Gary Younge - Osama bin Laden's death has had zero impact on America's security

Last week, Afghanistan; two coalition troops were injured and one killed by Afghan soldiers; the US reached an agreement with the Afghan governmentto maintain a presence in the country until 2024; and the US failed to break a diplomatic deadlock with Pakistan after the US refused to apologise for killing 25 Pakistani soldiers in November.

This week, the White House will celebrate the anniversary of the assassination of Osama bin Laden as though it were the crowning achievement of its foreign policy. On Wednesday, Obama will hold a rare televised interview in the situation room to discuss the raid in Abbottabad. His campaign has released of a web video in which Bill Clinton says President Obama "took the harder and the more honorable path, and the one that produced, in my opinion, the best result". The video then asks, "Which path would Mitt Romney have taken?"

The man who entered the White House with the message of "hope" and "change" wants to hold on to it with a record of "shoot to kill".

Republicans are right to criticise the president for the crass manner in which he is "dancing around the end zone". Unfortunately, those criticisms ring hollow from a party whose leader played dress up on the USS Abraham Lincoln to announce the end of a war that is still not over, and whosepresidential candidate claims Obama should stop travelling the globe "apologising for" America. Moreover, the problem is not that Obama is exploiting a moment of national unity for partisan gain – though he most certainly is – but that this extra-judicial execution of an unmourned man has proved the only event capable of uniting the country since 9/11.

Read More:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/may/01/osama-bin-laden-death-zero-impact

Merrin Fabre - Lighting up to take down bacteria

Whilst some bacteria can provide health benefits there are others that can do annoying things - like kill you. So in order to save ourselves we should probably kill them first. So, stand aside bacterial wipes, hand sanitisers and antiseptic sprays there is a new bug zapper in town.

Bring in the plasma flashlight - a torch that emits a plasma jet that kills bacteria on the skin in an instant. Developed by a group of Chinese and Australian scientists, including CSIRO, the flashlight is completely mobile, light, efficient, and works at room temperature.

Due to its mobility it could be used in ambulance emergency calls, natural disaster sites, military combat operations and many other instances where treatment is required in remote locations.

Kostya Ostrikov from CSIRO was one of the researchers working on the flashlight.

"'The plasma flashlight is an exciting development in potential health treatments," Kostya said. "It not only inactivates individual bacterial cells but also bacterial biofilms."

Read More:

http://www.interndaily.com/reports/Lighting_up_to_take_down_bacteria_999.html

Danny Schechter - Robots R’US: Military-style Drones Reported On 63 Bases In The USA

Listen to Danny Schechter every Friday at 1pm (Eastern Time) on "The News Dissector"

It’s easy to understand why Presidents, politicians and the military love robots. They don’t talk back. They follow orders.  You press a button and they do what they are told. They are considered so efficient, and so lethal.

These modern killing machines represent science fiction reborn as science ‘faction.’

Robots and drones don’t burn Korans or pose with the heads of their captives on the battlefield. (Robots also don’t protest wars.)  Lose the human factor and you get silent but deadly total destruction. 

And that’s why drone warfare has become such a weapon of choice. You have video game jockeys sitting on their asses in front of consoles of digital displays at an Air Force base outside Las Vegas, targeting suspected terrorists in Afghanistan. After a couple of quick kills, they take the rest of the day off.

It’s only later, that we get the reports of civilians decimated as collateral damage.

Oops!

These new lethal toys are used both for surveillance and targeted assassinations.

Read More:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=30576

Lawrence Wittner - The Shame of Nations: A New Record is Set for Spending on War

On April 17, 2012, as millions of Americans were filing their income tax returns, the highly-respected Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released its latest study of world military spending. In case Americans were wondering where most of their tax money -- and the tax money of other nations -- went in the previous year, the answer from SIPRI was clear: to war and preparations for war

World military spending reached a record $1,738 billion in 2011 -- an increase of $138 billion over the previous year. The United States accounted for 41 percent of that, or $711 billion. Some news reports have emphasized that, from the standpoint of reducing reliance on armed might, this actually represents progress. After all, the increase in “real” global military spending -- that is, expenditures after corrections for inflation and exchange rates -- was only 0.3 percent. And this contrasts with substantially larger increases in the preceding thirteen years.

But why are military expenditures continuing to increase -- indeed, why aren’t they substantially decreasing -- given the governmental austerity measures of recent years? Amid the economic crisis that began in late 2008 (and which continues to the present day), most governments have been cutting back their spending dramatically on education, health care, housing, parks, and other vital social services. However, there have not been corresponding cuts in their military budgets.

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/04/23-2

Juan Cole - How America Went Rogue: What We All Need to Know About Our Government's Shadow Wars

Covert operations are nothing new in American history, but it could be argued that during the past decade they have moved from being a relatively minor arrow in the national security quiver to being the cutting edge of American power. Drone strikes, electronic surveillance and stealth engagements by military units such as the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), as well as dependence on private corporations, mercenary armies and terrorist groups, are now arguably more common as tools of US foreign policy than conventional warfare or diplomacy. But these tools lend themselves to rogue operations that create peril for the United States when they blow back on us. And they often make the United States deeply unpopular.

