Rebel Newsflash: Arab regime credibility hanging by its last invisible threat (plus 99 more items)

Arab regime credibility hanging by its last invisible threat

Posted: 10 Oct 2010 05:30 AM PDT

As I have written and said on more than a few occasions in the past, Zionism's key players know how to play the cards they were dealt and Arab leaders don't.

On 25 September I wrote a piece headlined Obama speaks at the UN… Goodbye to peace. Since then I've seen no need for me to contribute to the debate about the farce that President Obama's push for peace is and was always going to be. But the Arab League's decision to give Obama a one-month deadline to rescue the direct talks between Abbas and his quisling administration and Netanyahu and his deluded coalition government demands a comment or two.

Double entendre

Posted: 10 Oct 2010 04:19 AM PDT

Westerners, especially Americans, often look at violence in the Middle East as a result of the teachings of Islam.

This week's talk show by Christine Amanpour's spent the better part of two hours discussing Islam and how people are reacting to Islam as a source of fanaticism publicised in the press.

The Western public has been seduced into believing that reactions of "extremists" have something to do with Islam. Extremist reprisals have nothing to do with religion. They are expressions of revenge. Anti-American reactions have been what Reverend Jeremiah Wright called "bringing the chickens home to roost."

Leaked letter reveals Obama's contempt for international law

Posted: 10 Oct 2010 04:14 AM PDT

It has been an unsettling week watching Obama's unholy alliance with Israel take the world a step nearer the edge of the abyss.

First I read Mark Glenn's scary piece, "Exodus of Jewish Advisors from Obama White House Likely Not an Omen of Good Things to Come" , in which he suggests the unexpected departure of Rahm Emmanuel, David Axelrod and Larry Summers from the top echelons of the White House might indicate that some sinister and possibly cataclysmic event is imminent.

Israel: "Country X"

Posted: 10 Oct 2010 04:12 AM PDT

On October 7, 2010, Israeli daily The Jerusalem Post reported that the FBI has arrested a Jew employee of Akamai Technologies Elliot Doxer for providing confidential information over 18-month to a FBI agent he thought worked for Israeli Consulate in Boston.

As expected under a Zionist Occupied Government (ZOG), the US Justice Department has named the benefactor of this latest espionage Israel as "Country X". Furthermore, US Justice Department has charged Doxer with a single count of wire fraud and the Zionist entity being not behind the espionage. Now just imagine what the Jewish media headlines had been – had Elliot Doxer been a Muslim working for some US puppet government in the Muslim world.

Searching for accountability

Posted: 10 Oct 2010 03:08 AM PDT

A string of shootings by British troops in a non-combat zone resulting in scores of dead civilians; a highway rampage by US troops; a deaf boy shot at when orders barked at him did not illicit a response; a previously unknown US special forces unit reporting directly to the White House, as well as a 'capture kill' list with which they operated, and their botched up missions that resulted in scores of casualties, including the deaths of children at an Islamic school.

The largest leak of classified military documents in US history revealed these incidents and many more. Nevertheless, the Afghan war logs published by Wikileaks on July 25 prompted no official apology or investigation into their contents.

Why the "Mastermind of 9-11" is Kept Secluded

Posted: 10 Oct 2010 02:50 AM PDT

On the ninth anniversary of the "War on Terror" the lead editorial of the global edition of the New York Times suggested that the accused "Mastermind of 9/11", Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will probably never be put on trial.

These interesting comments from the New York Times were found in its editorial entitled "Military Injustice", a piece that was published in the New York edition on October 6: There are more than 170 inmates left in Guantánamo. Only 36 have been referred for prosecution, some very dangerous men. Forty-eight are in a long-term detention that is certainly illegal. Almost all the rest are in limbo while the Obama team tries to figure out what to do. The chances are dimming every day that prisoners like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, will ever be brought to justice.

Nine Years of the War of Terror

Posted: 10 Oct 2010 02:42 AM PDT

October 7, 2010, marked the beginning of the tenth year of the War on Terror, a fraudulent and disguised Zionist war of conquest that should more rightly be called the Israeli "War of Terror." This is the more accurate label for the wars being waged in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. These wars are all part of an open-ended criminal strategy that was initiated by the false-flag terror of 9/11. The commission of the criminal War of Terror employs two basic tools: terror bombings and the threat of more terrorism. As we see in the current news reports, the two usually go hand in hand. The recent C.I.A. terror bombings using drones in Pakistan are said to have targeted terrorists plotting to commit terror bombings in Europe.

Inside Story - Israel's new citizen law

Posted: 10 Oct 2010 12:55 AM PDT

Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has re-introduced a proposal requiring any non-Jew taking Israeli citizenship to swear allegiance to Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. Inside Story discusses how the 'Jewish loyalty oath' could impact the Middle East peace talks.

The Assassination of John Lennon

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 10:34 PM PDT

Let's see...

It's 1980. There are no cheap air flights. Credit cards are not easily available.

A 25 year old janitor flies from Hawaii to New York City, stays in five star luxury hotels (ex. The Waldorf Astoria), flies to Georgia, back to New York City and then back to Hawaii.

