Worse Than Obsolete: NATO Creates Enemies

NATO’s and the US military’s desecration of corpses, attacks on wedding parties, mosques, hospitals and market places - along with the bombing of allied troops, torture of prisoners, and their notoriously unaccountable drone warfare - are a few of the alliance’s more infamous outrages in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, and Somalia.

Twenty years’ worth of “unintended” or “collateral” damage hasn’t created friends in the war zones:

+ On April 23, 1999, NATO rocketed the central studio of Radio Televisija Srbije (RTS), the state-owned broadcasting corporation in Belgrade, destroying the building. Sixteen civilian employees of RTS were killed and 16 wounded. Amnesty International concluded the attack was a war crime.

+ In a Feb. 12, 2010 atrocity that was kept secret until March 13, US Special Forces killed a teenage girl, a pregnant mother of 10, a pregnant mother of 6, a police officer and his brother, and were accused of then trying to cover-up the killings by digging bullets out of the victims’ bodies, washing the wounds with alcohol and lying to superior officers.

+ While bombing Libya in March 2011, NATO refused to aid a group of 72 migrants adrift in the Mediterranean Sea. Only nine people on board survived. The refusal was condemned as criminal by the Council of Europe.

+ On Nov. 26, 2011, NATO jets bombed and rocketed an allied Pakistani military base for two hours, killing 26 Pakistani soldiers and wounding dozens more. NATO refuses to apologize.

Allies have reacted angrily. Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai gave his “last” warning against NATO’s bombing of Afghan homes on May 31, 2011, saying, “If they continue their attacks on our houses … history shows what Afghans do with trespassers and with occupiers.” On March 20, 2012, Pakistani lawmakers demanded an end to all NATO/CIA drone strikes against their territory. The drone attacks continue, and newspapers repeatedly remind readers of the self-defeating hopelessness of using atrocities to fight a tactic or to enforce US military occupation.

Headlines Record NATO’s Global Crime Spree

“Civilians Killed in US-Afghan Operation,” New York Times, Nov. 29, 2018

“Navy SEAL is Accused of Bloodthirsty Killings,” New York Times, Nov. 16, 2018

“Report: 3,301 civilians killed in US-led strikes in Syria since 2014,” Duluth News Tribune, Sept. 24, 2018

“Study: US killed 500 civilians” (“Pentagon may be grossly undercounting”), Mpls. StarTribune, June 3, 2018

“More Afghan Civilians are Victims of Targeted Attacks, UN Says,” New York Times, Feb. 16, 2018

“Afghan Pedophiles Get Pass from US Military, Report Says,” New York Times, Jan. 24, 2018

“‘Killed, Shovel in Hand’: Afghan Farmers are the Latest Victims of a Chaotic War,” New York Times, March 19, 2018

“American Airstrikes in Afghanistan Stir Debate Over Who Was Killed,” New York Times, Nov. 11, 2017

“US Airstrikes kill at least 13 civilians,” Mpls. StarTribune, Nov. 5, 2017

“Airstrike Kills at Least 25 at Street Market in Yemen,” New York Times, Nov. 2, 2017

“Civilian deaths from US-led strikes on ISIS surge under Trump administration” (“Airwars, a UK-based watchdog group, estimates the civilian death toll from coalition airstrikes at over 3,800.”), The Guardian, June 6, 2017

“11 Afghans Killed in US Airstrike,” New York Times, Aug. 31, 2017

“3 Children Among Dead in a Raid In Somalia,” New York Times, Aug. 26, 2017

“Afghans Say US Strike Hit Civilians,” New York Times, Aug. 12, 2017

“Civilian deaths a windfall for militants’ propaganda,” AP/Mpls. StarTribune, April 2, 2017

“US Airstrike ‘Probably Had a Role’ in Mosul Civilian Deaths, Commander Concedes,” New York Times, March 29, 2017

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-01/worse-obsolete-nato-creates-enemies

UNESCO’s turn: Washington & Tel Aviv ditch international body over ‘anti-Israel bias’

The US – followed by Israel – has left UNESCO, citing a “pro-Palestinian bias” allegedly persisting within the agency. Recently, Washington has been eager to ditch any institutions and deals which supposedly harm its interests.

