News Round-Up: American Imperialism Around the World

US Military Actions Overseas: 1798 – 2008  - compiled by Congressional Research Service for Congress, 2009 With the infrequent exception of year off now and again, we have been at war continuously since 1798. Timelines 2000-2010: US, Europe, Latin America, Africa & Asia A History of CIA Atrocities   World’s Sole Military Superpower’s 2 Million-Troop, $1 Trillion Wars  In his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech on December 10 the president of the United States appropriated for his country the title of “the world’s sole military superpower” and for himself “the Commander-in-Chief of the military of a nation in the midst of two wars.” This may well have been the first time that an American – and of course any – head of state in history boasted of his nation being the only uncontested military power on the planet and unquestionably the only time a Nobel Peace Prize recipient identified himself as presiding over not only a war but two wars simultaneously. Congress Approves $636.3 Billion for Defense in Fiscal 2010 Mercenaries and Assassins: The Real Face of Obama’s “Good War” Stunning Statistics About the War Every American Should Know Contrary to popular belief, the US actually has 189,000 personnel on the ground in Afghanistan right now—and that number is quickly rising. A hearing in Sen. Claire McCaskill’s Contract Oversight subcommittee on contracting in Afghanistan has highlighted some important statistics that provide a window into the extent to which the Obama administration has picked up the Bush-era war privatization baton and sprinted with it. Overall, contractors now comprise a whopping 69% of the Department of Defense’s total workforce, “the highest ratio of contractors to military personnel in US history.” That’s not in one war zone—that’s the Pentagon in its entirety. Blowback From America’s Mercenary Army–Ret. Generals Make More Than Gates America’s Faltering Military/Mercenary Army Kucinich: The War Is a Threat to Our National Security “The war is a threat to our national security. We’ll spend over one $100 billion next year to bomb a nation of poor people while we reenergize the Taliban, destabilize Pakistan, deplete our army and put more of our soldiers’ lives on the line. Meanwhile, back here in the USA, 15 million people are out of work. People are losing their jobs, their health care, their savings, their investments, and their retirement security. $13 trillion in bailouts for Wall Street, trillions for war; when are we going to start taking care of things here at home?” Ron Paul: Obama Is Preparing for Perpetual War Demoralization, Destabilization, Insurgency, Normalization   23 CIA Agents Convicted in Rendition Case   Short Video About UAV Combat Operations Fake Al Qaeda “The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the ‘devil’ only in order to drive the TV watcher to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US . . .” — Former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook AFRICOM and America’s Global Military Agenda: Taking The Helm Of The Entire World US “sinister” plans in Latin America Obama Is Preparing for War in South America “Nobel Peace Prize Winner Barack Obama, is Preparing for War in South America”; Interview with Eva Golinger  ”The first and foremost important achievement during the Chávez administration is the 1999 Constitution, which, although not written nor decreed by Chávez himself, was created through his vision of change for Venezuela. The 1999 Constitution was, in fact, drafted – written – by the people of Venezuela in one of the most participatory examples of nation building, and then was ratified through popular national referendum by 75% of Venezuelans. CIA ran at least two secret prisons in Lithuania, inquiry confirms CIA Secret ‘Torture’ Prison Found at Fancy Horseback Riding Academy The CIA built one of its secret European prisons inside an exclusive riding academy outside Vilnius, Lithuania, a current Lithuanian government official and a former U.S. intelligence official told ABC News this week. Where affluent Lithuanians once rode show horses and sipped coffee at a café, the CIA installed a concrete structure where it could use harsh tactics to interrogate up to eight suspected al-Qaeda terrorists at a time. A full report on the can be seen on ABC’s World News with Charles Gibson tonight. India: Was Mumbai suspect a double agent for US?  The Indian press is abuzz with news that Indian Home Ministry officials are investigating whether a terror suspect in the Mumbai attacks, David Headley from Chicago, was working as a ‘double agent’ with the US. If “Al Qaida” Existed Would They Waste American Sleeper Cells Attacking India? ‘Headley was no low-level operative’  The extensive use of terrorist tradecraft by Pakistani American terror suspect David Headley makes it evident that he “was not merely a low-level cannon fodder-type operative”, according to US strategic think tank Stratfor. Mumbai Attackers Await Identification in J.J.Hospital Morgue A long article about the Mumbai terrorist attacks of November 26th, 2008 Officials: Mysterious ‘Country A’ In Nozette Spy Case Is India   Nozette Intrigue Grows: Spy Suspect Recently Cooperated With Feds In Separate Criminal Probe Agent Orange Continues to Poison New Generations in Vietnam Obama’s Bioweapons Program RELATED: News Round-up: American Imperialism in AfPak Region News Round-Up: American Imperialism in the Middle East

[Via http://hope2012.wordpress.com]