Wednesday, 31 October 2012
UN finds "crisis of dignity" as settlers destroy Palestine's olive trees | The Electronic Intifada
UN finds "crisis of dignity" as settlers destroy Palestine's olive trees | The Electronic Intifada
SALEM (IPS) - Affixed to a large cement bloc, the rusted, gray gate leading Palestinian farmers from the northern West Bank village of Salem to their olive groves was opened for four days this year.
SALEM (IPS) - Affixed to a large cement bloc, the rusted, gray gate leading Palestinian farmers from the northern West Bank village of Salem to their olive groves was opened for four days this year.
Tuesday, 30 October 2012
Chris Hedges: Why I’m Voting Green : Information Clearing House: ICH
Chris Hedges: Why I’m Voting Green : Information Clearing House: ICH
October 29, 2012 "Truthdig" -- The November election is not a battle between Republicans and Democrats. It is not a battle between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. It is a battle between the corporate state and us. And if we do not immediately engage in this battle we are finished, as climate scientists have made clear. I will defy corporate power in small and large ways. I will invest my energy now solely in acts of resistance, in civil disobedience and in defiance. Those who rebel are our only hope. And for this reason I will vote next month for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, although I could as easily vote for Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party. I will step outside the system. Voting for the “lesser evil”—or failing to vote at all—is part of the corporate agenda to crush what is left of our anemic democracy. And those who continue to participate in the vaudeville of a two-party process, who refuse to confront in every way possible the structures of corporate power, assure our mutual destruction.
October 29, 2012 "Truthdig" -- The November election is not a battle between Republicans and Democrats. It is not a battle between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. It is a battle between the corporate state and us. And if we do not immediately engage in this battle we are finished, as climate scientists have made clear. I will defy corporate power in small and large ways. I will invest my energy now solely in acts of resistance, in civil disobedience and in defiance. Those who rebel are our only hope. And for this reason I will vote next month for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, although I could as easily vote for Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party. I will step outside the system. Voting for the “lesser evil”—or failing to vote at all—is part of the corporate agenda to crush what is left of our anemic democracy. And those who continue to participate in the vaudeville of a two-party process, who refuse to confront in every way possible the structures of corporate power, assure our mutual destruction.
Pentagon is World’s Leading Landlord : Information Clearing House: ICH
Pentagon is World’s Leading Landlord : Information Clearing House: ICH
October 29, 2012 "Information Clearing House" - Move over, Donald Trump and Ted Turner. The Department of Defense is the world’s top property owner with holdings around the world – a fact relevant amid election-year debate about the size and role of our military.
In the United States alone, DOD occupies 1.9 billion square feet of office space – about three times the floor space of all the nation’s Walmart stores, or 10 times the office space in all of Los Angeles. Worldwide, DOD has more than 2 million people working on 5,000 sites in 41 countries.
(Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, has 1.4 million workers.)
Today’s video has more on the world’s biggest landlord. Take a look, share it with a friend in uniform, then consider the size and scope of today’s military in our discussion thread below.
How do we know? Check the original sources behind the fact:
US Department of Defense: "Base Structure Report Fiscal Year 2012 Baseline"
US Department of Defense: "About the Department of Defense (DOD)"
Cushman & Wakefield: "Marketbeat Office Snapshot"
October 29, 2012 "Information Clearing House" - Move over, Donald Trump and Ted Turner. The Department of Defense is the world’s top property owner with holdings around the world – a fact relevant amid election-year debate about the size and role of our military.
In the United States alone, DOD occupies 1.9 billion square feet of office space – about three times the floor space of all the nation’s Walmart stores, or 10 times the office space in all of Los Angeles. Worldwide, DOD has more than 2 million people working on 5,000 sites in 41 countries.
(Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, has 1.4 million workers.)
Today’s video has more on the world’s biggest landlord. Take a look, share it with a friend in uniform, then consider the size and scope of today’s military in our discussion thread below.
How do we know? Check the original sources behind the fact:
US Department of Defense: "Base Structure Report Fiscal Year 2012 Baseline"
US Department of Defense: "About the Department of Defense (DOD)"
Cushman & Wakefield: "Marketbeat Office Snapshot"
Israel “far worse than apartheid South Africa” says ANC chair as Pretoria conference backs boycott
Israel “far worse than apartheid South Africa” says ANC chair as Pretoria conference backs boycott
Activists in South Africa have welcomed a decision by the African National Congress (ANC) International Solidarity Conference to support the Palestinian-led campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel.
The ANC, South Africa’s ruling party, led the decades-long struggle against apartheid.
The official declaration of the conference, held in Pretoria/Tshwane from 25-28 October, “Reiterated its support for Palestinian aspirations for an independent state including the full membership of the UN; and called on the UN Security Council to show leadership in halting the expansion of Israeli settlements and the harassment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.”
Activists in South Africa have welcomed a decision by the African National Congress (ANC) International Solidarity Conference to support the Palestinian-led campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel.
The ANC, South Africa’s ruling party, led the decades-long struggle against apartheid.
The official declaration of the conference, held in Pretoria/Tshwane from 25-28 October, “Reiterated its support for Palestinian aspirations for an independent state including the full membership of the UN; and called on the UN Security Council to show leadership in halting the expansion of Israeli settlements and the harassment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.”
