USA – Page 17

Bolivia's Morales: U.S 'backs drug trafficking'

December 31, 2014 by Nasheman

According to the Bolivian President, Washington “uses its War on Drugs to pursue its own geo-political agenda.”

The so-called War on Drugs pushed by Washington is just one of the many means that the United States uses to pressure and control governments in Latin America, according to Bolivian President Evo Morales.

“(U.S. government) uses its War on Drugs to pursue its own geo-political agenda and now they use it to accuse other governments and take them down,” Morales, one of the Latin American leaders who has most fiercely criticized U.S. policy in the region, told the Mexican newspaper La Jornada in an article published Monday.

“They even named me the ‘Andinean Bin Laden’ and accused us of being terrorists and drug traffickers and at the same United States is the top-nation that backs and benefits from drug trafficking,” the Bolivian president continued.

Morales, whose political career began as a coca leaf farmer, said that drug trafficking is one of the many ways that the U.S. government uses to impose its own agenda in the region.

“Drug trafficking seems like the big business of the capitalist system. (United States) is a very developed country, with a lot of technology and the one who consumes the most drugs. How is it that they cannot control drug trafficking?,” asked Morales. “I think the country that drives the drug trade is the U.S., it’s big business; the big, illegal business of the capitalist system.”

Since electing Morales as President in 2006, Bolivia has been in dispute with Washington the coca leaf production in the South American nation, which the country’s indigenous majority use for a range of non-narcotic purposes, including religious ceremonies.

The coca plant is considered sacred in several Andean countries.

Morales also slammed U.S. policy in the region, including the recent announcement by the Obama administration to impose diplomatic sanctions against Venezuela.

Morales urged all Latin American leaders to unite against U.S. imperialism. “Unity is the only way to guarantee a future in Latin America,” the Bolivian leader concluded.

Afghanistan conflict: Taliban declares 'defeat' of Nato

December 30, 2014 by Nasheman

The US and its allies insist that Afghan security forces are strong enough to defeat Taliban insurgents

by BBC

Taliban fighters in Afghanistan have declared the “defeat” of the US and its allies, a day after the coalition officially ended its combat mission.

A Taliban statement said the US-led force had “rolled up its flag” without having achieved “anything substantial”.

Nato formally ended its 13-year mission on Sunday, but about 13,000 troops will stay to train the Afghan army.

Meanwhile, officials said four Afghan soldiers were killed in a Taliban attack in Helmand province on Monday.

Three other soldiers were injured during the attack on an army checkpoint in Sangin district. Eight insurgents were said to have been killed.

The US-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) marked the end of its mission by lowering its flag at a ceremony in Kabul on Sunday.

Mission commander Gen John Campbell said the Nato force had “lifted the Afghan people out of the darkness of despair and given them hope for the future”.

‘Demoralised’

But in a statement on Monday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the Nato ceremony was “a clear indication of their defeat and disappointment”.

He said the Taliban would establish “a pure Islamic system by expelling the remaining invading forces,” adding that Western troops were “demoralised”.

Nato’s Afghan deployment began after the 9/11 attacks against the US.

At its peak, the US-led Isaf deployment involved more than 130,000 personnel from 50 countries.

But from 1 January, the force will consist of about 13,000 mostly-American troops and will shift to a training and support mission for the Afghan army.

The US will also have an additional force of a few thousand troops whose focus will be counter-terrorism operations.

While the US and its allies say the Afghan security forces have been able to prevent a Taliban offensive, violence has increased in recent months.

This year has been the bloodiest in Afghanistan since 2001, with at least 4,600 members of the Afghan security forces having been killed.

Nearly 3,500 foreign troops have been killed since the beginning of the Nato mission in 2001, including about 2,200 American troops.

U.S female military veterans battling PTSD from sexual trauma fight for redress

December 27, 2014 by Nasheman

Army veteran Kate Weber is a survivor of military sexual trauma who now spends most of her time doing MST advocacy. (Christopher Chung/ The Press Democrat)

by Emily Wax-Thibodeaux, The Washington Post

Thousands of female veterans are struggling to get health-care treatment and compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs on the grounds that they suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder caused by sexual trauma in the military. The veterans and their advocates call it “the second battle” — with a bureaucracy they say is stuck in the past.

