September 11: Towards a UN inquiry commission

Rebel Newsflash: September 11: Towards a UN inquiry commission (plus 42 more items)

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• September 11: Towards a UN inquiry commission
• PressTV-Comment with George Galloway-Viva Palestina
• Policy chaos, military muscle: Why US will never win Afghan war
• 9/11 – Obama lives in 'self-denial'
• Euro Doom: Germany wants Deutschmark back
• Arabs face discrimination in Israel
• Obama speaks at the UN… Goodbye to peace
• Independent Committee of Experts on Gaza War
• US Could Be Alone as Europe Turns Inward
• One and a Half Cheers for American Decline
• The Terrorism Fraud
• After Empire
• Obama Knows the War is Dumb, but Prefers Power Over Peace
• It Is Official: The US Is A Police State
• Dissecting Obama's UN speech
• "Why aren't the Bedouins treated like Jewish citizens?"
• Press TV's Waqar Rizvi talks to Mark Dankof Ahmadinejad's Remarks
• Aafia Siddiqui – Victim of Zionist justice
• Feds Expand War On Terror, Raid Communist Antiwar Activists
• Friday: 1 Iraqi Killed, 13 Wounded
• Even your best friends won't tell you
• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: And now the hit pieces begin
• Congressional Food Fascism Legislation
• From Coexistence to Conquest: the international law origins of the Arab-Israeli conflict 1891 1949
• Gold Breaks Psychological Barrier
• How Sudan muzzles its media
• Equality -- or Freedom?
• Where is Israel?
• Video of Missile Hitting the Pentagon
• Thursday: 12 Iraqis Killed; 12 Iraqis, 1 Foreign Contractor Wounded
• Alex Jones on Israel critics–"weak minded idiots", "mentally ill" and "FBI agents"
• Does Honey-Trap Smear Suggest WikiLeaks is for Real?
• US Pushes Worldwide Internet Site Blocking Bill
• The Global Systemic Crisis: Towards a Serious Breakdown of the World Economic and Financial System, Spring 2011
• Illuminati Dajjal Commercials
• US Defense Spending Set for Downward Course 
• Duluth Reader Demolishes 9/11 Commission Report!
• Inside Gaza – The Contradictions of Determination
• Wednesday: 1 Iraqi Killed, 31 Wounded
• After False Promises, the Heat Is On
• The Pollard Principle
• The Last Summit?
• Democracy Is Overrated

September 11: Towards a UN inquiry commission Posted: 25 Sep 2010 07:21 AM PDT On September 11, 2001 the world watched helplessly as the attacks that plunged the United States into mourning took place. Against all logic, the Bush Administration attributed them to an Islamist plot hatched by a group of fanatics inside a cave in Afghanistan. This accusation was exploited to justify a war against terrorism that was to start in Afghanistan and Iraq and extend, according to President Bush, to 60 countries.

PressTV-Comment with George Galloway-Viva Palestina Posted: 25 Sep 2010 07:14 AM PDT Viva Palestina 5 convoy is on its way. It has just landed in Greece. Press TV's Hassan al-Khatib is with the convoy. Egyptian government has made threats against the convoy and have said they will not allow him to land in Sinai. Let's watch and see what George Galloway and his viewers have to say about Viva Palestina.

Policy chaos, military muscle: Why US will never win Afghan war Posted: 25 Sep 2010 07:03 AM PDT With about 50 to 100 Al-Qaeda members in Afghanistan altogether, the US is spending over a billion dollars annually fighting each of them, estimated ex-marine officer Matthew Hoh, head of the Afghan Study Group. "One of the major problems with the US foreign policy is that we are not consistent," blamed Hoh, explaining that America is withdrawing troops from Iraq where the quantity of Al Qaeda members is many times higher than in Afghanistan.

9/11 – Obama lives in 'self-denial' Posted: 25 Sep 2010 06:46 AM PDT Ben Obama on Friday condemned as "hateful" and "excuseable" suggestions by Iranianian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the US government may have been behind the September 11, 2001 attacks. Dr. Ahmadinejad's response to the 'self-denials' was that they should have the moral courage "to listen".

Euro Doom: Germany wants Deutschmark back Posted: 25 Sep 2010 06:11 AM PDT In spring indebted nations such as Greece, Portugal and Spain nearly dragged the Euro zone into the abyss. It was only a seven hundred and fifty billion Euro bailout package that maintained the shaky balance. But many experts still believe what we've witnessed, is the beginning of the end. Some of them have gathered in Berlin. RT's Laura Emmett talks to Jurgen Elsasser, one of the organizers of the Euro conference.

