From the Trenches World Report

Blacklisted News – Topo, Beware of Images

First, let me say something about the polarization I have seen surrounding the subject. Calling all who support military action “ignorant warmongers”, or all who oppose it “pro-genocide cowards” is not only an inflexible position, but one that is not conducive to a proper understanding of this –or any– sociopolitical conflict. I don’t practice that kind of name-calling, and hope you’ll refrain from it as well.

Robert McNamara, one of the main architects of the Vietnam war and the Secretary of Defense under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, once said: Continue reading “Why I Don’t Support Unilateral Military Intervention In Syria”

Information Clearing House – by Norman Solomon

Grassroots pressure has forced President Obama to seek approval from Congress for an attack on Syria. But Obama is hell-bent on ordering a missile assault on that country, and he has two very important aces in the hole.

The administration is about to launch a ferocious propaganda blitz that will engulf a wide range of U.S. media. And as a fallback, the president is reserving the option of attacking Syria no matter what Congress does. Continue reading “Obama Will Launch a Huge Propaganda Blitz May Attack Syria Even If He Loses the Vote in Congress”

Testosterone Pit

“A Special Surveillance Chip”

According to leaked internal documents from the German Federal Office for Security in Information Technology (BSI) that Die Zeit obtained, IT experts figured out that Windows 8, the touch-screen enabled, super-duper, but sales-challenged Microsoft operating system is outright dangerous for data security. It allows Microsoft to control the computer remotely through a built-in backdoor. Keys to that backdoor are likely accessible to the NSA – and in an unintended ironic twist, perhaps even to the Chinese. Continue reading “LEAKED: German Government Warns Key Entities Not To Use Windows 8 – Links The NSA”

Journal Star – by Jim Snyder and Jim Efstathiou JR.

BUFFALO, S.D. — If the Keystone XL oil pipeline gets built, Rick Balcom doubts he’ll see many construction workers at the bar of his No. 3 Saloon in this remote town in the northwest corner of South Dakota.

Balcom, 44, knows most of the workers building the Canada-Nebraska pipeline will stay at a catered “man camp” seven miles away and won’t be hoisting brews under the stuffed mountain lion that adorns his bar. On their days off, they’ll probably travel to places such as Deadwood and Spearfish, an hour-and-a-half drive south, that offer gambling and other attractions, he said. Continue reading “Keystone XL seen as no local job starter where workers wanted least”

Wired – by Brendan McNally

Watch enough YouTube videos of the fighting in Syria, and you’ll start to notice it: a long-tubed gun, mounted on the back of either a jeep or large, fast pickup. Usually it’s blasting bunkers, blockhouses, fortified positions, or places where snipers are hiding. It even goes after tanks. And whenever it fires, the gun seems to kick up way more hell behind it than what it sends out the barrel’s front end. It’s the M40 106mm recoilless rifle, an American-made, Vietnam-vintage weapon that got dropped from the Army and Marine inventory back during the early 1970s. Until recently, the 106mm hadn’t seen much action in the irregular wars that have swept the globe. Then M40s somehow came into the hands of rebels in Libya and Syria. Suddenly, the 106mm – light, cheap, easily transportable, simple to operate, and packing a punch all out of proportion to its modest size — has emerged as a possible Great Asymmetric Weapon of the Day. Continue reading “Ancient U.S. Weapon Makes a Surprise Reappearance in Syria”

Storyleak – by Daniel G. J.

A shadowy Israeli military unit is apparently the source of the “intelligence” that the Obama administration is using as justification for its planned attack on Syria.

The German magazine Focus and The Guardian are reporting that the majority of the information indicating dictator Bashir Assad’s use of poisonous gas comes from the 8200 unit of the Israeli Defense Forces. Continue reading “Obama’s ‘Source’ on Syrian Chemical Weapons is Israel’s NSA”

The New York Times – by David M. Herszenhorn

MOSCOW — Russia’s foreign minister dismissed as unconvincing the evidence presented by Secretary of State John Kerry of chemical weapons use by the Syrian government, saying on Monday that the United States had fallen far short of making a case for international cooperation on military strikes against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. Continue reading “Russia Rejects U.S. Evidence on Syrian Chemical Attack”

The Guardian

Russia is sending a reconnaissance ship to the eastern Mediterranean as the US prepares for a possible military strike in Syria, it was reported on Monday.

The Priazovye left Russia’s naval base in the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Sevastopol late on Sunday on a mission “to gather current information in the area of the escalating conflict”, said an unidentified military source quoted by the Interfax news agency. The defence ministry declined to comment. Continue reading “Russia sends spy ship as US prepares for possible Syria strike”

New York Times – by DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

MOSCOW — Countries often issue travel advisories warning citizens of danger abroad: war, for instance, or a terrorist threat or an outbreak of disease. The Russian Foreign Ministry posted advice of a somewhat different nature on Monday, cautioning people wanted by the United States not to visit nations that have an extradition treaty with it.

