theindependent--2019-07-30--aposEar ticklingapos therapy could slow down ageing process by rebalancing nervous system resea

'Ear tickling' therapy could slow down ageing process by rebalancing nervous system, research finds

Tickling the ear with a small electrical current could slow down the ageing process for over-55s by rebalancing the nervous system, according to research.  Scientists found stimulation of the vagus nerve, which connects to the body’s nervous system, can lead to improved quality of life, mood and sleep.  The small research study, conducted at the University of Leeds, involved delivering a short daily therapy of a small, painless electrical current to the ear over two weeks.  Its findings, which were published in the journal Aging, suggest that the therapy may slow down one of the important effects of ageing and help people to grow old more healthily.  Researchers said this could help to protect people from chronic diseases associated with old age, such as high blood pressure, heart disease and atrial fibrillation.  “The ear is like a gateway through which we can tinker with the body’s metabolic balance, without the need for medication or invasive procedures,” said lead author Dr Beatrice Bretherton from the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Leeds.  “We believe these results are just the tip of the iceberg.”  However, further studies are necessary to understand the long-term health effects of the therapy.  The nervous system, which controls processes such as digestion, breathing and blood pressure, has two branches – the sympathetic and parasympathetic – that work alongside each other to keep the body healthy.  When people get older, the balance of these two branches shifts as the sympathetic branch, which prepares the body for high intensity “fight of flight” activity, becomes dominant over the low intensity parasympathetic.  This imbalance makes older people more susceptible to new diseases and leads to the breakdown of healthy bodily functions as they age.  Scientists have previously found that stimulation of the vagus nerve at the ear, which some people say feels like tickling, can improve the balance of the nervous system in healthy 30-year-olds.  The new University of Leeds study discovered an increase in parasympathetic activity and a decrease in sympathetic activity after the therapy, bringing the nervous system into a healthier balance.  Researchers also found individuals who displayed the greatest imbalance at the start of the study experienced the most pronounced improvements after the therapy.  Dr Susan Deuchars, a senior author on the study, said: “We believe this stimulation can make a big difference to people’s lives, and we’re now hoping to conduct further studies to see if tVNS [transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation] can benefit multiple disorders.”  The study was conducted by scientists from the University of Leeds and funded by the Dunhill Medical Trust.


theindependent--2019-11-19--Designer baby revolution could be less than two years away, research suggests

The creation of so-called designer babies could begin within two years, according to new research.  Dr Kevin Smith, a bioethicist from Abertay University in Dundee, has published analysis that claims the risks of gene editing are now low enough to warrant its use with human embryos.  The academic has argued that creating designer babies is both “ethically justifiable” and “highly desirable”, and predicted that the technique could kick-start a revolution in producing genetically-modified (GM) people.  Writing in the journal Bioethics, Dr Smith added that research in this area could offer hope to parents at risk of transmitting serious genetic disease to their future children.  “The human germline is by no means perfect, with evolution having furnished us with rather minimal protection from diseases that tend to strike in our later years, including cardiovascular disease, cancer and dementia,” he said.  “GM techniques offer the prospect of protecting future people against these and other common disorders.”  Dr Smith explained that this has previously been achieved to an extent in GM experiments on animals and that if common disorders could be avoided or delayed by genetically modifying humans, the average disease-free lifespan could be “substantially extended”.  However the academic, who is programme leader for Abertay’s biomedical science courses, did warn that an ethical approach must be at the heart of any advances if public trust is to be won.  “Society is largely opposed to genetically modifying humans and the negative publicity generated by the ethically problematic first-ever production of GM babies in China last year was strongly criticised by most geneticists and ethicists, further hardening attitudes against the creation of so-called ‘designer babies’,” he said.  “However, by delaying an ethically sound move towards a world where we can reduce genetic disease, we are failing those who suffer through disease and debilitating conditions.”  Dr Smith compared the advancement to IVF, arguing that if such negative attitudes to biomedical innovation had prevailed in the 1970s, the development and use of IVF would have been “severely delayed, and indeed might never have come to fruition”.  The world's first gene-edited babies were born in China last year in an effort to make them resistant to HIV.  In research that would be illegal if carried out in most countries, Professor He Jiankui and his team said they altered the embryos of seven couples undergoing fertility treatment.  One successful pregnancy resulting from this treatment resulted in twin girls born earlier this month that the scientists claimed were naturally resistant to HIV.  The development was widely criticised with some calling it a “monstrous” human experimentation.  The paper is published in the medical ethics journal Bioethics.


activistpost--2019-09-03--Genetic Engineering and Human-Animal Hybrids How China is Leading a Global Split in Controversial R

Genetic Engineering and Human-Animal Hybrids: How China is Leading a Global Split in Controversial Research

If you want to conduct groundbreaking but contentious biological research, go to China. Last year, Chinese scientist He Jiankui announced he had created the world’s first gene-edited human babies, shocking the world at a time when such practice is illegal in most leading scientific nations. More recently, US-based researcher Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte revealed he had produced the world’s first human-monkey hybrid embryo in China to avoid legal issues in his adopted country.  Yet if China is fast becoming the world capital of controversial science, it is not alone in producing it. More babies produced using the “CRISPR” gene-editing technology are now planned by a scientist in Russia, where another researcher is also hoping to conduct the world’s first human head transplant. And Japan has recently lifted its own ban on human-animal hybrids.  The world is rapidly moving towards a two-tier system of cutting-edge medical research, broadly divided between countries with minimal regulation and those that refuse to allow anything but the earliest stages of this work. The consequences of this split are likely to be significant, even potentially affecting your own access to healthcare.  The births of the CRISPR babies in China led to uproar among the scientific community, which criticised He Jiankui, and inspired calls for a halt in any CRISPR research on human embryos. In around 30 countries, gene editing of human embryos is already banned outright or at least tightly controlled. For example, in the UK only a handful of research groups have been granted a licence to conduct experiments, and certainly not with any aim of bringing an embryo to term.  But in most countries, things are less clear. The Chinese establishment was quick to condemn He’s work and declare it illegal. And some commentators have made the point that, despite outside perceptions, Chinese science is far from unregulated. Yet the fact remains that He was able to conduct the work unimpeded, with evidence suggesting he may have even received state funding.  With a technology moving as quickly as CRISPR, many nations will not have had the time nor expertise to develop a comprehensive stance. As a result, it seems likely that we won’t be able to avoid a two-tier system for this kind of research. Nations with developed regulation for biotechnology will be able to adapt more quickly and easily to the latest advances and put restrictions in place. Other states will scramble to keep up, leaving scientists to proceed without having to consider the ethical or social implications of their work. And that’s assuming all governments want to restrict this kind of research, which they may not.  We have seen what happens when there is this kind of international disconnect with other biotechnologies. “Medical tourism” has become a boom sector within the healthcare industry. People travel from all over the world to private clinics that provide – or claim to provide – stem cell therapies unavailable in their home countries. There have been high-profile cases of people travelling from the US to Mexico in order to skirt national laws and access mitochondrial replacement therapy.  So it’s safe to assume that those with the means to do so might try to access gene editing abroad when it’s not available in their own countries, perhaps to avoid passing on a known heritable condition they carry. And with home DNA-testing kits becoming widespread (although not necessarily accurate), the number of people wanting to edit their genome before having children is likely to increase.  A lack of or loose medical regulations also tends to produce predatory clinics that charge huge amounts for what sounds like wonder cures but might be, at best, a sugar pill or, at worst, something actively harmful. And, perhaps worst of all, regulatory problems might contribute to destroying the reputation of promising developing medical technologies. The more nasty incidents that are attributed to an unregulated therapy, the less and less willing people will be to support legitimate medical trials.  This kind of two-tier system of medical regulation could also lead techniques such as gene-editing to become much more culturally accepted in some countries than others. Our society continues to struggle with xenophobia and racism, so we may also find prejudices and legal dilemmas developing for genetically engineered humans (never mind human-animal hybrids).  Would people born using technologies such as CRISPR be allowed to visit or emigrate to countries where their very creation was illegal? Would it be illegal for them to have their own children and spread their genetically altered genome? This kind of conflict between international human rights legislation and domestic policy is yet to be tested but could have grave consequences.