Arabs face discrimination in Israel Posted: 25 Sep 2010 04:59 AM PDT Discrimination faced by Palestinians living within Israel's borders remains one of the key sticking points in Middle East peace talks. Umm al-Fahm is a town made up almost entirely of Palestinian Israelis - those who found themselves within the new border when Israel was created in 1948. Israel's declaration of independence, the equivalent of a constitution, states that all citizens are equal but the one-fifth of the population who are Palestinian, believe they are less equal than others. Al Jazeera's Dan Nolan reports from Umm al-Fahm, Israel.

Obama speaks at the UN… Goodbye to peace Posted: 25 Sep 2010 03:52 AM PDT On marks out of ten for his speech to the UN on the subject of ending the conflict in and over Palestine that became Israel, I'd give President Obama minus five. Earlier this month (on 4 September) I wrote a piece with the headline Obama has signalled his coming complete surrender to Zionism and its lobby. That surrender, it seems to me, is now effectively a fait accompli.

Independent Committee of Experts on Gaza War Posted: 25 Sep 2010 03:02 AM PDT On September 21, the UN Human Rights Council's independent fact finding Committee issued its report titled, "No Safe Place," assessing "investigat(ions) and report(s) on violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law during" Operation Cast Lead.

US Could Be Alone as Europe Turns Inward Posted: 24 Sep 2010 11:00 PM PDT The relationship between Western Europe and the colonies that became the United States was complicated from the beginning, when the North American settlements were mere appendages of the European powers, and were drawn into their conflicts – King William III's and Queen Anne's wars, the French and Indian war involving the Iroquois, and then the American colonial revolt against England. Three decades later, the reprise of the war with England afforded the new United States an opportunity to rebuild its burned national capitol and the city of Washington. Today's relationship with Europe is again complicated, more complicated than many think because there is a slow but clear erosion, and growing distrust on both sides, produced by the American unwillingness to give up its assumption that the states of the European Union remain the respectful satellites they have been during most of the period since World War II. The situation of the colonial period is to a degree reversed, with America's European allies in reaction against America's imperial wars.

One and a Half Cheers for American Decline Posted: 24 Sep 2010 11:00 PM PDT Compare two assessments of the American future: In the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll in which 61 percent of Americans interviewed considered "things in the nation" to be "on the wrong track," 66 percent did "not feel confident that life for our children's generation will be better than it has been for us." (Seven percent were "not sure," and only 27 percent "felt confident.") But here was the polling question you're least likely to see discussed in your local newspaper or by Washington-based pundits: "Do you think America is in a state of decline, or do you feel that this is not the case?" Sixty-five percent of respondents chose as their answer: "in a state of decline."

The Terrorism Fraud Posted: 24 Sep 2010 11:00 PM PDT "Terrorism" has become the most abused word in the English language.  The fear of terrorism has driven explosive growth in the United States government, has led to two wars in the past ten years with possibly several more waiting in the wings, and has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.  Terrorism is a tactic, not an enemy.  It consists of attacking a largely civilian population to demoralize it and reduce its willingness to resist either an aggressor or an occupying power.  It has been used extensively in the twentieth century and so far into the twenty-first century because it is a force equalizer.  It enables a resistance movement or a group seeking a change in government to attack a much larger and more powerful opponent.  Because it has that ability to engage asymmetrically, one can expect that terror tactics will continue to be with us for the foreseeable future.

After Empire Posted: 24 Sep 2010 11:00 PM PDT The spring of 2003 may have been the high point of the American Empire. The very next year, the fiasco of the Iraq invasion prompted the self-described "neoliberal" Michael Lind to complain on the pages of Financial Times that Bush the Lesser's bumbling ways have ruined imperialism: "Neoliberalism, like neoconservatism, depended on the mystique of American power… Without US forces doing the heavy lifting in UN or Nato interventions, the ambitious neoliberal strategy of muscular internationalism becomes impossible."

Obama Knows the War is Dumb, but Prefers Power Over Peace Posted: 24 Sep 2010 11:00 PM PDT One thing that comes through clearly in Bob Woodward's new book, Obama's Wars, is the contempt felt by Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, toward President Barack Obama. One of Woodward's more telling vignettes has Petraeus, after quaffing a glass of wine during a flight in May, telling some of his staff that the administration was "[expletive] with the wrong guy."

