February 28, 2010
Palestine Think Tank » Israel Khalid Amayreh Newswire Palestine War Zionism » Khalid Amayreh – We must never forget Gaza
Excerpt:
There is no doubt that the continued blockade of Gaza has exposed the brutal ugliness of Israel’s face, demonstrating that Israel and Nazi Germany are very much two sides of the same coin. Nonetheless, exposing Israel’s ugly face alone won’t save Gazan lives or enable the thoroughly tormented inhabitants of the largest detention camp in the world to rebuild their lives, torn into smithereens by a state that murders, steals and lies and then claims to be the only democracy in the Middle East.
Palestine Think Tank » Israel Khalid Amayreh Newswire Palestine War Zionism » Khalid Amayreh – We must never forget Gaza
There is no doubt that the continued blockade of Gaza has exposed the brutal ugliness of Israel’s face, demonstrating that Israel and Nazi Germany are very much two sides of the same coin. Nonetheless, exposing Israel’s ugly face alone won’t save Gazan lives or enable the thoroughly tormented inhabitants of the largest detention camp in the world to rebuild their lives, torn into smithereens by a state that murders, steals and lies and then claims to be the only democracy in the Middle East.
Palestine Think Tank » Israel Khalid Amayreh Newswire Palestine War Zionism » Khalid Amayreh – We must never forget Gaza
White Lie - Gush Shalom - Israeli Peace Bloc
Excerpt: A nation exists on one level of human society, a religious-ethnic community on another. A “nation” is an entity living together in one country with a common political will. A “community” is a religious entity based on a common faith, which can live in different countries. A German, for example, can be Catholic or Protestant; a Catholic can be German or French.
These two types of entity have two different means of survival, much as different species in nature. When a lion is in danger, it fights, it attacks. For that purpose, nature has equipped it with teeth and claws. When a gazelle is in danger, it runs. Nature has given it quick legs. Every method is good, if it is effective. (If it were not effective, the species would not have survived to this day.)
When a nation is in danger, it stands and fights. When a religious community is in danger, it moves elsewhere. The Jews, more than any others, have perfected the art of escape. Even after the horrors of the Holocaust, the Jewish Diaspora has survived and now, two generations later, it is again flourishing.
IN ORDER to invent a Jewish nation, Herzl had to ignore this difference. He pretended that the Jewish ethnic-religious community was also a Jewish nation. In other words: contrary to all other peoples, the Jews were both a nation and a religious community; as far as Jews were concerned, the two were the same. The nation was a religion, the religion was a nation.
This was the “white lie”. There was no other way: without it, Zionism could not have come into being. The new movement took the Star of David from the synagogue, the candlestick from the Temple, the blue-and-white flag from the prayer shawl. The holy land became a homeland. Zionism filled the religious symbols with secular, national content.
The first to detect the falsification were the Orthodox Rabbis.
White Lie - Gush Shalom - Israeli Peace Bloc
These two types of entity have two different means of survival, much as different species in nature. When a lion is in danger, it fights, it attacks. For that purpose, nature has equipped it with teeth and claws. When a gazelle is in danger, it runs. Nature has given it quick legs. Every method is good, if it is effective. (If it were not effective, the species would not have survived to this day.)
When a nation is in danger, it stands and fights. When a religious community is in danger, it moves elsewhere. The Jews, more than any others, have perfected the art of escape. Even after the horrors of the Holocaust, the Jewish Diaspora has survived and now, two generations later, it is again flourishing.
IN ORDER to invent a Jewish nation, Herzl had to ignore this difference. He pretended that the Jewish ethnic-religious community was also a Jewish nation. In other words: contrary to all other peoples, the Jews were both a nation and a religious community; as far as Jews were concerned, the two were the same. The nation was a religion, the religion was a nation.
This was the “white lie”. There was no other way: without it, Zionism could not have come into being. The new movement took the Star of David from the synagogue, the candlestick from the Temple, the blue-and-white flag from the prayer shawl. The holy land became a homeland. Zionism filled the religious symbols with secular, national content.
The first to detect the falsification were the Orthodox Rabbis.
White Lie - Gush Shalom - Israeli Peace Bloc
February 27, 2010
Palestine Think Tank Veritas in Harvard: No, Just Double Standards, Injustice, and Fear
Excerpt: racist eugenic proposal that Dr. Martin Kramer, a Visiting Scholar at Harvard made during his speech at the Israeli Herzliya Conference on January 31, 2010.
In that speech Dr. Kramer implored the West to stop its Pro Natal services to the already besieged and starving Gaza Palestinian pregnant mothers and infants as a method of controlling the rapid birth rate in Gaza as a matter of political and social policy. To him such control will naturally lead to a decrease in the radicalization of Palestinian youth which he calls "superfluous men" as well as relieve the "demographic threat" to Israel's Jewish identity.
How racist is the term "superfluous men" to describe young Palestinian men who are constant fodder for Israeli soldier's bullets, missiles, and tank shells (as soldiers themselves have told "Break the Silence" group of former IDF Soldiers) as unnecessary and wasteful human beings.
Dr. Kramer's eugenic proposal not to provide Pro Natal care, which I take he means Pre and Post Natal care, is tantamount to genocide of fetuses and infants. Pregnant mothers would not receive the preventive care, regular OB exams, nutritional guidance (such as providing Folic Acid and Vitamins given their already malnourished state), appropriate vaccines or a healthy medically supervised delivery in hospitals, which all are damaged by Israel's assault on Gaza in 2008-2009. Infants would not receive the necessary medical care, or intensive care if necessary (difficult given the lack of electricity, oxygen, or antibiotics in Gaza), regular immunizations, nutritional guidance, or regular Pediatric checkups. Dr. Kramer shouldn't worry about a Palestinian population explosion; Israel's militarily with our tax dollars and weapons is determined not to leave any Palestinian child behind.
His proposal meets the accepted definition of eugenics, passive euthanasia, and genocide and no amount of spin cover up, rationalization, justification, taken out of context lies; nor the canard of Freedom of Speech that's available to Pro Israelite hate mongers to the exclusion of Pro Justice proponents for Palestinians and peace in the Holy Land.
Palestine Think Tank » Analysis Israel Newswire Palestine Somoud: Arab Voices of Resistance Zionism » Mohamed Khodr – Veritas in Harvard: No, Just Double Standards, Injustice, and Fear
In that speech Dr. Kramer implored the West to stop its Pro Natal services to the already besieged and starving Gaza Palestinian pregnant mothers and infants as a method of controlling the rapid birth rate in Gaza as a matter of political and social policy. To him such control will naturally lead to a decrease in the radicalization of Palestinian youth which he calls "superfluous men" as well as relieve the "demographic threat" to Israel's Jewish identity.
How racist is the term "superfluous men" to describe young Palestinian men who are constant fodder for Israeli soldier's bullets, missiles, and tank shells (as soldiers themselves have told "Break the Silence" group of former IDF Soldiers) as unnecessary and wasteful human beings.
Dr. Kramer's eugenic proposal not to provide Pro Natal care, which I take he means Pre and Post Natal care, is tantamount to genocide of fetuses and infants. Pregnant mothers would not receive the preventive care, regular OB exams, nutritional guidance (such as providing Folic Acid and Vitamins given their already malnourished state), appropriate vaccines or a healthy medically supervised delivery in hospitals, which all are damaged by Israel's assault on Gaza in 2008-2009. Infants would not receive the necessary medical care, or intensive care if necessary (difficult given the lack of electricity, oxygen, or antibiotics in Gaza), regular immunizations, nutritional guidance, or regular Pediatric checkups. Dr. Kramer shouldn't worry about a Palestinian population explosion; Israel's militarily with our tax dollars and weapons is determined not to leave any Palestinian child behind.
His proposal meets the accepted definition of eugenics, passive euthanasia, and genocide and no amount of spin cover up, rationalization, justification, taken out of context lies; nor the canard of Freedom of Speech that's available to Pro Israelite hate mongers to the exclusion of Pro Justice proponents for Palestinians and peace in the Holy Land.
