Why We Can't Save Her

Powerful video from the International Committee for the Red Cross...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm0TYebjyHQ

From Memory to Myth: The Adventures of Patrick Leigh Fermor

The daring exploits and beguiling charm of the 20th century’s greatest travel writer...

https://www.weeklystandard.com/dominic-green/from-memory-to-myth-the-adventures-of-patrick-leigh-fermor

The Killing of Osama by Seymour Hersh

The White House still maintains that the mission was an all-American affair, and that the senior generals of Pakistan’s army and Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) were not told of the raid in advance. This is false, as are many other elements of the Obama administration’s account. The White House’s story might have been written by Lewis Carroll: would bin Laden, target of a massive international manhunt, really decide that a resort town forty miles from Islamabad would be the safest place to live and command al-Qaida’s operations? He was hiding in the open. So America said.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE....
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n10/seymour-m-hersh/the-killing-of-osama-bin-laden

Life under drones — in victims’ own words

‘I no longer love blue skies. In fact, I now prefer grey skies.’

Read full article here...

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/war/150210/living-under-drones-victims-own-words

Canada at War Cartoons

The Rise of ISIS

Excellent documentary about ISIS and the motivation to form the group...certainly key in understanding the quagmire we are stepping into...


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/rise-of-isis/

Reza Aslan Schools CNN and Fox News

Awesome! Way to go Reza!

CNN Interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ibKWVTFSak

Fox News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt1cOnNrY5s

Piers Morgan Interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYluVdT50Ro

Dear North America, You're Not as Great as You Think
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/angelina-chapin/reza-aslan-bill-maher_b_5941718.html

Korea Execution Is Tied to Clash Over Businesses

Radio Free Asia, in a report last week that cited anonymous North Korean sources, reported that Mr. Kim saw North Korean soldiers malnourished during his recent visits to islands near the disputed western sea border...

Read more here...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/24/world/asia/north-korea-purge.html?hp&_r=0

also...

A Need Now to Prepare for North Korea's Collapse

US and UK spy agencies defeat privacy and security on the internet

Another example of governments and corporations working hand in hand to subdue the common man.  We shouldn't be scared of them, they should be scared of us...Indeed, the system needs to change!

Excerpt:

US and British intelligence agencies have successfully cracked much of the online encryption relied upon by hundreds of millions of people to protect the privacy of their personal data, online transactions and emails, according to top-secret documents revealed by former contractor Edward Snowden.

Those methods include covert measures to ensure NSA control over setting of international encryption standards, the use of supercomputers to break encryption with "brute force", and – the most closely guarded secret of all – collaboration with technology companies and internet service providers themselves.

Hotmail, Google, Yahoo and Facebook all hacked by US and UK spy agencies...
READ MORE HERE...
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/05/nsa-gchq-encryption-codes-security 

This is What Winning Looks Like

With more than a 1000 people dead in Iraq in July, and a looming war in Syria it seems that "nation-building" is immensely more difficult than we were led to believe.  Anyway, this is a very interesting doc, please share, adios!

SEE FULL DOCUMENTARY HERE...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/13/this-is-what-winning-looks-like_n_3268079.html?utm_hp_ref=world&utm_hp_ref=world

Confronting What We Don't Know About the Korean Crisis

  North Korean soldiers attend military drills in an unknown location in North Korea March 20, 2013.

To make things easy, let's start with what we do know, as a matter of fact.

North Korea has a young (he's 30), untested leader, Kim Jong-un, who has been at the helm for barely a year, following the death of his father Kim Jong-il, a domineering presence. The Korean peninsula is crammed with soldiers and armaments, more so than any other place on the planet. A war would thus be a catastrophe -- no question about it.

There's no way that the United States could stay clear: it has alliance with South Korea and 28,000 troops stationed there.

Ditto for Japan, which hosts some 49,000 U.S. forces (11,000 are offshore) and over 80 American military installations, and would come under immediate attack by North Korea.
North Korea is the weaker side, based on the standard measures of power. The South has a GDP that's close to 40 times the size of the North's and a defense budget larger than the North's entire GDP. Its arsenal is much more advanced than the North's, which consists of Chinese and Soviet weaponry dating back to the 1970s, much of it even older.
The United States is treaty-bound to defend South Korea; North Korea lacks an identical arrangement with China, its principal patron.
Now for what we don't know, which is where the problems begin.

READ MORE HERE...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rajan-menon/fessing-up-to-what-we-don_b_2985651.html?utm_hp_ref=world

What North Korean Attack on South Korea look like...
See full video here. 