drudgereport--2019-02-21--SHOCK Twins had brains altered with gene-editing

SHOCK: Twins had brains altered with gene-editing...

The brains of two genetically edited girls born in China last year may have been changed in ways that enhance cognition and memory, scientists say.  The twins, called Lulu and Nana, reportedly had their genes modified before birth by a Chinese scientific team using the new editing tool CRISPR. The goal was to make the girls immune to infection by HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.  Now, new research shows that the same alteration introduced into the girls’ DNA, deletion of a gene called CCR5, not only makes mice smarter but also improves human brain recovery after stroke, and could be linked to greater success in school.  “The answer is likely yes, it did affect their brains,” says Alcino J. Silva, a neurobiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, whose lab uncovered a major new role for the CCR5 gene in memory and the brain’s ability to form new connections.  “The simplest interpretation is that those mutations will probably have an impact on cognitive function in the twins,” says Silva. He says the exact effect on the girls’ cognition is impossible to predict, and “that is why it should not be done.”  The Chinese team, led by He Jiankui of the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, claimed it used CRISPR to delete CCR5 from human embryos, some of which were later used to create pregnancies. HIV requires the CCR5 gene to enter human blood cells.  The experiment has been widely condemned as irresponsible, and He is under investigation in China. News of the first gene-edited babies also inflamed speculation about whether CRISPR technology could one day be used to create super-intelligent humans, perhaps as part of a biotechnology race between the US and China.  There is no evidence that He actually set out to modify the twins’ intelligence. MIT Technology Review contacted scientists studying the effects of CCR5 on cognition, and they say the Chinese scientist never reached out to them, as he did to others from whom he hoped to get scientific advice or support.  “As far as I know, we never heard from him,” says Miou Zhou, a professor at the Western University of Health Sciences in California.  Although He never consulted the brain researchers, the Chinese scientist was certainly aware of the link between CCR5 and cognition.  It was first shown in 2016 by Zhou and Silva, who found that removing the gene from mice significantly improved their memory. The team had looked at more than 140 different genetic alterations to find which made mice smarter.  Silva says because of his research, he sometimes interacts with figures in Silicon Valley and elsewhere who have, in his opinion, an unhealthy interest in designer babies with better brains. That’s why, when the birth of the twins became public on November 25, Silva says he immediately wondered if it had been an attempt at this kind of alteration. “I suddenly realized—Oh, holy shit, they are really serious about this bullshit,” says Silva. “My reaction was visceral repulsion and sadness.”  During a summit of gene editing scientists that occurred two days later in Hong Kong, He acknowledged he had known all along about the potential brain effects from the UCLA research. “I saw that paper, it needs more independent verification,” He replied when asked about it during a Q&A session (see video here). He added: “I am against using genome editing for enhancement.”  Whatever He’s true aims, evidence continues to build that CCR5 plays a major role in the brain. Today, for example, Silva and a large team from the US and Israel say they have new proof that CCR5 acts as a suppressor of memories and synaptic connections.  According to their new report, appearing in the journal Cell, people who naturally lack CCR5 recover more quickly from strokes. What’s more, people missing at least one copy of the gene seem to go further in school, suggesting a possible role in everyday intelligence.  “We are the first to report a function of CCR5 in the human brain, and the first to report a higher level of education,” says UCLA biologist S. Thomas Carmichael, who led the new study. He calls the link to educational success “tantalizing” but says it needs further study.  The discoveries about CCR5 are already being followed up in drug trials on both stroke patients and people with HIV, who sometimes suffer memory problems. In those studies, one of which is under way at UCLA, people are being given an anti-HIV drug, Maraviroc, which chemically blocks CCR5, to see if it improves their cognition.  Silva says there is a big difference between trying to correct deficits in such patients and trying to create enhancement. “Cognitive problems are one of the biggest unmet needs in medicine. We need drugs, but it’s another thing to take normal people and muck with the DNA or chemistry to improve them,” he says. “We simply don’t know enough to do it. Nature has struck a very fine balance.”  Just because we shouldn’t alter normal intelligence doesn’t mean we can’t. Silva says the genetic manipulations used to make “smart mice” show not only that it is possible, but that changing CCR5 has particularly big effects.  “Could it be conceivable that at one point in the future we could increase the average IQ of the population? I would not be a scientist if I said no. The work in mice demonstrates the answer may be yes,” he says. “But mice are not people. We simply don’t know what the consequences will be in mucking around. We are not ready for it yet.”