Friday, 26 October 2012
UN to Establish Ongoing Investigations into Obama’s Drone War -- News from Antiwar.com
UN to Establish Ongoing Investigations into Obama’s Drone War -- News from Antiwar.com
The United Nations has decided to set up an investigations unit dedicated to examining the legality of drone attacks and uncovering cases in which civilians are killed in the Obama administration’s drone war.
The United Nations has decided to set up an investigations unit dedicated to examining the legality of drone attacks and uncovering cases in which civilians are killed in the Obama administration’s drone war.
Thursday, 25 October 2012
As Holy Land 5 appeal begins, Palestinians in Gaza praise charity closed by Bush
As Holy Land 5 appeal begins, Palestinians in Gaza praise charity closed by Bush
Mariam Mohammad Aljamal was one of thousands of Palestinians assisted by the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) during its years as the largest Islamic charity in the United States.
In 2001 Aljamal finished high school and hoped to study electrical engineering at the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG).
“I scored very high marks – 97.8 in the science track,” she recalled, speaking from her home in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp. “But my family was going through very hard financial circumstances. Two of my sisters were already studying at the university at that time. Some of my family’s friends told us that the HLF gave scholarships to needy people.
“So I applied. They asked me to provide some documents and reports to prove my financial status and that I was a high school graduate. After a while, after I had begun studying at IUG, they called to tell me I had been selected for a scholarship. By then, I had already managed to gather the fees for the first semester myself, so they paid me the money back. In the second semester, I provided my schedule and they paid for it in advance.
“The HLF were very honest, transparent and direct. Once you gave them your schedule for the semester, they covered it immediately, unlike some other organizations.”
Assets frozen
In December 2001 — after the Holy Land Foundation had forwarded Aljamal’s tuition for her second semester, but before it began — the Bush administration moved against the charity, freezing its assets and accusing it of raising funds for the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
Then on 26 July 2004, a federal district court in Dallas indicted HLF officers and employees Ghassan Elashi, Shukri Abu-Baker, Mohammad el-Mezain, Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulrahman Odeh – called the Holy Land Five by supporters — for violating the United States’ law against providing material support to foreign terrorist organizations.
Prosecutors’ charges against them stemmed from the HLF’s donations to zakat committees in Palestine. These voluntary societies collect zakat, an annual contribution given by devout Muslims, then oversee its use for charitable purposes.
“Due to their being rooted in local communities, zakat institutions had excellent access to beneficiaries and knowledge about local needs,” a recent study commissioned by Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said of the organizations in Palestine during this period. “They had a reputation for being on the whole effective and conscientious organizations with very low-overhead costs. Their autonomy and political independence allowed them to respond on the basis of needs alone,” according to the report.
“In sum, zakat institutions enjoyed a reputation for being honest, efficient, apolitical and non-discriminatory. Popular confidence in them was high. A number of polls ranked them among the most trusted of local institutions” (“Charity under threat? Zakat institutions in the occupied Palestinian territory,” Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, June 2012).
Dubious “evidence”
The case ended with a mistrial in October 2007, when prosecutors failed to achieve convictions on any of 197 counts. Jurors later told reporters that the case seemed “strung together with macaroni noodles. There was so little evidence,” and that they “kept expecting the government to come up with something, and it never did … The whole case was based on assumptions that were based on suspicions” (“Blocking faith, freezing charity,” American Civil Liberties Union, 16 June 2009).
But the defendants were convicted in November 2008, after a retrial “that, amongst other court precedents, relied on testimony from an anonymous Israeli intelligence agent.”
Other judicial irregularities alleged by the Muslim Legal Fund of America included “the court admitting unfairly prejudicial evidence with little or no relevance to the charges in the case” and “denying the defense access to evidence the prosecution had access to. Instead, prosecutors were allowed to cherry-pick what evidence the defense could review.”
The Holy Land Five received sentences ranging from 15 to 65 years. Bayan and Basman Elashi, tried and convicted separately on related charges, were sentenced to 84 months each, then deported in July this year to the Gaza Strip.
“Nothing was more satisfactory to me than granting scholarships to hundreds of Palestinian students who had high average grades despite the circumstances,” Ghassan Elashi, their brother and HLF chairman who is currently serving a 65-year prison seentence, said in his sentencing statement.
“We at the Holy Land Foundation were giving hope and providing the basic essentials of life to the Palestinians, basic essentials — oil, rice, flour. And what was the occupation giving them? The occupation was providing them with death and destruction. And then we are turned criminals. That is irony” (Sentencing statement, Free the Holy Land Five website).
Acute needs
“I feel sad for them, for those who were put in prison,” Aljamal, now 29 and the mother of two young children, said. “This foundation supported students, needy students. It had nothing to do with politics.”
After the US government closed the HLF, Aljamal was able to continue her studies in electrical engineering by pooling university loans with contributions from her extended family. But other students were not as fortunate.
“I know many students who had to change their majors because of the HLF’s closure, when they couldn’t use the scholarships they had received,” she said. “For example, engineering is more expensive, and many students changed to other majors that were cheaper. Sometimes scholarships were available for students in specific majors, like religion, if their high school marks were high in that subject. But I didn’t want to change my major, and was able to carry on.”
