Unfair Trial For Guilty Boston Marathon Bomber

For the past month, the U.S. government has been working assiduously to inflame the rage and hatred of the jury in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving Boston Marathon bomber.

The defense in the trial of has conceded the guilt of the now-21-year old. (He was 19 at the time of the bombing.) So there was no need for the month-long display of blood and gore and survivors tears presented as “evidence” to the jury. No one is contesting the bombing or that Dzhokhar planted a bomb.

The sole purpose of the grisly “evidence” is to convince the jurors to impose a death sentence on Tsarnaev. (He is being charged with 30 crimes by the Federal government, 17 of which carry a “possible” death sentence.)

The Federal Judge overseeing the case has been an eager accomplice to the prosecution. (That is the case in most criminal trials in the U.S.)

It is the fervent wish of Federal Judge George A. O’Toole, Jr. to fry Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He has made this abundantly clear by his actions and rulings through the prosecution and trial. [1]

He doesn’t even have the decency to feign neutrality until the conviction, when he is going to formally impose the death penalty, as preordained by U.S. government decision. (The individual who personally ordered the drive for the death penalty for Tsarnaev, Eric Holder, Jr., the U.S. Attorney General, claims, preposterously, to oppose the death penalty. See “As Eric Holder Relentlessly Drives Towards Execution of Tsarnaev, He Proclaims Opposition to the Death Penalty,” Feb. 23. Holder had the gall to give a speech in February proclaiming his putative longstanding opposition to the death penalty, while in that same month he gave his prosecutors the green light to seek the death penalty in yet another case, that of a gang leader being tried in Federal court in New Jersey.)

So all the culpability and odium for the bombing is being heaped on a hapless 21-year-old (who was nineteen at the time of the bombing) while the role of the sinister Deep State actors in the background is not merely kept hidden, but these secret police murderers are hailed as heroes who are “protecting us.”

What the FBI hasn't answered at the trial is where the bombs were made. Which means they also cannot say for sure who made the bombs.

Here's some things we DO know:

-The Russian secret police warned the FBIabout the Tsarnaev brothers. The FBI had two stories in reply to this- the info was too “vague” to do anything about, or they FSB never warned them. Take your pick which to believe. (If you believe either, you're a credulous fool.)

-The FBI tried to recruit the elder Tsarnaev brother as an informer. (They deny it.)

-The FBI, after two days of interrogation, murdered an acquaintance of the Tsarnaev's, Ibragim Todashev. Then they deported several of his friends forthwith.

-Even though he was unarmed when he was cornered hiding in a small boat on a homeowner's property, the police tried to kill Dzhokhar, shooting him several times as he lay inside the boat. They had already killed his elder brother.

Most Americans think a “fair” trial means a verdict is produced that they agree with. Of course that is a brain-dead understanding of judicial fairness.

1] For more details see “Legal Railroad on Track For Surviving Boston Marathon Bomber,” February 4.

Why Has the U.S. Abandoned Its Citizens in Yemen?

Because they’re of Yemeni extraction. Pure and simple.

And ironic, given that the U.S. president is “black.” Apparently blacks can be bigots too.

Also there’s apparently a presumption on the part of the U.S. secret police and Imperialist managers that any American in Yemen must be up to no good. (That’s the same logic that got hundreds of men who happened to be in Afghanistan when the U.S. attacked, branded as “terrorists” when bounty hunters and the cynical Pakistani government sold them to the U.S. for torture and shipment to Guantanamo Bay. Out of about 800 unfortunates consigned to the tender mercies of the U.S. military and CIA at that military gulag, there are about 50 whom the U.S. still insists are “terrorists.” Some really were members of Al-Qaeda or the Taliban.) 

Numerous other nations have been evacuating not only their own citizens from Yemen, but those of other nations too. Not the U.S. 

China saved 600 of its own citizens plus the citizens of numerous other countries. Russia evacuated civilians. India is flying jetliners into Sana’a international airport and flying out overloaded planeloads of Indian and other civilians. That civilian airport was one of the first targets the Saudi savages bombed, according to the BBC. (A BBC correspondent also described bombed-out hangers in an April 9^th broadcast.)

Even Somalia has managed to send a ship to evacuate its nationals. Somalia is barely  a nation anymore.

But the Mighty U.S. of A., with the world’s most powerful military and major bases all around Yemen in places like Bahrain, is pretending to be helpless to lift a finger to help its own citizens leave the besieged country. 

The U.S. split from its embassy a few weeks ago. After that, U.S. “special forces” cut and ran from their Yemeni base, leaving behind half a billion dollars worth of military gear. (Wonder whose hands all that is going to fall into.)

But it’s not one-hundred-percent correct to say that the U.S. government has provided no help at all to Americans in Yemen. It offered to pass along their pleas for help to their families by posting messages on the State Department website.

Well, thank YOU, “Uncle Sam”! You really go the extra mile to “protect Americans.”

But the U.S. has some company in abandoning its citizens. “Great” Britain has done the same. This is the ultimate U.S.-stooge country that almost always marches loyally behind the U.S. in its footsteps. [1]

Apparently the Obama regime and the secret police state he backs to the hilt assume that if an American is ethnically Arab, or believes in Islam, they’re a “terrorist,” especially if they travel to Muslim lands.

And here’s a kicker. An American, who Obama caused to be imprisoned in Yemen since 2010 as a “terrorist suspect” in U.S. secret police jargon, fears he’s about to die in jail there. Sharif Mobley is a Muslim convert with a wife and three children in America. And guess what else?

He’s a black American.

Obama-irony squared!

