Essential Information

A compendium of articles, reports, essays and investigations into the effects of militarism on the environment and human society. Send additional documents to editor@envirosagainstwar.org.

• Featured Reports
• General Impacts of a War in the Gulf
• Human Impacts
• Land Impacts
• Marine and Water Impacts
• Oil and Its Alternatives
• Militarism and Civil Liberties
• The 1991 War
• Weapons of War

FEATURED REPORTS

Obama's Afghan Surge Driving Thousands From Their Homes (Chris Floyd /Empire Burlesque)
Commentary: "Barack Obama's Bush-like "surge" in Afghanistan has not even reached its full strength yet, but it is already driving tens of thousands of Afghan civilians from their homes, as they flee an upcoming massive attack in Helmand province."

Wars Sending US into Ruin (Eric Margolis / Toronto Sun)
Commentary: "US President Barack Obama calls the $3.8-trillion US budget he just sent to Congress a major step in restoring America's economic health. In fact, it's another potent fix given to a sick patient deeply addicted to the dangerous drug — debt. More empires have fallen because of reckless finances than invasion. The latest example was the Soviet Union, which spent itself into ruin by buying tanks."

Yemen and The Militarization of Strategic Waterways (Michel Chossudovsky / Global Research)
The islands of Socotra are a wildlife reserve recognized by (UNESCO), as a World Natural Heritage Site. Ufortunately, Socotra sits at the crossroads of the strategic naval waterways of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. It is of crucial importance to the US military. A military base in Socotra could be used to oversee the movement of vessels including war ships in an out of the Gulf of Aden.

Will There Be a Doup d’état in Iraq? (Fatih Abdulsalam / Azzaman)
Analysis: "Our democracy has been a restricted and conditional one. It has been confined to a limited circle of factions and personalities committed to a political program agreed to prior to the country’s occupation.... Have Iraqi factions, those in the government and outside, prepared themselves for the post-US Iraq? That is a question for which the answer is negative at least for the time being."

America's Silent War in Pakistan Unmasked (Abdus Sattar Ghazali / OpEd News)
The Pentagon's so-called "Salvador Option" (a practice of "pacification" through the use of death-squads to commit mass-murder) was first applied in Vietnam, under the rubric of the "Phoenix Program." It also has been applied in Iraq and now is coming to Pakistan, compliments of US military.

Assassinating US Citizens Raises "Troubling Issues" (David Edwards and Muriel Kane / Raw Story)
The admission by Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair that the United States intelligence community is authorized to assassinate Americans working with terrorists overseas has raised serious questions of constitutionality.

Brown Accused of Cover-up: PM Under Fire as Key Papers on Iraq War Are Kept Confidential (James Chapman / The Daily Mail )
Cover-up charges fly in Britain as Prime Minister Gordon Brown is accused of having 'gagged' the Iraq inquiry by blocking the release of secret documents about the war. Lord Goldsmith condemned the Government's refusal to declassify key papers, meaning they cannot be made public or even quoted from by the inquiry panel during questioning.

Dr Aafia Siddiqui and The Truth About US Justice (Yvonne Ridley / Information Clearing House)
Commentary: " Many of us are still in a state of shock over the guilty verdict returned on Dr Aafia Siddiqui.... Even some of the US media expressed discomfort over the verdict returned by the jurors … there was a general feeling that something was not right.

Afghanistan and NATO: Figleaf Summit (Eric Walberg / )
The plan voiced at the London Afghanistan conference to pay off the Taliban is belied by the plan at the Brussels NATO conference two days earlier to bomb them into submission.

Thousands of Civilians Flee Afghan Region as NATO Plans Onslaught (Jon Boone / The Guardian)
Ten of thousands of Afghan civilians are abandoning an area of central Helmland where UK and US forces are set to launch one of the biggest operations of the year.