Judy Atwood-Bell was just a 19-year-old Army private when she says she was locked inside a barracks room at Fort Devens in Massachusetts, forced to the cold floor and raped by a fellow solider.

For more than two decades, Atwood-Bell fought for an apology and financial compensation from VA for PTSD, with panic attacks, insomnia and severe depression that she recalls started soon after that winter day in 1981. She filled out stacks of forms in triplicate and then filled them out again, pressing over and over for recognition of the harm that was done.

The department labels it “military sexual trauma” (MST), covering any unwanted contact, including sexual innuendo, groping and rape.

A recent VA survey found that 1 in 4 women said they experienced sexual harassment or assault. And the problem is growing more pressing because female veterans represent the military’s fastest-growing population, with an estimated 2.2 million, or 10 percent, of the country’s veterans. More than 280,000 female veterans have returned home from deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

About two weeks ago, when Atwood-Bell checked the department’s Web site, as she does every day, she was stunned to discover that the agency had accepted her claim for compensation.

“It’s taken over 20 years, and that should’ve never happened,” said Atwood-Bell, who retired as a sergeant first class and lives in New Hampshire, her voice cracking with emotion. “My fight is not over. It’s not done for so many other women out there. I want to help them to get what we are entitled to.”

The Pentagon has been conducting a high-profile campaign to prevent sexual attacks and punish offenders amid concerns that defense officials neglected these assaults for years.

But advocacy groups say VA has been slow to adjust to the rising number of women in the military.

Some health centers, for instance, only recently opened female restrooms. Women who go to VA centers for treatment say they are routinely asked whether they are waiting for their husbands or are lost. And while there are a few showcase centers for female veterans, a third of VA medical centers lack a gynecologist on staff, according to a report by Disabled American Veterans, or DAV. Thirty-one percent of VA clinics lack staff to provide adequate treatment for sexual assault, according to a recent report by the Institute of Medicine.

Female veterans, in part, are pressing for more VA centers that specifically treat military sexual trauma, with separate waiting rooms for women and child care.

VA Secretary Robert McDonald says the department is taking steps to improve health services to address sexual trauma, such as asking all veterans during intake whether they suffered such an assault or trauma and hiring more doctors, therapists and social workers with experience in issues of sexual assault in the military. The agency also says it is increasing the staff responsible for promoting VA benefits to women veterans and helping them with claims, especially those involving sexual abuse.

This month, the department announced it would expand mental health services to reservists and National Guard members who were sexually assaulted while on inactive duty.

“VA simply must be an organization that provides comprehensive care for all veterans dealing with the effects of military sexual trauma,” McDonald said. “Our range of services for MST-related experiences are constantly being reexamined to best meet the needs of our veterans.”

This year, it became easier for survivors of sexual trauma to get treatment because the government ended the requirement that military members produce proof that they were assaulted or harassed before they get health care.

But advocates say thousands of female veterans confront an even larger problem: They are unable to get disability compensation benefits for sexual trauma because they do not have enough paperwork to support their claims. Advocacy groups and VA officials blame a culture of secrecy and denial inside the military that heavily discourages women from reporting sexual assault.

VA officials said that they are encouraging female veterans to reapply for benefits for PTSD caused by sexual abuse and that they are re-reviewing cases.

Elena M. Giordano says she was raped about 10 years ago by two men on separate occasions while serving aboard a Navy aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean as an airman apprentice. When she reported the attacks, she says, Giordano was discharged with “pre-existing personality disorder,” a label that advocates say is often applied by military officers to women who report rape.

Giordano, now 29, said she had never wanted to go public with her complaint. She had originally asked to be assigned to the carrier and didn’t want to leave it. But after the second attack, she said, “I just had to leave. I couldn’t be around men without having a panic attack.”

When she returned home to Arizona, VA agreed to provide counseling and medical treatment. But the department denied her disability benefits, citing the “totality of the evidence.”

Veterans with service-connected disabilities — whether it’s a back injury or PTSD, and including sexual trauma and assault — are entitled to compensation if they are causing lasting pain or make the individuals unable to work. The benefits can run from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand a month, depending on the injuries and their impact, according to federal law.

But in cases of sexual trauma, veterans often lack medical records and other documentation required for compensation through VA because the women do not report the incidents. Also, until recently, the Defense Department allowed the destruction of rape kits after one year and of sexual harassment and sexual assault reports after as little as two years.

