By FARZANA VERSEY www.counterpunch.org Posted by Bulatlat.com The most telling aspect of Barack Obama’s trip to India in early November is his planned visit to all the sites targeted in the Mumbai attacks of November 28, 2008. He will also stay at the Taj Hotel. Commentators have been quick to gloat that this move will…
Tags: obama
Obama at UN Summit: Foreign Aid Is “Core Pillar of American Power”
At the UN Wednesday, President Obama unveiled a plan to revitalize US foreign aid programs, which have been marginalized since the end of the cold war. By HOWARD LAFRANCHI The Christian Science Monitor / Truthout International Posted by Bulatlat.com United Nations, New York – President Obama on Wednesday unveiled a policy directive that defines the…
A Record of War Crimes by the Bush and Obama Administrations
Bill Van Auken http://www.wsws. org/articles/ 2010/jul2010/ pers-j27. shtml The tens of thousands of documents posted online by WikiLeaks Sunday have provided a detailed and searing indictment of a criminal colonial war that the Obama administration has made its own. In its sheer volume—92,000 documents, 200,000 pages—the so-called Afghan War Diary makes an incontrovertible case that…
This is What Success Looks Like
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN http://www.counterpunch.org/ Posted by Bulatlat.com The last American combat brigade in Iraq has left the country, so the Pentagon announced this week. The 40,000 personnel from 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division began crossing into Kuwait August 19. The US combat mission in Iraq – Operation Iraqi Freedom – is scheduled to end…
American Kleptocracy: How Fears of Socialism and Fascism Hide Naked Theft
By William J. Astore TomDispatch.com/Truthout?International Posted by Bulatlat.com Kleptocracy — now, there’s a word I was taught to associate with corrupt and exploitative governments that steal ruthlessly and relentlessly from the people. It’s a word, in fact, that’s usually applied to flawed or failed governments in Africa, Latin America, or the nether regions of Asia.…
Cover-Ups to Protect US Murders in Afghanistan Continue Unabated
By DAVE LINDORFF Truthout Posted by Bulatlat.com So, finally the truth comes out … sort of. After initially claiming that two pregnant women and a teenage girl killed in a US Special Forces raid on an Afghan home in Khataba in February had been discovered by the Americans bound and slain, the US military has…
Behind the Afghan Fraud
by CONN HALLINAN Commondreams.org Posted by Bulatlat.com All frauds have a purpose, mostly to relieve the unwary of their wealth, though occasionally to launch some foreign adventure. The 1965 Tonkin Gulf hoax that escalated the Vietnam War comes to mind. So, what was the design behind “Operation Moshtarak,” or the “Battle of Marjah,” in Afghanistan’s…
Blowback in Kyrgyzstan
by JOSEPH HUFF-HANNON Commondreams.org Posted by Bulatlat.com The turmoil in a small Central Asian country speaks volumes about US ‘democratisation’ efforts in the region The timing of this week’s revolt in Kyrgyzstan, making headlines around the world, is telling. On Thursday the son and heir apparent of ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, Maksim, was scheduled to…
Iraq: Seven Years of Occupation
By RAED JARRAR Truthout Posted by Bulatlat.com An Iraqi man waits in line outside a government headquarters building for food supplies from a humanitarian-aid delivery in northern Iraq. On April 9, 2003, exactly seven years ago, Baghdad fell under the US-led occupation. Baghdad did not fall in 21 days, though; it fell after 13 years…
Joseph Stiglitz: Bankers Made Reckless Bets on the Economy, Knowing Taxpayers Were Going to Pick up the Tab
By ZACH CARTER Alternet International Posted by Bulatlat.com The Nobel Prize-winning economist argues the banking industry “failed in their core societal function,” helping lead to the great economic crash of ’08. Zach Carter: How did we get here? Joseph Stiglitz: Well, there are so many pieces that contributed to our getting here that it’s hard…
The Missing Voices at the Healthcare Summit
By JOHN NICHOLS Commondreams.org International Posted by Bulatlat.com President Obama and congressional Republicans arrived at the White House health care summit with talking points — not just for the summit itself but for the after-summit jockeying to claim the upper hand coming out of a session that always had more to do with messaging than…