Airport Body Scanning Raises Radiation Exposure, Committee Says (Jonathan Tirone /Bloomberg)
In a secret report, the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety warns that air passengers should be made aware of the health risks of airport body screenings and governments must explain any decision to expose the public to higher levels of pregnant women and children should not be subject to scanning.

Pentagon to Increase Stock of High-Altitude Drones (Tony Capaccio / Bloomberg)
The US military plans to more than triple its inventory of high-altitude, armed and unarmed drones capable of 24-hour patrols by 2020. The long-range aviation plan delivered to Congress Feb. 2 calls for 800 high-altitude drones, up from 220 currently.

CIA Has Program to Assassinate US Citizens (Thomas R. Eddlem / The New American)
The US Central Intelligence Agency has maintained an assassination list of US citizens for the last eight year and has actually assassinated Americans. In 2000, the CIA used a remotely powered drone to destroy a car in Yemen, killing a US citizen named Kamal Derwish.

Extrajudicial Killing: Intelligence Chief Says CIA Can Kill Americans Abroad (Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post )
Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair acknowledged Wednesday that government agencies may kill US citizens abroad who are involved in terrorist activities if they are "taking action that threatens Americans."

Top 10 Problems With America Assassinating Americans (David Swanson / Global Research)
The director of US national intelligence told the House Intelligence Committee the government has the right to kill Americans abroad. Here are ten reasons why this may not be such a good idea.

What Americans Really Have to Fear (Scott Fina / Santa Barbara Independent & Global Research)
I was among seven people arrested on January 31 for protesting outside the main gate of Vandenberg Air Force Base. My arrest had nothing to do with the security of our country, however, if convicted, my fellow protestors and I face a potential fine of $5,000 and up to one year in prison. The real story of our arrests concerns the United States Constitution.

Muscling Latin America (Greg Grandin / The Nation)
After Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, delivered on an election promise and refused to renew Washington's rent-free lease on an air base in his country, Washington answered with a show of force. The US and Colombia signed an agreement granting the Pentagon use of seven military bases, along with an unlimited number of as yet unspecified "facilities and locations."

Iraq Rice Yields Slump; Rice Imports Surge (Ali Shatab / Assaman.com)
Iraq harvested less rice this year than any other year before. Iraq currently imports about 10 times as much rice as it produces – that is about 1 million tons a year.

Decoding the Secret 'Jesus' Messages on US Military Weapons (Brian Ross / ABC News)
In August of 2005 Trijicon was awarded a $660 million dollar, multi-year contract to provide up to 800,000 of its Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight (ACOG) to the US Marine Corps. At the end of the scope's model number, you can read "JN8:12", which is a reference to the New Testament book of John: "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."

'Justice Denied' in CIA Shootdown of US Missionary Family (Matthew Cole & Brian Ross / ABC News & CIA)
On February 3, 2010, Republican Rep. Pete Hoekstra, ranking minority member of the House Intelligence Committee, accused the CIA todof lying to Congress and covering up its role in the deaths of two innocent Americans, a mother and her infant daughter, at the hands of the CIA and the Peruvian Air Force nine years ago. The CIA has issued a dening the accusation.

Cowardly Congress Lets President Drag USA Into War ( Sherwood Ross / OpEd News)
America frequently makes wars because Congress allows the White House to make the decision for war. "Congressmen and Congresswomen are almost always political cowards, and they care only about staying in office," says Lawrence Velvel, dean of the Massachusetts School of Law. "They don't wish to cast a decision-making vote on war lest their individual decisions...cost them the next election."

Army Imprisions Soldier over Anti-war Song (Lloyd Rowsey / OpEd News & Jeff Schogol / Stars and Stripes)
The Army's "Stop-Loss" program has been called a "Backdoor Draft" and a form of illegal "enslavement" that forces soldiers to continue to risk their lives after their Army contract has expired and their term of service has ended. Army Specialist Marc Hall is in jail charged with recording a violent rap song that describes shooting those responsible for his stop-loss orders.