See more great photos and articles here...
http://ajarnmike.blogspot.ca/search/label/North%20Korea

The War Tourist

Bored with his job, a Japanese truck driver decides to travel to Syria, Afghanistan and other hot spots as a war tourist...

Excerpt:

"I'm not a target for snipers because I'm a tourist, not like you journalists," he told a reporter. "Besides, I'm not afraid if they shoot at me or that they might kill me. I'm a combination of samurai and kamikaze."

Fujimoto won't even wear a helmet or a flack jacket.

"They are very heavy when it comes to running and it's more fun to go to the front without anything. Besides, when they shoot it's fun and exciting."

Fujimoto said his employers don't know he's in Syria.  "I just told them I was going to Turkey on holiday; if I'd told them the truth, they'd tell me I'm completely crazy."

But though some might doubt his sanity, no one can question his financial foresight, which is rooted in the sadness of his personal life.

Fujimoto is divorced, and says "I have no family, no friends, no girl friend. I am alone in life."


READ MORE HERE...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/03/toshifumi-fujimoto-syria-war-tourism_n_2400576.html?utm_hp_ref=world

Syria's Raging Conflict

War Photography at its finest...

SEE MORE INCREDIBLE IMAGES HERE...
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/11/syria-in-ruins/100402/

Mexican police charged in attack on CIA officers

There are two Mexicos.
There is the one reported by the US press, a place where the Mexican president is fighting a valiant war on drugs, aided by the Mexican army and the Mérida Initiative, the $1.4 billion in aid the United States has committed to the cause. This Mexico has newspapers, courts, laws, and is seen by the United States government as a sister republic.
It does not exist.

There is a second Mexico where the war is for drugs, where the police and the military fight for their share of drug profits, where the press is restrained by the murder of reporters and feasts on a steady diet of bribes, and where the line between the government and the drug world has never existed.

Mexican police charged in attack on CIA officers


Fourteen officers in Mexico’s federal police force have been formally charged with the attempted murder of a pair of American CIA operatives who were attacked in their armored SUV in August on a road south of the capital, federal prosecutors said Friday.
In a statement, prosecutors said the officers’ actions were deliberate, alleging that they “intended to take the lives of two functionaries from the United States Embassy in Mexico,” as well as a member of the Mexican navy who was traveling with them through dangerous country on their way to a Mexican military training facility.

 READ MORE HERE...
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/11/mexican-police-charged-cia.html

Mexican Official:  CIA "Manages" Drug War

The US Central Intelligence Agency and other international security forces "don't fight drug traffickers", a spokesman for the Chihuahua state government in northern Mexico has told Al Jazeera, instead "they try to manage the drug trade".
 
Allegations about official complicity in the drug business are nothing new when they come from activists, professors, campaigners or even former officials. However, an official spokesman for the authorities in one of Mexico's most violent states - one which directly borders Texas - going on the record with such accusations is unique.

READ MORE HERE...
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/07/2012721152715628181.html?utm_content=features&utm_campaign=features&utm_source=twitter&utm_term=rss&utm_medium=tweet

The World is Safer Now. But Who Cares?

The world is safer now, but no one in Washington can talk about it...

Excerpt:

Obama says terrorist networks remain the greatest threat to the United States. “We have to remain vigilant,” he warned recently. But global terrorism has barely touched most Americans in the decade since Sept. 11, 2001, with 238 U.S. citizens killed in terrorist attacks, mostly in war zones, according to the National Counterterrorism Center’s annual reports. By comparison, the Consumer Product Safety Commission found that 293Americans were crushed during the same stretch by falling furniture or televisions.

Beyond the United States, global statistics point undeniably toward progress in achieving greater peace and stability.
READ MORE HERE... 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-world-is-safer-but-no-one-in-washington-can-talk-about-it/2012/11/02/2e59cfea-2442-11e2-ac85-e669876c6a24_story.html

Is the US Provoking a War between Japan and China?

Ex-Envoy Says U.S. Stirs China-Japan Tensions

Excerpt:

Mr. Chen accused the United States of encouraging the right wing in Japan, and fanning a rise of militarism. 

“The U.S. is urging Japan to play a greater role in the region in security terms, not just in economic terms,” he said during his speech at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Hong Kong. That “suits the purpose of the right wing in Japan more than perfectly — their long-held dream is now possible to be realized.”

