Articles

The World Today: Exposing the Lies of Mainstream Media The mainstream media is owned by bankers and corporate kingpins
May 25, 2011
Politics
NOVANEWS Global Research, May 22, 2011 "Truth has to be repeated constantly, because Error also is being preached all the ...Read more
Disclosure and Deceit: Secrecy as the Manipulation of History, not its Concealment
May 25, 2011
Politics
NOVANEWS By Dr. T. P. Wilkinson Global Research, The declassification of official secrets is often seen as either a challenge ...Read more
BREAKING NEWS: Humanitarian Ship to Enter Gaza Territorial Waters, Break the Blockade
May 25, 2011
Gaza
NOVANEWS ''THE SAME EGYPTIAN ZIONIST REGIME OF MU-BARAK OLD DOG'S AND NEW DOG'S.'' SAMMI IBRAHEM Sr  The Spirit of Rachel ...Read more
Saudi Arabia: It is Okay to Deface Makkah but Don’t Let Women Drive
May 25, 2011
Saudi Arabia
NOVANEWS When you ask a Saudi about Makkah many will talk about the way Makkah was…before the day of the Clocktower.  ...Read more
Africa: Battleground For NATO's 21st Century Strategic Concept
May 25, 2011
Africa
NOVANEWS By Rick Rozoff Global Research, Stop NATO The war by major North Atlantic Treaty Organization member states against Libya ...Read more
Saudi Arabia: Culture Trumps Islam
May 25, 2011
Saudi Arabia
NOVANEWS Saudi Arabia is viewed as home to the holiest sites in Islam and all Saudis are naturally born Muslims.  ...Read more
Mondoweiss Online Newsletter
May 25, 2011
Middle East
NOVANEWS   Bucking Obama and Netanyahu, Palestinian refugees assert their centrality Israel puts barbed-wire fence around village of 247 Palestinians ...Read more
Tempers Flare Post CNI Press Briefing
May 25, 2011
USA
NOVANEWS   “Israel Is Not Alone” member knocks phone out of my hand – Alison Weir     We had just ...Read more
Obama Genuflects to AIPAC
May 25, 2011
Campaigns
NOVANEWS   Deferentially, Each Year, US politicians, Including Presidents, Flock to AIPAC’s Annual Conference Paying Homage to Israel and Its Influence ...Read more
Spain: More Attacks on the Euro
May 25, 2011
Politics
NOVANEWS   Spanish Voters Reject Austerity by Stephen Lendman Since mid-May, Spain’s M-15 movement began protesting for “Real Democracy Now,” ...Read more
Prominent African American Academic, Woman, Victimized
May 25, 2011
Education
NOVANEWS   Is the Attack on Prof. Melissa Harris-Perry’s Article Criticizing Prof. Cornel West Due to Male Academic Cronyism? Beneath ...Read more
The Patriot Act: When Truth Becomes Treason
May 25, 2011
USA
NOVANEWS   Americans NOT Frightened Enough by the Un-Patriot Act By Susan Lindauer Many Americans think they understand the dangers of ...Read more

The World Today: Exposing the Lies of Mainstream Media The mainstream media is owned by bankers and corporate kingpins

NOVANEWS

Global Research, May 22, 2011

“Truth has to be repeated constantly, because Error also is being preached all the time, and not just by a few, but by the multitude.  In the Press and Encyclopaedias, in Schools and Universities, everywhere Error holds sway, feeling happy and comfortable in the knowledge of having Majority on its side.”   –Goethe

Dear Readers,
Thank you for visiting Global Research! We are reassured to know that you have come to this site because you are looking to find the truth, the REAL truth behind the “news”, to understand the political, social and economic forces shaping the world you live in.
Though Goethe made his insightful observation two hundred years ago, his words hold more meaning today than ever in history. Error can indeed be found throughout stories in the mainstream press, in “official reports” and coming from the very mouths of world leaders, many “democratically” elected. But what even Goethe could not have predicted is the broad extent to which these errors are knowingly, deceptively and insidiously woven into our daily news, effectively subverting the masses and keeping them blind and apathetic to the empirically-driven motives of the world’s elite.
If you are visiting this site, it is because you have realized that things aren’t “adding up”, that what world leaders and influential figures are telling us, as conveyed by mainstream media, does not accurately reflect the picture of the world today. You have seen that the only way to find the “truth” is to go to independent sources that aren’t funded and manipulated by corporate and political interests.

The aims of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) and Global Research are to battle the tidal waves of misinformation and propaganda washing our minds on a daily basis. We have separated ourselves from the corporate-controlled mainstream news, whose only objective is to serve their corporate masters. We take no assistance from the major foundations such as Rockefeller, Ford, and MacArthur, who act as patrons (and thus pacifiers) of the alternative and critical voices challenging the forces of globalization.
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Without your support, we cannot continue our operations nor expand our horizons and opportunities. Global Research is indebted to our readers, and we are here for you and because of you. If you would like Global Research to continue and to grow, we need your support now more than ever.
The mainstream media is owned by bankers and corporate kingpins. Not only that, but it has been historically and presently infiltrated by covert government agencies, seeking to deceive and propagandize their agendas. The CIA has long had associations with major mainstream news publications.
By far the most valuable of these associations, according to CIA officials, have been with the New York Times, CBS and Time Inc. The CIA even ran a training program “to teach its agents to be journalists,” who were “then placed in major news organizations with help from management.”
At Global Research, we seek to not only expose and criticize the larger picture, but to point the finger at the media, itself, and examine who is lying, why they lie, and how they get away with it. To continue in our endeavours, we need our readers to continue in their support.
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Supporting Global Research is supporting the cause of truth and the fight against media disinformation.Thank you.
The Global Research Team

