Ukraine News - June 17, 2014

Russia cuts Ukraine's gas after talks fail - GlobalPost

Ukraine’s stance in gas talks with Russia is ‘blackmail’, a method to negotiate an ultra-low price: Gazprom CEO - RT Business

Gazprom files $4.5 billion lawsuit against Ukraine's Naftogaz - ITAR-TASS

Gazprom Says Further Lawsuits Against Naftogaz to Follow Shortly - RIA Novosti

European Consumers to Receive Russian Gas in Full Volume: Gazprom - RIA Novosti

If Ukraine tries to steal Europe-bound gas, Gazprom will develop alternative routes: Miller (VIDEO) - RT Business

Europe Ready to Consider Opal Pipeline For Future Gas Supplies: Gazprom - RIA Novosti

Gazprom ready to finance supply of gas to European storage facilities - ITAR-TASS


Ukraine declares emergency in energy sector, to set "economically justified" tariffs for transit of Russian gas through its territory - IANS

PM Yatseniuk says Russia intends to temporarily set the price of gas for Ukraine at $385/1,000 m3 and in winter raise it to $500 - Ukrinform

Ukraine's Naftogaz Sues in Stockholm Over Russia Gas - Capital.gr

The European Union has offered reverse-flow gas supplies to Ukraine at a price lower than that of Russia’s Gazprom: Naftogaz - ITAR-TASS

Naftogaz asking EC for major gas reverse flow from Slovakia - Russia Beyond The Headlines

Ukraine Able to Maintain Domestic Gas Supplies for Several Months - Capital.gr


Poroshenko calls for Ukraine ceasefire to buy time for peace deal - The Globe and Mail

VIDEO (Ukrainian): Poroshenko announces potential ceasefire plans - YouTube

Ukrainian army ready to cease fire in east in 5-7 days: Security Council chief - ITAR-TASS

Donetsk, Lugansk should hold early local elections: Poroshenko - The Voice of Russia

Ukraine to close border with Russia next week: defence minister - ITAR-TASS

Over 100 people killed in Lugansk in past 2 days: head of self-proclaimed Lugansk republic - Strategic Culture Foundation

Ukraine's army opens mortar fire on community near Lugansk - self-defense - The Voice of Russia

Militia report downing two drones of Ukrainian army - ITAR-TASS

Pro-Russian rebels take Ukraine state bank, 'We want the tax revenues to stay here instead of going to Kiev’ - skynews.com


Ukraine mourns the 49 servicemen killed after plane shot down, 300 protestors assault the Russian embassy in Kiev - The Westside Story

VIDEO: Protesters attack Russian embassy in Kiev - LiveLeak.com

Ukraine FM Deshchytsia calls Putin dickhead, sparks calls from Russia for his resignation - Business Insider

VIDEO: Ukraine FM Deshchytsia calls Putin dickhead - YouTube

Psaki defends Ukraine FM over 'Putin f**ker' remark, confuses Iraq and Iran (VIDEO) - RT USA

FM Lavrov accuses Ukrainian acting interior minister of connivance with extremists on the rampage in front of the Russian Embassy in Kiev - The Voice of Russia

VIDEO: Lavrov slams Russian embassy attack in Kiev - YouTube

Ukraine Says Russia Has 38,000 Troops on Border Amid ‘Invasion’ - Bloomberg

Approximately 200 Russian Army Vehicles Reported Moving Toward Ukraine Border (VIDEOS) - The Speaker

NATO releases photographs of what it says were suspected Russian tanks delivered to separatists in eastern Ukraine - foreignpolicy.com

NATO Says Russia Considers it an Opponent, Prepares Ukraine Aid - atlanticcouncil.org

Russia prepares plan for complete substitution of military products from Ukraine: Rogozin - The Voice of Russia


To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle_at_gmail.com (replacing _at_ with @)

Labeling Latino Kids as Gangsters: DA says Speaking Spanish in Public and Wearing Sportswear Signify Gangsterism

By Kathy Swift


Santa Barbara, CA -- What can we learn from the medieval church about biometric identification? Quite a lot it turns out, at least according to Santa Barbara city officials.


Protest Obama when he speaks at the Democratic Party Fundraiser.

Tuesday, June 17th - 5:30pm

Gothem Hall. 1356 Broadway. (35 & 36th Sts) New York City

Bring your signs and banners.

As US prepares to bomb, what we're not being told about ISIS and the Iraq crisis

By Ross Caputi

Former US marine Ross Caputi says ISIS is not a lone actor in Iraq, capturing territory for a future Islamic state: it is just one faction in a larger popular rebellion against the Maliki government.

ISIS rebels in Iraq

What unites marginalized Sunnis in Iraq and hardcore ISIS ideologues is their desperation to be rid of Prime Minister Maliki.


This week Iraq emerged from the recesses of American memory and became a hot topic of conversation. Alarming headlines about ISIS’s “takeover” of Mosul and their march towards Baghdad have elicited a number of reactions: The most conservative call for direct US military action against ISIS to ensure that the government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki remains stable in Baghdad. The most liberal lament the ongoing violence and divisions in Iraqi society caused by the US occupation; though they make no attempt distinguish between the violence of ISIS and the violence of the Maliki government. 

