The United States is constantly seeking new conflicts around the world in order to sell weapons and keep its economy afloat, political activist Ralph Schoenman says.
“The US economy has entirely been dependent on arms production ... since the mid-1930s, since the Great Depression,” Schoenman told Press TV on Thursday.
“Arms economy requires permanent wars,” he added.
Schoenman accused “US imperialist capitalists” for waging wars around the globe and using poor African-Americans, immigrants and working class youngsters as “their cannon fodder.”
Schoenman also noted that the Pentagon receives huge financial support from the US government in terms of subsidies.
“They (the Pentagon) have received...ten trillion dollars in the space of four decades. Well that is more than the entire production of everything put together in the US taken together,” he said.
“The terrible genocidal weapons...that are inflected on the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan and of the region, affect the US soldiers as well," the political analyst said.
“Go to the website for the Iraq Veterans Against the War and the Afghanistan Veterans Against the War and look at the statistics of how many soldiers have been maimed, permanently harmed neurologically and systemically by these foolish weapons,” he added.
On Wednesday, the US Congress introduced a resolution that would give the US president wide latitude of powers to wage war on other countries as part of the "war on terror."
The fiscal 2012 Defense Authorization bill, sponsored by chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Howard P. “Buck” McKeon will expand the legal basis for the war on terror, and is moving through Congress amid harsh criticism from civil liberties groups.
The American Civil Liberties Union says the proposed bill is problematic as it does not specify an end date to the so-called war on terror, adding that the legislation is widely viewed as a frantic attempt to find and end to the escalating conflicts and abuses of power in the name of fighting terrorism.
MN/HGH/MMN
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/179688.html
Friday, May 13, 2011
Bin Laden videos fail to prove US claims
Videos released by the Pentagon to allay uncertainty about circumstances of Osama bin Laden's death, fails to support US claim that the al-Qaeda leader was killed in Pakistan last week. US President Barack Obama claimed that bin Laden was killed by US forces on May 1 in a hiding compound in Pakistan, resisting while unarmed.
Washington claims that during US raid last Monday, five videos were seized at the secret compound in Pakistan where bin Laden was hiding.
On Saturday the Pentagon released some of the videos in an attempt to quell doubts about bin Landen's death.
In the first home videos reportedly filmed in October or November 2010, bin Laden who is wearing a white skullcap and white robes, speaks to the camera in the style of his previous video messages.
There is no audio on the film, but Pentagon officials claim it was a message to the US.
In another video, bin Laden is seen watching a program about himself on Arabic language television.
There are no indications in the videos to prove that they were filmed in the secret compound where bin Laden was killed. The footages also fail to prove that the notorious al-Qaeda leader was alive until May 1.
Following Obama's announcement, a US official said that bin Laden's body was abruptly buried at sea, falsely boasting that his hasty burial was in accordance with the Islamic law, requiring burial within 24 hours of death.
However, burial at sea is not an Islamic practice and Islam does not specify a timeframe for burial.
US officials also claimed that their decision to give bin Laden a sea burial was made because no country would accept his remains, without elaborating on which countries were actually contacted on the matter.
Analysts, however, have raised serious questions as to why US officials did not allow for the application of a DNA test to officially confirm the identity of the corpse before the quick sea burial. Although officials claimed that DNA obtained from the body confirmed that he was actually Osama bin Laden.
MYA/HGH/MMN
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/178754.html
Uganda police clash with opposition
Security forces used teargas, water cannons and batons to disperse the protesters on Thursday, as President Yoweri Museveni was being sworn in for a fourth term, Reuters reported.
The demonstrators were welcoming back Besigye as he returned to Kampala. Thousands lined the streets as Besigye and his wife Winnie Byanyima drove home from the airport.
He had gone to Nairobi to receive medical treatment from injuries sustained after being brutally arrested by police during an opposition protest two weeks ago.
Since April, Besigye has lead opposition demonstrations against rising fuel and food costs, leading to his arrest four times. He has led "walk to work" protests to demonstrate against the rising prices and government corruption.
At least nine people have been shot and killed by government forces since the protests began, according to Human Rights Watch.
Meanwhile, Museveni has declared that he would stamp out any "disrupting schemes" made by the opposition during his inaugural ceremony. He has blamed the rising prices on drought and increasing global crude oil prices.
Museveni also announced a plan to buy fuel in bulk and that Uganda would be supplying domestic oil within three years.
Museveni has been in power for the past 25 years.
Besigye has contested the last elections, saying that both he and Museveni received less than 50 percent of the vote, requiring a run-off.
LF/MGH
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