Who is afraid of the 'Golden Rule

Rebel Newsflash: Who is afraid of the 'Golden Rule'? (plus 46 more items)

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• Who is afraid of the 'Golden Rule'?
• Wednesday: 1 Iraqi Killed, 2 Wounded
• The Old Right's Jewish Problem
• What to Do About the Wars
• A Warning to the President
• Obama Drops 2009 Pledge to Withdraw Combat Troops From Iraq
• Can Americans Who Oppose War and Empire Work Together?
• We Haven't Waited This Long for Olivia Munn
• Tuesday: 53 Iraqis Killed, 123 Wounded
• The Liberal Media: Rest in Peace
• Playing Soccer in Gaza
• Revered Rabbi Preaches Slaughter of Gentile Babies
• A Powerful Testimony to Courage – A Book Review
• Israeli Settlers Step Up 'Price-Tag' Policy
• Newt Gingrich: A Menace to Society?
• Despite Iraq Withdrawal, Greater Mideast Not Looking Good
• The Trouble With Unconstitutional Wars
• Code of Military Justice
• GOP Blank Check For War?
• Get Low: Stellar Cast, Shoddy Screenplay
• Biassholes: Liberal Media Bias and the JournoList Scandal
• Monday: 14 Iraqis Killed, 36 Wounded
• Oh! What a Lovely Afghan War
• Honduran Junta Murdering Journalists
• In Bed With the US Army
• Anti-Defamers Defame Muslims
• Catalonia Bullfighting Ban: Purely Political and Totally Impractical
• Laura Linney Stars in 'The Big C' and a Gainsbourg Biopic Takes Off
• Chelsea Clinton's Wedding Wows the World
• Sunday: 5 Iraqis Wounded
• Palestinian Detainee Abuse During Operation Cast Lead
• Saturday: 15 Iraqis Killed, 39 Wounded
• Palestine Takes Center Stage in the Antiwar Movement
• Hague Whitewashes Israeli Crimes on the High Seas
• Occupied Palestine: Home Demolitions, Dispossessions and Residency Rights Revoked
• Sanctions Give China an Advantage in Iran
• Poll: Pakistanis Dislike US, Taliban, and al-Qaeda
• Report: 'Correlation' Between US Aid and Colombian Army Killings
• Clooney's Girlfriend's Scandal, Little Clinton Weds, and an 'Idol' Shakeup
• Friday: 5 Iraqis Killed, 5 Wounded
• Don't Deny Our Rights: Open Letter to Mahmoud Abbas
• Why We Need WikiLeaks
• Damage Control: Downplaying WikiLeaks Revelations
• Coming Home at Last?
• Deaf, Dumb, and Blind
• Are We in Afghanistan Because We're in Afghanistan?
• The End of (Military) History?

Who is afraid of the 'Golden Rule'? Posted: 04 Aug 2010 09:24 PM PDT The human ability to complicate even the most straightforward questions is beyond amazing. In some cases this is being done quite deliberately, for example in the field of ethics. These days, you can't go through a MBA programme of a reputable business school without being forced to attend some ethics course, usually as part of a compulsory subject such as 'decision making' or 'managing people'.

Wednesday: 1 Iraqi Killed, 2 Wounded Posted: 04 Aug 2010 07:46 AM PDT Only one Iraqi was killed and two more were injured in unusually light violence. Meanwhile, during a speech to the Security Council, U.N. envoy to Iraq, Ad Melkert, warned that the political deadlock is harming infrastructure and services in the fragile country. After spending six years imprisoned on charges of draining the marshlands to punish Shi'ite rebels, a top Saddam associate, Khamis Sirhan al-Muhammadi, was freed because of a lack of sufficient evidence.

The Old Right's Jewish Problem Posted: 04 Aug 2010 06:01 AM PDT The Alternative Right website has posted an interesting symposium on the topic: Is the traditional Right anti-Jewish? Taki starts it off with a fiery rant against the vindictiveness of neoconservatives like Podhoretz and Kristol, presumably the senior ones. They have, Taki says, called him a fascist (a thing they surely would not have done if they had read Taki's memoir Nothing to Declare, with its heartfelt tributes to heroes of the WW2 Greek anti-Nazi resistance—people like Taki's own father).