This range of ideas and perspectives is fascinating, and it says much about American war culture, but mostly for the ideas and perspectives that are omitted from this debate. Entirely absent is the perspective of Iraqis and the issues that are important to them: accountability, independence, and resistance. Moreover, the real complexities of this issue have been lost in a number of the Western media’s favorite binaries: terrorism vs. counterterrorism, good vs. evil, and insurgency vs. stability. 

If we dare to take Iraqi voices seriously and think outside of the dominant framework presented to us by the mainstream media, a very different picture of the violence in Iraq emerges and a whole new range of options open up for achieving peace and justice. 

The Rise of ISIS


Instead of making concessions to the protestors and defusing their rage, Prime Minister Maliki mocked their demands chose to use military force to attack them on numerous occasions. Over the course of a year, the protestors were assaulted, murdered, and their leaders were assassinated, but they remained true to their adopted tactic of nonviolence. That is, until Prime Minister Maliki sent security forces to clear the protest camps in Fallujah and Ramadi in December of 2013. At that point the protestors lost hope in the tactic of nonviolence and turned to armed resistance instead. 


A command structure was set up in Fallujah within the first weeks of fighting. It consisted primarily of tribal leaders and former army officials and went by the name of the General Military Council for Iraqi Revolutionaries. This council was led by Sheikh Abdullah Janabi, who also led the the Shura Council of Mujihadeen in Fallujah in 2004. After the 2nd US-led assault on Fallujah, Janabi fled to Syria, but returned to Iraq in 2011. His calls for cooperation between the various militant factions in Fallujah was a significant unifying factor

Yet despite the glaring differences between the various militant groups in Fallujah, the Iraqi government insists on treating all fighters as terrorists. A government official said it clearly to Reuters, “if anyone insists on fighting our forces, he will be considered an [ISIS] militant whether he is or not.” The Iraqi government launched an indiscriminate bombing campaign that to date has killed 443 civilians and has wounded 1657 in Fallujah, and has displaced over 50,922 families from Anbar Province as a whole. The Fallujah hospital has been targeted numerous times, and residential neighborhoods have been bombed and shelled daily for six months. Struan Stevenson, President of European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Iraq, wrote an open letter calling the Iraqi government’s operation “genocidal”.

Over the course of the months of fighting with the government, ISIS has grown in strength. Their access to funds and weapons has made them an attractive group to young Sunnis who see no future for themselves in Iraq as long as Maliki remains in power. Many of the recruits who have joined ISIS are the same men who were nonviolent protestors one year earlier. Many of them remain opposed to the ideas of federalism and sectarians—ideas which are central to ISIS’s political platform. What unites them and the hardcore ideologues within ISIS is their desperation to be rid of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, who has left them with no choice but to operate outside of the political system in order to better their lives in Iraq. 

Insurgency or Revolution? 

This week the media buzzed with the news that ISIS had captured Mosul, the 2nd largest city in Iraq, and was prepared to march towards Baghdad. Two assumptions in these reports went unexamined: that ISIS had been a lone actor and that Mosul had been “captured” rather than liberated. 

While the first assumption is a matter of fact, the latter is a matter of perspective. It was noted in the New York Times that ISIS had collaborated with several local militias in Mosul, including Baathist and Islamist groups; although the significance of such a fact went understated. If one further acknowledges that ISIS has cooperated and continues to cooperate with several militias in several Iraqi cities, it begins to appear that ISIS is not a lone actor in Iraq, attempting to capture territory for a future Islamic state. Rather, it appears that ISIS is just one faction in a larger popular rebellion against the government of Nouri al Maliki. 

When 500,000 residents of Mosul fled their city earlier this week, they did not do so out of fear that ISIS would subject them to sharia courts. They did so out of fear of their government’s reprisal. Many have even expressed gratitude towards the fighters who kicked Maliki’s security forces out of their city. 

This loose coalition of militias—from the tribal militias in Fallujah, to Baathist militias like Naqshabandi, and Islamist groups like ISIS—have come to embody the hopes and aspirations of Sunnis in Iraq to one day be free of Maliki’s oppression. For them there is no other option, no other future is imaginable, and there is no turning back. 

A Path Forward

President Obama has announced that the US would not intervene in Iraq until the Iraqi government made concessions to the disenfranchised Sunni community within Iraq. However, the US has already increased its “intelligence and surveillance assistance” and has shown no sign of decreasing its supply of arms to the Iraqi government. While publicly criticizing the Maliki government’s sectarian policies, the US has been aiding and facilitating this “genocide” against the Sunni population for months.  

The impunity of the Maliki government is never questioned in the debate raging within the US. It is simply unimaginable within the limits of this debate that Maliki might be held accountable for the war crimes his regime has committed against his own people. Equally unimaginable is the notion that his regime should fall and that Iraqis should be able to dismantle the constitution and the institutions that the US-led occupation imposed on them. 

We must take seriously the legitimacy of Sunni resistance, while at the same time taking seriously the fear that a group like ISIS elicits in Shia Iraqis. These fractured communities within Iraq must decide their own future, without the interference of Washington or Tehran. Most importantly for us, as Americans, we must make an effort to analyze this issue outside of the paradigm of US political thought and try to see this issue through the eyes of those most affected by it. We must respect their ideas and values, their politics and culture, and their right to determine their own future, unimpeded by foreign interference.