Disclosure and Deceit: Secrecy as the Manipulation of History, not its Concealment

NOVANEWS
By Dr. T. P. Wilkinson

The declassification of official secrets is often seen as either a challenge or a prerequisite for obtaining accurate data on the history of political and economic events. Yet at the same time high government intelligence officials have said that their policy is one of ‘plausible deniability’. Official US government policy for example is never to acknowledge or deny the presence of nuclear weapons anywhere its forces are deployed, especially its naval forces. The British have their ‘Official Secrets’ Act. When the Wikileaks site was launched in 2007 and attained notoriety for publication of infamous actions by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, this platform was heralded and condemned for its disclosures and exposures.

 
Julian Assange is quoted as saying that when he receives documents classified under the UK Official Secrets Act he responds in accordance with the letter of the law – since it is forbidden to withhold or destroy, his only option is to publish. The question remains for historians, investigators, and educated citizens: what is the real value of disclosures or declassification? Given the practice of plausible deniablity, does disclosure or declassification constitute proof, and if so by what criteria? Both facts and non-facts can be concealed or disclosed.

Information is not self-defining Ultimately there remain two questions: does the secret document (now public) really constitute the ‘secret’? What is the ‘secret’ for which we use the document to actually refer? Is secrecy the difference between the known and unknown, or the known and untold? 
Some benefit can be found by borrowing theological concepts. We can distinguish between a mystery revealed and a supernatural truth which, by its very nature, lies above the finite intelligence. But a secret is something unknowable either by accident or on account of accessibility. I believe that the popularised form of disclosure embodied in Wikileaks should force us to distinguish between those beliefs we have about the nature of official action and the conduct of people working within those institutions and the data produced. Wikileaks is clearly a platform for publishing data but much of the response to these documents is more based on mystery than on secrecy. That is to say that the disclosures are treated as revelation in the religious sense – and not as discovery in the sense of scientia – knowledge. Why is this so? Wikileaks is described as a continuation of the ethical and social responsibility of journalism as an instrument to educate and inform the public – based on the principle that an informed public is essential to a democracy and self-governance. By collecting, collating and disclosing documents ‘leaked’ to it, Wikileaks also attacks what Assange calls the invisible government, the people and institutions who rule by concealing their activities from the people – and brings to light their wrongdoing.
There are two traditions involved here that partially overlap. In the US the prime examples are the ‘muckraking journalism’ originating in the so-called Progressive Era, spanning from 1890s to 1920s, and more recently the publication of the Pentagon Papers through Daniel Ellsberg. While liberals treat both of these examples favourably, their histories, however, are far more ambivalent than sentimentally presented. To understand this ambivalence, itself a sort of plausible deniability, it is necessary to sketch the history of journalism in the US – the emergence of an unnamed but essential political actor – and some of the goals of US foreign policy since the end of the 19th century. This very brief sketch offers what I call the preponderance of facticity – as opposed to an unimpeachable explanation for the overt and covert actions of the US.

First of all it is necessary to acknowledge that in 1886 the US Supreme Court endowed the modern business corporation with all the properties of citizenship in the US – a ruling reiterated with more vehemence this year by another Supreme Court decision. As of 1886, business corporations in the US had more civil rights than freed slaves or women. By the end of the First World War, the business corporation had eclipsed the natural person as a political actor in the US. By 1924 US immigration law and the actions of the FBI had succeeded in damming the flow of European radicalism and suppressing domestic challenges to corporate supremacy. Thus by the time Franklin Roosevelt was elected, the US had been fully constituted as a corporatist state. US government policy was thereafter made mainly by and for business corporations and their representatives. Second, professional journalism emerged from the conflict between partisan media tied to social movements and those tied to business. The first journalism school was founded in 1908 at the University of Missouri with money from newspaper baron Joseph Pulitzer. As in all other emerging professions at that time, it was claimed that uniform training within an academic curriculum would produce writers who were neutral, objective, and dispassionate – that is to say somehow scientific in their writing. 
A professional journalist would not allow his or her writing to be corrupted by bribery or political allegiances. These professional journalists would work for commercial enterprises but be trained to produce value-free texts for publication.. The US has always refused to call itself an empire or to acknowledge that its expansion from the very beginning was imperial. The dogma of manifest destiny sought to resolve this contradiction by stipulating that domestic conquest was not imperial. Control of the Western hemisphere has always been defined as national security, not of asserting US domination. Likewise, it is impossible to understand the actions of the US government in Asia since 1910 without acknowledging that the US is an empire and recognising its imperial interests in the Asia–Pacific region. It is also impossible to understand the period called the Cold War without knowing that the US invaded the Soviet Union in 1918 with 13,000 troops along with some 40,000 British troops and thousands of troops recruited by the ‘West’ to support the Tsarist armies and fascist Siberian Republic. It is essential to bear these over-arching contextual points in mind when considering the value of classified US documents and their disclosure, whether by Wikileaks or Bob Woodward. It is essential to bear these points in mind because the value or the ambivalence of ‘leaks’ or declassification depends entirely on whether the data is viewed as ‘revelation’ or as mere scientific data to be interpreted.

