police Forces, which are the only state body that has offered new employment (45,300 new jobs in the National Police and Guardia Civil) in 2012 and will repeat in 2013 according to all predictions. 

In the Western Basque Country, some 520 new regional police have been recruited in the last few years as well. The Interior Department (essentially: police) has seen its budget cut since 2009 in a mere € 29 million, a totally symbolic amount.

Gasteizkoak also denounces the military industry, which they denounce as useless and parasitic, being the only sector with a clear growth in these times of crisis. A clear sign that public budget, even if camouflaged, has not decreased at all for the weaponry industry. Among them are Basque companies ITP, Sener and Sapa, whose profits have grown strongly in the crisis. 

Source: Gara[es].

Russia unveals huge sea nuclear dump

(CC by NormanEinstein)

A nuclear submarine (the K-27) with spent fuel in both reactors, 14 nuclear reactors, some of them with fuel, 19 ships containing radioactive waste, 17,000 containers full of radioactive waste, 735 other pieces of radioactively contaminated machinery. 

All that and maybe more was dumped in the Kara Sea, a subdivision of the Arctic Ocean bordering Nenets lands. The data has been revealed to Norwegian environmentalist NGO Bellona by Russian authorities in the last two years and now published by Norwegian media. 

Bellona has been tracking the case since 1992 and praised the openness of the Russian government. Meanwhile the Norwegian nuclear authorities suspect that this may not be all because Russia has been generally reluctant to reveal this massive environmental crime, revealing the data only gradually.

There is concern that the reactors of the K-27 could achieve recriticality but of course the greatest concern is radioactive contamination of the Arctic. 

Source: Bellona (via EneNews).

Japan's Minister of Defense confesses: nuclear power is not about energy but about bombs

I know, you know, maybe everybody with a forehead knows... but it's seldom admitted. Nuclear energy enthusiasts pretend (some of them may even truly believe) that it's truly a promising energy generation method... but the unspoken truth is that it's all about being able to build up the bomb as soon as needed.

Finally, pressured by a growing anti-nuclear tide after large swathes of the country (at the very least) were devastated by the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, the Japanese Minister of Defense, Satoshi Morimoto, confessed to a conference of energy businesspeople.

Having nuclear plants is not only the issue of power supply. It’s playing the significant role of deterrent force for neighbor countries.

Source: Fukushima Diary (where you can read the original words in Japanese as well).

Back in July, Prime Minister Noda admitted to the same truth.

This of course does not apply only to Japan but also to any other state with nuclear reactors, but actually to many different states (categories marked in red bold type in the legend):

Legend:

   Operating reactors, building new reactors

   Operating reactors, planning new build

   No reactors, building new reactors

   No reactors, new in planning

   Operating reactors, stable

   Operating reactors, decided on phase-out

   Civil nuclear power is illegal

   No reactors

>>> Larger size and legend in many languages <<<

(CC by Ichabod Paleogene & Krzysztof Kori)

All those states have and/or want the absolute destructive power of total annihilation to wave it against their neighbors in case they deem necessary. 

Or even to use it, preventively or for whatever other reason. 

That is the true reason behind nuclear energy development. All the rest is just propaganda. 

Problem? That it leaves the Earth so contaminated, even if no bomb is ever exploded, that in the long run a state like France, full of nuclear reactors, is destroying itself.

Spain to sell up to 600 tanks to the Saudi fascist regime

Leopard 2 tanks (Germany)

As many as maybe 600 Leopard 2 tanks are what the Spanish twin party regime is planning to sell to the worst religious fundamentalist tyranny on Earth, Saudi Arabia. The last time that this fascist monarchy used the army it was to invade its small neighbor, Bahrain, and quell the peaceful citizen protests for democracy.

Previously the Saudi regime was in negotiations with Germany but in the Central European country opposition was outspoken forcing Merkel to withdraw their offer. Instead in Spain, in yet another indication of the residual situation of the democratic system, the alleged social-liberal opposition of the PSOE has quietly supported the sale.

