#3 — Yes, the US has lost all credibility. Whenever anything happens, from a car bombing in some country to a presidential death (to a war or an earthquake) in another, everyone automatically thinks over the possible US motives behind it. For the US now any denial is considered implausible by the rest of the world. USA has really painted itself into a corner.

Posted by: JohnE | Mar 15 2013 22:25 utc | 4

Sorry for the double post.

Posted by: JohnE | Mar 15 2013 22:28 utc | 6

Wapo trying to be funny, ridiculing North Korea for using the proper metaphor.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/03/15/north-korea-officially-denounces-the-reptile-media-for-jabbering/

Posted by: ruralito | Mar 15 2013 23:32 utc | 8

What would happen if another government funded disaffected Americans to incite an insurrection? A color revolution? The arab leaders that have been murdered will want revenge in accordance to arab honor. The United States is becoming the empire of evil. I’m embarrassed to be an American at times when I go abroad. Will the nations of the world coalesce and also want revenge for the wickedness of my country’s selfish actions?

Posted by: Fernando | Mar 16 2013 1:06 utc | 10

@pissed… 7
Its not that he actually believes that (who knows if he does or doesn’t) but his audience does and Barry is not nearly powerful enough to tell them the truth so you get that line repeated again and again,

Posted by: heath | Mar 16 2013 1:50 utc | 12

Freedom expands choice, choices expand freedom
One feature of Obamacare is the minimal definition of an insurance policy. (Without such definition, the Republican notion of interstate policy sales is a foolish surefire disaster.) Pregnancy is a medical condition; the ability to manage pregnancy is important. Being pregnant only when desired is certainly an aspect of management. A healthy planned pregnancy and subsequent healthy child is in society’s interests; hence the coverage in minimum definition.
It’s an unfortunate post-WWII fluke that most Americans are insured through their employment – unlike most of the world. The employer offers the policy – not the care. The policy has coverages used or not used at covered’s discretion. Since a business cannot discriminate, all kinds of people perhaps work there. These people are presented with opportunities and choice – Freedom!
A religious organization is free to have rules; their followers are also free to follow or not. A business follows civic laws that guarantee Freedom. Jobs are open to all religions. Religions are free to have policies. People are free to join a religion or not, and further, free to follow at their own level. Freedom all around.
Republicans are making a phoney issue here. Freedom, defined as choice and opportunity, is being expanded.

Posted by: Richard W. Crews | Mar 16 2013 2:38 utc | 14

Juannie @1&2:I find myself in agreement with you on both posts, especially on r’giap. Thank you.

Posted by: ben | Mar 16 2013 3:18 utc | 16

@17: The probability that at least one of the six attracted attention from the CIA, would probability not be zero.

Posted by: ben | Mar 16 2013 4:19 utc | 18

BEN 18
may be i didnt make myself clear
since probability[6 leftist latin american all contracted cancer simultaneouly] = 0
the only explanation is foul play
in that case, who’d be the no1 suspect ?
i’ve posted enough *anti fukus* rants here so u should know whom im think of ?

Posted by: denk | Mar 16 2013 4:40 utc | 20

ben 21
we all know that fukus has been trying to get rid of chavez
they tried two coups n failed
i think that speech in the un sealed chavez’s fate
chavez
*was the devil here , i can still smell sulphur !*
its very satisfying to chavez n the world at large
but no way is fukus gonna to let him get away with this
chavez was setting a very good/bad example
cia had killed many for much less.

