March 4, 2010
Hail to the Prince
Hail to the Prince 
Edna Spennato 2010.
Photomontage made on 4 March 2010
Click on image to enlarge
Also published at Palestine Think Tank, Sabbah Report, Tlaxcala, DesertPeace, Uruknet, Les dessous de l’information mondiale-Downside World News, News from the Middle East, Window Into Palestine, Palestine News, Atlantic Free Press, Vox, Blog from Middle East, Black Voices, Al-Buraq, Pacific Free Press, OpEd News, The Greanville Post, Islamic Resistance in Lebanon, Newsodrome.
Hail to the Prince: Obama, the Paradigmatic Machiavellian Leader
by Mary Rizzo
A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise.
Nicolò MachiavelliObama, before he actually “did” anything, had a reputation. And, indeed, reputation – what others think you are, and not what you actually are – is a crucial factor in a public figure…
The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.
Nicolò MachiavelliAnd the beauty of his thesis is in its simplicity and the ease of its being verified. His idea was that in public life only the praise and blame of fellow human beings is what really counts. Thus, Machiavelli supposed, the ruler needs to acquire a good reputation while actually doing whatever seems necessary in the circumstances, no matter how “right or wrong” it could appear or actually be. Thus, rulers must seem to be generous while spending their money to consolidate their own wealth and power, appear to be compassionate while ruling their armies cruelly, and act with great cunning while cultivating a reputation for integrity. In essence, the ace ruler, cream of the crop, has to be considered as a worthy recipient of peace prizes while at the same time he is sending more troops to wage war in faraway lands. People will see the parts of it they want to see, and all of it is real.
In his writing, a true “Prince/President” has to appear “compassionate, faithful, humane, religious” without actually being any of these things….
Read in full here.
February 22, 2010
Barack Has a Dream
Barack has a Dream Edna Spennato 2010.
Photomontage made on 22 February 2010
Click on image to enlarge
Also published at DesertPeace, Window Into Palestine, Buj Al Arab, Uprooted Palestinians, A More Perfect Union.
…The U.S. has already encircled Iran with military bases. The U.S. government intends to neutralize China by seizing control over the Middle East and cutting China off from oil.
This plan assumes that Russia and China, nuclear armed states, will be intimidated by U.S. anti-missile defenses and acquiesce to U.S. hegemony and that China will lack oil for its industries and military.
The U.S. government is delusional. Russian military and political leaders have responded to the obvious threat by declaring NATO a direct threat to the security of Russia and by announcing a change in Russian war doctrine to the pre-emptive launch of nuclear weapons. The Chinese are too confident to be bullied by a washed up American superpower.
The morons in Washington are pushing the envelop of nuclear war. The insane drive for American hegemony threatens life on earth. The American people, by accepting the lies and deceptions of their government, are facilitating this outcome…
Read in full here.
24 February 2010
After failing to win support in Russia for tough sanctions against Iran, Israel turns to its closest ally, the United States, for a backup plan to curb Tehran’s enrichment program. On Tuesday, the Israeli military radio reported that Defense Minister Ehud Barak will be travelling to Washington to share his concerns over Iran’s refusal to stop its nuclear activities.
Barak will meet several US officials during his five-day tour, including US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Middle East ‘peace’ envoy George Mitchell. He is also scheduled to meet the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in New York….
Read more: Israel Turns to US For Backup Plan Against Iran
Michel Chossudovsky, editor of Global Research: US plans to start WW3 by attacking Iran
24 February 2010
Iran’s security officers grounded the plane carrying the ringleader of Jundullah terrorist group Abdolmalek Rigi in one of Iran’s southern ports, informed sources say. As initial reports indicated that Iran’s most wanted man was captured on a flight en-route to Kyrgyzstan from Dubai, a source talking to Press TV on condition of anonymity confirmed that Rigi and one of his deputies were captured after their plane was brought down by security forces in an airport in the Iranian Persian Gulf city of Bandar Abbas.
Iran’s intelligence minister says the leader of Jundallah terrorist group was at a US base in Afghanistan 24 hours before his capture, in possession of a US-issued, forged Afghan passport. Iran’s Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi said Tuesday that the leader of Jundallah terrorist group was at a US base in Afghanistan 24 hours before his capture, in possession of a US-issued, forged Afghan passport….
