The former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell pledged Tuesday to testify against former Vice President Dick Cheney if he is ever tried for war crimes.
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson told Democracy Now‘s Amy Goodman that he would participate in a trial even if it meant personal repercussions.
“I, unfortunately — and I’ve admitted to this a number of times, publicly and privately — was the person who put together Colin Powell’s presentation at the United Nations Security Council on 5 February, 2003,” Wilkerson said. “It was probably the biggest mistake of my life. I regret it to this day. I regret not having resigned over it.”
In an interview that aired on NBC Monday, Cheney told Jamie Gangel that unlike President George W. Bush, he did not have a “sickening feeling” when they discovered there were no weapons of mass destruction after the invasion of Iraq.
“I think we did the right thing,” Cheney said.
Joining Wilkerson and Goodman to discuss Cheney’s new book “In My Time,” Salon’s Glenn Greenwald said that it was disturbing to see the former vice president treated simply as an “elder statesman.”
“The evidence is overwhelming… that Dick Cheney is not just a political figure with controversial views, but is an actual criminal, that he was centrally involved in a whole variety not just of war crimes in Iraq, but of domestic crimes, as well, including the authorization of warrantless eavesdropping on American citizens in violation of FISA, which says that you go to jail for five years for each offense, as well as the authorization and implementation of a worldwide torture regime that, according to General Barry McCaffrey, resulted in the murder — his word — of dozens of detainees, far beyond just the three or four cases of waterboarding that media figures typically ask Cheney about,” Greenwald explained.
“And as a result, Dick Cheney goes around the country profiting off of this, you know, sleazy, sensationalistic, self-serving book, basically profiting from his crimes, and at the same time normalizing the idea that these kind of policies, though maybe in the view of some wrongheaded, are perfectly legitimate political choices to make. And I think that’s the really damaging legacy from all of this.”
“Colonel Wilkerson, do you think the Bush administration officials should be held accountable in the way that Glenn Greenwald is talking about?” Goodman asked.
“I certainly do,” Wilkerson replied. “And I’d be willing to testify, and I’d be willing to take any punishment I’m due. And I have to say, I agree with almost everything [Greenwald] just said. And I think that explains the aggressiveness, to a large extent, of the Cheney attack and of the words like ‘exploding heads all over Washington.’ This is a book written out of fear, fear that one day someone will ‘Pinochet’ Dick Cheney.”
Wilkerson was referring to former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who was arrested in London in 1998 after being indicted for crimes against humanity. It was the first time the principle of universal jurisdiction had been applied to a former foreign head of state.
Watch this video from Democracy Now, broadcast Aug. 30, 2011.
The United States has so far stopped short of commenting on a Taliban claim that they killed scores of American forces in Afghanistan on Saturday.
The Taliban claimed on Saturday that 64 US-led troops were killed in two separate attacks they launched in the southern city of Kandahar, a Press TV correspondent reported.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi said on Saturday that the militants killed 36 American forces in a car bomb attack in front of the US base in Kandahar province and also 28 others were killed in another bombing near the military base.
The explosions were so powerful that rocked most of the areas in the province.
Local officials confirmed that an Afghan civilian was killed and 23 others wounded in the assaults.
Witnesses told the Press TV correspondent that US helicopters took the victims away right after the bombings.
With the latest deaths, Saturday has become the deadliest single day for US-led foreign forces since the war began in Afghanistan nearly a decade ago.
American forces in Afghanistan have been experiencing their deadliest days since the beginning of August.
On August 18, a huge explosion reportedly rocked a US military base in eastern Afghanistan and killed at least 27 American soldiers and left dozens wounded.
On August 6, at least 31 US Special Forces were killed after Taliban militants shot down an American helicopter belonging to NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan's eastern province of Wardak.
The security situation remains fragile in Afghanistan despite the presence of about 150,000 US-led foreign forces in the war-torn country.
The increasing number of troop casualties in Afghanistan has caused widespread anger in the US and other NATO member states, undermining public support for the Afghan war.
The Daily Mail reported this week that young Paul Donnachie was found to have acted in a racially aggravated manner when he defiled an Israeli flag in a supposed political protest.
“A judge has ruled that a St Andrews University student who defiled an Israeli flag in a supposed political protest was acting in a racially aggravated manner. Donnachie, 19, put his hands down his trousers before he touched the flag belonging to Jewish exchange student Chanan Reitblat in what he claimed was a 'political statement'.”
Donnachie, will lose his place at St Andrews University with immediate effect. He is very unhappy with court’s decision.