Under the Army's Stop Loss Policy, American Soldiers Are Enslaved to Fight (US Army Specialist Marc A Hall)
The Army's Stop-Loss program forces soldiers ato stay in the military even though they have already served and are finished with their contract as a soldier. Soldiers who rebel against are threatened with military scare tactics such as the Uniform Code of Military Justice which calls for a four-year prison term for anyone who dares resist.

Hillary Clinton's Prescription: Make The World A NATO Protectorate (Rick Rozoff / OpEd News)
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was busy in London and Paris last week advancing the new Euro-Atlantic agenda for the world. When a US secretary of state speaks the world pays heed. Any nation that doesn't will suffer the consequences of that inattention, that disrespect toward the imperatrix mundi.

GENERAL IMPACTS

The Green Zone: The Environmental Costs of Militarism
(Barry Sanders: Book Excerpt / AK Press )

When we declare war on a foreign nation, we now also declare war on the Earth, on the soil and plants and animals, the water and wind and people, in the most far-reaching and deeply infecting ways. A bomb dropped on Iraq explodes around the world. We have no way of containing the fallout. Technology fails miserably here. War insinuates itself, like an aberrant gene and, left unchecked, has the capacity for destroying the Earth’s complex and sometimes fragile system.
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Pakistan City Centre 'Destroyed'
(BBC World News)

Taliban rebels were driven out of Mingora on Saturday by Pakistan government troops. The scale of the war damage to the main city in the Swat valley has become clear. A BBC correspondent who went to Mingora has reported widespread damage — all the buildings and shops in the town square had been completely destroyed. With water, food, electricity and fuel unavailable, the International Red Cross said it was "gravely concerned" by the humanitarian situation in Swat.
/know/read.php?itemid=8344

Retired Generals Call on Military, Citizens to Step Up to Climate Challenge
(Bill Becker / Solve Climate.com)

Twelve retired admirals and generals who made the national security case for clean energy yesterday put two other important messages in their report. First, the U.S. military must do its part to help the nation shift away from fossil fuels. Second, the American people must get directly involved in protecting the nation from harm.
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Please Do Not Return our Antiquities!
(Fatih Abdulsalam / Asssaman.com)

We now have organized criminal gangs specialized in the looting and smuggling of Mesopotamian artifacts. Since the US invasion, these gangs have accumulated power, experience and great wealth. The Baghdad government has no guts to open this file because once it unfolds powerful actors, powerful states and powerful personalities and factions will be exposed too.
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Consider the Consequences of Bombing Iran’s Nuclear Power Plants, and Pray
(Floyd Rudmin / Global Research,)

If the USA or Israel deliberately bomb Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities, radioactive elements would be released into the environment. There would be horrific deaths for families in the immediate vicinity. An estimated 3 million deaths would result in 3 weeks from bombing the enrichment facilities near Esfahan. The fallout would cover Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India and the contamination would last 700 million years. McCain, Clinton and the media seem to think that's not a bad idea.
/know/read.php?itemid=6845

Military vs. Climate Security
(Miriam Pemberton / Foreign Policy In Focus)

Accepting his Nobel Peace Prize, Al Gore called on the nations of the world to mobilize to avert climate disaster "with a sense of urgency and shared resolve that has previously been seen only when nations have mobilized for war." This report measures in fiscal terms how far our own nation has to go to reach that goal. For the 2008 fiscal year, the government budgeted $647.51 billion for military security. It budgeted $7.37 billion to slow climate change
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Global Warming or Conversion of the military-Industrial Complex?
(Bruce K. Gagnon / Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space)

As people like Al Gore and other environmentalists look for solutions, rarely is the Pentagon mentioned as a polluter and a place that we can look to for change if life is to survive on our mother Earth.
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The Three-Trillion-Dollar War
(Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes / Times (UK))

The cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts have grown to staggering proportions to become the second most-expensive war in US history. The total costs (to the US alone) are “conservatively” estimated to top $3 trillion; the expense of the two wars is now costing the US economy $28.5 billion a month.
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HUMAN IMPACTS