The behavior of Obama’s State Department makes clear that the U.S. government wants Sharif to die in Yemen. If Mobley comes back alive, he will be talking about what the Obama regime did to him for the past five years. [2]

The same logic led Obama to order the murder of Anwar al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son two weeks after killing the father. The son was obviously going to be a source of bad publicity for years to come for the assassination of his Dad. The drone strike that blew away the teen (he was decapitated and his body blown to pieces) in a Yemeni cafe also killed his cousins as "collateral damage." Or maybe that was intended too.) 

So don’t be surprised if a Saudi airstrike destroys the prison Mobley is locked up in.

And look forward to smears trashing Mobley popping up in U.S. media from unnamed government “sources” after Mobley is dead. Because that’s how the U.S. rulers roll.

Hey, thanks for “protecting us,” Obama!

 Obama Wants This Man Dead

There’s a good lesson here for the chumps who feel it’s their duty to be “patriotic.” With a nation like the U.S., loyalty is a one-way street. You owe the rulers. You owe them your money. You owe them your blood. You might even owe them your life. But they owe you NOTHING. In fact, they are constantly scheming to take away Social Security from you, and public education now too. (Hedge fund bosses, insatiably greedy, are unsatisfied with their billions and want more. Their “charter school movement” is a Trojan Horse to steal the billions spend on primary education in America.)

Iran, the scapegoat for the Houthi uprising, is calling for a ceasefire in Yemen and a halt to the U.S.-backed Saudi aerial blitzkrieg. 

It’s a Big Lie that the Houthis are Iranian puppets. The Iranian support is rhetorical. The Houthis rebelled because of years of venal misrule by a faux government. Here’s an irony: the real behind-the-curtain player in Yemen is former dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh. Forced out of power after 30 years and replaced by his vice president, Hadi, he controls military bases and forces in Yemen and is backing the Houthi rebellion in an attempt to put himself back in the presidential palace. The Saudis and their American allies are trying to put Hadi back on the pedestal of power. But Yemen doesn’t really have a government anymore. Humpty-Dumpty cannot be put back together again by U.S.-supplied bombs dropped from U.S.-supplied planes on U.S.-identified targets flown by Saudi pilots.)

1] As I said, almost always. Britain just signed up to China’s new Asian Development Bank, much to U.S. chagrin. This was motivated by economics. British upper-level capitalists have all kinds of deals in China, and want more. Furthermore, London is a global financial center, and thus Britain wants to draw China in to its financial and property markets. And down the road, as the Chinese currency becomes an international currency, London will want a piece of that currency business, transactions both commercial and speculative.

Britain’s joining the new Bank set off a stampede of other U.S. allies signing up also, European countries and even South Korea, Australia, and Taiwan. (Taiwan!) Only Japan, that nation of extremely obedient people, obeyed U.S. orders and stayed away from China’s party.

2] See “AMERICAN MAN IMPRISONED IN YEMEN CALLS HOME; FEARS FOR LIFE,” the intercept, April 1, 2015.

More on Al-Shabab Slaughter at Kenyan College: Ugandan School Now Under Threat

Regarding the attack on Garissa University College in Garissa, which is 90 miles from the Kenyan-Somali border; Two people found hiding on campus were arrested as suspected terrorists. That would bring the number of terrorists in the attack to six. One was an Tanzanian who isn't a student and couldn't explain what he was doing there. (Al-Shabab is lying and claiming that all their terrorists either escaped or were killed- “martyred,” as they like to say.) The death toll in the terrorist rampage is 147 but could go higher. (Some reports are saying 148.)

A surviving student says an attacker spoke by phone in Swahili (not a language spoken in Somalia) to a controller and asked what to do with some captives. Then he murdered them. Swahili is spoken in parts of Kenya and Tanzania.

Al-Shabab is demanding as a condition of ending their terrorism in Kenya that it vacate “Muslim lands.” “Muslim lands” in their minds includes part of Kenya.(A BBC reporter says that a referendum in the Kenyan region where the college that was just ravaged is located, which was held to allow the residents there to decide whether to join Somalia or remain part of Kenya, was canceled when it went the wrong way from the Kenyan government's point of view.)

Since 2011, when Kenya sent troops into Somalia to back the U.S. efforts there against Al-Shabab, over 100 terrorist attacks have been launched in Kenya by Al-Shabab.

Uganda announced that a school there is under threat of terrorist attack. Uganda also has troops in Somalia.

Regarding the high number of dead and wounded inflicted by only a half dozen terrorists armed with AK-47 assault rifles, the New York Times slipped this intriguing sentence into the 18th paragraph of a 25 paragraph story. The last sentence of that paragraph reads, “It was unclear whether any bystanders had been killed by the security forces.” The NY Times frequently plays coy like that, with cryptic, opaque statements left dangling without elaboration. [1]
Another thing they like to do is bury significant information in the third to last paragraphs of stories, where the fewest number of people will see it. (Some people skip to the end of articles, the Times editors correctly figure.) In this story, the 23rd of 25 paragraphs mentions that Osama bin Laden rejected Al-Shabab's bid to join Al-Qaeda. (It got in a year after his assassination by a Navy SEAL death squad.) Maybe they're afraid someone might think bin Laden wasn't so bad?

Bin Laden thought the Shababoids were too bloodthirsty, and he didn't like killing Muslims, a problem he also had with Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

There is an amusing irony in a Shabab document found in Mali by the Associated Press. The Shababoids justify their killings of Muslims using the Israeli “human shields” argument. As Israel claims it kills Palestinian civilians because Hamas “terrorists” are using them as “human shields,” Shabab wrote that “all Muslims must stay far away from the enemy and their installations so as not to become human shields for them,” because there is “no excuse for those who live or mingle with the enemies.”