Following a circuit court’s denial of the Holy Land Five’s appeal in December 2011, only a final appeal to the Supreme Court remains.
On Thursday, shortly before the court decides whether to even hear the case, family and supporters of the Holy Land Five will hold protests across the United States, organized by the Committee to Stop FBI Repression and Ghassan Elashi’s daughter Noor Elashi, calling for their release.
Mariam Aljamal says she hopes for the protesters’ success, and also that the case does not suppress international solidarity with her homeland.
The need for charity has become more acute in Gaza since Israel imposed its siege. Gaza’s unemployment rate stands at 34 percent and a third of its children live in poverty. Even modest university fees pose insurmountable challenges for many families.
“There are still many families in the Gaza Strip whose sons and daughters are good at school, but who don’t have the money to support their university studies financially,” Aljamal said. “I hope the closure of the HLF will not end support for Palestine.”
Joe Catron is a US activist in Gaza, Palestine. He works with the Centre for Political and Development Studies and other Palestinian groups and international solidarity networks, particularly in support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions and prisoners’ movements. He blogs at joecatron.wordpress.com and can be followed on Twitter @jncatron.
Mariam Mohammad Aljamal was one of thousands of Palestinians assisted by the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) during its years as the largest Islamic charity in the United States.
In 2001 Aljamal finished high school and hoped to study electrical engineering at the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG).
“I scored very high marks – 97.8 in the science track,” she recalled, speaking from her home in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp. “But my family was going through very hard financial circumstances. Two of my sisters were already studying at the university at that time. Some of my family’s friends told us that the HLF gave scholarships to needy people.
“So I applied. They asked me to provide some documents and reports to prove my financial status and that I was a high school graduate. After a while, after I had begun studying at IUG, they called to tell me I had been selected for a scholarship. By then, I had already managed to gather the fees for the first semester myself, so they paid me the money back. In the second semester, I provided my schedule and they paid for it in advance.
“The HLF were very honest, transparent and direct. Once you gave them your schedule for the semester, they covered it immediately, unlike some other organizations.”
Assets frozen
In December 2001 — after the Holy Land Foundation had forwarded Aljamal’s tuition for her second semester, but before it began — the Bush administration moved against the charity, freezing its assets and accusing it of raising funds for the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
Then on 26 July 2004, a federal district court in Dallas indicted HLF officers and employees Ghassan Elashi, Shukri Abu-Baker, Mohammad el-Mezain, Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulrahman Odeh – called the Holy Land Five by supporters — for violating the United States’ law against providing material support to foreign terrorist organizations.
Prosecutors’ charges against them stemmed from the HLF’s donations to zakat committees in Palestine. These voluntary societies collect zakat, an annual contribution given by devout Muslims, then oversee its use for charitable purposes.
“Due to their being rooted in local communities, zakat institutions had excellent access to beneficiaries and knowledge about local needs,” a recent study commissioned by Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said of the organizations in Palestine during this period. “They had a reputation for being on the whole effective and conscientious organizations with very low-overhead costs. Their autonomy and political independence allowed them to respond on the basis of needs alone,” according to the report.
“In sum, zakat institutions enjoyed a reputation for being honest, efficient, apolitical and non-discriminatory. Popular confidence in them was high. A number of polls ranked them among the most trusted of local institutions” (“Charity under threat? Zakat institutions in the occupied Palestinian territory,” Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, June 2012).
Dubious “evidence”
The case ended with a mistrial in October 2007, when prosecutors failed to achieve convictions on any of 197 counts. Jurors later told reporters that the case seemed “strung together with macaroni noodles. There was so little evidence,” and that they “kept expecting the government to come up with something, and it never did … The whole case was based on assumptions that were based on suspicions” (“Blocking faith, freezing charity,” American Civil Liberties Union, 16 June 2009).
But the defendants were convicted in November 2008, after a retrial “that, amongst other court precedents, relied on testimony from an anonymous Israeli intelligence agent.”
Other judicial irregularities alleged by the Muslim Legal Fund of America included “the court admitting unfairly prejudicial evidence with little or no relevance to the charges in the case” and “denying the defense access to evidence the prosecution had access to. Instead, prosecutors were allowed to cherry-pick what evidence the defense could review.”
The Holy Land Five received sentences ranging from 15 to 65 years. Bayan and Basman Elashi, tried and convicted separately on related charges, were sentenced to 84 months each, then deported in July this year to the Gaza Strip.
“Nothing was more satisfactory to me than granting scholarships to hundreds of Palestinian students who had high average grades despite the circumstances,” Ghassan Elashi, their brother and HLF chairman who is currently serving a 65-year prison seentence, said in his sentencing statement.
“We at the Holy Land Foundation were giving hope and providing the basic essentials of life to the Palestinians, basic essentials — oil, rice, flour. And what was the occupation giving them? The occupation was providing them with death and destruction. And then we are turned criminals. That is irony” (Sentencing statement, Free the Holy Land Five website).