Source: Common Dreams

What's Really Going on in Iraq

By John Mesler

The latest Truth about the Fighting in Iraq

Things have certainly gotten worse for al-Maliki's government. In the west, the resistance has gained more ground and won more battles against the sectarian Iraqi "government" forces. We continue to read about how Maliki is fighting terrorists ,whether labeled al-Qaeda, al-Nusra or even ISIS or ISIL (same thing) but the truth has remained the same. He is fighting Iraqi resistance fighters who are fighting to re-unite their country.

Since the beginning of this year (Jan.1st, 2014) his indiscriminate bombing of Fallujah alone has wounded 1,647 and killed 443 civilians as of June 12th, 2014, according to Dr. Ahmed Shami Jassen (as told to me by Dr. Muhamad al-Darraji). His bombs have found and hit the hospital in Fallujah no less than 16 times and even according to CNN's own Fareed Zakaria (one of mainstream media's reporters that I find credible) he is "nothing more than a shia thug who sympathizes more with Iran than he does with Iraq". As the resistance continued to occupy al-Maliki's forces in the west (al-Anbar) a very different and interesting event took place just 2 days ago in the north.

Iraq's own version of "Shock and Awe"

The last time I wrote, many of you did not believe what I had to say about al- Maliki calling in his friends, the Iranian militias. Now that even the mainstream media is admitting that fact I hope I have established some credibility. Now our mainstream media reported that on June 13th that ISIS (the Islamist State for Iraq and Syria) took Mosul by surprise and the Iraqi army simply walked away. The truth of the matter is that it was not the ISIS who liberated the province on Nineveh. It is Ibrahim Ezat al-Douri (Saddam Huseins right-hand man in pre 2003 Iraq), leader of the Iraqi National Resistance which consists of the Iraqi people commanded by officers of the old Iraqi Army.

There are also SOME factions of ISIS (the media half- truth again), but not nearly the number they'd like us to believe. Perhaps 20% of the resistance is ISIS. The other is Baa'th party and the very vast majority of Iraqi citizens who want their country back. It is for this reason the churches and Husseiniyat were not closed. Preparations had been planned for more than 2 years under secrecy, and coordination among the various groups was great. They've come to finally free Iraq of its occupiers. This time the occupiers are Iranian militia and its Republican Guard, not Americans.

The decision to liberate Iraq from the Iranian occupation was made after the massacre of Haweijah last year by Maliki. The revolutionary forces treated and captured soldiers of Maliki and handled them with dignity, then released them as long as they promised to not re-enter the fight. The resistance captured many arms, vehicles, tanks and airplanes. Ezat al- Douri, the Commander of the resistance, appeared in Mosul and other places in the newly liberated areas (according to Ibrahim Ebeid ). Banks, schools and other institutions were protected, the TV stations are being readied to operate, and all schools and universities will re-open next week according to Ibrahim's sources.

From what I have learned, most citizens in Mosul welcomed al-Douri with open arms and a two day celebration ensued. Not the reception one would get had these troops actually been ISIS as reported in the rest of the world. As a matter of fact I have just heard that the refinery in Mosul may be open and running again before the publication of this article.

So what are their intentions? Well, so far it truly seems that the main priority is to drive all Iranians back into Iran. No one (other than al-Maliki) can have a problem with that, so the next few weeks should be very interesting.

As I write this, much of Maliki's army has deserted him. You will read that they were all slaughtered by the ISIS, but the truth is that Maliki is killing the army deserters who do not want to kill their fellow Iraqi citizens.

So What Should We Do?

We need to contact our representatives in Washington and do what we did in August and September of 2013. At that time President Obama was being pressured by the corporatocracy to put "boots on the ground" in Syria. We spoke up!! We made the difference. It doesn't happen often but Obama kept his campaign promise. He said we need to speak up. We did and he heard us. Now we need to do it again. The Iraqis don't want our help. We've done enough damage. What will be best for us is also what would be best for Iraq. A free Iraq. Finally free of all occupiers. Then, perhaps, we can once again have a friend in the Mid East who will be willing to be a fair trading partner. But we must also convince our government to recognize in whole the new Iraq. The resistance.


I'd like to thank: al-Waleed Khalid, Muhamad al-Darriji, Falcon, Al-Basrahet and dhiqar. Also Khdyer Murshidy of the Baa'th party and General Muzher al-Qaisy for their help on this article. As always, I thank Akkadian Mespotamia for his information and continued friendship along with Hayfaa Ahmed and many other Iraqi friends.