Palestine Think Tank » Analysis Israel Newswire Palestine Somoud: Arab Voices of Resistance Zionism » Mohamed Khodr – Veritas in Harvard: No, Just Double Standards, Injustice, and Fear
Report: 5 Israeli spy suspects detained in Lebanon - Â News - MSN CA
Updated: February 27, 2010 6:22 AM
Report: 5 Israeli spy suspects detained in Lebanon
BEIRUT - Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV reports that five Lebanese citizens have been detained on suspicion of spying for Israel, raising the number of suspects captured this week to six.
Lebanese security and military officials contacted by The Associated Press refused to confirm or deny the Lebanese guerrilla group's report.
Al-Manar ssaid Saturday that two former policemen were among those detained. It did not say when the arrests took place.
Lebanon considers itself to be in a state of war with Israel and bans any contact with Israeli citizens. Lebanese authorities have arrested more than 50 people suspected of collaborating with Israel, under a crackdown that began last year.
All have been accused of providing Israel with intelligence on Hezbollah, which fought a fierce war with Israel in 2006.
Lebanese security and military officials contacted by The Associated Press refused to confirm or deny the Lebanese guerrilla group's report.
Al-Manar ssaid Saturday that two former policemen were among those detained. It did not say when the arrests took place.
Lebanon considers itself to be in a state of war with Israel and bans any contact with Israeli citizens. Lebanese authorities have arrested more than 50 people suspected of collaborating with Israel, under a crackdown that began last year.
All have been accused of providing Israel with intelligence on Hezbollah, which fought a fierce war with Israel in 2006.
Report: 5 Israeli spy suspects detained in Lebanon - Â News - MSN CA
Arab source: Mitchell wanted to quit over U.S. bias for Israel - Haaretz - Israel News
An Arab political source said Friday that special U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell has requested to resign due to his frustration with the way the Obama administration has been handling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to a Nazareth-based daily.
Hadith a-Nass reported that Mitchell's request stemmed partly from to his own failure to advance the resumption of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and also from his perception that certain elements within the State Department hold biased favor toward Israel.
The White House turned down Mitchell's request, according to Hadith a-Nass.
No verification of the report was available.
Peace talks were halted more than a year ago over the war in the Gaza Strip and have not resumed, due largely to a Palestinian demand that Israel first impose a complete freeze on building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and Israel's refusal to do so.
A new working paper released by the Palestinian indicates that the Palestinian Authority has warned it may abandon its support of the 1993 Oslo Accords, which outlines a two-state solution to the conflict with Israel.
The Palestinians are instead intending to pursue the creation of a binational state between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea, according to a document drafted by the PA's veteran chief negotiator.
Arab source: Mitchell wanted to quit over U.S. bias for Israel - Haaretz - Israel News
Hadith a-Nass reported that Mitchell's request stemmed partly from to his own failure to advance the resumption of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and also from his perception that certain elements within the State Department hold biased favor toward Israel.
The White House turned down Mitchell's request, according to Hadith a-Nass.
No verification of the report was available.
Peace talks were halted more than a year ago over the war in the Gaza Strip and have not resumed, due largely to a Palestinian demand that Israel first impose a complete freeze on building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and Israel's refusal to do so.
A new working paper released by the Palestinian indicates that the Palestinian Authority has warned it may abandon its support of the 1993 Oslo Accords, which outlines a two-state solution to the conflict with Israel.
The Palestinians are instead intending to pursue the creation of a binational state between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea, according to a document drafted by the PA's veteran chief negotiator.
Arab source: Mitchell wanted to quit over U.S. bias for Israel - Haaretz - Israel News
February 26, 2010
VDARE.com: 02/25/10 - The Road to Armageddon
VDARE.com: 02/25/10 - The Road to Armageddon
By Paul Craig Roberts
Excerpt: The Washington Times is a newspaper that looks with favor upon the Bush/Cheney/Obama/neocon wars of aggression in the Middle East and favors making terrorists pay for 9/11. Therefore, I was surprised to learn on February 24 that the most popular story on the paper’s website for the past three days was the "Inside the Beltway" report, "Explosive News," [By Jennifer Harper, February 22, 2010]about the 31 press conferences in cities in the US and abroad on February 19 held by Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, an organization of professionals which now has 1,000 members.
I was even more surprised that the news report treated the press conference seriously.
How did three World Trade Center skyscrapers suddenly disintegrate into fine dust? How did massive steel beams in three skyscrapers suddenly fail as a result of short-lived, isolated, and low temperature fires? "A thousand architects and engineers want to know, and are calling on Congress to order a new investigation into the destruction of the Twin Towers and Building 7," reports the Washington Times.
The paper reports that the architects and engineers have concluded that the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Institute of Standards and Technology provided "insufficient, contradictory and fraudulent accounts of the circumstances of the towers’ destruction" and are "calling for a grand jury investigation of NIST officials."
The newspaper reports that Richard Gage, the spokesperson for the architects and engineers said: "Government officials will be notified that ‘Misprision of Treason,’ U.S. Code 18 (Sec. 2382) is a serious federal offense, which requires those with evidence of treason to act. The implications are enormous and may have profound impact on the forthcoming Khalid Sheik Mohammed trial."
There is now an organization, Firefighters for 9/11 Truth. At the main press conference in San Francisco, Erik Lawyer, the head of that organization, announced the firefighters’ support for the architects and engineers’ demands. He reported that no forensic investigation was made of the fires that are alleged to have destroyed the three buildings and that this failure constitutes a crime.
Mandated procedures were not followed, and instead of being preserved and investigated, the crime scene was destroyed. He also reported that there are more than one hundred first responders who heard and experienced explosions and that there is radio, audio and video evidence of explosions.
Also at the press conference, physicist Steven Jones presented the evidence of nano-thermite in the residue of the WTC buildings found by an international panel of scientists led by University of Copenhagen nano-chemist Professor Niels Harrit. Nano-thermite is a high-tech explosive/pyrotechnic capable of instantly melting steel girders.
Before we yell "conspiracy theory," we should be aware that the architects, engineers, firefighters, and scientists offer no theory. They provide evidence that challenges the official theory. This evidence is not going to go away.
If expressing doubts or reservations about the official story in the 9/11 Commission Report makes a person a conspiracy theory kook, then we have to include both co-chairmen of the 9/11 Commission and the Commission’s legal counsel
The McLoughlin Post proudly supports Israeli Apartheid Week, and you should too
Private Members' Motion 93 Reads:
'That, in the opinion of this House, the term Israel Apartheid Week is condemned as it serves to incite hatred against Israel, a democratic state that respects the rule of law and human rights, and the use of the word 'apartheid' in this context diminishes the suffering of those who were victims of a true apartheid regime in South Africa.'
To: Every member of the Ontario Legislature,
I am writing to denounce in the strongest words possible the
legislative motion to condemn Israeli Apartheid Week.
Israel has illegally occupied and oppressed the Palestinians in the West Bank
for many decades, destroying homes, orchards, businesses, schools and countless lives,
as Palestinians are forced from their homes and replaced by violent, racist,
religious extremist 'settlers'.
Israel's ongoing illegal military siege of Gaza is destroying the innocent lives
of 1.5 million Palestinian people in the most densely packed and impoverished
place on the planet.
It is a lie when Israel says the siege is to stop
rocket attacks. Hamas stopped the rocket attacks during the agreed upon
ceasefire last year. Israel was supposed to lift the siege. Instead, Israel girded
to destroy Gaza in a betrayal worthy of Nuremberg.
I wonder, how are chickens, cows, goats, farm fields, hospitals, water wells or water treatment plants
a security threat to Israel? Because during Israel's massive military attack
on the defenseless Gaza Strip last year, Israel's brave and 'moral' military
destroyed the means for the Palestinians to tend the injured, to drink clean water or to feed themselves.
After a full review of the facts, Judge Goldstone, highly respected (and a
South African Jew), rightly condemned
Israel's actions in Gaza as war crimes of the highest order.