Yeah, and it serves those Palestinians right too for voting for Hamas.

The Kenyan college that suffered the horrendous attack and mass slaughter is now closed. So the educations of thousands of people has been disrupted, probably permanently in some cases. Boko Haram (“Western education is forbidden,” the Nigerian Islamofascist terrorist group) will probably send a shout-out to Al-Shabab for a job well done.

The Islamofascists keep proving they are enemies of civilization and humanity. They consistently violently attack and destroy education, art, culture, world heritage sites, music, and every form of personal expression and freedom, such as clothing and personal grooming, and exalt barbarism, sadism, and sexual slavery. It is eminently reasonable to try to annihilate these vicious nihilists. The only caveat is that it should be done in ways that do not harm the innocent (and pay compensation and sincere apologies to innocent victims- that would go a long way towards limiting the counterproductive effects caused by such “collateral damage”) and with great discrimination and intelligence. I mean intelligence in the sense of a sophisticated understanding and approach to the task at hand. Of course, this won't happen, since all the regimes arrayed against the Islamofascists are venal, all the Arab ones and also the U.S., Israel, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. (The U.S. of course being an arch-enemy of humanity itself, Israel now a quasi-fascist apartheid state, and the latter three currently ruled by corrupt, dishonest, reactionary regimes headed by loathsome leaders.) On the one side, cruel and callous power entities. On the other, maniacal sadists and killers hypnotized by their own fanatical and remorseless ideology. So it's not a case of Good vs. Evil. It's Evil vs. Unbelievably Awful Evil. Which puts us in the position of rooting unenthusiastically for Evil, at best.

The locals in the region where the school is located are complaining that warnings were ignored and the Kenyan government hadn't taken protective steps. But compared to the Westgate Mall fiasco, in which a handful of terrorists were holed up in the mall in Nairobi, Kenya, for days, and returning shopkeepers discovered that the Kenyan troops had systematically looted the place, the performance of Kenyan “security forces” in the college rampage was a big improvement. (No luxury goods to loot at the college.) The terrorists were dispatched much more quickly this time, even though it was claimed the terrorists were posted as snipers.

One reason the mall siege lasted so long was so the Army could have time to thoroughly clean out the stores they looted. This fact is never mentioned by Western media. But that's how Western media rolls. That's why I call it propaganda, not journalism. It deliberately distorts reality and is dishonest in the service of its hidden political and ideological goals.

Other examples of key facts erased from memory are what precipitated the Iranian “hostage crisis.” It was the U.S. admitting the fugitive Shah into the country. Omitting that fact is like discussing the outbreak of World War I without mentioning the shooting of Archduke Ferdinand. Or the fate of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who worked to save Jews from Nazis in Hungary during World War II, who was illegally arrested and imprisoned by the Soviets. No mention is ever made of the fate of his superior, the man who authorized his activities. His role in saving Jews can never be mentioned, and he too is whited out of the story. His name was Count Folke Bernadotte. Right after World War II, he was serving as UN High Commissioner in Palestine. There he was murdered by the Jewish terrorist organization the Stern Gang (LEHI), headed by one Yitzhak Shamir, later a prime minister of Israel. I needn't explain why in the oft-repeated tale of the “righteous” Wallenberg and his sad fate, you never hear about Bernadotte. Wallenberg outlived his superior by many years, but in Soviet imprisonment, one of the innumerable crimes of the Bolsheviks.

The Bolsheviks, by the way, were no friends of actual communists and Marxists, who they vigorously wiped out under Lenin and Stalin. Thus did the Bolsheviks actually serve capitalism in the long run. No wonder all those former “communists” of eastern Europe now sit comfortably in the European Parliament and in positions of power in their home countries as newly -minted reactionary capitalists. Once an authoritarian oppressor, always an authoritarian oppressor, I suppose.

1] “Somali Militants Kill 147 at Kenyan University,” New York Times, April 2, 2015.

Somali Islamofascists Slaughter Students in Kenya

Al-Shabab, the Somali Islamofascist terrorist mob, is boasting about its mass murderous attack on a Kenyan university. The death toll has been revised upwards- from 2 to 147. Others are missing. Many were wounded.

The terror raid started with a mad killing spree according to survivors. Some Al-Shabab mouthpiece put out the propaganda that they separated Muslims from Christians and spared the Muslims. That certainly wasn't true initially. So Al-Shabab lied. What a surprise.

Al-Shabab offered two justifications for their latest atrocity. First, that they are at war with Kenya (okay, so you just committed a war crime, guys), and that this region of Kenya belongs to Somalia. (The majority of the region are Kenyan citizens of Somali extraction.) So you just murdered a slew of fellow Somalis, people you think you have the right to rule.

Initially there were said to be 10 or so attackers. After a day, when the Kenyan forces reestablished control, the number was put at 4. I'm skeptical that so few could kill so many, (plus the wounded), especially as the students would be fleeing. BBC had reported that one terrorist who ran off early was captured. Haven't heard another word about that.

A Kenyan former security officer said they had intel 3 months ago about a possible attack on the college. A government spokesperson said they had word of LOTS of targets.

Still, there were only two guards on site (both murdered), but an army base is nearby.

Lefties and pacifists have a simple solution: just negotiate with these bloodthirsty lunatics. Talk to them! Let’s understand each other.

Well I for one understand these deranged murderers quite well. And they don’t have the slightest interest in understanding anyone else.

But to all the handwringers who advocate “negotiating,” I invite you to go to Somalia and negotiate with Al-Shabab. Go to Afghanistan and “talk” to the Taliban. Go to Nigeria and talk Boko Haram into freeing the schoolgirls it kidnapped and dragooned into sexual slavery. Test your theory.

