The Increasing Likelihood Of Nuclear War Should Straighten Out All Our Priorities

A Russian pilot has been killed by US-armed terrorists in Syria. The Ron Paul Institute‘s Daniel McAdams writes the following about this new development:

“The scenario where a US-backed, US-supplied jihadist group in Syria uses US weapons to shoot down a Russian plane and then murders the pilot on the ground should be seen as a near-nightmare escalation, drawing the US and Russia terrifyingly closer to direct conflict.”

McAdams is not fearmongering; he is stating a plainly obvious fact. The Trump administration has just announced that it is restructuring its nuclear weapons policy to take a more aggressive stance toward Russia than that which was held by the previous administration. This is coming after this administration’s decision to arm Ukraine against Russia, a move Obama refused to take for fear of escalating tensions with Moscow, as well as its decision to continue to occupy Syria in order to effect regime change, along with numerous other escalations. The Council on Foreign Relations, which is without exaggeration as close to the voice of the US establishment as you can possibly get, is now openly admitting that the “United States is currently in a second Cold War with Russia. Read More

Lockdown: U.S. Builds New Jails Across Afghanistan

The U.S. military is supposed to turn its massive jail on the outskirts of Bagram Air Field over to the Afghan government this year. But the U.S. is going to keep holding detainees in Afghanistan for a long, looooong time to come — as new military construction contracts reveal.

One of the big unanswered questions of the plan to give the Detention Facility at Parwan to the Afghans is what happens to insurgents U.S. troops detain in the future. Rumors abound about secret, off-the-books jails kept by Special Operations Forces, but those are supposed to be only for insurgents suspected of possessing high-level intelligence. Where will the rest go?

Here’s a clue. The Army Corps of Engineers is just hired an Afghan contractor to build a new “U.S. government controlled detention facility.” The lockup has to include “4 Modular Detention Housing Units (MDHU), 1 Special Holding Unit (SHU), guard towers, to include utilities, communications, fencing and related site work.” It’s got to be built fast — as in, by November — and so the Afghan firm got a no-bid contract of unspecified value.

That’s just for starters. After that facility goes up — and it’s unclear where it’ll be built — the Army will hold an open competition for an even larger detention center, awarding a contract worth $46 million. That facility will consist of seven modular detention units and a “Special Holding Unit.” More >>>