Posted by: denk | Mar 16 2013 5:05 utc | 22

Posted by: gul | Mar 15, 2013 3:44:52 PM | 3
what does it matter, US credibility…most regimes are enthrall to the US, and the people are of no account

Posted by: brian | Mar 16 2013 6:16 utc | 24

Richard W. Crews@15-
Why do people think outlawing firearms is gonna somehow magically make the problems firearms represent go away? Do you think criminal thugs give a F@$% about laws? I realize a lot of folks are scared of firearms and I don’t blame them… but if there are evil folks out there with such weapons, I want to at least be put on equal ground with some two-bit fleck of feces who thinks their weapon makes them invincible. That requires a firearm.
America is guns and it will be for many years to come. If you don’t like guns, avoid people and places where you might run across them (good luck). If you want to disarm someone maybe you should try taking the government’s firearms as they kill far more innocent people than the average gun owner. Criminal gangs don’t kill as many people as our gang members who wear the uniforms of state and this should make you wonder why the state is so desperate to want the rest of us unarmed.
Peace

Posted by: DaveS | Mar 16 2013 12:58 utc | 26

If the US starts undertaking “covert” drone operations in Syria (in a clear attempt to circumvent the UN security council), then the Russians will have to undertake their own “covert” operations there to counter them. The Russians and Chinese should be clear and publicly announce that a covert drone war in Syria will be viewed as an attempt to bypass the security council and that counter-measures will be taken to deal with it.

Posted by: RC | Mar 16 2013 21:29 utc | 28

@somebody #27
That is an interesting article. Unfortuantely, while the author is careful to sort out the timeline and ideologies of various insurgent factions and leaders, he does not question the mainstream neocon narrative about the Syrian “rebellion.” Indeed, he makes it clear that the fact that the FSA doesn’t have its act together is a disappointment to him:

From summer onwards, new rebel factions started popping up in hundreds of little villages and city neighborhoods inside Syria, as an ever-growing number of local demonstrators were provoked into self-defense. The most important recruiting tool for this nascent insurgency was not the FSA and its trickle of videotaped communiqués on YouTube. Rather, it was Bashar el-Assad’s decision to send his army on a psychotic rampage through the Syrian Sunni Arab countryside. As the corpses piled up, more and more civilians started looking for guns and ammo, and the rebel movement took off with a vengeance.
…
All this said, I wish that the FSA did exist.
A unified rebel leadership would spare Syria much of the bloodshed that lies ahead. Not just because an organized rebel army would pack more of a punch in the struggle against Bashar el-Assad’s fascist dictatorship, and could put a leash on the most unpleasant salafi extremist factions. But also – and this matters a lot more than the fate of either Assad or al-Qaida – because only a functioning opposition leadership will be able to minimize the period of Lebanon-style armed anarchy and sectarian bloodshed that lies ahead for Syria, and help reestablish a central government when Assad’s is gone for good.
Unfortunately, my mere wishing won’t make it so. But neither will sloppy and distorted news reporting.

Posted by: Rusty Pipes | Mar 17 2013 0:30 utc | 30

30) Syria is a brew of secret service practices
“as an ever-growing number of local demonstrators were provoked into self-defense”
is a fair assessment not getting involved into who provoked whom into self defense which is bound to be a very murky affair.
“psychotic rampage through the Syrian Sunni Arab countryside”
could describe Western armies in Iraq and Afghanistan, too, same goes for “the most important recruiting tool for this nascent insurgency”, all in all a fair assessment, as obvious from all the videos and photographs, the Syrian Army has been fighting whole areas of the country, not individual terrorists.
Assad describing Western attempts to destroy Al-Qeida ideology by destroying bodies as futile is part of the same schizophrenia that allies him to the Iranian brand of political Islam whilst “the West” specializes in its own brand of schizophrenia in supporting and fighting the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qeida at the same time.