Deranged Netanyahu Calls Iran Surrender a “Threat to Israel’s Existence”

And it “legitimizes” Iran’s nuclear program, he thunders. In other words, it’s illegitimate for Iran to have ANY nuclear power reactors, produce ANY isotopes for me, medical treatments, to enrich ANY uranium to even 3.67% (you need 95% enrichment for weapons’ use).

Netanyahu decreed that any deal must force Iran to stop intervening in other countries in the region. A truly amazing demand.  And an ironic one, in light of the adamant U.S. refusal of Iran’s repeated requests to discuss all issues. The U.S. has always insisted on dealing with the nuclear issue in total isolation to all else.

Oh yes, Netanyahu also demands total dismantlement of all Iranian nuclear projects and programs.  Well of course!

And get this; Netanyahu is demanding that any deal must force Iran to recognize Israel (as a Jewish state, of course). 

Rest assured, if Iran were to cravenly knuckle under to all these ridiculous demands from Israel (which isn’t even a party to the negotiations) Netanyahu would add NEW demands, just as he has done every time the Palestinians have surrendered to his “conditions” for “peace talks.” 

Of course, the Western media always gives prominence to Israeli and Zionist operatives on any topic they want to weigh in on. For example, the BBC hauled Dore Gold on (a fanatical Israeli imperialist and adviser to Netanyahu until last December) to attack the nuclear deal. “Connect the dots,” he intoned ominously, and then went through a litany of Iranian activities in the region, concluding that Iran seeks regional “dominance” (which would supplant Israel as regional hegemon, he neglected to mention- and the nice BBC lady didn’t point that out) and is “imperialist.” (Look who’s talking.) 

What that has to do with a nuclear power reactor that will be crippled so it can’t produce plutonium, or to small amounts of barely-enriched uranium that will be under constant foreign surveillance, Dore didn’t say, and wasn’t asked. [1]

What is clear from his screed is that Israel’s real motive and goal is to crush Iran, as it had the U.S. do to Iraq, and the nuclear weapons bogeyman is just a scare tactic to drive towards that goal. Speaking of wrecking Iraq, that worked out real well, didn’t it? It greatly increased the Iranian influence that Gold and his ilk wax hysterical about. It opened the door for even more virulent Islamofascism, first in the form of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, and now the even more evil “Islamic State.”

But maybe the Israelis are happy with this state of affairs. They see the U.S. dragged ever-deeper into military involvement in the region, fighting Israel’s enemies. The Saudis and the other Arabian peninsula oiligarchies lined up behind the Saudis form tighter relations with Israel. And Netanyahu used the “turmoil” in the region as an excuse why there can be no Palestinian state “at this time,” in a post-Israeli election interview on U.S. television. (Pop Quiz: When is it the “right time” for a Palestinian state? Answer: No time.

Extremists thrive on crises. Sometimes they even create them in order to take advantage of the resulting fear and chaos and use them as excuses to put in motion their evil plans. Examples are the use of three kidnapped and killed Israeli teens to justify a mass roundup and rampage on the West Bank, precipitating the desired response of Hamas rocket fire (thus justifying the latest “lawn mowing” of Gaza by Israel- that is, mass destruction and slaughter); the Reichstag fire; and the controlled demolitions of three buildings in lower Manhattan on September 11, 2001, to justify invading Iraq and instituting a more repressive police state in the U.S.

Israel’s U.S. puppets and fellow travelers wasted no time popping up behind Netanyahu. For example, within hours of the announcement of the surrender terms, a Republican Senator, Ron Johnson, popped up on U.S. government propaganda radio network NPR to rant that it was a “bad deal.” This is insane. (See my previous essay, below, to see just how completely detached from reality these denunciations are.)

And while Iranians were deliriously dancing in the streets, falsely believing that their suffering was about to end (untrue- see the following essay), it was reported that Iranian “hard liners” complained sourly that the deal gave away too much for too little. (Objectively, they’re right.) The Iranian Foreign Minister, Zarif, dishonestly put a positive spin on it, claiming to have saved Iranian “pride” because no facilities will be shut down completely. He didn’t mention the huge amount Iran was forced to surrender. (See details in previous essay below.) He also falsely claimed that “all sanction” will be lifted. (See below.) In fact, the U.S. will continue sanctions it imposed using “terrorism,” “ballistic missiles,” and “human rights abuses” as alibis. And UN sanctions won’t be lifted until not only has Iran gutted its nuclear programs and torn out the core of the Arak reactor and rebuilt it to the winning side’s specifications, Iran also has to answer all past questions the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) deems Iran hasn’t satisfactorily answered. But some of those “questions” are based on fabricated documents fed to the IAEA by Israeli (and U.S.) “intelligence.” Iran already answered those questions- the documents are forgeries. Now Iran will be forced to pretend the forgeries are genuine, and falsely plead guilty to weapons activity, if it wants UN sanctions lifted! 

And if and when Iran surrenders to THAT outrageous demand, you can bet that Netanyahu and his eager stooges will be braying that “You see? We TOLD you Iran can’t be trusted! This is a bad deal!” 

And John McCain can treat us to another chorus of his song, “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb Iran.”

Well, what do you expect from an unreconstructed war criminal?

In summary, Netanyahu is perhaps the world’s most dishonest politician. It is simply deranged to say that this deal, which puts Iran in a straitjacket for 25 years and disembowels its nuclear program, is a “threat to Israel’s existence.” It is a telling proof of the intellectual and ethical bankruptcy, and of the moral cowardice, of the U.S. media and political establishments that they treat Netanyahu’s insane propaganda as serious and legitimate. Worse, many in those establishments bellow their agreement with this nonsense.

