American teenage tourist arrested on suspicion of arson in Tokyo during family trip

The presenter is reporting that an 18 year American tourist was arrested for setting fires in Chuo and Sumida wards and another near Nihonbashi which is a famous bridge in Japan as its the zero kilometer marker for roads in Japan.  

He is using the I don't remember defense usually employed  by drunk salarymen after they have done something stupid.   

Being Black And Feeling Safer Away From America

Being black is an experience unlike any other. With recent events we are reminded what that means for many of us. We have interviewed hundreds of black people across Asia and we've discovered that most of us feel safer away from home. This video highlights the stark difference between the experiences of these black people in Asia versus their experience back home in America and elsewhere. Many of the people we've interviewed feel safer away from home. With all that's taking place today, our hope is that we can take a significant leap forward in the direction of change.

YallQaeda Wagging YeeHawd

Ah yes American patriots doing their duty for the moron set.  A group of armed idiots have taken over a closed information building at a National Wildlife Refuge in Burns Oregon in an effort to protect their Acme corporation recalled brains from being forcibly confiscated by the evil federal government.  It's all about their rights to act like fools while holding deadly weapons as nothing says America like a bunch of overweight assholes threatening violence so they can drink Budweiser, watch American Football and shoot the television when their team loses.


 

Jeremy Scahill Criticizes Media Coverage of Conflict In Gaza-video

“When you look at what’s happening right now in Gaza, this is a massive massacre and one epic series of war crime after war crime, child after child being killed,” Scahill told host Alyona Minkovski. “And most news organizations are forced to acknowledge that the Palestinians and its children and whole families are being killed. They’re forced to because cameras are there; they’re forced to because there are reporters on the ground reporting on that.”

But, he added, “if you step back and you look at the way that this is always framed over these weeks of Israel’s constant bombardment of Gaza, it’s as though Hamas and Israel are sort of two equal military powers fighting one another.” Considering Israel has its Iron Dome missile-defense system in place to protect its citizens, Scahill said this was a fundamentally incorrect assumption.

Jeremy Scahill is an American journalist and author who wrote Blackwater: The Rise Of The World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army

Another Person Who Doesn't Understand Shinzo Abe

Japan has taken a fateful step toward becoming a “normal” power by adoptingthe doctrine of “collective self-defense”, paving the way for Tokyo to play a more direct role in ensuring stability in international waters as well as in aiding allies in times of crisis. It took a combination of iron-willed leadership, under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and deepening territorial disputes with China over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea to force Japan to take greater responsibility for its own national defense.

Iron-willed leadership?  It's obvious that author has no clear understanding of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the policies they wish to enact.  Changing the Japanese constitution specifically Article 9 has been a long term goal of the ultra-conservative wing of the LDP  since the 1990's. Abe's first term as Prime Minister ended because his one and only policy goal was to force that change. Japanese public opinion quickly turned against Abe and he was forced to resign.

As expected, China has been perturbed by the resurgence of its archrival, Japan. And the Xi Jinping administration has spared no efforts to denigrate its counterparts in Tokyo. Aware of lingering regional anxieties over Japan’s early-twentieth century imperial aggression, especially in South Korea, Beijing hassought to convince the world that Japan is purportedly reassuming its militaristic past. Any sober analysis, however, would suggest that the real bone of contention is an emerging Chinese-Japanese contest for regional leadership, as Washington gets more comfortable with playing the role of an offshore balancer. Gradually, bitter territorial disputes have seemingly rekindled a century-old rivalry for the soul of Asia.

While most of Asia has moved beyond Japan's imperial past China and the Communist party continues to use that fear of imperial Japan for domestic consumption to create a nationalistic furor amongst the population.

The tumultuous memories of World War II continue to cast a long shadow on Japanese society. But as any astute political leader, Abe has instead opted for reinterpreting existing provisions of the Japanese constitution, striking a tenuous balance between Tokyo’s evolving security calculus, on the one hand, and the pacifist spirit of Japan’s constitution, which prohibits the country from using coercive means to settle international disputes, on the other.

 An astute political leader? Who are you kidding. He's not astute at anything, He's a racist, ultra nationalist, war crimes denier and a historical revisionist.  Unfortunately the Japanese public is ready to sail down that river again so Abe will force the changes through no matter what the people want. 

`No Expectation` to lose Syria vote: Susan Rice National Security Advisor to Pres. Obama-video

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When the peaceful protests against the Presidency of Bashar Al Assad turned deadly back in March of 2011 with coordinated attacks by the Syrian military the worlds governments to didn't say much. As the violence escalated with more civilians being killed the world took some notice but world leaders continued to insist that it was an "internal Syrian problem." Even as the number of people killed surpassed 100,000 and the number of refugees grew the world still watched from the sidelines, expressing regret at the human tragedy taking place in Syria. Today there are more than 2 million Syrian refugees living in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey with an unknown number who internally displaced and more than 200,000 dead the world has finally taken notice but not for the reasons they should have two years ago. The world began clutching its collective pearls following a chemical weapons attack which left 1,426 people dead. Suddenly the worlds governments are taking notice of this years long tragedy and are ready to send Bashar Al Assad a message. Sending messages will accomplish what exactly? Nothing. If the world was going to intervene Syrian conflict they should have done so two years ago. Before this civil war escalated beyond anyones control.