Acute needs
“I feel sad for them, for those who were put in prison,” Aljamal, now 29 and the mother of two young children, said. “This foundation supported students, needy students. It had nothing to do with politics.”
After the US government closed the HLF, Aljamal was able to continue her studies in electrical engineering by pooling university loans with contributions from her extended family. But other students were not as fortunate.
“I know many students who had to change their majors because of the HLF’s closure, when they couldn’t use the scholarships they had received,” she said. “For example, engineering is more expensive, and many students changed to other majors that were cheaper. Sometimes scholarships were available for students in specific majors, like religion, if their high school marks were high in that subject. But I didn’t want to change my major, and was able to carry on.”
Following a circuit court’s denial of the Holy Land Five’s appeal in December 2011, only a final appeal to the Supreme Court remains.
On Thursday, shortly before the court decides whether to even hear the case, family and supporters of the Holy Land Five will hold protests across the United States, organized by the Committee to Stop FBI Repression and Ghassan Elashi’s daughter Noor Elashi, calling for their release.
Mariam Aljamal says she hopes for the protesters’ success, and also that the case does not suppress international solidarity with her homeland.
The need for charity has become more acute in Gaza since Israel imposed its siege. Gaza’s unemployment rate stands at 34 percent and a third of its children live in poverty. Even modest university fees pose insurmountable challenges for many families.
“There are still many families in the Gaza Strip whose sons and daughters are good at school, but who don’t have the money to support their university studies financially,” Aljamal said. “I hope the closure of the HLF will not end support for Palestine.”
Joe Catron is a US activist in Gaza, Palestine. He works with the Centre for Political and Development Studies and other Palestinian groups and international solidarity networks, particularly in support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions and prisoners’ movements. He blogs at joecatron.wordpress.com and can be followed on Twitter @jncatron.
Monday, 22 October 2012
Reflections on Noam Chomsky's visit to Gaza | The Electronic Intifada
Reflections on Noam Chomsky's visit to Gaza | The Electronic Intifada
Q-SEE Advanced Series 8 Ch. D1 Security Surveillance System with 500GB HDD & 4 420 TVL Indoor/Outdoor Cameras
Q-SEE Advanced Series 8 Ch. D1 Security Surveillance System with 500GB HDD & 4 420 TVL Indoor/Outdoor Cameras
Saturday, 20 October 2012
Hypocrisy And The Shooting of Malala Yousafzai : Information Clearing House: ICH
Hypocrisy And The Shooting of Malala Yousafzai : Information Clearing House: ICH
October 16, 2012 "Information Clearing House" - The shooting of 14 year old Malala Yousafzai has shocked the world, and shocking it should be, as children don’t deserve such ruthlessness.
What Malala stood for, and what she was fighting against, is not my concern at the moment, for such concerns, whether right or wrong, have already been addressed by a large number of so-called advocates for Human rights and justice. I am not even concerned in knowing who actually tried to kill her, for I as a Muslim do not condone such an act. What I am really concerned about is the hypocritical stance taken by some of the voices who are standing up for Malala today.
Two days after the activist girl was shot, American singer Madonna, dedicated a song for her, and said, “This made me cry. The 14-year-old schoolgirl who wrote a blog about going to school. The Taliban stopped her bus and shot her. Do you realise how sick that is?” Now whether Taliban is responsible for this act or not, I am not sure, but why doesn’t Madonna cry when drone attacks launched by her country kill hundreds of innocent men, women and children every day in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen? The children killed here, also wanted to go to schools, they wanted to live too. Doesn’t she realises how sick that is?
October 16, 2012 "Information Clearing House" - The shooting of 14 year old Malala Yousafzai has shocked the world, and shocking it should be, as children don’t deserve such ruthlessness.
What Malala stood for, and what she was fighting against, is not my concern at the moment, for such concerns, whether right or wrong, have already been addressed by a large number of so-called advocates for Human rights and justice. I am not even concerned in knowing who actually tried to kill her, for I as a Muslim do not condone such an act. What I am really concerned about is the hypocritical stance taken by some of the voices who are standing up for Malala today.
Two days after the activist girl was shot, American singer Madonna, dedicated a song for her, and said, “This made me cry. The 14-year-old schoolgirl who wrote a blog about going to school. The Taliban stopped her bus and shot her. Do you realise how sick that is?” Now whether Taliban is responsible for this act or not, I am not sure, but why doesn’t Madonna cry when drone attacks launched by her country kill hundreds of innocent men, women and children every day in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen? The children killed here, also wanted to go to schools, they wanted to live too. Doesn’t she realises how sick that is?
Paul Craig Roberts: Obamneycare Converts Health Care Into Profits : Information Clearing House: ICH
Paul Craig Roberts: Obamneycare Converts Health Care Into Profits : Information Clearing House: ICH
October 19, 2012 "Information Clearing House" - In the guest section there is a new contribution by Dr. Robert S. Dotson. He points out that Obamneycare is two versions of the same thing. A person has to be gullible and uninformed to believe the claims of Obama and Romney that their replacements for Medicare will save money and improve care. What the schemes do is convert public monies into private profits.