Iraq News - June 16, 2014


Iraq Army tries to roll back Sunni militants’ advance, says nearly 300 ISIS militants killed and 50 vehicles destroyed - Bloomberg

VIDEO: Iraq conducts air strikes on ISIS targets - The Washington Post

Maliki Orders Iraqi Troops To Make Stand At Samarra - ibtimes.com

Samarra: Holy City where Iraq is doing battle against Sunni radicals - Telegraph

Shia militia: 'ISIS will not take Baghdad' - The Observer

Shiite militias strike back in Iraq, "We want to show the world that we can protect ourselves” - washingtonpost.com

VIDEO: Shia volunteers leave Basra for Baghdad to confront ISIS - theguardian.com

Powerful Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr calls for a military parade across Iraq - AhlulBayt News Agency

Anti-al-Qaeda Sunni Group Backs Iraq’s Shiite Government - Bloomberg

Kurd forces hold Iraq border crossing with Syria - Arab News 


Advancing Iraq rebels seize northwest town Tal Afar in heavy battle - Yahoo News

Bombings Kill Up to 21 People in Baghdad - NYTimes.com

ISIS photographs detail execution of Iraqi soldiers (PHOTOS) - The Long War Journal

Iraq crisis: Cracks emerge in fragile alliance of insurgents - FT.com

VIDEO: General Military Council of the Iraqi Revolutionaries: ‘We are stronger than ISIS’ - warincontext.org

Iraq arrest that exposed wealth and power of ISIS jihadists - The Guardian

ISIS By The Numbers: How The Group Funds Terror (VIDEO) - newsy.com



Obama pushes Iraqis to mend sectarian rifts, prodding the leaders to form a new national unity government - NYTimes.com

US, UK create joint team to prepare for air strikes in Iraq: report - RT News

Security boosted at U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, some personnel are evacuated - The Washington Post

US prepares for talks with Iran to stop ISIS militants, says official - theguardian.com

Iran, US can end Iraq crisis says Rouhani adviser - Al-Monitor

Iran sends 2000 Basiji forces into Iraq to aid fight against ISIS militants - theguardian.com

Beleaguered Iraqis Court Iranian Mastermind of the Shiites Who Fought the U.S. - NYTimes.com

Syria pounds ISIS Northeast bases in coordination with Iraq: activist group - THE DAILY STAR

Syrian army crushes rebel push near Northwest Turkish border - US News

Spread of fighting in Iraq to Turkmen town Tal Afar alarms Ankara - CİHAN

America's Allies Are Funding ISIS: Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia have dual agendas in the war on terror - The Daily Beast

Saudi press blames Iraq PM's 'sectarianism' for unrest - Ahram Online

ISIS recruitment drive in Riyadh also poses a potential threat to the Al Saud family’s rule - Businessweek

To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle_at_gmail.com (replacing _at_ with @)

Meeting Logs: Obama Quietly Coddling Big Oil on “Bomb Trains” Regulations

Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog


Manning says US public lied to about Iraq from the start

New York (AFP) - The detained US soldier convicted of leaking a trove of secret documents to WikiLeaks made a rare foray into public life Saturday to warn Americans they were being lied to about Iraq once more.

Chelsea Manning is serving a 35-year prison sentence on espionage charges and other offenses for passing along 700,000 secret documents, including diplomatic cables and military intelligence files, to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks in the largest-scale leak in US history.

"I understand that my actions violated the law. However, the concerns that motivated me have not been resolved," the soldier formerly known as Bradley Manning wrote in a New York Times editorial.


President Barack Obama said this week he was "looking at all the options" to halt the offensive that has brought militants within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of Baghdad's city limits, but ruled out any return of US combat troops.

Obama has been under mounting fire from Republican critics over the swift collapse of Iraq's security forces, which Washington spent billions of dollars training and equipping before pulling out its own troops in 2011.

While the US military was upbeat in its public outlook on the 2010 Iraqi parliamentary elections, suggesting it had helped bring stability and democracy to the country, "those of us stationed there were acutely aware of a more complicated reality," Manning wrote.

"Military and diplomatic reports coming across my desk detailed a brutal crackdown against political dissidents by the Iraqi Ministry of Interior and federal police, on behalf of Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki. Detainees were often tortured, or even killed."

Manning, a former US Army intelligence analyst, said he was "shocked by our military's complicity in the corruption of that election. Yet these deeply troubling details flew under the American media's radar."

Criticizing the military's practice of embedding journalists, Manning charged that "the current limits on press freedom and excessive government secrecy make it impossible for Americans to grasp fully what is happening in the wars we finance."

Manning is serving out the prison sentence at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas and had requested a name change after court-martial proceedings revealed the soldier's emotional turmoil over sexual identity.

A US Army general denied clemency to Manning in April, upholding the 35-year sentence.

On ThisCantBeHappening! radio: Dave Lindorff and Vietnam Vet and Long-Time Peace Activist John Grant Discuss the Bowe Bergdahl

By Dave Lindorff


Bowe Bergdahl, the POW held for five years by the Taliban in Afghanistan who was recently traded for the release of five Taliban detainees from Guantanamo Bay, has been convicted in the halls of Congress and in most of the media as a deserter -- even a traitor or a Taliban convert -- all without any trial or even any evidence. John Grant, a veteran of the Vietmam War, where desertions were common, says it's an old story: As America's losing wars wind down, those who advocated the in the first place and pushed for their continuation try to create a "stabbed in the back" narrative to explain the humiliating defeat of US military forces.

Mosul, Kirkuk ,Salahuddin and Diyala: Protecting Civilians and Providing Relief to Displaced Families Must Come First!


With Mosul, areas of Salahuddin and Kirkuk out of Iraqi government control, the situation for civilians there and in Iraq as a whole is increasingly dangerous. Moment by moment, the media/news agencies are busy gathering news of what has happened and continues to happen in northern Iraq, and with each report, anxiety grows.


