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US, a psychotic superpower bidding for hair trigger

Pakistani — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 23:39:21 -0400

By Finian Cunningham The US has become a psychotic superpower, high on paranoia induced by its own poisonous propaganda. This unstable, lawless rogue state, armed to the teeth and deluded by its own self-righteousness, poses the greatest risk to world security. The Western public, in particular, should forget about all sorts of imagined evil enemies, and just focus on this one fact: the safety of the world and the future of mankind are being held hostage by the US government, its shadow agencies and the financial-military-industrial complex that it serves. This week sees an ominous move towards the psychotic superpower being placed on a hair-trigger. According to the US-based Foreign Policy publication, the Pentagon is being advised by its own deluded people - the Defense Science Board - to create a doomsday retaliation force in the event of a <>. The retaliation force is to be maintained as a separate entity from the conventional military structure. It would include B52 bombers with nuclear weapons that are ordered to strike on foreign enemies if the US government should <> a fatal cyber threat. Note the subjectivity here... What makes this development disquieting is the self-fulfilling tendency. In recent months, American politicians and so-called news media have taken to accusing foreign states of launching computer virus attacks. China in particular has been singled out for allegedly carrying out hacking raids on American government and news media, including the New York Times and the Washington Post. As with so many other recent secretive official US claims and decisions, the accusations of cyber attacks are not convincingly evidenced. Just like the Pentagon`s assassination drone program, the public is expected to accept the word of shadowy US government agencies about <> foreign terrorism. American claims of cyber warfare conducted by China, Russia and Iran seem unfounded and indeed betray a mindset that is hysterical, if not duplicitous. No doubt all governments conduct some level of computer spying and invasion as a modern technological extension of age-old espionage activity. But the claim made by the US that it is being subjected to an unprecedented wave of unilateral cyber attacks appears to be unhinged hysteria. China in particular has denied any wrongdoing and in fact Beijing has produced data that purports to show that it is the one coming under massive cyber attack - from American sites. It is also conclusive that the US, along with its Israeli cat`s paw, has been sabotaging Iranian sites with the Stuxnet and Flame viruses. The very real danger, therefore, is that the US is creating a cyber doomsday pretext to justify its long-held prerogative to launch war and destruction against any country that it so designates - regardless of fact or international law. Whereas before, the US would have had to mount a lengthy, time and cost-consuming, politically tricky process of fabricating a cause for war, now the cyber trigger can be pulled in a secretive and efficacious manner. Now, presumably, it would be so easy to set up a cyber Pearl Harbour incident or 9/11 type false flag to pin on any designated enemy. The lights go out in Washington for a few hours, social panic sets in with the help from the dutiful news media, and before you know it the B-52s are on their way to turn some alleged miscreant country back to the Stone Age. Stage then set for American-led capitalist neo-colonisation. Since at least World War II, the genocidal propensity and practices of the US are proven, if not widely known, especially among its propagandized public. The atomic holocaust of hundreds of thousands of civilians at Hiroshima and Nagasaki marked the beginning of the long shadow cast upon the world by this deranged superpower. For a few decades, the crazed American giant could hide behind the veil of the <> against the Soviet Union, pretending to be the protector of the <>. If that was true, then why since the Cold War ended more than 20 years ago has there not been peace on earth? Why have conflicts proliferated to the point that there is now a permanent state of war in the world? Former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan have melded into countless other US-led wars across Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The <> and its tacit invocation of <> have sought to replace the <> and its bogeymen, the <>. But if we set aside these narratives, then the alternative makes compelling sense and accurate explanation of events. That alternative is simply this: that the US is an imperialist warmonger whose appetite for war, plunder and hegemony is insatiable. If the US had no official enemy, it would have to invent one. The Cold War narrative can be disabused easily by the simple contradictory fact, as already mentioned, that more than 22 years after the collapse of the <> Soviet Union the world is no less peaceful and perhaps even more racked by belligerence and conflict. The War on Terror narrative can likewise be dismissed by the fact that the <> supposedly being combated were created by US and British military intelligence along with Saudi money in Afghanistan during the 1980s and are currently being supported by the West to destabilize Libya and Syria and indirectly Mali. So what we are left to deduce is a world that is continually being set at war by the US and its various surrogates. As the executive power in the global capitalist system, the US is the main protagonist in pursuing the objectives of the financial-military-industrial complex. These objectives include: subjugation of all nations - their workers, governments and industries, for the total economic and political domination by the global network of finance capitalism. In this function, of course, the US government is aided by its Western allies and the NATO military apparatus. Any nation not completely toeing the imperialist line will be targeted for attack. They include Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea. In the past, they included Vietnam, Angola, Mozambique, Grenada, Nicaragua, Chile and Panama. Presently, others include Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and Mali undergoing attack operations. The difference between covert and overt attack by the US hegemon is only a matter of degrees. The decades-long economic sanctions on Iran, the cyber sabotage of that country's industries and infrastructure, the assassination of nuclear scientists, deployment of terrorist proxies such as the MKO, and the repeated threat of all-out war by the US and its Israeli surrogate, could all qualify Iran as already being subjected to war and not just a future target. Likewise with Russia: the expansion of US missile systems around Russia's borders is an act of incremental war. Likewise China: the American arming of Taiwan, relentless war gaming in the South China Sea and the stoking of territorial conflicts are all examples of where <>. What history shows us is that the modern world has been turned into a lawless shooting gallery under the unhinged misrule of the United States of America. That has always been so since at least the Second World War, with more than 60 wars having been waged by Washington during that period, and countless millions killed. For decades this truth has been obscured by propaganda - the Cold War, War on Terror etc... - but now the appalling stark reality is unavoidably clear. The US is at war - against the entire world. The latest move by the US ruling elite to give itself a thoroughly modern hair trigger for its warmongering global plunder - the secret, UN-provable cyber trigger - is the culmination of its psychotic depravity to rule the world. This article was originally posted at Strategic Culture Foundation website. Source: http://www.defence.pk/forums/world-affairs/239512-us-psychotic-superpower-bidding-hair-trigger.html#ixzz2P5KyGp4Y http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/03/11/292986/us-psychotic-superpower-on-hairtrigger/