Gaza is the world's
largest open civilian prison camp in the entire world. Their suffering is nothing
less than a crime against humanity. All the children suffer PTSD. They are
severely emotionally traumatized. Many are the little children who have seen a beloved
family member murdered before their eyes. Physically, many are stunted in their
growth because of Israel's deliberate blockade preventing food and medicine from getting in.
They have been preventing food and medicine from getting in for three years now.
What we ought to contemplate is the fact that this is Jews doing this to another
people at all. After the Holocaust came the loud conviction - Never Again!
The following political cartoon by Latuff says it all:
There are many righteous Jews
all over the world who stand opposed to Israel's racist violent agenda against
the Palestinian people. They stand with them in solidarity.
Sir Gerald Kaufman, a highly respected British parliamentarian is but one.
In a public speech he gave in Parliament January 16, 2009 (which I quote briefly) he said:
"...A German soldier shot her dead in her bed. Madame Deputy Speaker, my
grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering
Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza.
"The present Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploits the
continuing guilt among gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust
as justification for their murder of Palestinians."
(Full speech can be viewed, third video down, here. This compelling speech has
been viewed over 330,000 times.)
Israeli Apartheid Week is a yearly endeavor by university students to
educate students and the pubic at large regarding the facts on Israel.
Discussion forums, guest lecturers, and the showing of educational films are
organized for this purpose. The diaspora of violently displaced and uprooted Palestinians
encircles the globe. They are trying to tell the world what is being done to them.
They are in desperate need of our help.
That the Ontario Legislature en mass would condemn such a vitally necessary endeavor
as Israeli Apartheid Week is an absolute disgrace. It is a betrayal of Ontario's cherished legacy of respect
for human rights and the dignity of all persons everywhere.
Again, I urge each and every one of you to come together and pass a unanimous motion condemning
the siege of Gaza, the military occupation of the West Bank, and to declare
that all Ontarians hope for a day when Jews and Palestinians will live together in peace.
Diane V. McLoughlin, writer, peace activist
www.mcloughlinpost..com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update, February 26, 2010:
The following was e-mailed to me today:
OPEN LETTER from Andrea Horwath
Dear friend,
New Democrats are committed to working with partners for peace and justice in Israel and Palestine, within a framework of respect for UN resolutions and international law.
This means recognition of the right of both Israelis and Palestinians to live in peaceful co-existence in viable, independent states with negotiated, agreed-upon borders; no settlements remaining in the Palestinian state; an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian land; an end to loss of life of innocent civilians; and an international peacekeeping presence.
On Thursday, MPP Peter Shurman (Thornhill) introduced a private member’s motion that was divisive by nature. Singling out activists or shutting down debate, on this or any other matter, is not constructive and is entirely unhelpful.
Ontario’s New Democrats believe in finding avenues towards a peaceful solution in the Middle East. MPP Peter Shurman’s motion did not contribute to that in any way.
Sincerely,
Andrea Horwath
Leader, Ontario’s New Democrats-------------------------------------------------------
Update, February 26, 2010 my reply to NDP leader Andrea Horwath:
Dear Ms. Horwath,
I wish to thank you for your thoughtful, informed and heartfelt reply.
You might be interested to know that of the five responses received thus far,
yours is the only one that does not hide behind the requirement that I be a
constituent first.
I would share that I personally am of the view that Israel would
have the best possibility of peace if it was one bi-national state.
However, I cannot agree more that in order to assist normalization of relations
a cooling off period utilizing international peacekeeping forces would be a good move
if both sides would let the world community help.
Thank you again for your heartening reply,
Diane V. McLoughlin
February 24, 2010
The Obama disarmament paradox | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Excerpt:
Last April in Prague, President Barack Obama gave a speech that many have interpreted as a commitment to significant nuclear disarmament.
Now, however, the White House is requesting one of the larger increases in warhead spending history. If its request is fully funded, warhead spending would rise 10 percent in a single year, with further increases promised for the future. Los Alamos National Laboratory, the biggest target of the Obama largesse, would see a 22 percent budget increase, its largest since 1944. In particular, funding for a new plutonium "pit" factory complex there would more than double, signaling a commitment to produce new nuclear weapons a decade hence.
The Obama disarmament paradox | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Last April in Prague, President Barack Obama gave a speech that many have interpreted as a commitment to significant nuclear disarmament.
Now, however, the White House is requesting one of the larger increases in warhead spending history. If its request is fully funded, warhead spending would rise 10 percent in a single year, with further increases promised for the future. Los Alamos National Laboratory, the biggest target of the Obama largesse, would see a 22 percent budget increase, its largest since 1944. In particular, funding for a new plutonium "pit" factory complex there would more than double, signaling a commitment to produce new nuclear weapons a decade hence.
The Obama disarmament paradox | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Judith Butler: As a Jew, I was taught it was ethically imperative to speak up - Haaretz - Israel News
Exerpt (begins about half way down the page of feature length interview:
The Israeli government and the media started to say that everyone who was killed or injured in Gaza was a member of Hamas; or that they were all being used as part of the war effort; that even the children were instruments of the war effort; that the Palestinians put them out there, in the targets, to show that Israelis would kill children, and this was actually part of a war effort. At this point, every single living being who is Palestinian becomes a war instrument. They are all, in their being, or by virtue of being Palestinian, declaring war on Israel or seeking the destruction of the Israel.
So any and all Palestinian lives that are killed or injured are understood no longer to be lives, no longer understood to be living, no longer understood even to be human in a recognizable sense, but they are artillery. The bodies themselves are artillery. And of course, the extreme instance of that is the suicide bomber, who has become unpopular in recent years. That is the instance in which a body becomes artillery, or becomes part of a violent act. If that figure gets extended to the entire Palestinian population, then there is no living human population anymore, and no one who is killed there can be grieved. Because everyone who is a living Palestinian is, in their being, a declaration of war, or a threat to the existence of Israel, or pure military artillery, materiel. They have been transformed, in the Israeli war imaginary, into pure war instruments.
So when a people who believes that another people is out to destroy them sees all the means of destruction killed, or some extraordinary number of the means of destruction destroyed, they are thrilled, because they think their safety and well-being and happiness are being purchased, are being achieved through this destruction.
And what happened with the perspective from the outside, the outside media, was extremely interesting to me. The European press, the U.S. press, the South American press, the East Asian press all raised questions about the excessive violence of the Gaza assault. It was very strange to see how the Israeli media made the claim that people on the outside do not understand; that people on the outside are anti-Semitic; that people on the outside are blaming Israel for defending themselves when they themselves, if attacked, would do the exact same thing.
Judith Butler: As a Jew, I was taught it was ethically imperative to speak up - Haaretz - Israel News
The Israeli government and the media started to say that everyone who was killed or injured in Gaza was a member of Hamas; or that they were all being used as part of the war effort; that even the children were instruments of the war effort; that the Palestinians put them out there, in the targets, to show that Israelis would kill children, and this was actually part of a war effort. At this point, every single living being who is Palestinian becomes a war instrument. They are all, in their being, or by virtue of being Palestinian, declaring war on Israel or seeking the destruction of the Israel.
So any and all Palestinian lives that are killed or injured are understood no longer to be lives, no longer understood to be living, no longer understood even to be human in a recognizable sense, but they are artillery. The bodies themselves are artillery. And of course, the extreme instance of that is the suicide bomber, who has become unpopular in recent years. That is the instance in which a body becomes artillery, or becomes part of a violent act. If that figure gets extended to the entire Palestinian population, then there is no living human population anymore, and no one who is killed there can be grieved. Because everyone who is a living Palestinian is, in their being, a declaration of war, or a threat to the existence of Israel, or pure military artillery, materiel. They have been transformed, in the Israeli war imaginary, into pure war instruments.
So when a people who believes that another people is out to destroy them sees all the means of destruction killed, or some extraordinary number of the means of destruction destroyed, they are thrilled, because they think their safety and well-being and happiness are being purchased, are being achieved through this destruction.
