European Continent Now Completely Free of Criminalizing Gay Sex After Cypriot State Repeal

Towleroad, Andy Towle, January 27, 2014

The European continent is now completely free of laws criminalizing gay sex after lawmakers in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus voted today to repeal a colonial era sodomy ban. The bill, which was passed on a second reading, still requires endorsement by Turkish Cypriot leader Derviş Eroğlu but he has promised to sign it.

Cyprus Mail reports:

In the north, homosexuality was punishable by imprisonment for five years and Turkish Cypriot activists, had even until recently been forced to hold protests in secret, leaving LGBT signs and symbols anonymously in various places.

Paulo Côrte-Real, Co-Chair of ILGA-Europe’s executive Board, welcomed the move: “We can finally call Europe a continent completely free from laws criminalising homosexuality. In 1981, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in its historic judgment in Dudgeon v UK case that such laws are in breach of the European Human Rights Convention and must be abolished. It took Europe 33 years to completely free the continent from these unjust and discriminatory laws.”

In August 2012, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) agreed to examine a legal challenge against Turkey for the north’s continued failure to repeal a law banning homosexuality.

North America, Australia, and now Europe are free of laws criminalizing homosexuality.

Annan launches Elders mission to Iran

Google – AFP, 26 (AFP), 26 January 2014

Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan gives a press conference in

Abidjan on October 10, 2013 (AFP/File, Sia Kambou)

Tehran — Former UN chief Kofi Annan, head of a group of ex-global leaders known as the Elders, Sunday started a visit aimed at boosting dialogue between Iran and the international community, media reported.

Annan is accompanied by Martti Ahtisaari, a former president of Finland, South Africa's Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu and Mexican ex-president Ernesto Zedillo.

The group, formed in 2007, is made up of 12 global leaders who try "to promote peace, justice and human rights," according to its website.

It said the group will hold private meetings with Iranian officials but did not give further details.

Iranian media reported they would start the three-day trip by visiting the mausoleum of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic republic.

The group sees "recent positive developments as a historic and strategic opportunity to end decades of animosity between Iran and the international community," the website said in statement on Saturday.

But it added "trust will only be built slowly, through continued goodwill and reciprocal action."

During the visit, the Elders "will exchange ideas with the Iranian leadership about peaceful ways of addressing conflict and healing sectarian divisions in the region."

Iran is a staunch supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in its almost three-year-old bloody conflict against rebels.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday that he would host the delegation.

President Hassan Rouhani won last year's presidential election with promises of a diplomatic opening to the West.

Iran and major world powers clinched a historic nuclear deal in November, when Tehran agreed to curb parts of its atomic programme for six months in exchange for modest sanctions relief and a promise by Western powers not to impose new sanctions.

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Rohani's 'Yes We Can' Moment

Syrian peace talks: regime and rebels finally meet

After tense days spent avoiding each other, negotiators gather briefly at UN for Geneva II meeting to discuss civil war

The Guardian, Staff and agencies, Saturday 25 January 2014

Syrian opposition chief negotiator Hadi al-Bahra (right) and coalition member
 Anas al-Abda arrive at the Geneva II peace talks. Photograph: Philippe
Desmazes/AFP/Getty Images

The first direct negotiations between the Syrian government and rebels seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad started and ended after barely half and hour at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva.

After tense days spent avoiding each other and meeting separately with veteran Algerian mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, Assad's delegation and representatives of the Syrian Opposition Coalition gathered briefly in the same room, then emerged.

The two sides were distant going into the meeting, with the government delegation denying it had accepted the premise of a transitional leadership, and the opposition stating it would accept nothing less. Diplomats have said even getting them to the same table can be considered an accomplishment three years into the uprising that has left 130,000 people dead.

Brahimi announced on Friday night that the parties had agreed "to meet in the same room" after a day of frantic efforts to prevent either side from walking away from the talks. "Nobody will be leaving on Saturday and nobody will be leaving on Sunday," he told a press conference.