Read more: Iran Grounds Plane with Rigi Holding US-Issued Passport
“…One of the CIA officers said that it was too difficult for us to attack Iran militarily, but we plan to give aid and support to all anti-Iran groups that have the capability to wage war and create difficulty for the Iranian (Islamic) system. They reached the conclusion that your organization has the power to create difficulties for the Islamic Republic and they are prepared to give you training and/or any assistance that you would require, in terms of telecommunications security and procedures as well as other support, the Americans said they would be willing to provide it at an extensive level.”
Iran’s security forces arrested Rigi on Tuesday by bringing down his plane over the Iranian airspace, as he was onboard a flight from the United Arab Emirates to Kyrgyzstan.
Read in full here.
January 31, 2010
Ole Chávez, protector del Caribe
Ole Chávez, protector del Caribe Edna Spennato 2010.
Photomontage made on 31 January 2010.
Click on image to enlarge
Latin America has suffered constant aggressions executed by Washington during the past two hundred years. Strategies and tactics of covert and overt warfare have been applied against different nations in the region, ranging from coup d’etats, assassinations, disappearances, torture, brutal dictatorships, atrocities, political persecution, economic sabotage, psychological operations, media warfare, biological warfare, subversion, counterinsurgency, paramiliary infiltration, diplomatic terrorism, blockades, electoral intervention to military invasions. Regardless of who’s in the White House – democrat or republican – when it comes to Latin America, the Empire’s policies remain the same…
Clinton’s regional trip was part of a strategy announced by the Obama administration last year, to create a divide between the so-called “progressive left” and the “radical left” in Latin America. It’s no coincidence that her first tour of the region coincided with the announcement of a new Latin American and Caribbean Community of States, which excludes the presence of the US and Canada.
The Coming Conflict
A military conflict is not initiated from one day to the next. It’s a process that involves first influencing public perception and opinion – demonizing the target leader or government in order to justify aggression. Subsequently, armed forces are strategically deployed in the region in order to guarantee an effective military action. Tactics, such as subversion and counterinsurgency, are utilized in order to debilitate and destabilize the target nation from within, increasing its vulnerability and weakening its defenses.
This plan has been active against Venezuela for several years. The consolidation of regional unity and Latin American integration threatens US possibilities of regaining domination and control in the hemisphere. And the advances of the Bolivarian Revolution have impeded its “self-destruction”, provoked by internal subversion funded and directed by US agencies. However, the Empire will not cease its attempts to achieve its final objective, and a potential military conflict in the region remains on the horizon.
Read in full here.
by John Pilger
…The theft of Haiti has been swift and crude…. The airport in the capital, Port-au-Prince, is now an American military base and relief flights have been re-routed to the Dominican Republic. All flights stopped for three hours for the arrival of Hillary Clinton. Critically injured Haitians waited unaided as 800 American residents in Haiti were fed, watered and evacuated. Six days passed before the US Air Force dropped bottled water to people suffering thirst and dehydration…
Not for tourists is the US building its fifth biggest embassy in Port-au-Prince. Oil was found in Haiti’s waters decades ago and the US has kept it in reserve until the Middle East begins to run dry. More urgently, an occupied Haiti has a strategic importance in Washington’s “rollback” plans for Latin America. The goal is the overthrow of the popular democracies in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, control of Venezuela’s abundant oil reserves and sabotage of the growing regional cooperation that has given millions their first taste of an economic and social justice long denied by US-sponsored regimes.
The first rollback success came last year with the coup against President Jose Manuel Zelaya in Honduras who also dared advocate a minimum wage and that the rich pay tax. Obama’s secret support for the illegal regime carries a clear warning to vulnerable governments in central America. Last October, the regime in Colombia, long bankrolled by Washington and supported by death squads, handed the US seven military bases to, according to US air force documents, “combat anti-US governments in the region”.
Media propaganda has laid the ground for what may well be Obama’s next war… Of 304 BBC reports, only three mentioned any of the historic reforms of the Chavez government, while the majority denigrated Chavez’s extraordinary democratic record, at one point comparing him to Hitler…
Read in full here.
