Anti-Iranian rhetoric from Israel and Western powers seems to be having
some impact on the U.S. public, according to opinion polls. The latest
survey shows that a third of Americans now see the Islamic Republic as
their country's worst enemy, compared to just 25 percent a year ago.
RT's Marina Portnaya reports now on the intensity of the anti-Iranian
message flooding the U.S. media - and its impact.
CNN reports that “world powers” – corrupt states belonging to the
Arab League and ultimately members of the European Union – are “mapping
out a plan to deliver humanitarian aid” in Syria under the banner of
“Friends of Syria.”
On Thursday, Secretary of State Clinton
gave her blessing to a move to arm the Syrian opposition. CNN attempted
to soften the deadly impact of Clinton’s move to initiate a fresh round
of terror and murder by stating that “the opposition will find willing
sources to supply them with munitions to counter the Syrian government
onslaught blamed for thousands of deaths.”
“There will be increasingly capable opposition forces,” Clinton
hinted. “They will from somewhere, somehow, find the means to defend
themselves as well as begin offensive measures.”
The latest “Arab Spring” effort to impose a new political order in
Syria arrives after months of corporate media coverage portraying the
al-Assad regime as murderous while ignoring reports of CIA and NATO snipers killing civilians.
An Arab League report
issued earlier this month revealed that the Free Syria Army and other
“armed opposition groups” are currently engaged in killing civilians and
police and conducting terrorist attacks targeting innocent civilians.
A New Anti-Imperialist Bloc of Nations Convened by Russia is Needed to Prevent a New Middle East War.
The US tries to break up existing countries and turn them
into “rump states”, such as Libya that is descending into chaos, an
analyst tells Press TV referring to the current situation in Syria.
After
vetoing an anti-Syria resolution in the UN Security Council earlier
this month, China and Russia said that the current crisis in the Arab
country should be resolved through political channels.
Meanwhile,
the United States, Israel and some Arab States as well as al-Qaeda are
seeking to overthrow the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March and many people have lost their lives in the violence.
The
West and the Syrian opposition accuse the government of killing
protesters. But Damascus blames “outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist
groups” for the unrest, insisting that it is being orchestrated from
abroad.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Webster Griffin
Tarpley, author and historian from Washington, to share his opinion on
this issue. The following is a transcript of the interview:
An unidentified metal sphere has plunged from the sky on unsuspecting
villagers in northern Brazil, causing an uproar. According to
eyewitnesses, the UFO weighs about 50 kilograms and measures roughly one
meter in diameter.
The sphere fell on Wednesday in a village of Riacho dos Poços in
Brazilian Maranhão state. No casualties were reported apart from an
unfortunate cashew tree that was severed by the object as it plunged to
the ground, according to MR NOTÍCIAS, a Mata Roma news site.
Valdir José Mendes, 46, told police the sphere landed several meters from his house leaving a one-meter-deep hole in the yard.
"I heard the noise and I went out to see what caused it. I thought it was a plane that had fallen, or an earthquake," he said.
The
noise was such that Mendes was too scared to go outside. However,
curiosity got the better of him and he headed outside to find the cashew
tree’s trunk snapped in half by a mysterious metal sphere lying in a
hole nearby.
Some 20 villagers joined Mendes to help him extract the object from
the ground and examine it. Mendes says the sphere is hollow and if
shaken some sort of liquid can be felt swishing inside. Locals quickly
spread the news, as they reached the town of Mata Roma over 2,000 people
flocked to see the “UFO”.
"It was a huge uproar here. Some
feared it was the beginning of the 2012 end of the world, others said it
was ‘alien’, but I think it is a piece of satellite," said Max Garreto Mauro, 25, a resident of Mata Roma.
Peter
Costa, the meteorologist at the National Institute for Space Research
(INPE), agrees with Garetto, saying the object would probably be part of
a satellite. "I'm sure this is not a weather balloon or part of it," he said as quoted by O Imparcia.
Military
police confiscated the sphere and took it to the barracks in the nearby
Mata Roma. They have not specified what the UFO’s possible future will
be. In a statement the Air Force Command said it "does not have
specialized structures to perform scientific research on this type of
aerial phenomena, which prevents the institution to submit an opinion on
these events."
“Huge batches of small arms and
munitions for the Syrian Liberation Army’s troops are supplied from
Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey, but unofficially, not through these countries’
governments,” the source said. “The supply list includes sub-machine
guns, machine guns, sniper rifles and antitank grenade launchers.”
Russia’s military expert, Lieutenant
General Leonid Sazhin told Itar-Tass that “the scenario that has already
been developed and administered by the United States and their NATO
allies, mainly by France, Britain and Turkey, as well as the monarchy
regimes from the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, in
particular Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, is being
implemented in Syria.”
“This scenario was developed taking into
account recent events in Libya, Egypt and other countries of the region
with only one reservation – the lack of the UN Security Council
resolution needed for the West. In fact, we see an unannounced military
interference of some NATO member-states and countries of the region into
Syria’s domestic affairs, who side with one of the conflicting parties –
the armed opposition,” he said.
Sazhin noted that in addition to the
Syrian National Council Syria’s refugees and army deserters in Turkey
create a military structure - Supreme Revolutionary Council – led by
Syrian army general Mustafa Ahmed al-Sheikh, who deserted to
neighbouring Turkey.
The US embassy is under lockdown and Afghan police have killed 20 people
in protests spread across the country against the burning of the Koran
by US troops.
Interview with James Morris, Editor of America-hijacked.com, Los Angeles.