Obama's Afghan Surge Driving Thousands From Their Homes
(Chris Floyd /Empire Burlesque)

Commentary: "Barack Obama's Bush-like "surge" in Afghanistan has not even reached its full strength yet, but it is already driving tens of thousands of Afghan civilians from their homes, as they flee an upcoming massive attack in Helmand province."
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Thousands of Civilians Flee Afghan Region as NATO Plans Onslaught
(Jon Boone / The Guardian)

Ten of thousands of Afghan civilians are abandoning an area of central Helmland where UK and US forces are set to launch one of the biggest operations of the year.
/know/read.php?itemid=9000

Airport Body Scanning Raises Radiation Exposure, Committee Says
(Jonathan Tirone /Bloomberg)

In a secret report, the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety warns that air passengers should be made aware of the health risks of airport body screenings and governments must explain any decision to expose the public to higher levels of pregnant women and children should not be subject to scanning.
/know/read.php?itemid=9001

'Justice Denied' in CIA Shootdown of US Missionary Family
(Matthew Cole & Brian Ross / ABC News & CIA)

On February 3, 2010, Republican Rep. Pete Hoekstra, ranking minority member of the House Intelligence Committee, accused the CIA todof lying to Congress and covering up its role in the deaths of two innocent Americans, a mother and her infant daughter, at the hands of the CIA and the Peruvian Air Force nine years ago. The CIA has issued a dening the accusation.
/know/read.php?itemid=8994

Iraq to File Nuclear Warfare Lawsuit against US and Britain
(The Siasat Daily)

Iraq's Ministry for Human Rights will file a lawsuit against Britain and the US over the use of depleted uranium bombs in Iraq. According to the reports, during the first year of the US and British invasion of Iraq, both countries had repeatedly used bombs containing depleted uranium. Atomic radiation has increased the number of babies born with defects in the southern provinces of Iraq, including Basra.
/know/read.php?itemid=8981

Global Warming Also Triggers Military Conflict
(Madeleine Bair / East Bay Express)

If the legislators stalling a climate agreement in Copenhagen aren't sympathetic to photos of ice caps and polar bears, perhaps the prospect of more Darfurs will catch their attention. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences links global warming to human warfare and warns that over the next 20 years, if nothing is done, projected temperature increases in sub-Saharan Africa could lead to the slaughter of an additional 400,000 Africans.
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Afghanistan Massacre on Eve of Obama's Surge
(Bill Van Auken / Global Research)

With the first elements of 30,000 additional US troops set to arrive in Afghanistan next week, the massacre of as many as 15 civilians in a US raid has heightened fears that the Obama administration’s so-called surge will spell a dramatic rise in bloodletting.
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Human Rights Day, December 10, 2009

December 10, Human Rights Day, serves as an important benchmark by which to measure and evaluate U.S. efforts to rebuild the domestic economy and improve the lives of every man, woman and child.
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LAND IMPACTS

(Ann Wright / Information Clearing House & Ben Lynfield / The Independent)

In March 2009, the US gave Egypt with $32 million for border security projects. Now details are emerging that US funds will be spent to build an underground steel wall that will be 6-7 miles long and extend 55 feet straight down into the desert sand. The steel wall is intended to cut the tunnels that go between Gaza and Egypt. The goal: to prevent the movement of food, merchandise and weapons into Gaza.
/know/read.php?itemid=8969

The Pentagon Is Going Green
(Renewable Power News)

Pentagon is going for a long-term strategy to reduce greenhouse gases by deploying renewable sources of energy. The solar installation in California’s Mojave Desert and minor initiative such as a 30 MW geothermal plant at Fallon Naval Air Station in Nevada are only a few calls.
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Colombia's Robber Barons Ruling Jungles with Guns and Whisky
(Rory Carroll / The Guardian)

