Articles

Fighting grips Yemen as Saleh orders arrests
May 28, 2011
Yemen
Security forces in the Yemeni capital battled heavily armed supporters of the country's most powerful triballeader on Thursday as President Ali ...Read more
Bosnian Serb military chief Mladic appears in court
May 28, 2011
World
NOVANEWS Former Nazi military chief Ratko Mladic appeared in court Thursday, hours after his arrest in Serbia ended a 16-year ...Read more
Return to Tahrir Square
May 28, 2011
Campaigns
NOVANEWS Bassam Haddad and Ziad Abu-Rish [awaiting protesters. Image by authors, taken at 5 am in Tahrir Square] At 4 ...Read more
Aljazeera
May 28, 2011
Campaigns
NOVANEWS   Aljazeera and Syria Aljazeera is trying too hard today to keep the momentum going in Syria.  Aljazeera's crude ...Read more
Zionist Cameron tiptoes away from the Jewish National Fund
May 28, 2011
United Kingdom
NOVANEWS   UK premier, David Cameron has quietly dropped his honorary patronage of the Jewish National Fund.  This is the ...Read more
Was the ’67 Borders remark merely a deliberate distraction?
May 28, 2011
Campaigns
NOVANEWS   Was Obama Really Biting the Hand that Controls him? by Ian Mosley Obama seems to have upset the ...Read more
Obama, hands off our spring
May 28, 2011
Campaigns
NOVANEWS   The US wants to turn the Arab revolutions into eastern Europe part 2. It is destined to fai Soumaya Ghannoushi ...Read more
Consolidating US Money Power: The Four Horsemen of Global Banking
May 28, 2011
Politics
NOVANEWS By Dean Henderson Global Research If you want to know where the true power center of the world lies, ...Read more
Saudi Arabia: The Era of Changed Alliances
May 28, 2011
Saudi Arabia
NOVANEWS There’s an ancient Arab saying that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” and this may best sum ...Read more
REACH OUT TO REACH GAZA
May 28, 2011
Campaigns
Adalah-NY is an endorser of the U.S. Boat to Gaza. Please see the following message from the U.S. Boat to ...Read more
London Concert: Tahrir Square to Jerusalem
May 28, 2011
Campaigns
NOVANEWS Gilad Atzmon Amal Murkus joins a host of artists celebrating the work of Juliano Mer Khamis and the power ...Read more
A Warning From The Past
May 28, 2011
Politics
NOVANEWS   DC NEWS FLASH: Israeli Prime Minister More Popular than President of the United States by Gilad Atzmon Netanyahu’s successful ...Read more

Fighting grips Yemen as Saleh orders arrests

Security forces in the Yemeni capital battled heavily armed supporters of the country’s most powerful triballeader on Thursday as President Ali Abdullah Saleh ordered the tribesman’s arrest.

The leader, Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, in turn accused Saleh of dragging Yemen into civil war, speaking after hours of clashes late on Wednesday and overnight in which at least 24 people were killed.

Meanwhile a website linked to the defence ministry said 28 more people died when an explosion ripped through an ammunition store belonging to the al-Ahmar tribal opposition.

But a dissident military official whose troops are stationed in the area denied the existence of an ammunition store there. AFP could not immediately confirm the reports independently.

Amid the escalating bloodshed, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged all sides in Yemen “immediately to cease the violence.”

“We are very troubled by the ongoing clashes,” she said in Paris. “We call on all sides immediately to cease the violence.”

Washington, which has urged Saleh to quit, ordered what it termed “non-emergency” embassy staff to leave Yemen “while commercial transportation is available.”

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged all sides to cease all violence and renewed a call for Saleh to transfer power.

“I trust President Saleh will listen to the demands of the Yemeni people and Yemen’s friends,” she said.

“It is time for showing his genuine commitment to a peaceful and orderly transition. It is time for President Saleh to transfer power now.”

Britain also said it was reducing staffing levels in its embassy by temporarily removing four people.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague “urgently” called on Saleh to sign an agreement brokered by the GulfCooperation Council “allowing for a peaceful transition and preventing further bloodshed.”

France also condemned the violence.

“We call on the authorities and the other sides in the conflict in the capital to make the fighting cease and protect the population in areas affected by the armed clashes,” foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said.

Saleh has ordered the arrest of the powerful dissident Sheikh Sadiq and his nine brothers, the defence ministry in Sanaa said.

“The president has ordered the arrest of the sons of Ahmar to bring them to justice for armed rebellion,” the ministry’s 26sep.net news website said.

The state news agency Saba said that in Wednesday clashes in Sanaa six civilians including a woman were killed.

Tribal sources said that 12 soldiers from the elite Republican Guard and six civilians and tribesmen were killed in other clashes.

The latest fighting brought to at least 68 the number killed since Monday, according to an AFP tally based on reports from medics, the government and tribal sources. Scores were also wounded.

The clashes have pitted loyalist security forces against clansmen from several tribes fighting in support of Sheikh Sadiq who rallied to the opposition in March.

The fighting that spread to the Arhab district north of the airport late on Wednesday prompted its closure, with flights diverted to the southern city of Aden, aviation and tribal sources said.

Airport director Naji al-Marqab insisted it was functioning normally on Thursday, Saba reported.

Blasts echoed through Sanaa in what residents described as the fiercest clashes since Monday.

The clashes were centred on Al-Hasaba district, where Sheikh Sadiq lives.