Revelation and heresy For the most part the disclosures by Wikileaks have been and continue to be treated as ‘revelation’ and the disclosure itself as heresy. This is particularly the case in the batches of State Department cables containing diplomatic jargon and liturgy. The ‘revelation’ comprises the emotional response to scripture generated by members of the US foreign service and the confirmation this scripture appears to give to opinions held about the US – whether justified or not. Just as reading books and even the bible was a capital offence for those without ecclesiastical license in the high Middle Ages, the response of the US government is comprehensible. It is bound to assert that Wikileaks is criminal activity and to compel punishment. Yet there is another reason why the US government reaction is so intense. As argued above, the primary political actor in the US polity is the business corporation. In Europe and North America at least it is understood: (1) that the ultimate values for state action are those which serve the interests of private property; and (2) that the business corporation is the representative form of private property. 
This in turn means that information rights are in fact property rights manifest as patents, copyrights, and trade or industrial secrets. Since the state is the guardian of the corporation, it argues that the disclosure of government documents should only be allowed where the government itself has surrendered some of its privacy rights. This is quite different from the arguments for feudal diplomatic privilege, even though business corporations have superseded princely states. The argument for state secrecy now is that the democratic state constituted by business corporations is obliged to protect the rights and privileges of those citizens as embodied in their private property rights – rights deemed to be even more absolute than those historically attributed to natural persons, if for no other reason than that corporations enjoy limited liability and immortality, unlike natural persons. When the US government says it is necessary for other states to treat Assange as an outlaw and Wikileaks as a criminal activity, it is appealing on one hand to the global corporate citizenry and on the other, asserting its role – not unlike the Roman Catholic Church of the Middle Ages – as the sole arbiter of those rights and privileges subsumed by Democracy in the world. Many of those who lack a religious commitment to the American way of life have still recognised the appeal to privacy and ultimately to private property which are now deemed the highest values in the world – so that trade, the commerce in private property, takes precedence over every other human activity and supersedes even human rights, not to mention civil rights.

Ellsberg In 1971 Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times, which began their publication. This leak was treated as a landmark, although it would take several years before the US withdrew its forces from Vietnam and many more before hostilities were formally ended. What then was the significance of the ‘leak’? The documents generally point to the failures of the military, omitting the role of the CIA almost entirely. Today it is still largely unknown that Ellsberg was working with the CIA in counter-insurgency programs in Vietnam. Did the Pentagon Papers thus serve the interests of plausible deniability – a disclosure of secrets designed not to reveal truth, but to conceal a larger truth by revealing smaller ones? On the other hand, the collection of essays, Dirty Work, edited by Philip Agee and Lou Wolf, showed how the identity of CIA officers could be deciphered from their official biographies, especially as published in the Foreign Service List and other government registers. This type of disclosure allows the competent researcher to recognise ‘real’ Foreign Service officers as opposed to CIA officers operating under diplomatic cover. Agee and his colleague Lou Wolf maintained that disclosure of CIA activities was not a matter of lifting secrets but of recognising the context in which disparate information has to be viewed to allow its interpretation. 
To put it trivially: in order to find something you have to know the thing for which you are searching. In order to be meaningful, disclosures of intelligence information must explain that intelligence information seeks to deceive the US public. For example, the CIA and those in the multi-agency task forces under its control produced an enormous amount of reports and documentation to show what was being done to fulfil the official US policy objectives in Vietnam. One of these programs was called Rural Development. This CIA program was run ostensibly by the USAID and the State Department to support the economic and social development of the countryside. This policy was articulated in Washington to fit with the dominant ‘development’ paradigm – to package the US policy as aid and not military occupation. And yet, as Douglas Valentine shows in his book The Phoenix Program, Rural Development was a cover for counterinsurgency from the beginning. The Phoenix Program only became known in the US after 1971, and then only superficially. The information released to the US Congress and reported in the major media outlets lacked sufficient context to allow interpretation. There was so little context that the same people who worked in the Phoenix program in Vietnam as 20-year-olds have been able to continue careers operating the same kinds of programmes in other countries with almost no scrutiny.
Two people come to mind: John Negroponte, who is alleged to have provided support to death squads in Honduras during the US war against Nicaragua and later served as ambassador to occupied Iraq, began his foreign service career in Vietnam with one of the agencies instrumental in Phoenix. The other person died recently: Richard Holbrooke began his career with USAID in Vietnam, went on to advise the Indonesian dictatorship, went to manage the ‘diplomatic’ part of the US war in Yugoslavia and finally served as a kind of pro-consul for Central Asia with responsibility for the counterinsurgency in Afghanistan. As the secret weapon in US imperial policy, the counterinsurgency or rural development or ‘surge’ policies of the US government never include an examination of the professionals who managed them. It used to be said among some critics that one could follow General Vernon Walters’ travel itinerary and predict military coups. But that was not something ‘leaked’ and it did not appear in the mainstream media analysis.