Atwood-Bell, for instance, said sexual assault was something female troops did not dare talk about for fear that they would face retaliation and be discharged with a “mental health diagnosis.” She said her application for benefits was rejected twice due to lack of evidence.

The Pentagon released new data on Dec. 4 that showed that 62 percent of those who reported being sexually assaulted had experienced retaliation or ostracism afterward, whether from superiors or peers in the service.

Since many survivors of sexual trauma lack a traditional paper trail, VA officials who evaluate claims have to search for what they call “markers,” such as a change in a performance review, e-mails or letters with friends or clergy about an attack, reports of depression and anxiety, weight loss or gain, requests for a pregnancy test or a test for a sexually transmitted disease.

“These are not easy claims. But I am very passionate about this issue,” said Diana Williard, the quality assurance officer with the Veterans Benefits Administration.“And you do almost have to be like a little detective putting it together. But if there is even one bit of circumstantial evidence, we send them to a mental health counselor to see if they have PTSD.”

Anu Bhagwati, executive director of Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN), calls the marker system “unfair and absurd.”

Her organization, along with the Vietnam Veterans of America, filed a federal lawsuit against VA in July, alleging that the department’s policies are discriminatory and that claims experts consistently impose a higher burden of proof on military-rape survivors than on other veterans when it comes to verifying reports of PTSD.

The plaintiffs argue that veterans seeking disability benefits for combat-related PTSD do not have to provide evidence other than their own statements and a mental health professional’s review linking their illness to military service.

“It’s just a broken policy. So veterans experience betrayal from the sexual assault, from the way they are treated by their units after the assault, and then by the VA when they file claims,” said Bhagwati, a former captain in the Marine Corps. “The VA became the last place, after a long line of places, where any hope they had left of getting help just dies.”

VA officials would not comment on the pending ligation.

Former Army private first class Katie Weber said she was raped by another soldier when she was 18 while posted in Nuremberg, Germany. She tried to report the attack but was told, “in the same breath,” that it didn’t really happen and that she was not to tell anyone about it, Weber said. “When I told another official,” she recalled, “they said I was ‘jumping the chain of command’ and that I was probably ‘just really confused and a little slut.’ ”

When she went home, she discovered that there was a severe lack of suitable medical and mental health services at the department and little understanding of how sexual trauma can cause PTSD. So Weber started a Facebook group called “Women Veterans for Equality in our VA System” to advocate for the interests of those who suffered sexual trauma in the military.

“We were really isolated,” said Weber, now 40 and living in California. “So enter Facebook.”

It was her encouragement and the Facebook group that ultimately persuaded a weary Giordano to resume her fight for benefits.

Giordano said she got “the letter” in late November, saying she would, indeed, be getting compensation benefits.

“I may never understand why they changed their mind and finally believed me,” she said. “But I am glad they did. That’s my hope for justice and dignity for all of the other women who have suffered this. ”

Saudi Arabia braces for $39bn deficit, to cut wages due to low oil prices

December 27, 2014 by Nasheman

by RT

The number one crude oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, has projected a $39 billion deficit in 2015. The impact of lower oil prices, along with the decision not to cut production, is putting pressure on the country’s finances.

The figure was part of the endorsed 2015 budget, which was made public in a statement read out on state-run television on Thursday.

The estimated trade deficit will be Saudi Arabia’s largest on record.

The Finance Ministry said the government will try to save some money by cutting salaries, wages, and allowances that represent around “50 percent of total budgeted expenditures.” But the move could anger Saudi youth, who are already struggling to cover the costs of living in the country.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), about two-thirds of the population works for the government.

The 2015 budget includes 860 billion riyals (US$229.3 billion) in spending and 715 billion riyals ($190.7 billion) in revenue. Saudi Arabia promised to cover the difference by digging into its reserves.

At the latest OPEC meeting in Vienna, Austria, the Gulf country opted not to cut the production ceiling of 30 million barrels per day, despite oil prices plunging nearly 50 percent since summer.

Saudi Arabia has also made clear that it is unwilling to cut down production, even if oil prices continue to fall further. Last week, the country’s oil minister, Ali Al-Naimi, said that output would not be reduced, even if prices fall to $20 a barrel.

The decision has been interpreted by some experts as trying to weed out new players from North America, who can competitively produce shale oil only at higher crude prices. However, lower oil prices also directly hurt the economies of countries like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela.