What to Do About the Wars Posted: 03 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT As President Obama pooh-poohed as old news the many WikiLeaks documents showing the sad state of the conflict in Afghanistan, the chief executive also began an entire month of crowing about keeping his campaign promise to "bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end." But in both wars, the president's strategies are flawed and need to be replaced with new ones. In Iraq, few serious analysts are gullible enough to believe that all U.S. forces will be withdrawn from the country as scheduled by the end of 2011. Most believe that the U.S. government will renegotiate the status of forces agreement with any new Iraqi government – making the heroic assumption that there is a new Iraqi government by next year – to leave some forces permanently in that country. That move would be ill advised, because, although the American media and public seem to believe that Iraq is on the road to becoming a stable democracy, it is very likely that larger-scale violence will resume as U.S. forces are reduced. Recent bombings and violence lead to serious questions about whether Iraqi security forces will be able to handle the already rising ethno-sectarian violence without a substantial American military presence. The various ethno-sectarian militias have never been disarmed and have been likely laying low until the U.S. drawdown is further along, much as the Taliban did in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2005.

A Warning to the President Posted: 03 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT We write to alert you to the likelihood that Israel will attack Iran as early as this month. This would likely lead to a wider war. Israel's leaders would calculate that once the battle is joined, it will be politically untenable for you to give anything less than unstinting support to Israel, no matter how the war started, and that U.S. troops and weaponry would flow freely. Wider war could eventually result in destruction of the state of Israel. This can be stopped, but only if you move quickly to preempt an Israeli attack by publicly condemning such a move before it happens.

Obama Drops 2009 Pledge to Withdraw Combat Troops From Iraq Posted: 03 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT Seventeen months after President Barack Obama pledged to withdraw all combat brigades from Iraq by Sept. 1, 2010, he quietly abandoned that pledge Monday, admitting implicitly that such combat brigades would remain until the end of 2011. Obama declared in a speech to disabled U.S. veterans in Atlanta that "America's combat mission in Iraq" would end by the end of August, to be replaced by a mission of "supporting and training Iraqi security forces."

Can Americans Who Oppose War and Empire Work Together? Posted: 03 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT Lindsey Graham, a war-supporting senator from South Carolina, said what he fears most is a Left-Right alliance against the Afghanistan War. He recognizes that such an alliance could stop war funding and force American troops to return home. But the masters of war may not have to use divide-and-rule tactics, because many war opponents on both sides of the political spectrum seem too willing to divide themselves. The recent war funding vote in Congress, while showing some progress in legislators voting against war, also showed that a Left-only antiwar movement will never succeed in achieving its ends. The Democrats were divided, but that was not enough. Despite broad opposition among Americans to the Afghan War, widespread evidence of its failure, and leaks of tens of thousands of military documents showing that as bad as the war has been reported, it is worse, the Congress voted by a landslide to pour tens of billions into the failed war.

We Haven't Waited This Long for Olivia Munn Posted: 03 Aug 2010 04:00 PM PDT Sometimes being a woman in a man's world gives you the advantage. Yet even in the so-called liberated world, people tend to defer to men. As in the case of Sandra Bullock's ex, Jesse James, the world cast aspersions on the other woman more than on the cheating husband. Myself included. Why? Well, time and time again we see women failing to remember their own desires for equality because they have been indoctrinated by a patriarchal system, and often harbor the same biases as men. Actually, many women are more likely to excuse a man before one of their own because ultimately, the prevailing paradigm favors men. At the same time, we call ourselves liberated women, or even worse, feminists.

Tuesday: 53 Iraqis Killed, 123 Wounded Posted: 03 Aug 2010 06:13 AM PDT A rare car bombing in a southern, Shi'ite city and another flag-planting attack on security forces in the capital were just two of the many attacks witnessed across Iraq today. Overall, at least 53 Iraqis were killed and 123 more were wounded. The figures are expected to rise in the Kut bombing. Meanwhile, 26 Kurdish families have crossed the frontier into Iraqi Kurdistan to escape Iranian artillery attacks against suspected Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) rebels.