The Ecuadorian Coup: Its Larger Meaning

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 10:01 PM PDT

The abortive military-police coup in Ecuador, which took place on September 30, has raised numerous questions about the role of the US and its allies among the traditional oligarchy and the leftist social movements, Indian organizations and their political parties.

While President Correa and all governments in Latin America, and significant sectors of the Ecuadorian public described the violent actions as a coup, the principle organ of Wall Street – The Wall Street Journal – described it as a "police protest". Spoke persons for Goldman Sachs and the Council of Foreign Relations referred to the police and military power grab against the democratically elected government as a self-induced "political crises" of the President. While the coup was underway the "Indian" movement CONAIE, launched a manifesto condemning the government, while the "Indian" party Pachakutik supported the ouster of the President and backed the police coup as a "just act of public servants".

Israel's Enemies–Children of a Lesser God

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 07:16 PM PDT

What did I ever do to you?
Did I ever bring danger to your home,
What injustices old or new?
What did I ever do or say-
That could possibly justify the things
You are doing to me this day?

Warning to Glenn Beck: Don't Drink Diet Coke

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 05:24 PM PDT

On Friday, Glenn Beck announced on his radio show that he will be taking a brief leave of absence for medical reasons. "There is something wrong with my voice, and we're not sure what it is," Beck said, according to a transcript on his website. "They're going to be doing CAT scans and MREs or MRIs and PET scans and they're going to be doing blood work like crazy."

In July, the Fox News host admitted that he is suffering from macular dystrophy, an eye disorder that causes vision loss. "Yes, I have a problem with my eyes," Beck told an audience of 6,000 in Salt Lake City. "A couple of weeks ago, I went to the doctor because I can't focus my eyes … So I went to the best doctor I could find… he did all kinds of tests, and he said I have macular dystrophy."

The Jewish Republic of Israel

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 05:21 PM PDT

Remember this day. It's the day Israel changes its character. As a result, it can also change its name to the Jewish Republic of Israel, like the Islamic Republic of Iran. Granted, the loyalty oath bill that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to have passed purportedly only deals with new citizens who are not Jewish, but it affects the fate of all of us.

From now on, we will be living in a new, officially approved, ethnocratic, theocratic, nationalistic and racist country. Anyone who thinks it doesn't affect him is mistaken. There is a silent majority that is accepting this with worrying apathy, as if to say: "I don't care what country I live in." Also anyone who thinks the world will continue to relate to Israel as a democracy after this law doesn't understand what it is about. It's another step that seriously harms Israel's image.

Gaza teens brave IDF fire to collect salvaged building materials

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 05:21 PM PDT

In the course of three months this summer Israeli soldiers shot and wounded 10 Palestinian teenagers who collect building materials from demolished structures in the former Israeli settlements and the Erez industrial zone in the northern Gaza Strip, dozens or hundreds of meters from the border. Palestinians believe the shootings are aimed at keeping people away from these areas, but despite the great risk dozens of nearby residents, many of them minors, continue to come in order to collect bits of cement and gravel from inside the buildings that were destroyed by the Israel Defense Forces around the time of the 2005 disengagement, and sell them to contractors and factories in the Strip.

South Korea to bypass sanctions against Iran

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 05:13 PM PDT

Several of US allies are getting fed-up with Washington's idiotic foreign policy to serve the Israeli interests around the world. One of these allies is South Korea.

South Korea has appointed two state-run banks to finance commerce with Iran and revive business ties damaged by sanctions in an effort to protect US$10B in annual trade with Tehran. Woori Bank and the Industrial Bank of Korea will from this month be allowed to finance legitimate trade with Iran in sectors unaffected by sanctions, channeled through Iran's central bank.

Glenn Beck Leaving Fox News?

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 02:57 PM PDT

Recent headlines surrounding Glenn Beck's health problems could be a face-saving ploy to pave the way for his exit from Fox News, which could be a reason why Beck has become increasingly hardcore in recent weeks, knowing that he is on his way out.

Since Beck has been appointed the de facto leader of the patriot movement by the establishment media while reaching some 50 million people a week, it's necessary to look at why he's started to cover real issues in recent months instead of blaming the march of big government collectivism on people like Van Jones and other relative nobodies.

The Afghan War, Past and Present

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 01:57 PM PDT

This week, as the Afghan War entered its 10th year, there were the usual retrospectives in the media, as well as calls to rethink the war. What's striking, though, is how little thinking media did about the war in the first place. --Some pundits were calling for indiscriminate attacks before the Afghanistan War even started...

Book review: "A Wall in Palestine"

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 12:27 PM PDT

The conflict in Palestine has become so all-consuming that even objects are central to the struggle. French journalist René Backmann's A Wall in Palestine illustrates this fact. The book reveals how the inanimate object that is Israel's wall in the occupied West Bank has become so imbued with conflicting meanings and ideas that it can be seen as an actor that creates new actions in their wake, like the growing boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS) that takes aim at Israeli colonization. The campaign for divestment from Elbit Systems, a company that provides "intrusion detection systems," is one such example.

