You too can be a Counter Terrorist Pro!

via Wired: Danger Room

DHSHomegrownThreats

Mk Ultra: Congressional Hearings

‎95th congress joint hearing on 'Project MKULTRA, the CIA's Program of Research in Behavioral Modification.' 1977 via @new york times

We're gonna liberate the hell outa you!

via Dangerous Minds

Integrated Defense Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics Life Cycle Management System.

via the Danger Room 

Military Jobs

source: The U.S. Employment Effects of Military and Domestic Spending Priorities:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19771950

via War is a Crime .org 

World War I in Colour - War is pointless.

Footage of troops fighting in the trenches of WWI. More like this to follow.

World War I was the first modern global military conflict which took place in Europe between 1914 to 1918. Archaic military tactics met modern industrialised warfare for the first time, resulting casualties on a previously unimaginable scale. Men rotted in the mud, then were sent to face massed machine gun fire, modern artillary, tanks and chemical weapons. Approximately 16 million soldiers and civilians died and countless others were physically maimed or mentally scarred by the horrors of trench warfare.
Music: Clint Mansell - The Last Man

via sconicbomb 

And here is a video that shows the human toll of trench warfare. Warning this video is disturbing.

Time-slip Pictures of Sergey Larenkov

These time-slip pictures combine recent photos digitally stitched together with historic photos from World War Two, or as it was known in Russia, 'The Great Patriotic War'. During WWII the Soviet Union suffered nearly 25 million casualties.

These pictures show current day views of Berlin, Leningrad and other WWII sites with images from the war bleeding through like ghostly reminders of the not to distant past. They are in some ways a visual analog to the time-slippage experienced by Kurt Vonnegut's character Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse 5. Kudos to Sergey Larenkov for these images.

The pictures I have chosen here are only a sample from the Leningrad images:

More of Sergey's work can be seen here.

The Holy Qur'an - القرآن الكريم

The Holy Qur'an - القرآن الكريم

An unburnable version!

NSFW: Pictures from Abu Gharib.

I am just gonna provide the links here. Reprehensible.
via War is a Crime .org

‎'Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted the Abu Ghraib inquiry, confirms that rape and sexual abuse are documented in the photographs that US president Barack Obama has ordered censored.' via The Telegraph

Abu Ghraib - Additional Photos

There are 18 images in this gallery

Last updated: Wed, 2009-06-03 22:13

Abu Ghraib 1-25

There are 24 images in this gallery

Last updated: Mon, 2006-05-15 23:35

Abu Ghraib 26-51

There are 36 images in this gallery

Last updated: Thu, 2008-02-28 18:42

Oil in My Back Yard

Oil in My Back Yard 

I live in Christian Park, a semi industrial residential neighborhood on the Eastside of Indianapolis, Indiana. Just after midnight tonight, I read a report from the Indianapolis Star RSS feed that there was a 

20,000 gallon oil spill about 5 blocks from where I live. I got up, drove home (I was at my girlfriends house) grabbed my camera and went down there to see what I could find out. 

199 South Sherman Dr., Indianapolis, IN

read more...

Rare Colour Footage of the Blitz

Detail of a bomb map of Westminster.

LONDON – Rare color footage of the bomb damage inflicted on London during World War II has surfaced on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Blitz. The Blitz began on September 7, 1940 and continued until May 1941.

Historian Neil Bright

"It changed the face of London. Almost 30,000 Londoners were killed, which is half the deaths nationwide. Many others went to stay with relatives and never came back. The population of the city went down considerably. Several areas which were bombed out had to be completely rebuilt."

read more here

see more video here

Monsters of Rock: Moscow 1991

Heavy Metal meets the Heavy Hand of the Old Guard in this balls to the wall concert that takes place in Moscow directly following the fall of the Soviet empire in 1991. Whether or not you like heavy metal music you can thrill to the rebellious spirit of youth unleashed against an oppressive system. Watch as the Moscow militia (the Red Army) tries to keep down the party goers and finally ends up joining in the spirit of the moment. They are out of their element and respond with violence, but in the end every body rocks out, even some of the military sent in for 'crowd control'. Very cool.

Features Pantera, Metallica, the Black Crows, and AC/DC!

The Secret Behind the Sanctions: How the U.S. Intentionally Destroyed Iraq's Water Supply

This article from the 2001 issue of the Progressive explains how the United States used sanctions to degrade the Iraqi water supply after the first Gulf War in violation of the Geneva convention, and to the detriment of children and civilians. One wonders if the Pentagon has done a similar analysis of the effect of Iranian sanction they are now promoting so vociferously. I'm betting that they have.

read it here.

Merrie Melodies: Falling Hare

Bugs Bunny and a quirky gremlin star in this war time propaganda piece about the importance of remaining vigilant towards the possibility of 'diabolical sabotage'. One of my all time favorite Bugs Bunny cartoons and actually a bit resonant of 9/11 when the hijacked bomber that Bugs is riding in careens towards a pair of big city sky scrapers. Don't tell Glen Beck, please. I don't want Fox going after Bugs as a terrorist sympathizer.