Diplomats added that the two sides were likely to address any remarks on Saturday to Brahimi and not directly to each other.

The first threat to quit came from the Syrian foreign minister, Walid al-Moualem, who warned on Friday morning that he would return to Damascus unless serious talks were held by Saturday.

Brahimi met government and opposition negotiators separately behind closed doors at the Palais des Nations on Friday while outside their respective representatives blamed each other for the apparent deadlock.

Opposition spokespeople had said they would not start talks until the other side accepted the Geneva I agreement of 2012, which calls for the creation of a transitional governing body in Damascus by mutual consent. Given that the rebels insist Assad must go – and Assad is adamant that he will not – it remains hard to see how that can happen.

Moualem and other Syrian government officials have emphasised the need to discuss "terrorism", their blanket term for opposition to Assad, before talks on a political solution to the 34-month crisis, which has made 2 million people refugees and Syria a magnet for al-Qaida-inspired extremists.

The meeting on Saturday suggested that neither side wanted to be blamed for walking out, at least at this early stage. Al-Arabiya TV quoted an unnamed Syrian source as saying that the government had agreed to release more than 5,500 prisoners. If confirmed, that would be a significant confidence-building measure.

Amid all the diplomatic activity it was hard to avoid a sense of disconnect from the crisis on the ground. The pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 63 people had now died due to poor health and living conditions in the besieged Yarmuk Palestinian area of Damascus. "Dear Geneva II crowd: Could you please get people in Homs and Yarmouk some food?" one activist tweeted. Air raids were reported over Aleppo.

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Hot meals, housing bring cheer to Syrian refugees in Bulgaria

Volunteers distribute Polish food donations to Syrian refugees in the largest

 Bulgarian camp of Syrian refugees in the town of Harmanli on January 21, 2014

(AFP/File, Dimitar Dilkoff)

Australia Asylum Policy ‘Draconian’: Rights Group

Jakarta Globe, January 22, 2014

An exhausted boy during a rescue operation in Cidaun, Cianjur, West Java,
Indonesia on July 24, 2013. (EPA Photo/Andra Subhan)

[Updated November 23]

Australia has neglected its legal responsibility to protect the rights of asylum seekers in favor of popular domestic appeal, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday at the launch of its 2014 World Report.

In its 24th edition of the report, HRW slammed Australia’s scare-mongering politics and punitive resettlement policies.

“Last year Australia’s two major political parties were hell-bent on using cruel policies to deter asylum seekers, even at the expense of Australia’s international reputation,” said Elaine Pearson, director of HRW Australia.

In 2013, the Abbott government’s Operation Sovereign Borders policy promised to combat people smuggling by empowering the navy to turn back boats carrying asylum seekers.

HRW’s report said policies like these demonized asylum seekers, and risked destroying Australia’s global standing as a leader on human rights in Asia Pacific.

“It is a case of the richest country in the region foisting its burdens off onto poorer countries,” Pearson said.

She likened the impact of Australia’s mandatory offshore detention policy to the damage the US detention center in Guantanamo Bay had caused to that country’s human rights record.

“Australia risks its war on people smuggling being compared to another country that has had an abysmal record in an offshore jail, and of course I’m talking about the US and Guantanamo,” she said.

The report said Australia’s policy of mandatory detention in offshore processing centers in Papua New Guinea and Nauru exposed asylum seekers to harsh and unsatisfactory conditions.

Last year, after visiting the processing centers, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported that the facilities were neither fair nor humane, and failed to meet international standards.

Pearson said the ban on journalists entering processing centers and the secrecy surrounding Operation Sovereign Borders meant information was difficult to verify.

On Tuesday, a group of asylum seekers claimed they had been burned and beaten by the Australian navy before being returned to Indonesia under the policy to “turn back the boats.”

Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison denied the allegations, telling reporters in Sydney “the Australian government is not going to put up with people sledging the Australian navy.”

Pearson said the public’s right to information must be prioritized, as it was difficult to the get to the bottom of issues when “what happens at sea, stays at sea.”

“It is not sufficient to rely on the Australian government to act in the best interests of the people, when clearly this is not the case,” she said. She predicted Operation Sovereign Borders would not achieve Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s goal of stopping asylum-seeker boats.

“When people continue to be mistreated in detention centers, in worst cases being subjected to rape or human torture, then of course people are going to do anything they can to escape those conditions,” Pearson said.

HRW Indonesia researcher Andreas Harsono agreed, saying asylum seekers boarded the boats because there was no certainty for them in Indonesia.

“The ideal situation would be for those people not to be detained at all; for their children to have access to education and to have the right to work,” Pearson said.

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Australia Vows No More Intrusions in Indonesian Waters

UN Warns Australia Over Reported Refugee Boat Push-Backs

Asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran cry as Indonesian officers
 force them to leave the Australian vessel Hermia docked at Indah Kiat port in
 Merak, Indonesia’s Banten province in this April 9, 2012 file photo. (Reuters
Photo/Aulia Pratama)

.

Richest 85 boast same wealth as half the world

SMH, Gareth Hutchens, January 21, 2014

Illustration: Cathy Wilcox

Eighty-five people control the same amount of wealth as half the world's population.

That is 85 people compared with 3.5 billion.

A new report from Oxfam has been published in time for the World Economic Forum in Davos this week.

It shows the world's ultra-wealthy have not only recovered from the global financial crisis, they have positively blossomed.

The report shows the wealth of the 1 per cent richest people in the world is worth about $US110 trillion, 65 times the total wealth of the bottom half of the world's population.

It also shows the world's richest 85 people control about $US1.7 trillion in wealth, equivalent to the bottom half of the world's population.

And far from hindering the wealthy, the political response to the global financial crisis - including the actions of central banks and the austerity measures introduced by national governments - has made the rich fabulously richer.

In the US, the wealthiest 1 per cent of the population grabbed 95 per cent of post-financial crisis growth between 2009 and 2012, while the bottom 90 per cent became poorer.

But an Oxfam survey of six countries - the United States, UK, Spain, Brazil, India and South Africa - has found that the majority of people believe laws and regulations are skewed in favour of the rich, so people are noticing.

It has called on the world's powerful meeting in Davos to try to stem the tide of rising inequality.

It says seven out of 10 people live in countries where economic inequality has increased in 30 years.

''Given the scale of rising wealth concentrations, opportunity capture and unequal political representation are a serious and worrying trend,'' the report says.

''This massive concentration of economic resources in the hands of fewer people presents a significant threat to inclusive political and economic systems.''

Economists say the rise in global inequality is not surprising.

The US Federal Reserve's multibillion-dollar bond-buying program was singled out as a major driver of the increase in wealth inequality.

"The distribution of wealth has been widening, both before and after the financial crisis,'' Bank of America chief economist Saul Eslake said.

''And although I don't criticise the policies on these grounds, I think it's fairly apparent that the policies that are being pursued, particularly by central banks, in an attempt to revive major advanced economies after the financial crisis, have probably contributed to widening the distribution of wealth.''

Frank Stilwell, Emeritus Professor at Sydney University, said he was not surprised there was inequality of that magnitude, but he wondered if Davos would be the forum to address it.

''It should be a matter of public concern, within and between nations, because this concentration among the ultra-wealthy I think is pretty well documented within countries,'' Professor Stilwell said.

''The bigger question is if the World Economic Forum and its member participants can do anything about these trends is another matter.''

