Why Aren't US Corporations Patriotic? (Ralph Nader / Nader.org)
Why are big, global US corporations so unpatriotic? After all, they were created in the USA, rose to immense profit because of the toil of American workers, are bailed out by US taxpayers whenever they're in trouble, and are safeguarded abroad by the US military. Yet these corporate goliaths work overtime to escape US taxes. Many pay less than you do in federal income taxes. Many corporations (like General Electric) have not paid federal income taxes on US profits for years.

ACTION ALERT: Reject BLM's Call to Frack the Nation
The Obama administration just released its first major fracking policy -- the Bureau of Land Management's proposed rules for fracking on 600 million acres of public land. And it's even worse than we feared The Obama administration's rule for fracking on public lands is a major concession to the fracking industry. Please submit a comment telling the Obama administration to ban fracking on federal lands, not open them up to dangerous fracking.

ACTION ALERT: Tell John Kerry: Investigate Corruption in the KXL Pipeline Review (Friends of the Earth)
In March, the State Department issued its environmental review of the Keystone XL pipeline that Ignored the many studies warning the pipeline will accelerate climate change and endanger communities along its route. It has now been revealed that the firm hired by the State Department to write this flawed review is a dues-paying member of the American Petroleum Institute and sub-contractors hired to do the review have ties to the oil industry.

Fracking the Suburbs: An Explosive Combination? (Peter Pearsall / Yes Magazine )
As oil and gas get harder to find, the industry is drilling in suburbia. As rural deposits of fossil fuel grow fewer and farther between, extractive industries are increasingly siting their operations in the next best location: suburban neighborhoods. The US Energy Information Agency reports the Marcellus shale formation beneath parts of the Midwest and Appalachia contains trillions of cubic feet of natural gas -- the most accessible of which lies beneath residential homes.

The Scandalous Erosion of US Civil Liberties (Patty Culhane / Al Jazeera)
While the US media focuses on the IRS, Benghazi, AP and 'umbrella' scandals, civil rights continue erode without much press attention. While unmanned aerial vehicles have killed Americans in countries that the US is not at war with, a growing list of other civil rights violations perpetrated by the Obama White House -- indefinite detention, secret warrants, National Security Letters, electronic eavesdropping -- receive little media attention.

GENERAL IMPACTS

World at Risk: A Call to Action from the World's Scientists
(A Statement by World Scientists)

Life on Earth is threatened by war, pollution, climate change and population growth. A remarkable statement signed by 520 global scientists from 44 countries is calling for serious and immediate changesto halt destructive technologies, economic systems and human behavior. The signers include Nobel Laureates, members of the US National Academy of Sciences, members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and members of European scientific academies.
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An Earth Day Gift: Polluters Take EPA to Supreme Court
(SustainableBusiness.com News )

As an Earth Day gift, an array of special interests are going after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) yet again, this time to the Supreme Court. They really, really don't want the EPA to be able to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Even though in December, their plea was rejected for the third time by the US Court of Appeals.
/know/read.php?itemid=13451

Iraq, Afghanistan Wars Will Cost US 4-6 Trillion Dollars: Report
(Jim Lobe / IPS News )

Costs to US taxpayers of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will run between four and six trillion dollars, making them the most expensive conflicts in US history. While Washington has already spent close to two trillion dollars in direct costs related to its military campaigns in the two countries, that total "represents only a fraction of the total war costs", according to the report by former Bill Clinton administration official Linda Bilmes.
/know/read.php?itemid=13372

Thoughts on Nuclear Power and Nuclear Weapons
(Karl Grossman / Enformable & Sam Osborn / USC Annenberg & The Big Picture/ Russia Today)

With the second anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, with North Korea having threatened a "pre-emptive nuclear attack" against the United States and a US senator saying this would result in "suicide" for North Korea, with Iran suspected of moving to build nuclear weapons, with the continuing spread of nuclear technology globally, the future looks precarious as to humankind and the atom. Can humanity at this rate make it through the 21st Century?
/know/read.php?itemid=13339

Iraq + 10: Time for Truth and Reconciliation
(Hon. Dennis J. Kucinich/ US House of Representatives)