A new record of rhinos poached by Africans

0wdj — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 17:49:33 -0400

The number of rhinos killed for their horns in South Africa so far this year has shot up to 618. This is well past last year's shock record of 448 and substantially more than the tally of 550 predicted at the beginning of 2012, instead of Asia that decreased greatly. And still there is no sign of the onslaught letting up. This, despite tightened security and a range of strategies devised to counter the gruesome trend. Fears have even been expressed that the way it is going, the already endangered species could be extinct in a few decades' time. Worst hit by far has been Kruger National Park, South Africa's flagship reserve that is home to about 12,000 rhinos. Its loss of 381 of the iconic animals so far this year is a serious worry. Operations in the park have taken on the aspect of war, with poachers regularly getting killed in firefights with security staff. Tracker dogs fitted with GPS collars get delivered quickly by helicopter to the site of rhino killings to go after the poachers. Heavily armed reaction units follow by helicopter to take them on. Recently a small aircraft that is relatively quiet and can stay in the air for seven hours was donated to the park to carry out surveillance. For their part, the poachers have become no less audacious. They have even started issuing death threats against park rangers. Operating mainly from Mozambique, which the park adjoins, they write messages in the sand near the border telling a specific ranger "we're coming for you", according to Kenn Maggs, head of the park's criminal investigation unit. The poachers are good bush operators, with most having military training and belonging to some kind of militia. "We have to adhere to the rule of the land. They don't," Maggs is quoted as saying. Smaller provincial and private reserves have not been spared either. As has been happening around the country, poachers recently left behind the mutilated carcasses of another seven rhinos on a wildlife ranch not far from Johannesburg. Their horns were hacked out of their heads, the eyes of one gouged out and the ears and genitalia of others cut off. That attack came in the face of a 40-year jail sentence handed down a few days earlier to Thai citizen Chumlong Lemtongthai for using prostitutes to pose as hunters so that he could sell rhino horn obtained as trophies in powder form in the Far East. Investigations are continuing into how he was able so easily to obtain permits for trophy hunting. There has been growing concern at either the laxity or complicity of conservation officials in aiding the poachers and smugglers. But environmentalists have been encouraged by the heavy sentences. They see it as proof that judicial officers are beginning to appreciate the seriousness of the situation. Earlier this year two Vietnamese citizens were given 18-year jail sentences for rhino-horn smuggling. A rhino DNA bank being developed in a laboratory at the University of Pretoria's faculty of veterinary science has been proving of growing help in linking suspects to the dead animals and so securing convictions. See more @ NationalGeographic

South Africa: Man Dragged Behind Police Van Dies.

