Air Force Issues Memo Warning Soldiers, Employees Not to Read WikiLeaks Docs

Rebel Newsflash: Air Force Issues Memo Warning Soldiers, Employees Not to Read WikiLeaks Docs (plus 52 more items)

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• Air Force Issues Memo Warning Soldiers, Employees Not to Read WikiLeaks Docs
• Neocons Shamelessly Exploit 9/11 Pain to Ban Manhattan Mosque
• The Ground Zero Mosque and Property Rights
• John Pilger helps us understand the BBC's making of "Death in the Med"
• The Neanderthal hypothesis
• Alex Jones – I support Israel
• Racist Jew Serial Killer
• All Lies, All the Time
• In Palestine, Barriers Rise Between Ramadan Gatherings
• A Mosque in New York City
• British Zionists join far-right organization to promote Islamophobia and racism in UK
• A Beautiful Gift from the BBC to Israel
• Trapped at Ground Zero
• Hamas Must Re-brand
• Israel and the anti-Muslim blow-up
• Fighting expulsion and Western hypocrisy in Jerusalem
• Al-Araqib residents fear fourth demolition
• Thursday: 11 Iraqis Killed, 17 Wounded
• Should White Americans Become Better Liars? #1
• India employing Israeli oppression tactics in Kashmir
• Caught between arms and politics
• Jim Giles: White Entertainment Channel
• Tales from the Northwest Frontier
• Why WikiLeaks Must Be Protected
• And the State, is It Loyal?
• The Secrets in Israel's Archives
• Isn't Tolerance an American Virtue?
• CIA Launches "Counterproliferation Center" as Iran Attack Rhetoric Kicks Into High Gear
• Chick Corea: don't turn your back in Gaza!
• Israel's multi-front war on Lebanese resistance
• UK, Irish artists saluted for principled boycott stance
• Students, boycott Israel's propagandist youth festival!
• Wednesday: 25 Iraqis Killed, 33 Wounded
• The Octopus of Death and Terror
• Gaza Farmers Over Use Pesticides
• Madagascar: State of denial
• Glenn Beck: "Restoring Honor"
• Cordoba House: The Acid Test
• Portrait of a Sagging Empire
• Bin Laden's Rising Influence In America
• Histrionics Over the Mosque: Symbolism Crowds Out Reality
• Questioning COIN Assumptions in Afghanistan
• There Can Be No 'Graceful Exit'
• US Journalist to Be Deported From Turkey
• The Israel Lobby Swims The Atlantic
• No Room for Arab Students at Israeli Universities
• Mr. Erdogan: Please Say No to Uribe
• Hamas: A Beginner's Guide - Book Review
• A short music break – fun, dumb blonds ABBA
• 'Timber mafia' made floods worse
• Tuesday: 81 Iraqis Killed, 178 Wounded
• Disunited States of America
• Tennessee: Dusk or Dawn?

Air Force Issues Memo Warning Soldiers, Employees Not to Read WikiLeaks Docs Posted: 20 Aug 2010 06:42 AM PDT An Infowars.com reader at the Homestead Air Reserve Base in Florida sent the memo below, originally posted on the 482 FW Community Bulletin Board. The memo instructs government personnel to not access the Wikileaks website or download "publicized classified information," namely over 70,000 classified documents on the war in Afghanistan. "Looks like they don't want us government employees to know the truth," remarked the person who sent the memo. In essence, the memo confirms that the Pentagon is monitoring the web activity of its soldiers and employees.

Neocons Shamelessly Exploit 9/11 Pain to Ban Manhattan Mosque Posted: 20 Aug 2010 01:57 AM PDT Keep America Safe, a propaganda organization designed to keep the manufactured war on terror alive, has produced a tear-jerk video featuring victim families and heart-tug piano music. The victims urge Muslims not to build a multi-million dollar mosque less than two blocks from the Ground Zero. Mega-neocon, Bill Kristol, sits on the board of Keep America Safe, as does the daughter of the former vice president, Liz Cheney, also a top-notch neocon. Kristol is the co-founder of the Project for the New American Century, a neocon think tank that along with the American Enterprise Institute staffed the Bush administration and pushed for the invasion of Iraq (current death toll: more than a million).