The Liberal Media: Rest in Peace Posted: 02 Aug 2010 09:58 PM PDT The New York Times never qualified, run exclusively as a voice for power and privilege. The same, of course, holds for virtually all mainstream publications, including the Nation magazine, suppressing, sanitizing, and distorting truths, betraying its readers since 1865. Its founding prospectus said it "will not be the organ of any party, sect, or body. It will, on the contrary, make an earnest effort to bring to the discussion of political and social questions a really critical spirit, and to wage war upon the vices of violence, exaggeration, and misrepresentation by which so much of the political writing of the day is marred."

Playing Soccer in Gaza Posted: 02 Aug 2010 07:54 PM PDT You're watching your kid play soccer. It's a chilly weekend morning and you may be upset at the lost sleep involved in getting up and getting him there. The grass is green and the net, goal posts, striping are new and unscarred from previous play; their maintenance secured through a school district budget that generally passes grudging voter approval every two years. You see the mix of parents, some of them groggy, some of them slightly too excited by the impending competition. And it's all incredibly normal.

Revered Rabbi Preaches Slaughter of Gentile Babies Posted: 02 Aug 2010 07:49 PM PDT A rabbi from one of the most violent settlements in the West Bank was questioned on suspicion of incitement last week as Israeli police stepped up their investigation into a book in which he sanctions the killing of non-Jews, including children and babies. Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira is one of the leading ideologues of the extreme wing of the religious settler movement. He is known to be a champion of the "price-tag" policy of reprisal attacks on Palestinians, including punishing them for attempts by officials to enforce Israeli law against the settlements.

A Powerful Testimony to Courage – A Book Review Posted: 02 Aug 2010 07:30 PM PDT For Palestinians, 1948 was a catastrophe. When Israel was born, between 700,000 and 800,000 Palestinians were expelled from their ancestral homes, farms, villages and towns and became permanent refugees. For them this murderous ethnic cleansing was their Holocaust. Sixty-two years later, it continues. For those who live in what was Palestine, the experience is one of contempt, persecution and eradication.

Israeli Settlers Step Up 'Price-Tag' Policy Posted: 02 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT A rabbi from one of the most violent settlements in the West Bank was questioned on suspicion of incitement last week as Israeli police stepped up their investigation into a book in which he sanctions the killing of non-Jews, including children and babies. Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira is one of the leading ideologues of the extreme wing of the religious settler movement. He is known to be a champion of the "price tag" policy of reprisal attacks on Palestinians, including punishing them for attempts by officials to enforce Israeli law against the settlements.

Newt Gingrich: A Menace to Society? Posted: 02 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT Like a bad penny, Newt Gingrich is back, this time demanding that Tea Partiers grab their muskets for the next revolution – in fact it's a World War – looming on the horizon. While it sounds farcical, Gingrich's usual demagoguery and naked opportunism has taken on an even more cynical and pernicious tone this time around. While it's obvious it's All About Newt and his lusting after the kind of pied piper eminence he enjoyed and squandered 20 years ago, his latest machinations – predicting an Islamist invasion and tyranny on par with 18th-century colonial oppression under King George III – plays on the darkest impulses coursing through the country today: fear, prejudice, xenophobia, and rage.

Despite Iraq Withdrawal, Greater Mideast Not Looking Good Posted: 02 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT While President Barack Obama Monday touted the continuing U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq as a key marker in the success of his regional policies, the latest news from the Greater Middle East, as well as a new public opinion survey, is far less encouraging. Not only was July the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the Taliban's ouster from power in late 2001, but the worst flooding in the critical frontier region of Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan in 80 years threatens to undo what progress the central government in Islamabad has had over the past year in regaining control of the area from the Pakistani Taliban and laying the groundwork for a U.S.-backed development plan.

The Trouble With Unconstitutional Wars Posted: 02 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT Our foreign policy was in the spotlight last week, which is exactly where it should be. Almost two years ago many voters elected someone they thought would lead us to a more peaceful, rational co-existence with other countries. However, while attention has been focused on the administration's disastrous economic policies, its equally disastrous foreign policies have exacerbated our problems overseas. Especially in times of economic crisis, we cannot afford to ignore costly foreign policy mistakes. That's why it is important that U.S. foreign policy receive some much needed attention in the media, as it did last week with the leaked documents scandal.