Some economists fear that the deficit in 2015 might be even larger than projected, since Saudi Arabians have underestimated the figure in the past.

“I believe we are headed for a difficult year in 2015. I think the actual deficit will be around 200 billion riyals [$53 billion] because actual revenues are expected to be lower than estimates,” Saudi economist Abdulwahab Abu-Dahesh told AFP. “Spending in the budget is not in line with the sharp decline in oil prices,” he said.

According to the country’s Finance Ministry, the 2014 fiscal year budget is set to post a deficit of 54 billion riyals ($14.4 billion) – the first budget shortfall since 2009.

U.S. to send more private contractors to Iraq

December 26, 2014 by Nasheman

Washington/Kazinform: The U.S. government is preparing to boost the number of private contractors in Iraq as part of President Barack Obama’s growing effort to beat back Islamic State militants threatening the Baghdad government, a senior U.S. official said, AKI Press reports.

How many contractors will deploy to Iraq – beyond the roughly 1,800 now working there for the U.S. State Department – will depend in part, the official said, on how widely dispersed U.S. troops advising Iraqi security forces are, and how far they are from U.S. diplomatic facilities.

Still, the preparations to increase the number of contractors – who can be responsible for everything from security to vehicle repair and food service – underscores Obama’s growing commitment in Iraq. When U.S. troops and diplomats venture into war zones, contractors tend to follow, doing jobs once handled by the military itself.

“It is certain that there will have to be some number of contractors brought in for additional support,” said the senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

After Islamic State seized large swaths of Iraqi territory and the major city of Mosul in June, Obama ordered U.S. troops back to Iraq. Last month, he authorized roughly doubling the number of troops, who will be in non-combat roles, to 3,100, but is keen not to let the troop commitment grow too much.

There are now about 1,750 U.S. troops in Iraq, and U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel last week ordered deployment of an additional 1,300.

The U.S. military’s reliance on civilians was on display during Hagel’s trip to Baghdad this month, when he and his delegation were flown over the Iraqi capital in helicopters operated by State Department contractors.

The problem, the senior U.S. official said, is that as U.S. troops continue flowing into Iraq, the State Department’s contractor ranks will no longer be able to support the needs of both diplomats and troops.

After declining since late 2011, State Department contractor numbers in Iraq have risen slightly, by less than 5 percent, since June, a State Department spokesman said.

U.S to accept thousands of Syrian refugees for resettlement

December 25, 2014 by Nasheman

Anne C. Richard (L), assistant secretary of state for population, refugees, and migration, and Nancy Lindborg (front, 2nd R), USAID assistant administrator for democracy, conflict, and humanitarian assistance, visit the Zaatari Syrian refugee camp in the Jordanian city of Mafraq, near the border with Syria, Jan. 28, 2013. (Photo by REUTERS/Ali Jarekji)

by Barbara Slavin, Al-Monitor

US Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration Anne Richard says the United States will dramatically increase the number of Syrian refugees allowed to resettle permanently in the United States from about 350 this year to close to 10,000 annually as the crisis grinds on into its fifth year.

While the number is minuscule given a total Syrian refugee population of 3.3 million, it reflects US recognition that the civil war in Syria is not about to end anytime soon and that, even when it does, Syria will need years for reconstruction and reconciliation.

In an interview with Al-Monitor Dec. 22, Richard said, “People are surprised we haven’t taken more.” She said the initial low numbers reflect the reality that “resettling refugees is never the first thing you do when people are fleeing an emerging crisis” and that other countries — in particular Germany and Sweden — have “stepped forward and offered to take a lot” of Syrian refugees.

According to the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), Germany has pledged to absorb 30,000 Syrians just since 2013 — nearly half of those processed for resettlement.

“We thought that was a great offer and unusually generous so we encouraged UNHCR to take advantage of that,” Richard said.

After initial vetting by UNHCR, Syrian refugees who want to resettle in the United States must be interviewed by officers of the Department of Homeland Security at US diplomatic facilities in Amman, Jordan or Istanbul, Turkey. That leaves out a million Syrians who have fled to Lebanon and large populations in Iraq and Egypt. Richard said lack of space and security concerns have kept the United States from interviewing Syrian refugees at the US Embassy in Beirut but that US officials are looking at the possibility of setting up a refugee vetting operation in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq.