Posted by: somebody | Mar 17 2013 8:19 utc | 32

something different:
A levy (sic) has been breached.
The planned bail-out of Cyprus by the Eurogroup authorities – surprise, tough to describe who that is – includes scalping the deposit, checking account holder – 6 + or 10 % depending on their holdings. The vote for it to pass has been pushed off until Monday I just read.
> The banks have been closed since Fri and electronic payments ‘suspended.’ So there has not been a bank run, though some reports describe ppl trying ATMs, mild panic? Of course those in the know have had time to move their money to Jersey, Singapore, London City, etc.
Nobody tried that with the Greeks, who are subjected to extreme, sadisitic ‘austerity’ but confiscating part of their bank accounts was not, is not, part of the picture. Just lowering salaries by Gvmt decree…
Britain, in the shape of Osborne, has declared that UK citizens, the upright kind, Gvmt. and military, will be compensated for their losses.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/cyprus-politicians-decide-bailout-demands-061611987–finance.html#Tu3P9Au
How’s that then? The Eurogroup (ECB etc.) decides or offers the bail-out but EU losers of some class will be compensated? (see link for xtra details)
When ppl study why the Eurozone collapsed, this Cyprus story will be quoted as a trigger / landmark / important milestone. No matter what happens on Monday. I have read it was Germany who suggested and imposed. (?)

Posted by: Noirette | Mar 17 2013 15:43 utc | 34

35) Noirette, read the same in the German press, Germany (Merkel, Schäuble) suggested and imposed. Merkel might have a problem in Bundestag with it as it is close to election time in Germany.
German press pretends it means – Cyprus being a tax haven – everybody using a bank account in Cyprus will be taxed. I doubt that is legally possible as Cyprus legislation surely would apply to only Cyprus citizens and contracts concerning bank accounts could not be changed unilaterally.
It sounds like a very, very stupid idea. I talked to an Italian friend last week who thinks the elephant in the room is Italy – which will be too expensive to bail out – 60 million Italians to 11 million Greeks – so Italy will be the first to leave the Euro Zone. My friends business with Italy has fallen to zero.

Posted by: somebody | Mar 17 2013 20:40 utc | 36

Thank you beq. And great to see your name here again. I have taken a quick look at the link you supplied and watched the two short videos but plan to follow some of the links to get a better feel for what Christopher is up to and to follow more of “These Heathen Dreams”. It is good to see someone has take up the project of honoring some of his life’s work. I look forward to more.
I feel quite honored and fortunate to have experienced reading his ongoing perceptively cogent and brutally honest commentary over the years. His writings resonated with me from the first time I encountered him back at Whiskey Bar. That he chose to stay the course here over the years speaks highly not only of our host but to so many of those who engaged him along the way.
Your response is appreciated.
John

Posted by: juannie | Mar 18 2013 0:26 utc | 38

Did you see this one, b? Proves what you always said about drones.
US Drones Over Persian Gulf Now Have Escorts

The latest incident in the cat and mouse drone games the US and Iran are carrying out has an Iranian jet coming close to a US Predator drone over the Persian Gulf. US reports on the incident all rely on information released by Defense Department spokesman George Little and every report that I have read in the media includes, but does not comment on, the fact that this drone was accompanied by two US escort planes. As recently as the incident back in November when Iranian jets fired on a drone it is clear that drones were not escorted, so the presence of escorts is a new development.

I can imagine this development leading to a certain downgrading of the perceived value of drones.

Posted by: alexno | Mar 19 2013 9:48 utc | 40

Nobel Econ Prize winner, Christopher Pissarides, who shared a Nobel Prize in economics in 2010, is “appalled” by the EU actions concerning Cyprus and the tax on bank deposits.
He sees this as clear warning that small nations will be bullied by Germany. Also, says it is only two banks out of all those in Cyprus who dealt in the Greek bonds which are causing this latest crisis. Regulation by the EU has been lax, but the banks on Cyprus have followed the EU regs quite well.
Re: tainted Russian money? Apparently no accounts have been named which fall into this category. Reeeeeally?

The idea of the single currency and monetary union was that we had a union of equal partners helping each other in difficult times. Here we have a big partner (Germany) bullying a small one, for what is perceived by the small one to be political reasons. And the Cypriot depositors caught in the fire are an unfortunate collateral damage.
SNIP
What’s the incentive that banks now have in the European Union to treat risky investments with caution? If one of them takes bad risks the others will pay for it; if it works well for it, it will keep the profits. A classic scenario for market breakdown.