The Iraqi Civil Society Solidarity Initiative declares its great concern for the fate of civilians and displaced families in cities beyond the control of the central government. In this critical moment it calls on the Iraqi government and armed groups involved in the conflict in northern Iraq to adhere to international humanitarian law, specifically in providing protection to civilians and their property, as well as to aid workers, ambulances, and civic organizations that seek to help civilians and reduce their suffering. The protection of civilians, hospitals, schools and basic services, as well as sites that house refugees and displaced persons, is a binding legal and humanitarian responsibility for everyone — violating it might bring later accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity. We stress the need for everyone to recognize the neutrality of Iraqi and international aid workers. Their work is to help all civilians, professionally and without discrimination.


We also call on the authorities of the Kurdistan Region to abide by their stated political commitments to support displaced people, and to act on them immediately, allowing families and civilians to cross into safe areas within the region, and to provide them with the necessary relief. We also ask them to provide needed facilities to aid organizations and civic organizations. We call upon the UN and the international community to support regional authorities and organizations working there to provide the urgent aid required to deal with the humanitarian crisis.


We also call on local and central governments, along with the Kurdistan Regional Government to take seriously their responsibilities to protect civilians and their property in accordance with established law, the Iraqi constitution, and international laws related to armed conflict and human rights. The can be no rush to collective punitive measures like bombing cities and places where civilians may be harmed. The priority now is to protect civilians, and to review the factors which led to the deterioration of political stability which has resulted in the current security crisis, and to prevent it from spreading to other safe cities.


We also call on the politicians elected by the Iraqi people to leave their conflicts aside and direct  their full attention to the selection of a national Iraqi government that is able to unite Iraqis without discrimination or bias. This government must work to build peace with the active involvement of local communities, and to establish an open and public dialogue in which everyone has a voice. The government must adopt a policy of continuous dialogue, and it must reject war as a solution to its political and economic problems. The claim that war can end violence and unrest, that guns can solve problems, is based on a lie — using violence to combat violence can yield no lasting peace, provide no enduring security, as the experiences of Mosul and before it, Fallujah, well attest. Iraqis, Kurds, Arabs — all people in the region — are able, given a stable political atmosphere, to protect their cities and their country. Any international or U.S military intervention will only increase and reinforce the negative effects Iraq has suffered over the past decade.

Rome, June 2014

Iraq News - June 14, 2014

Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq's Highest-Ranking Shia Cleric, Issues Fatwa To Fight ISIS - ibtimes.com

VIDEO: Top Iraqi Shia cleric calls on followers to take up arms against ISIS - euronews

Why Ayatollah Al-Sistani's Iraq Fatwa Is So Important - ibtimes.com

Thousands of Iraqis volunteer to battle ISIS militants - AFP

Iraq PM Maliki Arms Tribes In Fight With Anbar Militants - haberler.com

VIDEO: Recruits from Karbala set off to help fight ISIS - YouTube

ISIS' advance halted at Samarra - The Long War Journal

Iraq PM in embattled Samarra for security meet - GlobalPost

VIDEO: ISIS threatens Samarra shrine - YouTube

President Barzani: Peshmerga in Areas Abandoned by Iraqi Army - Rudaw

Kurdish Peshmerga Say They are Ready if Islamists Bring Fight - Rudaw

Iraq cracks down on ISIS with airstrikes, killing 40 - Daily Sabah

Samarra, Baghdad, Karbala, and Najaf: These cities and their Shi’a shrines will not fall the way that Mosul did - Institute for the Study of War Iraq Updates

U.S. Officials Say 4 of Iraq’s 14 army divisions abandoned their posts under ISIS attack, Other units stationed closer to Baghdad would put up a resistance - NYTimes.com

In Iraq, ISIS militants continue drive, grab 2 towns close to Baghdad - CBS News

Extortion, bank robbery fuel ISIS bloody drive to establish Sharia caliphate (VIDEO) - Fox News

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria Has a Consumer Protection Office, A guide to how the militant group overrunning Iraq actually governs - The Atlantic

ISIS boast of slaughtering 1,700 soldiers after posting beheading video of Iraqi policeman - Mail Online

U.N. Warns of Atrocities, Abuses and Hundreds Dead in Iraq Fighting - NYTimes.com


Obama Considering 'Targeted' Military Action in Iraq - rollcall.com

VIDEO: President Obama Makes a Statement on Iraq - The White House

TRANSCRIPT: Statement by the President on Iraq - The White House

Report: Carrier Bush to move toward Iraq crisis - AP

Pentagon Said to Plan Increased Surveillance Over Iraq - Bloomberg

Iraq May Turn to Iran for Help, Maliki Aide Says - NYTimes.com

In a phone conversation Rouhani, Maliki stress eradication of terrorism in Iraq - PressTV

Exclusive: Alarmed by Iraq, Iran open to shared role with U.S. - Iran official - Yahoo News

State Department: U.S., Iran Have a 'Shared Interest' in Stabilizing Iraq, But Haven't Discussed the Iraqi Crisis - WSJ

Iranian Proxies Step Up Their Role in Iraq - The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Hizbullah Vows Not to Intervene in Iraq, Warns of ISIS Spread - Naharnet

Jihadist expansion in Iraq puts Persian Gulf states in a tight spot - The Washington Post

Iraq government to blame for Islamist rebel advance: Saudi prince - Yahoo News

Fears About Iraq Continue to Push Up Oil Prices - NYTimes.com

To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle_at_gmail.com (replacing _at_ with @)

War, Profits and the U.S. Government

                In 2001, the United States invaded Afghanistan. The invasion was purported to be a response to the Taliban’s refusal to surrender Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks on the United States, but probably had a lot more to do with enabling the construction of an oil pipeline through Afghanistan. Today, thirteen years later, U.S. soldiers continue to fight there.

