http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2009/06/zionist-war-crimes-in-gaza-exposed.html
This video tells the inside story of Gaza war crimes. It is in the form of a memorandum addressed to Judge Richard Goldstone, the South African Jewish jurisprudent who heads the UN appointed Gaza fact findign mission. In it you will see how the Palestinians are full of the love of life and humanity, and their plans for peace with the Jews. If you are thinking of giving money to support humanitarian aid to Gaza, joining a demonstration to end the Gaza siege, or joining an Israel boycott initiative, you need to see this film, so you have all the facts about the Zionist persecution of Palestinians. Don't miss it.
The rift among Iran's conservatives will hinder Iran's policy moves, particularly where the United States is concerned.
The troops had about as much sympathy for the demonstrators as a small-town boy from Alabama might have for a Harvard postdoc. Failing to understand the social tensions in Iran, the reporters deluded themselves into thinking they were witnessing a general uprising. But this was not St. Petersburg in 1917 or Bucharest in 1989 — it was Tiananmen Square.
There is a crisis in the political elite, particularly among the clerics. But that crisis does not cut the way Western common sense would have it. Many of Iran’s religious leaders see Ahmadinejad as hostile to their interests, as threatening their financial prerogatives, and as taking international risks they don’t want to take. Ahmadinejad’s political popularity in fact rests on his populist hostility to what he sees as the corruption of the clerics and their families and his strong stand on Iranian national security issues.
The clerics are divided among themselves, but many wanted to see Ahmadinejad lose to protect their own interests. Khamenei, the supreme leader, faced a difficult choice last Friday. He could demand a major recount or even new elections, or he could validate what happened. Khamenei speaks for a sizable chunk of the ruling elite, but also has had to rule by consensus among both clerical and non-clerical forces. Many powerful clerics like Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani wanted Khamenei to reverse the election, and we suspect Khamenei wished he could have found a way to do it. But as the defender of the regime, he was afraid to. Mousavi supporters’ demonstrations would have been nothing compared to the firestorm among Ahmadinejad supporters — both voters and the security forces — had their candidate been denied. Khamenei wasn’t going to flirt with disaster, so he endorsed the outcome.The rift among Iran's conservatives will hinder Iran's policy moves,... more
6.44pm: Here is some grainy but fantastic footage of the march to Imam Khomeini square in Tehran, from 5 pm Iranian time. You can hear the crowd chanting "Ya Hossein! Mir Hossein!" 6.40pm: Just after 10 pm in Iran, Saeed writes that the people are again shouting "Ya Hossein! Mir Hossein!" and "Allah-o-Akbar!" (Arabic for "God is Great!") all across Tehran. 5.24pm: A reader i
(...)chanting "Ya Hossein! Mir Hossein!" 6.40pm: Just after 10 pm in Iran, Saeed writes that the people are again shouting "Ya Hossein! Mir (...)
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In the event that the divisive Ahmadinejad were to be dropped and Mousavi became president, his 25-year-long battle with Khamenei can be expected to resume in earnest. That is a strong reason for Khamenei to fight hard to keep him out. But while the warring cousins differ sharply on social issues, there may be more room for an accommodation than many suspect.Iran protests: live
guardian.co.uk, Thursday June 18 2009
Daniel Nasaw and... more
From 1961 to 1971, the U.S. military sprayed Vietnam with Agent Orange, which contained large quantities of Dioxin, in order to defoliate the trees for military objectives. Dioxin is one of the most dangerous chemicals known to man. It has been recognized by the World Health Organization as a carcinogen (causes cancer) and by the American Academy of Medicine as a teratogen (causes birth defects).
Between 2.5 and 4.8 million people were exposed to Agent Orange. 1.4 billion hectares of land and forest - approximately 12 percent of the land area of Vietnam - were sprayed.
The Vietnamese who were exposed to the chemical have suffered from cancer, liver damage, pulmonary and heart diseases, defects to reproductive capacity, and skin and nervous disorders. Children and grandchildren of those exposed have severe physical deformities, mental and physical disabilities, diseases, and shortened life spans. The forests and jungles in large parts of southern Vietnam have been devastated and denuded. They may never grow back and if they do, it will take 50 to 200 years to regenerate. Animals that inhabited the forests and jungles have become extinct, disrupting the communities that depended on them. The rivers and underground water in some areas have also been contaminated. Erosion and desertification will change the environment, contributing to the warming of the planet and dislocation of crop and animal life.