The Ground Zero Mosque and Property Rights Posted: 20 Aug 2010 12:30 AM PDT If the "debate" staged by the corporate media over the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" demonstrates anything, it is once again how gullible and easily influenced the American people are, at least according to polls. On August 19, Time Magazine released a poll showing 61% of respondents oppose the construction of the mosque, compared with 26% who support it. "More than 70% concur with the premise that proceeding with the plan would be an insult to the victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center," writes Time.

John Pilger helps us understand the BBC's making of "Death in the Med" Posted: 20 Aug 2010 12:07 AM PDT On June 9, the Correspondent series on BBC Television broadcast a report about the recent siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. This was an exemplar of the problems identified in the Glasgow research. It was, in effect, an Israeli occupation propaganda film put out by the BBC. It was made as a co-production with an American channel, and the credits listed the producer as Israel Goldvicht, who runs an Israeli production company. That would have been fine had the filmmakers made any attempt to challenge the Israeli military with whom they had ingratiated themselves.

The Neanderthal hypothesis Posted: 19 Aug 2010 10:56 PM PDT The whole world is puzzled by the undisguised insanity that seems to pervert and pollute every news story in the world. Why would they deliberately poison the ocean? Why would they bomb innocent countries? Why do they poison food, foul the air, and produce supposedly beneficial medicines that, when studied carefully, always seem to contain hidden, time-delayed poisons?

Alex Jones – I support Israel Posted: 19 Aug 2010 09:19 PM PDT Here is all one needs to know about Alex Jones.  If this fat retard were a real patriot, he would be telling you the truth about things like 911, the wars, the economic collapse, Obama, the police state, and all the other things he rants about.  The truth about these topics are that every last one of them was engineered by, what he calls, the "global elite".  However, there is nothing "elite" about the monsters behind all of our ills, because they are nothing more than a bunch of blood sucking leeches known as JEWS.

Racist Jew Serial Killer Posted: 19 Aug 2010 08:13 PM PDT A string of murders and attacks spanning three different states came to an abrupt end just over a week ago, when police announced that they might have a serial killer on their hands. At first, police were unable to connect the dots between a number of dead bodies and other attacks, but as stories from survivors piled up, it quickly became evident that they did indeed have a serial killer on their hands.

All Lies, All the Time Posted: 19 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT I had to laugh when I saw the headline on Antiwar.com: "US Announces Second Fake End to Iraq War." Yes, I did indeed get a rush of déjà-vu as I listened to Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow solemnly describe "the end" of the "combat mission" in Iraq, and Richard Engel pontificate as the cameras zoomed in on the "last" convoy over the border to Kuwait. Occasionally, however, reality would intrude, as Rachel noted the broadcast could be interrupted at any time by a sudden attack, and there would be no time to explain to viewers what was happening. It was Olbermann who openly referred to Bush's "Mission Accomplished" moment, and wondered if perhaps this wasn't a re-run: I'll bet he got in plenty of trouble for that little crack. As Engel interviewed a couple of disinterested looking grunts about their innermost thoughts at "this historic moment," I thought: from "shock and awe" to schlock and yawn.

In Palestine, Barriers Rise Between Ramadan Gatherings Posted: 19 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT For seven years Majda Abdul Qader Sheikh, 38, has not been allowed to visit the home of her parents, just a few hundred meters from her house. "I tried to get a special visitor's permit for a quick visit during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan but I was refused," says Sheikh, mother of seven children. "I have had no problems with the Israeli authorities, nor am I considered a security threat," she added.

A Mosque in New York City Posted: 19 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT In December 2009 the New York Times ran a story entitled "Muslim Prayers and Renewal Near Ground Zero" about plans to build an Islamic center – also known as the Cordoba House and Park51 project – at 45-51 Park Place, two blocks north of the World Trade Center.  The building had been purchased earlier that year by a group of Muslims and had been used as a place of prayer (the location is not designated as a mosque, but is used as overflow prayer space for a nearby mosque in the TriBeCa neighborhood).  According to Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the cleric leading the project, building an Islamic center would send "the opposite statement to what happened on 9/11" and that he wanted "to push back against the extremists."

British Zionists join far-right organization to promote Islamophobia and racism in UK Posted: 19 Aug 2010 10:59 AM PDT I guess it shouldn't take us by surprise that the Israeli flag has become a common feature at demonstrations and gatherings by the ultra-nationalist English Defence League (EDL). The EDL is campaigning for action against what it regards as the "Islamization of Britain" and "Muslim fundamentalists". It is a magnet for extreme right-wing activists and is driven by xenophobia and ethnocentrism.