October 19, 2012 "Information Clearing House" - In the guest section there is a new contribution by Dr. Robert S. Dotson. He points out that Obamneycare is two versions of the same thing. A person has to be gullible and uninformed to believe the claims of Obama and Romney that their replacements for Medicare will save money and improve care. What the schemes do is convert public monies into private profits.
Michael Scheuer: America Is A Slave To Israel : Information Clearing House: ICH
Michael Scheuer: America Is A Slave To Israel : Information Clearing House: ICH
October 19, 2012 "Information Clearing House" - As Americans fixate on the presidential campaign, they also should note the status of President Obama and Governor Romney. Yes, both are presidential candidates, but both are also men who — with their predecessors and the Congress — have willingly surrendered American sovereignty and independence to Israel and its U.S.-citizen advocates (Jewish and Evangelical), their organizations, and much of the media.
In return for campaign contributions and positive media coverage, Obama and Romney have enslaved themselves and their country to Israel and some few thousands of disloyal Jewish-Americans and their equally disloyal Christian Evangelical allies. One has to wonder whether Obama and Romney refer to Israel’s prime minister as “Massa’ Benyamin,” or whether they shuffle and pull their forelocks when groveling for money from Israel’s Jewish-American and Evangelical operatives.
If independence and sovereignty mean anything for a national government, they mean that that government alone decides whether or not the country it governs will go to war. In the United States, more specifically, its means — constitutionally — that the Congress will decide via a formal vote whether it will declare war on behalf of the American people, who once upon a time were its constitutional masters. This is, at any rate, how the Founders meant the process to work.
Both houses of the craven U.S. Congress, however, have long since illegally delegated that decision to the president, and our current president regards the Congress with such contempt that he looks first to the UN to see if it is okay for him to bomb hell out of a country like Libya or some other offending party. If on the issue of war-making Israel has become America’s master — and it has, despite Obama’s cowardly ducking of a face-to-face with Massa’ Benyamin — the UN surely is becoming its overseer. Congress, at day’s end, simply and unquestioningly pays for the U.S. troops who go off to die in wars that have nothing to do with protecting genuine U.S. national interests, but do please Israel, the UN, or some figment of those militarist viragoes Mrs. Clinton and Ms. Rice, as well as of the pro-war boys McCain and Graham, such as the “democratic and human-rights-loving Libyan and Syrian freedom fighters.”
So each of us can vote as we see fit in November, but we all should recognize that neither candidate intends to restore U.S. sovereignty and independence. As president, either man will take America to war with Iran — Obama just wants it after 6 November — because that is what Israel and its U.S.-citizen advocates want. Iran, of course, poses no direct military threat to the United States, but it will exact a fierce and bloody revenge after we and Israel attack by using the intelligence/terrorist surrogates it has long maintained in the United States for just such a response. Iran’s response likewise will wreck much of what remains of the U.S. economy by disrupting the oil-tanker traffic in the Persian Gulf and perhaps elsewhere.
And all of this pain for what? Another unjustifiable and ahistorical reliance on air power to do what it has never done and cannot do without nuclear weapons — win a war. And so we will have yet another unfinished and lost war that will further stoke the fires of the aggressive cultural war both U.S. political parties are waging on the Islamic world.
When America was part of Britain’s Empire, Americans — as loyal British subjects — had no choice but to be at war when the British Crown was at war. In the two-plus centuries since we won independence from Britain, we have declined in manliness, commonsense, and allegiance to our Constitution to the point where we will go to war at the behest of a foreign nation and in direct violation of U.S. national interests. In addition, our major mainstream and cable networks use the public’s airwaves to routinely act as agents of a foreign power by supporting Israel’s prime minister against the U.S. president, while disloyal American citizens enthusiastically corrupt the U.S. political system in support of Israeli interests, Evangelical fanaticism, and the one-world fantasies of the super-national and super-corrupt UN. … Who knows, perhaps we were better off with the Crown. It fought often, but only for genuine British interests.
Michael Scheuer is the author of ‘Imperial Hubris’ and former chief of the CIA’s Bin Laden Issue Station - www.non-intervention.com
October 19, 2012 "Information Clearing House" - As Americans fixate on the presidential campaign, they also should note the status of President Obama and Governor Romney. Yes, both are presidential candidates, but both are also men who — with their predecessors and the Congress — have willingly surrendered American sovereignty and independence to Israel and its U.S.-citizen advocates (Jewish and Evangelical), their organizations, and much of the media.
In return for campaign contributions and positive media coverage, Obama and Romney have enslaved themselves and their country to Israel and some few thousands of disloyal Jewish-Americans and their equally disloyal Christian Evangelical allies. One has to wonder whether Obama and Romney refer to Israel’s prime minister as “Massa’ Benyamin,” or whether they shuffle and pull their forelocks when groveling for money from Israel’s Jewish-American and Evangelical operatives.
If independence and sovereignty mean anything for a national government, they mean that that government alone decides whether or not the country it governs will go to war. In the United States, more specifically, its means — constitutionally — that the Congress will decide via a formal vote whether it will declare war on behalf of the American people, who once upon a time were its constitutional masters. This is, at any rate, how the Founders meant the process to work.