It Is Official: The US Is A Police State Posted: 24 Sep 2010 11:00 PM PDT On September 24, Jason Ditz reported on Antiwar.com that "the FBI is confirming that this morning they began a number of raids against the homes of antiwar activists in Illinois, Minneapolis, Michigan, and North Carolina, claiming that they are 'seeking evidence relating to activities concerning the material support of terrorism.'" Now we know what Homeland Security (sic) secretary Janet Napolitano meant when she said on September 10: "The old view that 'if we fight the terrorists abroad, we won't have to fight them here'  is just that — the old view."  The new view, Napolitano said, is "to counter violent extremism right here at home."

Dissecting Obama's UN speech Posted: 24 Sep 2010 09:48 PM PDT Barack Obama, the US president, has urged countries in the United Nations to get behind Middle East peace efforts in an address at the UN General Assembly. But Ali Hasan Abunimah, a Palestinian-American journalist and co-founder of Electronic Intifada, an independent web site about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, said Obama's speech did not represent anything new. "That bodes very ill for the peace process that he's so invested in," Abunimah told Al Jazeera's Shihab Rattansi, speaking from the US state of Indiana. "Let's judge him not by what he says, but what he does."

"Why aren't the Bedouins treated like Jewish citizens?" Posted: 24 Sep 2010 08:17 PM PDT The Palestinian Bedouin village of al-Araqib was destroyed for the fifth time in two months on 13 September. Villagers and their supporters watched as it took less than an hour for three bulldozers and at least a hundred police officers to raze the entire community, located just outside of Beersheba in the Negev desert. Jillian Kestler-D'Amours interviews Ismael Abu Saad, Associate Professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the founder of the university's Center for Bedouin Studies and Development, about the history of Bedouin communities and Israeli policy in the region, and the strength of resistance in al-Araqib.

Press TV's Waqar Rizvi talks to Mark Dankof Ahmadinejad's Remarks Posted: 24 Sep 2010 07:58 PM PDT Press TV's Waqar Rizvi talks to Mark Dankof Ahmadinejad's Remarks

Aafia Siddiqui – Victim of Zionist justice Posted: 24 Sep 2010 05:07 PM PDT On September 23, a Zionist Jew Judge Richard Berman sentenced Pakistani citizen and mother of three Dr. Aafia Siddiqui to 86 year in prison. Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is MIT educated scientist and victim of rape at the hand of her captors, in Afghanistan and the US. After the sentencing, when her lawyer said that he will appeal against the verdict – she denounced the trail and said an appeal would be "a waste of time. I appeal to Allah". Now compare Berman's judgement with another Jew Judge Michael B. Mukasey (later promoted to become US Attorney General), who set free 140 Israelis arrested for espionage in the US (ABC News 20/20) after 9/11. How about the Jewish campaign in support of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced for adultery – proving that in American justice, being raped is a serious crime while having sex out of marriage is a 'civilized act'.

Feds Expand War On Terror, Raid Communist Antiwar Activists Posted: 24 Sep 2010 02:38 PM PDT Following the absurd hyperbole of senior Obama administration officials earlier this week warning that the CIA's Night of the Walking Dead cave dwellers will attempt small scale attacks against the United States, the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force dispatched SWAT teams to the homes of antiwar activists in Minneapolis and Chicago in order to keep alive and expand the terrorism mantra

Friday: 1 Iraqi Killed, 13 Wounded Posted: 24 Sep 2010 10:13 AM PDT Updated at 7:55 p.m. EDT, Sept. 24, 2010 At least one Iraqi was killed and 13 more were wounded in light violence. Meanwhile, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari announced that full diplomatic ties with Syria will be resumed. Also, for the first time since the invasion of Iraq, more contractors have died in the country than have U.S. troops.