A Beautiful Gift from the BBC to Israel Posted: 19 Aug 2010 10:57 AM PDT I am one of the passengers/witnesses interviewed for this program and I am very much aware of BBC's role in justifying war and covering up Israeli crimes.  I am in no way naive about this; to the contrary my motivation for the interview lay largely in the all too likely opportunity to expose the BBC. A relevant job considering the BBC's role in the slaughter of over one million Iraqi's, a direct role by virtue of the war they justified.  BBC from start to present, justifying Iraq, a massive war crime and crime against humanity based entirely on lies (propagated intensely by the BBC).  The British Broadcasting Corporation, synonymous with millions of orphans and refugees and countless lives destroyed in Iraq, beating the drums of war without pause, the ultimate prostitutes of propaganda.

Trapped at Ground Zero Posted: 19 Aug 2010 10:15 AM PDT The controversy over the right of Muslim Americans to build community center and mosque a short distance from the site of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is both strange and outright inappropriate. It should never be necessary for law-abiding Americans to justify exercising their right to freely practice their own religion. This right is in accordance to the First Amendment, part of the Bill of Rights that has constituted the foundation of American freedom for over 200 years.

Hamas Must Re-brand Posted: 19 Aug 2010 09:46 AM PDT In the five years since I became interested in the conflict in Palestine, only two things of positive note have happened in the Occupied Territories. The Palestinians held full and fair elections in 2006 to establish themselves as a democracy… and much good it did them.

Israel and the anti-Muslim blow-up Posted: 19 Aug 2010 06:58 AM PDT I don't know why I am at all surprised that the American Right - including the Republican Party - has decided that scapegoating Muslims is the ticket to success. After all, it's nothing new. I remember right after 9/11 when the columnist Charles Krauthammer, now one of the most vocal anti-Muslim demagogues, almost literally flipped out in my Chevy Chase, Maryland synagogue when the rabbi said something about the importance of not associating the terrorist attacks with Muslims in general.

Fighting expulsion and Western hypocrisy in Jerusalem Posted: 19 Aug 2010 06:51 AM PDT Earlier this summer, Israel arrested Muhammad Abu Tir, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and Hamas. Israel also ordered two other PLC members, Muhammad Totah and Ahmad Attoun and the Palestinian Authority's (PA) former minister of Jerusalem affairs Khaled Abu Arafeh to leave their home town of Jerusalem.

Al-Araqib residents fear fourth demolition Posted: 19 Aug 2010 06:29 AM PDT On the eve of the start of Ramadan last week, Israeli police demolished the Bedouin village of al-Araqib in the Negev desert. It was the third time within two weeks that the village had been razed. Unfazed, the Bedouin villagers immediately began rebuilding. "We have already put back up some twenty of our huts, and we're putting up more every day -- despite the fast," village leader Sheikh Sayyah Abu Drim told IPS when reached by telephone a week after the last police action.

Thursday: 11 Iraqis Killed, 17 Wounded Posted: 19 Aug 2010 05:38 AM PDT At least 11 Iraqis were killed and 17 more were wounded in light attacks that concentrated on security personnel. A day after U.S. combat forces left Iraq, Maj. Gen. Stephen Lanza said that Iraqi forces are capable of keeping security but selecting the new government would help. About 56,000 troops will remain to assist the Iraqis; however, the final withdrawal of Americans could be as late as 2020 depending on conditions.

Should White Americans Become Better Liars? #1 Posted: 19 Aug 2010 04:47 AM PDT After the debacle of the 2008 Presidential campaign, White Americans should take an honest look in the mirror and try to understand why we did so badly. Most White Americans chose to support old White men who went out of their way to be "fair" and not "racist" in any way,"honesty is the best policy." The result was a horrendous loss and many were shocked to learn that 24 out of 25 Black African Americans voted for Obama, even supposedly "conservative", "patriotic" Black Americans like Gen. Colin Powell – Hey, what's going on? Was Gen. Powell lying to us all those years?!!