Phony Terror Threat

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 11:24 AM PDT

The question raised in this edition of Press TV's News Analysis is: What was behind the US raising the terror alert across Europe on Sunday? Top Pakistani diplomats and European intelligence officials have said that Obama exaggerated the threat for political gain.

Kaneez Fatima discusses Austerity Measures with Max Keiser

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 10:40 AM PDT

Press TV's Kaneez Fatima discusses Austerity Measures and public protests against them with Max Keiser

Black-on-white hate crime: Where's the outrage?

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 09:57 AM PDT

It's a criminal case whose victim bears the scars of a particularly heinous brutality – and whose motivation recalls the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. murders that outraged the nation.

But because it "fails to fit a preapproved script, you probably haven't even heard about it," says Erik Rush, author of a controversial new book on racial politics and manipulation.

"Were this a white-on-black hate crime," said Rush, "there is no escaping the fact that it would be national news for months, and every prominent black career civil rights activist in America would be calling for the death penalty."

The Israel lobby's shame

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 09:31 AM PDT

Reading David Grossman's To The End Of The Land led me to wonder why J Street is lambasted for accepting support from George Soros while the "pro-Israel" lobby is never called upon to account for supporting policies that have produced so much grief and mourning in Israel.

I won't reveal the plot. It's fiction but, as is well-known, Grossman's 20 year-old son, Uri, was killed during the 2006 war in Lebanon. I am not giving anything away when I say that this would not be the same book if Uri had come home from that war.

Saturday: 6 Iraqis Killed, 22 Wounded

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 08:58 AM PDT

Displaying newfound confidence that he has the support to remain prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki called on rival parties to make concessions and enter into talks to end the political impasse plaguing Iraq for the last seven months. He also asked opponents living in exile to return home. Meanwhile, at least six Iraqis were killed and 22 more were wounded in violence located mostly in central Iraq.

Three brothers were killed execution-style after being dragged out of their home in Garma. Their driver was wounded. The suspected killers were described as dressed in military uniforms. Although Anbar province, where Garma is located, has seen several controversial operations involving military personnel this year, the three brothers worked as bodyguards for government personnel, making this the likely work of Sunni extremists. Separately, an Awakening Council leader was lightly wounded in a sticky bomb blast. Another blast left no casualties at a market.

Saturday: 6 Iraqis Killed, 24 Wounded

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 08:58 AM PDT

Updated at 10:28 p.m. EDT, Oct. 9, 2010

Displaying newfound confidence that he has the support to remain prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki called on rival parties to make concessions and enter into talks to end the political impasse plaguing Iraq for the last seven months. He also asked opponents living in exile to return home. Meanwhile, at least six Iraqis were killed and 24 more were wounded in violence located mostly in central Iraq.

'I like to compare EU with Soviet Union'

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 08:27 AM PDT

The European Union should not be expected to last forever, believes British politician and member of the EU Parliament Roger Helmer.

Global Banking Cartel

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 08:21 AM PDT

In this edition of Press TV's 'On the Edge with Max Keiser', Max has an interview with the journalist, David Degraw, who has just published a book named The Road Through 2012: Revolution or World War III. Degraw believes that the so-called global banking cartel of financial terrorists are bent on destroying global economies so that only they themselves, who he believes are only one tenth of %0.01 of the global population, prosper and everyone else suffers and remains poor. He says Americans only have two years to prevent a third world war by revolting against this one tenth of %0.01 of the population or financial terrorists as he calls them.

America's Third World Economy

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 08:08 AM PDT

For a number of years I reported on the monthly nonfarm payroll jobs data. The data did not support the praises economists were singing to the "New Economy." The "New Economy" consisted, allegedly, of financial services, innovation, and high-tech services.

This economy was taking the place of the old "dirty fingernail" economy of industry and manufacturing. Education would retrain the workforce, and we would move on to a higher level of prosperity.

Judge Andrew Napolitano: A Return to Our Goldwater Roots

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 08:00 AM PDT

Andrew Napolitano talks with Alex about the need to return to a constitutional government.

9/11 as Black Swan

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 07:53 AM PDT

9/11, we can all agree, was a highly-improbable, high-impact event on which fortunes were made and lost.

I personally lost about two million dollars on 9/11. In 2004, I turned down a University of California post-doc because it was funded by the 9/11-disinfo-spreading Ford Foundation, thereby stepping off the academic career track in favor of 9/11 truth activism. As a 45-year-old, I would have been expected to average at least $75,000 per year for about 25 years had I labored on the academic plantation then collected a pension, yielding $1,875,000 plus returns on any of that that got invested.

3 women set out to improve Israel's image – even in the Arab media

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 04:13 AM PDT

The Israel Project, Natasha Mozgovaya, October, 2010

Israel's image may not be at its best at the moment, but the pro-Israeli scene in the U.S. is quite lively. One of the most interesting pro-Israeli organizations currently operating in the U.S. is "The Israel Project", which was launched in 2002 by only three women - Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, Margo Volftsun and Sheryl Schwartz, who have taken upon themselves the daunting task of improving Israel's image in the foreign media.

Riz Khan - Does the IMF help or hurt the poor nations?