Even your best friends won't tell you Posted: 24 Sep 2010 10:09 AM PDT As I remember, that has been a headline for everything from bad breath to dandruff sufferers to those suffering from body odors. The headline was ideal shame-making for manufacturers of mouthwashes, dandruff shampoos, deodorants and antiperspirants. And now it applies to our purported worst enemy, the President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. That is, he's telling us what none of our "best friends" in our government are saying, "that the American government may have been behind the 9/11 attack." After being greeted by a round of applause as he entered the U.N. General Assembly yesterday, September 23, Ahmedinejad was applauded again after his remarks. During his General Assembly address he called for a "U.N. fact finding group to investigate 9/11." I hope their findings (if a group should ever come about) won't be treated like the fact-finding results of Hans Blix, head of the UN's United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission. His claims of no WMD in Hussein's Iraq were ignored. As were the claims of orthodox Jewish Justice Richard Goldstone's report on Zionist overkill in Gaza.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: And now the hit pieces begin Posted: 24 Sep 2010 08:26 AM PDT Yesterday, at the annual United Nations General Assembly, the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said in his address to the gathered world leaders that the "majority of the American people, as well as most nations and politicians around the world agree with this view" (that the attacks of September 11 2001 was an inside job). This not only causes the vast majority of the U.S. delegates to leave the hall in disgust, but it also causes the Main Stream Media to go into fits of panic as the news spreads that someone has the guts to stand up in the United Nations and say that the American Administration, under former President George W. Bush, committed the world's worst ever terrorist atrocity against their own citizens, and not only that, but that the majority of Americans know that they did it.

Congressional Food Fascism Legislation Posted: 24 Sep 2010 08:03 AM PDT On July 29, 2009, the House passed HR 2749: Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 "To amend the (1938 as amended) Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to improve the safety of food in the global market, and for other purposes." On March 3, 2009, S. 510: FDA Food Safety Modernization Act was introduced, the Senate's version of the House bill. It stalled after being assailed as anti-consumer and small farmer as well as failing to help food safety. In fact, like the House bill, it's cover for greater industry consolidation, destructive to consumer welfare.

From Coexistence to Conquest: the international law origins of the Arab-Israeli conflict 1891 1949 Posted: 24 Sep 2010 07:30 AM PDT The Palestinian cause has been, and will remain the most important issue in the Arab world until it is resolved in accordance with international and humanitarian laws. Many people have approached the issue and have discussed it showing at times thought and knowledge, at times not; it has been discussed both intellectually and as an ideological anomaly. As a result many who have looked at this issue have paid the price by depriving the issue of its humanity, cutting the past from its roots and shrouding the present in a manner that does not fit its status. With all its components, the Zionist movement forms a strange ideology, fuelled by those whose feelings have united with their objectives, as the book illustrates, historically, politically and legally.

Gold Breaks Psychological Barrier Posted: 24 Sep 2010 07:15 AM PDT Gold has continued its astronomical ascent, reaching a new record-breaking high of $1,300 an ounce today. This is the fourth day of record high gold prices. Earlier in the week, the precious metal surged after Federal Reserve boss Bernanke said the banksters will provide extra "monetary stimulus" to boost the collapsing economy.

How Sudan muzzles its media Posted: 24 Sep 2010 05:49 AM PDT Friday's special UN summit on Sudan, held three months ahead of a referendum on independence for the self-governed south of the country, is likely dominate news reports in the African nation. But as Sudanese journalists report the details of the meeting, they will have to be very careful of what they say. Authorities in Sudan have been accused of a campaign of harrassment and intimidation against the media aimed at avoiding dissenting coverage, and as political tensions rise over the possible secession of the south, rights groups are warning that an already muzzled media could be slapped with further reporting restrictions.

Equality -- or Freedom? Posted: 24 Sep 2010 12:00 AM PDT If you would understand why America has lost the dynamism she had in the 1950s and 1960s, consider the new Paycheck Fairness Act passed by the House 256 to 162. The need for such a law, writes Valerie Jarrett, the ranking woman in Barack Obama's White House, is that "working women are still paid only 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man."

Where is Israel? Posted: 23 Sep 2010 07:38 PM PDT Here is something you're not likely to see on evening newscasts or in your hometown newspapers: A July 28, 2010 survey of Israeli religious school teachers, designed to gauge their level of education, was conducted by Yediot Ahronot, Israel's largest newspaper. The conclusions were shocking. Are you ready for the results? Hold on to your seat!

Video of Missile Hitting the Pentagon Posted: 23 Sep 2010 03:25 PM PDT Whatever it was that struck the Pentagon, it was certainly not a large American Airlines airliner, and only a missile like that seen in the video could have penetrated three complete rings of the Pentagon, piercing round holes through six thick walls of concrete and masonry. The large hole seen in the video is the missile's exit hole in the sixth wall and this hole was not made by the fragile nose of an aluminum bodied aircraft, that's for sure.