India employing Israeli oppression tactics in Kashmir Posted: 19 Aug 2010 03:39 AM PDT The 2010 summer in the disputed area of Jammu and Kashmir, administered by India, has been marked by popular protests by Kashmiris and crackdowns by India's military. The stream of violence has left more than fifty dead, mostly young protestors. The situation in Kashmir has some parallels with Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, even borrowing the term intifada to describe the uprising. But the connection is more than analogy -- Israel's pacification efforts against Palestinians have proven valuable for the Indian police, army and intelligence services in their campaigns to pacify Jammu and Kashmir with numerous Indian military and security imports from Israel leading the way.

Caught between arms and politics Posted: 19 Aug 2010 03:04 AM PDT The bombing of a United Nations building in Baghdad on a summer morning seven years ago may demonstrate that not everyone believes in the apparent good intentions of the humanitarian organisations that are operating in their country. Sergio Vieira de Mello, a charismatic Brazilian diplomat, had arrived in Iraq five days before the explosion to set up a UN body with the mandate of "assisting the government and people of Iraq in advancing their political dialogue and national reconciliation".

Jim Giles: White Entertainment Channel Posted: 18 Aug 2010 09:43 PM PDT Jim Giles remains our favorite personality on what we have started to call the White Entertainment Channel. Ever since the Edgar Steele meltdown with Pastor Lindstedt, Jim has been on a roll, which each episode more hilarious and over the top than the previous one. We tune into RFM every day around here.

Tales from the Northwest Frontier Posted: 18 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT One of my favorite movies is The Tailor of Panama, based on the tongue-in-cheek novel written by John Le Carre which was in turn derived from Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana. In the film, Pierce Brosnan was featured as a corrupt British intelligence officer who fraudulently convinced the CIA to fund a secret army that did not actually exist.  When one of the CIA officers complained that he had never heard of the group, Brosnan replied "Of course not.  It's a SECRET army."  He got his money.

Why WikiLeaks Must Be Protected Posted: 18 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT On 26 July, WikiLeaks released thousands of secret US military files on the war in Afghanistan. Cover-ups, a secret assassination unit and the killing of civilians are documented. In file after file, the brutalities echo the colonial past. From Malaya and Vietnam to Bloody Sunday and Basra, little has changed. The difference is that today there is an extraordinary way of knowing how faraway societies are routinely ravaged in our name. WikiLeaks has acquired records of six years of civilian killing for both Afghanistan and Iraq, of which those published in the Guardian, Der Spiegel and the New York Times are a fraction.

And the State, is It Loyal? Posted: 18 Aug 2010 05:32 PM PDT Several weeks ago, hundreds of students demonstrated in front of Ben-Gurion University's administration building. About a third of the protestors were expressing their opposition to the government's decision to attack the relief flotilla, while the remaining two thirds came to support the government. At one point the pro-government protesters began chanting: 'No citizenship without loyalty!'

The Secrets in Israel's Archives Posted: 18 Aug 2010 05:21 PM PDT History may be written by the victors, as Winston Churchill is said to have observed, but the opening up of archives can threaten a nation every bit as much as the unearthing of mass graves. That danger explains a decision quietly taken last month by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to extend by an additional 20 years the country's 50-year rule for the release of sensitive documents.

Isn't Tolerance an American Virtue? Posted: 18 Aug 2010 05:14 PM PDT Observing the shameful and venomous debate raging in the US over plans for a Muslim civic centre and a mosque in downtown Manhattan two blocks from Ground Zero, I could not help but recall the time when my father took me to visit Syria and Jordan while I was a student at the American University of Beirut. One of the most striking revelations for me, as a Christian, was seeing the tomb where the head of John the Baptist was said to lie inside the famous Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.

CIA Launches "Counterproliferation Center" as Iran Attack Rhetoric Kicks Into High Gear Posted: 18 Aug 2010 12:39 PM PDT As the rhetoric heats up in preparation for an attack on Iran, the CIA has announced it will christen a "counterproliferation center to combat the spread of dangerous weapons and technology, a move that comes as Iran is on the verge of fueling up a new nuclear power plant," reports the Associated Press. Obama's CIA boss, Leon Panetta, said the CIA will formalize a collaboration between its "operators" — presumably the "Dark Side" Cheney talked about so fondly — and its more sedate analysts.