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Ban Ki-moon withdraws invitation for Iran to attend Geneva talks on Syria

UN secretary general urges Iran to 'join global consensus' behind Geneva talks after Syrian rebels warn of boycott

The Guardian, Martin Chulov and Saeed Kamali Dehghan, 20 January 2014,

UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon. His invitation had enraged the US, Britain
and the main Syrian opposition body. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AP

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, has retracted an invitation for Iran to attend Wednesday's summit on Syria, after Tehran declared it did not support the June 2012 political transition deal that is the basis for the talks.

"He [Ban] continues to urge Iran to join the global consensus behind the Geneva communiqué," Ban's spokesman, Martin Nesirky, said. "Given that it has chosen to remain outside that basic understanding, [Ban] has decided that the one-day Montreux gathering will proceed without Iran's participation."

Ban had belatedly invited Iran – a prominent backer of the Assad regime – on Sunday without first asking Tehran to agree to the principles of the earlier summit that had paved the way for the first direct talks between the Syrian opposition and government groups since the start of the conflict almost three years ago.

The invitation enraged the US, Britain and the main Syrian opposition body, which warned it would not turn up in Geneva unless Iran conceded on the issue of a transitional government – a central pillar of western-backed diplomatic moves to oust President Bashar al-Assad.

As soon as Iran's invitation was rescinded, Syria's opposition national coalition immediately confirmed its participation in the forthcoming talks.

"We appreciate the United Nations and (UN secretary general) Ban Ki-moon's understanding of our position. We think they have taken the right decision. Our participation is confirmed for 22 January," Monzer Akbik, chief of staff of the president of the National Coalition told Reuters.

Another coalition member, Anas Abdah, said they would send a list of conference delegates to the UN later on Monday.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the US hopes "all parties can now return to focus on the task at hand, which is bringing an end to the suffering of the Syrian people and beginning a process toward a political transition". The secretary of state John Kerry is to attend the conference.

Diplomats had spent Monday trying to save the summit from collapse, with Iran refusing to concede that its last-minute invitation to attend meant it should endorse a transitional Syrian government – a move rejected by Damascus.

After spending Monday trying to persuade Iran on the issue, Ban released a statement saying he was dismayed by the failure of attempts ahead of the Geneva talks.

"Iran, despite assurances provided orally to the secretary general, has made a disappointing public statement," his spokesman told reporters in New York. "The secretary general is urgently considering his options in light of the disappointing reaction of some participants."

Iran's endorsement of a transitional government would have implied a watering down of its support to the Assad regime, which has been its main ally in the Arab world for more than 30 years.

Close to 150,000 people have been killed, at least four million displaced and the borders of Syria and its neighbours placed under immense strain.

Both Iran and Saudi Arabia have coveted a leading role in helping solve the Syrian crisis. Tehran has provided substantial funding and military support to Assad, while Riyadh has heavily backed rebel groups. Over the past year, the war has increasingly been a proxy campaign between the Iranians and the Saudis, with rising sectarian implications that spill well beyond Syria's borders.

As Geneva approached, both sides hardened their positions. Iran had said it would welcome an invitation, which it had attempted to frame though the prism of a recent rapprochement with the US and EU over its nuclear programme. Saudi Arabia had also wanted to play a prominent role in any detente, but only if Iran was absent.

Related Article:

Evidence of 'industrial-scale killing' by Syria spurs call for war crimes charges

Arabs MPs heckle, Jews applaud Canada PM at Israel Knesset

Google – AFP, 20 January 2014

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper addresses the Knesset (Israeli 

parliament) in Jerusalem on January 20, 2014 (AFP, Gali Tibbon)

Jerusalem — Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was shouted down by Arab lawmakers at the Israeli Knesset on Monday in a speech which won him a standing ovation from Jewish MPs.

Arab Israeli MP Ahmed Tibi hurled mostly inaudible comments at Harper before walking out with another lawmaker as the Canadian premier delivered a 20-minute speech which was markedly pro-Israel on his first-ever visit to the Jewish state.