Thursday: 12 Iraqis Killed; 12 Iraqis, 1 Foreign Contractor Wounded Posted: 23 Sep 2010 11:15 AM PDT Updated at 7:11 p.m. EDT, Sept. 23, 2010 Iraq's political deadlock was high on the agenda at the 7th Interior Ministers Meeting. The ministers of several neighboring countries acknowledged that Iraq's politics are an internal matter, but they also stressed a "regional need" for Iraq to seat its new government. Meanwhile, 12 Iraqis were killed and 12 more were wounded in new violence. A foreign contractor was also wounded.

Alex Jones on Israel critics–"weak minded idiots", "mentally ill" and "FBI agents" Posted: 23 Sep 2010 10:51 AM PDT If–according to AJ, I am an "FBI agent", where's my badge, gun, health insurance and pension?

Does Honey-Trap Smear Suggest WikiLeaks is for Real? Posted: 23 Sep 2010 10:00 AM PDT Is WikiLeaks for real? Gordon Duff says the real purpose of its Afghanistan leak was "to spread imaginary stories about Pakistan, the only nuclear power in the Middle East capable of standing up to Israel and the enemy of India." (WikiLeaks is Israel, Like We All Didn't Know.) Then why is Wikileaks founder Julian Assange still being smeared by some intel agency with power in Sweden?

US Pushes Worldwide Internet Site Blocking Bill Posted: 23 Sep 2010 09:32 AM PDT US lawmakers have introduced legislation that would allow the federal government to quickly block websites anywhere in the world if they are dedicated to sharing copyrighted music or other protected content. The "Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act" would empower the US Department of Justice to shut down, or block access to, websites found to be "dedicated to infringing activities." Sites that use domain names registered by a US-based company, or a top-level-domain administered by a US-based company, would find their internet addresses frozen.

The Global Systemic Crisis: Towards a Serious Breakdown of the World Economic and Financial System, Spring 2011 Posted: 23 Sep 2010 08:36 AM PDT As anticipated by LEAP/E2020 last February in the GEAB No. 42, the second half of 2010 is really characterized by a sudden worsening of the crisis marked by the end of the illusion of recovery maintained by Western leaders (1) and the thousands of billions swallowed up by the banks and the economic « stimulation » plans of no lasting effect. The coming months will reveal a simple, yet especially painful reality: the Western economy, and in particular that of the United States (2), never really came out of recession (3). The startling statistics recorded since summer 2009 have only been the short-lived consequences of a massive injection of liquidity into a system which had essentially become insolvent just like the US consumer (4). At the heart of the global systemic crisis since its inception, the United States is, in the coming months, going to demonstrate that it is, once again, in the process of leading the economy and global finances into the « heart of darkness » (5) because it can't get out of this « Very Great US Depression (6) ». Thus, coming out of the political upheavals of the US elections next November, with growth once again negative, the world will have to face the « Very Serious Breakdown » of the global economic and financial system founded over 60 years ago on the absolute necessity of the US economy never being in a lasting recession. Now the first half of 2011 will dictate that the US economy take an unprecedented dose of austerity plunging the planet into new financial, monetary, economic and social chaos (7).

Illuminati Dajjal Commercials Posted: 23 Sep 2010 08:26 AM PDT We've always believed that advertisements had the dual functions of 1-selling a product and 2-normalize attitudes, symbols and meanings. I am posting examples of this  here called "Illuminati Commercials". Here's a rather blatant one for a phone texting service. Notice the background behind the first guy…

US Defense Spending Set for Downward Course  Posted: 22 Sep 2010 11:00 PM PDT Although U.S. military spending will reach an all-time high next year, the Pentagon budget almost certainly faces steady cuts over the medium to long term, mainly as a result of increasing pressure to reduce the ballooning national debt, according to a growing consensus among defense experts. And while Pentagon chief Robert Gates is taking pre-emptive action by promising to save 100 billion dollars over the next five years by reducing bureaucratic duplication and waste, including the number of flag officers, and reliance on private contractors, and canceling the "bells and whistles" on some big-ticket weapons systems, some analysts believe bigger cuts are inevitable.