fortruss--2019-11-20--STUDY: Key to Photosynthesis Unlocked

STUDY: Key to Photosynthesis Unlocked

Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England – Scientists have solved the structure of one of the key components of photosynthesis, a discovery that could lead to photosynthesis being ‘redesigned’ to achieve higher yields and meet urgent food security needs.  The study, led by the University of Sheffield and published on November 18 in the journal Nature, reveals the structure of cytochrome b6f – the protein complex that significantly influences plant growth via photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the foundation of life on Earth providing the food, oxygen and energy that sustains the biosphere and human civilization.  Using a high-resolution structural model, the team found that the protein complex provides the electrical connection between the two light-powered chlorophyll-proteins (Photosystems I and II) found in the plant cell chloroplast that convert sunlight into chemical energy.  Lorna Malone, the first author of the study and a PhD student at the University of Sheffield’s Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, said: “Our study provides important new insights into how cytochrome b6f utilizes the electrical current passing through it to power up a ‘proton battery’. This stored energy can then be then used to make ATP, the energy currency of living cells. Ultimately this reaction provides the energy that plants need to turn carbon dioxide into the carbohydrates and biomass that sustain the global food chain.”  The high-resolution structural model, determined using single-particle cryo-electron microscopy, reveals new details of the additional role of cytochrome b6f as a sensor to tune photosynthetic efficiency in response to ever-changing environmental conditions. This response mechanism protects the plant from damage during exposure to harsh conditions such as drought or excess light.  Dr Matt Johnson, reader in Biochemistry at the University of Sheffield and one of the supervisors of the study added: “Cytochrome b6f is the beating heart of photosynthesis which plays a crucial role in regulating photosynthetic efficiency.” “Previous studies have shown that by manipulating the levels of this complex we can grow bigger and better plants. With the new insights, we have obtained from our structure we can hope to rationally redesign photosynthesis in crop plants to achieve the higher yields we urgently need to sustain a projected global population of 9-10 billion by 2050.”  The research was conducted in collaboration with the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology at the University of Leeds. Researchers now aim to establish how cytochrome b6f is controlled by a myriad of regulatory proteins and how these regulators affect the function of this complex.


aljazeera--2019-07-19--Cape Town army deployment not a long-term solution

Cape Town army deployment 'not a long-term solution'

Cape Town, South Africa - On Thursday afternoon, residents of gang-hit Cape Town neighbourhoods cheered and applauded from the pavement and leant out of the windows of their homes to record videos on their mobile phones as armoured military vehicles drove by in a long convoy.  Last week, Police Minister Bheki Cele announced that the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), as the country's military is known, would be deployed to 10 of the port city's murder hotspots for a period of around three months.  He added that the deployment was an "extraordinary" measure to ensure public safety amid spiralling violent crime.  Soldiers began arriving from across the country on Monday. Many have previously served in peacekeeping missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and South Sudan.  After a hold-up due to paperwork issues and a few days of what the SANDF call "mission-ready training", soldiers armed with assault rifles on Thursday began their operation by helping to man roadblocks and cordon off streets while police carried out raids, searches and arrests.  "What took you so long?" shouted some of the onlookers in Afrikaans.  According to recent statistics based on local mortuary records, there have been 900 murders across the Cape Flats, a sand-swept area of sprawling and largely under-served townships on Cape Town's periphery, since the beginning of this year.  Albert Fritz, a Western Cape provincial official tasked with ensuring community safety, said last week that 1,875 people had been murdered across the entire province in the past six months.  "This means that many of our most vulnerable residents are living in a war zone."  The violence culminated in a spate of 13 murders in fewer than 48 hours in a single neighbourhood earlier in July, while even after the announcement of the military's imminent deployment last week, there were a further 43 murders across the city last weekend.  Against this backdrop, the army's deployment has been welcomed by many of the Cape Flats's community policing forums and neighbourhood watch groups, as well as the government of Western Cape Province.  "The deployment of the SANDF is a massive relief for the people of our province who can now look forward to being safe in their own communities and homes," Fritz told the media after Cele's announcement.  Gertrude du Toit, a 52-year-old resident of Delft, one of the neighbourhoods where the military is being deployed, told Al Jazeera that "it will be a pleasure to have the army come in and clean the gangsters off the street."  Du Toit's 21-year-old son was himself a gang member and was shot and killed by a rival gang in October last year.  But a number of security experts have questioned the military deployment.  "Putting the defence force into these areas is not going to solve anything in the long term," John Stupart, director at African Defence Review, said.  "It speaks to the desperation of the people in charge to be seen to be doing something, even if it's not really going to achieve the desired results."  Stupart pointed out that there is a landmark precedent to support his claims.  The army has previously been deployed to certain areas of the Cape Flats, as recently as 2015 and 2017.  The military was also routinely called on during apartheid to suppress riots and protests in townships across South Africa, often carrying out grave human-rights abuses in the process.  "You now have soldiers who are trained to find targets and shoot them going into unfamiliar environments that represent very much the same demographics as they did during apartheid. And it's wrong for all the same reasons that it was then," Stupart said.  For Simone Haysom, an author and senior analyst at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI TOC), the military deployment speaks to a "lack of understanding and imagination" on the part of the state.  Haysom added that this is in large part a result of the severe corrosion of South Africa's criminal intelligence capabilities during the nine-year tenure of former President Jacob Zuma, who stepped down in February 2018 in the face of growing pressure from his ruling African National Congress party (ANC) and civil-society protests.  "That has had a serious impact on the state's ability to understand what's happening in these spaces," she told Al Jazeera.  "We default again and again to heavy-handed policing, heavy-handed enforcement, short-term operations. This won't fundamentally change the power of gangs and the nature of the criminal economy and the profits that it generates, and it won't change the social conditions."  Experts say widespread unemployment, a lack of services including health and recreational facilities, and rampant drug abuse are among the drivers of gangsterism and associated violent crime across the Cape Flats, an area that continues to live with the legacy of apartheid spatial planning.  The violence has been exacerbated by an under-resourced police force, with poor black people and "coloured" (a local term for people of mixed racial heritage) communities bearing the brunt of an estimated nationwide deficit of 62,000 police officers.  In 2018, South African news site GroundUp reported that the township of Nyanga, which has the undesirable title of South Africa's murder capital and is also on the list of areas where the army is being deployed, had approximately 161 police officers for every 100,000 residents, while the predominantly-white suburb of Rondebosch had 556, despite not registering a single murder in the 12-month period covered by the latest crime statistics.  Many police stations in the Cape Flats are also beset by corruption. According to a recent article by Haysom and GI TOC colleague Mark Shaw, at least 2,000 handguns were sold to gangs by corrupt police officers between 2010 and 2016.  As well as heightening the violence, the corruption has led to considerable erosion of trust towards the police among Cape Flats residents, which further hinders attempts to combat the issue.  In contrast, Haysom says many of the gangs are deeply "socially embedded" within their communities and will therefore always outlast any temporary military deployment.  Back in Delft, Verona Walters, 46, was dismissive of the arrival of the army in her neighbourhood.  "I don't think it'll help," she said matter-of-factly, sitting on a sofa on the meticulously neat covered patio of her small brick home, surrounded by ornamental lampshades and pot plants.  Walters told Al Jazeera that almost every weekend there were reports that "at least two or three people" had been shot dead in her area.  "You can't go out at night. You hear gunshots all the time. You can't sleep because you're too scared something might happen," she said.  "But the police do nothing. They are failing us on a daily basis."  Having lived in Delft for more than 20 years, Walters knows many of the gang members who have terrorised her community well.  "Most of them are still young," she said, "and for most of us parents it's very sad because you saw them grow up together, and now they're killing each other."