The decision of the US took effect late Monday, closely followed by Tel Aviv, which kicked in on the first day of 2019.

The withdrawal of the US and Israel from UNESCO is hardly surprising, as both have had long-standing tensions with the agency. Washington’s move was made public in October 2017 when it announced the withdrawal, citing “concerns with mounting arrears at UNESCO, the need for fundamental reform in the organization, and continuing anti-Israel bias at UNESCO.”

A similar evaluation was produced by Israeli officials, who have repeatedly made accusations against the UN cultural body.

“It is corrupted and manipulated by Israel’s enemies, and continually singles out the only Jewish state for condemnation. We are not going to be a member of an organization that deliberately acts against us,” Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon told The Times of Israel on Monday.

Leaving any international organization that does not serve the US’ – and often Israel’s – interests appears to be a trend in Washington under the Trump administration.

In May 2018, President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the landmark Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement with Iran, citing “flaws” with the deal and opening the way to imposing sanctions. While the move alarmed European nations, which tried – and failed – to stop the US from leaving the agreement, the decision was enthusiastically hailed by top Israeli officials.

In June 2018, the US also pulled out of the United Nations Human Rights Council, with then-US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley branding it a “hypocritical and self-serving organization” that displays “unending hostility towards Israel.” While the UN human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, described the US’ withdrawal as “disappointing, if not really surprising, news,” the decision was, again, lauded by Tel Aviv.

https://www.rt.com/news/447872-us-israel-leave-unesco/

US committed to 'protection of Israel' despite Syria withdrawal, Pompeo assures Netanyahu

The US 'withdrawal' from Syria might not mean the end of all its Syria-related operations where Israel is concerned, as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reaffirmed Washington’s ongoing commitment to Israel’s security on Tuesday.

Speaking ahead of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Brazil, Pompeo said the US’ commitment to Israel was unchanged, despite the pullout of US troops from Syria announced by the Trump administration last month. Pompeo said that the US effort to “counter Iranian aggression” would continue along with the “protection of Israel” just as it had before.

The talks between Pompeo and Netanyahu in Brasilia are set to focus on the US withdrawal and how the US-Israeli cooperation will work going forward.

Before the meeting, Netanyahu said there was “a lot” to discuss including how to “intensify even further our intelligence and operations cooperation in Syria and elsewhere to block Iranian aggression in the Middle East.”

Earlier, Trump had reassured Israel that the US would “take great care” of Israel despite the withdrawal, citing the billions in foreign aid Washington gives to Israel every year.

Netanyahu said he was very appreciative of the “strong support and unequivocal support” from the US in its efforts at “self-defense” against Syria and Hezbollah.

He also praised the Israeil Defense Forces last week after they carried out strikes against alleged 'Iranian targets' on Christmas Day, endangering two civilian flights in the process.

Trump declared victory over ISIS in Syria and announced a US troop withdrawal in December — a move which angered many top military figures. On Monday, an anonymous senior Israeli source said that Trump had responded positively to a request from Netanyahu to stagger the US exit from Syria.

https://www.rt.com/usa/447892-pomeo-netanyahu-syria-israel-withdrawal/

Five Times Trump Proved He is No Different Than Obama in 2018

Just like Obama, Donald Trump continues to wage war on gun rights, curtsy to Saudi Arabia, and wage wars of aggression across the globe.

As we look back at 2018 — and all the insanity that unfolded during the last 365 days — Americans are slowly learning that there is very little difference between the two parties. The Free Thought Project has compiled a list proving this assertion by showing five times Trump betrayed his ostensible Republican principles and followed in his predecessor’s footsteps.

As Donald Trump flip-flops on a number of key issues that made the public believe he was the “outsider” candidate who would change the status quo in Washington, Americans are reminded that the current president now appears to have more in common with his Democratic predecessor, Barrack Obama, than he does with the candidate they thought they elected.

1. Gun bans

After the tragic shooting in Florida earlier this year, Trump took to the limelight to begin banning and controlling. Up first on the agenda was the bump fire stock.