Code of Military Justice Posted: 02 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT Gen. Stan McChrystal, United States Army, will leave active service with four stars instead of three because of a special waiver bestowed on him by President Barack Obama. One is supposed to hold four-star rank for three years before one can retire at that pay grade, something McChrystal obviously didn't do, but Obama made nice and let him walk away with a full set of collar candy anyway. The extra star makes a staunch bit of difference in McChrystal's retirement pay. He'll start at $181,416 per year versus the measly $160,068 he would have received otherwise. But both of those amounts are chump change compared to what Mr. McChrystal is likely to knock down in his Beltway banditry career.

GOP Blank Check For War? Posted: 02 Aug 2010 04:02 PM PDT High among the blunders of history was the "blank cheque" Kaiser Wilhelm gave Vienna, after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, to deal with the Serbs as they saw fit. Five weeks later, Vienna cashed the check and declared war, after Belgrade refused to submit to all 10 demands of an ultimatum. Russia mobilized; Germany and France followed. And war came, the bloodiest in all of European history with 9 million soldiers in their graves.

Get Low: Stellar Cast, Shoddy Screenplay Posted: 02 Aug 2010 04:01 PM PDT Get Low, a dramedy starring venerable elders Robert Duvall, Bill Murray, and Cissy Spacek, is promisingly based on a prime slab of Old, Weird Americana: the true 1938 story of an elderly hillbilly (played by Duvall) who hired an undertaker (Murray) to throw him a huge funeral before he died. The Southern period setting is reminiscent of two of the most imaginative films of the last decade: the Coen Brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Tim Burton's Big Fish. Not surprisingly, Get Low has garnered 100 percent positive ratings among Top Critics on RottenTomatoes.com. Teddy Roosevelt's daughter Alice said of her spotlight-loving father, "He wants to be the bride at every wedding, the corpse at every funeral, and the baby at every christening." In this same spirit, the illiterate Tennessee codger Felix Bushaloo Breazeale decided to enjoy hearing his own eulogy.

Biassholes: Liberal Media Bias and the JournoList Scandal Posted: 02 Aug 2010 04:00 PM PDT In journalism school, where I learned how to use commas, many of my teachers were commies. I'm not accusing them of being communists—they told me so themselves. One instructor boasted of how he always spent his yearly vacation down in sunny, bloody El Salvador, offering succor to the Sandinistas. My journalism-history professor sported a beard almost precisely the size, shape, and odor of Karl Marx's. He often quoted Marx with admiration and urged us to view history through the Red-colored glasses of class struggle. Another wizened and borderline-senile teacher would fondly recall his younger days in Milwaukee, pumping his fists in the streets for socialist causes.

Monday: 14 Iraqis Killed, 36 Wounded Posted: 02 Aug 2010 07:26 AM PDT Despite indications of a surge in violence, U.S. President Barack Obama promised to end U.S. combat operations on schedule this month and shift the Iraq mission to civilian and diplomatic efforts. Still, at least 14 Iraqis were killed and 36 more were wounded in new violence. Meanwhile, Kuwait marked the 20th anniversary of the country's invasion by Iraqi troops and start of the first Gulf War. Also, Saudi Arabia is welcoming the opportunity to strengthen relations with Iraq and reign in Iran's influence in the region. In Mosul, a gunman killed a bodyguard who worked for an Iraqiya list politician and wounded two others, including a child. A bomb left on a highway outside town killed an army officer when it exploded. A roadside bomb targeting police in Rifaee wounded two kids instead. A separate bomb wounded two adults. Six people were wounded in a grenade attack in Farooq. A second grenade attack wounded one policeman. Two people were killed in another bombing. Gunmen wounded a policeman at a checkpoint.

Oh! What a Lovely Afghan War Posted: 02 Aug 2010 03:20 AM PDT These are words lifted from the diary of Brigadier-General Henry Brooke who, in April 1880, took command of the British garrison in Kandahar just as the Second Afghan Revolt ignited. He was to have a torrid time of it, and his diary contains many a salutary and revealing truth. Wind on to the present and another bloody mess: the US and Britain meddling in Afghanistan. Conference after conference, year after year, and nothing is resolved. There are numerous arguments surrounding our Afghan involvement; there can be none as to the muddle and mistake, the wasted chances, the courage of our armed forces, the dreadful loss in life and limb. Lessons have been learnt, we are told. Sure.