The illusion of objective neutrality So if much of what we see ‘leaked’ is gossip in the service of plausible deniability, what separates the important gossip from the trivial? I suggest it is a return to consciously interested, humanistic values in historical research. We have to abandon the idea that the perfect form of knowledge is embodied in the privilege of corporate ownership of ideas, and domination of the state. We also have to abandon the illusion of objective neutrality inherited from Positivism and Progressivism, with its exclusionary professionalism. Until such time as human beings can be restored to the centre of social, political and economic history we have to recognise the full consequences of the enfranchisement of the business corporation and the subordination of the individual to role of a mere consumer. If we take the business corporation, an irresponsible and immortal entity, endowed with absolute property rights and absolved of any liability for its actions or those of its officers and agents, as the subject of history it has become, then we have to disclose more than diplomatic cables. We have to analyse its actions just as historians have tried to understand the behaviour of princes and dynasties in the past. This is too rarely done and when often only in a superficial way. I would like to provide an example, a sketch if you will, of one such historical analysis, taking the business corporation and not the natural person as the focus of action. 
In 1945, George Orwell referred to the threat of nuclear war between the West and the Soviet Union as a ‘cold war’. He made no reference to the 1918 invasion of the Soviet Union by British troops. In 1947, US Secretary of State Bernard Baruch gave a speech in South Carolina saying ‘Let us not be deceived: we are today in the midst of a cold war’. The speech had been written by a rich newspaperman named Herbert Swope. In 1947, George Kennan published his containment essay, ‘The Sources of Soviet Conduct’, in Foreign Affairs under the name ‘X’. In it he describes a supposed innate expansionist tendency of the Soviet Union – also no mention of the US invasion or the devastation of WWII, which virtually destroyed the Soviet Union’s manpower and industrial base. In April 1950, NSC 68 is published – classified top secret until 1975 – outlining the necessity for the US to massively rearm to assert and maintain its role as the world’s superpower. At the end of summer 1950, war breaks out in Korea. President Truman declared an emergency and gets UN Security Council approval for a war that lasts three years, killing at least 3 million Koreans – most of whom die as a result of US Air Force saturation bombing of Korea north of the 38th parallel. Truman proclaims that US intervention will be used to prevent the expansion of the Soviet Union or as Ronald Reagan put it then – Russian aggression. After being utterly routed by the army of North Korea, the US bombs its way to the Yalu only to be thrown back to the 38th parallel by China. In 1954, the US organises the overthrow of the Arbenz regime in Guatemala and begins its aid and covert intervention in Vietnam beginning a war that only ends in 1976. Meanwhile Britain suppresses the Malaysian independence movement. Between 1960 and 1968, nationalist governments have been overthrown in Indonesia, Congo, Ghana, Brazil. Cuba is the great surprise amidst the literally hundreds of nationalist, anti-colonial movements and governments suppressed by the US.
William Blum has catalogued the enormous number of overt and covert interventions by the US in his book Killing Hope. The amazing thing about much of what Blum compiled is that it was not ‘secret’. It was simply not reported or misreported. Blum makes clear – what should be obvious – that the Soviet Union was not a party to a single war or coup from 1945 to 1989 and that the US government knew this. Much of this early action took place when John Foster Dulles was US Secretary of State and his brother was head of the CIA. The Dulles brothers were intimately connected to corporations they represented in their capacity as ‘white shoe’ lawyers in New York. In fact the founder of the OSS, the CIA’s predecessor, William Donovan, was also a corporate lawyer both before and after his service in the OSS. In other words the people who have commanded these foreign policy instruments have almost without exception been the direct representatives of major US business corporations. In each case the public pretext has been the threat of communism or Soviet expansion. Yet the only consistent quality all of these actions had was the suppression of governments that restricted the activities of US or UK corporations. Of course, communism has long been merely a term for any opposition to the unrestricted rights of business corporations.
One could say people like Donovan or Dulles were seconded to government office. However, the direct financial benefit that someone like Dulles obtained when he succeeded in deposing Arbenz in Guatemala came from his shareholding in United Fruit, the instigator and financial backer of the CIA co-ordinated coup. Perhaps the more accurate interpretation of this secret activity is that the business corporation, which previously employed law firms and Pinkertons, had shifted the burden of implementing corporate foreign policy to the taxpayer and the state. Now the interest of the US in Latin America has been well researched and documented. But the persistence of the Vietnam War and the silence about the Korean War have only been matched by the virtual absence of debate about the overthrow of Sukarno and the Philippine insurgency. The Philippines became a footnote in the controversy about US torture methods in Iraq and elsewhere as it was shown that the ‘water cure’ was applied rigorously by American troops when suppressing the Philippine independence movement at the beginning of the 20th century.