Both houses of the craven U.S. Congress, however, have long since illegally delegated that decision to the president, and our current president regards the Congress with such contempt that he looks first to the UN to see if it is okay for him to bomb hell out of a country like Libya or some other offending party. If on the issue of war-making Israel has become America’s master — and it has, despite Obama’s cowardly ducking of a face-to-face with Massa’ Benyamin — the UN surely is becoming its overseer. Congress, at day’s end, simply and unquestioningly pays for the U.S. troops who go off to die in wars that have nothing to do with protecting genuine U.S. national interests, but do please Israel, the UN, or some figment of those militarist viragoes Mrs. Clinton and Ms. Rice, as well as of the pro-war boys McCain and Graham, such as the “democratic and human-rights-loving Libyan and Syrian freedom fighters.”
So each of us can vote as we see fit in November, but we all should recognize that neither candidate intends to restore U.S. sovereignty and independence. As president, either man will take America to war with Iran — Obama just wants it after 6 November — because that is what Israel and its U.S.-citizen advocates want. Iran, of course, poses no direct military threat to the United States, but it will exact a fierce and bloody revenge after we and Israel attack by using the intelligence/terrorist surrogates it has long maintained in the United States for just such a response. Iran’s response likewise will wreck much of what remains of the U.S. economy by disrupting the oil-tanker traffic in the Persian Gulf and perhaps elsewhere.
And all of this pain for what? Another unjustifiable and ahistorical reliance on air power to do what it has never done and cannot do without nuclear weapons — win a war. And so we will have yet another unfinished and lost war that will further stoke the fires of the aggressive cultural war both U.S. political parties are waging on the Islamic world.
When America was part of Britain’s Empire, Americans — as loyal British subjects — had no choice but to be at war when the British Crown was at war. In the two-plus centuries since we won independence from Britain, we have declined in manliness, commonsense, and allegiance to our Constitution to the point where we will go to war at the behest of a foreign nation and in direct violation of U.S. national interests. In addition, our major mainstream and cable networks use the public’s airwaves to routinely act as agents of a foreign power by supporting Israel’s prime minister against the U.S. president, while disloyal American citizens enthusiastically corrupt the U.S. political system in support of Israeli interests, Evangelical fanaticism, and the one-world fantasies of the super-national and super-corrupt UN. … Who knows, perhaps we were better off with the Crown. It fought often, but only for genuine British interests.
Michael Scheuer is the author of ‘Imperial Hubris’ and former chief of the CIA’s Bin Laden Issue Station - www.non-intervention.com
Wednesday, 17 October 2012
Why Walmart, Why Now? - In These Times
Why Walmart, Why Now? - In These Times
For years, the world’s retail behemoth, Walmart, has seemed impervious to organizing attempts. Unions, specifically the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), have attempted to organize retail workers at the company—long known for both its low prices and poverty wages—but the company’s aggressive union-busting has always won the day.
For years, the world’s retail behemoth, Walmart, has seemed impervious to organizing attempts. Unions, specifically the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), have attempted to organize retail workers at the company—long known for both its low prices and poverty wages—but the company’s aggressive union-busting has always won the day.
Friday, 12 October 2012
Jimmy Carter Says Elections Corrupted
Jimmy Carter Says Elections Corrupted
• Ex-president: United States has worst election process on planet
By Pete Papaherakles
Injecting billions of dollars into U.S. politics is a recipe for corruption, says former President Jimmy Carter. Placing the blame squarely on the Supreme Court for endorsing a corporate spending free-for-all in American politics, he said the justices gave unlimited freedom to special interest groups representing corporations and lobbyists to provide campaign funding through third parties that don’t have to disclose their donors.
“We have one of the worst election processes in the world right here in the United States of America,” he said, “and it’s almost entirely because of the excessive influx of money.
• Ex-president: United States has worst election process on planet
By Pete Papaherakles
Injecting billions of dollars into U.S. politics is a recipe for corruption, says former President Jimmy Carter. Placing the blame squarely on the Supreme Court for endorsing a corporate spending free-for-all in American politics, he said the justices gave unlimited freedom to special interest groups representing corporations and lobbyists to provide campaign funding through third parties that don’t have to disclose their donors.
“We have one of the worst election processes in the world right here in the United States of America,” he said, “and it’s almost entirely because of the excessive influx of money.
Tuesday, 9 October 2012
US-Backed Nigerian Military Kills 30 Civilians -- News from Antiwar.com
US-Backed Nigerian Military Kills 30 Civilians -- News from Antiwar.com
US-supported Nigerian soldiers killed up to 30 civilians on Monday “using assault rifles and heavy machine guns mounted on armored personnel carriers” and set fire to about 50 homes and businesses in the area, according to the Associated Press.
US-supported Nigerian soldiers killed up to 30 civilians on Monday “using assault rifles and heavy machine guns mounted on armored personnel carriers” and set fire to about 50 homes and businesses in the area, according to the Associated Press.
The US presidential debates' illusion of political choice | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | The Guardian
The US presidential debates' illusion of political choice | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | The Guardian
Wednesday night's debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney underscored a core truth about America's presidential election season: the vast majority of the most consequential policy questions are completely excluded from the process. This fact is squarely at odds with a primary claim made about the two parties – that they represent radically different political philosophies – and illustrates how narrow the range of acceptable mainstream political debate is in the country.