The pathetic Scottish sheriff, who was booed loudly by pro-Palestine supporters, upheld the complaints, telling Donnachie: “I consider this to have been an act of malice against Mr Reitblat for his membership of Israel.
The judge had also refused defence solicitor Patrick Campbell to allow evidence from academic experts on whether the actions of Donnachie constituted an attack on the Israeli state as opposed to racism.
I am slightly perplexed here. What was the nature of Donnachie’s offence exactly? Was it the fact that Donnachie’s genital was not Jewish enough? Would it be different if Donnachie’s penis was circumcised by a Rabbi before the event? Would the judge react the same in case the Jewish Student Reitblat touched his penis before he touched, let’s say, an Iranian flag? Would it also constitute a ‘racist’ assault? I don’t think so.
The Scottish Judge should know that the Israeli flag is not a Jewish symbol. Zionism promised to transform the Jews into a nation. The Israeli flag, therefore, is clearly a national symbol.
For many of us, the blue & white flag stands for horrendous crimes against humanity, genocidal practices, white phosphorus, execution of peace activists in high seas and so on. For more and more people, Israelis are the Nazis of our time and showing contempt towards their national symbols is legitimate and doesn’t constitute any racial offence.
However, it is not a secret that many Jews around the world, including exchange student Chanan Reitblat, proactively identify spiritually and politically with the Israeli flag. This is indeed a problem since the blue & white flag is a symbol of some grave non-ethical behaviour. It is absolutely clear therefore that Donnachie’s protest was totally legitimate as long as Donnachie washes often enough and keeps his hygiene intact.
unrelated pic of anti-zionist rabbis telling it like it is...
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Declassified: Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed
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anonymous blogger... MANDATORY VACCINATION IS HAPPENING!
"My wife was forced to take the H1N1 vac or be forced to resign without right to unemployment. We checked with a lawyer and we couldn't sue them. She is a nurse at a large hospital. She ended up taking it against her better judgement, she went through hell thinking about what she should do. She gave up her belief to protect her family from starvation. Forced vac. are real, I was forced to take shots in the military and they do it in the civilian world. Starting with your kids in your schools."
*A DOCTOR IN SWEDEN HAS FOUND THE TOXIC METALS ARSENIC AND TIN IN PANDEMRIX SWINE FLU VACCINE *DEADLY POISONS PRESENT IN SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS *NATIONAL AUTHORITIES FAILED TO REACT TO HIS RESEARCH *DOCTOR FEARS THE CONTAMINATION OF DRUGS WITH POISONOUS METALS COULD BE WIDESPREAD
NaturalNews exposes secret vaccine industry ties and military involvement with Institute of Medicine, reveals fatal conflicts of interest at IoM
Monday, August 29, 2011
by Mike Adams
Today, NaturalNews publishes a stunning story about the IoM which reveals this government-created non-profit to be akey player in the military medical complexinvolving a shady network of weapons manufacturers, the Department of Homeland Security, top pharmaceutical companies and population control globalists such as Bill Gates. Here, we expose who's giving the IoM money and why the actual sources of funding behind the IoM destroy any credibility it once claimed to have on the subject of public health.
Around 62% of those arrested over involvement in Britain's recent unrest have been imprisoned while only 10% of them allegedly have committed serious offences.
The rest of the arrested people who have not committed any serious offences are to be kept behind bars for an unknown period of time. Human rights organizations have announced that the British government has decided to keep all arrested people in custody until trial.
The British Police have ordered Britain's courts to refuse to bail the arrested even after they have been charged. The arrested people are to stay behind bars for a longer time as the British government has taken such an “iron fist” approach.
However, as the arrested people's solicitors have asserted, 62% of the arrested have been imprisoned while they have not been arraigned. What has caused great concern among human rights activists is that only 10% of these people have been charged with serious offences and the rest can be released either on bail or without having to pay bail.
Nonetheless, the British government has refused to free them. Moreover, the British Police have supported the government's “iron fist” policy describing it as an initiative that would prevent the spread of unrest across Britain in the future.
(NaturalNews) So-called "business as usual" is neither sustainable, nor even possible, for much longer. Out-of-control energy corporations, Wall Street, the Pentagon, agribusiness/biotech corporations, and indentured politicians have driven us to the brink. They tell us: don't worry; trust the experts, things will soon return to "normal." But reality and common sense tell a different story. girl watering
Extreme weather, crop failures, commodities speculation, land grabs, escalating prices, soil degradation, depleted aquifers, routine contamination, food-related disease, and mass hunger represent the "new norm" for food and farming. The global agricultural system, with the exception of the rapidly growing organic sector, rests upon a shaky foundation. Patented seeds, genetically engineered crops, expensive and destructive chemical and energy-intensive inputs, factory farms, monoculture production, eroding soils, unsustainable water use, taxpayer subsidies, and long-distance hauling and distribution, including massive imports that amount to 15% of the U.S. food supply amount to a recipe for disaster.