Meanwhile, more protesters abandoned University Square, which has been the epicentre of anti-regime protests for months in Sanaa, amid the escalating violence.

However, protest organisers have called for demonstrations on Friday, calling it “The Friday Peaceful Revolt.”

Saleh loyalists, meanwhile, called for a “Friday of Law and Order” counter-protest.

The president, in power since 1978, has resisted strong diplomatic pressure to sign up to proposals by Yemen’s wealthy Gulf neighbours that would see him leave office in return for a promise of immunity from prosecution.

Sheikh Sadiq’s tribesmen have been fighting security forces since Saleh again rejected the Gulf plan at the weekend.

Tribal loyalties run deep in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, which has an estimated 60 million firearms in private hands — roughly three for every citizen.

Clansmen of the Arhab tribe belonging to the powerful Bakil federation of hardline cleric Abdul Majid al-Zindani, who faces US sanctions as a “terrorism financier,” have also been fighting Saleh loyalists.

Read more: http://www.defencetalk.com/fighting-in-yemen-arrests-ordered-34514/#ixzz1NdZu0vii

 

Bosnian Serb military chief Mladic appears in court

NOVANEWS

Former Nazi military chief Ratko Mladic appeared in court Thursday, hours after his arrest in Serbia ended a 16-year manhunt for the general accused of masterminding the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
Europe’s most-wanted man was arrested in the early hours of Thursday 26.05.2011  in a village in northern Serbia, but there were immediately questions over whether 69-year-old Bosnian Serb Nazi was fit to stand trial after heclaimed to be ill.
“Today, early in the morning, we arrested Ratko Mladic,” Serbian President Boris Tadic announced.
“The extradition process is under way,” he added, referring to the process to transfer Mladic to the International CriminalTribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), a UN tribunal based in The Hague.
The indictment against him cites the establishment of Nazi camps and detention centres for Bosnian Muslims as part of a Nazi campaign of ethnic cleansing during the 1990s war, as well as the Srebrenica massacre and the 44-month siege of Sarajevo.
At Srebrenica, 8,000 Muslim men and boys were rounded up and massacred in Europe’s worst atrocity since World War II.
But Mladic’s first appearance before the Serbian war crimes court was halted as his lawyer said he was unable to communicate.
“The investigative judge tried to question Ratko Mladic but he failed because he (Mladic) is in a difficult psychological and physical condition,” lawyer Milos Saljic told reporters.
“It is difficult to establish any kind of communication with him,” he said, adding that Mladic had however confirmed his identity.
Deputy war crimes prosecutor Bruno Vekaric confirmed the hearing was stopped but refused to comment on the reasons, and disputed the assessment that Mladic was unable to answer simple questions.
Vekaric had earlier said it could take up to seven days before Mladic is handed over to the ICTY.
Mladic is to undergo medical evaluations and doctors are to report on Friday whether he is capable of appearing in court, said Saljic, who added he believed the Nazi general was fit to be transferred to The Hague.
Mladic, the ICTY’s most-wanted Nazi fugitive, faces charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for his role in the Srebrenica massacre and the bloody siege of Sarajevo during the 1992-1995 conflict.
Hundreds of ultra-nationalists protested his arrest in Serbia and authorities said two people were wounded in a clash with police. Many Serbians consider Nazi Mladic a hero.
Police said security was tightened across the country following the arrest.
Tadic would not say how and where Mladic was arrested other than that he was captured on Serbian soil.
But Serbian security sources told AFP that three special units swooped in the early hours of Thursday on a house in Lazarevo, a village around 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Belgrade, close to the Romanian border.
The house was owned by a relative of Mladic and had been under surveillance for the past two weeks, one of the sources added.
Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic dismissed media reports that Nazi Mladic had been living under an assumed name.
“It is not true that he was using a fake identity. When he was arrested we found only one expired ID and a military ID card in his name,” Dacic told RTS state television.
He said Nazi Mladic was armed with two guns “but he did not have the time to use them”.
Nazi Mladic’s arrest follows heavy pressure from the European Union which made clear that Serbia’s failure to capture Nazi Mladic was a major obstacle to its hopes of joining the 27-nation bloc.
In Brussels officials reacted with delight but stressed they wanted to see Nazi Mladic in The Hague as soon as possible.
“Justice has been served and a great obstacle on the Serbian road to the European Union has been removed,” Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele said.
French President Nicolas Sarzoky, hosting a G8 summit in Normandy, said it was “another step towards Serbia joining (the EU) one day soon”.
US President Barack Obama applauded Tadic for his “determined efforts” to ensure that Nazi Mladic face justice.
The Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Nazi Radovan Karadzic, Mladic’s mentor who was captured in July 2008 and is on trial in The Hague, was said to be “sorry for General Mladic?s loss of freedom,” according to his lawyer.
Nazi Mladic’s capture ends a tortuous political and judicial saga since he was first indicted by the ICTY for his leadership role in the Bosnian war as the former Yugoslavia fell apart.
“After 16 years of waiting … this is a relief,” Hajra Catic, head of the Srebrenica Women association, told AFP. Her son and husband were killed in the massacre.
Since his indictment in 1995, Nazi Mladic lived almost openly in Belgrade until 2000 when former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic was toppled. The ouster of his one-time mentor robbed Mladic of his untouchable status.
Even afterwards, though, Mladic hid under military protection, authorities in Serbia have admitted.