It is however an illegal sale, because it violates the common position of the European Union on weapon sales, which members are legally bound to respect. The common position does not allow the sale to the Saudi regime because human rights are systematically violated in the purchasing state and because it is a danger for regional peace and security (intervention in Bahrain and indirectly in Iraq, Syria, etc., continuous threats to Iran, active alliance with the Zionist regime to perpetrate genocide in Gaza...)

Source: Naiz Info[es].

Is Japan heading for a Tahrir moment?

Something that is clearly leading the way against the systemic corruption of political leaders these days are spontaneous demos called out by means of Internet, which sometimes capture the social mood and become snowballs that can't be stopped until they complete their natural trajectory.

This seems to be happening in Japan right now. After various weak attempts to organized demonstrations and popular resistance against the criminal institutional mismanagement of the nuclear catastrophe of Fukushima, the reopening of the Ooi nuclear power plant seems to have finally drawn Japanese people to the streets to vent out their anger at the gates of the Prime Minister's palace. 

The Japanese are a very formal and generally disciplined people who are not easy to come out to protest. In this sense, the growing numbers of the latest Tweeter-called protests are ringing all the alarms in the East Asian Police State (alleged "democracy" where the will or even the safety and health of the People does not matter at all).

Last Friday it was 11,000, today it has been 45,000, they are hoping to bring at least 100,000 to the next Friday's protest. 

Naturally the oligarchs in Japan, the USA and all around the World are most worried: how do they dare to challenge authority and demand their right to health and a livable environment?! How do they dare to challenge the designs of the Nuclear lobby and the all-powerful Military-Industrial Complex?!

Because they have nothing to lose anymore. You are pushing us all too far... and the Japanese People are no exception. Things are changing even if you do not realize: the Peoples of the World are wakening to their real power. 

Update: some more info and photos at Ex-SKF.

Mystery mission for US new robotic shuttle

The USA has run out of space shuttles but to some extent these have been replaced by a miniature robotic clone, the size of a truck, operated not anymore by NASA but by the Air Force (USAF). They do not serve the International space station anymore (a job now performed only by European partners: Russia and EU) but they endeavor mysterious classified missions flying around Earth for 15 months.

The Daily Mail has some more details.

Media in Japan also censor anti-nuclear protest before their eyes

Protester: Why don't you instead report on this protest, as it is happening?

Asahi TV Journalist: I cannot write about it, I am just a reporter.

They continued then reporting on the invisible meeting to reopen he Ooi Nuclear Power Plant while the obvious demonstration numbering 11,000 was ignored.

Source: Ex-SKF (link 1, link 2)

Opinion polls show that 70% of Japanese citizens oppose this reopening ·> Energy News.

Update: videos of the protests available at Ex-SKF or at this Japanese language blog.

International Atomic Energy Agency controls and censors World Health Organization

Very interesting and scary (albeit rather long) videos today at Energy News, denouncing how the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an entity designed to promote nuclear energy (of interest for the Industrial-Military Complex mostly), has the power to block the publication of any World Health Organization report. This power is reciprocal but it's hard to imagine why the WHO would want to censor IAEA.

This means that in practical terms, the pro-nuclear camp controls absolutely all health information coming out from the United Nations, what explains all the lies about Chernobyl, the worst nuclear catastrophe before Fukushima.

I include here only one of the two videos but the other one is also very dramatic and interesting (and different point of view as well):

No cold shutdown: corium will be there forever

EneNews has other interesting info today (and often). For example, Dr. Caldicott (from the reputed International Physicians Against Nuclear War) denounces what is obvious for all of us following the Fukushima catastrophe with due care and healthy skepticism: that the cold shutdown claim is a blunt lie: the corium (uranium-plutonium lava) is still there and will be forever emitting radiation, penetrating across the Earth's crust and potentially reacting at any moment with further catastrophic results.

··> LINK


Reactor no. 3 explosion sent radiation right away to Tokyo

Again from EneNews: a US government (NARAC) map shows how the radioactive particles after the fated day of the second explosion (March 13 2011) went right to Tokyo

··> NARAC paper (PDF), including several other maps of interest illustrating how the particles probably arrived to US territory (and Eastern Siberia).