'Peak Oil' and the German Government

via Der Spiegel

A study by a German military think tank has analyzed how "peak oil" might change the global economy. The internal draft document -- leaked on the Internet -- shows for the first time how carefully the German government has considered a potential energy crisis...

According to the German report, there is "some probability that peak oil will occur around the year 2010 and that the impact on security is expected to be felt 15 to 30 years later." The Bundeswehr prediction is consistent with those of well-known scientists who assume global oil production has either already passed its peak or will do so this year....

The political and economic impacts of peak oil on Germany have now been studied for the first time in depth. The crude oil expert Steffen Bukold has evaluated and summarized the findings of the Bundeswehr study. Here is an overview of the central points:

• Oil will determine power: The Bundeswehr Transformation Center writes that oil will become one decisive factor in determining the new landscape of international relations: "The relative importance of the oil-producing nations in the international system is growing. These nations are using the advantages resulting from this to expand the scope of their domestic and foreign policies and establish themselves as a new or resurgent regional, or in some cases even global leading powers."
  
• Increasing importance of oil exporters: For importers of oil more competition for resources will mean an increase in the number of nations competing for favor with oil-producing nations. For the latter this opens up a window of opportunity which can be used to implement political, economic or ideological aims. As this window of time will only be open for a limited period, "this could result in a more aggressive assertion of national interests on the part of the oil-producing nations."
  
• Politics in place of the market: The Bundeswehr Transformation Center expects that a supply crisis would roll back the liberalization of the energy market. "The proportion of oil traded on the global, freely accessible oil market will diminish as more oil is traded through bi-national contracts," the study states. In the long run, the study goes on, the global oil market, will only be able to follow the laws of the free market in a restricted way. "Bilateral, conditioned supply agreements and privileged partnerships, such as those seen prior to the oil crises of the 1970s, will once again come to the fore."
  
• Market failures: The authors paint a bleak picture of the consequences resulting from a shortage of petroleum. As the transportation of goods depends on crude oil, international trade could be subject to colossal tax hikes. "Shortages in the supply of vital goods could arise" as a result, for example in food supplies. Oil is used directly or indirectly in the production of 95 percent of all industrial goods. Price shocks could therefore be seen in almost any industry and throughout all stages of the industrial supply chain. "In the medium term the global economic system and every market-oriented national economy would collapse."
  
• Relapse into planned economy: Since virtually all economic sectors rely heavily on oil, peak oil could lead to a "partial or complete failure of markets," says the study. "A conceivable alternative would be government rationing and the allocation of important goods or the setting of production schedules and other short-term coercive measures to replace market-based mechanisms in times of crisis."
  
• Global chain reaction: "A restructuring of oil supplies will not be equally possible in all regions before the onset of peak oil," says the study. "It is likely that a large number of states will not be in a position to make the necessary investments in time," or with "sufficient magnitude." If there were economic crashes in some regions of the world, Germany could be affected. Germany would not escape the crises of other countries, because it's so tightly integrated into the global economy.
  
• Crisis of political legitimacy: The Bundeswehr study also raises fears for the survival of democracy itself. Parts of the population could perceive the upheaval triggered by peak oil "as a general systemic crisis." This would create "room for ideological and extremist alternatives to existing forms of government." Fragmentation of the affected population is likely and could "in extreme cases lead to open conflict."

read more here

As the World Burns!

This Labor Day Weekend:
Will Obama finally come out of the closet as a Nigerian? Will Israel make sweet forbidden love to an unwilling Palestine? Will Carla Bruni give herself to Ahmadinajad as a gesture of eternal good will between France and Iran? Will Tony Blair go mental and stab Gordon Brown with a shrimp fork? Tune in Tuesday for our next disturbing episode on "As the World Burns!"
(A Time Warner - News Corp - British Petroleum co-production)

N. W. O.

Norm Soloman on Obama's 'Speech for Endless War'.

Norm Soloman, author of a dozen books including "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death" comments on Obama's speech which he calls a 'speech for endless war.' If you haven't seen the documentary 'War Made Easy' please check it out here.

"While now trumpeting the nobility of an Iraq war effort that he’d initially disparaged as “dumb,” Barack Obama is polishing a halo over the Afghanistan war, which he touts as very smart. In the process, the Oval Office speech declared that every U.S. war -- no matter how mendacious or horrific -- is worthy of veneration.