Honduran Junta Murdering Journalists Posted: 01 Aug 2010 09:57 PM PDT Orchestrated by Washington, it discussed the June 28, 2009 coup, Honduran soldiers arresting President Manuel Zelaya at gunpoint, exiling him to Costa Rica, obstructing his return, committing widespread killings and human rights abuses, conducting a sham November 2009 election under martial law, installing Porfirio (Pepe) Lobo Sosa president on January 27, 2010, the Obama administration's man in Honduras, succeeding interim leader, Roberto Micheletti, using death squad terror to solidify coup d'etat rule, what most Hondurans oppose and want ended.

In Bed With the US Army Posted: 01 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT As the WikiLeaks document-dump week ends, perhaps the real significance of what happened lay not in the specific revelations in those 92,000 pieces of raw data from American frustration-ville in Afghanistan, 2004-2009 (much of which would have been no news to anyone reading TomDispatch all these years). It may simply be that, for the second time in a month – the first being the McChrystal firing/Petraeus hiring – the war that time forgot has burst onto the front pages of American newspapers and made it to the top of the TV news as a runaway story. Given an increasingly unpopular war, the headlines spell bad news for Washington. Pakistani double-crosses, Taliban surges, Afghan corruption, the woeful state of the American-trained Afghan army and police, and – a subject far less emphasized in U.S. than British coverage – the unreported killing or wounding of large numbers of civilians by U.S. forces (as well as cover-ups of the same) are not what the Obama administration would have chosen for the week's war news. The U.S. war effort was already visibly stumbling and desperately in need of continuing anonymity, so all-consuming news, including reports on spiking American and NATO deaths, certainly wasn't on the Obama wish list. And it's not just the public either. As reporter Jim Lobe notes, the WikiLeaks story "can only add to the pessimism that has spread from the liberal wing of the Democratic Party to the heart of the foreign policy establishment, and even to a growing number of Republicans."

Anti-Defamers Defame Muslims Posted: 01 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT I'm shocked – shocked, I tell you! – that the Anti-Defamation League has joined the alliance of militant Christians, militantly atheistic "Objectivists," and other assorted militant nut-jobs in calling for a ban on the so-called "Ground Zero mosque, " otherwise known as Cordoba House. After all, why would an organization ostensibly devoted to "civil rights" and "tolerance" get in bed with Pamela "Shrieking Harpy" Geller, the Religious Right, and Leonard Peikoff, the Peripatetic Pipsqueak? To find out, let's travel to the ADL web site and read their statement of policy on the matter:

Catalonia Bullfighting Ban: Purely Political and Totally Impractical Posted: 01 Aug 2010 05:31 PM PDT At the end of the film Little Caesar, the gangster Enrico Bandello, played by Edward G. Robinson, is shot down by the police. As he dies in the gutter, he asks, "Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?" Reading that the Catalan provincial assembly decided last Wednesday to shoot itself in both feet, as well as gore itself in the thigh, by making bullfights illegal, I asked myself, "Madre de Dios, is this the end of the corrida?" In Catalonia, the argument was put in terms of the bull's anguish. Opponents of the ancient art of tauromachy were correct in stating that the toro bravo endured pain in his fifteen minutes facing men on horse and foot. Their motive, however, was anything but humanitarian. As with the British Hunting Act of 2004 that rendered illegal all hunting of foxes with dogs, the inspiration was political. In Britain, class warriors sought to stop people in the rural areas whom they regarded as "toffs" from enjoying themselves. Their targets were the aristocracy, the gentry and the rich. Of course, most of those who rode to hounds were from all classes. Traditionally, farmers hunted in the winter when the land lay fallow and there was not much else to do. If not for the hunt, the only places people met in winter were the pub and the shopping mall.