USMCSniper — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 07:40:04 -0500

A taxi driver in South Africa died after being handcuffed to a police vehicle and dragged hundreds of yards, it has been alleged. Independent police investigators are looking into the claims after video footage emerged showing a man being dragged along a road behind a police van. The man, named locally as 27-year-old Mido Macia from Mozambique, was later found dead in a police cell in Daveyton, Johannesburg, on Tuesday. Officers have claimed they put Mr Macia in a police van in order to take him to a police station on the East Rand, and cannot explain how he later died. But the video, obtained by South Africa's Daily Sun newspaper, shows officers struggling to overpower a man - believed to be the taxi driver - before attaching him to a point at the rear of their vehicle and then driving off leaving him hanging At one point they attempt to carry his legs while the vehicle is moving forward but have to drop him as the police van speeds up. The footage then shows the man trying to stay on his feet as he is dragged behind the vehicle for several hundred metres. The person filming the incident attempts to keep up with the truck dragging the taxi driver, but has to give up as the vehicle is going too fast. Inmates in the cells he was taken to, have claimed he was later beaten to death by police. South Africa's Independent Police Investigation Directorate (IPID) said on Wednesday that officers had initially attempted to arrest Mr Macia because he was allegedly obstructing traffic. IPID spokesman Moses Dlamini said: "We are investigating an incident involving the death of man, allegedly at the hands of the police. We are shocked by the footage which has been released. "The circumstances surrounding his death are still allegations ... let's find out what really happened," he said. He said there were reports Mr Macia had tried to disarm a police officer before the attack. The taxi driver was then allegedly beaten once inside the police holding cells. He is understood to have been found dead by another police officer later the same day. Mr Dlamini told the South African website News 24 that an investigation had begun before Mr Macia's death into allegations he carried out an assault resulting in grievous bodily harm. A post-mortem on the dead suspect indicated he had died from head injuries with internal bleeding. Police in South Africa are known for heavy handedness when dealing with the public, and the police watchdog is handling numerous cases of police brutality. In the 12 months before March 2010, according to Amnesty International, there were 920 complaints of serious assault and 294 deaths in custody. The police department could not confirm if the officers had been suspended.

Man dragged by South Africa police vehicle dies in detention

Babelaas — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 05:45:26 -0500

Independent police investigators are looking into the claims after video footage emerged showing a man being dragged along a road behind a police van. The man, a 27-year-old from Mozambique, was later found dead in a police cell in Daveyton, Johannesburg, on Tuesday. Officers have claimed they put the taxi driver in a police van in order to take him to a police station on the East Rand, and cannot explain how he later died. But the video, obtained by South Africa's Daily Sun newspaper, shows officers struggling to overpower a man - believed to be the taxi driver - before attaching him to a point at the rear of their vehicle and then driving off leaving him hanging outside. Less.. Thanks @docmatt for this info.

Africa's Former "Greatest Hotel" Now Mozambique Squat

ghastlyghost — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:47:54 -0400

Mozambique's "Grand Hotel": At the heart of Mozambique's general election on October 28 is the fight against poverty, a fundamental issue in a country where 78 percent of people live on less than two dollars a day. In the town of Beira, some 3,500 people have been living at the "Grand Hotel", a giant open air squat that was once one of Africa's most luxurious destinations.

Mozambique Drill

Guvnor — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:52:53 -0400

The Mozambique Drill (also called the Failure Drill) is a firearms technique in which the shooter places a double tap in the center mass, followed by a deliberate target assessment, then a carefully aimed shot at the head. The third shot should be aimed to destroy the brain, killing the target and preventing the target from retaliating. It was added to the modern technique of gunfighting by Jeff Cooper based on the experience of one of his students, Mike Rousseau, while on duty in Mozambique. Rousseau was later killed in action in the Rhodesian War.

UNCDF: Local Development in Mozambique

GodFearer — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 01:43:27 -0500

Widespread poverty and a lack of functioning infrastructure present formidable challenges to Mozambique on its path to sustainable development. The country emerged from nearly 500 years of colonial rule and plunged straight into a devastating civil war that debilitated much of the infrastructure and undermined development efforts. This short video presents an overview of the UN Capital Development Fund's work to support development efforts in Mozambique, working from the bottom up and top down to empower local authorities to make their own decisions and set their own priorities.

Cure for headaches in Mozambique

Ray71 — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 23:10:34 -0400

Cure for headaches bring it on it works

road rage in mozambique!

gio666 — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 20:14:01 -0400

as above!

Road Rage Caught on Tape in Mozambique

zuru — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 22:05:38 -0400

The man of the pick up was furious with the other driver and went to fight.

Mozambique headache treatment

brazzmunk — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 09:27:13 -0400

treatment of headaches common to Mozambique

Wedding for goat accused rapists in Mozambique

jumpingforJoy — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:18:37 -0500

The owner of a goat allegedly raped is demanding the two accused make traditional wedding arrangements. State media also said the two young Muslim men accused of having sex with a goat in central Mozambique faced criminal charges. The young men, whose names and ages were not released, were caught in the act by police and arrested outside the rural town of Mbucuta in central Mozambique, the website of the state broadcaster said. "One of the young men was naked and holding the goat's head, and the other was having sex with the animal," witness Mario Creva told Radio Mozambique. District prosecutor Leonides Mapasse said the two would face trial for simple larceny. The goat's owner may also file a civil suit against them, he said. The owner was demanding the young men pay him damages and initiate a traditional wedding ceremony by paying "lobolo," a dowry, a family member told Radio Mozambique.