And what happened with the perspective from the outside, the outside media, was extremely interesting to me. The European press, the U.S. press, the South American press, the East Asian press all raised questions about the excessive violence of the Gaza assault. It was very strange to see how the Israeli media made the claim that people on the outside do not understand; that people on the outside are anti-Semitic; that people on the outside are blaming Israel for defending themselves when they themselves, if attacked, would do the exact same thing.
Judith Butler: As a Jew, I was taught it was ethically imperative to speak up - Haaretz - Israel News
Vanunu: Take me off list of Nobel peace prize nominees - Haaretz - Israel News
Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu has again asked to be removed from a list of Nobel Peace Prize nominees, the head of the Oslo-based Norwegian Nobel Institute said Wednesday.
"He has written letters to us this year and last year also, where he stated explicitly that he did not want to be a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize," Nobel Institute Director Geir Lundestad told the German Press Agency DPA.
Vanunu, a former nuclear technician who was jailed for leaking details of Israel's nuclear program to a British newspaper in 1986, cited that he did not want to be "associated " with Shimon Peres, a former Nobel Peace Prize laureate and current president of Israel.
"The reason he gave was that Shimon Peres had received the Nobel Peace Prize, and Peres he alleged was the father of the Israeli atomic bomb and he did not want to be associated with Peres in any way," Lundestad said.
Vanunu was released from prison in 2004 after serving an 18-year sentence for treason. In a letter published last year he claimed that Peres "was the man who ordered my kidnapping" in Rome in 1986.
Lundestad said it was unusual that potential nominees make such requests, noting that in 1973 Le Duc Tho - North Vietnam's chief negotiator in the armistice talks with the U.S. - declined to accept the prize he shared with his US counterpart, Henry Kissinger.
In 1990, there was also "debate within the Sakharov family" about returning the prize given in 1975 to physicist and human rights Andrei Sakharov when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev received it, Lundestad added.
The Nobel Institute was set up to assist the five-member Nobel Committee that selects the peace prize, one of several prizes endowed by Swedish industrialist and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel.
In 2009, the coveted prize was awarded to U.S. President Barack Obama.
A record 205 nominations, including 33 organizations, were made in 2009. Vanunu was one of them. The committee has yet to announce its final tally for 2010 but Lundestad indicated a new record was likely.
The Nobel Committee advises that nominations be kept undisclosed but there are no rules against the procedure allowing plenty of speculation before the announcement, normally in mid-October.
Vanunu: Take me off list of Nobel peace prize nominees - Haaretz - Israel News
"He has written letters to us this year and last year also, where he stated explicitly that he did not want to be a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize," Nobel Institute Director Geir Lundestad told the German Press Agency DPA.
Vanunu, a former nuclear technician who was jailed for leaking details of Israel's nuclear program to a British newspaper in 1986, cited that he did not want to be "associated " with Shimon Peres, a former Nobel Peace Prize laureate and current president of Israel.
 | Advertisement |
"The reason he gave was that Shimon Peres had received the Nobel Peace Prize, and Peres he alleged was the father of the Israeli atomic bomb and he did not want to be associated with Peres in any way," Lundestad said.
Vanunu was released from prison in 2004 after serving an 18-year sentence for treason. In a letter published last year he claimed that Peres "was the man who ordered my kidnapping" in Rome in 1986.
Lundestad said it was unusual that potential nominees make such requests, noting that in 1973 Le Duc Tho - North Vietnam's chief negotiator in the armistice talks with the U.S. - declined to accept the prize he shared with his US counterpart, Henry Kissinger.
In 1990, there was also "debate within the Sakharov family" about returning the prize given in 1975 to physicist and human rights Andrei Sakharov when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev received it, Lundestad added.
The Nobel Institute was set up to assist the five-member Nobel Committee that selects the peace prize, one of several prizes endowed by Swedish industrialist and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel.
In 2009, the coveted prize was awarded to U.S. President Barack Obama.
A record 205 nominations, including 33 organizations, were made in 2009. Vanunu was one of them. The committee has yet to announce its final tally for 2010 but Lundestad indicated a new record was likely.
The Nobel Committee advises that nominations be kept undisclosed but there are no rules against the procedure allowing plenty of speculation before the announcement, normally in mid-October.
Vanunu: Take me off list of Nobel peace prize nominees - Haaretz - Israel News
Gates: European Aversion to War a Danger to Peace
My comment on digg to a digg friend:
You know, caferrell, 'aversion to war a danger to peace' - is like Carroll's 'Alice Through the Looking Glass'.
Orwell's '1984' fictional alt reality becomes more real, while what should be real - truth, justice, honor - becomes more like fiction day by sanity challenging day.
Gates: European Aversion to War a Danger to Peace
You know, caferrell, 'aversion to war a danger to peace' - is like Carroll's 'Alice Through the Looking Glass'.
Orwell's '1984' fictional alt reality becomes more real, while what should be real - truth, justice, honor - becomes more like fiction day by sanity challenging day.
Gates: European Aversion to War a Danger to Peace
Israel Goes Rogue by Justin Raimondo -- Antiwar.com
Good article. Argues the international passport and travel security system
has been fatally compromised by Israel's Mossad kill squad, and suggests it is time
for America to abolish dual citizenship. (The passports that were forged by Mossad
stole the identities of Israelis with dual citizenship in order to pull off the Dubai
murder of a high-ranking Hamas official there.)
Israel Goes Rogue by Justin Raimondo -- Antiwar.com
has been fatally compromised by Israel's Mossad kill squad, and suggests it is time
for America to abolish dual citizenship. (The passports that were forged by Mossad
stole the identities of Israelis with dual citizenship in order to pull off the Dubai
murder of a high-ranking Hamas official there.)
Israel Goes Rogue by Justin Raimondo -- Antiwar.com
February 23, 2010
Hamas to EU: Put Israel on terrorism list | JTA - Jewish & Israel News
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Hamas asked the European Union to include Israel on a list of countries that support terrorism.
"We urge the EU to include the Zionist entity on the list of countries that support terrorism, as it represents a threat to international peace," Hamas said in a statement released Monday.
Hamas has accused Israel of being responsible for last month's assassination of a Hamas commander, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, in a Dubai hotel.
The United States and the European Union consider Hamas a terrorist organization.
European Union ministers met Monday in Brussels.