Two years later, the U.S, the most powerful country in the world, unleashed its terrorism on Iraq, due, it was said, to the dubious then and later unproven charge that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and was moments away from using them to destroy the American way of life (whatever that is). It wasn’t until 2011 that something that President Barack Obama and his minions decided to call ‘victory’ was sufficient to withdraw U.S. troops.

Dear America: It's Over (Rulers of the World Era)

by Tom H. Hastings






Dr. Tom H. Hastings is PeaceVoiceDirector.










Bahrain Freedom Movement

Tell the Pentagon to stop "helping" in Iraq and Ukraine



Why is this important?


We call on the U.S. government to work with other NATO governments to cancel the Rapid Trident exercise, and to commit to not participating in military exercises in Ukraine.

Why is this important?
We note with great concern that U.S. and other NATO troops are scheduled to participate in joint military exercises in Ukraine in July as part of NATO’s Rapid Trident maneuvers. Ukraine is not a member of NATO. Its participation in military exercises by a nuclear-armed alliance with a first-strike policy can only further destabilize the country.

Make your own petition like the ones above. Promote it, show us it's popular, and we'll promote it too!

Give it a try: http://DIY.rootsaction.org

"Illegal Procedure" (One of Them) at the FBI








How NSA Can Secretly Aid Criminal Cases








By Ray McGovern


From Egypt to Afghanistan : Electing our own slavery

Sherif Samir, writing from Egypt

Thoughts behind the voting curtain…

Democracy is not the aim. The aim is justice, dignity, and development. Democracy is the way to it, and it's not the perfect way, but it's the best way so far. According to Rousseau, representative democracy is not a democracy at all, and even that democracy is so hard for us to reach to in Egypt. 

As in Afghanistan and other parts of the third world, people must cross many obstacles before experiencing democracy.  First, they must  believe that politics controls the food on their tables, the education for their children, clothes, traffic, and everything else.  Second, people must know that democracy is not infidelity, and that we can't go back in time and practice to the Muslim medieval regime (Khalifa), as fanatical Muslims always urge. Third, people have to know that democracy is not just an election, not just voting papers and transparent boxes. It is that and everything before and after it. It should be a free choice of a freely educated generation. It should be a choice of peace, not war, a choice of enlightenment, not ignorance, of progress, not poverty, of science, not myth, a choice of a people's representative, and not just of the lesser of two evils.

But this is not what we are having now in our countries. So, when I make my mark on the voting paper, place it in the box, put my finger in the phosphoric ink, smile at the camera and share the photo on Facebook, I won't be expecting any good change out of it, because it's a fake fruit of a fake tree.


Dr Hakim, writing from Afghanistan



Children with toy guns at graveyard on Afghan New Year











No one from the group came to our Peace Conference.





Iraq News - June 13, 2014

In new audio recording ISIS urges militants to march to Baghdad - Al Arabiya News

VIDEO: ISIS release audio urging fighters to march on Baghdad - Telegraph

Saddam-era fugitive’s armed group fighting alongside militants in Iraq, officials say - Fox News

UN Official Sees No Immediate Threat to Baghdad - VOA

Iraq: Government Controls Baiji Oil Refinery - VOA

Maliki Turns to Militias to Halt Militant Onslaught - Bloomberg

Kurdish peshmerga seize a chaotic victory in Kirkuk, Police loyal to Nouri al-Maliki powerless to stop looting - The Guardian

VIDEO: Kurdish Peshmerga fighters clash with ISIS militants - ITV News

ISIS Shelling Kurdish Peshmerga-controlled Areas South of Kirkuk - Rudaw

Q&A with Kirkuk Governor Najmaldin Karim: Peshmerga to Stay 'As Long as Necessary’ - VOA

How effective is ISIS compared with the Iraqi army and Kurdish peshmerga? - theguardian.com

AUDIO (Arabic): Full audio message from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shām: “The Good That Has Happened To You Is From God” - JIHADOLOGY

TRANSCRIPT (English): Full audio message from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shām - azelin.files

PHOTOS: Iraqi refugee reveals the horrors of the jihadi takeover as Baghdad vows to fight back - DailyMail

Iraq Isis Crisis: Medieval Sharia Law Imposed by ISIS on Millions in Nineveh Province - Yahoo News UK

ISIS Takes Over Thermal Plants - Eurasia Review

ISIS Claims Baghdad Terror Attacks that Killed Dozens: Statement - The New Indian Express