Shadow power has even become an issue in the presidential campaign. Newt Gingrich advocates ramped-up “covert operations” inside Iran. President Obama replied to Mitt Romney’s charge that he is an “appeaser” by suggesting that his critics “ask bin Laden” about that.

Obama often speaks of the “tide of war receding,” but that phrase refers only to conventional war. In Afghanistan, where the administration hopes to roll up conventional fighting by the end of 2013, it is making plans for long-term operations by special forces through units such as JSOC. It is unclear what legal framework will be constructed for their activities, other than a wink and a nod from President Hamid Karzai.

Read More:

http://www.alternet.org/world/155000/how_america_went_rogue%3A_what_we_all_need_to_know_about_our_government's_shadow_wars?page=entire

Robert C. Koehler - Chemical Warfare: The US Military's Pill Addiction

To fight our insane wars, we’re wrecking our soldiers’ ability to live with themselves and function in society, then regulating what’s left of them with chemicals, which often make things immeasurably worse.The modern Army psychiatrist’s deployment kit is likely to include nine kinds of antidepressants, benzodiazepines for anxiety, four antipsychotics, two kinds of sleep aids, and drugs for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to a 2007 review in the journal Military Medicine.

In the pursuit of order, could we possibly be creating more chaos, not simply externally — in the shattered countries we’re leaving in our wake — but internally, in the minds of those soldiers?

The Los Angeles Times noted that Air Force pilot Patrick Burke was recently acquitted in a court-marital hearing on charges of auto theft, drunk driving and two counts of assault — due to “polysubstance-induced delirium.” This was, the Times explained, a turning point: the first official acknowledgement, by military psychiatrists and a court-martial judge, that the drugs that have become a routine part of military service — in Burke’s case, the prescribed amphetamine Dexedrine (“go pills”) — can contribute to temporary insanity.

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/04/12-4

US Army Preparing for Martial Law Scenario in US? Civil Disturbance and Mock Riot Drills In Washington :

For years the alternative media has warned about the US military possibly being used against the American people in a time of economic collapse or any sort of martial law scenario.

Drills such as Vigilant Guard 2010 have brought widespread attention to the fact that portions of our own military are training to take on crowds of American citizens demanding food and Constitutional rights in a time of crisis.

Now, a new release by the website Public Intelligence, once again confirms that as recently as February and March of 2012, US troops at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington were conducting training scenarios for a civil disturbance domestic quick reaction force.

A series of photos of the drills shows US troops with crowd control riot shields on the opposite side of actors portraying what can only be described as American citizens.

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http://theintelhub.com/2012/04/09/us-army-preparing-for-martial-law-scenario-in-us-civil-disturbance-and-mock-riot-drills-in-washington/

Jim Garrison - Martial Law by Executive Order

President Obama's National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order of March 16 does to the country as a whole what the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act did to the Constitution in particular -- completely eviscerates any due process or judicial oversight for any action by the Government deemed in the interest of "national security." Like the NDAA, the new Executive Order puts the government completely above the law, which, in a democracy, is never supposed to happen. The United States is essentially now under martial law without the exigencies of a national emergency.

Even as the 2012 NDAA was rooted in the Patriot Act and the various executive orders and Congressional bills that ensued to broaden executive power in the "war on terror," so the new Executive Order is rooted in the Defense Production Act of 1950 which gave the Government powers to mobilize national resources in the event of national emergencies, except now virtually every aspect of American life falls under ultimate unchallengeable government control, to be exercised by the president and his secretaries at their discretion.

Read More:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-garrison/martial-law-under-another_b_1370819.html

Pratap Chatterjee - Militarizing the Middle East: Arms Shipments Continue Despite Abuses

A mysterious ship laden with weapons is expected to dock in Port Said, Egypt, this week. The MV Schippersgracht left Southport in North Carolina, the Pentagon’s largest ammunition port, on March 3, 2012. The ship is on contract to the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command, which refuses to explain what weapons are on board or what the ultimate destination of the weapons are, claiming security concerns.

Data on the MV Schippersgracht shipment came from an investigative collaboration between Amnesty International, Transarms and the International Peace and Information Service (IPIS).

Brian Wood, Amnesty International’s head of arms control, raised the alarm: “This ship of shame should not be allowed to unload its dangerous cargo in Egypt, and there is a substantial risk that this is what it plans to do,” he said in an Amnesty press release.

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/03/22-0

Amitabh Pal - New Report Shows Extent of Global Arms Complex

There are few things as infuriating as the annual report by one of my favorite research organizations.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute released on March 19 its yearly global arms report, with data showing that arms transfers for the past four years have increased by a quarter over the 2002-2006 period. Asia is leading the world in the wrong direction.

“Asia and Oceania accounted for 44 per cent of global arms imports, followed by Europe (19 percent), the Middle East (17 percent), the Americas (11 percent) and Africa (9 percent),” the report says, adding that “India was the world’s largest recipient of arms, accounting for 10 per cent of global arms imports.”

A staff member of the group explained India’s motivation to CNN.

"India procures arms in relation to its tense relationship with Pakistan and increasingly sees China as a potential threat," said Siemon Wezeman, a senior analyst with SIPRI. “It also wants to assert itself as a major regional or even global power.”

If India wants to compete with China, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has a better suggestion.

Read More:

http://www.progressive.org/extent_of_global_arms_complex.html