Duluth Reader Demolishes 9/11 Commission Report! Posted: 22 Sep 2010 09:01 PM PDT The Duluth (MN) Reader says it's "The Best Paper Money Can't Buy - Locally Owned." Living up to its motto, the September 2nd Reader featured  a blockbuster story by Dr. Gary Kohls, "A Call for a New, Unbiased 9/11 Commission to Investigate the Controlled Demolition of the Three WTC Towers." Then just to show it wasn't a fluke, the September 9th, 2010 Reader included a 9/11 truth cover story by Jim Fetzer--this one entitled "Top Ten (x2) Reasons the 'Official Account' of 9/11 is Wrong."

Inside Gaza – The Contradictions of Determination Posted: 22 Sep 2010 01:36 PM PDT I was born into occupation. I was born in Palestine. My father was a member the P.L.O. (Palestinian Liberation Organization) and my mother always supported him. I was very lucky to have such rebellious father and patient mother. When I think back to my childhood I always count myself as blessed to have had an opportunity to stay in Germany with some other children in 1990, three years after the onset of the First Intifada. The Palestinian children who went to Germany grew up under Israeli Tyranny and some of them suffered much more than I, having lost their parents, not to mention having been injured during warfare, losing their site or their arms or legs in explosions. The trip to Germany was a great chance for us to open our eyes to the world around us and escape the Ghetto that is Gaza.

Wednesday: 1 Iraqi Killed, 31 Wounded Posted: 22 Sep 2010 10:33 AM PDT Unlike neighboring Iran, Iraq was fairly quiet on what is the 30th anniversary of the Iran-Iraq War. One Iraqi was killed and 31 others were wounded in new and updated reports of violence. Sixteen more wounded were reported in yesterday's bombing in Hamza, bringing the total to three dead and 56 wounded. The source of the explosion is being investigated.

After False Promises, the Heat Is On Posted: 21 Sep 2010 11:00 PM PDT Iraqis promised development with the ouster of Saddam Hussein and the arrival of the U.S. are now suffering lack of development as never before. And where it hurts every moment is through the collapse of power supply. More than seven years into the U.S. occupation, most Iraqis lack electricity, leading to demonstrations in towns and cities across the country.

The Pollard Principle Posted: 21 Sep 2010 11:00 PM PDT On July 13 of this year, the municipal government of Jerusalem honored one of Israel's most popular national heroes, a man who had suffered and sacrificed his all for the Jewish state, and is recognized by practically everyone as not only a hero but a modern exemplar of Zionist virtue. As evening fell, lights illuminating the walls of the Old City were dimmed "as a gesture of solidarity with convicted spy Jonathan Pollard," reported Ha'aretz. "As part of Tuesday's event, a special message calling upon US President Barack Obama to release Pollard will be projected onto the darkened city walls." July 13 marked the 9,000th day of his incarceration. Yes, in Israel they're counting the days until this traitor is released, and their message – hand the traitor over – is now being projected by Israeli negotiators, who are pressing the US for Pollard's release in exchange for yet another temporary halt to their aggressive "settlement" building campaign. The settlements have become a big sticking point obstructing the peace process, with unelected Palestinian "President" Mahmoud Abbas threatening to walk if the Israelis don't lay off.

The Last Summit? Posted: 21 Sep 2010 11:00 PM PDT The Israeli-Palestinian talks recently convened by President Barack Obama may or may not lead to a peace agreement. But the negotiations could mark the last serious attempt by a U.S. president to invest his or her own political capital and American diplomatic prestige in resolving the conflict based on a two-state solution. An international consensus has emerged in support of a formula setting an end to the 100-year-old clash along the lines of the 2000 "Clinton Parameters." This consensus includes the members of the Middle East "Quartet," the Arab League, and the mainstream Israeli and Palestinian leadership.

Democracy Is Overrated Posted: 21 Sep 2010 11:00 PM PDT American policymakers love to see purple thumbs in the developing world, especially in countries in which the United States has undertaken "nation-building" projects (read: invasions and occupations). The recent Afghan parliamentary elections are a case in point. Yet elections in the developing world are not usually what they are cracked up to be and can be downright destabilizing. Many despots in the developing world have realized that the United States is obsessed with exporting democracy to the world (at least on a theoretical basis until U.S. government interests require the overthrow of democratically elected leaders in favor of more pliant puppets – such as in Iran, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, and Chile). So modern-day autocrats are sophisticated enough to conduct slanted plebiscites that will allow them to show the international media and the U.S. government that they have been "elected." And as long as such authoritarian regimes' policies don't deviate too much from what the United States wants – as they have in Iran, Syria, North Korea, and Saddam Hussein's Iraq – the "elected" dictators will be left alone.

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