Shortly afterwards, most of the remaining MPs in the 120-member parliament rose to their feet to give Harper a standing ovation, in an unusually lively episode in the house.

"We refuse to single out Israel for criticism on the international stage," Harper said, lashing out at the international community for criticising Israel's policies towards the Palestinians, particularly over settlement construction.

"As once Jewish businesses were boycotted, some civil society leaders today call for a boycott of Israel," he said, decrying the shunning of academics.

"Most disgracefully of all, some openly call Israel an apartheid state," he said, at which point Tibi yelled out "Settlements!" drawing a chorus of boos and hissing.

Israel's ongoing announcements of new construction on land seized during the 1967 Six Day War has drawn the ire of Palestinians, the European Union and the United States as Washington tries to coax the two sides towards an elusive peace deal.

Canada has remained firmly supportive of the Jewish state in its foreign policy, and was one of the few countries that opposed a successful Palestinian bid for upgraded status at the United Nations in 2012.

Arab Israelis are Palestinians who remained after Israel was founded in 1948, along with their descendants they now make up some 20 percent of the population.

They are currently represented by 12 of the 120 Knesset members.

Evidence of 'industrial-scale killing' by Syria spurs call for war crimes charges

Senior war crimes prosecutors say photographs and documents provide 'clear evidence' of systematic killing of 11,000 detainees

Read theSyria report in full

The Guardian, Ian Black, Middle East editor, Monday 20 January 2014

Calls for Assad or other officials to face justice at the international criminal court in
 The Hague have foundered on the problem that Syria is not a member of the court.
Photograph: Reuters

Syrian government officials could face war crimes charges in the light of a huge cache of evidence smuggled out of the country showing the "systematic killing" of about 11,000 detainees, according to three eminent international lawyers.

The three, former prosecutors at the criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Sierra Leone, examined thousands of Syrian government photographs and files recording deaths in the custody of regime security forces from March 2011 to last August.

Most of the victims were young men and many corpses were emaciated, bloodstained and bore signs of torture. Some had no eyes; others showed signs of strangulation or electrocution.

The UN and independent human rights groups have documented abuses by both Bashar al-Assad's government and rebels, but experts say this evidence is more detailed and on a far larger scale than anything else that has yet emerged from the 34-month crisis.

One of the images contained in the report, purpotedly showing ligature
marks across the neck of a prisoner. Photograph: The report

The three lawyers interviewed the source, a military policeman who worked secretly with a Syrian opposition group and later defected and fled the country. In three sessions in the last 10 days they found him credible and truthful and his account "most compelling".

They subjected all evidence to rigorous scrutiny, according to their report, which has been obtained by the Guardian and CNN.

The authors are Sir Desmond de Silva QC, former chief prosecutor of the special court for Sierra Leone, Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, the former lead prosecutor of former Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic, and Professor David Crane, who indicted President Charles Taylor of Liberia at the Sierra Leone court.

The defector, who for security reasons is identified only as Caesar, was a photographer with the Syrian military police. He smuggled the images out of the country on memory sticks to a contact in the Syrian National Movement, which is supported by the Gulf state of Qatar. Qatar, which has financed and armed rebel groups, has called for the overthrow of Assad and demanded his prosecution for war crimes.

The 31-page report, which was commissioned by a leading firm of London solicitors acting for Qatar, is being made available to the UN, governments and human rights groups. Its publication appears deliberately timed to coincide with this week's UN-organised Geneva II peace conference, which is designed to negotiate a way out of the Syrian crisis by creating a transitional government.

Caesar told the investigators his job was "taking pictures of killed detainees". He did not claim to have witnessed executions or torture. But he did describe a highly bureaucratic system.

"The procedure was that when detainees were killed at their places of detention their bodies would be taken to a military hospital to which he would be sent with a doctor and a member of the judiciary, Caesar's function being to photograph the corpses … There could be as many as 50 bodies a day to photograph which require 15 to 30 minutes of work per corpse," the report says.