How ISIS Pulled Off A Rapid Takeover In Iraq - ibtimes.com

VIDEO: Remarkable footage of 100s of Iraq soldiers surrendering to ISIS near Tikrit - Twitter / Charles_Lister

How ISIS is exploiting the economics of Syria's civil war - Vox

ISIS Threatens to Invade Jordan, 'Slaughter' King Abdullah - gatestoneinstitute.org


US President Barack Obama meets national security team on Iraq - zeenews

VIDEO: Obama considers options to help Iraq, Not ruling anything out - YouTube

U.S. Secretly Flying Drones Over Iraq - WSJ

Americans being evacuated from Iraqi air base as militants advance, The three planeloads are mostly contractors and civilians - Fox News

Iran to combat terrorism in Iraq: Iran President Rouhani - AFP

Iran Deploys Forces to Fight Militants in Iraq - WSJ

Iran Police Chief: Tehran Could Intervene in Iraq to Protect Shia Shrines - The Daily Beast

The Battle for Iraq Is a Saudi War on Iran, Why the ISIS invasion of Iraq is really a war between Shiites and Sunnis for control of the Middle East - foreignpolicy.com

Iraq crisis: Sunni caliphate has been bankrolled by the Saudi Wahhabis and Kuwaiti oligarchs - The Independent

Militant advances in Iraq 'Saudi terrorism': Syria media - THE DAILY STAR

VIDEO:  Video shows Saudis fighting alongside ISIS in Iraq - Al Arabiya News


To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com

UVA Research Park Drains Our Economy

The University of Virginia research park, across Rt. 29 North from the National Ground Intelligence Center, is hosting a conference on weapons technologies that has been promoted as dealing with economically beneficial matters.

And why not?  Both the military facility and the research park provide jobs, and the people who hold those jobs spend their money on things that support other jobs.  What's not to like? 

Well, one problem is what those jobs do.  A Win/Gallup poll of 65 nations earlier this year found the United States by far most widely considered the greatest threat to peace in the world.  Imagine how it must sound to people in other countries when we talk about the U.S. military as a jobs program.

But let's stick to economics.  Where does the money come from for most of what goes on at the base and the research park north of town?  From our taxes and government borrowing.  Between 2000 and 2010, 161 military contractors in Charlottesville pulled in $919,914,918 through 2,737 contracts from the federal government. Over $8 million of that went to Mr. Jefferson's university, and three-quarters of that to the Darden Business School. And the trend is ever upward. 


The superiority of other spending or even tax cuts has been established repeatedly by seminal studies out of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, frequently cited and never refuted over the last several years.  Not only would spending on trains or solar panels or schools produce more and better paying jobs, but so would never taxing the dollars in the first place.  Military spending is worse than nothing, just in economic terms.

Add to this the impact on foreign policy that massive military spending has had since before President Eisenhower warned us on the day he left office: "The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual --" he said, "is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government."  Today even more so, so much so perhaps that we notice it less, so routine has it become.

Connecticut has set up a commission to work on transitioning to peaceful industries, largely for economic reasons.  Virginia or Charlottesville could do the same. 

The U.S. government spends over $600 billion a year just on the Department of Defense, and over $1 trillion total every year on militarism across all departments and debts for past wars.  It's over half of U.S. discretionary spending and about as much as the rest of the world's nations combined, including the many NATO members and allies of the United States.

It would cost about $30 billion per year to end starvation and hunger around the world.  That sounds like a lot of money to you or me.  It would cost about $11 billion per year to provide the world with clean water.  Again, that sounds like a lot.  But consider the amounts being spent on economically detrimental programs that also damage our civil liberties, our environment, our safety, and our morality.  It wouldn't cost much for the U.S. to become seen as the greatest threat to suffering and poverty instead of to peace.

David Swanson is a Charlottesville resident and organizer of WorldBeyondWar.org.

Coalition Of Groups Welcome Home Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl

By Popular Resistance

Tomgram: William Astore, Drafted by the National Security State

On the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings, Brian Williams led off NBC Nightly News this way: “On our broadcast tonight, the salute to the warriors who stormed the beaches here in Normandy...”  It’s such a commonplace of our American world, that word “warriors” for those in the U.S. military or, as is said time and again, our “wounded warriors” for those hurt in one of our many wars.  This time, however, because it was applied to the vets of World War II, my father’s war, it stopped me in my tracks.  For just a moment, I couldn’t help imagining what my father would have said, had anyone called him -- or any of the air commandos in Burma for whom he was “operations officer” -- a warrior.  Though he’s been dead now for three decades, I don’t have a moment’s doubt that he would have thought it ridiculous.  In World War I, America’s soldiers had been known as “doughboys.”  In World War II, they were regularly (and proudly) called “dogfaces” or G.I. (for “government issue”) Joes, and their citizen-soldier likenesses were reflected in the tough but bedraggled figures of Willy and Joe, Bill Mauldin’s much beloved wartime cartoon foot soldiers on the long slog to Berlin.

And that was fitting for a civilian military, a draft military.  It was down to earth.  It was how you described people who had left civilian life with every intention of returning to it as soon as humanly possible, who thought the military a grim necessity of a terrible moment in history and that war, a terrible but necessary way to go.  In those days, warriors would have been an alien term, the sort you associated with, say, Prussians.