The U.S. government and the chemFrom 1961 to 1971, the U.S. military sprayed Vietnam with Agent Orange, which... more
No one should be surprised or even raise an eyebrow over Netanyahu’s speech this past Saturday regarding his policies with the Palestinians. True to his cunning nature, Netanyahu played the semantics game by appearing to be accepting the ‘Palestinian state” as declared by President Obama in his Cairo speech. In actuality, Netanyahu accepted a resemblance of state or a virtual state within the Israeli illegal occupation system that will function more like a Zulu state in former South Africa Apartheid state.No one should be surprised or even raise an eyebrow over Netanyahu’s speech this... more
Security officials and riot police engaged in violent clashes with demonstrators in Tehran today in what one reporter called an "unprecedented scene" in Iran in recent years.
NBC producer Ali Arouzi described the events on Saturday:
What started off as a small rally outside a pro-reformist newspaper swelled into a massive crowd of people chanting, "Death to the dictator, death to Ahmadinejad!"
Then, what started with a small amount of police pushing the crowd back turned into huge riot police in armored gear and motor bikes beating all the young students here with batons, knocking them back. The students responded by throwing stones, which the police then threw back. Now the police are coming off all the heart streets and main streets to try and disperse the crowd. But this is an unprecedented scene in Iran today.
Arouzi said that many of the demonstrators, afraid of reprisals, were wearing green scarves and surgical masks.
Asked if he believed the election results being reported by Iran's Interior Ministry, Arouzi sounded highly skeptical. "If you were in Tehran the last few days, you would think it impossible that Ahmadinejad won," he said. "Everybody we spoke to was a supporter of Mousavi."
He noted that Mousavi's supporters acknowledged that he was somewhat of a blank slate politically, but that the presidential election had become a referendum on Ahmadinejad.
Arouzi then described the protests in greater detail:
Initially, it was a peaceful demonstration. People were forming a human chain, saying they wanted their vote back... but the more the police came, the angrier the mob got. It became sort of a mob mentality here. Now the police have swelled in huge numbers. They are being very, very violent with the crowds.
Every young person I've spoken to here, I've asked them, 'do you think you coming out onto the streets is going to make a change?' They said, no, but we have to come out anyway if we want our voices to be heard, but they're sure this won't make a change.
Demonstrators have been injured. People have come up to us and they've shown us that their arms have been bruised, black eyes, broken noses, bloody heads. But they are fighting back as well. This is, I mean, I've been in Iran four years here and everything here has always been contained. Today we saw the demonstrators setting on the police. An hour ago, maybe 30, 40 demonstrators rushed the police, throwing stones at them. One of the policemen fell and they were kicking him in the head and some of his colleagues had to come and drag him away.Security officials and riot police engaged in violent clashes with demonstrators in... more
Obama envoy raises possibility of U.S. strike on Iran:
Should Iran's leaders come to believe that "Iran's economic lifeline is going to be cut and the oil revenues are going to dry up, they may well decide that the nuclear program is not worth the cost," they wrote. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1092238.htmlManufacturing Consent For Attack On Iran:
Obama envoy raises possibility of U.S.... more
Obama offered no change, no plan, only a "tired, morally bankrupt American mantra [which] essentially argues that only the rich, the strong, the oppressors and the enforcers of injustice (notably the Americans and Israelis) have the right to use violence, while the poor, the weak, the oppressed and the victims of oppression must . . . submit to their fate and accept whatever crumbs their betters may magnanimously deign suitable to let fall from their table".Smile On The Face Of The Tiger
By John Pilger
Obama offered no change, no... more
War exposes the lies we tell ourselves about ourselves. It rips open the hypocrisy of our religions and secular institutions. Those who return from war have learned something which is often incomprehensible to those who have stayed home. We are not a virtuous nation.War Is Sin
By Chris Hedges
War exposes the lies we tell ourselves about... more
"When we have taken steps that have violated the Geneva Convention, we rightly have been criticized" http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22738.htmGen. Petraeus : US Violated Geneva Convention
3 Minute Video and Transcript... more
North America’s news media never discuss it, but Israel is a society pervaded by racism. The Israeli state encourages and enforces discrimination in education, employment, housing, marriage law and land ownership. So much for the myth of Israel as a progressive western democracy! It is, in reality, an apartheid state hiding behind a democratic façade.
Israel threatens to close its only Jewish-Arab public school.
The Weizmann School in central Jaffa is the only school in Israel with a mixed Arab-Jewish student body. It has about 350 students, from preschool to sixth grade, with roughly equal number of Arabs and Jews, and serves a relatively poor section of the city. Parents and teachers at the school fear the school will shut down due to lack of support from the Tel Aviv municipality. The municipality and the Ministry of Education deny this, but they refuse to confirm that it will continue beyond the next school year.
Some comments from teachers: "This is a unique model, which can and should be emulated in other schools." "The policy of City Hall is to have no policy." "It will kill any attempt in the future to create integrated education."