Lack of context not knowledge The study of each of these Asian countries – and one can add the so-called Golden Triangle; and I would argue Afghanistan now – has been clouded not by lack of evidence or documentation but by lack of context. If the supposed threat posed by communism, especially Soviet communism is taken at face value – as also reiterated in innumerable official documents both originally public and originally confidential – then the US actions in Asia seem like mere religious fanaticism. The government officials and military and those who work with them are so indoctrinated that they will do anything to oppose communism in whatever form. Thus even respected scholars of these wars will focus on the delusions or information deficits or ideological blinders of the actors. This leads to a confused and incoherent perception of US relations in Asia and the Pacific. The virtual absence of any coherent criticism of the Afghanistan War, let alone the so-called War on Terror, is symptomatic not of inadequate information, leaked or otherwise. It is a result of failure to establish the context necessary for evaluating the data available. It should not surprise anyone that ‘counter-terror’ practices by US Forces are ‘discovered’ in Afghanistan or Iraq, if the professional careers of the theatre and field commanders (in and out of uniform) are seriously examined. 
Virtually all those responsible for fighting the war in Central Asia come from Special Operations/CIA backgrounds. That is what they have been trained to do. If we shift our attention for a moment to the economic basis of this region, it has been said that the war against drugs is also being fought there. However, this is counterfactual. Since the 1840s the region from Afghanistan to Indochina has been part of what was originally the British opium industry. China tried to suppress the opium trade twice leading to war with Britain – wars China lost. The bulk of the Hong Kong banking sector developed out of the British opium trade protected by the British army and Royal Navy. Throughout World War II and especially the Vietnam War the opium trade expanded to become an important economic sector in Southern Asia – under the protection of the secret services of the US, primarily the CIA. Respected scholars have documented this history to the present day. However it does not appear to play any role in interpreting the policies of the US government whether publicly or confidentially documented. Is it because, as a senior UN official reported last year, major parts of the global financial sector – headquartered in New York and London – were saved by billions in drug money in 2008? Does the fact that Japan exploited both Korea and Vietnam to provide cheap food for its industrial labour force have any bearing on the US decision to invade those countries when its official Asia policy was to rebuild Japan as an Asian platform for US corporations – before China became re-accessible (deemed lost to the Communists in 1948)? Did the importance of Korean tungsten for the US steel industry contribute to the willingness of people like Preston Goodfellow, a CIA officer in Korea, to introduce a right-wing Korean to rule as a dictator of the US occupied zone? Is there continuity between Admiral Dewey’s refusal to recognise the Philippine Republic after Spain’s defeat – because the 1898 treaty with Spain ceded the archipelago to the US – and the refusal of General Hodge to recognise the Korean People’s Republic in Seoul when he led the occupation of Korea in 1945? As John Pilger suggests, were the million people massacred by Suharto with US and UK support a small price to pay for controlling the richest archipelago in the Pacific? Was the Pol Pot regime not itself a creation of the US war against Vietnam – by other means?
Is it an accident that while the US was firmly anchored in Subic Bay, armed and funded Jakarta, occupied Japan and half of Korea, that the US was prepared to bomb the Vietnamese nationalists ‘into the Stone Age’? It only makes sense if the US is understood as an empire and its corporate interests are taken seriously when researching the history of the US attempts to create and hold an Asian empire. The resistance to this perception can be explained and it is not because of an impenetrable veil of secrecy. It is not because of the accidentally or inaccessibly unknown. Rather it is because US policy and practice in the world remains a ‘mystery’, a supernatural truth, one that of its very nature lies above the finite intelligence. The quasi-divine status of the universal democracy for which the USA is supposed to stand is an obstacle of faith.

Engineering consent In the twentieth century two conflicting tendencies can be identified. The first was the emergence of mass democratic movements. The second was the emergence of the international business corporation. When the Great War ended in 1918, the struggle between these two forces crystallised in the mass audience or consumer on one hand and the mass production and communication on the other. As Edward Bernays put it: ‘This is an age of mass production. In the mass production of materials a broad technique has been developed and applied to their distribution. In this age too there must be a technique for the mass distribution of ideas.’ In his book, Propaganda, he wrote ‘The conscious and intelligent manipulation of organised habits and opinions of the masses…’ was necessary in a democracy, calling that ‘invisible government’. 
Like his contemporary Walter Lippmann, a journalist, he believed that democracy was a technique for ‘engineering the consent’ of the masses to those policies and practices adopted by the country’s elite – the rulers of its great business corporations. By the 1980s the state throughout the West – and after 1989 in the former Soviet bloc – was being defined only by ‘business criteria’, e.g. efficiency, profitability, cost minimisation, shareholder value, consumer satisfaction, etc. Political and social criteria such as participatory rights or income equity or equality, provision of basic needs such as education, work, housing, nutrition, healthcare on a universal basis had been transformed from citizenship to consumerism. The individual lost status in return for means tested access to the ‘market’. In order for the state to function like a business it had to adopt both the organisational and ethical forms of the business corporation – a non-democratic system, usually dictatorial, at best operating as an expert system. As an extension of the property-holding entities upon which it was to be remodelled, the state converted its power into secretive, jealous, and rigid hierarchies driven by the highest ethical value of the corporation – profit.

Journalists and ‘corporate stenographers’ While historical research should not be merely deductive, it is dependent on documents. The veracity of those documents depends among other things on authenticity, judgements as to the status, knowledge or competence of the author, the preponderance of reported data corresponding to data reported elsewhere or in other media. A public document is tested against a private or confidential document – hence the great interest in memoirs, diaries and private correspondence. There is an assumption that the private document is more sincere or even reliable than public documents. This is merely axiomatic since there is no way to determine from a document itself whether its author lied, distorted or concealed in his private correspondence, too. Discrepancies can be explained in part by accepting that every author is a limited informant or interpreter. The assumptions about the integrity of the author shape the historical evaluation. In contemporary history – especially since the emergence of industrial-scale communications – the journalist has become the model and nexus of data collection, author, analyst, and investigator. Here the journalist is most like a scholar. The journalist is also a vicarious observer. 
The journalist is supposed to share precisely those attributes of the people to whom or about whom he reports. This has given us the plethora of reality TV, talk shows, embedded reporters, and the revolving door between media journalists and corporate/state press officers. In the latter the journalist straddles the chasm between salesman and consumer. This is the role that the Creel Committee and the public relations industry learned to exploit. The journalist George Creel called his memoir of the Committee on Public Information he chaired – formed by Woodrow Wilson to sell US entry into World War I – How We Advertised America. The campaign was successful in gaining mass support for a policy designed to assure that Britain and France would be able to repay the billions borrowed from J. P. Morgan & Co. to finance their war against Germany and seize the Mesopotamian oilfields from the Ottoman Empire. Industrial communications techniques were applied to sell the political product of the dominant financial and industrial corporations of the day. The professional journalist, freed from any social movement or popular ideology, had already become a mercenary for corporate mass media.
The profession eased access to secure employment and to the rich and powerful. The journalists’ job was to produce ideas for mass distribution – either for the state or for the business corporation. Supporting private enterprise was at the very least a recognition that one’s job depended on the media owner. Editorial independence meant writers and editors could write whatever they pleased as long as it sold and did not challenge the economic or political foundation of the media enterprise itself. In sum the notion of the independent, truth-finding, investigative journalist is naïve at best. We must be careful to distinguish between journalists and what John Pilger has called ‘corporate stenographers’. This does not mean that no journalists supply us with useful information or provide us access to meaningful data. It means that journalism, as institution, as praxis, is flawed – because it too is subordinated to the business corporation and its immoral imperatives. Wikileaks takes as its frame of reference the journalism as it emerged in the Positivist – Progressive Era – a profession ripe with contradictions, as I have attempted to illustrate.
Were Wikileaks to fulfil that Positivist–Progressive model, it would still risk overwhelming us with the apparently objective and unbiased data – facts deemed to stand for themselves. Without a historical framework – and I believe such a framework must also be humanist – the mass of data produced or collated by such a platform as Wikileaks may sate but not nourish us. We have to be responsible for our interpretation. We can only be responsible however when we are aware of the foundations and framework for the data we analyse. The deliberate choice of framework forces us to be conscious of our own values and commitments. This stands in contrast to a hypothetically neutral, objective, or non-partisan foundation that risks decaying into opportunism – and a flood of deceit from which no mountain of disclosure can save us.