Laura Linney Stars in 'The Big C' and a Gainsbourg Biopic Takes Off Posted: 01 Aug 2010 04:28 PM PDT Let it be known, Ka-Pow! The world's first coffee bar is here, and queer, so get used to it. If you thought Starbucks had the monopoly on coffee to go, think again. Now you can get your java fix in a bar without the hassle of a cup, cup-holders, or scalding hot liquid. You can eat this puppy on a bike or a train, even a plane. This baby goes through airport security. Hell, you can munch on it all day, at the office, on a trek, or in a submarine. Gone are the days where you need to make a coffee run. Just stock up, and take it with you wherever you go. Don't be fooled by its looks. This is not a chocolate bar, this is pure, single origin coffee. Made from Oregon's finest roasters. One can choose from Stumptown Coffee Roaster's Costa Rica Verde Alto, or Heart Roaster's Brazil Sao Benedito, amongst a handful of others. So run out and get your Ka-Pow bar, you won't be disappointed.

Chelsea Clinton's Wedding Wows the World Posted: 01 Aug 2010 09:47 AM PDT Chelsea Clinton has made it pretty clear that she has no intention of running for public office. It's a choice most likely informed by what must have been a childhood scarred by Washington insanity. But perhaps that decision is for the best, anyway, as it appears Chelsea has a bit of a tin ear when it comes to the national mood. This is supposed to be the era of a chastened America, embarrassed by her enormous debt, humbled by having to lean on a communist government to finance two wars. As the long-term unemployed nervously watched to see if Congress would pass a few more weeks of jobless benefits, Chelsea was in the final stages of planning her wedding, estimated to have cost between $2 million and $5 million. To hell with the Great Recession. This year, the average American couple will spend $24,000 on their wedding. That sum, $24,000, is what Chelsea reportedly spent on videographers alone. Portable toilets for her 500 guests ran around $15,000. Flowers, $500,000. Jewelry, $250,000. The most deliciously decadent detail has to be the wedding cake, a vegan and gluten-free confection that cost a mere $11,000.

Sunday: 5 Iraqis Wounded Posted: 01 Aug 2010 04:46 AM PDT Although the day was marked by light violence, newly released casualty figures for July hinted at a surge in attacks over the last month. Some blamed the increase on the delay in forming a new government. That impasse could soon be overcome as the party that received the third largest number of parliamentary seats today issued a statement completely rejecting P.M. Maliki's return to the premiership. Should Maliki step aside, it could move the process forward. Only five Iraqis were wounded in today's reports. The Iraqi government released their official casualty numbers on Saturday, noting that July was the deadliest since May 2008. Their figures show that 535 Iraqis lost their lives in violent attacks, not including 100 suspected insurgents who also were killed. The U.S. military rejected the Iraqi figures, insisting that only 222 Iraqis died. The numbers are also higher by about 100 deaths than what has been reported in major media outlets and subsequently in this column. Most of the casualties were civilian.

Palestinian Detainee Abuse During Operation Cast Lead Posted: 31 Jul 2010 09:44 PM PDT On July 6, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PACTI) and Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel released a report titled, "Exposed: The Treatment of Palestinian Detainees During Operation Cast Lead," detailing their horrific treatment. Transferred to Israel for interrogation, detainees related grim details of their ordeal - grave human rights violations, showing Israel's "contempt for the rule of law."

Saturday: 15 Iraqis Killed, 39 Wounded Posted: 31 Jul 2010 08:28 AM PDT An unconfirmed message purportedly from Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who was Iraq's military commander under Saddam, was released to the media. In it, the voice warned the government of attempting to root out Ba'ath loyalists. At least 15 Iraqis were killed and 39 more were wounded in attacks unrelated to the threatening message. Several of the attacks occurred yesterday but went unreported until today. Separately, an Italian anti-death penalty group reported that state executions rose in number last year.

Palestine Takes Center Stage in the Antiwar Movement Posted: 31 Jul 2010 03:40 AM PDT The United National Antiwar Conference, attended by 850 people from July 23 to 25, 2010 in Albany, New York, marked a sea change in the attitude of the antiwar movement toward Palestine. For the first time a broadly representative, democratic national conference of peace activists adopted the demand "End All US Aid to Israel." UNAC also endorsed the global BDS movement, committed itself to joining Palestine solidarity efforts around future flotillas, emergency responses to Zionist attacks, etc., and expressed its opposition to the US's many-faceted complicity in Zionism's various crimes. All of these positions were adopted in near-unanimous votes and in the face of attempts by a handful of delegates to water down or obstruct them.