USA still selling weapons to Bahrain

Gringo tank at Pearl Roundabout

No wonder, as Bahrain provides the most important base for US troops in all Asia West of Philippines and Japan but still we can't forget that Bahrain is a fascist totalitarian fundamentalist regime of the very kind that Uncle Sam pretends to be fighting against when the time comes for the press conference. 

Bahrain has become particularly notorious in its brutal persecution of all kind of dissidents, potential dissidents and even physicians who dare to honor their profession healing suspect dissidents. 

These US-made weapons will then be used against Bahrainis who demand democracy, human rights and all that that Uncle Sam claims to be for (but actually destroys). 

More details at Bahrain Watch. 

USA: "Private Prison Corporations Are Slave Traders" (BAR)

Private Prison Corporations Are Slave Traders

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“The Corrections Corporation of America believes the economic crisis has created an historic opportunity to become the landlord, as well as the manager, of a big chunk of the American prison gulag.”

The nation’s largest private prison company, the Corrections Corporation of America, is on a buying spree. With a war chest of $250 million, the corporation, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, this month sent letters to 48 states, offering to buy their prisons outright. To ensure their profitability, the corporation insists that it be guaranteed that the prisons be kept at least 90 percent full. Plus, the corporate jailers demand a 20-year management contract, on top of the profits they expect to extract by spending less money per prisoner.

For the last two years, the number of inmates held in state prisons has declined slightly, largely because the states are short on money. Crime, of course, has declined dramatically in the last 20 years, but that has never dampened the states’ appetites for warehousing ever more Black and brown bodies, and the federal prison system is still growing. However, the Corrections Corporation of America believes the economic crisis has created an historic opportunity to become the landlord, as well as the manager, of a big chunk of the American prison gulag.

... full article and podcast at Black Agenda Report. 

Spain's new wastes: giving public money to military businessmen because they are friends of the minister

Minister Pedro Morenés

There is no money for pensions, no money for healthcare, no money for public housing, no money for culture and no money for unemployment subsidies... but the neofascist rulers of Spain have enough taxpayer money to give it to their capitalist friends at whim it seems. 

The former owners of Instalaza SA, a weapons company specialized in the construction of cluster bombs, will be paid an 'indemnity' for the UN decission to ban such particularly harmful weapons in 2010. The amount to be gifted to these white gloved thieves is €40 million.

Incidentally the current Minister of Defense, Pedro Morenés, was councilor of this munitions company between 2005 and 2007, later becoming representative until late 2011, when he resigned in order to become minister.

Besides working for Instalaza, this thief of Morenés worked in other companies of the Military-Industrial Complex: MBDA missile systems (formerly EADS and others), the private security company Segur Ibérica, military building subcontractor Aritex. He was also Secretary of State (viceminister) for Defense and Security with the Aznar government that invaded Iraq without proper war declaration or reason whatsoever and presides a capitalist association (Círculo de Empresarios).

Source: Tercera Información[es].

The accident of Marcoule was radioactive (hidden by France)

The recent accident at a nuclear facility at Marcoule (Occitania or "SE France", near Avignon) was seriously radioactive in spite of the claims by the Sarkozy government and the nuclear industry that it was a mere industrial accident with no radiation danger. 

An anonymous source already informed back in the day (Sep 12) that there was risk of radioactive leak. 

Now we have known that the dead worker, José Marín, was seriously irradiated: his coffin was sealed with a radiation protection (lead) and the family could never see or even approach the corpse, which has not had any autopsy either. 

The corpse was rescued from the exploded oven by special NRBC unit and the public attorney authorized an exceptional lack of autopsy.

One of the injured workers, with third degree burns on 85% of his body, is in a military hospital in Paris, what allows the all-powerful French Armed Forces strict control on any information on his health state. 

The nature of the radioactive junk being burned in the exploded oven is also a secret. Even the information of the residue of the filters has been declared secret. The oven was meant mostly to burn, mostly military, radioactive junk, accumulated in the center since 1958.

Source: Público[es], via EneNews.

9-11 attacks: 10 years and the farce continues

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