Read more: http://www.defencetalk.com/bosnian-serb-military-chief-mladic-appears-in-court-34511/#ixzz1NdUhrSL5

Return to Tahrir Square

NOVANEWS


[awaiting protesters. Image by authors, taken at 5 am in Tahrir Square]

[awaiting protesters. Image by authors, taken at 5 am in Tahrir Square]

At 4 am, the two of us walked from Zamalik to Tahrir Square as protesters began to gather. We took some pictures and conducted some interviews. At this moment (7:00 am), we only have time to post a few of them (see three videos below, followed by images from Tahrir). 
Today, May 27, 2011, promises to be the largest mobilization across Egypt since Husni Mubarak was forced to resign as a result of the Egyptian Revolution. In Cairo, protesters began gathering at Tahrir Square late Thursday night, early Friday morning, as barricades were being set up and volunteer committees organized themselves to take responsibility for preventing the entering of cars and searching those that are entering the Square. Such measures come in the wake of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces’  (SCAF) announcement that they will not have a presence at the protests. Some have interpreted this to be a sign that SCAF is giving the green light for baltagiyyah and other covert operatives to disrupt the protests. Others have understood the move as an attempt to create a vacuum that SCAF hopes will lead to some form of chaos in order to delegitimate the call for ongoing protests. The protests today were called to reaffirm the yet-to-be-fuliflled demands of the Egyptian Revolution and to assert the continued willingness of Egyptians to take to the streets until the demands are met. Among the demands specified in the calls for action, flyers, and banners for today’s protests are the prosecution of Husni Mubarak, his family, and other members of his regime, the creation of a civilian caretaker government, and an end to military trials.
This post will be updated regularly (to the extent we can) as we attend the protest in Tahrir Square. In addition to descriptive updates, we will be posting interviews with protesters as well as recordings the sights and sounds that make up the day’s events.
Update [2:30 pm]
Protesters flocked to Tahrir in impressive numbers that nonetheless fell well short of the “millioniyyah” (one million(er)) that was hoped for by the organizers. The Muslim Brotherhood did not participate in this protest. One corollary aim of this protest is to demonstrate that the effort for moving the revolution forward does not depend on the Brotherhood–though the non-participation of the Brotherhood is not a function of a hostile boycott [Jadaliyya will soon feature articles and interviews that analyze the Egyptian political scene after the revolution]. Being here, however, is inspiring as Egypt, or Cairo (where we are), is brimming with energy/synergy and a remarkable spirit of voluntarism across nearly all segments of society.
Update [8:00pm]
The protest ended today with a strong show of approximately 150,000 protesters and no major incidents. The turn out hilghlighted a powerful committment to the revolution (which was/is about much more than Mubarak’s resignaton) that is not rooted in the Muslim Brotherhood’s constituencies. Though some members of what has come to be described as shabab al-ikhwan were present indepedently at the protests. We will be creating a new post featuring a photo and video essay within the coming hours which will highlight the sounds and images of Tahrir on this day. It will include banners, music, interviews, and more. Stay tuned!
 

[The view from within Tahrir Square as people began to gather in the early hours of Friday morning]

[The people want: “the prosecution of Husni Mubarak and his accomplices on the charge of political corruption.” – Youth of the Revolution Coalition]

[Young men sitting around and singing the demands of the revolution]

[Palestine solidarity in Tahrir Square]

[Stickers, posters, and key chains of the revolution]

[Remnants of the former ruling party, the burned National Democratic (NDP) building in Cairo as seen from Tahrir Square]

[Sticker criticizing the Ministry of Interior for its treatment of Mubarak and his accomplices. Mubarak seen on the phone saying: “Assure the people, we are not coming back. We are comfortable here”]

[Two boys enjoying the sunrise and waiting for the days events to begin in Tahrir Square]

Aljazeera

NOVANEWS

 
Aljazeera and Syria

Aljazeera is trying too hard today to keep the momentum going in Syria.  Aljazeera’s crude propaganda has really served the worst conspiracy theories of the lousy Syrian regime.

Aljazeera

The biggest problem i have with Aljazeera is not political and is not that it has become a pure voice for the Arab counter-revolution and for the dreadful Saudi-Qatari alliance.  The problem is that it has become an example of bad journalism.  I tuned in this morning to watch the news and I only got propaganda.  Pure propaganda.  They basically have become like trash talk radio in the US: they open the phone lines and–unlike US trash talk radio–they treat their anonymous callers like their own correspondents and ask them questions about political developments in Syria (the country of choice these days).  And if the callers offer opinions that diverge from the agenda of Aljazeera, they are immediately shut off.
Aljazeera the other day did not even cover the speech by Nasrallah, when it used to extensively provide live coverage of his speeches.  Maybe it over did it in the past, just as it now underdoes it.   Today, they barely covered the massive demonstrations in Tahrir Square, while allowing anonymous callers to report to them on Syria.  They had a Youtube footage of a “massive demonstration” in a Syrian town when I was able to count around ten people.  When it comes to Syrian developments, one has to struggle hard.  On the one hand, you get crude and weird propaganda on Syrian regime TV (where they spend hours on technical topics, like “food security” or “irrigation in the 21st century”), and on the other hand you have the sensational and unreliable Saudi and Qatari propaganda outlets.  One suffocates in these conditions.  It is fair to say that Aljazeera suffered its most serious blow to its credibility since it went on the air.
Posted by As’ad AbuKhalil