The result of this uncertainty is the loss of Jewish pupils whose parents fear that the school might close.North America’s news media never discuss it, but Israel is a society pervaded by... more
For over 40 years, US presidents have nodded and winked at Israeli settlement expansion. Not Barack Obama
Putting the squeeze on Israel's settlements
For over 40 years, US presidents have nodded and winked at Israeli settlement expansion. Not Barack Obama
Putting the squeeze on Israel's settlements
For over 40 years, US presidents have nodded and winked at Israeli settlement expansion. Not Barack Obama
Why do I get the impression that this is yet another example of the disappearing Palestinians? Why did Obama bother to have a meeting with Abbas if no one in the US media has any interest in anything he thinks? Admittedly, the Israelis have done their best to render Abbas impotent and politically irrelevant, which may explain part of the reason there was so little to report from this event.
At any rate, the same article did contain lots of interesting information – about the US approach to settlements. The Israelis are finding themselves like prey caught by a boa constrictor. Over time, there is less and less breathing room concerning settlements. Obama is shutting off every "out" that Israelis have been used to enjoying from previous administrations. For a peace advocate like myself, the process is a miracle to behold:
----------------Putting the squeeze on Israel's settlements
For over 40 years, US presidents... more
One can only react with horror. Contained in the stories and images of the torture of defenseless prisoners, some of them boys and women, is the true face of US imperialism, which finds no crime beneath its dignity in its effort to subjugate Iraq and Afghanistan.
White House takes swipe at British press over Daily Telegraph report
White House takes swipe at British press over Daily Telegraph report
Daniel Nasaw in Washington
guardian.co.uk,
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Gibbs twice more criticised the British press. "I think if you do an even moderate Google search, you're not going to find many of these newspapers and truth within, say, 25 words of each other," he said, adding, "I hate to lend any more credibility to nonfactual reports."
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The White House has taken a swipe at the British press in an effort to fend off questions about photographs that reportedly show US soldiers in Iraq raping and sexually abusing prisoners.
At the daily White House press briefing, spokesman Robert Gibbs was asked to comment on a report in yesterday's Telegraph that quoted a retired American general describing shocking details of photographs from US detention facilities in Iraq, which President Barack Obama has declined to release to the public.
"If I wanted to read a write-up today of how Manchester United fared last night in the Champions League cup, I might open up a British newspaper," Gibbs said. "If I was looking for something that bordered on truthful news, I'm not sure it would be the first stack of clips I picked up."
The Telegraph quoted retired Major General Antonio Taguba, who investigated abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, as saying that the unreleased photos "show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency" committed on prisoners in US custody.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Telegraph "completely mischaracterised the images", and said "none of the photos in question depict the images that are described in that article".
Gibbs twice more criticised the British press. "I think if you do an even moderate Google search, you're not going to find many of these newspapers and truth within, say, 25 words of each other," he said, adding, "I hate to lend any more credibility to nonfactual reports."White House takes swipe at British press over Daily Telegraph report... more
By asking earlier this month for $2.775 billion in military aid to Israel in his FY2010 budget request, it would seem that on this important policy issue President Obama’s commitment is more rhetorical than substantive. Since 1949, according to the Congressional Research Service, the United States has provided to Israel more than $100 billion in military and economic assistance. In 2007, the United States and Israel signed an agreement for $30 billion in additional military aid through FY2018.
Yet the provision of U.S. weapons to Israel at taxpayer expense has done nothing to bring Israelis and Palestinians closer to achieving a just and lasting peace. Rather, these weapons have had the exact opposite effect, as documented recently by Amnesty International, which pointed to U.S. weapons as a prime factor “fueling” the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.http://www.palestinechronicle.com/uploads/1243191246Israel_us_fighter_planes.jpg
In... more
yOU CAN ALL READ THIS BOOK ON HERE AND YOU CAN ALL USE IT TO DEBATE AGAINST THE ENORMOUS PROPAGANDA IN OUR MEDIA, AND ON CURRENT.COM
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THE ISRAEL LOBBY AND U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
John J. Mearsheimer
Department of Political Science
University of Chicago
Stephen M. Walt
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University
March 2006 RWP06‐011
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The two authors of this Working Paper are solely responsible for the views expressed in it. As academic institutions, Harvard University and the University of Chicago do not take positions on the scholarship of individual faculty, and this article should not be interpreted or portrayed as reflecting the official position of either institution.
An edited and reworked version of this paper was published in the
London Review of Books Vol. 28, No. 6 (March 23, 2006), and is available online at www.lrb.co.uk
THE ISRAEL LOBBY AND U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
U.S. foreign policy shapes events in every corner of the globe. Nowhere is this truer than in the Middle East, a region of recurring instability and enormous strategic importance. Most recently, the Bush Administration's attempt to transform the region into a community of democracies has helped produce a resilient insurgency in Iraq, a sharp rise in world oil prices, and terrorist bombings in Madrid, London, and Amman. With so much at stake for so many, all countries need to understand the forces that drive U.S. Middle East policy.