Chick Corea: don't turn your back in Gaza! Posted: 18 Aug 2010 10:25 AM PDT We are a group of students from Gaza, and our only fault is being Palestinians. For that, Mr. Corea, we are imprisoned with our families and loved ones in what major human rights organizations call the largest open air prison in modern history. The state you are planning to entertain committed a process of ethnic cleansing against the indigenous people in 1948. And now it is engaged in what the Israeli academic Ilan Pappe calls "slow motion genocide" against the 1.5 million population of Gaza.

Israel's multi-front war on Lebanese resistance Posted: 18 Aug 2010 08:34 AM PDT The international coverage of border clashes between Lebanese and Israeli military forces earlier this month may have suggested the confrontation was a mere squabble over cutting a tree that went awry in a "trigger-happy" and "conflict-prone" region. Less than a week later, one of several recent speeches by Hizballah's Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah managed to get brief global media coverage. He presented visual and audio material suggesting that Israel may have assassinated former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in February 2005.

UK, Irish artists saluted for principled boycott stance Posted: 18 Aug 2010 08:18 AM PDT The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) salutes the British dance group Faithless for declining to play in Israel this summer. The cancellation of the group's Israeli gig is the latest in a string of cancellations of performances in Israel by artists and musicians of conscience, artists who say no to normalizing relations with Israel, no to business as usual with a state that practices the most pernicious forms of occupation, colonialism and apartheid.

Students, boycott Israel's propagandist youth festival! Posted: 18 Aug 2010 07:53 AM PDT Once again, the Brand-Israel machine is in high gear, this time organizing a million-dollar international youth extravaganza in Eilat in September 2010 called "Funjoya." This unabashed propaganda exercise is sponsored by the Israel Ministry of Tourism and the Israeli Student Union, among other official and semi-official bodies. The Ministry of Tourism explains one of the aims of the festival: "branding Israel as an attractive tourism destination for students, an improvement in Israel's image among this target group and facilitating multi-cultural encounters for students from Israel and European countries."

Wednesday: 25 Iraqis Killed, 33 Wounded Posted: 18 Aug 2010 06:53 AM PDT The last brigade of U.S. combat troops crossed the border into Kuwait at 3:51 a.m. local time, two weeks ahead of the official drawdown deadline set by Washington. Although approximately 50,000 personnel will remain in Iraq and combat conditions will continue for many of those left behind, the withdrawal of the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division is a symbolic end to combat operations.

The Octopus of Death and Terror Posted: 18 Aug 2010 04:53 AM PDT Which is the Octopus who wants to destroy the Al- Sakhrah (Dome of the Rock) and Al-Aqsa and Ibrahimi Mosques in Jerusalem and Hebron, which is the Octopus who began to prepare the Israeli soldiers to re-occupy the Palestinian towns and cities, arrest and execute the Palestinian police and the security forces whenever the Octopus terrorists commit horror crimes in Jerusalem, and Hebron?

Gaza Farmers Over Use Pesticides Posted: 18 Aug 2010 12:52 AM PDT When touring Gaza farms one rarely finds wild plants, only manmade grown crops are found. Ali Mo'amer, a 35 year old farmer lives in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, says that he sprays pesticides twice a day. "I have 5 Acers of land, I spry them twice a day without knowing the amount or consecration percentage I should use."

Madagascar: State of denial Posted: 17 Aug 2010 08:28 PM PDT While Madagascar celebrates 50 years of independence from France this year, the country remains mired in economic crisis and political uncertainty over who is legitimately leading the nation of 20 million. In March 2009, clashes between the regime of Marc Ravalomanana, the then president, and the opposition movement, led by the capital's former mayor, Andry Rajoelina, left more than 100 people dead and the nation in turmoil.

Glenn Beck: "Restoring Honor" Posted: 17 Aug 2010 07:14 PM PDT Glenn Beck. The mention of his name is already eliciting howls of protest from certain quarters of the commentariat. Fraud. Coward. Phony. Idiot. Kosher Con. Conspiracy Nut. Huckster.

Cordoba House: The Acid Test Posted: 17 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT It's hard to believe that a national campaign led by lunatics has taken off with such momentum, but then again, it looks like we're still living in Bizarro World, where the values we upheld before 9/11 have been hideously inverted. So what else can we expect? The cable news channels have been consumed with the "Ground Zero mosque" 24/7, to the virtual exclusion of all else: it's an 'issue" made for them, and they're eating it up. I'm soooo glad we don't have anything else to worry about: that the economy is just rolling merrily along, people are not losing their homes, and everything is just hunky-dory in the good ol' US of A, land of peace and plenty. Why else would our "leaders" in both parties be commenting on what, in a rational society, would not even come up for discussion?