Hague Whitewashes Israeli Crimes on the High Seas Posted: 31 Jul 2010 03:18 AM PDT 'We have to be steeped in the Middle East, way back to historical matters. Because you can't understand it without the history.' My MP, a Foreign Office minister in the shiny new coalition government, has written to me saying he believes the Foreign Secretary was "extremely fair, tough and statesmanlike" in his reaction to Israel's murderous assault on the vessel Mavi Marmara and the rest of the Free Gaza flotilla.

Occupied Palestine: Home Demolitions, Dispossessions and Residency Rights Revoked Posted: 30 Jul 2010 10:01 PM PDT Daily, Israeli oppression continues - demolishing homes, dispossessing occupants, and revoking residency rights, three of its many crimes under international law, Israel spurning it with impunity. On July 22, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) reported mass Jordan Valley Al Farisyie village demolitions, displacing 107 people, including 52 children. Targeted were 26 residential tents, 22 animal shelters, seven taboun clay ovens, eight kitchens, 10 bathrooms, four water tanks, and an agricultural equipment shed - in all, 74 structures illegally bulldozed, family homes and belongings destroyed along with large quantities of food and animal fodder.

Sanctions Give China an Advantage in Iran Posted: 30 Jul 2010 06:00 PM PDT — The European Union's new sanctions against Iran appear to open a new space for eager Chinese companies to expand their investments in a country viewed as a rogue player by much of the western world. With China recently coming to light as Iran's largest trade partner, some Chinese analysts predict a wealth of new geopolitical and business opportunities with Iran. But officialdom may still waver at the idea of Beijing seen as a "free-rider."

Poll: Pakistanis Dislike US, Taliban, and al-Qaeda Posted: 30 Jul 2010 06:00 PM PDT The recent WikiLeaks dump of war-related documents has brought little new to the debate over Washington's ongoing military involvement in Afghanistan, but allegations that Pakistan's intelligence services are aiding the Taliban has brought renewed attention to U.S. concerns over its reliance on Islamabad in battling Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan. New polling data released Thursday appeared to confirm that Pakistanis share the U.S.'s uncertainty about their country's relationship with Washington, while, at the same time, holding unfavorable views of the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Report: 'Correlation' Between US Aid and Colombian Army Killings Posted: 30 Jul 2010 06:00 PM PDT BOGOTÁ — "There are alarming links between increased reports of extrajudicial executions of civilians by the Colombian army and units that receive U.S. military financing," John Lindsay-Poland, lead author of a two-year study on the question, told IPS. Lindsay-Poland is Research and Advocacy Director for the U.S.-based Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), which presented a new report, "Military Assistance and Human Rights: Colombia, U.S. Accountability, and Global Implications," in Bogotá Thursday.

Clooney's Girlfriend's Scandal, Little Clinton Weds, and an 'Idol' Shakeup Posted: 30 Jul 2010 05:14 AM PDT This week is all about hiring, firing, a wedding—oh, and stripping. The most overblown Wedding of the Year/Century is finally upon us, and Chelsea Clinton is going to say "I do" to longtime boyfriend Marc Mezvinsky this weekend in the formerly sleepy hamlet of Rhinebeck, New York. In a very calculated, Clinton-esque way, details are shrouded in secrecy. One of Oprah's favorite chefs is catering the meal for the 500 guests, but lookie-loos may not get a peek of the bride—the state has issued a no-fly zone over the area and police will be checking out the Hudson River to ensure all the shutterbugs have stayed away. We're exhausted just reading about this—it's impossible to imagine how Chelsea feels. Or maybe she loves it.

Friday: 5 Iraqis Killed, 5 Wounded Posted: 30 Jul 2010 04:54 AM PDT At a gathering at the Imam Hussein mosque in Karbala Shi'ite cleric Ahmed al-Safi told thousands that the political impasse holding back the new government is causing considerable harm to Iraqis. Meanwhile, at least five Iraqis were killed and five more were wounded in light prayer day violence. Also, a British inquiry (Chilcot) may recall witnesses including Tony Blair, whose testimony in part contradicted that of other witnesses. In Kirkuk, a Christian man was kidnapped. Separately, Prime Minister Burham Saleh, of the Kurdish Regional Government, reiterated Kurdish claims over the city.