Farmers in Chocó province say mining and logging firms are pushing them off the land by force or trickery. To make money in Colombia's jungles it helps to have three things: guns, whisky and a river. Hardly conventional business tools, but this is not a conventional environment. There is armed conflict, abundant natural resources, extreme poverty, isolation — and fortunes to be made.
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Demining: One of Modern War’s Deadliest Legacies
(United Nations )

Every year, landmines kill 15,000 to 20,000 people — most of them children, women and the elderly — and severely maim countless more. Scattered in some 78 countries, they are an ongoing reminder of conflicts which have been over for years or even decades. Yet despite this random carnage, they continue to used as weapons of war.
/know/read.php?itemid=8904

The Armed Plunder of Madegascar
(Karin Brulliard / Washington Post Foreign Service)

Security in Madagascar has broken down since a coup in March and traffickers have smuggled out record numbers of rare Ploughshare tortoises for sale to Asian and European collectors. A lemur-poaching racket is providing the rare primates, roasted, to restaurants in port cities. Most troubling, is a brazen plunder of protected forests by armed bands of illegal loggers who loot prized hardwoods for a "timber mafia" that exports them to lucrative furniture markets in Asia and the US.
/know/read.php?itemid=8891

Army Agrees to Clean Up Pollution A-Bomb Site in New Jersey
(R. Greenway/ ENN)

The EPA has signed an agreement with the Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Energy to complete the cleanup of the Middlesex Sampling Plant site in Middlesex, NJ. The property was used by the Atomic Energy Commission as part of the nation’s early atomic energy program to handle various radioactive ores.
/know/read.php?itemid=8886

Congolese Environmentalist Wins European Prize
(Selah Hennessy / Voice of America)

The four winners of the Swedish award known by many as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize' have been announced, and one of the winners is the Congolese environmentalist Rene Ngongo. Ngongo tells VOA he will use the prize money to continue the fight to protect the rainforest in DRC. Ngongo and his team have suffered ongoing intimidation from war-time combatants.
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Climate Change Is Killing Kenya's Wildlife and People: Water Wars Have already Begun
(Lindsey Hilsum / BBC Channel 4 News)

Kenya faces its worst drought for more than a decade, with crops and livestock destroyed. Will people in the north of the country become among the first victims of climate change? Samburu warriors in their beads and finery now have mobile phones, and more of them carry AK 47s to supplement their spears and traditional knives, so raiding over water, cattle and pasture is more deadly.
/know/read.php?itemid=8869

MARINE AND WATER IMPACTS

Climate Change Is Killing Kenya's Wildlife and People: Water Wars Have already Begun
(Lindsey Hilsum / BBC Channel 4 News)

Kenya faces its worst drought for more than a decade, with crops and livestock destroyed. Will people in the north of the country become among the first victims of climate change? Samburu warriors in their beads and finery now have mobile phones, and more of them carry AK 47s to supplement their spears and traditional knives, so raiding over water, cattle and pasture is more deadly.
/know/read.php?itemid=8869

Deforestation in Kenya Could Lead to 'Water War'
(James Morgan / BBC News)

Deforestation in Kenya's Mau watershed is stoking tribal tensions. Maasai farmers are angry with the predominantly ethnic Kalenjin settlers upstream, accusing them of "stealing" the forest and the water. And there is a real fear that human suffering could precipitate a civil conflict. An explosion of simmering ethnic tensions after elections last year left some 1,300 people dead across the country and now the loss of downstream water is putting livestock — and people — at risk.
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Environmentalists Blast Mideast Water Projects
(Howard Schneider / Washington Post)

An acute water shortage has prompted Jordan and Israel to embark on audacious water-supply projects that supporters say will prevent an impending regional crisis but environmentalists have criticized as ill-advised attempts to rewire nature.
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Iraq’s Draining Water War: Fertile Crescent Could Vanish by 2100
(Phil Sands and Nizar Latif / The National & Fred Pearce / The New Scientist)