aljazeera--2019-12-02--Crisis of Aboriginal women in prison in Australia

Melbourne, Australia - Vickie Roach was 12 the first time she was imprisoned.  Forty-eight years ago, in the early 1970s, she was arrested after running away from abusive foster homes and institutions.  "The morning after you arrive, you have to go see the doctor. They would examine you to see if you were pregnant or had STDs. And if you weren't cooperative they would hold you down and do it," said Roach, now 60.  For a young girl who had been sexually abused, this procedure was "traumatic".  But her contact with the criminal justice system in Australia began even earlier - when she was two.  Then, she was removed from her mother as part of the Stolen Generations, an era when Aboriginal children were taken from their families in order to be raised by white people in foster homes and institutions.  Under the law at the time, any child removed from their family first had to be charged with an offence.  As such, many Aboriginal children like Roach had criminal records almost from birth.  "Any contact with the criminal justice system pretty much ensures continued contact with them," she said.  She has survived heroin addiction, domestic violence, sexual abuse and repeated stints in jail.  Aboriginal women in Australia represent the largest cohort of prisoners in the country, comprising approximately 34 percent of the total number of female prisoners, despite making up only 2 percent of Australia's total population.  They also represent the fastest-growing prison population.  Since a Royal Commission aiming to reduce the number of imprisoned Aboriginal people was conducted in 1991, the population of Aboriginal women in prison has risen by 148 percent.  About 80 percent of these women are mothers, most are on remand, and few have committed any serious crime.  Instead, as Roach explained, drug addiction, homelessness, domestic violence, child removal and abuse are often the untreated social conditions that lead to incarceration.  For many of these women, contact with the criminal justice system began at an early age, after being removed from their Aboriginal families and placed into the child welfare system.  "Being involved with the child welfare department, minor issues in a normal family would have been dealt with at home [by] mum and dad," Roach said. "But I'd often be fed into the child welfare system - they'd be the ones to discipline me."  This would result in further criminal charges and a stint in juvenile detention.  Yet the causes of her experience had begun the previous generation.  Roach's mother had also been removed from her Aboriginal family and raised in an institution.  "Mum didn't really know how to be a family because she had never been parented."  After being taken from her mother, Roach would not see her again until she was 13, by which stage, "the connection was broken".  At one point, Roach even lived in the same institution as her mother had the generation before.  "Mum came to visit me [once] and it was the home that she was in. And I didn't know it was the home she was in. It was pretty shocking for her."  As a young adult, Roach spiralled into heroin use and prostitution and would become a victim of domestic violence.  Naomi Murphy has also experienced the negative cycle of the criminal justice system.  She accrued a minor criminal record as a young woman, including the charge of theft of a motor vehicle which she says was stolen by her then-boyfriend; Naomi simply happened to be riding in it.  Yet despite getting herself on the right side of the law later in life, her criminal record would come back to haunt her, impacting her ability to get a job.  "There's still things that sit on my record from 1992 - theft of a motor car and evading a train ticket," she told Al Jazeera.  She now works for a community legal project called Woor-Dungin, which advocates to have criminal records of 10 years or more expunged so that Aboriginal people can move on with their lives.  The project addresses one of the biggest barriers - employment.  "Aboriginal women are the main carers of the children - if we can't get jobs how are we supposed to feed the kids?"  Antoinette Braybrook, head of Djirra, a Melbourne-based organisation that works with Aboriginal women who have experienced family violence, said: "Most Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women inside are in for non-violent offences related to homelessness and poverty.  "Laws around unpaid fines, public drunkenness, or unfair bail laws in Victoria, are known to disproportionately impact Aboriginal women. We advocate for the immediate abolition of those unfair laws."  She said prisons are not safe spaces for Aboriginal women.  Ironically, however, a new wing recently built in Melbourne's maximum-security women's prison, has been named Winja Gunya, an indigenous phrase for "safe camp for women".  Antoinette said: "The only safe space for our women is to be in their home, with their family and in their community, free from violence. It's by addressing underlying issues like family violence, poverty and homelessness that we are going to keep our women safe. Governments need to invest in specialist culturally safe services like Djirra, not expand prisons."  'Custody is one of the least safe places we can be'  Aboriginal women are already severely disadvantaged in society. They are 32 times more likely than non-indigenous women to be hospitalised due to domestic violence, and one in four women seeking help for homelessness are Aboriginal.  Even today, Aboriginal children are 10 times more likely than non-Aboriginal children to be removed from their families and placed into child welfare, often due to mothers being in prison.  "They [government decision-makers] think the health care's good. They think the food is good. They think we are going to have a bed. That these things get us away from an abusive partner, and get us away from drugs. If we're homeless, that when we get arrested we are going to have a bed for the night," said Roach.  "For Aboriginal women, being in custody is one of the least safe places we can be."  Since her last stint in prison, which ended in 2008, Roach has gained a master’s degree and is now an advocate for Aboriginal women.  Women, she said, should be supported instead of being thrown in jail.  Yet, despite the recent custodial deaths of two Aboriginal women - Ms Dhu, who was imprisoned for unpaid fines, and Tanya Day, arrested while drunk on a train - activists do not expect the system to change.  Governments across the country heavily investing in the prison system.  A recent report demonstrated that the cost of imprisoning Indigenous people in Australia was eight billion Australian dollars ($5.5bn) a year, with this cost set to hit 20 billion Australian dollars ($13.8bn) a year by 2040, should the current rates of incarceration continue to increase.  "We need to stop criminalising people and locking them up in places that dehumanises them," said Roach. "We are all demeaned and belittled by the way we treat people in prison."


aljazeera--2019-12-23--Chile rights abuses at worst since dictatorship: INDH report