The unreasonableness of the world’s superpower creates insoluble problems and makes life worse for everybody. The sad truth is that, as loathsome as the Chinese ruling class is, it is far more rational than the U.S. one, and amazingly there may actually be global benefits when China supplants the U.S. as the global dominator. Which, if the U.S. keeps up its idiotic behavior, is likely to happen. They just drove Russia into China’s arms by creating a crisis in Ukraine, instead of enlisting Russia in a coalition to contain China. Smart. That’s the American elite: drunk on power as usual.

1] BBC “World Service,” April 3, 2015.

                                                              McCain croons to the yahoos. Oh you droll militarist, you!

Iran Caves In

Iran has said “uncle.” After years of brutal economic sanctions, covert sabotage of its nuclear facilities and equipment, murder of its scientists, and God knows what else, Iran has been forced to knuckle under and rip the guts out of its nuclear enrichment and research programs.

Here’s the first sentence of the Guardian’s (UK) report on the deal:

“Iran has promised to make drastic cuts to its nuclear programme in return for the gradual lifting of sanctions as part of a historic breakthrough in Lausanne that could end a 13-year nuclear standoff.” (My emphasis.) [1]

And what does Iran have to do to get a “gradual lifting” of the economic strangulation?

It has to reduce the number of its centrifuges from about 19,000 to about 6,000. And it can only use about 5,000 of those. Oh, and it can only keep its most primitive centrifuges, the first-generation ones. This will last for ten years.

It has to stop enriching uranium at Fordow.

It has to rip out the completed Arak nuclear reactor and rebuild it so it cannot product weapons-grade plutonium. The deal demands that the reactor core be “ destroyed or removed from the country.”

 (It’s going to have to do all this at its own expense too, obviously.)

Iran can’t enrich uranium over 3.67 percent for at least 15 years, even though the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty permits enrichment to 20%.

Iran has to virtually eliminate its stockpile of about 10,000 kg of low-enriched
uranium (LEU), reducing it to just 300 kg of 3.67 percent LEU for 15 years. (Bomb-grade uranium must be enriched to over 90%.)

Below are verbatim quotes from the deal document:

-Iran will convert its facility at Fordow so that it is no longer used to enrich uranium
-Iran has agreed to not enrich uranium at its Fordow facility for at least 15 years.
-Iran has agreed to convert its Fordow facility so that it is used for peaceful purposes only– into a nuclear, physics, technology, research center.
-Iran has agreed to not conduct research and development associated with uranium
enrichment at Fordow for 15 years.
-Iran will not have any fissile material at Fordow for 15 years.

There’s more- a LOT more. For example:

-Inspectors will have access to uranium mines and continuous surveillance at uranium
mills, where Iran produces yellowcake, for 25 years.
-Inspectors will have continuous surveillance of Iran’s centrifuge rotors and bellows
production and storage facilities for 20 years. Iran’s centrifuge manufacturing base will
be frozen and under continuous surveillance.

And of course the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency, an outfit controlled by the U.S. and infiltrated by Israeli intelligence) will have inspectors and cameras everywhere for “continuous monitoring” of all the conditions. I’m surprised they didn’t demand that all Iran’s nuclear physicists wear electronic monitoring ankle bracelets to track their whereabouts.

All kinds of additional onerous conditions, well beyond Iran’s treaty obligations, are to be imposed, such as:

-Iran has agreed to implement the Additional Protocol of the IAEA, providing the IAEA
much greater access and information regarding Iran’s nuclear program, including both
declared and undeclared facilities.
-Iran will ship all of its spent fuel from the reactor out of the country for the reactor’s
lifetime.
-Iran has committed indefinitely to not conduct reprocessing or reprocessing research and
development on spent nuclear fuel.
-Iran will not accumulate heavy water in excess of the needs of the modified Arak reactor,
and will sell any remaining heavy water on the international market for 15 years.
-Iran will not build any additional heavy water reactors for 15 years.
-For fifteen years, Iran will limit additional elements of its program. For instance, Iran will
not build new enrichment facilities or heavy water reactors and will limit its stockpile of
enriched uranium and accept enhanced transparency procedures.
-Important inspections and transparency measures will continue well beyond 15 years.
-Iran’s adherence to the Additional Protocol of the IAEA is permanent, including its
significant access and transparency obligations. The robust inspections of Iran’s uranium
supply chain will last for 25 years.
-Even after the period of the most stringent limitations on Iran’s nuclear program, Iran
will remain a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which prohibits Iran’s
development or acquisition of nuclear weapons and requires IAEA safeguards on its
nuclear program. [That is, Iran cannot opt out of the treaty, as any other nation that signs any treaty can do.] [All emphases mine.]

And in return for these draconian measures, what does Iran get? It gets SOME sanctions SUSPENDED AFTER it does all this. Here’s what the document says:

-Iran will receive sanctions relief, if it verifiably abides by its commitments. [Notice, WILL and IF.]
-U.S. and E.U. nuclear-related sanctions will be suspended [NOT LIFTED] after the IAEA has verified that Iran has taken all of its key nuclear-related steps. If at any time Iran fails to fulfill its commitments, these sanctions will snap back into place.

-The architecture of U.S. nuclear-related sanctions on Iran will be retained for much of
the duration of the deal and allow for snap-back of sanctions in the event of significant
non-performance.
-All past UN Security Council resolutions on the Iran nuclear issue will be lifted
simultaneous with the completion, by Iran, of nuclear-related actions addressing all key
concerns (enrichment, Fordow, Arak, PMD, and transparency).
-However, core provisions in the UN Security Council resolutions – those that deal with
transfers of sensitive technologies and activities – will be re-established by a new UN
Security Council resolution that will endorse the JCPOA and urge its full
implementation. It will also create the procurement channel mentioned above, which will
serve as a key transparency measure. Important restrictions on conventional arms and
ballistic missiles, as well as provisions that allow for related cargo inspections and asset
freezes, will also be incorporated by this new resolution.