As bombs continue to tear apart its towns and villages, Iraq is now in the grip of an environmental crisis that experts and officials warn may do what decades of war have not been able to – destroy the country. The new war on Iraq, says one member of the country’s parliament, “is a war of water.” Is it the final curtain for the Fertile Crescent? The Mesopotamian cradle of civilisation seems to be returning to desert.
/know/read.php?itemid=8714

Israelis Restrict Palestinians' Water Supply
(The Real News & Al Jazeera & The Guardian)

A deepening drought in the Middle East is aggravating a dispute over water resources after the World Bank found that Israel is taking four times as much water as the Palestinians from a vital shared aquifer. Following the release of a World Bank report that warned Israelis have access to four times as much water as Palestinians due to restrictions, the Israeli government has now announced new restrictions on Palestinian access to water
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Israel Destroying Gaza’s Environment and Turning Mediterranean into a "Septic Tank"
(Motasem Dalloul / Al Jazeera & Islam Online & Reuters)

There are three main causes for the environmental pollution of the Gaza Strip: the use of cooking oil for fuel (due to the fuel shortage caused by the Israeli blockade), rubbish accumulating in the streets, raw sewage dumped into the sea. The Mediterranean is often called the world's most polluted sea and the waters around Tel Aviv offer a reason why —140 tons of heavy metals and130 tons of pesticides are discharged into the sea under government licenses.
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Dangerous Untreated West Bank Wastewater
(Stephen Lendman / Global Research )

Israeli West Bank and Jerusalem settlements produce about 91 million cubic meters of wastewater annually, more than double the amount from Palestinian communities. Yet most of it goes untreated. As an occupying power, international humanitarian law requires it be done, yet Israel violates its obligations across the board making Palestinians suffer grievously as a result.
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Dangerous Untreated West Bank Wastewater
(Stephen Lendman / Global Research)

Israeli West Bank and Jerusalem settlements produce about 91 million cubic meters of wastewater annually, more than double the amount from Palestinian communities. Yet most of it goes untreated. As an occupying power, international humanitarian law requires it be done, yet Israel violates its obligations across the board making Palestinians suffer grievously as a result.
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OIL AND ITS ALTERNATIVES

NATO Commander Warns of Conflict with Russia in Arctic Circle
(Tom Coghlan / The Times & Tony Halpin / The Times)

Competition for resources in the Arctic Circle could provoke conflict between Russia and NATO, a newly appointed commander at the alliance warned. It is estimated that $90 billion barrels of oil previously inaccessible beneath the ice lie in the Arctic Circle. Russia has signalled its determination to win the race for the Arctic's mineral wealth yesterday by announcing plans to establish military bases along its northern coastline.
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West Using Its Military Might To Control World Energy Resources
(Rick Rozoff / StopNATO/Blog)

International military expenditures for 2008 reached $1.464 trillion. The denomination in dollars is germane as the United States accounted for 41.5 percent of the world total. Western nations in general and the US overwhelmingly among them dominate the global arms market. The overarching objective of the Pentagon's global might is clear: it is to control the ownership, transport and consumption of energy worldwide.
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Can You Name the Planet’s Biggest Gas Guzzler?
(Asrat Kebede / Ethiopian Review )

“All the tanks, planes and ships of the US military burn about 340,000 barrels of oil per day,” explains Michael Graham Richard at TreeHugger.com. “If you break it down, the Air Force uses the most fuel, followed by the Navy, and then the Army. If the Department of Defense were a country, it would rank about 38th in the world for oil consumption, right behind the Philippines, a country with a population of 90.5 million people.”
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Oil & Blood: The Looming Battle for Energy. US Had Plan to Invade Afghanistan prior to 9/11
(Conn Hallinan / TPJ Magazine)

For most Americans and Europeans, Afghanistan appeared on their radar screens shortly after the 9/11 assaults on the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon. But according to Escobar, three months before the 2001 attack, U.S., Iranian, German and Italian officials got together in Geneva and discussed toppling the Taliban because it was “the proverbial fly in the ointment” in a scheme to run a $2 billion, 800 mile natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Karachi, Pakistan via southern Afghanistan.
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Afghanistan and the New ‘Great Game’
(John Foster / Associated Press)