Crackdowns on ongoing protests in Chile have resulted in the most serious human rights violations in 30 years, since the country was ruled by military dictatorship, according to the country's official human rights body.  The state response to peaceful mass protests and incidents of violence "produced, as a whole, the most serious and multiple human rights violations committed since 1989," National Human Rights Institute (INDH) director Sergio Micco told reporters on Monday. • 'You are the rapist!' Chile's women chant against gender violence • Anger in Chile as ally of president says rights abuses necessary  In 1973, Chile's military overthrew elected president Salvador Allende, ushering in the 17-year rule of General Augusto Pinochet. Thousands of Chileans were executed, forcibly disappeared, tortured and imprisoned for political reasons during the Pinochet dictatorship, which ended in 1990.  Indiscriminate use of force, torture and sexual violence have been repeated in time and space during the current crisis, Micco said as the institute released its 109-page annual report, which focused on the crisis that began in mid-October.  "This occurred in democracy, in our democracy. How was this possible?" he said. "That is what this report, which we never thought we would have to write, is about."  Protests against structural inequality and social conditions erupted in Chile more than two months ago, and the response of security forces has been highly condemned. Prosecutors are investigating at least 26 deaths in the context of the crisis, including killings by military and police forces.  INDH has visited thousands of hospitalised protesters and bystanders, including more than 350 with eye injuries largely caused by police projectiles. The institute has filed hundreds of legal actions against authorities for homicide, torture, sexual violence and other abuses.  Jan Jarab, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights representative in Chile, voiced support for the new INDH report, calling it the "most complete" of all reports on human rights violations in Chile and noting its corroboration of findings concerning the "use of indiscriminate force against peaceful protests".  Shortly after INDH presented its report, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera gave a 29-minute speech the presidential palace. He did not refer to the report, only generally mentioning the importance of "total, absolute and unrestricted respect for the human rights of everyone at all times in all places and under all circumstances".  Pinera has previously voiced his firm commitment to ensure human rights violations over the course of the crisis are investigated and prosecuted. The government and security forces, however, have framed them as isolated incidents of excesses, vehemently rejecting international reports claiming otherwise.  'It's repression no matter what'  Despite the condemnations by the UN and other international entities and despite government pledges to respect human rights, police crackdowns have been consistently violent, abusive and indiscriminate, according to Francisco Sepulveda, one of the doctors treating injured protesters on a volunteer basis in Antofagasta, 1,360km (845 miles) north of Santiago.  "It is repression no matter what," he told Al Jazeera, adding that crackdowns in marginalised neighbourhoods have been particularly violent.  Monday's speech by Pinera preceded his ceremonial signing of a constitutional reform bill that lays out the path to a new constitution with citizen participation, one of the early key demands of protesters.  An April 26, 2020 plebiscite will ask Chileans whether they want a new constitution and whether they would prefer it be written by an all-citizen convention or a mixed citizen-legislator convention. Elections would be held in October to elect the body.  "This plebiscite, the first in 30 years, should serve to leave behind the violence and divisions we have seen resurface with pain and sadness in recent days," said Pinera.  The latest poll released Monday by CADEM, a respected polling and marketing company in Chile, reveals that Pinera's approval rating has dropped to 11 percent and his disapproval rating has risen to 81 percent.  Other recent polls by CADEM indicate two-thirds of Chileans think protests should continue. Demonstrations are expected to persist well into the new year.  In its report, INDH included a series of recommendations to the government to put an immediate stop to human rights violations, prevent their recurrence and ensure justice and reparations for victims.


globalresearch--2019-01-29--Crises of Governance Escalates in Western Capitalist States Trump Macron May