The U.S. national interest should be the primary object of American foreign policy. For the past several decades, however, and especially since the Six Day War in 1967, the centerpiece of U.S. Middle East policy has been its relationship with Israel. The combination of unwavering U.S. support for Israel and the related effort to spread democracy throughout the region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardized U.S. security.
This situation has no equal in American political history. Why has the United States been willing to set aside its own security in order to advance the interests of another state? One might assume that the bond between the two countries is based on shared strategic interests or compelling moral imperatives. As we show below, however, neither of those explanations can account for the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the United States provides to Israel.
Instead, the overall thrust of U.S. policy in the region is due almost entirely to U
continuedTHE ISRAEL LOBBY AND U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
yOU CAN ALL READ THIS BOOK ON HERE... more
"The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names"
~ Chinese Proverb
May 13, 2009 "Lew Rockwell" -- If you are a poor, hapless Afghan civilian whose family's bodies were ripped apart by U.S. bombs, does it really make a difference to you if the air "strikes" were ordered by the Moron from Texas, George W Bush, or the Agent of Change, Barack Obama? I would think not. If you were a Pakistani civilian whose village had been bombed by the U.S. would your heart be comforted by the fact that the mad bombers have a new, young, hip "Commander-in-Chief" who makes funny jokes to all the stenographers known as "The Washington Press Corps"? I sincerely doubt that as well.
Barack Obama sold himself to the country as someone who would bring massive "change" to the policies of the U.S. government, but of course when it comes to the favorite activity of that cancerous organism, warring against wholly innocent civilian populations in foreign countries, there will be no change. In fact, even the pleas of the President of the supposedly free and democratic country of Afghanistan are meaningless in the face of the U.S. government's desire to enforce its will on as much of the Earth as possible. I wonder if Americans would feel like they lived in a "free democracy" if the U.S. was occupied by a foreign military power that regularly killed our people and refused to stop? A power that calls refraining from murder as fighting with "one hand tied behind our back" as White House "National Security" Advisor James Jones recently did? I am pretty sure they emphatically would NOT.
This morning's news brings more information to us of "Barry's" latest slaughter, with at least 8 people in Pakistan dead, none of whom ever hurt a single innocent American. If they had hurt any U.S. soldiers in the region, that, of course, is wholly a result of the imperialists in Washington invading the region in the first place. To kill someone for defending themselves against aggression is the definition of tyrannical is it not? Or is the U.S. Government so holy, so infallible and morally upright that any who defy it are to be disposed of, like so much human garbage? Is a country that claims to be Christian really ready to accept the blasphemous idea that the U.S. Government is above any laws, even those of the God that the majority of Americans claim to believe in?
The Chinese proverb that opens this piece is true in all times and places, so let's call Mr. Obama by his real names: Wall Street Stooge, Zionist lickspittle, National Socialist, liar and above all, mass murderBarack Obama – Mass Murderer
By Dan Spielberg
"The beginning of... more
It is unclear if the shooter was among the wounded, despite earlier reports that he killed himself, an official said.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Attack is the deadliest on soldiers by a fellow soldier during Operation Iraqi Freedom
Shooter is in custody, senior defense officials say
Five killed and three others wounded in incident
Shootings took place at Camp Liberty in Baghdad
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U.S. soldier in Baghdad kills four fellow troops before killing himself, senior defense official tells CNN.
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It is unclear if the shooter was among the wounded, despite earlier reports that he killed himself, an official said..................................As the story has unfolded we have now learnt that there were FIVE SOLDIERS KILLED but not the one who killed them.
Monday's attack marks the fifth incident in which a service member was killed by a fellow service member during Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to the U.S. military.
• In March 2003, Capt. Christopher Seifert and Maj. Gregory Stone were killed at Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait, in a grenade attack by another soldier.
• Sgt. Joseph Tackett was fatally shot in June 2005 by a fellow soldier in Baghdad.
• Seaman Anamarie Camacho and Seaman Genesia Gresham were killed in a non-combat incident in Bahrain in October 2007.
• A 39-year-old soldier was charged with killing Staff Sgt. Darris Dawson and Sgt. Wesley Durbin in Tunnis, Iraq, in September.
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Britain ends combat operations in Iraq:
The British military formally ended combat operations in Iraq on Thursday after six years of conflict by handing over control of its main base in Basra to an American brigade. http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/04/30/britain-iraq.htmlIt is unclear if the shooter was among the wounded, despite earlier reports that he... more
Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed a Palestinian man last night near the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron. Earlier yesterday the Israel Air Force bombed three tunnels used for smuggling along the Gaza-Egypt border, injuring four people. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1083679.htmlIDF kills Palestinian near Hebron :
Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed a... more
