The REVIVAL of Japanese MILITARISM

The right-wing government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took a further step towards rearmament and the revival of Japanese militarism with the release of a Defence Ministry report last week that for the first time proposed that Japan acquire offensive strike capabilities. Since winning office last December, Abe has moved rapidly to implement his platform of building “a strong Japan” with “a strong military”. His Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) government has expanded defence spending for the first time in a decade and has continued to fuel tensions with China over the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islets in the East China Sea. A defence white paper released last month for the first time focussed on China, rather than North Korea, as the main “threat”.

On Morales and Snowden, US & Canada Virtually Expelled from the Hemisphere

Snowden Will be Granted the Full Protection of American Law On July 9, the Organization of American States held a special session to discuss the shocking behavior of the European states that had refused to allow the government plane carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales to enter their airspace. Morales was flying home from a Moscow summit on July 3. In an interview there he had said he was open to offering political asylum to Edward J. Snowden, the former U.S. spy-agency contractor wanted by Washington on espionage charges, who was in the Moscow airport.

Fresh Evidence of CIA Drone Strikes on Rescuers

A field investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in Pakistan’s tribal areas appears to confirm that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) last year briefly revived the controversial tactic of deliberately targeting rescuers at the…