Hamas to EU: Put Israel on terrorism list | JTA - Jewish & Israel News
Unstated Script of the Wiesel Open Letter to President Obama
By William A. Cook February 23, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- Earlier this month, the Wiesel Foundation for Humanity published, as an advertisement, an open letter to the President of the United States and the leaders of France, Russia, Britain and Germany, a letter carried by the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune. The issue eliciting the need for such a public letter, essentially a letter written to the world, stood boldly as a heading: “How Long Can We Stand Idly By And Watch The Scandal In Iran Unfold?” It occurred to me as I read this piece, signed by a bevy of Nobel Prize winners, that something was missing, some subtext that was not enunciated, some “second prayer” as Mark Twain noted in his satire “The War Prayer,” penned in 1904-5, a second prayer unuttered that accompanies the first. Twain’s satire castigated the government of his day for the needless wars they inflicted on defenseless people as it began America’s quest for empire. He chastised the “sheeples” of his day who drank in the sacred words of their ministers of war who joined the government in its “holy” quest to bring enlightenment to the pagan hordes that lived in distant lands across the seas. That second prayer Twain delivered through an emissary of “the Throne—a message from Almighty God.” Apparently Elie Wiesel has taken it upon himself to direct the governments of the world in his quest for domination of the mid-east, especially the “cruel and oppressive, irresponsible and senseless, the shameless” regime that dictates the affairs of the Iranian State. Hence the letter: We the undersigned urgently appeal to you and the other leaders of the world, to use your prestige and power to put an end to this outrage. The situation in Iran is not improving; in fact, it is worsening every day. The cruel and oppressive regime of “Supreme Leader” Ali Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad, whose irresponsible and senseless nuclear ambitions threaten the entire world, continues to wage a shameless war against its own people. Human rights violations have now attained new levels of horror. Thousands of the regime’s political adversaries are being arrested, imprisoned, tortured, raped, and killed, many by hanging…opposition leaders assassinated…human rights activists … behind bars…indiscriminate firing on unarmed, peaceful demonstrators…and riot tanks in the capital… What then is the “second prayer,” the subtext that is not enunciated in Wiesel’s plea to the leaders of the world? Could it be part of the Israeli Reut Institute’s directions to the Israeli government that it launch as big an offensive in PR as it does militarily against the Palestinians to quell the world-wide outrage against the brutality of the Israeli regime a year ago, and continuing in Gaza? Could it be that the “Foundation for Humanity” has been commandeered to partake in the Israeli government’s Public Relations blitz that is currently saturating the European and American theaters? Could this be an attempt to capitalize on the internal unrest in Iran to direct the people of the world away from the oppression and occupation of the West Bank and Gaza? Could this be an enhancement of the efforts of Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, as he travels to various university campuses, most recently at the University of California Irvine, to promote the virtues of the Israeli state that is “existentially” threatened by Iran? Could it be another approach to silence voices of dissent against another illegal invasion of a mid-east nation, comparable to the barrage being levied at Chancellor Michael Drake of UCI by the Zionist Organization of America for allowing free speech to be expressed at the university? Could this letter be anything other than subterfuge, a coating of deception to hide the reality of the real threat that exists in the mid-east, a way to bury under public relations copy the Goldstone Report to the UN that calls upon the world body to bring the alleged war crimes of Israel before the International Court of Justice? What subtext is not presented to the world through Wiesel’s letter? What happens if we substitute the nation of Israel for the nation of Iran in the text? “The situation in Israel is not improving; in fact, it is worsening every day. The cruel and oppressive regimes of Sharon, Olmert, and now Netanyahu, who maintain an arsenal of nuclear weapons, not just an “ambition” to possess one, threaten the entire world. Human rights violations have now attained new levels of horror with the invasion of Gaza’s defenseless people resulting in the unnecessary slaughter of 1400 civilians and the on-going siege of that imprisoned people for years on end.” What if that letter presented the full picture of Israeli “horror” before the world and asked the simple question, “Why is this tolerated?” Let’s draw up the bill of particulars that is hidden from the world, the subtext, the unsaid prayer no one in this American government wants revealed and certainly no one in Israel wants displayed publicly. What is the true nature of this state of Israel that commands the allegiance of the American people and is now seeking to enlist the governments of the world against its perceived “existential” enemy, Iran? * It is a state without mercy, a state without morals, a state premised on racism, a state built on deception and lies; * a state defiant of international law, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Geneva Conventions that apply to occupying powers; * a state, unlike North Korea or Iran, the other identified Axis of Evil states, that has invaded neighboring states and occupies them; * a state, unlike all nations in the Mid-East, that possesses weapons of mass destruction, including hundreds of nuclear weapons, and refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; * a state that uses cluster bombs, white phosphorus, and other internationally banned weapons of warfare, not only against the innocent people of Lebanon, but also against the defenseless people of Palestine; * a state that proclaims itself above the law as it executes individuals without arrest, without charges brought, without counsel, without habeas corpus, and without trial by jury; * a state that imprisons over 10,000 Palestinians without charge and without due process; * a state that tortures those it imprisons; * a state that constructs a wall, in defiance of the International Court of Justice and the United Nations, that encircles the Palestinians with full intention of decimating their economy and hence their livelihood as well as their chance to create a state of their own, while inflicting a psychological humiliation that is inhumane and in defiance of every principle of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; * a state that has systematically confiscated, appropriated, annexed, and assimilated virtually all land belonging to the Palestinians in a sixty-year period of time, leaving them approximately 14 percent of their original land, making it the greatest visible land theft known to human kind in our day; * a state whose laws protect a group that belongs to a religion and denies equality of citizenship to all others including the indigenous people of the land; * a state that has defied more than 160 UNGA and 39 UNSC resolutions, demanding it act as a civilized state abiding by international law and protocol; * a state that will not tolerate interference by the UN in its calculated genocide of the Palestinian people; * a state that, through its Zionist supporters in America, particularly AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), influences U.S. policy in the Mid-East that has resulted in the unlawful invasion of Iraq and irrational economic and political procedures against Syria and Iran; * a state that has convinced our Congress that it provide billions of dollars to ensure that the state of Israel continues this genocide of the Palestinian people; * a state that proclaims itself a democracy but is not and, with malicious intent, confiscates the money belonging to a democratically elected government in Palestine and arrests their representatives without charge or trial; * a state that proclaims peace but creates conditions that prevent peace; * a state that, like the United States under Bush, has reached the nadir of the civilized state, a return to lawless barbarism inflicted on the weak by the strong, the imposition of the will of the few on the many; * and, finally, in all brazen hypocrisy, a state that cries to the world that it is the victim of unspeakable cruelty and in constant peril of obliteration by forces within and without. And we wonder why the United States is castigated throughout the world when it supports this rogue state, this state without mercy. Great is truth, sayeth the Prophet, and it shall prevail, if not for those now living perhaps for the dead who have suffered the consequence of this deceit; it is to them, “to the dead,” says Voltaire, “we owe only truth.” Thus ends the “second prayer.” William A. Cook is Professor of English at the University of La Verne in southern California. He serves as senior editor at MWC News and has written for Counterpunch, the Palestine Chronicle, the Pacific Free Press, the Atlantic Free Press, Information Clearing House, Dissident Voice among others. His books on the mid-east include Tracking Deception: Bush Mid-East Policy, The Rape of Palestine, and a fictional work, The Chronicles of Nefaria, to be published soon in Arabic. |
: Information Clearing House - ICH
CCR Challenges Patriot Act Material Support Law in Supreme Court Today | Center for Constitutional Rights
February 23, 2010, Washington and New York – Today, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, the first case to challenge a portion of the Patriot Act before the highest court in the land. The case, originally brought in 1998 on behalf of a human rights group, a retired federal administrative judge, a doctor, and several nonprofit groups, challenges the constitutionality of the law that makes it a crime to provide “material support” to groups the administration has designated as “terrorist.” In particular, the plaintiffs charge that the law goes too far in making speech advocating lawful, nonviolent activity a crime. The lower courts have unanimously declared several provisions of the law – including one added by the Patriot Act – unconstitutionally vague because they encompass speech and force citizens to guess as to their meaning.
Peace and human rights groups like the Carter Center and Human Rights Watch, academics and the media, and non-partisan and conservative groups filed amicus briefs in the case, as did a group of former McCarthy era blacklist victims who argued that the Court should not allow the government to repeat the mistakes of the McCarthy era in the name of cutting off material support to organizations the State Department has labeled “terrorist.” That group, which included individuals and family members of individuals subjected to the Hollywood blacklists, argued that the “material support” statute parallels the McCarthy era laws because it imposes criminal penalties on speech and association – without requiring any proof that the speech or association is tied to violent or criminal activity.
The case challenges those aspects of the “material support” statute that criminalize pure speech – specifically the prohibitions on providing “training,” “personnel,” “expert advice or assistance,” and “service.” Under the law, any speech that falls within these terms – no matter how peaceable and nonviolent – is a crime if communicated to, for, or with the collaboration of any organization placed on a list of “foreign terrorist organizations” maintained by the State Department. Convictions can result in sentences of 15 years to life. According to the government, the statute requires no showing that the individual intended to further any act of terrorism or violence.
Said CCR Cooperating Attorney David Cole, “This statute is so sweeping that it treats human rights advocates as criminal terrorists, and threatens them with 15 years in prison for advocating nonviolent means to resolve disputes. In our view, the First Amendment does not permit the government to make advocating human rights or other lawful, peaceable activity a crime simply because it is done for the benefit of, or in conjunction with, a group the Secretary of State has blacklisted.”