Humanitarian and security concerns in Afghanistan mask a strategic energy concern. Afghanistan borders countries rich in oil and natural gas. Turkmenistan has the third largest natural gas reserves in the world, which can only be brought to market through pipelines. This makes Afghanistan a "strategic piece of real estate" in the pipeline rivalry opposing the US and Russia. Prized pipeline route could explain West's stubborn interest in this poor, remote land.
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Greenpeace Study Finds Oil Companies May Be Doomed
(The Guardian)

Environmental activist network argues that the oil industry might be approaching a tipping point from fall in the price, advances in technology and policies on climate change. The report, by Greenpeace, will make uncomfortable reading for the companies that are investing tens of billions of pounds to exploit the hard-to-extract oil in the belief that demand and the price would climb inexorably as countries such as China and India industrialize.
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The Scramble for Iraq's 'Sweet Oil'
(Nicole Johnston / Al Jazeera )

With proven oil reserves of around 112 billion barrels and up to another 150 billion barrels of probable reserves, Iraq is the greatest untapped prize for international oil companies. So it is little wonder that giant international oil companies are lining up to get back into Iraq after the industry was nationalised in the 1970s and the oil majors were kicked out.
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Indigenous 'Genocide' in Battle for Oilfields
(John Vidal / Sydney Morning Herald)

It has been called the world's second "oil war" but the only similarity between Iraq and events in the jungles of northern Peru over the past few weeks has been the mismatch of force. On one side have been police armed with automatic weapons, tear gas, helicopter gunships and armoured cars. On the other are several thousand Awajun and Wambis Indians, many of them in war paint and armed with bows and arrows, and spears.
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MILITARISM AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Wars Sending US into Ruin
(Eric Margolis / Toronto Sun)

Commentary: "US President Barack Obama calls the $3.8-trillion US budget he just sent to Congress a major step in restoring America's economic health. In fact, it's another potent fix given to a sick patient deeply addicted to the dangerous drug — debt. More empires have fallen because of reckless finances than invasion. The latest example was the Soviet Union, which spent itself into ruin by buying tanks."
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Yemen and The Militarization of Strategic Waterways
(Michel Chossudovsky / Global Research)

The islands of Socotra are a wildlife reserve recognized by (UNESCO), as a World Natural Heritage Site. Ufortunately, Socotra sits at the crossroads of the strategic naval waterways of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. It is of crucial importance to the US military. A military base in Socotra could be used to oversee the movement of vessels including war ships in an out of the Gulf of Aden.
/know/read.php?itemid=9009

Assassinating US Citizens Raises "Troubling Issues"
(David Edwards and Muriel Kane / Raw Story)

The admission by Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair that the United States intelligence community is authorized to assassinate Americans working with terrorists overseas has raised serious questions of constitutionality.
/know/read.php?itemid=9004

Brown Accused of Cover-up: PM Under Fire as Key Papers on Iraq War Are Kept Confidential
(James Chapman / The Daily Mail )

Cover-up charges fly in Britain as Prime Minister Gordon Brown is accused of having 'gagged' the Iraq inquiry by blocking the release of secret documents about the war. Lord Goldsmith condemned the Government's refusal to declassify key papers, meaning they cannot be made public or even quoted from by the inquiry panel during questioning.
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Airport Body Scanning Raises Radiation Exposure, Committee Says
(Jonathan Tirone /Bloomberg)

In a secret report, the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety warns that air passengers should be made aware of the health risks of airport body screenings and governments must explain any decision to expose the public to higher levels of pregnant women and children should not be subject to scanning.
/know/read.php?itemid=9001

Extrajudicial Killing: Intelligence Chief Says CIA Can Kill Americans Abroad
(Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post )

Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair acknowledged Wednesday that government agencies may kill US citizens abroad who are involved in terrorist activities if they are "taking action that threatens Americans."
/know/read.php?itemid=8996

