Category: News

Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission has endorsed the Iran nuclear agreement, concluding that it would prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. The Commission joins dozens of former high-ranking security and intelligence personnel in Israel who agree that the deal is a net positive for Israel. Back in the US the neocons have dominated the debate, joining their ally Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in predicting doom and gloom if the world backs off its war footing against Iran. Of course Netanyahu has been predicting an Iranian atomic weapon is imminent since at least 1992, so like the neocons his credibility is low. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is beating down Iran’s door for trade opportunities now that the sanctions regime is effectively over. Everywhere but the US, that is. More on the other side of the Iran debate in today’s Liberty Report:

Daniel McAdams is director of the The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity. Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

When I can’t sleep at night I have the bad habit of listening to world news on the radio. This seems to be a family trait that I inherited from my father. The wave of refugees trying to find safety in European countries continues unabated. The numbers are staggering. As someone from the U.S., I am shamed by our lack of response and indifference, as well as our inability to acknowledge our responsibility in unleashing the chaos and violence in the Middle East through our war making,

My thoughts go to the recent perilous journey of a close Iraqi friend (I will call him Mohammed) and his son (whom I will call Omar). Already the survivor of an assassination attempt, this trusted translator, driver, guide and confidant received a death threat on his gate in early August. He fled under cover of the night, taking Omar with him. On that same day, 15 men were kidnapped in his village. He left a wife and six other children.

Having lived with this dear family, I too felt as if I were on the hazardous exhausting, 42-day journey with them.

From Baghdad they fled to Kurdistan. From Kurdistan they went to Turkey. Next, they boarded a boat from Turkey to a Greek island, just miles from the Turkish shore. From there they went to another Greek island, and finally to a third island. Much to their relief, they were at last able to get on a ferry to Athens.

Continue reading “To Find a Happy Day: Cathy Breen”

In the least probably theory of all time, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed that the bombing of a peace rally in the capital city of Ankara earlier this month was coordinated by a “terror collective” that includes materially everyone in the region that Turkey isn’t on good terms with.

So even though there are several active wars between these factions, Erdogan named the four culprit factions as Syria’s government intelligence services, ISIS, the PKK, and the Kurdish PYD, the political wing of the YPG.

The claim doesn’t make sense even a little, and is doubly odd when one considers that Erdogan’s government also claims the peace rally’s organizers, the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), is itself secretly part of the PKK, and claims that the PYD is also part of the PKK, which would mean the organizers of the rally and two of the four parties involved in attacking the rally were all the same organization for no reason.

The HDP has accused factions in Erdogan’s party of being behind the attack, noting there were similar attacks on their rallies in the lead-up to the last election. There’s no evidence of that either, but given the lack of patently absurd conspiracies it is still the more reasonable of the two narratives out there.

Today’s Benghazi Committee hearings will not focus on the central issue: US interventionist foreign policy which set the stage for the inevitable attack that followed. Hillary Clinton made the point in her opening statement that US embassies have been attacked many times in the past and she is right. But no one wants to question why they attack. Here’s a hint: it’s not because we are rich and free. Democrats and Republicans are out to score political points from the hearings. Both agree on the policies. Both agree on interventionism. Without major changes, neither will do a thing to change the root cause of such events: US interventionism. Today’s Liberty Report explores questions you will not hear in today’s hearing:

Daniel McAdams is director of the The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity. Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

The US House of Representatives, which never ceases sticking its nose in other people’s business, is tomorrow scheduled to take up H. Res. 348, a bill “Supporting the right of the people of Ukraine to freely elect their government and determine their future.” The bill can only increase tensions in Ukraine and threaten the fragile eight month old “Minsk II” ceasefire agreement.

The “Minsk II agreement” continues to produce relative calm in eastern Ukraine – earlier this month both Kiev and the breakaway regions of the east have agreed to withdraw remaining tanks, artillery and mortars from front line, in a move the Telegraph (UK) observed “could signal end of war.”

The US was not a party to the Minsk II talks, which took place earlier this year between Russia, Ukraine, France, and Germany. US involvement from the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine – starting with open US support for the unconstitutional coup in 2014 – has been to exacerbate tensions rather than to help ameliorate them.

It is a US position that continues in H. Res. 348, a bill scheduled on the House “suspension calendar” reserved for “non-controversial” legislation. The Resolution completely distorts objective reality in Ukraine to continue the discredited story that the Ukraine unrest began not as a result of US support for a coup in February 2014, but because of a Russian invasion.

Continue reading “US House Resolution Seeks New Conflict in Ukraine”

As Obama fails on another campaign promise, this one to end the war in Afghanistan, and as that war moves into its 15th year, it is important to remember the US has spent around $110 billion (no one knows the exact amount due to poor record keeping) to “rebuild” that beleaguered nation, so far.

We say “so far” in that the spending continues, and like the end of the war itself, as no foreseeable end date.

So how is that rebuilding thingee going?

Not well, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which issued a report saying “The Afghan private sector has thus far failed to fulfill its potential as an engine of economic growth or an instrument of social inclusion.”

In addition to America tossing that $110 billion of taxpayer money into the hole, foreign aid groups have been flushing away $15.7 billion a year. Taken together, all that money now accounts for around 98 percent of the entire Afghan gross domestic product.

Continue reading “New Report: US Aid to Afghanistan Basically Wasted or Stolen”