We attacked a nation which did not have weapons of mass destruction. We visited upon the people of Iraq the equivalent of one 9/11 a day for a year and with it the irretrievable rending of families -- ripping apart Iraqi society in a war which soon became so remote to the US population that it was finished off by unmanned vehicles. The mission that was "accomplished" was wanton destruction, ecocide, alienation, statecraft puppetry -- and for what?
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Cost of the Bush-Cheney War on Iraq: More than $2 Trillion; More than 176,000 Killed
(Daniel Trotta / Reuters & Costs of War / The Watson Institute)

According to a recently released study, the US war in Iraq has cost $1.7 trillion with an additional $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans -- expenses that could grow to more than $6 trillion over the next four decades counting interest. The US invasion has been resulted in the estimated deaths of at least 134,000 Iraqi civilians. When security forces, insurgents, journalists and humanitarian workers were included, the war's death toll rose to an estimated 176,000 to 189,000.
/know/read.php?itemid=13288

Radiant Wildlands: From Chernobyl to Fukushima
(Winifred Bird and Jane Braxton Little / Earth Island Journal )

Flitting about the meadows of Fukushima Prefecture, the satin wings of the pale grass blue butterflies shimmered as they moved among the notched leaves of wood sorrel and feathery pampas grass. When Joji Otaki began looking closely at the delicate insects the size of a silver dollar, however, he was struck by abnormal patterns in the dark dots on their wings. Then he noticed dents in their eyes and strangely shaped wings and legs.
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The January 29 Coincidence: Martial Law in Arkansas, Helicopters and Gunfire over Miami and Houston
(Natasha Lennard / Salon.com & Disclose TruthTV & SlashDot.org & WSVN News & The Miami Herald & The Blaze & KTRK-TV )

The mayor and police chief of an Arkansas town announced that police in SWAT gear and carrying AR-15s would be patrol city streets. Meanwhile, in Miami, black helicopters strafing highways with blank rounds near the Adrian Arts center. In Houston, military-style choppers were roaming the skies as armed men in fatigues -- bearing "a lot of firearms" and what many believed were real live rounds -- patrolled the ground. The Army did not give any details on its "military exercise."
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HUMAN IMPACTS

ACTION ALERT: Free Shaker Aamer and All Gitmo Detainees Cleared for Release
(Zeke Johnson / Amnesty International )

Shaker Aamer has been held without charge or trial for over 11 years. He has been cleared for transfer -- twice. The UK has asked for him to be released and returned to the UK. Every detainee must be fairly tried in federal court or released. There is no excuse to deny human rights any longer. Charge and fairly try, or release, Shaker Aamer and all other Guantanamo detainees.
/know/read.php?itemid=13579

Honduran Victims of US Drug War Still Await Justice
(Dan Beeton / Al Jazeera )

The US-led "war on drugs" -- in partnership with often corrupt and murderous police forces -- has continued to have grave consequences for our neighbours south of the border. In the increasingly militarised drug war, suspects are sometimes killed in the field; suspicion of involvement in drug trafficking warrants a death sentence. Government drug warriors on the scene play the role of judge, jury and executioner.
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Fracking the Suburbs: An Explosive Combination?
(Peter Pearsall / Yes Magazine )

As oil and gas get harder to find, the industry is drilling in suburbia. As rural deposits of fossil fuel grow fewer and farther between, extractive industries are increasingly siting their operations in the next best location: suburban neighborhoods. The US Energy Information Agency reports the Marcellus shale formation beneath parts of the Midwest and Appalachia contains trillions of cubic feet of natural gas -- the most accessible of which lies beneath residential homes.
/know/read.php?itemid=13561

Guantanamo Hunger Strike Enters 100th Day
(Al Jazeera & Jason Ditz / AntiWar.com)

Begun in February to protest the confiscation of detainees' Qurans, the hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay has moved into its 100th day, with more strikers joining in and the ones who have been striking from the beginning increasing in failing health. Activists demanding the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison have marked the 100th day of a hunger strike there by submitting a petition to the White House containing some 370,000 signatures.
/know/read.php?itemid=13551

Al-Nakba: Palestine's Haunting 'Catastrophe'
(Al Jazeera)