American Genocides: Is Haiti Next?
Stephen Lendman
…The post-2004 East Asian tsunami is instructive. Around $1.2 billion in aid relief was raised, mostly used for development, not victims. They got nothing, were forced into permanent shantytowns, and are still there. High-end tourism took precedence over rebuilding their homes and restoring their way of life.
That’s what Haitians now face – permanent displacement on their own to facilitate plunder, exploitation and perhaps mass deaths because of no aid, too little, and no disease prevention or treatment.
If genocide is planned, that’s the model. Henry Kissinger’s secret 1974 National Security Study Memorandum 200 (NSSM 200) was an earlier one. Shaped by Rockefeller interests, it was an action plan for global population reduction – culling unwanted, unneeded “useless eaters.”
The scheme involved:
— mandatory birth control;
— involuntary sterilizations;
— legalized abortion;
— indoctrination of children; and
— other coercive methods, including withholding disaster relief and food aid when most needed.
The plan specifically said America would conceal its role to avoid charges of imperialism, so would induce the UN and NGOs to do its dirty work….
Read in full here…
Updated 24 February 2010
Leaders agree to create Latam Bloc
Latin American and Caribbean leaders have agreed to create a new regional bloc that excludes the US and Canada.
The announcement came at the close of a two-day summit of 32 leaders in Cancun, Mexico on Tuesday…
Read in full here.
January 22, 2010
Under the Boot of the One
Under the Boot of the One Edna Spennato 2010.
Photomontage made on 18 January 2010.
Click on image to enlarge
Che Guevara on Imperialism – 1965
January 11, 2010
Obama’s Wrath Shifts to Africa
Obama’s Wrath Shifts to Africa Edna Spennato 2010.
Photomontage made on 11 January 2010
Click on image to enlarge
Updated 14 March 2010:
America’s First War in Africa. US AFRICOM Launches Large-Scale Offensive In Somalia
…The U.S.-NATO-EU global triad plans an even larger collective military role in the new scramble for Africa. On March 4 and 5 a delegation from AFRICOM met with European Union officials in Brussels “seeking EU cooperation in Africa,” specifically in “areas where cooperation could be possible, notably with the soon-to-be-launched EU mission to train Somali troops.” [24]
Tony Holmes, AFRICOM’s deputy to the commander for civil-military activities, said “Somalia, that’s an area where we’re going to be doing a lot more, the European Union is already doing a lot and will be doing more….
“Somalia is very important for us. The European Union is involved in training Somalis in Uganda and that’s something we might be able to work closely with to support.”
The AFRICOM delegation, including Major-General Richard Sherlock, director of strategy, plans and programs, also discussed “counter-terrorism cooperation with the EU in the Sahel region, notably in Mauritania, Mali and Niger….” [25]
In late January the chairman of NATO’s Military Committee, Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, said “that the Alliance is in discussion with a Gulf state to deploy AWACS planes for a reconnaissance mission over Afghanistan in support of its ISAF mission and also for anti-piracy off Somalia.” [24]
To demonstrate that NATO’s anti-piracy operation off the coast of Somalia has other designs than the one acknowledged, early this year a NATO spokesman announced that the bloc’s naval contingent in the Gulf of Aden “now has an additional task” to intervene against a fictional deployment of Somali fighters across the Gulf to Yemen.
The spokesman, Jacqui Sheriff, said “NATO warships will be on the lookout for anything suspicious….”
Read in full here.
Since it was formed two years ago, the US African Command (AFRICOM) has been very busy creating death and destruction in Africa in an attempt to obtain control of precious resources, which is why the war in Somalia is expanding to the rest of Africa….
Even though “Africa is united in rejecting US requests for a military headquarters” inside Africa, there are reports that “from oil rich northern Angola up to Nigeria, from the Gulf of Guinea to Morocco and Algeria, from the Horn of Africa down to Kenya and Uganda, and over the pipeline routes from Chad to Cameroon in the west, and from Sudan to the Red Sea in the east, US admirals and generals have been landing and taking off, meeting with local officials. They’ve conducted feasibility studies, concluded secret agreements, and spent billions from their secret budgets.” This is the future that awaits Africa with AFRICOM and the agenda to control the “oil, and the diamonds, and the uranium, and the coltan.”