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 03:05 AM PDT

As countries around the world struggle to emerge from the global economic crisis, are institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) part of the problem - or the solution? Critics accuse the organisation of pushing poorer nations deeper into debt and poverty through its conditional loans.

A nuclear armed Japan may be around the corner

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 03:01 AM PDT

With the U.S. increasingly seen by Japanese military and foreign policy policy-makers as an overextended and failing superpower, some elements in the Japanese government and think tanks feel that the only way Japan can be self-assured over its defense is for the country to amend its constitution and laws to allow for the introduction of nuclear weapons for the Japanese Self-Defense Force.

Israeli Documentary Probes Death of a Peace Activist

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 11:00 PM PDT

The 2003 death of young peace activist Rachel Corrie, crushed by an Israeli military bulldozer, inspired worldwide press coverage, demonstrations and debates – and eventually at least two plays and a number of songs.

Years later, however, mystery still surrounds the exact circumstances of Corrie's death. Simone Bitton's 2009 documentary Rachel, which premieres Friday night at Anthology Film Archive in New York for a week-long run, examines the contradictory versions of the tragedy.

Obama Will End the War or Lose the Elections

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 11:00 PM PDT

Today, the 10th year of the Afghanistan War begins.

The longest American war continues amidst a flood of bad news from the war front – supply routes cut, oil tankers burning, record deaths of soldiers and Afghan civilians, U.S. funding the Taliban to protect U.S. troops . . . on and on, the war failure stares the United States in the face.

Pakistan's Convoy Halt Forces US to Reduce Tensions

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 11:00 PM PDT

By continuing its halt in NATO convoys headed for Afghanistan through the Torkham border crossing into a second week, Pakistan's military leadership has brought an end to the unilateral attacks in Pakistan pushed by Gen. David Petraeus and forced Washington to make a new accommodation.

And it may make it impossible for Petraeus to make the argument in the future that the United States can succeed in Afghanistan, given the refusal of Pakistan to budge on the issue.

The Bosnian Standoff

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 11:00 PM PDT

Though some of the results of last week's general elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina have potential to prove interesting down the road, overall the vote was neither unexpected nor dramatic. Twenty years after the first multi-party election, which saw the triumph of ethnic parties and set the scene for Bosnia's subsequent civil war, nothing substantial has changed in Bosnian politics. Serbs remain opposed to a centralized government. Croats remain unhappy about their dwindling numbers and influence, but would rather perish than agree with the Serbs on anything. Meanwhile, Muslim leaders continue to insist on Izetbegovic the Elder's dream of a centralized Bosnian state, dominated by Muslims. This particular form of deadlock may well be dubbed the "Bosnian standoff." The Empire and partisans of liberal interventionism may find it frustrating, but it is a fact nonetheless.

Press TV's Waqar Rizvi talks to James Morris on Israeli Nukes

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 10:35 PM PDT

Press TV's Waqar Rizvi talks to James Morris on Israeli Nukes

Will Hezbollah Defeat Israel (again!) in the Coming War?

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 06:26 PM PDT

On a clear day you can see Akka, Palestine from my favorite Lebanese village, Maron al Ras, where more than a few analysts here conjecture that the next and 6th aggression by Israel against Lebanon will begin.

On any day, but particularly since 9/21/10, you can also see beefed up Zionist military patrols, assorted electronic listening posts, sundry spy devices, new Raytheon-produced surveillance equipment, two new supposedly camouflaged cinder block one room shacks with Zionist soldiers peering out menacingly while talking on their (Hezbollah-monitored) cell phones to girlfriends, mothers, pals and their HQ's. They frequently glare from windows heavily-screened to keep out stones that tourists on the Lebanon side of the 'blue line' regularly throw at them when UNIFIL guys aren't paying attention or shoo them away. You can also see land mine fields, wide soft sand swatches along the wire fences to detect trespassing neighbors footprints, a couple of orchards, and the edges of three colonial settlements. And if one were to squint, like really squint, or better yet, risk getting shot between the eyes by a Zionist sniper with an American 7.62 mm, Sniper Weapon System, M24 (called a "system" because it can be used with various detachable telescopic sights and other accessories) and were to use some Barska Cosmos 25X100 binoculars, one might see, well, vent holes.

Neither East nor West; Islamic Republic

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 05:18 PM PDT

I usually have never taken seriously anyone whose articles are published regularly in the pro-Israel mainstream media. These armchair "experts" on Islam and the Muslim world are nothing but a bunch Islamophobe parroting the same propaganda lies in different contexts. Steven Livingston's recent article "Why Iran won't bow to foreign pressure" published in the Washington Post, falls into the same category.

Steven Livingston introduces Iranian-born author and journalist, Hooman Majd as "Majd draws on his keen understanding of Iranian culture and history to explain what drives Tehran to resist foreign pressure to curb its nuclear ambitions".

Friday: 2 Iraqis Killed, 14 Wounded

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 05:08 PM PDT

A U.S. State Department report warned that bomb-sniffing dogs being sent to Iraq might not have sufficient training. The dogs, which are considered taboo by many Iraqis, were forced on them after it was discovered that the ADE-651 bomb detectors security forces had been using were actually useless.