 

Zionist Cameron tiptoes away from the Jewish National Fund

NOVANEWS

 

UK premier, David Cameron has quietly dropped his honorary patronage of the Jewish National Fund.  This is the first time in years that the JNF has had no UK premier as an honorary patron though former PMs, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair are still honorary patrons.  They are mercifully no longer PMs.  Here’sScottish PSC:

Cameron drops Israel ‘racist’ charity
27 May 2011
Stop the JNF Campaign: Media Release

Prime Minister David Cameron has quietly terminated his status as an Honorary Patron of the controversial Jewish National Fund (JNF).  His office confirmed he had “stepped down”.  For many years leaders of all three main political parties became Honorary Patrons of the JNF by convention.  According to Dick Pitt, a spokesperson for the Stop the JNF Campaign, “Cameron was the only leader of the three major parties remaining as a JNF Patron.  This decline in political support for the JNF at the highest levels of the political tree may be a sign of the increasing awareness in official quarters that a robust defence of the activities of the JNF may not be sustainable.”
The news of Cameron’s move has reached Palestinians in refugee camps, people whose land is under the control of the JNF.  Salah Ajarma in Bethlehem’s Aida Refugee Camp was “delighted to hear the news that the British Prime Minister has decided to withdraw his support for this sinister organisation involved in ethnic cleansing. My village, Ajjur, was taken by force from my family and given to the JNF who used money from JNF UK to plant the British Park on its ruins. For the Palestinians who were evicted from their villages and have been prevented from returning, Cameron’s withdrawal is another victory on the road to achieving justice and freedom for the Palestinians”.
The JNF chairman Samuel Hayek defends the work of the organisation saying, “for over 100 years we have had one mission: to settle and develop the Land of Israel” as pioneers of the “historic Zionist dream”.  The registered charity claims their work, especially in the Negev region of Israel, deals with “the rising demographic challenges faced by Israel”.  In recent months the JNF’s activities in the Negev have received extensive international media coverage, linking them to the demolition of Palestinian Bedouin villages and confiscation of the land of the village.  Campaigners report that “even Israeli courts have criticised the JNF as an organisation that discriminates against non-Jews and there is mounting evidence of the JNF’s involvement in Israel’s programme to change the ethnic composition of areas inside 1948 Israel as well as in Jerusalem and the Occupied Territories.  It is not acceptable that such an organisation is allowed to operate in the UK, much less to enjoy charity status”.

Now taking my earlier post together with this one, if the EUMC working definition of antisemitism were to be accepted it could, subject to overall context, be construed as denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination” since the activities of the JNF are clearly necessary for establishing and maintaining the State of Israel as a state for Jews. If campaigning against the JNF is ok, then the EUMC working definition is definitely not ok.

 

The Anti-Definition League?

Things seem to be hotting up over the former European Union Monitoring Centre (EUMC) on Racism and Xenophobia’s (now called the Fundamental Rights Agency) so-called working definition of antisemitism. I reported earlier on the motion being presented at the Universities and Colleges Union to reject the EUMC working definition. Well now the Jewish Chronicle is reporting on a “fightback” by various zionist groups to defend their attempt at stifling criticism of the State of Israel.

In a tough statement, a spokesman for the Board [of Deputies of British Jews], the JLC [Jewish Leadership Council] and the CST [Community Security Trust] said: “After several years of promoting discriminatory boycotts and ignoring the resignation of dozens of Jewish members, UCU has never taken claims of antisemitism in the union seriously. Now, in a final insult to its Jewish members, UCU is cynically redefining the meaning of ‘antisemitism’ so it never has to face up to its own deep-rooted prejudices and problems.
“The joint representations by senior communal leaders to the leaders of UCU, the EHRC and the TUC send a clear signal that our community will not sit back and allow further red lines to be crossed as the boycotters unleash moves designed to curtail the rights of British Jews on our campuses.”

Let’s just have another little look at the section of the working definition that troubles Palestine solidarity types:

• Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, for example by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour.
• Applying double standards by requiring of it a behaviour not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
• Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (for example claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterise Israel or Israelis.
• Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
• Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.

The EUMC Definition goes on to state that criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.
Now I have always understood antisemitism to be racism against Jews so clearly point 3 could be considered antisemitic if there was some agreement as to the symbols. And point 5 is definitely antisemitic in that all Jews cannot be held responsible for anything. But points 1, 2 and 4 are definitely not antisemitic unless of course you do hold all Jews responsible for the State of Israel. So this redefinition of antisemitism that is being presented by the Board of Deputies, the Jewish Leadership Council and the Community Security Trust (and also Engage) as the definition is itself antisemitic and is itself a cynical redefinition. Still, the pro-zionist Jewish establishment seems determined to get its own way on this one so it could run and run for a while.
A big question for me is what they intend to do with the working definition if they do get it established as conventional wisdom or even in law regarding hate crime and incitement. We could see lots of Jews being rounded up for antisemitism and all for speaking out against the last of the colonial settler states.

Was the ’67 Borders remark merely a deliberate distraction?

NOVANEWS

 


Was Obama Really Biting the Hand that Controls him?

by Ian Mosley

Obama seems to have upset the “Chosen Ones”. Not a smart move for someone who’s little more than a puppet in the grand scheme of things.