If you find the idea that Africa can become bloodier than it is inaccessible, then consider this: Contrary to popular belief, the worst humanitarian crisis in Africa is not Darfur, it’s Somalia, and it all started in 2006, when the United States and Ethiopia started a war with Somalia, ending six months of the only peaceful period Somalis had known for years. The end result has been the same as all other wars that the United States has started this century. Not only is Somalia devastated but the war is spreading.
Read in full here.
Blackwater/Xe merc arrive in Somalia, Al-Shabab says
January 12, 2010 01:34:41 GMT
At least 18 people have been killed in clashes between rival factions in southern and central Somalia, and there are reports that Blackwater/Xe mercenaries have entered the country.
A battle broke out between the pro-government Ahlu Sunnah militia and Hizbul Islam fighters in the town of Baladwayne on Sunday and went well into Monday, during which at least 13 people lost their lives, witnesses said.
In addition, five people were killed when Hizbul Islam fighters engaged Al-Shabab fighters in the town of Dhobley near the Kenyan border, Reuters reported.
There are also allegations of US-sponsored bomb plots in the capital.
The bombings will be carried out in order to create a pretext to launch a campaign against Al-Shabab, a spokesman of the group, Sheikh Ali Mohammed Rage, told Reuters….
More at this link.
Obama to Visit Ghana – All About AFRICOM?
The United States President, Barrack Obama is scheduled in July to visit Ghana in his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa since resuming office. His choice of Ghana and not his fathers homeland, Kenya…raises obvious questions…. Is it all about AFRICOM, the US African central military command… and the fact that ‘black-gold’, oil was just discovered in Ghana? Can the Presidents visit to Africa be centrally hinged on politics and US military interest?…
Read in full here.
Extract from Obama’s 11 July 2009 speech in Ghana
…America has a responsibility to work with you as a partner to advance this vision, not just with words, but with support that strengthens African capacity. When there’s a genocide in Darfur or terrorists in Somalia, these are not simply African problems — they are global security challenges, and they demand a global response.
And that’s why we stand ready to partner through diplomacy and technical assistance and logistical support, and we will stand behind efforts to hold war criminals accountable. And let me be clear: Our Africa Command is focused not on establishing a foothold in the continent, but on confronting these common challenges to advance the security of America, Africa, and the world. (Applause.)
…But these things can only be done if all of you take responsibility for your future. And it won’t be easy. It will take time and effort. There will be suffering and setbacks. But I can promise you this: America will be with you every step of the way — as a partner, as a friend. (Applause.) Opportunity won’t come from any other place, though. It must come from the decisions that all of you make, the things that you do, the hope that you hold in your heart.
Ghana, freedom is your inheritance. Now, it is your responsibility to build upon freedom’s foundation. And if you do, we will look back years from now to places like Accra and say this was the time when the promise was realized; this was the moment when prosperity was forged, when pain was overcome, and a new era of progress began. This can be the time when we witness the triumph of justice once more. Yes we can. Thank you very much. God bless you. Thank you. (Applause.)
Full transcript of the speech on the AFRICOM website here.
January 7, 2010
Happy New Year, Yemen!
Happy New Year, Yemen! Edna Spennato 2010.
Photomontage made on 7 January 2010.
Click on image to enlarge
Cartoon of the Day on 8 January 2010 at Palestine Think Tank.
Also at these links: Band Annie’s Weblog, Al-Buraq, Window Into Palestine, The China Rose, Zimbio.
The Yemen Hidden Agenda: Behind the Al-Qaeda Scenarios, A Strategic Oil Transit Chokepoint
by F. William Engdahl:
“…In addition to its geopolitical position as a major global oil transit chokepoint, Yemen is reported to hold some of the world’s greatest untapped oil reserves…”
Read in full here.
U.S., NATO Expand Afghan War To Horn Of Africa And Indian Ocean
by Rick Rozoff:
“…In parallel with the escalation of the war in South Asia – counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan and drone missile attacks in Pakistan – the United States and its NATO allies have laid the groundwork for increased naval, air and ground operations in the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Aden.
