Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases

The United States controlled Okinawa until 1972, and May 15 marked the 40th anniversary of its return from US rule.

However, many officials from the island didn’t attend the ceremony in protest of the heavy presence of the US military on the islands. A special grievance is the government’s plan to relocate a US Marine Corps air base, currently situated in the center of a heavily populated area, to another facility in the northern part of the island.

This leaves the Okinawa people very angered and feeling that the rest of the Japanese don’t really understand the problems they are facing. The reason is that three-quarter of land used for basing is in Okinawa. …

Read on: www.presstv.com/detail/2012/05/18/241791/military-bases-unwanted-okinawa/

The 1% mock America’s war dead on every Memorial Day because they continuously damn more US soldiers to kill and die in unlawful wars.

This is an insult to our military past and present, and their families. Because an unlawful war is a literal attack upon US soldiers, it is also treason by the 1% upon American military.

Current US wars are not close to lawful: war law is the legal victory all of our families sacrificed to achieve through two world wars: no nation is allowed to use their military in armed attack unless under attack by another nation’s government. …

Read on: www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/05/memorial-day-1-mocks-us-military-with-unlawful-wars-arrests-are-when.html

NATOs Rasmussen has said that the US global missile defense shield poses no threat to Russia after Russia reserved the right to make a preemptive strike against the facility.

Press TV has interviewed Rick Rozoff, Manager for Stop NATO in Chicago about the expansion of NATO partnerships over the past 2 decades to see it as a global power and discusses the merit in Russia’s trepidations. …

David Vine, a professor of anthropology at American University explained the argument the Pentagon uses to justify its military presence across the globe is “self-defense”. …

We would like to draw your attention to this video in which Bruce Gagnon (Co-founder and Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space) says how it is concerning the US Missile Defense system. It is very informative and well worth watching it all. He has been on a month long speaking tour in the US.

There are more excellent videos (one from Angie Zelter about Jeju Island and Jeremy Cahill at the recent Drone Summit). See Bruce’s blog: space4peace.blogspot

Japan and the US have agreed to relocate thousands of US marines from Okinawa in a move aimed at reducing the island’s military burden amid lingering anger among residents over pollution, accidents and crime.

Under a deal reached in Washington late on Thursday, about 9,000 marines will move from the southern Japanese island to the US Pacific territory of Guam and other locations in the region, including Hawaii and Australia.

By shifting a large number of the 19,000 marines on Okinawa, leaders in Tokyo and Washington said they hoped to reduce the US military footprint on the island while retaining a strong enough presence to deal with security emergencies in the region.

In a joint statement, the US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, and the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said the agreement would honour Washington’s commitment to defending Japan and maintaining stability in an “increasingly uncertain security environment”.

“Japan is not just a close ally, but also a close friend,” Panetta said separately. “And I look forward to deepening that friendship and strengthening our partnership as, together, we address security challenges in the region.”

No date has been given for the $8.6bn (£5.3bn) move – of which Japan will pay $3.1 billion – and questions remain over the fate of Futenma, a sprawling marine base located in Ginowan, an Okinawan city of 95,000 people. …

Read on: www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/27/us-marines-out-of-japan

The Utah spy center will contain near-bottomless databases to store all forms of communication collected by the agency. This includes the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails — parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases and other digital “pocket litter.”Read more: http://truth-out.org/video/item/8044-exposed-inside-the-nsas-largest-and-mos

Barack Obama says the drone attacks he authorises are targetted only at named people on a list of active terrorists who are a direct threat to America. The facts tell a different story.

from: Stop the War Coalition

Vanunu speaks about Israel’s Nuclear Weapons before going back to solitary confinement for 78 days in 2010-which was the outcome of his freedom of speech trial and the punishment for speaking to foreign media in 2004!

HELP FREE VANUNU and ESTABLISH a NUCLEAR FREE MIDDLE EAST by DISSEMINATING this YT and learn more at www.facebook.com/events/375553329140552/

US Aid to Iranian Group Tied to Scientist Killings

Journalist Seymour Hersh has revealed that the Bush administration secretly trained an Iranian opposition group on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorists. Hersh reports the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command trained operatives from Mujahideen-e-Khalq, or MEK, at a secret site in Nevada beginning in 2005. According to Hersh, MEK members were trained in intercepting communications, cryptography, weaponry and small unit tactics at the Nevada site up until President Obama took office. The MEK has been listed as a foreign terrorist groups since 1997 and is linked to a number of attacks, spanning from the murders of six U.S. citizens in the 1970s to the recent wave of assassinations targeting Iranian nuclear scientists.

From: http://truth-out.org/news/item/8442-training-terrorists-in-nevada-seymour-he