Since first running on Al Jazeera Arabic in 2008, this series has won Arab and international awards and has been well received at festivals throughout the world. Al-Nabka documents the Palestinian 'catastrophe' of 1948 that led to dispossession and conflict that still endures.
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Genocide in Guatemala: The Conviction of Efrain Rios Montt
(Binoy Kampmark / Dissident Voice )

It has been hailed as the first conviction for genocide of a former head of state in his own country, and certainly the first of a former Latin American strongman. Former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt was convicted by a Guatemalan court for his participation in crimes against the Mayans during his rule in 1982 and 1983. His sentences were steep: 50 years for genocide and 30 for crimes against humanity.
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Indicting Reagan, Israel, and the God Squads in the Guatemalan Holocaust
(Steve Weissman / Reader Supported News )

Rios Montt's conviction leaves untouched a host of never indicted foreign co-conspirators, from former US president Ronald Reagan to Evangelical and Pentecostal missionaries and shadowy Israelis. They all played a part in making possible the killing, rape, torture and disappearances of the Ixil people and -- according to the UN -- as many as 200,000 others, mostly Mayans and poor mestizos. Another 50,000 were disappeared and more than 1 million displaced.
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Land-Based US 'Doomsday' Missiles Pose Threat of Nuclear Apocalypse
(David Krieger and Daniel Ellsberg / Waging Peace & The Christian Science Monitor)

If President Obama is truly concerned about nuclear safety, he should seriously consider doing away with the 450 inter-continental ballistic missiles deployed and ready to fire at Russia on a moment's notice. In the event of a warning of a Russian nuclear attack, there would be an incentive to launch all 450 of these Minuteman missiles. Their very deployment has the potential to launch World War III and precipitate human extinction -- as a result of a false alarm.
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LAND IMPACTS

400 Parts Per Million: The Coming Carbon Apocalypse
(Al Gore / Reader Supported News & Google)

For the first time in human history, concentrations of carbon dioxide, the primary global warming pollutant, hit 400 parts per million. For the last 150 years we have been recklessly polluting the protective atmosphere that surrounds the Earth. Every day we pour 90 million tons of global warming pollution into the sky. The global warming pollution now traps enough extra heat energy to equal the energy released by 400,000 Hiroshima-scale atomic bombs exploding every day.
/know/read.php?itemid=13537

Global Lenders 'Linked to Vietnam Land Grabs'
(Al Jazeera)

Global Witness, a group that campaigns on resource issues, has accused Vietnamese rubber firms bankrolled by an arm of the World Bank and Germany's Deutsche Bank of driving a land-grabbing crisis in Southeast Asia. Indigenous ethnic minorities are bearing the brunt of the seizures, which have affected tens of thousands of villagers and led to the clearance of swathes of protected forests, according to the group.
/know/read.php?itemid=13531

USAID's Dubious Allies Behind 'Coup' in Paraguay
(Natalia Viana / The Nation )

Although Paraguay's President Fernando Lugo had many political enemies, it is increasingly clear that his ouster was facilitated by entities who enjoyed financial support from the United States. Lugo had displeased big landowners in Paraguay's increasingly GMO-driven economy because of his attempts to regulate the use of pesticides and GMOs. After Lugo took power, USAID began directing funds to the same forces that would uphold his impeachment.
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Defense Department Becomes a Wildlife Protector
(Louis Sahagun / Los Angeles Times )

The military is working with environmental groups and local governments to create buffer zones around bases where development threatened to encroach on combat training. It's been a conservation boon.
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Hamas Rejects Arab League Peace Initiative
(Al Jazeera & The Miami Herald & Russia Today)

The Palestinian Hamas movement has rejected a revised Middle East peace initiative put forward by the Arab League, saying outsiders can not decide the fate of the Palestinians.
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In Okinawa, the War Isn't Over: Protests Aimed at New US Base
(Arata Yamamoto and John Newland / NBC World News )

As Japan prepares to celebrate the 61st anniversary of the nation's return to sovereignty and the end of US occupation after World War II, one community is getting ready to protest. The US plans to put a new air base in the seaside village of Henoko, Okinawa, in 2022, and many residents aren't happy about it. "We would like the United States to take back with them as many of these bases as they can," said Ikuo Nishikawa, a hardware store owner and native of Henoko.
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Bulldozers Flatten Bedouin Village -- 49 Times
(Jillian Kestler-DAmours / Al Jazeera )