BREAKING NEWS: Humanitarian Ship to Enter Gaza Territorial Waters, Break the Blockade

NOVANEWS

”THE SAME EGYPTIAN ZIONIST REGIME OF MU-BARAK OLD DOG’S AND NEW DOG’S.”

SAMMI IBRAHEM Sr 

The Spirit of Rachel Corrie lifted anchor and started sailing towards Gaza.

UPDATE: 9:53pm EDT, Egypt time 3:53pm

 
“The Egyptian Navy is forcing us out of their territorial waters and has asked us to go to international waters. One Egyptian patrol boat is coming very fast from behind with a gun pointing at us.” Everyone is calm and steady. We are okay.”
From our latest communication with the ship, it appears that the Egyptian Zionist Navy is collaborating with the Zio-Nazi’s with a view to endangering the security of the ship.

Saudi Arabia: It is Okay to Deface Makkah but Don’t Let Women Drive

NOVANEWS

When you ask a Saudi about Makkah many will talk about the way Makkah was…before the day of the Clocktower.  I used to believe that the Clocktower in Makkah was a welcoming beacon but I have changed my view.  I now see it as part of the ‘extreme commercialism’ that keeps gaining momentum in Makkah.  Only last week Marriott Corporation announced that by 2014 three new hotels will be built in Makkah adding more than 1500 rooms.  These hotels will also overlook the Haram.  Among these three hotels will be a landmark J W Marriott which is described as “…unique environments, spacious guest rooms with luxurious amenities, imaginative dining experiences and an overall heightened level of sophistication without pretense.”  Sophistication without pretense? Is this necessary for a hotel at the Haram where the majority of visitors come for Umrah or Hajj?

Then the Makkah Hilton which is where the Makkah Clocktower is located advertises on its web site that guests can “Pray with views over the Holy Haram in the 2 air-conditioned and carpeted 10,000-seater prayer halls.”  As early as 10 years ago there were no such luxury facilities available which want to encourage its visitors to stay in rather than follow the footsteps of so many millions before them.

These luxury facilities do not come without a price to the people of Makkah.  In order to make room for the “luxury hajj and umrah” facilities, residents have been displaced and small businesses have had to relocate.  Such expansion has also resulted in rising costs for those who either live in or visit Makkah.  Is Hajj or umrah becoming cost prohibitive because of these ‘luxury enhancements?’

Performing Hajj or Umrah has always been about simplicity.  All who enter the Haram (Grand Mosque) are dressed the same and perform the same ritual.  They follow in the footsteps of the Prophet (PBUH).

I am surprised that the religious police, the muttaween, have not spoken out about the “defacing of Makkah” yet en masse they have denounced and arrested Saudi woman, Manal Al-Sherif, for daring to drive.