The Wall Street Journal reports: “Jewish donors and fund-raisers are warning the Obama re-election campaign that the president is at risk of losing financial support because of concerns about his handling of Israel. The complaints began early in President Barack Obama’s term, centered on a perception that Mr. Obama has been too tough on Israel. Some Jewish donors say Mr. Obama has pushed Israeli leaders too hard to halt construction of housing settlements in disputed territory, a longstanding element of U.S. policy. Some also worry that Mr. Obama is putting more pressure on the Israelis than the Palestinians to enter peace negotiations, and say they are disappointed Mr. Obama has not visited Israel yet.”

The hapless Obama is probably terrified to visit Israel. I would not be surprised if the Israeli military shot down Air Force One on its final approach and then gave some lame excuse that it was an “accident” (much like the USS Liberty incident) or perhaps they’d try to blame it on the Palestinians.

The WSJ article goes on: “One top Democratic fund-raiser, Miami developer Michael Adler, said he urged Obama campaign manager Jim Messina to be extremely proactive in countering the perception in the Jewish community that Mr. Obama is too critical of Israel. The Obama campaign has asked Penny Pritzker, Mr. Obama’s 2008 national finance chairwoman, to talk with Jewish leaders about their concerns.”

So, let me get this straight. Obama is supposed to be “anti-Israel,” but the Israeli Rahm Emanuel pretty much ran the White House for the first two years of his presidency.

The Jews lobby demand nothing less than total subservience to them personally and to their agenda. As re-election time draws near, Obama is starting to kick at the traces a bit in an effort to “get back to his base,” including the Bush-hating liberal left.

Now Barry feels compelled to make some naughty noises at Israel in order to “shore up his base” and get the lefties to work for his re-election, but the Jews don’t even allow that much independence to a puppet they installed in the White House at a cost of half a billion dollars.

Obama has not done one thing to undo anything that Bush did. He hasn’t withdrawn from Iraq or Afghanistan, he hasn’t closed Guantanamo Bay, he backed down on a legal trial for some Muslim who was accused of being the “mastermind” behind 9/11. (I thought the “mastermind” behind 9/11 was supposed to be Osama Bin Laden, but they never can keep their stories straight about that day.)

There is one other possibility aside from pandering to the far left. Obama might be deliberately stirring up a hornet’s nest to draw attention away from his birth certificate. The announcement of the death of bin Laden took the public’s attention off that nine-layer pdf document, that Obama trotted out, for a couple weeks. Was Obama so desperate to prolong the distraction that he would risk angering the Israeli Lobby? It sure looks that way. Perhaps Obama gave Netanyahu a heads up that it was all show and that he really didn’t mean it.

Obama, hands off our spring

NOVANEWS

 

The US wants to turn the Arab revolutions into eastern Europe part 2. It is destined to fai

 

The first wave of Arab revolutions is entering its second phase: dismantling the structures of political despotism, and embarking on the arduous journey towards genuine change and democratisation. The US, at first confused by the loss of key allies, is now determined to dictate the course and outcome of this ongoing revolution.

What had been a challenge to US power is now a “historic opportunity”, as Barack Obama put it in his Middle East speech last week. But he does not mean an opportunity for the people who have risen up; it is a chance for Washington to fashion the region’s present and future, just as it did its past. When Obama talks of his desire “to pursue the world as it should be” he does not mean according to the yearnings of its people, but according to US interests.

And how is this new world to be built? The model is that of eastern Europe and the colour revolutions; American soft power and public diplomacy is to be used to reshape the socio-political scene in the region. The aim is to transform the people’s revolutions into America’s revolutions by engineering a new set of docile, domesticated and US-friendly elites. This involves not only co-opting old friends from the pre-revolutionary era, but also seeking to contain the new forces produced by the revolution, long marginalised by the US.

As Obama put it last week: “We must … reach the people who will shape the future – particularly young people … [and] provide assistance to civil society, including those that may not be officially sanctioned.” To this end he has doubled the budget for “protecting civil society groups” from $1.5m to $3.4m.

The recipients are not only the usual neoliberal elements, but also activists who spearheaded the protest movements, and mainstream Islamists. Programmes aimed at youth leaders include the Leaders for Democracy Arabic project, sponsored by the US state department’s Middle East partnership initiative. A number of Arab activists, including the Egyptian democracy and human rights activist Esraa Abdel Fattah, were invited to an event hosted by the Project on Middle East Democracyin Washington last month – one of many recent conferences and seminars. Meetings between high-ranking US officials – such as the House majority leader, Steny Hoyer – and the Muslim Brotherhood took place in Cairo last month, while the deputy chairman of Tunisia’s Islamist Ennahda party has recently returned from a visit to Washington to “discuss democratic transition”.

Washington hopes that these rising forces can be stripped of their ideological opposition to US hegemony and turned into pragmatists, fully integrated into the existing US-led international order. Dogma is not a problem, as long as the players agree to operate within parameters delineated for them, and play the power game without questioning its rules. It remains to be seen, however, if they risk losing their popular base in return for US favours.

Containment and integration are not only political, but economic, to be pursued through free markets and trade partnerships in the name of economic reform. Plans “to stabilise and modernise” the Tunisian and Egyptian economies – already being drafted by the World Bank, IMF and European Development Bank at Washington’s behest – are due to be presented at this week’s G8 summit. A $2bn facility to support private investment has been announced, one of many initiatives “modelled on funds that supported the transitions in eastern Europe”.