UNHCR seeks to identify the most vulnerable candidates, Richard said. “By Dec. 15, we had 10,000 referrals from UNHCR and they are coming in at 1,000 to 1,500 a month.”

Asked how many of those referred would be accepted, Richard said, “I think most” because they are likely to meet the United State’s definition of a refugee as someone fleeing persecution or threats because of race, ethnicity, religion, political beliefs or membership to a particular social group.

Refugees must also pass medical and security checks. “The last part has been tricky in the past,” Richard said, but added that it is not likely to be a major problem with the Syrians referred by UNHCR. She said she expected them to comprise mostly widows with children, the elderly and people with medical conditions. “It will be fairly clear that they are not terrorists bent on harming Americans,” she said.

No preference is given to those with relatives already in the United States but if they do have family among the estimated half million Syrian Americans, “we try to reunite them because that can improve their chances of doing well in the US,” Richard said.

There are large populations of Arab Americans outside Detroit and in San Diego, but the Syrian refugees who have arrived in the United States recently have been settled all around the country.

According to the latest State Department statistics, 33 Syrian refugees were sent to North Carolina so far this year, 30 to Texas, 24 to both California and Illinois, and only five to Michigan.

Richard said her office works with nine networks in the United States, six of them faith-based, to identify communities willing to help refugees find new homes. “They sign up to take certain numbers based on what their organizations can handle,” she said.

This past year has been extremely challenging for her office, and not just because of Syria. The year started with humanitarian crises in two other countries — South Sudan and the Central African Republic — followed over the summer by Ukraine, a new Gaza war, a flood of unaccompanied children from Central America crossing the US border, the Ebola epidemic in West Africa and the sudden advance of the group that calls itself the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq.

“It’s been a tough year,” Richard, who is also a former executive with the International Rescue Committee, said with some understatement.

But on the positive side, she said, “We’ve kept millions and millions of people alive” who otherwise would have succumbed to hunger and disease.

While the United States remains the world’s leader in providing humanitarian relief — allocating about $6 billion for refugee assistance, disaster assistance and food aid in the past year and $3 billion for Syria since 2011 — other countries such as Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are beginning to make regular contributions to the UN agencies that provide most humanitarian aid.

Even Saudi Arabia, which has been reluctant to participate in such UN programs in the past, gave half a million dollars to help Iraqis cope with the crisis caused by IS this summer, Richard said.

“We would like to see more governments contributing and those new to doing so to do it routinely in a dependable way … so that organizations like UNHCR and the World Food Program can plan ahead,” she said.

The United States takes in about 70,000 refugees a year, of whom Iraqis accounted for the largest number in the last fiscal year — nearly 20,000. They were followed by more than 16,000 Burmese, more than 9,000 Bhutanese, more than 7,000 Somalis and more than 4,000 Cubans. The number of Bhutanese is dwindling, however, opening up room for more Syrians.

Richard said it was her impression that the number of Syrians fleeing their country has “leveled off a little bit” but that the problem of those internally displaced and in need of aid is more acute than ever.

“A lot of people are trying to stay and make it inside Syria,” she said, noting that the number of internally displaced had grown from 6 million six months ago to 7.6 million now, with more than 200,000 in areas that cannot be reached by outsiders because of the fighting. “It’s hard for me to understand how they are managing,” she said.

The UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has floated a proposal to “freeze” the fighting, starting in Syria’s second largest city, Aleppo, to ease the humanitarian crisis there.

However, Richard expressed skepticism about the plan.

“After Staffan de Mistura came through [Washington recently], everyone wanted to give it a chance but I don’t think we have much evidence of a change,” she said. “There has been modest cooperation from the Assad regime but the thinking is that they haven’t suddenly adopted a whole new pro-humanitarian approach. It’s more that they are trying to distinguish themselves from [IS],” she said..

Others who work on the Syria crisis also expressed pessimism about a near-term solution to the conflict.

“I can’t believe that I’m still doing this after almost four years,” Sasha Ghosh-Siminoff, president and co-founder of an aid group called People Demand Change, told Al-Monitor. “When I left Syria in 2011, we all thought the regime would decide to save itself and make reforms, crumble quickly or that the international community would step in. Unfortunately none of that has come to pass.”

North Korea 'back online' after internet outage

December 23, 2014 by Nasheman

US denies involvement after reported online-access disruption amid tensions over cyberattack on Sony Pictures.