During the past month the U.S. has carried out deadly military strikes in Yemen: Bombing raids in the north and cruise missile attacks in the south of the nation. Washington has been accused of killing scores of civilians in the attacks in both parts of the country, executed before the December 25 Northwest Airlines incident that has been used to justify the earlier U.S. actions ex post facto. And, ominously, that has been exploited to pound a steady drumbeat of demands for expanded and even more direct military intervention.
The Pentagon’s publicly disclosed military and security program for Yemen grew from $4.6 million in 2006 to $67 million last year. “That figure does not include covert, classified assistance that the United States has provided…..”
Somalia and Yemen lie across from each other on either end of the Gulf of Aden where the Red Sea meets the Arabian Sea and the Mediterranean is connected with the Indian Ocean. An arc that effects the conjunction of three of the world’s five most important continents. Territory too important for the United States, whose head of state last month proclaimed himself commander-in-chief of the world’s sole military superpower, and what for the past decade has declared itself expeditionary and global NATO to leave untouched.”
Read in full here.
January 5, 2010
A Gaza Postcard from the One
A Gaza Postcard from the One Edna Spennato 2009.
Photomontage made on 22 January 2009.
Click on image to enlarge
December 29, 2009
Prince of Peace and Profanity
Prince of Peace and Profanity Edna Spennato 2009.
Photomontage made on 29 December 2009.
Click on image to enlarge
Cartoon of the Day on 29 December 2009 at Palestine Think Tank
Also at these links: Stop the War Coalition, Uprooted Palestinians, Palestine News, Window Into Palestine, Uprooted Palestinian, Uprooted Palestinian’s Blog.
December 27, 2009
Obama’s Hanukkah Message to Gaza
Obama’s Hanukkah Message to Gaza Edna Spennato 2008.
Photomontage made in late December 2008.
Click on image to enlarge
This time last year as President Elect, Obama was looking the other way and focussing on his golf game in Hawaii while Gaza was being subjected to the IDF’s aerial bombardment using illegal American weapons, including white phospherous. A year later and this collaborator has still not condemned the genocide of the Gazan population. How could he, really, when he’s been committing the same war crimes on an even larger scale against the Afghanistanis and Pakistanis?
Originally published at Auntie Ziona as Obama’s Message to Goyza
Also at these links: Kenny’s Sideshow, Window Into Palestine, Uprooted Palestinians, Wake Up From Your Slumber.
February 16, 2009
Saint Bibi Finally Gets to Play God
Saints Bibi and Obama Edna Spennato 2008.
Photomontage made on 22 Nov 2008
Published at these links: Window Into Palestine, Uprooted Palestinians, Ziopedia, Kenny’s Sideshow here and here, Auntie Ziona.
As ludicrous as it may have seemed for the ultra-hawkish Bibi, the man who described the 9-11 twin tower attacks as “very good”, to attempt to emulate the messianic persona put out by the Obama propaganda machine, Natanyahu’s election website and his entire campaign was an imitation of Barky’s, down to even hiring two of Obama’s election campaign staff, Josh Isay and Bill Knapp .
Kadima gained one seat more than Likud’s 27 seats, due to the fact that in Israel Occupied Palestine, most of the voting public doesn’t choose its leaders based upon promised miracles and good deeds, not even given the assurance that the candidate can walk on water, given enough time and votes.
The voters in Israel Occupied Palestine want more than promises. They expect to see the actual bodies, hence the higher number of votes scored by Livni for her undeniable achievements in certain crucial categories, including:
1. number of recently accumulated Palestinian cadavers, preferably civilian, with a proportion of at least one third small children
2. number of amputations
3. number of orphans, widows and severely wounded
4. number of destroyed homes, hospitals, schools, playgrounds and UN buildings
5. number of new cholera cases
6. number of newly created refugees
7. and last but not least of course, the ability to hobnob at EU dinner parties with other mass murderers
However, with the support of Avigdor “Kingmaker” Lieberman’s party forming a right-wing coalition with Likud, Bibi has managed to become Israel’s new PM, and the world now grits its teeth in anticipation of even worse atrocities than those committed by the previous gang of war criminals.
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