Top 10 Problems With America Assassinating Americans
(David Swanson / Global Research)

The director of US national intelligence told the House Intelligence Committee the government has the right to kill Americans abroad. Here are ten reasons why this may not be such a good idea.
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What Americans Really Have to Fear
(Scott Fina / Santa Barbara Independent & Global Research)

I was among seven people arrested on January 31 for protesting outside the main gate of Vandenberg Air Force Base. My arrest had nothing to do with the security of our country, however, if convicted, my fellow protestors and I face a potential fine of $5,000 and up to one year in prison. The real story of our arrests concerns the United States Constitution.
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WEAPONS OF WAR

The Land Mines Obama Won’t Touch
(Bill Moyers & Michael Winship / Bill Moyers Journal (PBS))

Many people are troubled that Barack Obama flew to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize so soon after escalating the war in Afghanistan. The United States has not actively used land mines since the first Gulf War in 1991, but we still possess some 10-15 million of them, making us the third largest stockpiler in the world. Since 1987, 156 other nations have signed it, including every country in NATO. The US has refused to sign this agreement.
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The Nuclear Double-Standard and Global Disarmament
(Riz Khan / Al Jazeera)

How does the disclosure of Iran's second nuclear site affect global efforts for nuclear disarmament? Israel says it "expects the international community to take substantive and prompt steps to halt Iran's military nuclear program." But what about Israel's nuclear arsenal? Interviews with Richard Burt, former chief US negotiator in the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks and journalist Gideon Spiro.
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START 'Cheating' — Russia Violating Treaty, Developing Missile
(Bill Gertz / The Washington Times)

Republicans in the Senate are gearing up to battle the Obama administration over the high-priority plan to finish a new arms-control treaty with Russia before the end of the year. The current Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which is set to expire Dec. 5. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and No. 2 Republican Senate leader, has accused Russia leaders of cheating by converting one of their existing missiles, the Topol-M, to a new multiple-warhead variant.
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Attack of the Drones: The Death of the F-22 Fighter Plane
(Fred Kaplan / Newsweek)

or more than 60 years, the Air Force has trumpeted itself as the service of glamour, its pilots ruling the skies, soaring, diving, bombing, and strafing from far above-yet still commanding the clash of armies on the ground. But all that is changing in ways that few outsiders understand. This is the real story behind a passionate political struggle this past summer over a major weapons system, the F-22 Raptor.
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'Non-Lethal Weapons: An Instrument of Social Control
(Tom Burghardt / Global Research)

So-called non-lethal weapons have been around for decades and range from pepper spray to the Taser. Their use by military and police agencies are designed to ensure compliance from hostile "natives." With ever-more devilish tools being devised by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program, the migration of this weaponry from the military to civilian law enforcement agencies will continue at its current breakneck pace.
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Tactical Nuclear Battle
(Bill Gertz / The Washington Times)

Obama administration national-security officials are gearing up to battle Congress over $65 million that a House subcommittee cut from the fiscal 2010 budget and that had been slated toward upgrading the oldest tactical nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal.
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Study Reveals Gun Shows Main Source of Guns Used In Crime
(The Violence Prevention Research Program / UC Davis & CBS Broadcasting / Gun Shows Main Source of Guns Used In Crime)

Gun shows are surrounded by controversy. On the one hand, they are important economic, social and cultural events with clear benefits for those who attend. On the other, they provide the most visible manifestation of a largely unregulated form of commerce in guns and, partly for that reason, are an important source of guns used in criminal violence.
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Biological Warfare and the National Security State
(Tom Burghardt / Global Research)

Commentary: "The history of bioweapons research in the United States is a history of illicit — and illegal — human experiments. From the Cold War to the War on Terror, successive American administrations have turned a blind eye on dubious research rightly characterized as having "a little of the Buchenwald touch." The phrase is relevant today as the United States pours billions of dollars into work on some of the most dangerous pathogens known to exist in nature."
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