In part this is because presidential elections are now conducted almost entirely like a tawdry TV reality show. Personality quirks and trivialities about the candidates dominate coverage, and voter choices, leaving little room for substantive debates.
Wednesday night's debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney underscored a core truth about America's presidential election season: the vast majority of the most consequential policy questions are completely excluded from the process. This fact is squarely at odds with a primary claim made about the two parties – that they represent radically different political philosophies – and illustrates how narrow the range of acceptable mainstream political debate is in the country.
In part this is because presidential elections are now conducted almost entirely like a tawdry TV reality show. Personality quirks and trivialities about the candidates dominate coverage, and voter choices, leaving little room for substantive debates.
Monday, 8 October 2012
On the killing of eight Afghan women : Information Clearing House: ICH
On the killing of eight Afghan women : Information Clearing House: ICH
October 06, 2012 "Information Clearing House" - If you looked carefully at the news last week, you might have heard a report from Afghanistan about how the U.S./NATO forces bombed and killed eight Afghan women who were out walking in the mountains early in the morning before dawn to collect wood. Eight other women were seriously injured.
October 06, 2012 "Information Clearing House" - If you looked carefully at the news last week, you might have heard a report from Afghanistan about how the U.S./NATO forces bombed and killed eight Afghan women who were out walking in the mountains early in the morning before dawn to collect wood. Eight other women were seriously injured.
Saturday, 6 October 2012
Massive Rally Against US Drone Strikes to Be Held in Pakistan -- News from Antiwar.com
A convoy of Pakistanis and foreign supporters (including a handful of Americans) are in the capital city of Islamabad tonight preparing for the start of tomorrow’s major march into the South Waziristan Agency.
Friday, 5 October 2012
Israel excluded as model UN meets in Gaza
Israel excluded as model UN meets in Gaza
The opening ceremony of the model United Nations in Gaza City. (Majdi Fathi / APA images)
There were three items on the agenda when the United Nations Security Council held an extraordinary meeting in Gaza City last weekend: the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank; the siege of Gaza; and the status of East Jerusalem. Israel was prevented from having any input into the discussions because it does not recognize Palestine.
As you may have gathered, the exclusion of Israel was not officially approved by Ban Ki-moon or others in the UN hierarchy. Rather, it was a decision taken by the Model United Nations, a forum set up by Gaza youth.
“We have not included Israel mainly because of the fact that Israel does not recognize us and works tirelessly to prevent any possible move at the UN to recognize Palestine as a member state,” said Yasmine Khader, Palestine’s “representative” and “observer” at the mock Security Council meeting.
One year ago, the first model UN forum in the West Bank was postponed for several weeks because of rising violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers. The Electronic Intifada’s Jalal Abukhater reported that more than 140 students “comprising of 15 model UN delegations from schools in Ramallah, Nablus, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and Haifa had registered to attend this first-of-a-kind event in Palestine.”
Timing coincidental?
At a large hall in the Rashad Shawa Cultural Center, chairs and desks were arranged in the same way as they are at the UN General Assembly in New York. A blue flag marked the spot where the chairperson sat. The initiative was supported by the UN Development Program.
Last year, Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, used the forum at the UN general assembly to broach the issue of Palestinian statehood. This time around, he asked for Palestine to become a “non-member state” of the UN.
Rawya Shawa, an independent politician in Gaza, said the purpose of the “model” UN was to alert the PA and international leaders that the Palestinian people should be involved in the discussions about their own self-determination.
Need for consensus
“We have always heard about the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and my question is: what are these rights specifically?” Shawa, who is also chairwoman of the cultural center, asked.
“I believe that this is time for action, real action by those in charge of the Palestinian people. I urge President Mahmoud Abbas to come over to Gaza first and reunite the Palestinian political spectrum before he goes to the United Nations. We, as Palestinians, should have consensus on what we need and what we do not need.”
Some 120 university graduates took part in the two-day conference of the model UN. It was the first time that this event had been held in Gaza. The conference held a symbolic vote, at which most of the participants expressed their support for Palestine becoming a member of the UN.
Mohammad al-Daya, a recent law graduate from Gaza City, was representing Kazakhstan at the meeting. He explained the negotiating tactics behind securing recognition of a Palestinian state. Recognition was treated as “a cause of peace and security worldwide,” he said, in order to avoid a veto from the US or another permanent member of the Security Council.
“Recognize our rights”
Despite the unofficial nature of the meeting, its participants were clearly taking it seriously. They had undergone seven months of training on how the UN functions.
Eman Keshko acted as the United States’ representative. “I had to learn a lot about the history of United States and the US’ long-term experience with the United Nations, especially regarding the Palestinian people’s cause,” the 22-year-old graduate in English literature said. “Actually, I am here to veto decisions that do not conform with the policy of the United States.”
Uganda, meanwhile, was “represented” by Islam al-Hosary, a journalism graduate. “We are able here to send out a message of existence of the Palestinian people,” she said. “The UN has nearly neglected our Palestinian cause for decades. We need to tell all its members outright ‘it is time that you, the UN, should recognize our rights.’”