As usual, investment and aid are conditional on adoption of the US model in the name of liberalisation and reform, and on binding the region’s economies further to US and European markets under the banner of “trade integration”. One wonders what would be left of the Arab revolutions in such infiltrated civil societies, domesticated political parties, and dependent economies.

However, although the Obama administration may succeed with some Arab organisations, its bid to reproduce the eastern European scenario may be destined to fail. Prague and Warsaw looked to the US for inspiration, but for the people of Cairo, Tunis and Sana’a the US is the equivalent of the Soviet Union in eastern Europe: it is the problem, not the solution. To Arabs, the US is a force of occupation draped in a thin cloak of democracy and human rights.

No one could have offered stronger evidence of such a view than Obama himself, who began his Middle East speech with eulogies to freedom and the equality of all men, and ended it with talk of the “Jewishness of Israel”, in effect denying the citizenship rights of 20% of its Arab inhabitants and the right of return of 6 million Palestinian refugees. In vain does the US try to reconcile the irreconcilable – to preach democracy, while occupying and aiding occupation.

Consolidating US Money Power: The Four Horsemen of Global Banking

NOVANEWS
By Dean Henderson

If you want to know where the true power center of the world lies, follow the money – cui bono.  According to Global Finance magazine, as of 2010 the world’s five biggest banks are all based in Rothschild fiefdoms UK and France.

They are the French BNP ($3 trillion in assets), Royal Bank of Scotland ($2.7 trillion), the UK-based HSBC Holdings ($2.4 trillion), the French Credit Agricole ($2.2 trillion) and the British Barclays ($2.2 trillion).

In the US, a combination of deregulation and merger-mania has left four mega-banks ruling the financial roost.  According to Global Finance, as of 2010 they are Bank of America ($2.2 trillion), JP Morgan Chase ($2 trillion), Citigroup ($1.9 trillion) and Wells Fargo ($1.25 trillion).  I have dubbed them the Four Horsemen of US banking.

Consolidating the US Money Power

The September 2000 marriage which created JP Morgan Chase was the grandest merger in a frenzy of bank consolidation that took place throughout the 1990’s.  Merger mania was fed by a massive deregulation of the banking industry including revocation of the Glass Steagal Act of 1933, which was enacted after the Great Depression to curb the banking monopolies which had caused the 1929 stock market crash and precipitated the Great Depression.

In July 1929 Goldman Sachs launched two investment trusts called Shenandoah and Blue Ridge.  Through August and September they touted these trusts to the public, selling hundreds of millions of dollars worth of shares through the Goldman Sachs Trading Corporation at $104/share.  Goldman Sachs insiders were bailingout of the stock market.  By the fall of 1934 the trust shares were worth $1.75 each.  One director at both Shenandoah and Blue Ridge was Sullivan & Cromwell lawyer John Foster Dulles. [1]

John Merrill, founder of Merrill Lynch, exited the stock market in 1928, as did insiders at Lehman Brothers.  Chase Manhattan Chairman Alfred Wiggin took his “hunch” to the next level, forming Shermar Corporation in 1929 to short the stock of his own company.  Following the Crash of 1929, Citibank President Charles Mitchell was jailed for tax evasion. [2]

In February 1995 President Bill Clinton announced plans to wipe out both Glass Steagal and the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956- which barred banks from owning insurance companies and other financial entities. That day the old opium and slave trader Barings went belly up after one of its Singapore-based traders named Nicholas Gleason got caught on the wrong side of billions of dollars in derivative currency trades. [3]

The warning went unheeded.  In 1991 US taxpayers, already billed over $500 billion dollars for the S&L looting, were charged another $70 billion to bail out the FDIC, then footed the bill for a secret 2 1/2-year rescue of Citibank, which was close to collapse after the Latin American debt crunch hit home.  With their bill’s paid by US taxpayers and bank deregulation a done deal, the stage was set for a slew of bank mergers like none the world had ever seen.


Reagan Undersecretary of Treasury George Gould had stated that concentration of banking into five to ten giant banks was what the US economy needed.  Gould’s nightmare vision was about to come true.

In 1992 Bank of America bought its biggest West Coast rival Security Pacific, then swallowed up the looted Continental Bank of Illinois for cheap.  Bank of America later took a 34% stake in Black Rock (Barclays owns 20% of Black Rock) and an 11% share in China Construction Bank, making it the nation’s second largest bank holding company with assets of $214 billion.  Citibank controlled $249 billion. [4]

Both banks have since increase their assets to around $2 trillion each.

In 1993 Chemical Bank gobbled up Texas Commerce to become the third largest bank holding company with $170 billion in assets.  Chemical Bank had already merged with Manufacturers Hanover Trust in 1990.

North Carolina National Bank and C&S Sovran merged into Nation’s Bank, then the fourth largest US bank holding company, with $169 billion in its war chest.  Fleet Norstar bought Bank of New England, while Norwest bought United Banks of Colorado.

Throughout this period US bank profits were soaring, breaking records with each new quarter.  The year 1995 broke all previous records for bank mergers.  Deals totaling $389 billion occurred that year. [5]

The Big Five investment banks, who had just made boatloads of money steering Latin American debt negotiations, now made a killing steering the bank and industrial merger- mania of the 1980’s and 1990’s.

According to Standard & Poors the top five investment banks were Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Salomon Smith Barney and Lehman Brothers.  One deal that fell through in 1995 was a proposed merger between London’s biggest investment bank S. G. Warburg and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.  Warburg chose Union Bank of Switzerland as its suitor instead, creating UBS Warburg as a sixth force in investment banking.