Crises of Governance Escalates in Western Capitalist States. Trump, Macron, May

France has once again been the scene of the “gilet jaunes” (yellow vests) demonstrations against the worsening social conditions of workers under the neo-liberal policies of La Republique en Marche government of President Emmanuel Macron.  Protests on January 26 attracted tens of thousands continuing the 11 weeks of disturbances where many have been injured, hundreds arrested and several people have lost their lives.  On January 26 there was another social variant to these developments where an alternative group calling themselves the “foulards rouges” (red scarves) said they would go into the streets the following day to oppose the level of violence which has been a hallmark of the French manifestations. The Macron administration in the early weeks of the unrest withdrew the price hike for fuel which served as a spark for the spontaneous uprising.  The situation in France is indicative of broader crises in the political systems in the leading capitalist nations, namely England and the United States. In Britain, a June 2016 referendum mandating the country’s exiting of the European Union (EU) immediately brought about the resignation of Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron leading to the ascendancy of his successor Theresa May, who has been proved incapable of winning support within the parliament for a planned departure from the continental body. May has faced two votes of no-confidence, the most recent by a razor thin margin, while the Conservative leader remains almost powerless as it relates to providing direction in such a profound political quagmire.  In the U.S, a 35-day partial closing of the government impacting at least 800,000 federal workers along with tens of millions of others depending upon public services was a clear reflection of the intractable dispute between the two leading capitalist parties. The Democrats and Republicans are both imperialist in their orientation although having different demographic constituencies, they therefore cannot agree on issues such as healthcare, immigration and border security.  French Discontent and the Problems of Neo-Liberalism  For the 11thstraight week the yellow vest protests continued in various French cities. On January 26 media estimates suggested that some 70,000 people took to the streets demanding a shift in the economic policies of Macron apart from his resignation.  Since November 17, two thousand people have been injured in the demonstrations where participants have blocked streets and roads along with damaging toll machines on the highways in order to emphasize the rise in fuel prices. Areas lived in and frequented by the more affluent have been trashed by elements within the yellow vest movement.  Ten people have been reported killed in direct connection with the unrest. Although the numbers of those coming into the streets have declined in recent weeks, with some four thousand marching in Paris on January 26, the demonstrators remain a significant force in disrupting normal operations in France.  Macron has responded to the more than two months of marches and rebellions, by abandoning some of the “reforms” which ignited anger among working and middle class people. In addition, the president has called for a “debate” on the issues which have generated so much controversy. Nonetheless, Macron has refused to step down from office.  The alternative intervention which occurred on Sunday January 27 when several thousand people marched against what they described as the violent character of the yellow vest protests will require a further assessment of its significance and viability. The ‘foulards rouges’ (red scarves) demonstration was carried out in defense of the Fifth French Republic saying that the participants agreed with some aspects of the demands of the ‘gilet juanes’ related to the rising cost of living. Nonetheless, they categorically rejected the violence which has occurred since mid-November saying it threatens the very character of what they perceive as the positive aspects of French society.  Interestingly enough, there were African immigrants placed in the frontlines of the red scarves protest in Paris with some quoted as saying by moving to France they were seeking to escape the instability within their countries. Although this lack of stability and sustainable development is the result of the legacy of colonialism which France and other European states have played such an integral part. Some of the yellow vest supporters are dismissing the red scarves as pawns of the Macron ruling party.  An article published by Al Jazeera raised the question as to why there are so few Africans and people from the Middle East joining the yellow vest demonstrations. The movement has been described as one representing people from the marginalized semi-rural areas of France which like the suburban districts where immigrants from oppressed communities live, are being victimized by the neo-liberal program of Macron and previous governments from both the socialist and conservative parties. (See this)  One possible explanation for the paucity of people of color in the leadership of the yellow vest protests is the general character of the French legal system which has been accused of persecuting Africans and Middle Easterners. The Adama Committee, which rose up surrounding the death in detention of 24-year-old Malian immigrant Adama Traore, say that they joined the recent demonstrations despite the failure to place racism at the center of the demands.  A leader of the Adama Committee, Youcef Brakni, was quoted in Al Jazeera saying:  Britain Fails to Agree on Exit from European Union  There appears to be no end in sight to the political turmoil in Britain since June 2016 when the majority of the electorate voted to leave the EU (Brexit). The then Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron immediately resigned paving the way for Theresa May to work out a program for leaving the continental body that would not cause further economic damage to London.  However, repeated attempts to pass exit legislation in parliament have failed miserably. May has remained in office despite widespread displeasure with her leadership. After surviving two no-confidence votes in recent weeks, the British government faces the possibility of a “no deal exit” where the terms for their departure will largely depend on the decisions of the European parliament.  Meanwhile the declining standards of living in Britain has prompted an anti-austerity movement which is mobilizing tens of thousands of people demanding the resignation of the Conservative government and the implementation of social programs to benefit the workers and poor. Uncertainty surrounding the lack of an exit strategy will inevitably worsens conditions of the majority of the people inside the country. (See this)  The Labor Party alternative headed now by Jeremy Corbyn has drawn the support of some elements among the Marxist left. Nevertheless, how far will a Corbyn government, if elected, be willing to go in regard to instituting a socialist-oriented economic program for Britain?  Leading left organizations along with the some right-wing parties supported the exit from the EU in 2016. In recent months there has been a demand for a “revote” on Brexit with the idea that the majority may have shifted towards remaining in the imperialist construct. Yet there is no identifiable popular opposition that can point to a revolutionary way forward for the working class and oppressed in Britain.  Implications for Recent Developments in the United States  There has been much propaganda from the Trump administration about the purported “booming, full-employment economy.” The official jobless rate is 3.9 percent, rising two-tenths of percentage points from 3.7 earlier in 2018. Capitalist media outlets play down this rise in the unemployment rate by saying that more people are unsuccessfully looking for jobs due to positive economic data over the last two years.  Despite the 3.9 percent unemployment figure, the Labor Force Participation Rate remains at a crisis level of 62.7 percent. Consequently, many people are still discouraged with the character of the labor market going into 2019.  With the 35-day partial government shutdown consumer and worker confidence is bound to suffer a serious decline. Even though more jobs have been created over the last few years, the gap between rich and poor is continuing to rise to alarming levels. (See this)  Plant closings announced by General Motors in November 2018 in both the U.S. and Canada, portends much for the auto industry in the current period. The tax dollars of working people bailed out the car industry simultaneously with the banks and insurance companies after 2008. Therefore the ruling class interests benefitted from government intervention while working people, African Americans, Latinx and others slipped further into economic decline.  Both Democrats and Republicans represent the ruling class in the U.S. and internationally notwithstanding the existence of divergent constituencies at their base. Although there was a shift within the House of Representatives after the November midterm elections towards more women and people of color, the commanding heights of power within Congress remains under the control of the conservative and centrist forces within the Democratic Party. The putative “left” of the party is by no means socialist in any genuine sense particularly as it relates to international questions. The Democratic Party is still pro-imperialist as indicated by continued support for the State of Israel, the hostility towards Syria, Iran and Russia and the failure to oppose the Trump administration’s attempted coup against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.  In order to reverse the contemporary crises there must be a new political alliance centered among the proletariat and the oppressed where the rights of the majority are held as paramount. Consequently the Pentagon war budget should be eliminated and the abolition of racism, national oppression, gender discrimination and xenophobia would have to be the cornerstone of creating a free and just society.  Note to readers: please click the share buttons above. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.  Abayomi Azikiwe is the editor of Pan-African News Wire. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.  All images in this article are from the author


globalresearch--2019-03-16--Eight Years Ago The US-NATO-Israel Sponsored Al Qaeda Insurgency in Syria Who Was Behind the 2011

Eight Years Ago: The US-NATO-Israel Sponsored Al Qaeda Insurgency in Syria. Who Was Behind the 2011 “Protest Movement”?