"The reason for photographing executed persons was twofold. First to permit a death certificate to be produced without families requiring to see the body, thereby avoiding the authorities having to give a truthful account of their deaths; second to confirm that orders to execute individuals had been carried out."

Families were told that the cause of death was either a "heart attack" or "breathing problems", it added.

"The procedure for documentation was that when a detainee was killed each body was given a reference number which related to that branch of the security service responsible for his detention and death.

"When the corpse was taken to the military hospital it was given a further number so as to document, falsely, that death had occurred in the hospital. Once the bodies were photographed they were taken for burial in a rural area."

Three experienced forensic science experts examined and authenticated samples of 55,000 digital images, comprising about 11,000 victims.

"Overall there was evidence that a significant number of the deceased were emaciated and a significant minority had been bound and/or beaten with rod-like objects," the report says. "In only a minority of the cases … could a convincing injury that would account for death be seen, but any fatal injury to the back of the body would not be represented in the images … The forensics team make clear that there are many ways in which an individual may be killed with minimal or even absent external evidence of the mechanism."

The inquiry team said it was satisfied there was "clear evidence, capable of being believed by a tribunal of fact in a court of law, of systematic torture and killing of detained persons by the agents of the Syrian government. It would support findings of crimes against humanity and could also support findings of war crimes against the current Syrian regime."

De Silva told the Guardian that the evidence "documented industrial-scale killing".

He added: "This is a smoking gun of a kind we didn't have before. It makes a very strong case indeed."

Calls for Assad or others to face justice at the international criminal court in The Hague have foundered on the problems that Syria is not a member of the court, and that the required referral by the UN security council might not be supported by the US and UK or would be blocked by Russia, Syria's close ally.

Nice said: "It would not necessarily be possible to track back with any degree of certainty to the head of state. Ultimately, in any war crimes trial you can imagine a prosecutor arguing that the overall quantity of evidence meant that the pattern of behaviour would have been approved at a high level.

"But whether you can go beyond that and say it must be head of state-approved is rather more difficult. But 'widespread and systematic' does betoken government control."

Crane said: "Now we have direct evidence of what was happening to people who had disappeared. This is the first provable, direct evidence of what has happened to at least 11,000 human beings who have been tortured and executed and apparently disposed of.

"This is just amazing. This is the type of evidence that a prosecutor looks for and hopes for.

"We have pictures, with numbers that marry up with papers with identical numbers – official government documents. We have the person who took those pictures. That's beyond-reasonable-doubt-type evidence."

Nadim Houry of Human Rights Watch said his organisation had not had the opportunity to authenticate the images. But he added: "We have documented repeatedly how Syria's security services regularly torture – sometimes to death – detainees in their custody.

"These photos – if authentic – suggest that we may have only scratched the surface of the horrific extent of torture in Syria's notorious dungeons. There is only one way to get to the bottom of this and that is for the negotiating parties at Geneva II to grant unhindered access to Syria's detention facilities to independent monitors."

Related Article:

John Kerry: there is no military solution for Syria - video

US nuclear missile force poses a headache for military

Google – AFP, Daniel de Luce (AFP), 18 January 2014

A Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile successfully launches on June 16,

 2010 from Launch Facility-10 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California (US

Air Force/AFP/File)

Washington — The "missileers" who oversee America's land-based nuclear arsenal were once seen as the tip of the spear for the US military during the tense days of the Cold War.

But now the crews face questions about their discipline, their professionalism and even the rationale for their job.

Revelations this week that missile launch officers cheated on a proficiency exam -- the latest in a stream of embarrassing incidents -- has put the spotlight on a force that has posed a recurring headache to commanders for years.

An Air Force technician inspects an

 LGM-30G Minuteman III missile inside

a silo about 60 miles from Grand Forks

Air Force Base, in North Dakota (US Air

Force/AFP)

After announcing 34 officers had been suspended over the cheating at Malmstrom base in Montana, Air Force leaders called the scandal "unacceptable" and vowed to rectify the problem.