It didn’t matter at all to the president that the bump fire stock wasn’t used in the Florida shooting—but he took to moving to ban it anyway.

Shortly after the shooting, notorious gun-grabber Senator Dianne Feinstein sat next to Donald Trump and likely salivated over his gun rights-hating remarks as he called for the removal of due process and to “take the guns first.” Now, police are doing just that.

2018 has been an unprecedented year for the erosion of gun rights.

In 2015, President Obama directed the ATF to pursue a possible ban on the M855 cartridge. To do so, they released a proposed agency rule which redefined M855 “green tip” ammunition as “armor piercing” to qualify it for federal prohibition under the 1968 Gun Control Act (GCA).

Luckily, Obama failed. However, Trump picked up where he left off and has gone even further as he has unilaterally implemented new federal gun control in the form of a bump stock ban.

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/donald-trump-2018-like-obama/

Federal employees' union sues Trump administration over shutdown

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) filed suit against the United States Government on Monday, claiming that their member employees should not be forced to work without pay during the current partial government shutdown.

The suit was filed in the United States Court of Federal Claims and alleges that the government is violating the Fair Labor Standards Act by not paying some government workers their earned overtime on their regularly scheduled payday.

According to the suit, "Employees who are classified as non-exempt from the overtime requirements… were not paid on their Scheduled Payday for work performed after the commencement of the shutdown in excess of the applicable overtime thresholds."

The suit seeks to recover "liquidated damages under the FLSA for themselves and all other FLSA non-exempt Excepted Employees in the amount of any overtime payments to which they were entitled on the Scheduled Payday."

As a result of the partial shutdown, over 400,000 "essential" federal government employees have been working without pay since December 21st of 2018, including border patrol agents.

In a statement provided to CNN, AFGE president J. David Cox said, "Our nation's heroes, AFGE members and their families deserve the decency of knowing when their next paycheck is coming and that they will be paid for their work… Our intent is to force the government and the administration to make all federal employees whole."

The government has partially shut down three times in the last decade. On each occasion, when the government reopened, Congress passed an appropriation ensuring that "essential" workers who continued to work during the shutdown received all their back pay and overtime. It is highly likely that Congress will do so again when the current shutdown ends, which will likely render the lawsuit moot.

Of course, the lawsuit cannot force the shutdown to end, or force the government to be able to predict to employees when Congress will break the current political logjam over funding for President Donald Trump's border wall.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/federal-employees-union-sues-trump-administration-over-shutdown

EU Capital ‘Hellhole’ Brussels Experiences Violent New Year’s Eve

US President Donald Trump described EU capital Brussels as a ‘hellhole’ during his presidential campaign back in 2016, and since a few years, it is indeed living up to that reputation. Whereas 2018 saw the replacement of a mayor fired over corruption, various riots, youth attacks against police, small-scale terrorist attacks and an upsurge in overall crime, it was New Year’s Eve celebrations in Molenbeek that really topped it off.

During an ordinary weekend night, the fire brigades in Brussels, which houses both the Nato and European Commission headquarters, are called upon around twenty times on average.

https://thegoldwater.com/news/43924-EU-Capital-Hellhole-Brussels-Experiences-Violent-New-Year-s-Eve-Video

‘He did nothing wrong’: Giuliani defends Assange’s decision to publish Hillary campaign emails

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange did nothing wrong by publishing Hillary Clinton’s campaign emails, just like the US mainstream media wasn’t punished for publishing the Pentagon Papers, ex-NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani said.

Giuliani made the comments on Sunday after he was asked on Fox & Friends whether he was “open to the idea” that the emails stolen from Hillary Clinton’s staffers “may have been accepted” by her rivals in the team of then-candidate Donald Trump.

In 2016, unidentified hackers gained access to the personal Gmail account of John Podesta, who led Clinton’s presidential campaign. WikiLeaks subsequently obtained a cache of emails extracted from the account and published it weeks before Election Day. This sparked widespread outrage within the Democratic Party.

WikiLeaks has never revealed the source of the hacked emails, saying only that it was not Russia and it was “not a state party.”