The United States has said that, in the event of conflict, the disputed islands are covered by its mutual defense treaty with Japan, a position that China has severely criticized since the latest dispute flared last month. 

Mr. Chen described what he called the intervention of the United States in territorial disputes in the South China Sea — where China has been at odds with another American ally, the Philippines — as a way for the United States to expand its influence and restrain the influence of China. 

“Will these countries misjudge and draw China and the United States into a confrontation?” Mr. Chen asked. “The danger is apparent, and China needs to be aware of that.” 

READ MORE HERE...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/31/world/asia/in-speech-organized-by-beijing-ex-diplomat-calls-islands-dispute-with-japan-a-time-bomb.html 

44% of Americans Support Domestic Drone Policing

This whole drone thing is getting way to scary.  You can kiss any freedom you thought you had in the first place goodbye if this program goes through...

Nearly half the public, 44 percent, supports allowing police forces inside the U.S. to use drones to assist police work, but a significant minority — 36 percent — say they “strongly oppose” or “somewhat oppose” police use of drones, according to a survey last month.

READ MORE HERE...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-third-of-the-public-fears-police-use-of-drones-for-surveillance-will-erode-their-privacy/2012/09/27/07657dd2-08d4-11e2-9eea-333857f6a7bd_story.html

A Dangerous New World of Drones

When President George W. Bush declared a "War on Terror" 11 years ago, the Pentagon had fewer than 50 drones.  Now, it has around 7,500.

READ MORE HERE...

http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/01/opinion/bergen-world-of-drones/index.html

Behind the Curtains of Modern Communism

A look at life in 21st century communist countries.  Tomas van Houtryve won Picture of the Year for this photo essay....exceptional work...

See Slide show here...
http://www.poyi.org/69/45/index.php

Open Secret a photo journey by Tomas van Houtryve through modern Laos...
http://www.viistories.com/the-videos/open-secret.aspx

North Korea...

http://www.viistories.com/the-stories/north-korea-secrets-and-lies.aspx

More photos here...

http://cnnphotos.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/10/behind-the-curtains-of-modern-communism/

The Cannibal Warlords of Liberia

Eye opening documentary on the situation in Liberia...pretty cool.

http://www.blacklistedradio.com/?p=1318

Welcome Home

This is the Pulitzer Prize Winning Feature about a soldier suffering from PTSD.  Certainly, documentary photography at it's finest...

 

 Scott looks over his military service records and weeps after being told his apartment application had been turned down. The leasing manager said he couldn't allow Scott to move in because of an assault charge on his background check. Though Scott had his honorable discharge papers and his good-conduct medal, Scott said they meant nothing. 'I'm not a criminal. You would think this would be worth something. It should be. It's not, though.' (Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post -Dec. 29, 2011)

 

 Scott drinks a beer outside the VFW Post in Longmont, Colo. Scott recalled his worst day in Iraq. 'We got this infantry platoon attached to us to beef up our numbers. ... There was this one guy, and I knew right away that we were going to be friends. ... The vehicle he was riding in the passenger seat hit a really big bomb that day - really big IED, and it trapped him inside the humvee, and I got to listen to and watch him scream as he burned. And I never learned his name. There was nothing I could do. ... I lost a friend that I never had.' (Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post - December 29, 2011)

 After punching a hole in his bedroom door, Scott panics in his living room. 'My PTSD comes from long exposure to combat trauma,' Scott said. 'I think it comes from the fact that I survived. That wasn't my plan. It's an honor to die for my country, but I made it home.' Scott said that being diagnosed with PTSD 'means I have nightmares every night. It means I'm hyper-vigilant -- It means I have no fuse and if I get attacked, I'm going to kill. 'I don't want to feel this way.

Scott watches an evening storm roll in outside his apartment. 'I'm just feeling guilty about the things I did. I was a brutal killer, and I rejoiced in it. I was bred to be a killer, and I did it. Now I'm trying to adapt and feel human again. But to feel human, I feel guilty. I did horrible things to people... That's why I can't eat: I feel guilty, I feel sick.' 

SEE FULL SLIDESHOW HERE...
http://www.pulitzer.org/works/2012-Feature-Photography# 

Also see more Pulitzer Prize Winning Photos here...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2131084/Pulitzer-Prize-winners-2012-Picture-screaming-girl-standing-amid-Afghan-suicide-attack-carnage.html 

And lastly an exceptional documentary called "Hell and Back Again" which depicts the reality of modern war and the pain of reintegration.
http://hellandbackagain.com/ 
(It's easy to download this doc from torrentz...)