North Korea is embroiled in a confrontation with US over the hacking of emails from Sony executives [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

North Korea, at the centre of a confrontation with the US over the hacking of Sony Pictures, experienced a complete internet outage for hours before links were restored, according to a US company that monitors internet infrastructure.

Dyn, the New Hampshire-based internet monitor, said on Tuesday the reason for the outage was not known but could range from technological glitches to a hacking attack.

Several US officials close to the investigations of the attack on Sony Pictures said the US government was not involved in any cyber action against North Korea.

US President Barack Obama had pledged on Friday to respond to the major cyberattack, which he blamed on North Korea, “in a place and time and manner that we choose”.

Dyn said North Korea’s internet links were unstable on Monday and the country later went completely offline.

“We’re yet to see how stable the new connection is,” Jim Cowie, chief scientist for the company, said in a telephone call to Reuters news agency after the services were restored.

“The question for the next few hours is whether it will return to the unstable fluctuations we saw before the outage.”

North Korea is one of the most isolated nations in the world, and the effects of the internet outage there were not fully clear.

Internet dependence

Very few of North Korea’s 24 million people have access to the internet.

However, major websites, including those of the KCNA state news agency, the main Rodong Sinmun newspaper and the main external public-relations company went down for hours.

Almost all of the country’s internet links and traffic pass through China, except, possibly, for some satellite links.

“North Korea has significantly less internet to lose, compared to other countries with similar populations: Yemen [47 networks], Afghanistan [370 networks], or Taiwan [5,030 networks],” Dyn Research said in a report.

“And unlike these countries, North Korea maintains dependence on a single international provider, China Unicom.”

Meanwhile South Korea, which remains technically at war with the North, said it could not rule out the involvement of its neighbour in a cyberattack on its nuclear power plant operator.

It said only non-critical data was stolen and operations were not at risk, but had asked for US help in investigating.

Park Geun-hye, South Korean president, said on Tuesday the leak of data from the nuclear operator was a “grave situation” that was unacceptable as a matter of national security, but she did not mention any involvement of North Korea.

US seeks to overthrow Venezuela government: official

December 22, 2014 by Nasheman

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Photo: REUTERS

Caracas/AFP: Tighter new US sanctions against Venezuela are aimed to foment violent unrest to try to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro, his defense minister said Saturday.

“This US interference is aimed at promoting violence… against our institutions” to oust staunch US critic Maduro, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino told Telesur television.

US President Barack Obama signed a law on Thursday to allow sanctions against senior Venezuelan officials accused of violating the rights of protesters during anti-government demonstrations that rocked the country earlier this year.

The text approved just over a week ago by both houses of the US Congress would freeze assets and deny visas to Venezuelan authorities responsible for violence and political detentions triggered by the protests.

Thousands of activists were arrested and more than 43 people were killed during mass demonstrations that raged from February to May against the government of Maduro, the elected successor of late leftist firebrand president Hugo Chavez.

Maduro has repeatedly accused the United States of fomenting the protests and seeking to overthrow and even assassinate him.

The Venezuelan leader condemned the sanctions law in a series of Twitter posts this week, calling it a “misstep” that resembled the US policy isolating Cuba, which was overturned Wednesday as Obama and Cuba’s leader Raul Castro announced a bilateral rapprochement.

“The background of all this is much more nuanced. It is dangerous because these are the steps they are taking so that they can try to have the world see the Venezuelan state as a failed one,” Padrino warned.

Caracas and Washington have had strained diplomatic ties since Chavez first came to power in 1999, leading to the withdrawal of ambassadors from each other’s countries in 2010.

Still, the United States is the main buyer of Venezuelan oil.

Raul Castro: U.S must respect that Cuba will remain Socialist

December 22, 2014 by Nasheman

Cuba’s President Raul Castro greets members of the National Assembly at the start of a session in Havana, December 20, 2014. Photo: Reuters

by teleSUR

The President also announced he will attend the Summit of the Americas, a first for a Cuban head of State.

Cuban President Raul Castro told the country’s legislators Saturday that the United States must respect the island’s socialist political and economic system.

“In the same way that we have never demanded that the United States change its political system, we will demand respect for ours,” Raul Castro told the National Assembly.