But concerns about declining standards in the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) force are nothing new.

The trouble began after the demise of the Soviet Union, as the mission gradually received a lower priority and offered a less promising career path.

"Since the end of the Cold War, the Air Force level and intensity of concentration on its nuclear mission has declined conspicuously," a Pentagon review found in 2008.

The report was ordered by former defense secretary Robert Gates who fired the Air Force chief and civilian secretary after accounts of negligent handling of nuclear weapons.

At the time, Gates said there were signs of "a degradation of the authority, standards of excellence, and technical competence within the nation?s ICBM force."

Reforms were enacted, but inspections over the past year have turned up fresh problems at the missile sites.

In recent months, two senior commanders have been sacked for misbehavior, including the head of the ICBM force after he went on a drunken bender in a trip to Russia.

In October, officials said missile officers were caught twice failing to close the blast doors on their bunkers, violating a strict security rule. And authorities say crew members are under criminal investigation for illegal drug possession.

Air Force officers say the incidents do not add up to a crisis. But critics contend crews on nuclear-armed submarines or bombers do not seem to suffer the same level of disciplinary or performance problems.

'Pride in the mission'

Over the years, the Air Force has tried to boost the esprit de corps of the crews by introducing special uniforms and badges. And proposals to boost pay for the missile crews have been discussed for more than a decade.

A journalist reads an advance copy of

 former US Secretary of Defense Robert

M. Gates' book, "Duty: Memoirs Of A 

Secretary At War", on January 10, 2014,

in Washington, DC (AFP, Paul J.

Richards)

While expressing shock at the cheating revelations, General Mark Welsh, the Air Force chief of staff, insisted on Wednesday the nuclear missiles were in safe, extremely competent hands.

The four-star general, however, acknowledged morale is not what it was during the Cold War, when working in Strategic Air Command (SAC) carried prestige and a path to promotion.

In that era "there was a pride in the mission," Welsh said. "There was a feeling that the mission was critically important."

He said the Air Force had to ensure crews understood their jobs remained just as vital, maintaining missiles that officials say serve as a "deterrent" against America's adversaries.

With 450 ICBMs at three bases in Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming, more than 500 officers manage the weapons around the clock in steel cocoons 100 feet (30 meters) underground, rehearsing launch protocols again and again.

A former launch officer, John Noonan, has described the work as often tedious and solitary, except for the occasional "virtual" nuclear war exercise.

"Being a missileer means that your worst enemy is boredom. No battlefield heroism, no medals to be won," Noonan wrote in Wired magazine's "Danger Room" blog in 2011.

"The duty is seen today as a dull anachronism."

Other missile veterans still see the work as necessary and argue there is no collapse in morale among the crews.

For arms control advocates, the whole enterprise is absurd and the discipline problems are an inevitable byproduct.

General Mark Welsh testifies during a

 Senate Armed Services Committee 

hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington,

DC, November 7, 2013 (AFP, Saul Loeb)

"There's no purpose to their mission anymore," said Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, which promotes reducing nuclear weapons stockpiles.

The launch officers "pull 12, 24-hour shifts in underground bunkers waiting to push a button they know they're never going to push," said Cirincione, an author who also has served as an adviser to President Barack Obama's administration.

Commanders have said they would support reducing the costly arsenal of land-based nuclear missiles, as weapons aboard submarines are able to reach any target on the globe. But lawmakers whose states host the silos oppose any cutbacks, he said.

"This is an outdated command, fielding obsolete weapons...," he said.

"The only mission for the ICBM is to immolate millions of innocent civilians."