Posted by: jawbone | Mar 19 2013 17:31 utc | 42

Looks like the Israelis have begun using chemical weapons (through the usual proxies, of course).
25 Killed by Rocket with Chemical Materials Fired by Terrorists in Aleppo Countryside
http://www.sana-syria.com/eng/337/2013/03/19/473349.htm
“Terrorists on Tuesday launched a rocket containing chemical materials on Khan al-Asal area in Aleppo Countryside.
The explosion of the rocket claimed the lives of 25 martyrs, while 110 citizens were injured, many of them in critical condition…”
Al-Zoubi: Terrorists’ Firing of Rocket with Chemical Substances in Aleppo is Serious Escalation
http://www.sana-syria.com/eng/21/2013/03/19/473367.htm
“…He pointed out that the toxic gases and materials involved in the rocket cause immediate fainting, quiver and death, stressing that this type of weapons usually come under the category of “lethal and internationally-banned weapons”.
Minsiter al-Zoubi reiterated that “This shift in the type and manner of arming the terrorists embodied in using weapons imported from outside Syria across the border with some neighboring countries means that all allegations made by some countries, such as France, UK, Qatar and Turkey on providing logistic and “non-lethal” weapons to the armed terrorist groups in Syria are mere talk to sell the media…”

Posted by: вот так | Mar 19 2013 23:04 utc | 44

Interesting take on what Russia might want from Cyprus:

Moscow does not want to create a base in Cyprus like the one similar to that of Tartus or at least it does not want it now. She wants port and airport facilities. Eg wants the aircraft carrier “Admiral Kuznetsov” not floating around the Mediterranean without a point to “tie” and refuel. Or the aircraft of the Russian Navy and the Air Force can not land and stay for some time at the air base “Papandreou” which anyway is almost empty.

http://greekemmy.com/2013/03/20/cyprus-is-ready-to-leave-eurozone-if-eurogroup-does-not-accept-their-agreement-with-russia/

Posted by: bokonon | Mar 20 2013 23:40 utc | 46

TAKE THAT! Bernard-Henri Lévy BANNED by his beloved freedom fighters, prohibited to visit #Libya …for being a Jew http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/author-barred-from-libya-for-being-jewish-8546522.html
the man behind the war on Libya has been banned by his proteges.
what will israel think of this? as many of the FSA they support are libyan

Posted by: brian | Mar 23 2013 5:30 utc | 48

by billmon
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/03/22/1196307/-Mea-Culpa

Posted by: Sabine | Mar 23 2013 6:21 utc | 50

Pontifical Academy of Sciences is a continually standing large committee, large enough to be called an academy, that is formally tasked with advising the Pope on scientific questions. Many of its members are eminent scientists, and not all are Catholics (Ref). In 2009 the Pontifical Academy of Sciences organized a conference on farm biotechnology and genetically modified crops. In an ensuing report, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences states the following conclusion:

“There is a moral imperative to make the benefits of genetically engineered technology available on a larger scale to poor and vulnerable populations who want them, and on terms that will enable them to raise their standards of living, improve their health, and protect their environment.” And: “We urge those who oppose or are skeptical about the use of genetically engineered crop varieties and the application of modern genetics generally to evaluate carefully the science, and the demonstrable harm caused by withholding this proven technology from those who need it most,” said the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. (Ref)

Posted by: Parviziyi | Mar 24 2013 0:22 utc | 52

Australia does not believe it
I wonder – what brought the story back to life? Some secret service people not happy what was done to Zygier?

Posted by: somebody | Mar 25 2013 7:45 utc | 54

Libya is implementing Western standards of democracy:
“Libya’s deputy prime minister says pro-government militiamen are suspected of having raped three British female activists of Pakistani origin in the eastern city of Benghazi, the Associated Press reported Friday.”
http://dawn.com/2013/03/29/pakistani-female-activists-brutally-raped-in-benghazi-libyan-officials/

Posted by: Michal | Mar 30 2013 13:30 utc | 56