In other words, Iran is STILL under control in terms on NON-NUCLEAR weaponry. The nuclear issue really was a stalking horse. The real goal is to keep Iran as militarily weak as they can.

The gun of UN sanctions will also still remain pointed at Iran’s head, as the document specifies:

-all previous UN sanctions could be re-imposed.
-U.S. sanctions on Iran for terrorism, human rights abuses, and ballistic missiles will
remain in place under the deal. [The other excuses for U.S. Cold Warfare against Iran. When is someone going to sanction the U.S. for its far greater and more exsanguinous human rights “abuses,” its hundreds of ballistic missiles, and its global terrorism and sponsorship of state terrorism by numerous regimes? Just asking.]

But Israel is already calling it a “bad deal.” Since the U.S. Congress is a servile puppet of Israel, that means there will be no lifting of U.S. sanctions, merely their suspension by Obama. The next president can reimpose them of course. (By then Iran will have been tricked into dismantling its research and uranium enrichment programs.)

Anyone who thinks that calling the U.S. Congress “a servile puppet of Israel” needs to watch Netanyahu’s speech before that body in early March. An eight minute standing ovation, with wild cheering, greeted his arrival at the podium. His agit-propaganda speech was interrupted NINETEEN TIMES by more standing ovations. And when he finished, the assembled alleged representatives of the American people gave him yet another standing ovation, this time for ten minutes, with frenzied cheering. You’d think it was a assembly called by Saddam Hussein, or Stalin addressing the Supreme Soviet, or Mao speechifying before the People’s Congress, or one of Hitler’s gatherings of the faithful. Just amazing. And it passes without comment in the U.S. media. (Which always has Israel’s back, no matter what inhuman atrocity it commits, so no surprise there.)

During that speech a month ago, Netanyahu insisted the “deal” with Iran was “bad,” that it “paved the way” for Iran to make nuclear weapons! (There WAS no deal at the time, not even an outline of a deal, just the notion of easing sanctions in return for rendering Iran incapable of developing nuclear weapons.)

The truth is, the Israelis want the U.S. to go to war with Iran to overthrow the regime,  just as it wanted it to overthrow Saddam Hussein in Iraq.  Perhaps next some U.S. “decision makers” could dress up in French maid uniforms and clean Netanyahu’s house for him. (Seems like plenty of Congresspeople would jump at the chance.)

Even now, the U.S. media can't stop lying. Just this afternoon, CBS radio news said the deal "could end Iran's nuclear weapons program." Iran doesn't HAVE a nuclear weapons program! This is all about making sure that Iran CAN'T have a nuclear weapons program! Both U.S. and Israeli intelligence say there IS no "weapons" program. The beef with Iran was that it was developing the know-how and capability to develop nuclear weapons at some future date. [2]

Well, only fools rely on U.S. corporate media for accurate information. Unfortunately most people in America are fools.

1] “Iran nuclear deal:negotiators announce 'framework' agreement,” guardian, April 2, 2015.

Here’s theWhite House factsheet detailing the agreement.

2] CBS radio network "news," April 2, 3 pm, propaganda read by Harley Carnes.

GOP Smashes Head-On Into Its Own Contradictions in Indiana

Finally! A collision of interests among the reactionary factions of the Republican Party.

The GOP (Gang Of Plunderers) represents broadly two groups: business, especially big business (as do the Democrats) and so-called “social conservatives.” “Social conservatives” consist of reactionaries, fanatical religious fundamentalists of various Christian varieties, jingoists, racists, homophobes, sexists, anti-abortion terrorists and so on.

In Indiana, the GOP-controlled state legislature passed a law legalizing discrimination against gays by businesses. Governor Mike Pence insists that this so-called “Freedom of Religion” law is all about protecting poor oppressed Christians, the overwhelming majority in the U.S. who have great power.

But lots of people aren't buying. And in a sign of the times, various large corporations, associations, and even Governors of other states have announced quasi-boycotts of the state. Their business and political interests mandate that they be “inclusive” of gay people.

Thus the business side of the GOP is finally colliding with the “traditionalist” side, that is, the socially oppressive bigots and yahoos.

Pence is rushing to undo the damage with new legislation to “clarify” the Freedom To Discriminate law in Indiana.

Meanwhile Arkansas, home of Bill Clinton, one of the most incredibly backward and reactionary states in the U.S., is rushing to pass its own “Religious Freedom Protection” law.

The U.S. is already a semi-theocracy, yet the religious fundamentalists carry on like they're being nailed to crosses. Typical of all reactionaries, who have deep-seated persecution complexes. (The Nazis did too. They imagined the Jews were doing horrible things to them.)

U.S. Continues to Demand Iran Surrender in Nuclear Talks

The U.S., apparently backed by the other “major world powers” on its side of the negotiating table against Iran, is insisting that Iran mostly dismantle its nuclear programs AND remove its enriched uranium from its territory. In return, sanctions will NOT be lifted. Rather, they'll be “eased.” [1]

U.S. and other Western media keeps falsely using the word “lifted.” This is misleading in the extreme. There is NO lifting on offer. U.S. sanctions can only be LIFTED by a vote of Congress. Obama can “suspend” them, which means a Sword of Damocles will still be hanging over Iran's head.

Also it is being reported that the UN sanctions will be “even harder” to lift. (NPR, the U.S. government domestic radio propaganda network.)