Portrait of a Sagging Empire Posted: 17 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT In September 1998, I was handed a submission for a proposed book by Chalmers Johnson. I was then (as I am now) consulting editor at Metropolitan Books. 9/11 was three years away, the Bush administration still an unimaginable nightmare, and though the prospective book's prospective title had "American Empire" in it, the American Empire Project I now co-run with my friend and TomDispatch regular Steve Fraser was still almost four years from crossing either of our minds.

Bin Laden's Rising Influence In America Posted: 17 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT American leaders are always trying to assess Osama bin Laden's level of influence over Muslims. They should look at his influence over their own countrymen. The aversion to a proposed Muslim center near Ground Zero shows that it is Americans, not Muslims, whose thinking the terrorist leader has most successfully recast to his advantage.

Histrionics Over the Mosque: Symbolism Crowds Out Reality Posted: 17 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT The American media, and to a lesser extent the world media, focus on symbolism at the expense of underlying reality. And sometimes they can't even make sense of the symbolism. The artificially generated controversy over a proposed mosque within about two blocks of the site of the 9/11 attacks is illustrative of this ignorance. The "liberal" media, which can't pass up a chance at controversy, has allowed conservatives, who often claim to be defenders of Philadelphia freedom, to shriek that this is not an issue of religious freedom but one of callousness and insensitivity in putting a mosque near the former site of the World Trade Center. The conservatives, however, were certainly leaning on government to use its power to prohibit the building of the mosque using zoning rules, a clear violation of the founders' intent to ban any law "prohibiting the free exercise" of religion.

Questioning COIN Assumptions in Afghanistan Posted: 17 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT Recently, Gen. David Petraeus issued new guidance for the members of the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) operating in Afghanistan. This guidance differed little from the direction offered by his fired predecessor, Gen. Stanley McChrystal. Petraeus's memorandum states, "Secure and serve the population. The decisive terrain is the human terrain. The people are the center of gravity. Only by providing them security and earning their trust and confidence can the Afghan government and ISAF prevail." (Emphasis in original.) Implicit in the statement "the decisive terrain is the human terrain" is the idea that winning the support of the people will dry up support for the insurgency. Unfortunately, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests that the insurgency already exists without popular support among Afghans. This means that further efforts to secure the support of the people will do little to end the insurgency.

There Can Be No 'Graceful Exit' Posted: 17 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT Gen. David Petraeus, the man who replaced his former Central Command subordinate Gen. Stanley McChrystal, when the latter was cashiered last month for insubordinate criticism of his civilian superiors, denies that President Barack Obama has given him the assignment to "seek a graceful exit" from America's war against the Taliban. He is determined to win. He will need additional time and material to succeed, he says, but at the end of August or early September, "we will have the inputs about right," and, with the campaign plan drawn up by himself and McChrystal "perfected," victory will be on its way. Actually, history is not quite as he has put it. When Obama was elected in 2008 on a campaign promise to fight the "right war" in Afghanistan, while closing down the wrong war in Iraq, he found when he arrived at the White House that Petraeus, theater commander for both Iraq and Afghanistan, had already laid out a plan that the military novice Obama was expected to follow. The new president was told that McChrystal, the prospective Afghanistan commander, would go to Kabul for consultations and return to Washington to present the plan the two generals and their staffs had already drawn up. This plan would ask for a new "surge" of troops (which had been publicized as working in Iraq). It would number more than 100,000 reinforcements plus what has become roughly an equivalent force of civilian military contractors, many of them non-Americans, who are less expensive and more dispensable than regular soldiers.

US Journalist to Be Deported From Turkey Posted: 17 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT Jake Hess, a U.S. freelance journalist who also wrote for IPS on Kurdish rights within Turkey, is to be deported following a government order. "I'm waiting to be sent back to the U.S," says Hess, who is a U.S. citizen.