After the 1995 feeding frenzy, the money center banks moved aggressively into the Middle East, establishing operations in Tel Aviv, Beirut and Bahrain- where the US 5th Fleet was setting up shop.  Bank privatizations in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Israel opened the door to the mega-banks in those nations.  Chase and Citibank borrowed money to Royal Dutch/Shell and Saudi Petrochemical, while JP Morgan advised the Qatargas consortium led by Exxon Mobil. [6]

The global insurance industry had a case of merger mania as well.  By 1995 Traveler’s Group had bought Aetna, Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway had eaten up Geico, Zurich Insurance had swallowed Kemper Corporation, CNA Financial had purchased Continental Companies and General RE Corporation had sunk its teeth into Colonia Konzern AG.

In late 1998 the Citibank colossus merged with Travelers Group to become Citigroup, creating a behemoth worth $700 billion that boasted 163,000 employees in over 100 countries and included the firms of Salomon Smith Barney (a joint venture with Morgan Stanley), Commercial Credit, Primerica Financial Services, Shearson Lehman, Barclays America, Aetna and Security Pacific Financial. [7]

That same year Bankers Trust and US investment bank Alex Brown were swooped up by Deutsche Bank, which had also purchased Morgan Grenfell of London in 1989.  The purchase made Deutsche Bank the world’s largest bank at the time with assets of $882 billion.  In January 2002, Japanese titans Mitsubishi and Sumitomo combined operations to create Mitsubishi Sumitomo Bank, which surpassed Deutsche Bank with assets of $905 billion. [8]

By 2004 HSBC had become the world’s second largest bank.  Six years later all three behemoths had been eclipsed by both BNP and Royal Bank of Scotland.

In the US, the George Gould nightmare reached its ugly nadir just in time for the new millennium when Chase Manhattan swallowed up Chemical Bank.  Bechtel banker Wells Fargo bought Norwest Bank, while Bank of America absorbed Nations Bank. The coup de grace came when the reunified House of Morgan announced that it would merge with the Rockefeller Chase Manhattan/Chemical Bank/ Manufacturers Hanover machine.

Four giant banks emerged to rule the US financial roost.  JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup were kings of capital on the East Coast.  Together they control 52.86% of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. [9]  Bank of America and Wells Fargo reigned supreme on the West Coast.

During the 2008 banking crisis these firms got much larger, receiving a nearly $1 trillion government bailout compliments of Bush Treasury Secretary and Goldman Sachs alumni Henry Paulsen; while quietly taking over distressed assets for pennies on the dollar.

Barclays took over Lehman Brothers.  JP Morgan Chase got Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns.  Bank of America was handed Merrill Lynch and Countrywide.  Wells Fargo swallowed up the nation’s 5th biggest bank- Wachovia.

The same Eight Families-controlled banks which for decades had galloped their Four Horsemen of oil roughshod through the Persian Gulf oil patch are now more powerful than at any time in history.  They are the Four Horsemen of US banking.

Notes
[1] The Great Crash of 1929. John Kenneth Galbraith. Houghton, Mifflin Company. Boston. 1979. p.148

[2] Ibid

[3] Evening Edition. National Public Radio. 2-27-95

[4] “Bank of America will Purchase Chicago Bank”. The Register-Guard. Eugene, OR. 1-29-94

[5] “Big-time Bankers Profit from M&A Fever”. Knight-Ridder News Service. 12-30-95

[6] “US Banks find New Opportunities in the Middle East”. Amy Dockser Marcus. Wall Street Journal. 10-12-95

[7] “Making a Money Machine”. Daniel Kadlec. Time. 4-20-98. p.44

[8] BBC World News. 1-20-02

[9] Rule by Secrecy: The Hidden History that Connects the Trilateral Commission, the Freemasons and the Great Pyramids”. Jim Marrs. HarperCollins Publishers. New York. 2000. p.74

Saudi Arabia: The Era of Changed Alliances

NOVANEWS

There’s an ancient Arab saying that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” and this may best sum up what is happening now with Saudi Arabia and the Arab Spring.  Saudi Arabia and the United States remain allies yet there is now a new layer of separateness between the two nations.  The cracks of the former close relationship opened up wider when the United States publicly supported the ouster of former Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak.  The United States had to stand by and silently simmer when Saudi troops entered Bahrain to crack down on demonstrators and a feared Shii’a uprising. The Saudi action violated the United States stance on human rights but not enough to take actions which could risk jeopardizing the base of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.

Yet the glue that now keeps the two countries closest together is their common enemy, Iran.  Neither the United States nor Saudi Arabia wishes to see Iran achieve a full nuclear capability.  It is in the best interests of both countries for the United States to provide Saudi Arabia with US$60 billion worth of military equipment.  Saudi Arabia is better equipped for any potential conflict against Iran and the sale is a much needed boost to the American economy.

Politics do indeed make interesting bedfellows.  Countries will ally themselves in spite of actions either side may deplore.  Yet in spite of alliances on mutual issues each country will always take the unilateral actions in the best interest of itself regardless of the others stance on a matter.  Saudi Arabia is slowly surprising the world emerging as a more vocal and stronger leader.  Rather than its previous stance of subtle actions or background negotiations, Saudi Arabia is now rearing its head as a proud lion and letting the world know its views, policies and alliances.  Saudi Arabia remains an ally to the United States while it has also forged new levels in its relationships with China and Russia.