Africa: Battleground For NATO's 21st Century Strategic Concept

NOVANEWS

By Rick Rozoff

Global Research,

Stop NATO

The war by major North Atlantic Treaty Organization member states against Libya is in its third month and has been conducted under the official auspices of NATO for the past fifty days.
According to the military bloc’s daily online tally [1], Alliance military aircraft have flown over 7,200 missions and more than 2,800 combat flights since NATO inaugurated so-called Operation Unified Protector on March 31.
The world’s only military alliance stands to match or exceed the 78-day duration of its air war against Yugoslavia in 1999 if not to deploy troops in Libya in what could expand into protracted combat and occupation roles like those in Afghanistan and adjoining nations where the Pentagon and NATO will mark the tenth anniversary of their invasion this October 7.
Recently Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko “Pointed out that the operation in Libya is becoming the first actual litmus test for NATO’s new strategic concept,” [2] a reference to the latest Strategic Concept adopted by the 28-nation alliance at its summit in Lisbon, Portugal last November, the first in this century and since that endorsed at the Washington summit in 1999 when NATO was waging its first war (against Yugoslavia) and incorporating its first post-Cold War recruits (the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland).
The war against Libya was also the test case for U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), the first overseas military command launched by the Pentagon since the end of the Cold War (its predecessor, Central Command, was created in 1983), whose Joint Task Force Odyssey Dawn was in charge of bombing runs and cruise missile attacks in and a naval blockade of Libya from March 19-30.
The activation of AFRICOM as an independent command on October 1, 2008 and the expansion of NATO into Africa were integrally, inevitably related developments, as the top military chief of U.S. European Command,  to which almost the entire African continent and the nascent AFRICOM were for years assigned, and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe are and for almost 60 years have been the same person, currently America’s Admiral James Stavridis.
In what may have imminent and menacing implications for the ongoing conflict in Libya, Africa is also the laboratory for the 25,000-troop NATO Response Force, intended to be deployable within five days throughout the world and to sustain operations, including combat missions, for up to six months. In other words, the world’s first international military strike force. The NATO Response Force was an initiative of then-U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld which was endorsed by the Alliance at its 2002 summit in the Czech Republic, the latter only having been brought into NATO three years before.
In 2006 NATO held a large-scale two-week military exercise in the west African island nation of Cape Verde codenamed Steadfast Jaguar with almost 8,000 troops from 25 of the Alliance’s 26 members at the time. Fighter jets, attack helicopters, warships including the Sixth Fleet flagship USS Mount Whitney and American special forces were also employed in NATO’s first war games in Africa. To indicate the groundbreaking significance of the event, the bloc’s secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and the North Atlantic Council – the ambassadors of all NATO member states – traveled to Cape Verde to inspect the exercise.
In the words of Scheffer: “You see here the new NATO, the NATO that has the capacity to be expeditionary. In the 21st century you have to be prepared to project stability over long distances….” Associated Press at the time cited then-NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe and commander of U.S. European Command Marine General James Jones (later the Obama administration’s first National Security Advisor) as envisioning the role of the NATO Response Force as one that “could entail naval patrols to protect tankers off the coast of West Africa or security for storage and production facilities in areas such as the oil-rich Niger Delta.” Immediately after assuming the dual commands in January 2003 Jones laid the groundwork for the permanent deployment of U.S. and NATO military assets in the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea off the continent’s western shores. [3]
Steadfast Jaguar was the first joint infantry-air force-naval operation conducted for and by the global NATO strike force. In the words of a Washington Times report during the war games, “The aim is to help transform the Brussels-based alliance from a static, Europe-centered, defensive organization into a security body with global ambitions and reach.”
In a feature entitled “NATO tests expeditionary force,” the Alliance website stated that the exercise was designed to “test the readiness of NATO’s cutting-edge Response Force to carry out missions anywhere required at very short notice,” and that “the Response Force will give the Alliance the ability to deploy up to 25,000 troops within five days anywhere in the world.”
NATO has also penetrated Africa in recent years by airlifting over 30,000 African Union troops to the Darfur region of western Sudan from 2005-2007 and since then thousands of Ugandan and Burundian forces into the Somali capital of Mogadishu for combat operations in support of the isolated, largely nominal Transitional Federal Government.
Starting in 2008 NATO has established a permanent naval presence off the Horn of Africa in the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea with Operation Allied Provider, Operation Allied Protector and since 2009 and into the indefinite future Operation Ocean Shield.
Reports emanating from the region disclose that NATO warships recently intercepted a vessel allegedly bringing weapons to Eritrea as part of operations to enforce a naval blockade against the small Horn of Africa nation, the result of a United Nations Security Council resolution passed in December 2009 – with China abstaining and Libya, now the victim of the same, voting against it – that imposed an arms embargo and travel bans against one of perhaps as few as four African nations, including besieged Libya, not recruited as junior partners to AFRICOM through regular multinational military endeavors like Operation Flintlock, Operation Africa Endeavor, Natural Fire drills and training exercises led by the crews of American warships assigned to the Africa Partnership Station program.
As always, NATO activities parallel those of the Pentagon. African Standby Force brigades now operational in East and West Africa and planned for the north, south and center of the continent are assisted and overseen by both AFRICOM and NATO. In February of 2010 an Alliance website published this account of the bloc’s expanding role in Africa:
“Joint Command Lisbon is the operational lead for NATO/AU [African Union] engagement, and has a Senior Military Liaison Officer at AU HQ in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. NATO also supports staff capacity building through the provision of places on NATO training courses to AU staff supporting AMISOM [African Union Mission in Somalia], and support to the operationalisation of the African Standby Force – the African Union’s vision for a continental, on-call security apparatus similar to the NATO Response Force.” [4]
And as the AFRICOM website announced in January ahead of this year’s Africa Endeavor exercise to be held in June, a planning conference in Mali “brought together more than 180 participants from 41 African, European and North American nations and observers from [the] Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the Eastern African Standby Force and NATO to plan interoperability testing of communications and information systems of participating nations.” [5]
The following month an article appeared in a Kenyan publication claiming that Ramtane Lamamra, African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security, “confirmed that Nato is to sign a military cooperation agreement with the AU” with special emphasis to be placed on consolidating the African Standby Force. [6]
As the Russian deputy foreign minister was quoted asserting above, it has taken less than four months from the adoption of NATO’s new Strategic Concept to its initial implementation in North Africa.
The following are extracts from Strategic Concept: For the Defence and Security of the Members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation [7], endorsed at the NATO summit late last November:
“The citizens of our countries rely on NATO to defend Allied nations, to deploy robust military forces where and when required for our security, and to help promote common security with our partners around the globe.”
“NATO has a unique and robust set of political and military capabilities to address the full spectrum of crises – before, during and after conflicts. NATO will actively employ an appropriate mix of those political and military tools to help manage developing crises that have the potential to affect Alliance security, before they escalate into conflicts; to stop ongoing conflicts where they affect Alliance security; and to help consolidate stability in post-conflict situations where that contributes to Euro-Atlantic security.”
“Instability or conflict beyond NATO borders can directly threaten Alliance security.”
“Some NATO countries will become more dependent on foreign energy suppliers and in some cases, on foreign energy supply and distribution networks for their energy needs.”
The new Strategic Concept calls for plans to “develop and maintain robust, mobile and deployable conventional forces to carry out both our Article 5 responsibilities and the Alliance’s expeditionary operations, including with the NATO Response Force” and to “develop the capacity to contribute to energy security.”
The blueprint for a 21st century global expeditionary NATO also affirms:
“Crises and conflicts beyond NATO’s borders can pose a direct threat to the security of Alliance territory and populations. NATO will therefore engage, where possible and when necessary, to prevent crises, manage crises, stabilize post-conflict situations and support reconstruction. Where conflict prevention proves unsuccessful, NATO will be prepared and capable to manage ongoing hostilities.”
“Unique in history, NATO is a security Alliance that fields military forces able to operate together in any environment; that can control operations anywhere through its integrated military command structure; and that has at its disposal core capabilities that few Allies could afford individually.”
After launching a full-scale war against a European nation for the first time since the end of World War II in Yugoslavia in 1999 and joining the U.S. in Afghanistan two years later in what is now the longest war in the world, NATO is putting its new global military doctrine into brutal and deadly effect in Africa.
Notes