Rami Almeghari is a journalist and university lecturer based in the Gaza Strip.
The opening ceremony of the model United Nations in Gaza City. (Majdi Fathi / APA images)
There were three items on the agenda when the United Nations Security Council held an extraordinary meeting in Gaza City last weekend: the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank; the siege of Gaza; and the status of East Jerusalem. Israel was prevented from having any input into the discussions because it does not recognize Palestine.
As you may have gathered, the exclusion of Israel was not officially approved by Ban Ki-moon or others in the UN hierarchy. Rather, it was a decision taken by the Model United Nations, a forum set up by Gaza youth.
“We have not included Israel mainly because of the fact that Israel does not recognize us and works tirelessly to prevent any possible move at the UN to recognize Palestine as a member state,” said Yasmine Khader, Palestine’s “representative” and “observer” at the mock Security Council meeting.
One year ago, the first model UN forum in the West Bank was postponed for several weeks because of rising violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers. The Electronic Intifada’s Jalal Abukhater reported that more than 140 students “comprising of 15 model UN delegations from schools in Ramallah, Nablus, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and Haifa had registered to attend this first-of-a-kind event in Palestine.”
Timing coincidental?
At a large hall in the Rashad Shawa Cultural Center, chairs and desks were arranged in the same way as they are at the UN General Assembly in New York. A blue flag marked the spot where the chairperson sat. The initiative was supported by the UN Development Program.
Last year, Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, used the forum at the UN general assembly to broach the issue of Palestinian statehood. This time around, he asked for Palestine to become a “non-member state” of the UN.
Rawya Shawa, an independent politician in Gaza, said the purpose of the “model” UN was to alert the PA and international leaders that the Palestinian people should be involved in the discussions about their own self-determination.
Need for consensus
“We have always heard about the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and my question is: what are these rights specifically?” Shawa, who is also chairwoman of the cultural center, asked.
“I believe that this is time for action, real action by those in charge of the Palestinian people. I urge President Mahmoud Abbas to come over to Gaza first and reunite the Palestinian political spectrum before he goes to the United Nations. We, as Palestinians, should have consensus on what we need and what we do not need.”
Some 120 university graduates took part in the two-day conference of the model UN. It was the first time that this event had been held in Gaza. The conference held a symbolic vote, at which most of the participants expressed their support for Palestine becoming a member of the UN.
Mohammad al-Daya, a recent law graduate from Gaza City, was representing Kazakhstan at the meeting. He explained the negotiating tactics behind securing recognition of a Palestinian state. Recognition was treated as “a cause of peace and security worldwide,” he said, in order to avoid a veto from the US or another permanent member of the Security Council.
“Recognize our rights”
Despite the unofficial nature of the meeting, its participants were clearly taking it seriously. They had undergone seven months of training on how the UN functions.
Eman Keshko acted as the United States’ representative. “I had to learn a lot about the history of United States and the US’ long-term experience with the United Nations, especially regarding the Palestinian people’s cause,” the 22-year-old graduate in English literature said. “Actually, I am here to veto decisions that do not conform with the policy of the United States.”
Uganda, meanwhile, was “represented” by Islam al-Hosary, a journalism graduate. “We are able here to send out a message of existence of the Palestinian people,” she said. “The UN has nearly neglected our Palestinian cause for decades. We need to tell all its members outright ‘it is time that you, the UN, should recognize our rights.’”
Rami Almeghari is a journalist and university lecturer based in the Gaza Strip.
Tuesday, 2 October 2012
Hate-Speech Hypocrites : Information Clearing House: ICH
Hate-Speech Hypocrites : Information Clearing House: ICH
October 01, 2012 "Information Clearing House" - Jews have too much influence over U.S. foreign policy. Gay men are too promiscuous. Muslims commit too much terrorism. Blacks commit too much crime.
Each of those claims is poorly stated. Each, in its clumsy way, addresses a real problem or concern. And each violates laws against hate speech. In much of what we call the free world, for writing that paragraph, I could be jailed.
Libertarians, cultural conservatives, and racists have complained about these laws for years. But now the problem has turned global. Islamic governments, angered by an anti-Muslim video that provoked protests and riots in their countries, are demanding to know why insulting the Prophet Mohammed is free speech but vilifying Jews and denying the Holocaust isn’t. And we don’t have a good answer.
If we’re going to preach freedom of expression around the world, we have to practice it. We have to scrap our hate-speech laws.
October 01, 2012 "Information Clearing House" - Jews have too much influence over U.S. foreign policy. Gay men are too promiscuous. Muslims commit too much terrorism. Blacks commit too much crime.
Each of those claims is poorly stated. Each, in its clumsy way, addresses a real problem or concern. And each violates laws against hate speech. In much of what we call the free world, for writing that paragraph, I could be jailed.
Libertarians, cultural conservatives, and racists have complained about these laws for years. But now the problem has turned global. Islamic governments, angered by an anti-Muslim video that provoked protests and riots in their countries, are demanding to know why insulting the Prophet Mohammed is free speech but vilifying Jews and denying the Holocaust isn’t. And we don’t have a good answer.
If we’re going to preach freedom of expression around the world, we have to practice it. We have to scrap our hate-speech laws.
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