While public turmoil continue to take place in Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Iraq, Bahrain and other Arab States, Saudi Arabia quickly stifles and silences any indication of unrest or dissent.  Saudi Arabia has and will continue to demonstrate to the world that it will take any appropriate actions believed to be in the best interests of preserving its equities.  The lamb is quiet no more.

REACH OUT TO REACH GAZA

Adalah-NY is an endorser of the U.S. Boat to Gaza. Please see
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REACH OUT TO REACH GAZA

Together we have worked so hard to arrive at this moment.

The launch of the U.S. Boat to Gaza,
THE AUDACITY OF HOPE
is set for late June, just weeks away.

Now we need everyone on board to follow The Audacity of Hope,
with its passengers from the U.S., as they sail in the international freedom flotilla “Stay Human” to reach the shores of Gaza.

We are asking you to join all of our communication networks: Sign up to receive our emails, find us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and view our videos on YouTube.

Ask others to join you in following The Audacity of Hope as it sets sail. This is how you can contribute to the success of the U.S. Boat to Gaza campaign and to this national effort to create a platform from which many people can speak out against U.S. foreign policy that is complicit in maintaining the illegal Israeli siege on Gaza and occupation of Palestine.

Together we can reach the shores of Gaza.

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London Concert: Tahrir Square to Jerusalem

NOVANEWS

Gilad Atzmon


Amal Murkus joins a host of artists celebrating the work of Juliano Mer Khamis and the power of art in the struggle for freedom. An imaginative production that will transport us from Tahreer Square through Jenin and to the heart of the new Jasmine Revolution sweeping the Arab world (all profits go to the Freedom Theatre in Jenin).

It’s curfew in Palestine. “The Army surrounds our neighbourhood. I sit on my bed writing a poem, the tank outside my window is probably reading this over my shoulder, I keep writing…” says a poet from Tulkarm.

For many, art was the only freedom of expression allowed, because art is safe, unarmed. But in January 2011, it was the artists, the writers, the musicians the comedians who walked into Tahreer Square and stood in the face of armed state police. Defenceless but for the conviction in their hearts. A conviction that said, unarmed but not powerless. Unarmed but not afraid. This was the conviction of artists, writers and musicians in Tunisia, Libya Yemen and Palestine who still sing in the face of dictators, occupation and bombardment. It was also the same conviction of Palestinian filmmaker and director of the Freedom Theatre Juliano Mer Khamis who walked into the Jenin refugee camp he called “the most attacked place in Palestine” every day to wipe away the fear in the eyes of 10 year old kids traumatized by the occupation.

 


A Warning From The Past

NOVANEWS

 

DC NEWS FLASH: Israeli Prime Minister More Popular than President

of the United States

by Gilad Atzmon

Netanyahu’s successful speech before the American joint houses was an extravaganza of Jewish power: there can be little doubt that as far as American elected politicians are concerned, Benjamin Netanyahu actually appears to be far more popular than even the American president himself.

Yet, you may want to ask yourself — are Netanyahu and the Jewish State really popular amongst the American people? Do the American people approve of their elected politicians being AIPAC’s puppets? Are the American congressmen and senators serving American interests by aligning themselves so subserviently to AIPAC’s goals — or are they increasingly  being subjected to pressure from a foreign state’s lobby?
It is all becoming pretty much like watching the way power operates in a totalitarian regime: American politicians are submissively obeying ‘the call of Zion’ as they stand up and applaud Netanyahu at all the ‘right moments.’ And they clearly realise, all too well, that failing to do so would mean immediate political annihilation.
The Israeli and Jewish press were very impressed with Netanyahu’s success in Washington. But,  what we saw in Washington may well  turn out to be bad news for Israel and American Jewry: the endless trail of Jewish collective tragedies is there to teach us that Jews always pay eventually ( and heavily ) for Jewish power exercises. Yet, surprisingly ( and tragically ) enough, Jews somehow consistently fail to internalise and learn from that very lesson.
Sadly enough,  every form of Jewish political gathering is, unfortunately, an exercise in Jewish power — whether in the American Senate, or even within the Palestinian Solidarity movement. There is a devastating pattern that can be observed here, that some Jews seem to follow — they push relentlessly towards an aim or goal that they interpret as a ‘collective Jewish interest’ — and again and again, for some unknown reason, they repeatedly fail to notice potential ‘hazard lights’, consistently misinterpreting tolerance as the ‘Goyim’s stupidity’.
And as we have seen in history, repeatedly, Jewish collective tragedies always follow a pattern that begins with such rich tales of  golden ages of assimilation within the corridors of power . One need only look at Spain, Eastern Europe and Germany, and these are just a few examples of such repeated patterns.
The grave failure of America’s leading political institutions to confront AIPAC could very easily turn into a gigantic tidal wave of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish feelings. If the Jewish Lobby in America were at all responsible, it would be aware of the possibility of such an adverse reaction — but it is obsessed with its own success. The United States seems to lack the political will and know-how to restrain  AIPAC, and the meaning , implications and results of it all may very well turn out to be devastating.
I guess that the answer to AIPAC is not yet another J-Street lobby, attempting to buy the very few remaining  unaffiliated American politicians.

I’d like to urgently suggest here, that ‘hands off international politics’ should be the immediate Jewish call to their relentless lobbies.
But I know very well that is not going to happen.