The True History of Blowback in One Sentence

Since you’re probably wondering why the Canadian Parliament was shot up and your friendly neighborhood police officer is driving a tank and your savings account is a sad joke and your road is littered with potholes and you can’t find a job and three of your friends who joined the Army to pay for college died in Iraq and Afghanistan and two others have brain trauma from IED explosions and won’t ever be the same and your tap water is flammable and the ocean is coming for your home, well…

via The True History of Blowback in One Sentence.

First U.S. Stealth Jet Attack on Syria Cost More Than Indian Mission to Mars – The Daily Beast

Fears of a potent Syrian air defense system drove the U.S. Air Force to send its silver bullet force of F-22 Raptor stealth fighters into battle for the first time ever. The Pentagon confirmed on Sept. 23 that the $150 million jets had struck an ISIS command and control facility in Raqqah, Syria with a satellite-guided bomb. That was right after an initial wave of U.S. Navy Tomahawk cruise missiles hit their targets around Aleppo and Raqqah.But the Raptors’ first mission wasn’t cheap. Together, the missiles and airstrikes cost at least $79 million to pull off, according to a Daily Beast tally.That’s more expensive than India’s mission to Mars, which was successfully completed Wednesday at a cost of just $74 million.

via First U.S. Stealth Jet Attack on Syria Cost More Than Indian Mission to Mars – The Daily Beast.

Snowden awarded Swedish ‘alternative Nobel’

Edward Snowden Portrait

Edward Snowden has been declared one of the winners of a Swedish human rights award for his disclosures of top secret government surveillance programmes.

The former National Security Agency contractor on Wednesday split the honorary portion of the 2014 Right Livelihood Award, also referred to as the “alternative Nobel” with Alan Rusbridger, editor of British newspaper The Guardian, which has published a series of articles based on documents leaked by Snowden.

The 1.5m kronor ($210,000) cash award was also shared by Pakistani human rights activist Asma Jahangir, Basil Fernando of the Asian Human Rights Commission and US environmentalist Bill McKibben.

via Snowden awarded Swedish ‘alternative Nobel’ – Europe – Al Jazeera English.

Job training for Solar panel installation targets Vets

The article does not go into detail on how vets would apply, etc but more and more home owners are joining the solar net as you can now install a system for a fraction of the cost just a few years ago!

The jobs training program is among a host of initiatives the White House says will cut carbon dioxide emissions by more than 300 million tons through 2030, plus save billions of dollars on energy bills for homeowners and businesses. It will launch this fall at one or more military bases and train a total of at least 50,000, including veterans.

via PilotOnline.com: Business news for Hampton Roads, Va., from The Virginian-Pilot.

The Deep State Factionalized Review of Sibel Edmonds Book-The Lone Gladio

I am reading this Book now and can’t put it down!  Wondering as I read about where the line between fact and fiction lies (or Faction as Cindy Sheehan calls it in her review excerpted below.

book Cover

The Lone Gladio was released on September 11, 2014 and it’s factional recounting of the suppression of the events that led to such a disaster and horrendous aftermath is so important because after 13 years, many, many people are still dying and being tortured for the lies and cover-ups of that day.

via The Deep State Factionalized Review of Sibel Edmonds Book-The Lone Gladio.

2014 Homeless Veteran Stand Down

2014 Homeless Veteran Stand Down Event8/28/2014 11:15 AMALACHUA COUNTY, FL – The Alachua County Community Support Services’ Division of Veteran Services in collaboration with many local community organizations is hosting the 2014 Homeless Veteran Stand Down event at the Martin Luther King Junior Center 1028 NE 14th Street, Gainesville on Thursday, September 11, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

via Details Alachua County Florida –.

The U.S. Military’s Campaign Against Media Freedom – NYTimes.com

Chelsea Manning comments on the role of the Press in Foreign Policy. Making good decisions requires good information and Manning’s article in the NY Times questions the quality of that information.

Military and diplomatic reports coming across my desk detailed a brutal crackdown against political dissidents by the Iraqi Ministry of Interior and federal police, on behalf of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. Detainees were often tortured, or even killed.

Early that year, I received orders to investigate 15 individuals whom the federal police had arrested on suspicion of printing “anti-Iraqi literature.” I learned that these individuals had absolutely no ties to terrorism; they were publishing a scholarly critique of Mr. Maliki’s administration. I forwarded this finding to the officer in command in eastern Baghdad. He responded that he didn’t need this information; instead, I should assist the federal police in locating more “anti-Iraqi” print shops.

I was shocked by our military’s complicity in the corruption of that election. Yet these deeply troubling details flew under the American media’s radar.

It was not the first (or the last) time I felt compelled to question the way we conducted our mission in Iraq. We intelligence analysts, and the officers to whom we reported, had access to a comprehensive overview of the war that few others had. How could top-level decision makers say that the American public, or even Congress, supported the conflict when they didn’t have half the story?

via The U.S. Military’s Campaign Against Media Freedom – NYTimes.com.

Those who ignore history never have to get on the last chopper out of town | Firedoglake

Those who ignore history never have to get on the last chopper out of town | Firedoglake.

After Iraq’s armed forces were disbanded following the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the United States and its allies committed more than $25bn to training and building a new military.

Good job ‘Murica — put it on the multi-trillion dollar tab!

 

So, when is the last helicopter leaving the future home of the Iranian Embassy?

War veteran makes great escape from care home to mark D-day anniversary | World news | theguardian.com

This is a British Vet but another great story is about the 90 plus year old paratrooper who repeated his D Day jump.  Amazing!

An 89-year-old second world war veteran reported missing from a nursing home has been found in France, marking the anniversary of the D-day landings.

Bernard Jordan, who left The Pines care home in Furze Hill, Hove, wearing his war medals, contacted the home and said his friends were going to make sure he got back safely when the commemorations end.

via War veteran makes great escape from care home to mark D-day anniversary | World news | theguardian.com.

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