The phrase being reiterated by U.S. “diplomats” is that Iran “has to make the hard decisions.” i.e. the decisions to virtually surrender in return for a gradual easing of some sanctions. That is how it is described if you read far enough into various articles on the subject.

I was just reading an article about the (U.S.-created) Ukraine “crisis” by a Harvard professor, and was struck by this paragraph, which is equally applicable in the Iran negotiations:

“Efforts to resolve this crisis are also handicapped by the U.S. tendency to indulge in 'take-it-or-leave it' diplomacy. Instead of engaging in genuine bargaining, American officials tend to tell others what to do and then ramp up the pressure if they do not comply. Today, those who want to arm Ukraine are demanding that Russia cease all of its activities in Ukraine, withdraw from Crimea, and let Ukraine join the EU and/or NATO if it wants and if it meets the membership requirements. In other words, they expect Moscow to abandon its own interests in Ukraine, full stop.”-

“Why Arming Kiev Is A Really, Really Bad Idea,” Foreign Policy, February 9, 2015, by Stephen M. Walt. He's a professor of what's called “international relations” at Harvard. That is a euphemism for international power politics. The aim is to train people to be apparatchiks in the U.S. imperialist structure.

The establishment medias in the U.S. and Europe are hiding the fact that it is the unreasonably harsh demands of the U.S. side that is the problem. For example,here's the obfuscatory, evasive, and downright dishonest BBC version of the negotiations:

“They're still struggling to overcome differences on the pace and timing of lifting sanctions.” (BBC World Service, April 1, early morning.)

Actually LIFTING sanctions isn't even being OFFERED by the U.S. TEMPORARY SUSPENSION of SOME sanctions is. And the “struggle” isn't some cooperative thing they're doing together. The U.S. and the other five nations ganging up on Iran are squeezing the Iranians as hard as they can to force them to knuckle under. It's an adversarial struggle, like wrestlers (in this case, six wrestlers piling on one).

The establishment propagandists won't stop lying about the talks. Here's a propaganda readeron on a New York City radio station that is the main NPR affiliate there:

“talks are continuing” for Iran to surrender “in exchange for the lifting of crippllng sanctions.” There's the lie again. NOT lifting! It's only a temporary suspension of U.S. ones if Iran knuckles under. (WNYC, Rich Haik, April 1, 2015, 9:30 am.)

Keep in mind that Iran is fully within its rights to enrich uranium to 20% under the Non-Proliferation Treaty it is a signatory to (which Israel has never signed), which is the limit it has enriched to, and it is obligated to notify the UN body charged with enforcement when a new facility is opened, which it has also done. We are constantly told about “suspicious” Iranian behavior and “unanswered questions,” but details are not provided.

Of course the issue is that the nations squeezing Iran (and Israel and Saudi Arabia) don't want Iran to have the capability of building nuclear weapons. It isn't about weapons, per se. It's about capability.

Basically the goal is to make it impossible for Iran to build nuclear weapons even if it wanted to.

Okay, fine, but you won't even release your economic stranglehold if they agree! Oh, they “need to make the hard decision” to agree to this.

Absurd.

1] Arrayed against Iran are the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (U.S., UK, France, Russia, China) and Germany.

Dead Dictator Hailed As Great Man By Western Media

Longtime Singaporean autocrat Lee Kuan Yew is finally dead at age 91. (Some years ago, he passed on his official positions of power to his son.) This capitalist oppressor, who created a regime in the city-state he ruled where people get caned for chewing gum or spitting, is seen as an exemplar of a Good and Wise ruler.

The BBC's “World Service” broadcast this line around the world. The U.S. media never met a capitalist dictator it didn't love. (To be sure, the New York Times, in an editorial, gave him a mixed review- an A for economic policy, and a Needs Improvement for civil rights. They even called him an “autocrat.” Fancy that.)

Unmentioned in the paeans to Lee's alleged economic fabulousness is the fact that for MOST Singaporeans, life is a struggle. Most of the wealth and economic “growth” has gone and goes to a tiny elite.

Which is why Forbes magazine functioned as a fanzine for Lee. (One of the magazine's branding slogans: “Forbes: Capitalist Tool.” That's a snarky, “ironic” appropriation of Bolshevik invective, of course. “Hell YES we're Capitalist Tools, and Proud OF it too!”)

China Makes Significant Inroad Into U.S. Global Domination

One of the major pillars of U.S. hegemony is its monopoly control over the world financial system. This control is so total that the U.S. can threaten and seize the financial assets of people around the world almost at will. It also maintains a system of total surveillance over all the world’s financial transactions. It controls the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, two malign institutions of money power that have caused untold hardship to literally billions of people over the years. 

So it was potentially a major blow to U.S. power when China in 2013 announced the formation of a rival financial institution, the so-called Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) based in Beijing. (It could have just as well been called the Anti-IMF, or AIMF.) The U.S. has worked assiduously to try and make the Chinese initiative a flop by ordering its client states around the world (and “allies,” that is, subalterns to U.S. imperialism like Japan, Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) to stay out of the Chinese bank.

But now, some ducks that since 1945 have always lined up dutifully behind their U.S. master, have announced they’ll join China’s new Fund. First, Britain- Britain! the Loyalest Lapdog!- announced it would sign on with China. That gave Germany, Italy, and France the nerve to follow suit. (There’s Safety In Numbers, I guess they figured.) The U.S. had a snit, just as it  upbraided China when China originally announced plans to form the new Bank. (Maybe if the U.S. didn’t treat its “allies” like adversaries and secretly surveil all their communications, especially those of its rulers, they would continue to stick by it. It probably also doesn’t help that Europe, and not the U.S., is paying the economic price of the U.S. economic warfare against Russia being waged over the Ukraine “crisis” that the U.S. caused by its subversion and destabilization actions there. But as Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said in a memorable phone call- intercepted and posted to youtube for all the world to hear- to the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine who was managing the subversion, “Fuck the EU.”) [1] To make matters worse, now Australia and South Korea are reconsidering their earlier decisions to decline China’s invitation to join. Control is rapidly slipping out of the U.S.’ fingers when even satrapies like those two are jumping ship.