Russia has been opposed to the anti-ballistic missile
(ABM) program headed up by the United States and NATO for a
considerable amount of time, this is far from news to anyone who has
been keeping up with this issue.
However, in recent months, Russia has been taking what is arguably a
more active and direct role in opposing the system currently being put
in place in Europe (with some assets strategically placed in regions
outside of continental Europe).
This announcement added to the long list of reasons why Russia has
every right to be suspicious of the ultimate goal of the US-NATO missile shield by proving that the West has no interest in working with Russia.
Unsurprisingly, when Russia offered to have this advanced warning
system integrated into the US-NATO system, their offer was not accepted.
At the time I wrote,
Russian President Medvedev stated that these could be used as part of a joint detection system, but obviously Europe has no interest in cooperating with Russia in such a project.
This fact deals a major blow to the false assertion that it is a
purely peaceful, defensive measure. If this were the case, it would only
make sense for the United States and NATO to integrate Russian systems
in order to have more comprehensive detection system.
With all of the evidence piling up showing that this is not a purely
defense measure to protect us from those evil people who hate us for our
freedom as proponents laughably claim.
It appears that the Russian leadership is well aware of this and thus
they are not stopping with just the additional radar systems.
Lew Rockwell: Rhetoric is a political ruse to make Ron Paul appear as a sell out.
Former Ron Paul staffer Lew Rockwell says that talk of an alliance
between Mitt Romney and Ron Paul is an “establishment trick” to smear
Paul by making him appear as a sell out.
Rockwell, who served as Ron Paul’s congressional chief
of staff from 1978 to 1982 and remains close to Paul and several
campaign insiders, told the Alex Jones Show that rhetoric about a
potential partnership wherein Ron Paul would be granted a VP slot was
merely a political ruse to “make Ron Paul supporters like Romney”.
The controversy received fresh impetus earlier this week
when Rick Santorum and his campaign manager claimed Paul and Romney
were in cahoots to shoot down Santorum’s candidacy. The talking point
has subsequently been pushed by the mainstream media, including a Washington Post article today that speculates on whether the alliance is genuine.
Rockwell said that although Romney may be a pleasant
person, his political positions are anathema to Ron Paul given the fact
that he is a globalist, a big government advocate and a warmonger.
In American politics, it takes an enormous amount of money to win
campaigns, and the rise of the "Super PACs" is allowing the wealthy to
exert even more influence over the political process than they did
before. When you examine the results of federal elections over the past
several decades, you quickly discover that the candidate that raises
the most money almost always wins.
Wealthy individuals are limited by law as to how much money they can
give directly to a political campaign, but there are no limits on how
much money they can give to Super PACs. During the 2012 election
season, some of these Super PACs actually have more money than the
campaigns of the candidates that they support do. Buying the vote is
not illegal in America, and these Super PACs are buying huge amounts of
advertising in key states. Unfortunately, most Americans have never
learned to think for themselves. Instead, they let the television do
much of their thinking for them. If their trusted friend, the
television, tells them to vote a certain way, then that is what they are
likely to do. Super PACs are much more likely to run negative ads
than the actual candidates are, and we have already seen very negative
ads dramatically move the poll numbers in some of the states. Sadly,
as long as very negative ads keep working people are going to keep
using them.
Super PACs are supposed to be completely and totally
"independent" of the campaigns that they support, but the reality is
that many of these Super PACs are run and staffed by former top aides
of the candidates.
Some of the candidates are relying on the Super PACs to be the "attack
dogs," while they sit back and try to maintain a more "positive"
image. If a Super PAC goes too far, a candidate can simply claim that
he does not have any control over that Super PAC.
If money did not influence elections, then people would stop giving so
much of it to the campaigns and to the Super PACs. The truth is that
money does influence elections, and when wealthy individuals and big
corporations are allowed to pour millions upon millions of dollars into
these Super PACs it gives them a much, much larger say in the outcome
of our elections than you and I have.
This film is heavy but extremely powerful and necessary. These are indeed the times that try our souls as never before, and whether we become the hero of our lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren, the next few years will surely show.
If Europe’s new plan for Greece succeeds, nobody will be more
surprised than the politicians who designed it. At best, the arrangement
is a holding action, one that fails yet again to deal with the much
larger confidence crisis facing the euro area.
The deal announced
on Tuesday starts with private lenders. Their representatives agreed to
accept even bigger losses on Greek government bonds than previously
discussed. The bonds’ face value will be cut by 53.5 percent, and
they’ll pay a low interest rate, starting at 2 percent then rising
later. Altogether, this reduces their net present value by about 75
percent, far more than deemed necessary just weeks ago.
If enough
private lenders go along, that triggers the inter-governmental side of
the plan: new official loans to cover Greece’s ongoing budget deficit
and replace debt coming due. The terms include a lower interest rate on
bailout loans as well as various other kinds of European Union taxpayer
subsidy, folded in with greater or lesser degrees of stealth. The
European Central Bank and national central banks, for example, will
pitch in by channeling back to Greece the “profits” they have made on
Greek bonds bought at deep discounts to face value. The International
Monetary Fund is going to take part, too.
Exactly how still isn’t clear.
If
too many private lenders opt out, it’s back to the drawing board. Ditto
if voters in Greece force the government to renege on promises to cut
the minimum wage, make advance debt- service payments into an externally
monitored account, change the constitution to prioritize debt
repayment, accept oversight of public accounts by an on-site team of EU
officials, and more.
That’s only a partial list of what might
still derail the agreement. Even if it sticks, its designers don’t sound
confident it will work. An official analysis leaked to the Financial
Times discusses a “tailored downside scenario,” which, to many
observers, looks more like a plausible central case.