The lower courts held unconstitutionally vague the law’s prohibition on the provision of “services,” “expert advice or assistance,” and “training,” reasoning that these terms could easily encompass a wide range of lawful speech, such as providing training in international law. The Obama administration sought Supreme Court review of that decision.
Plaintiffs in the case include the Humanitarian Law Project (HLP), a human rights organization in Los Angeles that seeks to provide human rights advocacy training to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the main Kurdish political party in Turkey, and a former federal administrative law judge, Ralph Fertig, who is the president of the HLP. Once the State Department designated the PKK a terrorist organization, it became a crime for HLP to continue to train the group in human rights advocacy, even though that assistance is designed to reduce violence by encouraging peaceful ways of resolving conflict.
Said plaintiff Ralph D. Fertig, JD, ACSW, retired U.S. Administrative Judge and Clinical Associate Professor, University of Southern California School of Social Work, “I have fought violence and terrorism all my life, but it is my fear that the vagueness of the statute will inhibit human rights groups from helping oppressed people to use non-violence to resolve their conflicts simply because they may be represented by organizations designated as terrorist. It would be a great loss if we could no longer work toward peaceful resolution of conflicts because we fear criminal prosecution by our own government for trying to help. This seems to work exactly counter to our interests, and I hope the court will see that.”
The Patriot Act added a prohibition on the provision of “expert advice or assistance” to the statute. After earlier court decisions declared that and other parts of the statute unconstitutional, Congress amended it in 2004 to try to correct the infirmities. However, the district court and court of appeals concluded that the prohibitions on “services,” “expert advice and assistance,” and “training” remained unconstitutionally vague. The court of appeals decision the administration is seeking review of is the sixth ruling from the lower courts since 1998 finding significant parts of the material support statute to be unconstitutionally vague.
In a press release by the American Civil Liberties Union which filed the amicus brief on behalf of the Carter Center, former President Jimmy Carter said:
“Our work to end violence sometimes requires interacting directly with groups that have engaged in it. Unfortunately, efforts like ours, and those of the many other human rights groups who signed onto this brief, are hindered by the extremely vague 'material support' law that leaves us guessing whether our work to encourage peace could actually be considered illegal. Sadly, the law being challenged in court – which is aimed at putting an end to terrorism – actually threatens the work of humanitarian groups that share the same goal. We hope the Supreme Court will overturn this law so that groups like ours can continue the important work of advancing peace and freedom without concern of prosecution.”
For more information on the case, including briefs and a detailed explanation of material support, visit CCR's legal case page.
The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.
CCR Challenges Patriot Act Material Support Law in Supreme Court Today | Center for Constitutional Rights
Peace and human rights groups like the Carter Center and Human Rights Watch, academics and the media, and non-partisan and conservative groups filed amicus briefs in the case, as did a group of former McCarthy era blacklist victims who argued that the Court should not allow the government to repeat the mistakes of the McCarthy era in the name of cutting off material support to organizations the State Department has labeled “terrorist.” That group, which included individuals and family members of individuals subjected to the Hollywood blacklists, argued that the “material support” statute parallels the McCarthy era laws because it imposes criminal penalties on speech and association – without requiring any proof that the speech or association is tied to violent or criminal activity.
The case challenges those aspects of the “material support” statute that criminalize pure speech – specifically the prohibitions on providing “training,” “personnel,” “expert advice or assistance,” and “service.” Under the law, any speech that falls within these terms – no matter how peaceable and nonviolent – is a crime if communicated to, for, or with the collaboration of any organization placed on a list of “foreign terrorist organizations” maintained by the State Department. Convictions can result in sentences of 15 years to life. According to the government, the statute requires no showing that the individual intended to further any act of terrorism or violence.
Said CCR Cooperating Attorney David Cole, “This statute is so sweeping that it treats human rights advocates as criminal terrorists, and threatens them with 15 years in prison for advocating nonviolent means to resolve disputes. In our view, the First Amendment does not permit the government to make advocating human rights or other lawful, peaceable activity a crime simply because it is done for the benefit of, or in conjunction with, a group the Secretary of State has blacklisted.”
The lower courts held unconstitutionally vague the law’s prohibition on the provision of “services,” “expert advice or assistance,” and “training,” reasoning that these terms could easily encompass a wide range of lawful speech, such as providing training in international law. The Obama administration sought Supreme Court review of that decision.
Plaintiffs in the case include the Humanitarian Law Project (HLP), a human rights organization in Los Angeles that seeks to provide human rights advocacy training to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the main Kurdish political party in Turkey, and a former federal administrative law judge, Ralph Fertig, who is the president of the HLP. Once the State Department designated the PKK a terrorist organization, it became a crime for HLP to continue to train the group in human rights advocacy, even though that assistance is designed to reduce violence by encouraging peaceful ways of resolving conflict.
Said plaintiff Ralph D. Fertig, JD, ACSW, retired U.S. Administrative Judge and Clinical Associate Professor, University of Southern California School of Social Work, “I have fought violence and terrorism all my life, but it is my fear that the vagueness of the statute will inhibit human rights groups from helping oppressed people to use non-violence to resolve their conflicts simply because they may be represented by organizations designated as terrorist. It would be a great loss if we could no longer work toward peaceful resolution of conflicts because we fear criminal prosecution by our own government for trying to help. This seems to work exactly counter to our interests, and I hope the court will see that.”
The Patriot Act added a prohibition on the provision of “expert advice or assistance” to the statute. After earlier court decisions declared that and other parts of the statute unconstitutional, Congress amended it in 2004 to try to correct the infirmities. However, the district court and court of appeals concluded that the prohibitions on “services,” “expert advice and assistance,” and “training” remained unconstitutionally vague. The court of appeals decision the administration is seeking review of is the sixth ruling from the lower courts since 1998 finding significant parts of the material support statute to be unconstitutionally vague.
In a press release by the American Civil Liberties Union which filed the amicus brief on behalf of the Carter Center, former President Jimmy Carter said:
“Our work to end violence sometimes requires interacting directly with groups that have engaged in it. Unfortunately, efforts like ours, and those of the many other human rights groups who signed onto this brief, are hindered by the extremely vague 'material support' law that leaves us guessing whether our work to encourage peace could actually be considered illegal. Sadly, the law being challenged in court – which is aimed at putting an end to terrorism – actually threatens the work of humanitarian groups that share the same goal. We hope the Supreme Court will overturn this law so that groups like ours can continue the important work of advancing peace and freedom without concern of prosecution.”
For more information on the case, including briefs and a detailed explanation of material support, visit CCR's legal case page.
The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.
CCR Challenges Patriot Act Material Support Law in Supreme Court Today | Center for Constitutional Rights
I vociferously object to trade, support or normalization of ties to Apartheid Israel
Premier McGuinty,
It has come to my attention that you intend, on behalf of
the taxpayers of Ontario, to foster trade ties
with the State of Israel.
I cannot state my objection to this morally bankrupt move strongly enough.
Israel is a criminal Apartheid regime that daily commits horrific crimes
against the powerless Palestinian people. These crimes include denial of
access to education, justice or medical care. Their taxes are stolen from
them. They are denied access to water. They are
denied security of persons. The State of Israel destroys their homes, their
livelihoods, their crops and orchards, civilian infrastructure, and any hope for the future of their
suffering children.
Far from encouraging normalization of ties with Israel, I demand that my political representatives
boycott, divest and sanction the racist, criminal state of Israel until the odious siege of Gaza
is lifted, and the military occupation of the West Bank comes to an end.
How dare you propose support from Ontarians for the oppression and ethnic cleansing
of the Palestinian people.
Writer and activist,
Diane V. McLoughlin
www.mcloughlinpost.com
It has come to my attention that you intend, on behalf of
the taxpayers of Ontario, to foster trade ties
with the State of Israel.
I cannot state my objection to this morally bankrupt move strongly enough.