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Navy Vice-Adm Timothy Giardina demoted in gambling probe

------------------------------------

China calls for joint efforts to advance nuclear disarmament

Xi says China will stick to denuclearization of Korean peninsula

Ten nations urge new push for non-proliferation - (30 April 2011)

“.. Westerwelle told journalists that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the international Nuclear Test Ban Treaty should be adopted by all countries, adding that the production and mining of all fissile material for nuclear weapons should be banned internationally. He called for resuscitating the Geneva Disarmament Convention.

Attending the talks with Germany were Japan, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Chile, Poland, Mexico, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

Last year, these countries formed the group Friends of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. ..”

‘Those silly things are still there’: US nukes stored in Netherlands

22 American nuclear bombs are stored in the Netherlands: media
WikiLeaks confirms presence of US nuclear arms in Netherlands

Nuclear Powers to Sign Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone

------------------------------------

Matthew’s Message - May 12, 2013 - (Matthew channelled by Suzanne Ward)

“… There is legitimate speculation and also strategic dire rumors about where Syria's civil war may lead. There will be no more "full blown" international wars and attempts to use nuclear weaponry will not be successful. Ultimately, the freedom fighters in Syria will be victorious and, like other countries where the citizenry ousted despotic rulers, that nation also will go through a period of unrest before achieving social and leadership stability. …”

SaluSa channelled by Mike Quinsey – March 29, 2013

“.. The darkness will eventually play itself out and is already losing its power to create more fear. In this respect, in spite of the apparent threat of war, know that it will no longer be allowed. The Galactic Federation of Light is aware of the intentions of all Superpowers and we will prevent any attempts to start a global war. ..”

 "Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…  8 - The End of War

The last one is the best. For thousands of years on this planet, Human Beings have warred with each other. If you take a look at the reasons they warred with each other, you will quickly see there aren't any good ones - land, resources, greed. Those are not reasons. That is a description of old energy. Those are not reasons. Reasons would be perhaps defense against an aggressor. But what if there is no longer the consciousness of the aggressor?

When I appeared in my partner's life more than 20 years ago, I said to him privately that the first messages we're going to give will be unbelievable. There would be laughter. We told him that Human nature and consciousness itself would change, and that the seeds of peace would be planted and there would come a time where there is no more war. Indeed, the laughter was great because humans look at history and they see patterns based on an absolute energy called Human Nature. "Impossible! There always has to be war. There always has been. Therefore, there always will be." This is you, in a box, in a black and white potential, where you can only see the black and white of what is and the black and white of what has been. You have no idea the shades of color that are there in your consciousness and the beauty of the love of God.

North Korea is on the edge of change, as we told you it might be. What did this require? The death of the old energy, and I want you to watch this take place. The advisors of the young leader are going to do their best to pull him back into an old energy. This free choice of his will be far different than his father, for he sees some color. Watch for these things. They'll take longer than you want, but it is the beginning of the beginning.

You'll see a fresh unification of South America sooner than not, for what is going to take place potentially this year in Venezuela. You'll see Iran changing. We have no clock. These are the potentials. These can change with free choice. These are not prophecies. This is a reality shift, dear ones, so number eight becomes the propensity not to war again. This is what Humans are going to want. This is what governments are going to want. There is a wisdom factor that will begin to happen on the planet that is grander than what you think is possible. For when you look at government, what do you think about? You see dysfunction, and there is an axiom that says the more people that try to do something together, the worse it gets. It all settles to the lowest common denominator. I'm telling you even those things are going to become old energy concepts. Instead, you're going to watch wisdom become the top potential.

I have no clock. I cannot tell you when. I can just tell you it is in the works, and there will be the seeds of it for you to observe soon - right now, in every single of the eight categories I showed you.

There are those who will say, "Well, Kryon, you're doing a lot more predictions than you used to." I want to tell you what's going on, dear one. I am not predicting anything. I am just telling you what's already there in the potential soup of your reality. That's what Humans are doing on this planet, and for those who believe this communication, you should breathe a sigh of relief and say, "It's about time." ….”