Needing A New Enemy: Western Nations Hoping to Bomb Syria

 Recently declassified C.I.A documents show the  U.S. government discovered that Iraq was using chemical weapons in its war with Iran, a war which the Americans encouraged Saddam Hussein to start in the hopes of exploiting the ongoing political turmoil  roiling Iran following the Islamic Revolution.  

Not only did the American government know of these weapons deployed against Iranian troops it would seem that they also helped to cover it up.

In 1988, during the waning days of Iraq's war with Iran, the United States learned through satellite imagery that Iran was about to gain a major strategic advantage by exploiting a hole in Iraqi defenses. U.S. intelligence officials conveyed the location of the Iranian troops to Iraq, fully aware that Hussein's military would attack with chemical weapons, including sarin, a lethal nerve agent.The intelligence included imagery and maps about Iranian troop movements, as well as the locations of Iranian logistics facilities and details about Iranian air defenses. The Iraqis used mustard gas and sarin prior to four major offensives in early 1988 that relied on U.S. satellite imagery, maps, and other intelligence. These attacks helped to tilt the war in Iraq's favor and bring Iran to the negotiating table, and they ensured that the Reagan administration's long-standing policy of securing an Iraqi victory would succeed. But they were also the last in a series of chemical strikes stretching back several years that the Reagan administration knew about and didn't disclose.

On March 16 1988 Iraqi military forces launched against the Kurdish village of  Halabja killing somewhere between 3,200 and 5,000 people most innocent civilians.

The five-hour attack began early in the evening of March 16, 1988, following a series of indiscriminate conventional (rocket and napalm) attacks, when Iraqi MiG and Mirage aircraft began dropping chemical bombs on Halabja's residential areas, far from the besieged Iraqi army base on the outskirts of the town. According to regional Kurdish rebel commanders, Iraqi aircraft conducted up to 14 bombings in sorties of seven to eight planes each; helicopters coordinating the operation were also seen. Eyewitnesses told of clouds of smoke billowing upward "white, black and then yellow"', rising as a column about 150 feet (46 m) in the air
Survivors said the gas at first smelled of sweet apples;^[9] they said people died in a number of ways, suggesting a combination of toxic chemicals (some of the victims "just dropped dead" while others "died of laughing"; while still others took a few minutes to die, first "burning and blistering" or coughing up green vomit).^[10] It is believed that Iraqi forces used multiplechemical agents during the attack, including mustard gas and the nerve agents sarin, tabun and VX;^[3] some sources have also pointed to the blood agent hydrogen cyanide (most of the wounded taken to hospitals in the Iranian capital Tehran were suffering from mustard gas exposure)

With clear evidence that the Iraqi armed forces had carried out the attack neither the Iraqi military or Saddam Hussein suffered any consequences for having used chemical weapons against a civilian population which is a clear violation of international law.


Today the drums of war are beating as Western governments prepare to  launch a military strike against Syria for a chemical weapons attack that took place more than a week ago.  

Why the sudden outrage over these attacks?  Is there some difference between the attacks carried out by Iraq in the 1980's and today?   Let's face it the second Gulf War was fought in an attempt to gain control of Iraq's oil reserves by major western oil companies while Syria has no natural resources whirt stealing.  Perhaps the Pentagon wants to show off its new toys in a revival of Shock and Awe.

American forces are "ready" to launch strikes on Syria if President Barack Obama chooses to order an attack, US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel says.
"We have moved assets in place to be able to fulfil and comply with whatever option the president wishes to take," Mr Hagel told the BBC.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has said there is "undeniable" proof that Syria used chemical weapons.
The UK Parliament is to be recalled on Thursday to discuss possible responses.
Prime Minister David Cameron, who has cut short his holiday and returned to London, said MPs would vote on a "clear motion" on the crisis.
Syrian opposition sources have said they have been told to expect a Western intervention in the conflict imminently.

Assaf AboudBBC Arabic, Damascus

A good number of Syrians, in particular those supporting the regime, believe the visit of the UN chemical weapons investigation team is nothing but a move to justify a military attack on Syria. The opposition, however, thinks that these visits will lead to some evidence being unearthed, proving that chemical weapons have been used against civilians by the Syrian regime.

Above all, fear and discomfort are palpable among those living in the capital. People are haunted by the possibility of a Western military strike on Syria, discussion of which is dominating the headlines of satellite channels.

"I don't want Syria to become another Iraq... Enough bloodshed," cried one Syrian woman.

"We, and thousands like us across Syria, will face any country that tries to attack us," threatened a young man, pointing at his weapon, which he uses to protect his neighbourhood. "These are Syria's problems and it is up to us, Syrians, to solve them."