Kurdish lawmakers, meanwhile, said they are coming close to a deal with the State of Law Party as well. The deal could give them more support in their quest to annex large areas of oil-rich northern Iraq into the semi-autonomous Kurdish region. That deal and the shutout of the Iraqiya party will likely inflame Sunni Iraqis, but Iraqiya is willing to talk to Maliki about a power-sharing scheme that could resolve the issue. State of Law has also taken its struggle to neighboring countries, looking for support.

In south Lebanon, tourism develops despite threat of war

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 02:20 PM PDT

The contours of a modern medieval castle stretch along the Wazzani River delineating Lebanon's border with Israel. A few meters away from the United Nations-mandated Blue Line, on Lebanon's first line of fire with Israel, a tourism project at an estimated cost of 20 million dollars is slowly taking shape.

Lebanon has been at war with its southern neighbor often since the creation of Israel in 1948. South Lebanon bore the brunt of the longtime enmity and fell under Israel occupancy for over 22 years from 1978-2000. Over the years, an unstable peace has reigned over the region, but broken every now and then because south Lebanon is home to Hizballah, Lebanon's local resistance movement against Israel.

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui: Why She Was Targeted and Why She Matters to All of Us

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 11:23 AM PDT

In the final scene of the 2002 remake of "Dr. Zhivago," Lara observes the inevitable black car following her and has just enough time to make up a game with her young son, challenging him to a race. She knows full well she will never see him again.

"I'll let you have a head start," she smiles at her little boy. He begins running as she is escorted to the car, offering no resistance as she continues watching him from the backseat; the first leg of a journey to an unnamed Siberian gulag.

SPLC, DHS, Community Officials Team Up to Attack Patriot Groups

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 10:50 AM PDT

Stewart Rhodes writes today on the Oath Keepers website that the Southern Poverty Law Center is now officially part of the Department of Homeland Security. Rhodes sources a DHS document, entitled "Countering Violent Extremism Working Group," that lists Richard Cohen as a member of the DHS created group. Cohen is president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center. In addition to Cohen, a number of law enforcement officials are members of the DHS group, including Austin Chief of Police Art Acevedo.

"What does the working group do? Make recommendations on training and how to use all of the local resources — police, social services, media, NGO's, you name it – to fight 'extremism.' So, now no need to file a FOIA request to discover that SPLC is writing the reports naming constitutionalists as possible terrorists. Now it is in your face and the mask is off," writes Rhodes.

Boy used as human shield by Israeli soldiers speaks out

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 09:15 AM PDT

Majid Rabah, age 11, had a broad smile on his face as he relaxed at his family's apartment in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City on Monday, 4 October. He had just heard the news that the two Israeli soldiers who had used him as a human shield had been convicted of their crime in an Israeli military court.

The incident took place on 14 January 2009, in the midst of Israel's 22-day long invasion and bombardment of the Gaza Strip, which killed 1,400 Palestinians -- half of them women and children -- and injured thousands of others.

NATO: Fostering A New Generation of Organized Crime Overseas

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 09:12 AM PDT

There was a time when the theatre of war remained exclusive from the type of blue-collar crime, racketeering and fraud we entertain at home. Throughout the 20th century, organised rackets were a venerable industry in America. Within an official military context, activities like "insurance jobs", staged lorry thefts, narcotics and human trafficking are not exactly simple fayre for the average commissioned soldier. For a private contractor however, this kind of under-the-table work can land an easy payday for anyone organised and bold enough to go through with it.

Truck drivers, security guards, fork lift operators, stock checkers, middle managers and a few key bent police officers all working in collusion with each other to take in merchandise and then distribute it through black market channels. Everyone gets a cut along the way. This might be a scene straight out the Baltimore shipping yards in the popular HBO series The Wire. It could be from any US teamster-controlled port, or any Sicilian Mafia-controlled market in Italy, or Marseilles. It's organised crime. And it's the exact same blueprint we are witnessing in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Resistance to Israel's Separation Wall: Model of Bil'in Village

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 08:44 AM PDT

In the Occupied Palestinian West Bank, a 770 km Separation Wall weaves in and out of Palestinian towns and villages separating Palestinians from their homes and land. The construction of this wall by Israel isolates 29 Palestinian towns (area of 216,567 dunums or 54141 acres) from the West Bank and leaves them on the Israeli side of the Wall.

Fighting for freedom in China

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 08:21 AM PDT

Liu Xiaobo, this year's winner of the Nobel Peace prize, is often called the "conscience" of China. Currently serving an 11-year jail term for subversion, Liu had been a strong advocate for human rights, freedom of expression, and democracy in China. He had joined student protesters at Tiananmen Square in 1989, and spent time in prison following the crackdown ordered by the authorites. But that did not deter him from fighting for the causes that he believed in. Liu was setenced last year to 11 years in jail for helping to organise and disseminate a document called Charter 08, which calls for sweeping political reforms in China. The document argued that "without freedom, China will always remain far from civilised ideals". It also called for a new constitution and for direct elections. Originally signed by 300 intellectuals, Charter 08 quickly accumulated 10-thousand signatures, and supporters from all walks of life. Al Jazeera's Melissa Chan reports on Liu's life and his struggles.