Israel is a criminal Apartheid regime that daily commits horrific crimes
against the powerless Palestinian people. These crimes include denial of
access to education, justice or medical care. Their taxes are stolen from
them. They are denied access to water. They are
denied security of persons. The State of Israel destroys their homes, their
livelihoods, their crops and orchards, civilian infrastructure, and any hope for the future of their
suffering children.
Far from encouraging normalization of ties with Israel, I demand that my political representatives
boycott, divest and sanction the racist, criminal state of Israel until the odious siege of Gaza
is lifted, and the military occupation of the West Bank comes to an end.
How dare you propose support from Ontarians for the oppression and ethnic cleansing
of the Palestinian people.
Writer and activist,
Diane V. McLoughlin
www.mcloughlinpost.com
February 22, 2010
Cut the "ambiguity", ambassador, or pack your bags Global Redress Information & Analysis
Intro: Stuart Littlewood challenges UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband – and the rest of the British Establishment – to explain to the British public his government's support for Israeli crimes and criminals.
Hey, Mr Foreign Secretary Miliband,
Let me tell you something. If I were the British foreign secretary there would be no more "friendly chats". The Israeli ambassador would have 24 hours to find a cure for his "ambiguity" or pack his bags. How dare that lawless, racist regime smugly sit in its London offices and keep us guessing whether or not they have abused our sovereignty and hijacked our passport system?
Cut the ambiguity, ambassador, or pack your bags Global Redress Information & Analysis
Hey, Mr Foreign Secretary Miliband,
Let me tell you something. If I were the British foreign secretary there would be no more "friendly chats". The Israeli ambassador would have 24 hours to find a cure for his "ambiguity" or pack his bags. How dare that lawless, racist regime smugly sit in its London offices and keep us guessing whether or not they have abused our sovereignty and hijacked our passport system?
Cut the ambiguity, ambassador, or pack your bags Global Redress Information & Analysis
February 21, 2010
February 20, 2010
Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com
Excerpt: All of this would be an interesting though not terribly important semantic matter if not for the fact that the term Terrorist plays a central role in our political debates. It is the all-justifying term for anything the U.S. Government does. Invasions, torture, due-process-free detentions, military commissions, drone attacks, warrantless surveillance, obsessive secrecy, and even assassinations of American citizens are all justified by the claim that it's only being done to "Terrorists," who, by definition, have no rights. Even worse, one becomes a "Terrorist" not through any judicial adjudication or other formal process, but solely by virtue of the untested, unchecked say-so of the Executive Branch. The President decrees someone to be a Terrorist and that's the end of that: uncritical followers of both political parties immediately justify anything done to the person on the ground that he's a Terrorist (by which they actually mean: he's been accused of being one, though that distinction -- between presidential accusations and proof -- is not one they recognize).
If we're really going to vest virtually unlimited power in the Government to do anything it wants to people they call "Terrorists," we ought at least to have a common understanding of what the term means. But there is none. It's just become a malleable, all-justifying term to allow the U.S. Government carte blanche to do whatever it wants to Muslims it does not like or who do not like it (i.e., The Terrorists). It's really more of a hypnotic mantra than an actual word: its mere utterance causes the nation blindly to cheer on whatever is done against the Muslims who are so labeled.
Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com
If we're really going to vest virtually unlimited power in the Government to do anything it wants to people they call "Terrorists," we ought at least to have a common understanding of what the term means. But there is none. It's just become a malleable, all-justifying term to allow the U.S. Government carte blanche to do whatever it wants to Muslims it does not like or who do not like it (i.e., The Terrorists). It's really more of a hypnotic mantra than an actual word: its mere utterance causes the nation blindly to cheer on whatever is done against the Muslims who are so labeled.
Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com
February 19, 2010
Bullying examined
What does that mean, 'the Ontario government and school boards have invested significantly in anti-bullying education'? If it means that those with actual power - the adults in the room - continue to choose to sit on their hands if bully 'educated' children continue to bully, then it means jack. And what about bullying teachers -teachers that are emotionally and psychologically abusive? Who takes a shred of responsibility for them? What is fundamentally missing in the public education system is ACCOUNTABILITY. If you can't or won't do your job to minimum standards then you are out. That should be the easy to understand, clear as a bell law of the land. If you abuse or neglect the children in your care responsible adults - fellow teachers, principals, parents - should speak up. Too many times, it doesn't happen. Why not? Because the 'system' protects the bad at the expense of the good.
Bullying examined
Bullying examined
February 18, 2010
ei: Israel's new strategy: "sabotage" and "attack" the global justice movement
Conclusion of article: What ties together all these strategies is that they are aimed at frustrating, delaying and distracting attention from the fundamental issue: that Israel -- despite its claims to be a liberal and democratic state -- is an ultranationalist ethnocracy that relies on the violent suppression of the most fundamental rights of millions of Palestinians, soon to be a demographic majority, to maintain the status quo. There is no "game changer" in Reut's new strategy.
Reut is apparently unaware even of the irony of trying to reform "Brand Israel" as something cuddly, while at the same time publicly recommending that Israel's notorious spies "sabotage" peace groups on foreign soil.
But there are two lessons we must heed: Reut's analysis vindicates the effectiveness of the BDS strategy, and as Israeli elites increasingly fear for the long-term prospects of the Zionist project they are likely to be more ruthless, unscrupulous and desperate than ever.
ei: Israel's new strategy: "sabotage" and "attack" the global justice movement
Reut is apparently unaware even of the irony of trying to reform "Brand Israel" as something cuddly, while at the same time publicly recommending that Israel's notorious spies "sabotage" peace groups on foreign soil.
But there are two lessons we must heed: Reut's analysis vindicates the effectiveness of the BDS strategy, and as Israeli elites increasingly fear for the long-term prospects of the Zionist project they are likely to be more ruthless, unscrupulous and desperate than ever.
ei: Israel's new strategy: "sabotage" and "attack" the global justice movement
February 17, 2010
1,000 Architects and Engineers Call for Grand Jury into 9/11!
1,000 Architects and Engineers Call for Grand Jury into 9/11! This GLOBAL MEDIA EVENT will be simultaneously hosted in over 23 cities worldwide!
1,000 Signatures from “Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth (AE911Truth)” to be Submitted Today to Congress—Petition Cites New Scientific Evidence of Explosive Demolition at WTC
This GLOBAL MEDIA EVENT will be simultaneously hosted in over 23 cities worldwide!
WHEN: Friday February 19, 2010, 10:00-11:00 AM
WHERE: Ground Zero, Manhattan (in front of the PATH Station)
WHERE: Ground Zero, Manhattan (in front of the PATH Station)
PHOTO AVAILABILITY:
Actor Daniel Sunjata, and Author Sander Hicks, for AE911Truth, will discuss the evidence and the significance of this petition with the public at Ground Zero.
Actor Daniel Sunjata, and Author Sander Hicks, for AE911Truth, will discuss the evidence and the significance of this petition with the public at Ground Zero.
More than 1,000 independent architects and engineers world-wide now support the call for an independent investigation into the destruction of the three World Trade Center buildings (1, 2, and 7).
These scientists have signed a 9/11 Truth Petition calling on Congress to launch a new investigation. AE911truth.org calls for a Grand Jury probe into John Gross and Shyam Sunder, managers of the reports by National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST).
EVIDENCE:
* The discovery of advanced explosive nano-thermitic material found in each of the WTC dust samples by top nuclear physicist Dr. Steven E. Jones, and a peer-reviewed panel of top international scientists.
* Eyewitness testimony cited multiple experiences of secondary explosions, even before the first plane hit WTC 1.
* Eyewitness testimony cited multiple experiences of secondary explosions, even before the first plane hit WTC 1.
The implications of these findings have the potential of profound impact on the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial.
GLOBAL DAY OF MEDIA OUTREACH
This press conference will be simultaneously hosted in over 23 cities worldwide, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Seattle, Portland, Chicago, Alexandria, VA, Tampa, as well as cities in Canada, Belgium, Denmark, Australia and New Zealand. The SF press conference will be accessible to media (audio and video) via webinar at www.ae911truth.org. at 11:00am PST on Friday Feb 19, 2010.