Israeli forces have repeatedly demolished homes in Al-Araqib in a bid to get the community to move into townships. Originally home to about 300 residents, all Israeli citizens, Al-Araqib is located just north of Be'er Sheva. The village is one of dozens that has never been recognised by the state, and doesn't feature on any official maps. Its residents are denied access to water, electricity, paved roads, hospitals, schools and other basic services.
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A Fight in Colorado over Uranium Mines
(vDan Frosch / New York Times News Service )

The Burros uranium mine near the Dolores River, background, in Slick Rock, Colo., March 22, 2013. Most uranium mines in Colorado have been out of operation for decades, but some miners hope the price of uranium will recover. Environmental watchdogs say it's time to reclaim the land and get the companies to clean it up.
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MARINE AND WATER IMPACTS

400 Parts Per Million: The Coming Carbon Apocalypse
(Al Gore / Reader Supported News & Google)

For the first time in human history, concentrations of carbon dioxide, the primary global warming pollutant, hit 400 parts per million. For the last 150 years we have been recklessly polluting the protective atmosphere that surrounds the Earth. Every day we pour 90 million tons of global warming pollution into the sky. The global warming pollution now traps enough extra heat energy to equal the energy released by 400,000 Hiroshima-scale atomic bombs exploding every day.
/know/read.php?itemid=13537

Wind Farms May Bring Lobsters Killed Off During WWII Back To Germany's North Coast
(Reuters & German Pulse & Christoph Seidler / Der Spiegel)

Germany once had a thriving lobster population off its north coast, but heavy bombing during WWII, nearly destroyed the lobster population. British bombers subjected the coastal area to one of the largest non-nuclear detonations with 7,000 metric tons of explosives in 1947. The lobster population may have a chance to recover now that Germany has begun building 5,000 offshore wind farms whose stone foundations on the seafloor will make an ideal habitat for lobsters.
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Gulf Oil Spill Continues to Cause Death, Illness
(CBS & AP & Jacob Chamberlain / Common Dreams & Andrea Germanos / Common Dreams & Emily Dugan / The Independent)

On eve of the third anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, lawsuits and a new report reveal a litany of BP lies and government collusion in the oil 'clean-up' as the Gulf and coastal residents continue to suffer from the legacy of the blow-out, explosion and massive spill. Meanwhile, chemicals used to disperse Gulf of Mexico spill are being blamed for mysterious dolphin die-offs, the appearance of shrimp without eyes and lingering human illnesses.
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ACTION ALERT: Stop the Pentagon's Sonic War on Whales
(Ted Danson / Oceana )

The Obama administration is considering allowing the use of deadly seismic airgun blasts to search for oil and gas under the ocean floor, the first harmful step toward expanding dangerous offshore drilling to the Atlantic. The US Department of the Interior estimates that 138,500 whales and dolphins will be injured and possibly killed along the East Coast if these tests are allowed to go through.
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In Okinawa, the War Isn't Over: Protests Aimed at New US Base
(Arata Yamamoto and John Newland / NBC World News )

As Japan prepares to celebrate the 61st anniversary of the nation's return to sovereignty and the end of US occupation after World War II, one community is getting ready to protest. The US plans to put a new air base in the seaside village of Henoko, Okinawa, in 2022, and many residents aren't happy about it. "We would like the United States to take back with them as many of these bases as they can," said Ikuo Nishikawa, a hardware store owner and native of Henoko.
/know/read.php?itemid=13434

Greenpeace Plants Flag in Artic Seabed; Proclaims a Mining-free Sanctuary
(Dominic Kane / Al Jazeera & Fault Lines / Al Jazeera)

A Greenpeace team has trekked to North Pole to plant a flag on the Arctic seabed, thereby laying claim to the region as declaring it a sanctuary free of mining and exploitation. In an earlier report, Al Jazeera's Fault Lines team travels to the Arctic Circle to investigate the impact a resource rush might have on local communities.
/know/read.php?itemid=13424