Hyped Terror Threat Exposed as Political Trick, Effort to Continue Afghan Occupation

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 07:59 AM PDT

Wajid Shamsul Hasan , Pakistan's High Commissioner to London, believes the latest spate of warnings about terror attacks in Europe are politically motivated.

"There may be internal political dynamics, including the forthcoming midterm American elections," Hasan said. "If the Americans have definite information about terrorists and al-Qaeda people, we should be provided with that and we could go after them ourselves."

Calculating risk: terror warnings

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 06:54 AM PDT

I was heartened this past week by the healthy reactions of many to the US State Department's most recent European travel alert. Lacking the (marginally) more specific information necessary to declare a full-fledged "travel warning," the department nonetheless alerted US citizens on October 3 "to the potential for terrorist attacks in Europe." Of course, given past history, the potential for terrorist attacks has hung like an incubus over Europe for years now, and there was nothing in this alert to suggest the current threat to be materially different.

"Terrorists," the missive went on, "may elect to use a variety of means and weapons and target both official and private interests." That would pretty well cover all contingencies; hard to argue with that.

CrossTalk: Who's Losing War on Terror?

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 04:38 AM PDT

On this edition of Peter Lavelle's CrossTalk, he asks his guests why the so-called "War on Terror" is a failure.

The peace prize in the digital age

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 04:32 AM PDT

In April 2009, Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo published an op-ed praising the internet for bringing about 'the awakening of ideas among the Chinese'.

Just two months later Liu, who had previously been imprisoned for participation in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, was charged with inciting subversion of state power and sentenced to eleven years in prison plus two years deprivation of political rights.

Israel: the dead parrot of the Middle East!

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 04:20 AM PDT

I was reminded of it on the road to Damascus the other day as news filtered through that the Middle East peace talks had stalled and failed; well, I wonder who saw that one coming? Yes, Barack Obama's peace initiative is even deader than the Norwegian Blue parrot "bought from this 'ere emporium" by John Cleese. Just like the Monty Python pet-shop owner, played so brilliantly by Michael Palin ("It's stunned; it's pining for the fjords!"), Obama is in complete denial that the peace talks are a busted flush. Can he resurrect them, like Michael Palin tried to resurrect the extremely dead parrot? Can he do it? No, he can't!

Lebanon's JFK: who killed Hariri?

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 04:13 AM PDT

Dead or alive, America's J.F. Kennedy and Lebanon's Rafiq Hariri conjure up thoughts of conspiracy. Who really so meticulously and masterfully staged the slaying of Lebanon's Premier Rafiq Hariri in 2005? Is Hezbollah being framed for a Lee Harvey Oswald destiny?

Today, Lebanon is perched on a precarious precipice, a return to the savagery of civil strife – perhaps condemning the ingenious Lebanese people to a Hobbesian existence: where life may be 'short, brutish and nasty.'

Israel in America: Putting the real minorities in their place

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 04:06 AM PDT

Obama has just lost his closest adviser and chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, who is making the unusual transition from national to municipal politics. His replacement, the quiet Washington insider Peter Rouse, head of the Obama-Biden 2008 transition team, is the antithesis of his sharp-tongued predecessor. "Pete was affectionately known as the 101st senator," effused Obama. He is also losing his closest adviser David Axelrod (pragmatist Emanuel described their difference as prose versus poetry) and director of the National Economic Council Larry Summers.

Why are Obama's three closest advisers -- all Jewish -- leaving? There is no pat answer. Axelrod is no friend of Summers, and suggested in an email the latter would be more comfortable in the "cafeteria at Goldman Sachs". He claims he is homesick. Obama's Keynesianism probably finally got to Summers. Emanuel, a former congressman, a talented ballet dancer, son of an Irgun terrorist, and an Israeli soldier during the first Gulf war against Iraq, leads us to the real answer.

Nick Clegg's Zionist hymn-sheet

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 04:06 AM PDT

In the space of a few short years Nick Clegg has shot from obscurity to stardom in British politics, joining Conservative Party leader David Cameron at the head of Britain's coalition government.

Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, is deputy prime minister and gets to play PM from time to time, like when Cameron appears to be enjoying a perk that's laughably called "paternity leave".

Abbas might call it a day

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 02:50 AM PDT

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has signalled his intention to resign as PA chairman. A visibly desperate Abbas told reporters earlier this week that "soon you will not be speaking with me in my capacity as president". A Palestinian journalist travelling aboard the presidential plane reported that Abbas told him and other reporters that "this is the last time you will be travelling with me as president of the PA".

Abbas has threatened to resign on a number of occasions yet he has remained at the helm of both the PA and Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). More importantly, he has maintained his position as the leader of Fatah.

Bin Laden goes green

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 02:50 AM PDT

The world, or the Western media to be precise, is all in a tizzy, obsessed over stark warnings issued by the United States and Britain concerning the increased terrorist threat posed by Al-Qaeda and its leader the Saudi national Osama Bin Laden. The claim, substantiated by omniscient Western intelligence -- spooks who we know never err -- is that Bin Laden recently exhorted Islamist militants to launch attacks on targets in Europe.