A "perfect storm" or "ultimate recession" as described by Lester Brown in his new book, World on the Edge, could develop at any time, precipitated by extreme weather and crop failures on a massive scale. A growing number of nations, including the oil giants and China, are now scrambling to secure overseas farmland to feed their domestic populations. World grocers and supermarkets, including the U.S., have, on the average, only a four-day supply of food on hand. An oil shock, global disease pandemic, prolonged drought in the American heartland, or nuclear meltdown could set off a global food panic. Supermarket shelves and grain silos would be stripped bare within a short period of time. Have you thought about this? Are you and those in your local community ready for this? rash-Resistant and Climate-Friendly: The Organic Revolution
(1) Step-up public education and consciousness-raising. We have now crossed a major threshold of raising public awareness: the majority of Americans say they prefer organic food, for a variety of health, environmental, and ethical reasons. After forty years of public education and campaigning, organic foods and products are the fastest growing items in America's grocery carts. Thirty million households, comprising 75 million people, are now buying organic foods and other products on a regular basis. Fifty-six percent of U.S. consumers say they prefer organic foods, citing a wide variety of reasons that we and the Organic Movement have taught them. Millions of young people and urban residents are starting to learn organic farming and gardening techniques.
(2) Step-up the campaign against industrial agriculture and genetic engineering. The more we educate people about the hazards of chemical and energy-intensive food and farming and genetically modified organisms (GMOs), the greater the demand for organic foods and products, and the greater the number of new organic farmers, young organic farm apprentices, and urban organic gardeners (now 12 million-strong). The Achilles heel or weakest link of industrial agriculture is truthful labeling: consumers right to know. If toxic pesticides, chemicals and genetically engineered ingredients are labeled, consumers will not buy them, retailers will not sell them, and farmers will not grow them. Even though Washington has fallen under the control of Monsanto and corporate agribusiness, we can still change public policies at the state and local level, with grassroots-powered ballot initiatives and state legislation. Even though we live in Monsanto Nation, we can still bring down Goliath.
(3) Link up with other Movements, local to global. Reducing global poverty, eliminating war and stabilizing the climate go hand-in-hand. The best way to reduce global rural poverty and conflict and eliminate war is through land reform and sustainable organic farming practices. With land reform and technical assistance, millions of organic farms in the Global South can develop and prosper, helping the world's poorest people, especially women, to produce far more food with less or no fossil fuel or chemical inputs. This organic revolution will enable several billion peasants and rural villagers to rise up from poverty and reduce the unsustainable population growth that accompanies abject poverty. At the same time, one of the best ways to reduce fossil fuel use and naturally sequester climate-destabilizing greenhouse gases is to change our current land use practices, to go organic. For 10,000 years indigenous people and traditional farmers fed the world with organic farming and animal husbandry practices. By converting the world's 12 billion acres of farmland and pasture land back to organic soil management we will be creating, instead of destroying, soil fertility, as well as restoring the soil food web's amazing ability to permanently sequester enormous amounts of climate destabilizing CO2 through increased plant photosynthesis. With organic soil management spreading across the world's 12 billion acres of farmland and pastureland, and a global mobilization to replant the 10 billion acres of forest that industry and agribusiness have destroyed, we can literally reverse global warming, bringing atmospheric concentrations of CO2 back down to a safe level of 350 parts per million from the current dangerous level of 390 ppm.
The hour is late, but there is still time to prepare ourselves and our communities before the economy collapses. Educate yourself and get active. Start to make preparations for an end to "business as usual." Step up your efforts. Help link the issues and different constituencies in the body politic. Don't panic. Go organic.
UK family living off the grid evicted from their own land
A COUPLE living an “off-grid” lifestyle say they face prison unless they move from their own land in Willand and return to an existence in the benefits trap.
Stig and Dinah Mason bought Muxbeare Orchard after a sudden windfall allowed them to quit their impoverished lives on a Hertfordshire council estate two years ago.
The Masons have transformed what they described as a derelict four-acre plot into a haven of self-sufficiency boasting a 400 sq m allotment, a polytunnel and greenhouses to grow fruit and vegetables, chickens for egg production and an orchard they have regenerated by planting around 14 new apple trees of various species.
The couple, who have two boys, aged eight and nine, say because they moved onto the site in order to work the land, Mid Devon District Council is turfing them off as officers do not consider them to be conserving an agricultural area.