The top Chinese propaganda organ, Xinhua, did a little victory dance in the end zone after this touchdown. (Apologies to my foreign readers for the American football analogy.) [2]

China has already been making economic inroads in the U.S.’ self-proclaimed “backyard,” Latin America, with development projects, among other things. Meanwhile the U.S. continues to destroy the nations in the region it declared as its property way back in 1823. (This act of arrogance is grandly named the “Monroe Doctrine,” after president James Monroe, only the fifth U.S. president, and is celebrated to this day. The U.S. from the beginning didn’t waste any time pursuing its imperialist ambitions. It invaded present-day Canada in 1812 in an attempt to steal territory.)

The U.S. continually wreaks havoc and social and economic destruction in “its” hemisphere. It did that with the Honduran coup of a few years back, that turned that country into a chaotic charnal house. It long ago wrecked Guatemala and El Salvador. (I knew, before it was reported, that the wave of “Central American” refugees fleeing into the U.S. last year came from those three countries, and not Nicaragua. And I was right.) Now the U.S. is trying to overthrow the Venezuelan government. Still it persists in its criminal ways, which it thinks have no consequences as long as it continues to paper them over with transparent lies and cynical rhetoric about “American values” and its alleged love of freedom and democracy and human rights (all things which it has in fact been one of the major destroyers and enemy of). Is it a mystery that eventually others would turn against it?

As far as strategy goes, the U.S. doesn’t do strategy these days. It does tactics. It thinks clever, devious tactics constitute strategy. They don’t. Despite knowing better- remember the “pivot to Asia” announced by Obama-Clinton a few years ago, since forgotten?- the U.S. ignored the big picture, the geostrategic one,  preferring  to pick unnecessary fights. Like ripping Ukraine out of Russia’s orbit. Ukraine is a vital strategic area for Russia, on its border, with military equipment industries it relies on and the absolutely critical Black Sea Fleet naval base in Crimea. U.S. interest in Ukraine is actually zero- aside from the irresistible compulsion to try and control the whole world. (The whole world except Israel, that is. The U.S. has a weird submission thing going with Israel, with Israel as its Dominatrix. The U.S. surrenders complete control to Israel. Maybe someone will invent the field of political psychiatry to figure this one out.)

The imperialist elite in the empire’s capital of Washington, D.C., was definitely miffed at its lackeys for joining the new Chinese financial club. Some poohbah at the Brookings Institute, a D.C. “idea” factory for grinding out ruling class ideology and “position papers” (advice to government officials), groused that Britain needed to be punished. “Britain should not be let off the hook,” growled nomenklatura member Thomas Wright ominously from his perch at Brookings. And Obama regime officials have been open about expressing their, shall we say, displeasure. [3]

This from a country that almost sided with the fascist military regime of Argentina in the Falklands War! It was only thanks to then-War Secretary Caspar Weinberger that the Thatcher regime wasn’t betrayed by the U.S. Alexander Haig and Jeane Kirkpatrick were steering the fascist president Reagan into siding with Argentina until Weinberger spoiled their plans.

With the U.S., loyalty is a one-way street.

A U.S. establishment apparatchik in Beijing moaned “We’re going to come out looking insecure and weak.” (Fear of “weakness” is a chronic neurosis among U.S. elites. It is a paranoia that the establishment media and Republican politicians infect reactionary nationalists among the U.S. populace with also.) [4]

Funny thing is, the U.S. could have avoided all this if it had merely given China greater voting rights in the two big global financial institutions it controls, the IMF and World Bank. But it refused to make even modest changes. That’s what happens when you get greedy and want it all. (A cautionary note to the world’s billionaires too, by the way.) Just as the U.S. would have been better off not trying to gobble up Ukraine. (Not to mention all the suffering and dead Ukrainians who would have been better off.)

If in the future the imperialist baton is snatched from the U.S.’ fingers by China, doubtless nations will come to chafe under Chinese domination. The more fundamental question is, after several millennia of various empires, will imperialism, which is anti-human because it oppresses and denies autonomy to people, and economically exploits them, ever be consigned to the dustbin of history? Probably not until a majority of homo sapiens evolves into conscious human beings, at which point they will no longer tolerate imperialist systems of power.

For now, resistance to the so-called “international system,” the rule of venal nation-state elites, is limited to ineffectual protests, spasms of anarchist vandalism, and nihilistic psychopaths of the ISIS variety (the latter having no interest in human rights and liberation from oppressive power but to the contrary aspiring, with maniacal zeal, only to supplant the existing dominators with their own even viler forms of oppression). Those in power have many tried-and-true methods for suppressing movements for change. Only fanatics willing to sacrifice themselves are left to oppose them meaningfully.

1] See, “U.S. Enlisted UN Stooges in Ukraine Subversion,” April 5, 2014.

2] See, “Commentary:Washington, what are you waiting for?” Xinhua, March 18, 2015.

3] See “China gloats as Europeans rush to join Asian bank,” Washington Post, March 18, 2015. Even the Post, the elite newspaper of the empire’s capital, had to admit that U.S. refusal to reform the IMF helped drive other nations into China’s open arms.

4] “Insecure and weak;” thus fretted Paul Haenle, director of the ­Carnegie-Tsinghua Center in Beijing, ibid.