But what did Bin Laden exhort in his latest missive? "If governments spent on relief only one per cent of what is spent on war, they would change the face of the world of poor people," Bin Laden said in a poignant message to the Muslims of the world. "What governments spend on relief work is secondary to what they spend on war."

A light unto the nations?

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 02:50 AM PDT

Israelis, often thoroughly absorbed in their collective sanctimony and self-righteousness, seem never to stop repeating the eternal mantra that the Jews are a "light unto the nations" and Israel is "the only democracy in the Middle East". This week, several events occurring in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories highlighted the stark gap between what Israelis think about themselves and the reality.

On Sunday, five Jewish settlers from the Gush Itzion settlement south of Bethlehem slipped into the nearby Palestinian village of Beit Fajjar under cover of darkness in order to torch the Masjid Al-Anbiyaa (Mosque of the Prophets). The blaze gutted much of the interior of the mosque, including the carpet, and consumed as many as 15 copies of the Quran .

Losing the Al-Aqsa Intifada

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 02:50 AM PDT

Hassan Al-Rabie, 32, manoeuvred his wheelchair from his home in the Al-Zeitoun district of Gaza City last Thursday to the headquarters of a local charity in order to collect monthly benefits for his family.

Al-Rabie, permanently paralysed after being shot by an Israeli soldier in 2005, as the Al-Aqsa Intifada was drawing to a close, goes to the charity at the beginning of every month to collect aid paid to the charity by a Palestinian expatriate.

The Disgrace of Military Health Care

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 01:01 AM PDT

It's not just Walter Reed Medical Center that's treating our "wounded heroes" from the Iraq War disgracefully; there's plenty of incompetence, apathy, poor sanitation and chaos reigning throughout the entire military health care system.The neocons just love to say they support the troops. Apparently "supporting the troops" doesn't include quality long term care or clean and sanitary conditions or even a responsive staff at the Walter Reed military hospital. One patient pulled a bandage off his leg and the sight of his injury left him screaming for over an hour. Apparently none of the staff noticed the screaming. A USA Today article notes "The newspaper reported on moldy walls, rats and roaches at the outpatient facility where soldiers are sent after their initial treatment at the main hospital… The panel heard wrenching testimony… 'My life was ripped apart the day my husband was injured,' said Annette McLeod, whose husband, Walter, was hit in the head by a steel cargo door while working in Iraq… She said that when hospital officials found out her husband had had trouble with math in high school, they tried to use that to claim he had a learning disability and was mentally retarded, and therefore didn't qualify for treatment of a brain injury."

They Don't Value Life?

Posted: 07 Oct 2010 11:00 PM PDT

This week, Lt. Col. Michael Manning, stationed in Helmand province, argued the Taliban is difficult to defeat in part because Afghans care "so little for human life." Indeed it is a sad fact of life that Afghan children are recruited and even forced by the Taliban to help in the fight against what most Afghans consider to be a foreign occupation. But while the contradictions inherent in Western war propaganda are copious and convoluted, few are as cynical as the perennial charge that the cultures we mangle with our wars don't care about lives they have never really been allowed to have.

Nine Years in, Afghans Don't Trust US

Posted: 07 Oct 2010 11:00 PM PDT

On the ninth anniversary of the U.S. military intervention in their country, a new report released here Thursday finds that Afghans remain deeply distrustful and resentful of the impact and intent of foreign forces there.

Based on dozens of interviews and focus group sessions in seven provinces in western, eastern, and southern Afghanistan over the past year, the report by the Open Society Foundations (OSF) found that Afghans tend to blame U.S.-led forces as much or more than the Taliban for the country's continuing violence and instability.

Rights Groups File Response To Government's Attempt to Dismiss Targeted Killing Case

Posted: 07 Oct 2010 09:00 PM PDT

The Center For Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the American Civil Liberties Union today filed a brief in federal court responding to the Obama administration's claims that no court should have any role in establishing or enforcing legal limitations on the executive's authority to use lethal force against U.S. citizens who the executive has unilaterally determined to pose a threat to the nation. The groups' brief came in their lawsuit challenging the government's claimed authority to carry out targeted killings of U.S. citizens outside the context of armed conflict who do not pose an imminent threat.

US veterans concerned over war trauma

Posted: 07 Oct 2010 08:39 PM PDT

Thursday, October 7 was the ninth anniversary of the beginning of the US war in Afghanistan. Marking the event at the US Capitol building in Washington DC, a small group of military veterans have launched a campaign to end the practice of sending traumatised troops back into the battlefield. Al Jazeera's Josh Rushing reports.

The most powerful woman in the world

Posted: 07 Oct 2010 06:39 PM PDT

The ruler of the world and her puppet moor

Forbes magazine can always be relied on for a good laugh. In their latest edition they are telling us that Michelle Obama was the most powerful woman in the world. Hilarious! Implied in Forbes' choice is the long debunked myth that a U.S. president was a powerful man. Sure, Obama is nominally the head of state of the biggest and most heavily armed economy, but that doesn't give him any real power. Nobody becomes U.S. president without prostituting himself to the crime dynasties that run this planet. And - as the examples of Kennedy and Nixon show - nobody stays U.S. president, without religiously adhering to the script provided to him.