This press conference will be simultaneously hosted in over 23 cities worldwide, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Seattle, Portland, Chicago, Alexandria, VA, Tampa, as well as cities in Canada, Belgium, Denmark, Australia and New Zealand. The SF press conference will be accessible to media (audio and video) via webinar at www.ae911truth.org. at 11:00am PST on Friday Feb 19, 2010.
BACKGROUND:
9/11 Commission Chairmen Kean & Hamilton seriously criticized their own Commission in their book "Without Precedent." They complained their investigation was "set up to fail" and that they had been lied to by NORAD. Their special counsel, John Farmer, recently wrote, "that "at some level of the government…there was an agreement not to tell the truth about what happened.”
9/11 Commission Chairmen Kean & Hamilton seriously criticized their own Commission in their book "Without Precedent." They complained their investigation was "set up to fail" and that they had been lied to by NORAD. Their special counsel, John Farmer, recently wrote, "that "at some level of the government…there was an agreement not to tell the truth about what happened.”
About AE911Truth
AE911Truth is a non-partisan association of architects, engineers, and affiliates, who are dedicated to exposing the falsehoods and to revealing truths about the destruction of all three WTC high-rises on 9/11/2001. http://www.AE911Truth.org
AE911Truth is a non-partisan association of architects, engineers, and affiliates, who are dedicated to exposing the falsehoods and to revealing truths about the destruction of all three WTC high-rises on 9/11/2001. http://www.AE911Truth.org
Background on Sander Hicks, AE911Truth Affiliate:
Author and journalist, Hicks hosted the “We Demand Transparency” conference, which featured Richard Gage, founder of AE911Truth. Hicks served as an “expert witness” on 9/11 in a recent NJ trial. See: http://sanderhicks.com/Misprision.html
Author and journalist, Hicks hosted the “We Demand Transparency” conference, which featured Richard Gage, founder of AE911Truth. Hicks served as an “expert witness” on 9/11 in a recent NJ trial. See: http://sanderhicks.com/Misprision.html
Background on Daniel Sunjata:
Daniel Sunjata is Tony-nominated actor and star of stage, screen and TV. He co-stars in the FX television show, “Rescue Me” alongside Dennis Leary. Earlier this year, a “Rescue Me” subplot even incorporated his belief that the attacks were an “inside job.”
Daniel Sunjata is Tony-nominated actor and star of stage, screen and TV. He co-stars in the FX television show, “Rescue Me” alongside Dennis Leary. Earlier this year, a “Rescue Me” subplot even incorporated his belief that the attacks were an “inside job.”
More Info:
Sander Hicks, for AE911Truth.org,
347 446 4461 (Cell) • 347 627 4705 (W)
sanderhicksdotcom@gmail.com
Sander Hicks, for AE911Truth.org,
347 446 4461 (Cell) • 347 627 4705 (W)
sanderhicksdotcom@gmail.com
9/11 Truth Returns to Left Forum:
http://sanderhicks.com/leftforum2010.html
http://sanderhicks.com/leftforum2010.html
Truth is Revolutionary.
Truth is Anti-imperialist.
We are Unstoppable.
Truth is Anti-imperialist.
We are Unstoppable.
Support the Goldstone Report
We demand accountability for all victims, respect for the rule of law, international law and human rights.
February 16, 2010
February 15, 2010
Petition: Bring Baroness Tonge back now
We, the undersigned, object to the dismissal of Baroness Jenny Tonge from her post as health spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats simply because she suggested that Israel investigate charges made against it.
The party's action is a serious threat to the principles for which our country is known -- democracy and free speech. Even more specifically, it makes a mockery of your party's claim to "give power back to people." Instead of encouraging openness and the search for truth no matter how uncomfortable the accusation or who is accused, you are demonstrating to your constituents that the powerful and the "status quo" will be protected.
The comment for which you are punishing Jenny Tonge merely illustrated her commitment to your party's founding principles. An independent investigation would be the most ethical response to serious charges that Israel is continuing to practice an illegal act (organ theft) that it has already admitted to committing in earlier years.
By firing Baroness Tonge instead of backing her call for an investigation, or at least supporting her decision to do so, you make evident that the party only believes in the search for truth when powerful allies are not involved.
Please demonstrate that the Liberal Democrats are indeed -- as your Web site states -- "brave enough to make a fresh start." Reverse your decision and reinstate Jenny Tonge.
Petition: Bring Baroness Tonge back now
The party's action is a serious threat to the principles for which our country is known -- democracy and free speech. Even more specifically, it makes a mockery of your party's claim to "give power back to people." Instead of encouraging openness and the search for truth no matter how uncomfortable the accusation or who is accused, you are demonstrating to your constituents that the powerful and the "status quo" will be protected.
The comment for which you are punishing Jenny Tonge merely illustrated her commitment to your party's founding principles. An independent investigation would be the most ethical response to serious charges that Israel is continuing to practice an illegal act (organ theft) that it has already admitted to committing in earlier years.
By firing Baroness Tonge instead of backing her call for an investigation, or at least supporting her decision to do so, you make evident that the party only believes in the search for truth when powerful allies are not involved.
Please demonstrate that the Liberal Democrats are indeed -- as your Web site states -- "brave enough to make a fresh start." Reverse your decision and reinstate Jenny Tonge.
Petition: Bring Baroness Tonge back now
February 13, 2010
February 11, 2010
Border race profiling a reality, report finds - thestar.com
OTTAWA–A civil liberties coalition report puts a human face on the hassles and horrors of travelling, with multiple anecdotes suggesting religious and racial profiling is a reality when crossing the border.
Border race profiling a reality, report finds - thestar.com
Border race profiling a reality, report finds - thestar.com
February 09, 2010
February 06, 2010
February 04, 2010
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However, there is too much over-generalization in your analysis and I find there is a certain over-zealousness in demonizing on the one hand, and lumping in on the other.
In the last federal election I did my own detailed analysis of all of the presidential candidates' political platforms. The candidates I endorsed were, in no particular order Ron Paul, Ralph Nader, Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel and Cynthia McKinney.
The one thing these individuals had in common that I was particularly interested in was a conviction that our foreign military adventures were wrong and that they would end them if elected president.
In light of this, many wondered whether Ron Paul was making a mistake remaining in the Republican Party, rather than running as an independent. Mr. Paul did respond to these concerns forthrightly by explaining that he always felt most at home ideologically in the republican camp.
I believe that it ought to give us pause amidst the din of the peripheral riff raff that Ron Paul won that recent straw poll at a republican party gathering - however narrow the margins. It was apparently enough to cause the republican party establishment to fall over themselves in their attempts to poo poo and minimize the significance of it.
If Mr. Paul beats out the rest of them by popular vote, it seems to me it has to have everything to do with what Mr. Paul stands for. And one of the most important things he stands for is the vision of America's founding fathers as a republic that encourages others to do good when it comes to foreign affairs, and certainly to enjoy trade with other nations, while limiting ourselves when it comes to military intervention rather than making enemies for ourselves all over the planet.
A note on Mr. Rich's sideswipe against 9/11 'truthers'. I find it more than just a little disappointing that Americans, including a group of over one thousand structural engineers who are trying to demand the investigation of evidence, of facts, on 9/11 - would be denigrated as nut jobs.
Post-9/11 was one of the worst periods for lack of journalistic integrity in the history of the American press. There is no reason whatever not to recover from past mistakes. Some NYT readership will not be happy with the truth if it runs counter to assumptions or preconceptions. But if the world is to avoid any more war we must have the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
With Obama saying out of one side of his mouth that he wants to help reduce the number of nukes in the world, while agreeing to vastly increase the budget for nuclear bombs out of the other side, it is going to take all of us working together to see us all through to a better day.
At the moment, the parallels between Orwell's '1984' and the current American government grow starker. War is NOT peace. And Building Seven was not hit by any plane but it fell straight down in seconds anyway.
www.mcloughlinpost.blogspot.com