Giuliani, who is Trump’s attorney and long-time friend, acknowledged that the hack itself was a crime and those responsible for it should “go to jail.” Nevertheless, he defended Assange’s decision to publish the emails.

“No press person or person disseminating that for the purpose of informing did anything wrong.”

The former mayor of New York also pointed out that the US mainstream media chose to publish the Pentagon Papers – classified documents on the Vietnam War which were leaked to the press – and information on the abuse of detainees by US troops in Abu Ghraib, Iraq in the 2000s.

“The Pentagon Papers were stolen property, weren’t they? They were stolen from the Pentagon and given to the New York Times and the Washington Post,” Giuliani stated on Fox & Friends. “Nobody went to jail at the New York Times and the Washington Post.”

Once media outlets obtain leaked information, they “can publish it for the purpose of informing people,” and the same applies to Assange, he said.

You can’t put Assange in a different position. We may not like what he communicates, but he was a media facility. He was putting that information out. Every newspaper [and] station grabbed it and published it.

Over the years, WikiLeaks, under Assange’s leadership, published several high-profile leaks of classified materials, including internal documents relating to the US war in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as American diplomatic cables. He was granted political asylum by Ecuador and since 2012 has been living the South American nation’s embassy in London.

In 2010, Sweden issued an international arrest warrant for Assange over allegations of sexual assault and rape. He denied the allegations and they were later dropped.

Assange is still wanted in Britain for skipping bail. He refuses to leave the Ecuadorian Embassy out of fear of being extradited to the US and prosecuted there for revealing government secrets.

https://www.rt.com/news/447877-rudy-giuliani-assange-media/

CNN’s Randi Kaye Does Champagne Bong On Air For New Year’s Eve

CNN reporter Randi Kaye kicked off New Year’s Eve by drinking champagne through a bong made out of a snorkel.

Last year, Kaye was assigned to Denver, Colorado during CNN’s New Year’s Eve broadcast and reported live from a party bus full of pot-smokers. At one point, Kaye joked that she brought a gas mask to protect herself from a “contact high,” but lamented the fact that her fellow bus-riders attached a bong to the gas mask.

Kaye received a slightly classier assignment for the end of 2018 and is broadcasting live from a yacht in St. Bart’s.

Addressing last year’s controversy over her cannabis-centric New Year’s Eve, Kaye explained that instead of a gas mask bong she now has a champagne bong made from a scuba snorkel.

The champagne bong was first demonstrated by a crew member on the yacht, but Kaye soon participated in the fun herself.

“Alright, let’s do it!” Kaye said. “Just a little bit.”

“This is not a good idea,” Andy Cohen said from New York City.

A crew member poured a small amount of champagne down the bong for Kaye, but she failed to drink it all.

During the opening of CNN’s live New Year’s Eve broadcast, they complained about the negative coverage of Kaye’s stunts last year — specifically the fact that she ended up on The Drudge Report.

https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/31/cnn-randi-kaye-champagne-bong-new-years-eve/

Mark Zuckerberg’s 2019 Resolution: More Political Censorship on Facebook

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised to better prevent “election interference” and “the spread of hate speech” — neglecting to define either term — in a blog posted on his company’s platform.

Zuckerberg repeated his previous calls to suppress “sensationalism and misinformation” and to “remove content related to terrorism,” terms he did not define. He also committed to promoting “news from trusted sources,” which he did not list.

“We’ve partnered with fact-checkers in countries around the world to identify misinformation and reduce its distribution,” wrote Zuckerberg. He did not list the “fact-checkers” Facebook partnered with or explain the methodology behind their selections.

Zuckerberg opted against making any mention of free speech, expression, or the First Amendment in his post.

A set of Facebook’s internal guidelines for political censorship — 1,400 pages in length — was leaked this week.

Breitbart News reported:

Sara Su, a senior engineer on the News Feed, commented on the process stating: “It’s not our place to correct people’s speech, but we do want to enforce our community standards on our platform. When you’re in our community, we want to make sure that we’re balancing freedom of expression and safety.” Monika Bickert, Facebook’s head of global policy management, stated that Facebook aimed to “prevent harm” and believed that they had been successful in that endeavor so far.