The war on Syria started eight years ago in Daraa  on the 17th of March 2011.  The following article first published in May 2011 examines the inception of the jihadist terrorist insurgency.  It recounts the events of March 17-18, 2011 in Daraa, a small border town with Jordan.  Media reports have finally acknowledged that the so-called “protest movement” in Syria was instigated by Washington. This was known and documented from the very inception of the Syrian crisis in March 2011.  It was not a protest movement, it was an armed insurgency integrated by US-Israeli and allied supported “jihadist” death squads?  From Day One, the Islamist “freedom fighters” were supported, trained and equipped by NATO and Turkey’s High Command. According to Israeli intelligence sources (Debka, August14, 2011):  This initiative, which was also supported by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, involved a process of organized recruitment of thousands of jihadist “freedom fighters”, reminiscent of  the enlistment of  Mujahideen to wage the CIA’s jihad (holy war) in the heyday of the Soviet-Afghan war:  These mercenaries were subsequently integrated into US and allied sponsored terrorist organizations including Al Nusrah and ISIS.  The Daraa “protest movement” on March 17-18 had all the appearances of a staged event involving covert support to Islamic terrorists by Mossad and/or Western intelligence.  Government sources pointed to the role of radical Salafist groups (supported by Israel).  In chorus, the Western media described the events in Daraa as a protest movement against Bashar Al Assad.  In a bitter irony, the deaths of policemen were higher than those of “demonstrators”.  In Daraa, roof top snipers were targeting both police and demonstrators.  Reading between the lines of Israeli and Lebanese news reports (which acknowledge the police deaths) a clearer picture of what happened in Daraa on March 17-18 had emerged. The Israel National News Report (which can not be accused of being biased in favor of Bashar al Assad) confirmed that:  The Lebanese news report also acknowledged the killings of seven policemen in Daraa.  The Lebanese Ya Libnan report quoting Al Jazeera also acknowledged that protesters had “burned the headquarters of the Baath Party and the court house in Dara’a” (emphasis added)  These news reports of the events in Daraa confirmed that from the very outset this was not a “peaceful protest” as claimed by the Western media.  Moreover, from an assessment of the initial casualty figures (Israel News), there were more policemen than “demonstrators” who were killed.  This is significant because it suggests that the police force may have initially been outnumbered by a well organized armed gang of professional killers.  What was clear from these initial reports is that many of the demonstrators were not demonstrators but terrorists involved in premeditated acts of killing and arson.  The title of the Israeli news report summarized what happened: Syria: Seven Police Killed, Buildings Torched in Protest  The US-NATO-Israel agenda consisted in supporting an Al Qaeda affiliated insurgency integrated by death squads and professional snipers. President Bashar al Assad is then to be blamed for killing his own people.  The same “false flag” strategy of killing innocent civilians was used during the Ukraine Maidan protest movement.  On February 20th, 2014, professional snipers were shooting at both demonstrators and policemen with a view to accusing president Viktor Yanukovych of “mass murder.”  It was subsequently revealed that these snipers were controlled by the opponents of president Yanukovych, who are now part of the coalition government.  The “humanitarian mandate” of the US and its allies is sustained by diabolical “false flag” attacks which consist in killing civilians with a view to breaking the legitimacy of governments which refuse to abide by the diktats of Washington and its allies.  There is evidence of gross media manipulation and falsification from the outset of the protest movement in southern Syria on March 17th [2011].  The Western media has presented the events in Syria as part of the broader Arab pro-democracy protest movement, spreading spontaneously from Tunisia, to Egypt, and from Libya to Syria.  Media coverage has focussed on the Syrian police and armed forces, which are accused of indiscriminately shooting and killing unarmed “pro-democracy” demonstrators. While these police shootings did indeed occur, what the media failed to mention is that among the demonstrators there were armed gunmen as well as snipers who were shooting at both the security forces and the protesters.  The death figures presented in the reports are often unsubstantiated. Many of the reports are “according to witnesses”. The images and video footages aired on Al Jazeera and CNN do not always correspond to the events which are being covered by the news reports.  There is certainly cause for social unrest and mass protest in Syria: unemployment has increased in recent year, social conditions have deteriorated, particularly since the adoption in 2006 of sweeping economic reforms under IMF guidance. The IMF’s “economic medicine” includes austerity measures, a freeze on wages, the deregulation of the financial system, trade reform and privatization.  While Syria is [2011] no “model society” with regard to civil rights and freedom of expression, it nonetheless constitutes the only (remaining) independent secular state in the Arab world. Its populist, anti-Imperialist and secular base is inherited from the dominant Baath party, which integrates Muslims, Christians and Druze.  Moreover, in contrast to Egypt and Tunisia, in Syria there is considerable popular support for President Bashar Al Assad. The large rally in Damascus on March 29, “with tens of thousands of supporters” (Reuters) of President Al Assad is barely mentioned. Yet in an unusual twist, the images and video footage of several pro-government events were used by the Western media to convince international public opinion that the President was being confronted by mass anti-government rallies.  Tens of thousands of Syrians gather for a pro-government rally at the central   bank square in Damascus March 29, 2011. (Reuters Photo)  Syrians display a giant national flag with a picture of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad during a   pro-government rally at the central bank square in Damascus March 29, 2011. (Reuters Photo)  The “Epicenter” of the Protest Movement. Daraa: A Small Border Town in southern Syria  What is the nature of the protest movement? From what sectors of Syrian society does it emanate? What triggered the violence?  What is the cause of the deaths?  The existence of an organized insurrection composed of armed gangs involved in acts of killing and arson has been dismissed by the Western media, despite evidence to the contrary.  The demonstrations  did not start in Damascus, the nation’s capital. At the outset, the protests were not integrated by a mass movement of citizens in Syria’s capital.  The demonstrations started in Daraa, a small border town of 75,000 inhabitants, on the Syrian Jordanian border, rather than in Damascus or Aleppo, where the mainstay of organized political opposition and social movements are located. (Daraa is a small border town comparable e.g. to Plattsburgh, NY on the US-Canadian border).  The Associated Press report (quoting unnamed “witnesses” and “activists”) describes the early protests in Daraa as follows:  The AP report inflates the numbers: Daraa is presented as a city of 300,000 when in fact its population is 75,000;  “protesters gathered by the thousands”, “casualties mounted”.  The report is silent on the death of policemen which in the West invariably makes the front page of the tabloids.  The deaths of the policemen are important in assessing what actually happened. When there are police casualties, this means that there is an exchange of gunfire between opposing sides, between policemen and “demonstrators”.  Who are these “demonstrators” including roof top snipers who were targeting the police.  Israeli and Lebanese news reports (which acknowledge the police deaths) provide a clearer picture of what happened in Daraa on March 17-18. The Israel National News Report (which cannot be accused of being biased in favor of Damascus) reviews these same events as follows:  The Lebanese news report, quoting various sources, also acknowledges the killings of seven policemen in Daraa: They were killed  “during clashes between the security forces and protesters… They got killed trying to drive away protesters during demonstration in Dara’a”  The Lebanese Ya Libnan report quoting Al Jazeera also acknowledged that protesters had “burned the headquarters of the Baath Party and the court house in Dara’a”  (emphasis added)  These news reports of the events in Daraa confirm the following:  1. This was not a “peaceful protest” as claimed by the Western media. Several of the “demonstrators” had fire arms and were using them against the police:  “The police opened fire on armed protesters killing four”.  2. From the initial casualty figures (Israel News), there were more policemen than demonstrators who were killed:  7 policemen killed versus 4 demonstrators. This is significant because it suggests that the police force might have been initially outnumbered by a well organized armed gang. According to Syrian media sources, there were also snipers on rooftops which were shooting at both the police and the protesters.  