Obama closed the speech with a tribute to “an unbroken line of heroes” stretching “from Khe Sanh to Kandahar -- Americans who have fought to see that the lives of our children are better than our own.” His reference to the famous U.S. military outpost in South Vietnam was a chilling expression of affinity for another march of folly."

read more here

Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in IRAN

CASMII Fact Sheet on US-Iran Standoff

Introduction

The current U.S. standoff against Iran, like the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, was instigated by the neoconservatives of the Bush Administration based on their doctrine of “maintaining U.S. pre-eminence, thwarting rival powers and shaping the global security system according to U.S. interests”. In the case of Saddam’s regime, its fictitious Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and its alleged links to Al-Qaida were used in the U.S. propaganda war to first impose U.N. sanctions and eventually invade Iraq. We now have a déjà vu situation in which the U.S. and its allies, prodded by Israel, demonize Iran as a threat to world security and accuse it of having a program to develop nuclear weapons. As with Iraq, the real aim is a regime change in Iran to set up a U.S. puppet government in this oil- and gas-rich country in the key strategic Persian Gulf region. This has also happened before in the 1953 U.S.-British coup in Iran. The same forces in U.S., U.K., Israel and allies today distort the truth and engage in deceit, coercion and aggression to achieve their goals. We will briefly examine some of the key facts in the standoff.  

read more here

A False Choice for Pakistan

A False Choice for Pakistan
By Benazir Bhutto
via Washington Post
Monday, March 12, 2007

The West has been shortsighted in dealing with Pakistan. When the United States aligns with dictatorships and totalitarian regimes, it compromises the basic democratic principles of its foundation -- namely, life, liberty and justice for all. Dictatorships such as Musharraf's suppress individual rights and freedoms and empower the most extreme elements of society. Oppressed citizens, unable to represent themselves through other means, often turn to extremism and religious fundamentalism.

read more here 

MAUS: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman

This is one of the most chilling descriptions of the Holocaust story I have ever read or seen depicted in any medium. It shook me up. I can't recommend it enough.

MAUS: A Survivor's Tale

note: this is a preview version and may be incomplete

Stalingrad - Movie 1993

Stalingrad is a 1993 film by Joseph Vilsmaier, which depicts the horrors of combat on the Eastern Front of World War II in a realistic and unromanticized fashion.

The movie follows a naïve platoon of German Army soldiers as they are transferred from Italy and recent experiences inNorth Africa, to Russia where they ultimately find themselves unwilling participants in the Battle of Stalingrad.

read more here

Note: This movie is in German

Dateline 1939: German Forces Invade Poland

Invasion of Poland - WWII Begins

The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War (Polish: Kampania wrześniowa or Wojna obronna 1939 roku) in Poland and the Poland Campaign (German: Polenfeldzug) in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II. The invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, and ended 6 October 1939 with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland.

read more here.

Here is the British Version:


Here is the German one:

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens, by the National Assembly of France

‘The Representatives of the people of France, formed into a National Assembly, considering that ignorance, neglect, or contempt of human rights, are the sole causes of public misfortunes and corruptions of Government, have resolved to set forth, in a solemn declaration, these natural, imprescriptible, and inalienable rights: that this declaration being constantly present to the minds of the members of the body social, they may be ever kept attentive to their rights and their duties: that the acts of the legislative and executive powers of Government, being capable of being every moment compared with the end of political institutions, may be more respected: and also, that the future claims of the citizens, being directed by simple and incontestible principles, may always tend to the maintenance of the Constitution, and the general happiness.


‘For these reasons, the National Assembly doth recognize and declare, in the presence of the Supreme Being, and with the hope of his blessing and favour, the following sacred rights of men and of citizens:

‘I. Men are born, and always continue, free, and equal in respect of their rights. Civil distinctions, therefore, can be founded only on public utility.

‘II. The end of all political associations, is, the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man; and these rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance of oppression.

‘III. The nation is essentially the source of all sovereignty; nor can any individual, or any body of men, be entitled to any authority which is not expressly derived from it.

‘IV. Political Liberty consists in the power of doing whatever does not injure another. The exercise of the natural rights of every man, has no other limits than those which are necessary to secure to every other man the free exercise of the same rights; and these limits are determinable only by the law.

‘V. The law ought to prohibit only actions hurtful to society. What is not prohibited by the law, should not be hindered; nor should any one be compelled to that which the law does not require.

‘VI. The law is an expression of the will of the community. All citizens have a right to concur, either personally, or by their representatives, in its formation. It should be the same to all, whether it protects or punishes; and all being equal in its sight, are equally eligible to all honours, places, and employments, according to their different abilities, without any other distinction than that created by their virtues and talents.

‘VII. No man should be accused, arrested, or held in confinement, except in cases determined by the law, and according to the forms which it has prescribed. All who promote, solicit, execute, or cause to be executed, arbitrary orders, ought to be punished; and every citizen called upon, or apprehended by virtue of the law, ought immediately to obey, and renders himself culpable by resistance.

‘VIII. The law ought to impose no other penalties but such as are absolutely and evidently necessary: and no one ought to be punished, but in virtue of a law promulgated before the offence, and legally applied.

‘IX. ‘Every man being presumed innocent till he has been convicted, whenever his detention becomes indispensable, all rigour to him, more than is necessary to secure his person, ought to be provided against by the law.

‘X. No man ought to be molested on account of his opinions, not even on account of his religious opinions, provided his avowal of them does not disturb the public order established by the law.

‘XI. The unrestrained communication of thoughts and opinions being one of the most precious rights of man, every citizen may speak, write, and publish freely, provided he is responsible for the abuse of this liberty in cases determined by the law.

‘XII. A public force being necessary to give security to the rights of men and of citizens, that force is instituted for the benefit of the community, and not for the particular benefit of the persons with whom it is entrusted.