Nothing has changed since the Yom Kippur War

Posted: 07 Oct 2010 06:12 PM PDT

The act of atonement in which we are engaged over the recently declassified documents from the Yom Kippur War is nothing but a hollow pagan ritual. Suddenly we learn that Golda Meir considered ordering an "insane" operation against Syria and said the world was "contemptible;" defense minister Moshe Dayan called for abandoning wounded soldiers in the field and was thoroughly depressed; and Israel Defense Forces chief of staff David Elazar tended to lie to the public.

What the UN's flotilla report means

Posted: 07 Oct 2010 05:49 PM PDT

A critical obstacle to restoring a healthy and working relationship between Turkey and Israel is both sides' mutual distrust and lack of information about the events surrounding the Mavi Marmara flotilla disaster at the end of May. The world is still waiting for an authoritative account based on full access to Israeli, Turkish and other actors. Israel has published only small parts of Maj. Gen. (res. ) Giora Eiland's probe, which approved of the Israeli military's conduct during the operation. A civilian investigation under retired Supreme Court justice Jacob Turkel may produce a comprehensive report, but key hearings have been held in secret and it is unclear how far it will go beyond an initial focus on the underlying legality of Israeli actions.

The Palestinian Gentlemen: Peace Process in Style

Posted: 07 Oct 2010 01:54 PM PDT

This is the tenth anniversary of the Second Intifada, which broke out in Palestinian cities and villages in late September 2000 unmasking the myth of the peace process in the region. So it is perhaps an opportune time to reflect on the gentlemanly approach implemented by PA "peacemakers" for nearly two decades, while they celebrate the renewal of "direct talks" in Washington now.

A quick look at the map of the region today shows expanding Israeli settlement infrastructures, institutions, universities and museums. One finds the apartheid wall, bypass roads, and fixed and flying checkpoints that continue to cut off Palestinian cities and villages from each other and render the lives of the Palestinian people unbearable. These realities not only reveals the absurdity of Israel's claim of peace, but clearly illustrate how the so-called "peace process" has accelerated the dispossession of the Palestinian people and institutionalized Israel's control over the lives of millions of Palestinians.

'Dying to Win': Newt Gingrich's 'Terrorism'

Posted: 07 Oct 2010 01:38 PM PDT

On September 30, within the time frame of a few hours, an accused man reportedly confessed to terrorism charges in Germany, the terrorism threat level was raised in Sweden, and former US Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich lengthily discussed 'suicidal jihadists' in a speech he made in Denver.

Although it was tacitly understood that US president Barack Obama has distanced himself from his predecessor's indefinite war objectives – embodied in the ill-defined 'war on terror' - the chances are the dreadful term 'terrorism' is not going not leave us alone anytime soon.

Bracing for Israel's Next Attack on Lebanon

Posted: 07 Oct 2010 12:51 PM PDT

You can see Akka, Palestine from my favorite Lebanese village, Maron al Ras. On any day, but particularly since September 21 of this year, you can also see beefed up IDF military patrols, assorted electronic listening posts and sundry spy devices, new Raytheon-produced surveillance equipment, two new supposedly camouflaged cinder block one room shacks with Zionist soldiers peering out. They frequently glare from widows heavily screened to keep out stones that tourists on the Lebanon side of the 'blue line' regularly throw at them when UNIFIL guys aren't paying attention or shoo them away.

Palestine boycott committee calls on US pension fund to divest from Israel

Posted: 07 Oct 2010 12:38 PM PDT

The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), on behalf of its constituent organizations and unions representing the majority of Palestinian civil society, calls upon the US non-profit pension fund TIAA-CREF to live up to its motto of providing "Financial Services for the Greater Good" by divesting its funds from companies that profit from Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and violation of Palestinian rights. As in the struggle to end South African apartheid, divestment from wrongdoing companies is not just a moral obligation; it is a time-honored, particularly effective, non-violent form of pressure that can significantly contribute to ending Israel's occupation, racial discrimination and denial of refugee rights.

Microsoft Proposes Government Licensing Internet Access

Posted: 07 Oct 2010 11:13 AM PDT

A new proposal by a top Microsoft executive would open the door for government licensing to access the Internet, with authorities being empowered to block individual computers from connecting to the world wide web under the pretext of preventing malware attacks.

Speaking to the ISSE 2010 computer security conference in Berlin yesterday, Scott Charney, Microsoft vice president of Trustworthy Computing, said that cybersecurity should mirror public health safety laws, with infected PC's being "quarantined" by government decree and prevented from accessing the Internet.

Thursday: 15 Iraqis Killed, 39 Wounded

Posted: 07 Oct 2010 10:30 AM PDT

Baghdad and Mosul, as usual, saw small but multiple attacks, but it was south of the capital where the most significant violence took place. Overall, at least 15 Iraqis were killed and 39 more were wounded across the country.

In Iskandariya, five people were killed and 20 more were wounded this afternoon during a double bombing at a market. Earlier, gunmen killed a Sahwa member in front of his home.

Morgantini on silent expulsion in Jordan Valley