What is clear from these initial reports is that many of the demonstrators were not demonstrators but terrorists involved in premeditated acts of killing and arson. The title of the Israeli news report summarizes what happened:  Syria: Seven Police Killed, Buildings Torched in Protests.  The title suggests that the “demonstrators” rather than the police had the upper hand.  The Daraa “protest movement” on March 18 had all the appearances of a staged event involving, in all likelihood, covert support to Islamic terrorists by Mossad and/or Western intelligence. Government sources point to the role of radical Salafist groups (supported by Israel)  Other reports have pointed to the role of Saudi Arabia in financing the protest movement.  What has unfolded in Daraa in the weeks following the initial violent clashes on 17-18 March, is the confrontation between the police and the armed forces on the one hand and armed units of terrorists and snipers on the other which had infiltrated the protest movement.  Reports suggest that these terrorists are integrated by Islamists. There is no concrete evidence as to which Islamic organizations are behind the terrorists and the government has not released corroborating information as to who these groups are.  Both the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood (whose leadership is in exile in the UK) and the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir (the Party of Liberation), among others have paid lip service to the protest movement. Hizb ut Tahir (led in the 1980s by Syrian born Omar Bakri Muhammad) tends to “dominate the British Islamist scene” according to Foreign Affairs. Hizb ut Tahir is also considered to be of strategic importance to Britain’s Secret Service MI6. in the pursuit of Anglo-American interests in the Middle East and Central Asia. (Is Hizb-ut-Tahrir another project of British MI6? | State of Pakistan).  Hizb ut-Tahrir anti-Assad rally in Tripoli, Lebanon (40 km from Syrian border), April 22, 2011. Hizb ut-Tahrir is banned in Syria  Syria is a secular Arab country, a society of religious tolerance, where Muslims and Christians have for several centuries lived in peace. Hizb ut-Tahrir (the Party of Liberation) is a radical political movement committed to the creation of an Islamic caliphate. In Syria, its avowed objective is to destabilize the secular state.  Since the Soviet-Afghan war, Western intelligence agencies as well as Israel’s Mossad have consistently used various Islamic terrorist organizations as “intelligence assets”. Both Washington and its indefectible British ally have provided covert support to “Islamic terrorists” in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo and Libya, etc. as a means to triggering ethnic strife, sectarian violence and political instability.  The staged protest movement in Syria is modelled on Libya. The insurrection in Eastern Libya is integrated by the Libya Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) which is supported by MI6 and the CIA. The ultimate objective of the Syria protest movement, through media lies and fabrications, is to create divisions within Syrian society as well as justify an eventual “humanitarian intervention”.  An armed insurrection integrated by Islamists and supported covertly by Western intelligence is central to an understanding of what is occurring on the ground.  The existence of an armed insurrection is not mentioned by the Western media. If it were to be acknowledged and analysed, our understanding of unfolding events would be entirely different.  What is mentioned profusely is that the armed forces and the police are involved in the indiscriminate killing of protesters.  The deployment of the armed forces including tanks in Daraa is directed against an organized armed insurrection, which has been active in the border city since March 17-18.  Casualties are being reported which also include the death of policemen and soldiers.  In a bitter irony, the Western media acknowledges the police/soldier deaths while denying the existence of an armed insurrection.  The key question is how does the media explain these deaths of soldiers and police?  Without evidence, the reports suggest authoritatively that the police is shooting at the soldiers and vice versa the soldiers are shooting on the police. In a April 29 Al Jazeera report, Daraa is described as “a city under siege”.  The Al Jazeera report borders on the absurd. Read carefully.  “Tanks and troops control all roads in and out”,  “thousands of Syrian soldiers and their heavy weaponry into Daraa”  This situation has prevailed for several weeks. This means that bona fide protesters who are not already inside Daraa cannot enter Daraa.  People who live in the city are in their homes: “nobody dares walk … the streets”. If nobody dares walk the streets where are the protesters?  Who is in the streets? According to Al Jazeera, the protesters are in the streets together with the soldiers, and both the protesters and the soldiers are being shot at by “plain clothes secret police”, by “paid thugs” and government sponsored snipers.  The impression conveyed in the report is that these casualties are attributed to infighting between the police and the military.  But the report also says that the soldiers (in the “thousands”) control all roads in and out of the city, but they are being shot upon by the plain clothed secret police.  The purpose of this web of media deceit, namely outright fabrications  –where soldiers are being killed by police and  “government snipers”– is to deny the existence of armed terrorist groups. The later are integrated by snipers and “plain clothed terrorists” who are shooting at the police, the Syrian armed forces and local residents.  These are not spontaneous acts of terror; they are carefully planned and coordinated attacks. In recent developments, according to a Xinhua report (April 30, 2011), armed “terrorist groups” “attacked the housing areas for servicemen” in Daraa province, “killing a sergeant and wounding two”.  While the government bears heavy responsibility for its mishandling of the military-police operation, including the deaths of civilians, the reports confirm that the armed terrorist groups had also opened fire on protesters and local residents. The casualties are then blamed on the armed forces and the police and the Bashar Al Assad government is portrayed by “the international community” as having ordered countless atrocities.  The fact of the matter is that foreign journalists are banned from reporting inside Syria, to the extent that much of the information including the number of casualties is obtained from the unverified accounts of “witnesses”.  It is in the interest of the US-NATO alliance to portray the events in Syria as a peaceful protest movement which is being brutally repressed by a “dictatorial regime”.  The Syrian government may be autocratic. It is certainly not a model of democracy but neither is the US administration, which is characterized by rampant corruption, the derogation of civil liberties under the Patriot legislation, the legalisation of torture, not to mention its “bloodless” “humanitarian wars”:  The ultimate purpose is to trigger sectarian violence and political chaos within Syria by covertly supporting Islamic terrorist organizations.  The longer term US foreign policy perspective is “regime change” and the destabilization of Syria as an independent nation-state, through a covert process of “democratization” or through military means.  Syria is on the list of “rogue states”, which are targeted for a US military intervention. As confirmed by former NATO commander General Wesley Clark the “[The] Five-year campaign plan [includes]… a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan” (Pentagon official quoted by General Wesley Clark).  The objective is to weaken the structures of the secular State while justifying an eventual  UN sponsored “humanitarian intervention”. The latter, in the first instance, could take the form of a reinforced embargo on the country (including sanctions) as well as the freezing of Syrian bank assets in overseas foreign financial institutions.  While a US-NATO military intervention in the immediate future seems highly unlikely, Syria is nonetheless on the Pentagon’s military roadmap, namely an eventual war on Syria has been contemplated both by Washington and Tel Aviv.  If it were to occur, at some future date, it would lead to escalation. Israel would inevitably be involved. The entire Middle East Central Asian region from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Chinese-Afghan border would flare up.  Michel Chossudovsky is an award-winning author, Professor of Economics (Emeritus) at the University of Ottawa, Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) and Editor of globalresearch.ca. He is the author of The Globalization of Poverty and The New World Order (2003) and America’s “War on Terrorism” (2005). He is also a contributor to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. His writings have been published in more than twenty languages.  He spent a month in Syria in early 2011.