Zuckerberg concluded, “I’m proud of the progress we’ve made.”

While testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee in September, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said her company would present “alternative facts” to combat what she described as “misinformation” spread on her company’s digital platform.

Read the entire post below:

https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2019/01/01/mark-zuckerbergs-2019-resolution-more-political-censorship-on-facebook/

Thousands March in Hong Kong Against Chinese Political Repression

New Year’s Day brought thousands of demonstrators to the streets of Hong Kong to denounce China’s oppressive policies and to demand respect for human rights and the rule of law.

“Looking back at the year that passed, it was a very bad year,” said protest organizer Jimmy Sham. “The rule of law in Hong Kong is falling backward.”

Estimates for the size of the demonstration ranged from 3,200 to 5,500 people. Even the higher estimate would be only half the size of last year’s annual demonstration.

Reuters noted that number included about a hundred independence activists who called for Hong Kong to declare independence from China, which regards such talk as sedition and demands increasingly harsh punishment for “separatists.” Some of them waved Tibetan and Taiwanese flags to show their solidarity for other targets of Chinese repression.

“There will be continuous suppression on the Hong Kong independence movement, but the movement will grow stronger and stronger,” independence activist Baggio Leung predicted.

Baggio Leung was one of the young independence-minded legislators who was banned from his elected office in 2016 for inserting gestures of defiance toward China in their oath of office. Democracy activists saw China’s intervention to keep Leung out of his seat as a fatal blow to Hong Kong’s judicial independence.

Leung, now a spokesman for a Hong Kong independence group, warned in October that China is taking the island “backward a hundred years” to the xenophobia of the Boxer Rebellion through actions such as evicting Financial Times editor Victor Mallet.

“Beijing will never distribute power. It will not let you enjoy a real democratic system. Without sovereignty, everything is just empty talk, including a democratic system,” Leung said.

On Tuesday, Leung and some other independence activists reported acts of harassment, including the theft of demonstration supplies from a storage room and a menacing group of masked men stalking student leaders. The activists blamed legal and extralegal harassment for the lower turnout of this year’s demonstration, along with a sense of fatalism about Chinese dominance overcoming Hong Kongers.

Demonstrators on Tuesday lamented Mallet’s expulsion, the banning of the pro-independence Hong Kong National Party, draconian new national security legislation, and recent scuttling of a corruption investigation into a prominent pro-China politician as signs of growing political repression on the island. They were also apprehensive about possible jail sentences for leaders from the huge protests in 2014.

“We have experienced a lot in 2018 – society, politics and people’s livelihood have all regressed. I can’t see hope in 2019,” said protester Kwan Chun-pong.

“I’m afraid the pressure will continue. We’re going to face a few difficult years, but we must stand firm,” predicted retired professor and human rights activist Joseph Cheng, who noted that at least Hongkongers are still allowed to protest, unlike the people of mainland China.

Those protest rights were sorely tested by an edict from Hong Kong officials that pro-independence banners could not be displayed outside government offices, a demand that organizers from the Civil Human Rights Front described as “unprecedented” and refused to obey.

Organizer Jimmy Sham said the Civil Human Rights Front does not support independence but respects the right of individuals to advocate the position. He denounced the ban on independence banners as a human rights violation with little justification under Hong Kong law.

“I cannot see why our freedoms are limited once we step in the gateway of the forecourt. Are the streets we march along not under the reign of the government?” he asked.

According to the South China Morning Post, the small contingent of independence activists broke away from the main protest march before it reached the government buildings where independence banners were banned. A few stalwarts did make a point of pushing past security guards and marching through the government square with a placard reading, “Only with two countries will there be two systems.”

The SCMP reported small groups of pro-Beijing marchers also took to the streets and “were involved in minor confrontations with their rivals in the larger rally.”

https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2019/01/01/thousands-march-hong-kong-chinese-political-repression/

Brazil’s new President imposes zero-tolerance on crime and orders police and military “to shoot to kill”

After record numbers of murders and robberies in Brazil, the country has stepped up the fight against criminal gangs.