Report Uncovers 'Water-Apartheid' in the Occupied West Bank
(Lauren McCauley / Common Dreams )

A new report by the Ramallah-based human rights group Al-Haq on Israel's water grab in the occupied West Bank links the widespread deprivation of Palestinian water rights to Israel's settlement expansion strategy, saying both demonstrate "a clear testament to its colonial and apartheid motives." The study reports that Israel has claimed up to 89% of an aquifer that is largely located in the West Bank, giving Palestinians only access to the remaining 11%.
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Why Obama Won't Cut Defense Spending
(John Glaser / AntiWar.com Blog )

The President's budget proposal, submitted on Wednesday, includes a military budget totaling $640.5 billion. The Cato Institute notes this vast sum "ignore[s] the budgetary cap set by law" and marks "a substantial increase over the $493 billion that the Pentagon actually got from Congress this year, after sequestration." The big controversy in recent months over supposed "deep" cuts to the defense budget that would boost unemployment and harm national security was a lot of hot air.
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OIL AND ITS ALTERNATIVES

ACTION ALERT: Reject BLM's Call to Frack the Nation

The Obama administration just released its first major fracking policy -- the Bureau of Land Management's proposed rules for fracking on 600 million acres of public land. And it's even worse than we feared The Obama administration's rule for fracking on public lands is a major concession to the fracking industry. Please submit a comment telling the Obama administration to ban fracking on federal lands, not open them up to dangerous fracking.
/know/read.php?itemid=13559

ACTION ALERT: Tell John Kerry: Investigate Corruption in the KXL Pipeline Review
(Friends of the Earth)

In March, the State Department issued its environmental review of the Keystone XL pipeline that Ignored the many studies warning the pipeline will accelerate climate change and endanger communities along its route. It has now been revealed that the firm hired by the State Department to write this flawed review is a dues-paying member of the American Petroleum Institute and sub-contractors hired to do the review have ties to the oil industry.
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Fracking the Suburbs: An Explosive Combination?
(Peter Pearsall / Yes Magazine )

As oil and gas get harder to find, the industry is drilling in suburbia. As rural deposits of fossil fuel grow fewer and farther between, extractive industries are increasingly siting their operations in the next best location: suburban neighborhoods. The US Energy Information Agency reports the Marcellus shale formation beneath parts of the Midwest and Appalachia contains trillions of cubic feet of natural gas -- the most accessible of which lies beneath residential homes.
/know/read.php?itemid=13561

How 'Big Energy' Is Conspiring to Control, Constrict and Co-opt Renewable Power
(Giles Parkinson / Clean Technica & Rachel Dovey / The Bohemian)

According to a recent report by the Edison Electric Institute, a trade group that represents investor owned utilities in the US, solar panels and battery storage (along with fuel cells and storage from electric vehicles) could “directly threaten the centralised utility model” that has prevailed for a century or more. Utilities are now seeking to protect their business models by slowing or controlling the deployment of new energy technologies that don’t fit the decades-old model.
/know/read.php?itemid=13546

400 Parts Per Million: The Coming Carbon Apocalypse
(Al Gore / Reader Supported News & Google)

For the first time in human history, concentrations of carbon dioxide, the primary global warming pollutant, hit 400 parts per million. For the last 150 years we have been recklessly polluting the protective atmosphere that surrounds the Earth. Every day we pour 90 million tons of global warming pollution into the sky. The global warming pollution now traps enough extra heat energy to equal the energy released by 400,000 Hiroshima-scale atomic bombs exploding every day.
/know/read.php?itemid=13537

Microgrids for Military Bases to Surpass $377 Million in Annual Market Value by 2018
(Business Wire via The Motley Fool)

Microgrids hold strong appeal for the Pentagon. Microgrids can reduce the amount of fossil fuels consumed to create electricity by networking generators and can help integrate renewable energy resources (such as wind and solar) for military installations. Microgrids can enable military bases -- including forward operating bases -- to sustain operations, no matter what is happening in the theater of operations.
/know/read.php?itemid=13530

Wind Farms May Bring Lobsters Killed Off During WWII Back To Germany's North Coast
(Reuters & German Pulse & Christoph Seidler / Der Spiegel)

