The Guardian, Saturday 19 March 2011

When Israel bombed Gaza at the end of 2008 in a brutal action which killed 1,300 people and destroyed 20,000 buildings, there was no question of the US allowing the UN to impose a no-fly zone over Gaza to protect its people, 50% of which are children. Those who support the UN security council’s authorisation of a no-fly zone over Libya (Britain, France and US line up for air strikes against Gaddafi, 18 March) need to reflect on the selective nature of UN intervention throughout the world and in the Middle East in particular.

The UN will not be intervening in the Libyan revolution to protect civilians from Gaddafi’s brutality. It will go in to further the interests of the world’s major powers in the region. It will be an imperialist action, not a humanitarian one. After the bloodshed it produced in Serbia, Iraq and Afghanistan, the doctrine of “humanitarian military intervention” should be discredited beyond rehabilitation. The west is a major source of the problems of the Middle East and north Africa. It’s not part of the solution, even when its troops wear blue helmets.

Sasha Simic

By ELISABETH BUMILLER, DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and ALAN COWELL

WASHINGTON — President Obama ordered Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi on Friday to implement a cease-fire immediately and stop all attacks on Libyan civilians or face military action from the United States and its allies in Europe and the Arab world.

The real reasons behind the United Nations’ Libya vote
By Andrew Murray
National Chair, Stop the War Coalition
18 March 2011

A new war has been declared in the Middle East. With the bloody and failing occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan still in place, the USA, Britain and France are now committed to an escalating armed intervention in Libya.

THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION ADAPTS ITS ISRAEL TALKING POINTS FOR BAHRAIN AND SAUDI ARABIA
Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett
March 16th, 2011

Today, the White House confirmed, see here, that it was “aware, obviously, of the invitation” extended to Saudi Arabia to invade Bahrain. But U.S. government officials continue to decline to say what Secretary of Defense Gates said or did not say to his Bahraini interlocutors 36 hours before Saudi Arabia’s military offensive. And, U.S. government officials have refused to call for the removal of foreign troops from Bahrain.

For many in Iran, and indeed for Shia throughout the Persian Gulf, this is painfully reminiscent of American silence when Iraq invaded the Islamic Republic in 1980. And, as it became clear that the United States was supporting Saddam Hussein in his war of aggression against Iran, it seems increasingly likely that the Obama Administration will be seen as supporting the use of armed force against a Shia majority population in Bahrain.

March 18th-23rd:
Show Your Support: Attend a Bradley Manning Protest Near You

The following are excerpts from “Dear Dana Milbank, Why I got Naked for Bradley Manning” by Logan Price. Click here to read the entire article.

Bradley Manning is being tortured in pre-trial detention.  He has lost his rights and he is constantly humiliated, denied sleep or exercise, and spends 23 hours a day in single, small cell.  “You can hear him coming,” his friend David House says, “because of the chains.”  The Pentagon’s excuse is that this is all just for Bradley’s safety– and Obama turned around and repeated it back to us.

[…]

Stripping in front of the State Department on a cold day is nothing compared to that — no matter how many cynical bloggers happen to be present.

Please Join us this Sunday at Quantico, Virginia to rally for Bradley.  Dana, you are invited too.  I am making some signs and you can have one if you want–  It says “Whistle-Blowers protect Democracy,”  and it doesn’t even have to be pink.

Logan Price is an activist based in San Francisco who coordinates the Hands Off Wikileaks campaign for CODEPINK.

Related:
Where are the US reactors similar to those in crisis in Japan?

There are 23 GE Mark1 Boiling Water Reactors in the U.S. of the same design as those at Fukushima. This list from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission shows which designs are Boiling Water or Pressurized Water reactors. Here is the list of Mark I BWRs in the country.

Browns Ferry 1,2,3 (W of Huntsville, AL); Brunswick 1,2, ( 40 miles W of Wilmington,NC), Cooper (23 miles south of Nebraksa City, NE), Dresden 2,3 (25 miles SW of Joliet, IL), Duane Arnold ( 8 miles NW of Cedar Rapids, IA), Fermi 2 (24 miles NE of Toledo, IL), FitzPatrick (6 miles NE of Oswego, NY), Hatch 1,2 (20 miles S of Vidalia, GA), Hope Creek 1 (18 miles SE of Wilmington, DE), Monticello (35 miles NW of Minneapolis, MN), Nine Mile Point 1 (6 miles NE of Oswego, NY), Oyster Creek (9 miles S of Toms River, NJ), Peach Bottom 2,3 (17.9 miles S of Lancaster, PA), Pilgrim 1 (38 miles SE of Boston, MA), Quad Cities 1,2 (20 miles NE of Moline, IL), Vermont Yankee (5 miles S of Brattleboro, VT).