Don't Deny Our Rights: Open Letter to Mahmoud Abbas Posted: 30 Jul 2010 03:43 AM PDT We are Palestinians of diverse perspectives and affiliations -- scholars, intellectuals, artists, activists, trade unionists, human rights advocates and civil society leaders, inside historic Palestine and in exile -- who are united in our commitment to the fulfillment of the fundamental rights of all Palestinians, particularly our inalienable right to self-determination. This universally sanctioned right encompasses, at a minimum, freedom from occupation and colonization in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including Jerusalem; full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel; and the right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

Why We Need WikiLeaks Posted: 30 Jul 2010 02:00 AM PDT Because "government official" and "liar" are synonyms. The reaction to the WikiLeaks exposure of US war crimes – and Afghan corruption – has been quite interesting: the President responded by averring that there's nothing new here, that "the fact is these documents do not reveal any issues that have not already informed our public debate on Afghanistan," but the facts are quite different, as anyone  who peruses even a small sampling of the documents – such as is offered by the Guardian via a convenient interactive map – can readily ascertain.

Damage Control: Downplaying WikiLeaks Revelations Posted: 29 Jul 2010 09:55 PM PDT When truths are too disturbing to conceal, downplay them, change the subject, and blame others, not responsible Washington officials and key allies, culpable politicians and media misinformation masters suppressing and misreporting the facts, their well-oiled spin machine counterattacking WikiLeaks - revelations too sensitive to explain, a potential game-changer otherwise, so pundits and reporters duck them.

Coming Home at Last? Posted: 29 Jul 2010 06:00 PM PDT Asked if the United States might send still more troops to Afghanistan, if the Obama surge is not succeeding by year's end, Vice President Joe Biden answered, "I do not believe so." So, that is it. Biden is saying the 100,000 U.S. troops in theater or on the way is our limit. If Kabul and the Afghan army fail with this investment of American forces, they will be permitted to fail. All the chips we are going to commit are now on the table.

Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Posted: 29 Jul 2010 06:00 PM PDT The White House is screaming like a stuck pig. WikiLeaks' release of the Afghan War Documents "puts the lives of our soldiers and our coalition partners at risk." What nonsense. Obama's war puts the lives of American soldiers at risk, and the craven puppet state behavior of "our partners" in serving as US mercenaries is what puts their troops at risk.

Are We in Afghanistan Because We're in Afghanistan? Posted: 29 Jul 2010 06:00 PM PDT On Sunday night, WikiLeaks.org released more than 91,000 classified documents related to the war in Afghanistan. Among the revelations is that the Taliban appears to have used portable heat-seeking missiles (in military parlance, MANPADS or man-portable air-defense systems) to shoot down U.S. helicopters.  The bitter irony is that these are likely the very same weapons the U.S. supplied to the Afghan mujahedeen in the 1980s to use against Soviet helicopters.  Can you say, "blowback"?  But as my friend and fellow Antiwar.com columnist, Ivan Eland, points out, the leaked documents "didn't reveal many new shocking truths about the U.S. military quagmire in Afghanistan. The facts on the ground have been well known publicly for some time – that the Taliban adversary is getting stronger and is being actively assisted by a faux ally (Pakistan) to whom the United States is shoveling billions, the Afghan government is corrupt, and the U.S. has killed civilians."

The End of (Military) History? Posted: 29 Jul 2010 06:00 PM PDT If you ever needed convincing that the world of American "national security" is well along the road to profligate lunacy, read the striking three-part "Top Secret America" series by Dana Priest and William Arkin that the Washington Post published last week.  When it comes to the expansion of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC), which claims 17 major agencies and organizations, the figures are staggering.  Here's just a taste: "Twenty-four [new intelligence] organizations were created by the end of 2001, including the Office of Homeland Security and the Foreign Terrorist Asset Tracking Task Force. In 2002, 37 more were created to track weapons of mass destruction, collect threat tips, and coordinate the new focus on counterterrorism. That was followed the next year by 36 new organizations; and 26 after that; and 31 more; and 32 more; and 20 or more each in 2007, 2008, and 2009. In all, at least 263 organizations have been created or reorganized as a response to 9/11."

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