“Warning for Russian citizens traveling internationally,” the Foreign Ministry bulletin said. “Recently, detentions of Russian citizens in various countries, at the request of American law enforcement, have become more frequent — with the goal of extradition and legal prosecution in the United States.” Continue reading “Russia Issues Travel Warning to Its Citizens About United States and Extradition”

Voice of America

Russian President Vladimir Putin says he supports the idea of sending a delegation from the country’s parliament to Washington to urge members of the U.S. Congress not to support military intervention in Syria.

Valentina Matviyenko, who chairs the Federation Council, the Russian parliament’s upper chamber, outlined the proposal to send a parliamentary delegation to the U.S. on Monday during a meeting with Putin. The meeting also was attended by Sergei Naryshkin, the speaker of the State Duma, the lower parliamentary house. Continue reading “Russia Wants to Talk to US Congress About Syria”

Continue reading “1961 – We Need Trojan Man…”

Militia News – by Jeffrey T. Brown

We stand on the brink of an illegal exercise of military power in a part of the world we have no need to be in, except that we have a president who purposefully keeps us there by suppressing our own development of energy resources and embroiling us in their internecine warfare. We could have walked away from the Middle East already and left them to their own savagery, but the president insists that we remain inextricably tied to their historical need to kill each other so that we can overpay for oil, both monetarily and with American lives. Thus, as technology enables us to break free of dependence upon Middle East oil, our president bends over backwards to ensure that never happens. What sort of leader purposefully compels his country and its people to participate in practices and policies that are detrimental to their safety and survival? Continue reading “Calling It Treason”

Freedom Outpost – by John Risselada

Sometimes it can be difficult to put thought to paper, especially when you know your piece is going to be posted alongside some of the same authors that inspired you in the first place. What makes it easy in these moments is the fact that there is absolutely nothing occurring in our country that makes any sense. We just keep drifting further and further into the liberal abyss. Of course, people must come to realize that is the very purpose driving the efforts of those hiding behind the word liberalism. Continue reading “Beware the Alinsky Method: Discrediting America for the Purpose of Installing Communist Change Read”

All Gov – by Ken Broder

The Southern California city of Rialto (population: 99,000) has become the poster child of police videotaping after being cited by a federal judge in his decision (pdf) two weeks ago striking down New York City’s stop-and-frisk law as an unconstitutional use of racial profiling.

U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin quoted a New York Times story attesting to the usefulness of body-worn cameras by police during an experimental period that began in February 2012 and ended last month. Continue reading “Tiny Headcams Lead to Drop in Police Use of Force and Public Complaints”

Continue reading “The Rothschild Family – Puppet Masters – World’s Only Trillionaires – Full Documentary”

Common Dreams – by Jon Queally

In the latest revelation made possible by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, theWashington Post on Thursday published an investigative analysis and interactive map of America’s so-called “Black Budget” which details the $52.6 billion allotment of taxpayer money that funds the government’s “intelligence-gathering colossus” that has previously remained insulated from the eyes of the American public. Continue reading “‘Black Budget’ Revealed: A Detailed Look at US ‘Espionage Empire’”

Breitbart – by MATTHEW BOYLE

SPARTANBURG — South Carolina Tea Party groups have drafted a resolution containing a 29-point case to replace Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) with a Senator who is more conservative, Breitbart News has learned.

Local Tea Party leaders provided the document, a resolution that can be passed by local and state GOP committees, to Breitbart News. It argues that Graham’s activities in the U.S. Senate are a violation of the principles of the South Carolina Republican Party platform. Graham is up for reelection next year. Continue reading “South Carolina Tea Partiers Draft Resolution to Replace Lindsey Graham”

Corp Watch – by Pratap Chatterjee

Glimmerglass, a northern California company that sells optical fiber technology, offers government agencies a software product called “CyberSweep” to intercept signals on undersea cables. The company says their technology can analyze Gmail and Yahoo! Mail as well as social media like Facebook and Twitter to discover “actionable intelligence.”

Could this be the technology that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) is using to tap global communications? The company says it counts several intelligence agencies among its customers but refuses to divulge details. One thing is certain – it is not the only company to offer such capabilities – so if such data mining is not already taking place, that day is not far off. Continue reading “Glimmerglass Intercepts Undersea Cable Traffic for Spy Agencies”

Aletho News

“The objectives should be … to ensure that Assad’s chemical weapons no longer threaten … our allies in the region”

The names of the “experts” seeking a “decisive response” against Syria: Continue reading “America’s Israel Lobby Demands “Direct Military Strikes” Against Syria”

Yahoo News – AP

PARIS (AP) — A French intelligence report on Monday alleged that the Syrian regime launched an attack on Aug. 21 that involved a “massive use of chemical agents” and could carry out similar strikes in the future.

The government, on its Web site, published a 9-page intelligence synopsis about Syria’s chemical weapons program that found that at least 281 deaths could be attributed to the attack in rebel-held areas outside Damascus. The analysis based that count in part on dozens of videos culled by French intelligence services. Continue reading “French intel: Syrian regime led chemical attack”