The U.S. and Cuba restored diplomatic ties earlier this week, after U.S. President Barack Obama admitted that his country’s half century attempt to defeat Cuba had failed.

Raul Castro added that he will participate in the Summit of the Americas in April, the first opportunity for the leader to meet with United States President Barack Obama following the historic announcement.

Cuba has never participated these summits due to the island’s exclusion from the Organization of American States in 1962.

The Government of Panama had previously stated that it intended to invite Cuba to the summit, while numerous leaders from the hemisphere having previously stated they would not attend unless Cuba was present.

Raul Castro also said Cuba faces a “long and difficult struggle” before the United States removes a decades-old economic embargo against the Caribbean island, in part because influential Cuban-American exiles will attempt to “sabotage the process” toward normalization.

The Cuban National Assembly announced on Friday that it would back the agreement of President Raul Castro and U.S to restore diplomatic ties. Yolanda Ferrer, President of the International Relations Commission of the National Assembly also warmly welcomed the return of three Cuban political prisoners held by the United States for more than 15 years for attempting to thwart terrorist attacks on the island by Cuban-expatriate extremists.

Leaked emails: Obama exerted influence over “The Interview”

December 20, 2014 by Nasheman

by Robert Barsocchini

Antiwar.com’s Dan Sanchez has just reported on leaked emails that reveal that the Obama regime exerted influence over the movieThe Interview “to encourage assassination and regime change in North Korea”.

Regarding the threats of bombings of theaters if the film was shown, Obama has been personally encouraging people to “go the movies” anyway, while hardliners like Mitt Romney have specifically encouraged people to go see The Interview.

This is not the first time strongman Obama has been closely involved with promoting or influencing Hollywood movies spouting negative propaganda about countries Obama and the US want to invade and conquer. Michelle Obama personally presented the Academy award for “best picture” for the filmArgo.

Argo whitewashed the history of US aggression and genocide against Iran. Since 1953, the US has been an accomplice in the torture and killing of over a million Iranian citizens, thousands with chemical weapons.

The Interview almost certainly whitewashes the history of US genocide against Korea, and apparently depicts US forces causing the North Korean leader’s head to explode.

In its aggressive attacks against North Korea in the early 1950s, the US intentionally targeted civilians and flattened entire villages and cities, including Pyongyang. The attacks killed up to 4 million people, mostly civilians, most of whom were killed by the US, many through direct and intentional targeting, such as the machine-gunning of women and children by US soldiers at No Gun Ri.

Scholar Chalmers Johnson finds the North Korea of today a proud, struggling nation that, unlike the US public, is very aware of what was done to it by the US, and sees the aggressive, threatening stance the US has since maintained towards that country.

Johnson also notes that the worst act committed against Koreans by a “Korean” government was the bayoneting of thousands of students by the US-backed South Korean dictatorship in the late ’80s.

The Interview would almost certainly be another exercise in genocide denial for the US, a country that has gotten away with all of the crimes, including multiple genocides, it has thus far committed.

However, though we may be happy when Holocaust deniers and the like decide to hold their tongues, it is extremely unfortunate that Sony’s decision not to release such a film was brought about not by free will but threats of violence from unknown sources, which are to be condemned as threats against speech itself.

According to the leaked emails, Sony was hesitant about depicting the assassination of the North Korean leader, but was “encouraged” by the Obama regime to go forward with it.

It may be useful to imagine how we would feel about the reverse: a slapstick buddy comedy about the infiltration of the country considered the most dangerous in the world – the USA, not North Korea – and the “comedic” assassination of Obama by having his head catch on fire and explode.

It is also relevant to note that North Korea’s official complaint about the film, that it incites terrorism against North Korea (which is what the Obama regime apparently intended), is the same reason the US government has given countless times over the course of its existence to justify brutally crushing free speech and protest – facts all but fully ignored or suppressed in dominant US discourse.

And, as Antiwar.com and Wired report, “North Korea almost certainly did not hack Sony”.

Robert Barsocchini focuses on global force dynamics and writes professionally for the film industry. He is a regular contributor to Washington’s Blog, and is published in Counter Currents, Global Research, State of Globe, Blacklisted News, LewRockwell.com, DanSanchez.me, Information Clearing House, Press TV, and other outlets. Also see: Hillary Clinton’s Record of Support for War and other Depravities. Follow Robert and UK-based colleague, Dean Robinson, on Twitter.