Germany once had a thriving lobster population off its north coast, but heavy bombing during WWII, nearly destroyed the lobster population. British bombers subjected the coastal area to one of the largest non-nuclear detonations with 7,000 metric tons of explosives in 1947. The lobster population may have a chance to recover now that Germany has begun building 5,000 offshore wind farms whose stone foundations on the seafloor will make an ideal habitat for lobsters.
/know/read.php?itemid=13505

Tim DeChristopher: Two Years in Jail for a Protest Bid on an Oil Lease
(Rose Aguilar / Your Call & Al Jazeera )

Climate activist Tim DeChristopher was released from a federal halfway house on April 21, just in time to speak out for environment justice at an Earth Day event in Salt Lake City. On July 26, 2011, DeChristopher was sentenced to two years in federal prison and fined $10,000 for violating the Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act. His crime? He bid on pristine Utah land that was being leased for oil and gas exploration with no intention to buy the land or drill on it.
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MILITARISM AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

ACTION ALERT: Free Shaker Aamer and All Gitmo Detainees Cleared for Release
(Zeke Johnson / Amnesty International )

Shaker Aamer has been held without charge or trial for over 11 years. He has been cleared for transfer -- twice. The UK has asked for him to be released and returned to the UK. Every detainee must be fairly tried in federal court or released. There is no excuse to deny human rights any longer. Charge and fairly try, or release, Shaker Aamer and all other Guantanamo detainees.
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Obama's Dodges Hard Truths About War on Terror in Major Speech
(John Glaser /AntiWar.com )

President Obama managed to deliver a speech on Thursday in many ways reminiscent of the rhetoric employed by candidate Obama, condemning the recklessness of the previous administration, hailing the rule of law, and citing James Madison's warning that "No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare." But whereas Obama made the right sounds, history shows his words fall far short, and often contradict, his actions as president.
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Undercover Police Officer Connected to "NATO 5" Case Still Spying on Protests in Chicago
(Steve Horn and Chris Geovanis / Truthout Report )

"Danny" was a fixture at protest events beginning in early March 2012, when he participated in a 20-hour introductory training for new street medics. But it turns out the email address "Danny" used (which he did not sign by name) was pegged to the name of a Chicago police officer cited months later in court documents involved in undercover work around the NATO protests. Yes, "Danny" was a police spy.
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Does the US Have a 'Right' to Wage an Endless, Global War?
(Inside Story Americas / Al Jazeera)

More than 12 years after the September 11 attacks, the US military has said that the current American president, and his successors, will have the authority to wage wars around the world for many more years to come -- without approval from Congress.
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The Militant American Empire
(William Boardman / Reader Supported News & Just Foreign Policy News)

In September 14, 2001, Congress authorized the president to wage unfettered, permanent war against pretty much anyone the president, in his sole discretion, deemed related to the 9/11 attacks and any future attacks. On September 18, 2001, President Bush signed this authorization into law. The United States has been in a permanent state of war ever since.
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On Being a Conscientious Objector in Israel
(Sarah Lazare / Yes Magazine )

High school's tough enough without having to face prison time for refusing to serve an occupation you know is wrong. When 19-year-old Israeli war resister Noam Gur attends demonstrations against Israel's occupation of Palestine, the soldiers who suppress the protestors -- with tear gas, stun grenades, and occasionally live fire -- aren't just strangers in uniform. Among them are her former high school classmates, who have been conscripted into the Israeli army.
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Pentagon Seeks Another $79 Billion for Afghan War
(Jason Ditz / AntiWar.com)

Pentagon officials have submitted a new request for another $79.4 billion for "overseas contingency operations," essentially to pay for the 2014 fighting of the Afghan War. The request is above and beyond the $526 billion the Pentagon is already seeking for 2014, which was supposed to include the war's costs.
/know/read.php?itemid=13563

Honduran Victims of US Drug War Still Await Justice
(Dan Beeton / Al Jazeera )