The police force shall shoot to kill, and unpunished citizens will be allowed to carry weapons, Samhällsnytt reports.

The newly elected president, Jair Bolsonaro, has promised not to hold back on improving citizens’ security. Among other things, police officers and military personnel who shoot and kill armed criminals will not be punished.

There will also be an end to reduced penalties, and the age of criminal responsibility will be lowered, first to 17 years and later to 16 years.

On top of that Bolsonaro has promised to ease legal barriers for unpunished citizens who want to buy weapons to protect themselves and their families.

As well, about 120 snipers from the military will strengthen the police force in Rio de Janeiro. These skilled soldiers are said to be able to kill a person from as far away as 600 meters. The order will be to immediately eliminate, kill, armed criminals.

“Criminals who carry weapons do not care about the lives of others, they are ready to eliminate anyone crossing their path. It is a big problem, not only in Rio de Janeiro, but across the country”, says Rio de Janeiro’s new Governor Wilson Witzel.

With 55 percent of the votes, Bolsonaro was elected president in October. In connection with the election, he stated that police officers who shoot criminals dead will be protected from legal action. The President also said that police officers who shoot criminals should be awarded medals.

The harsh rhetoric and the result in the form of dead criminals in the streets is welcomed by the citizens.

https://voiceofeurope.com/2019/01/brazils-new-president-imposes-zero-tolerance-on-crime-and-orders-police-and-military-to-shoot-to-kill/

Black Lawmakers’ Charity Didn’t Give Out A Single Scholarship, Top Pols Hide Financials

The caucus of black New York state lawmakers runs a charity whose stated mission is to empower “African American and Latino youth through education and leadership initiatives” by “providing opportunity to higher education” — but it hasn’t given a single scholarship to needy youth in two years, according to a New York Post investigation.

The group collects money from companies like AT&T, the Real Estate Board of New York, Time Warner Cable and CableVision, telling them in promotional materials that they are “changing lives, one scholarship at a time.”

The group — called the Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators, Inc. — instead spent $500,000 in the 2015 – 2016 fiscal year on items like food, limousines and rap music, the Post found.

The politicians refused to divulge the charity’s 2017 tax filing to the Post despite federal requirements that charities do so upon request.

Its main activity is holding and selling tickets to an elaborate party each year intended to raise money for its stated mission of providing scholarships for youth. But year after year, essentially all the money simply seems to go to festivities.

Its chairman, Assemblywoman Latrice Walker of Brooklyn, claimed to have no knowledge of the charity’s failure to fulfill its mission. She told the Post through a spokesman that she “does not have any knowledge of the matter.” Walker is running to be the public advocate for New York City, its second-highest elected position and one tasked with investigating complaints.

Walker did not return The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment, which included a request that she share the charity’s latest tax filing.

The charity’s treasurer, Assemblyman Gary Pretlow of Westchester, expressed no knowledge of the charity’s activities.

“I just sign the checks they give me,” he said.

State. Sen. Leroy Comrie of Queens, the group’s number two, refused to come out when Post reporter Isabel Vincent stopped by his office. All of the politicians mentioned are Democrats.

“The real purpose (of the charity) is to bring people to get over their apathy and out to Albany and get motivated,” the charity’s former chairman, Assemblyman Nick Perry of Brooklyn, previously said.

There has been no money used for scholarships in the past two years, the Post reported, citing sources. That’s even after the Albany Times-Union called out the charity in January 2017 for meager spending in prior years.

The charity gave $35,745 of its $564,677 in revenue to scholarships in the 2014 to 2015 fiscal year, according to the Post. That year, it spent $85,000 on a concert with Eric Benet and Regina Belle, and $157,000 on food, according to the Times-Union’s analysis of its tax filings.

The group said that year it planned to double the number of scholarships it gave, but it didn’t happen.

Its 2017 annual event featured the rap artist Big Daddy Kane.

https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/31/black-lawmakers-charity-didnt-give-out-a-single-scholarship-top-pols-hide-financials/