My father volunteered just after the attack on Pearl Harbor and wasn’t demobilized until the war ended, but -- I remember it well in the years after -- while he took pride in his service, he maintained a typical and healthy American dislike (to put it politely) for what he called “the regular army” and George Washington would have called a “standing army.”  He would have been amazed by the present American way of war and the propaganda universe we now live in when it comes to praising and elevating the U.S. military above the rest of society.  He would have found it inconceivable that a president’s wife would go on a popular TV show -- I’m talking about Michelle Obama on "Nashville" -- and mix it up with fictional characters to laud for the umpteenth time America’s warriors and their service to the nation.

In Vietnam, of course, the term still wasn’t warrior, it was “grunt.”  The elevation of the American soldier to the heavens of praise and bombast came significantly after the end of the citizen army, particularly with what retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and TomDispatch regular William Astore calls the new Fortress America mindset of the post-9/11 years and the ever more militarized world of constant war that went with it.

If only I could have picked up the phone, called my father, and heard the choice words he would have had for his newly elevated status as an American “warrior,” seven decades after Normandy.  But not being able to, on that D-Day anniversary I did the next best thing and called a 90-year-old friend, who was on a ship off one of those blood-soaked beaches as the invasion began.  Thinking back those 70 years with a certain pride, he remembered that the thing the foot soldiers of World War II resented most was saluting or saying “sir” to officers.  No warriors they -- and no love for an eternal wartime either.  Put another way, the farther we’ve come from our last great military victory, symbolized by the events of June 6, 1944, the more elevated the language for describing, or perhaps whitewashing, a new American way of war that, for pure failure, may have few matches. Tom

Uncle Sam Doesn’t Want You -- He Already Has You
The Militarized Realities of Fortress America
By William J. Astore







Be a Good Trooper






Surging in America 







Shedding a Militarized Mindset




William J. Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF) and TomDispatch regular, edits the blog The Contrary Perspective.


Copyright 2014 William J. Astore

Emails: ND Ethics Law Potentially Broken on Petraeus Fracking Trip

Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog

DeSmogBlog has obtained emails via North Dakota's Open Records Statute revealing facts that could be interpreted as indicating that North Dakota Treasurer Kelly Schmidt broke State Investment Board ethics laws.

Photo Credit: Office of North Dakota State Treasurer; Obtained via ND Open Records Statute

Iraq News - June 12, 2014

ISIS takes control of Bayji, Tikrit in lightning southward advance - The Long War Journal

ISIS Sunni militants push into Iraqi oil refinery town - Reuters

Iraq Says Mosul Violence Won't Spread to Oil-Producing South - WSJ

PHOTOS: Tikrit falls to Islamist terrorists - Mail Online

Mosul Seized: Jihadis Loot $429m from City's Central Bank to Make ISIS World's Richest Terror Force - ibtimes.co.uk

MAP: Where ISIS Is Gaining Control in Iraq and Syria - NYTimes.com

Iraq forces repel militant assault on Samarra: witnesses - THE DAILY STAR

Iraq says to work with Kurdish forces to retake Mosul - Reuters

Kurdish Fighters Mobilize to Stop Threat of Islamist Militants - WSJ

As Islamic Militants Continue Advance, Kurds Vow to Defend Kirku - Rudaw

Sadr calls for new force to defend Iraq religious sites - THE DAILY STAR

ISIS Militants Seize Turkish Consulate Staff in Iraqi City - NYTimes.com

Bombings in Shiite areas of Iraq kill 37 - THE DAILY STAR

Al-Qaida splinter group ISIS encircles Syrian city across the Iraq border - The Washington Post

How ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi became the world’s most powerful jihadist leader - washingtonpost.com

The Ginger Jihadist of Mosul: Omar al-Shishani the Chechen ‘General’ - ibtimes.co.uk


Iraq Asked U.S. for Airstrikes, Officials Say - NYTimes.com

Iraq Requests Accelerated Shipment of U.S. Arms to Counter Militants - Wall Street Journal

US considers sending emergency military aid to Iraq - The Independent

Iraqi, U.S. Forces Trade Barbs Over Failures - WSJ

State Department: US has no plans to send any of its 35,000 Middle East-based troops into Iraq - Mail Online

US ponders whether new leadership in Baghdad could slow extremists but sees few alternatives - Fox News

U.S. Embassy in Iraq prepares evacuation plans - IraqiNews.com

Iraq foreign minister: Iraq faces 'mortal threat' - Yahoo News

Iraq army capitulates to ISIS militants in four cities - The Guardian

Iraq's Army Abandoned Mosul To ISIS By 'Changing Clothes, Abandoning Weapons’ - huffingtonpost.com

VIDEO: Iraqi Army fleeing Kirkuk in civilian clothing - YouTube

How did hundreds of Islamist militants beat thousands of US-trained Iraqi army soldiers? - ITV News

Iraq army was not prepared for ISIS, says former White House advisor - abc.net.au

Iraqi Army's power blunted by a rise in desertions, Exhausted and bereft soldiers quit fight - NYTimes.com

Iraq’s Terrorists Are Becoming a Full-Blown Army - The Daily Beast

President George W. Bush’s illegal invasion of Iraq at the root of Iraq’s chaos - Consortiumnews

To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com

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