The US-led "war on drugs" -- in partnership with often corrupt and murderous police forces -- has continued to have grave consequences for our neighbours south of the border. In the increasingly militarised drug war, suspects are sometimes killed in the field; suspicion of involvement in drug trafficking warrants a death sentence. Government drug warriors on the scene play the role of judge, jury and executioner.
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WEAPONS OF WAR

The F-22 and F-35: America's Costly Military Boondoggles
(Ilana Freedman / GerardDirect.com & Reva Patwardhan / Orange County Register)

Congress has spent $40 billion on a 'state of the art' fighter plane that was designed-by-committee and can't fly. Defense spending analyst Winslow Wheeler concluded from the flight evaluation reports that the F-35A "is flawed beyond redemption." Costs for another failed fighter, the F-22, bring the tab of squandered tax dollars to $120 billion.
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ACTION ALERT: Block the $10 Billion B61 Nuclear Bomb
(Peace Action West & the Federation of Atomic Scientists)

The federal government is about to spend $10 billion on 400 bombs that even military commanders say have "no military value." Take action below to urge your representative to oppose the B61 bomb Life Extension Program and stop plans to build an atomic bomb that costs more than its weight in gold.
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Israel, Iran, and the Threat of a Nuclear Holocaust
(Tom Englehardt / TomDispatch & Nick Turse / Tom Dispatch)

"Has a weapon ever been invented, no matter how terrible, and not used? The crossbow, the dreadnought, poison gas, the tank, the landmine, chemical weapons, napalm, the B-29, the drone: all had their day and for some that day remains now. Even the most terrible weapon of all, the atomic bomb, that city-buster, that potential civilization-destroyer, was used as soon as it was available."
/know/read.php?itemid=13543

Land-Based US 'Doomsday' Missiles Pose Threat of Nuclear Apocalypse
(David Krieger and Daniel Ellsberg / Waging Peace & The Christian Science Monitor)

If President Obama is truly concerned about nuclear safety, he should seriously consider doing away with the 450 inter-continental ballistic missiles deployed and ready to fire at Russia on a moment's notice. In the event of a warning of a Russian nuclear attack, there would be an incentive to launch all 450 of these Minuteman missiles. Their very deployment has the potential to launch World War III and precipitate human extinction -- as a result of a false alarm.
/know/read.php?itemid=13544

When the US Endorsed Saddam Hussein's Use of Chemical Weapons
(David Morrsion / David Morrison.org )

At this time when President Obama has declared the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime to be a "red line," with dire consequences, it is appropriate to recall a time when the US endorsed the use of chemical weapons and took the lead in blocking Security Council condemnation of their use. We are, of course, talking about Iraq's use of chemical weapons in its 1980-88 war against Iran and US support for Iraq in that aggression in order to prevent an Iranian victory.
/know/read.php?itemid=13541

Internal US Report: Navy's $37 Billion Ship Project 'Can't Meet Mission'
(Tony Capaccio / Bloomberg)

US Navy leaders were warned last year that a $37 billion program to build Littoral Combat Ships can't meet its promised mission because the vessels are too lightly manned and armed, according to a confidential report. The 36-page report obtained by Bloomberg News is at odds with assurances from Navy leaders that their project is on course to deliver a small, speedy and adaptable ship intended to patrol waters close to shore.
/know/read.php?itemid=13522

General Orders Extra Review of Nuke Crew Failings
(Robert Burns / Associated Press )

The general who commands the nation's nuclear forces said Thursday he has ordered further review of failings discovered among Air Force officers who operate nuclear missiles. The Associated Press reported Wednesday that a March inspection of the 91st Missile Wing at Minot gave the missile crews the equivalent of a "D" grade in missile operations, leading to the removal from duty of an unprecedented 17 officers.
/know/read.php?itemid=13519

Pentagon Tests Prototype of 3,000 MPH Super Weapon
(W.J. Hennigan / The Los Angeles Times)

A lightning-quick experimental aircraft made history when it sped more than 3,000 mph above the Pacific Ocean in a test flight, reigniting decades-long efforts to develop a vehicle that could travel faster than a speeding bullet. The unmanned X-51A WaveRider, which resembles a shark-nosed missile, was launched midair Wednesday off the coast near Point Mugu. It sped westward for 240 seconds, reaching Mach 5.1, or more than five times the speed of sound.
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