The Israel Lobby Swims The Atlantic Posted: 17 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT Jeffrey Goldberg's current cover story in The Atlantic, "The Point of No Return," achieved massive distribution across a broad spectrum of old and new media in the United States. Some observers – including Glenn Greenwald in "How Propagandists Function" – noted how well the methodology and message of Goldberg's piece serves the Israeli government's efforts to push U.S. military action against Iran. Gareth Porter views it as part of an overarching strategy to keep the U.S. from restoring productive relations with Iran. A huge trove of newly declassified documents subpoenaed during a Senate investigation reveals how Israel's lobby pitched, promoted, and paid to have content placed in America's top news magazines with overseas funding. The Atlantic (and others) received hefty rewards for trumpeting Israel's most vital – but damaging – PR initiatives across America.

No Room for Arab Students at Israeli Universities Posted: 17 Aug 2010 02:33 PM PDT Measures designed to benefit Jewish school-leavers applying for places in Israeli higher education at the cost of their Arab counterparts have been criticised by lawyers and human rights groups. The new initiatives are viewed as part of an ongoing drive by right-wing politicians in Israel to demand "loyalty" from the country's large minority population of Arab citizens.

Mr. Erdogan: Please Say No to Uribe Posted: 17 Aug 2010 02:24 PM PDT an Open Letter from Gaza to Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister of Turkey: Urge UN Secretary General to remove Alvaro Uribe from the Panel of Inquiry into the attack on the Humanitarian Flotilla to Gaza.)

Hamas: A Beginner's Guide - Book Review Posted: 17 Aug 2010 02:20 PM PDT Israel, the United States and the European Union call Hamas a "terrorist organisation". Yet Hamas swept to victory in the 2006 Palestinian elections and stunned the world. It is now a democratically elected political party. All the election observers agreed that the elections were free, fair, and democratic. The Palestinian people showed their ability to establish a democratic state next to Israel. But Israel, the United States and the EU did not like this idea of a democratic Palestinian state besides Israel and the outcome of a democratic election. According to their opinion, the Palestinian people voted democratically, but for the wrong party. What is wrong with the Hamas movement? And why is it demonised by Israel, the US and the European Union? The reviewed book asks all relevant questions concerning Hamas and gives very balanced answers.

A short music break – fun, dumb blonds ABBA Posted: 17 Aug 2010 10:29 AM PDT In these rough times of brutal crimes against our people, economic uncertainty, lots of talk about doom and despair, it's good to take a break, clear the mind and soul and enjoy some simple music – music that isn't about politics or anything really serious at all. Here's a pop music group ABBA – from the 70s, but really immortal – lots of blonds being a bit a dumb, but always in a fun, positive way. These are our folks and this is our music – and maybe some of our young lads should stop arguing over racial politics and give a local White gal a…

'Timber mafia' made floods worse Posted: 17 Aug 2010 08:12 AM PDT When the residents of Mian Gujar village in Peshawar, northwestern Pakistan went to bed on the night of August 31, they noticed nothing unusual about the water level of the nearby Shah Alam River. But in the early hours of the morning they were woken by shouts from the street and floodwater gushing into their homes. "As I opened my eyes, I found a pool of water in my house and saw the level going up. The first thing I did was to immediately shift my family members to the rooftop," says Jehanzeb.

Tuesday: 81 Iraqis Killed, 178 Wounded Posted: 17 Aug 2010 04:59 AM PDT At least 81 Iraqis were killed and 178 more were wounded. A large blast killed and wounded dozens at an army center in Baghdad, while another explosion left dozens more caualties. At least eight other attacks targeted judges. U.S. officials said the drawdown would continue despite the violence.

Disunited States of America Posted: 16 Aug 2010 07:19 PM PDT The ties that bind together the Glorious Union are unraveling at a gathering pace. The Reds and Blues are exchanging fire across the political spectrum over their irreconcilable differences. The rhetoric of both sides continues to escalate. A number of mainstream commentators are throwing the spotlight on the Disunited States of America. Polarization is working its magic. The chasm is widening between the two camps.

Tennessee: Dusk or Dawn? Posted: 15 Aug 2010 06:48 PM PDT The NSM thread paints an extremely bleak portrait of our fortunes in Tennessee. A casual visitor of this site who watches those two videos reaches for Oswald Spengler, the liquor bottle, or a white towel. Fortunately, the Neo-Nazi sideshow in Knoxville masks a more fundamental transformation going on underneath the political surface. As with so many stories in recent weeks, the bad news comes out of the White Nationalist movement, and the good news comes out of the mainstream, whether it is Missouri or Arizona.

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