1) http://www.nato.int/cps/en/SID-EF8DF5B6-C1488A4E/natolive/71679.htm
2) Voice of Russia, May 17, 2011
3) Global Energy War: Washington’s New Kissinger’s African Plans
Stop NATO, January 22, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/global-energy-war-washingtons-new-kissingers-african-plans
4) North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
February 24, 2010
…..
New Colonialism: Pentagon Carves Africa Into Military Zones
Stop NATO, May 5, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/05/05/new-colonialism-pentagon-carves-africa-into-military-zones
5) U.S. Africa Command, January 31, 2011
http://www.africom.mil/getArticle.asp?art=5895&lang=0
6) Africa: Global NATO Seeks To Recruit 50 New Military Partners
Stop NATO, February 20, 2011
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2011/02/20/africa-global-nato-seeks-to-recruit-50-new-military-partners
7) http://www.nato.int/lisbon2010/strategic-concept-2010-eng.pdf

Saudi Arabia: Culture Trumps Islam

NOVANEWS


Saudi Arabia is viewed as home to the holiest sites in Islam and all Saudis are naturally born Muslims.  One might expect that Islam would be foremost in the lives of Saudis and practices of Islam would take precedence.  However expectations do not always lead to realities. For example, in Islam a woman does have the right to choose her future husband.  She also has the right to turn down a suiter.  She is not to be forced into a marriage against her will.  Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti, the top religious authority in the Kingdom, stated “Forcing a woman to marry someone she does not want and preventing her from wedding [the man] whom she chooses … is not permissible,”

Samia, a surgeon, has come forward with her story.  She is from Medina but now lives at a government run women’s shelter.  Simply said, Samia wants to choose her own husband.  Instead she has received increasing pressure and abuse by her father to marry a younger cousin.  This is a professional woman who saves lives every day but in the confines of her father’s home she was expected to have no backbone or voice.  He knew best on all matters which included taking a majority share of Samia’s monthly salary.

When Samia defied her father’s choice of a husband, he reacted by locking her in her bedroom for weeks at a time.  To further control her and break her spirit, he and Samia’s brothers beat her with a water hose. Finally, Samia could not take any more of the pressure and abuse from her father and she fled to the shelter. She filed a complaint against her father in a Medina court. The judge, Ali Abdulaziz Al-Sudais, instead of being sympathetic to Samia’s plight and her father’s blatant disregard of the practices of Islam, ruled in favor of the father.  Al-Sudais dismissed Samia’s case calling her a disobedient daughter and one who needed psychiatric care! Al-Sudais ruled in favor of the father in spite of Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti statement that a woman should not be forced to marry against her will!

Samia comes from a tribal family where tribal customs are expected to be followed, even if the tribal custom is contradictory to Islam.  Jeddah attorney, Ahmed Al-Sudairy, has taken on Samia’s case for her to receive the natural rights given to a Muslim woman.

If there is a ruling in Samia’s favor, her case will be monumental towards enforcing changes in the Saudi mahrem (guardianship) program which is often used as a mechanism to control women.

Mondoweiss Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

 

Bucking Obama and Netanyahu, Palestinian refugees assert their centrality

May 23, 2011

Alex Kane

When President Barack Obama delivered his much awaited speech on the “Arab Spring” last Thursday, outlining his administration’s policy on the Arab revolts and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he proposed a negotiations process that would delay discussions on Palestinian refugees.

“These principles provide a foundation for negotiations. Palestinians should know the territorial outlines of their state; Israelis should know that their basic security concerns will be met,” he said at the State Department. “I’m aware that these steps alone will not resolve the conflict, because two wrenching and emotional issues will remain: the future of Jerusalem, and the fate of Palestinian refugees. But moving forward now on the basis of territory and security provides a foundation to resolve those two issues in a way that is just and fair.”

Obama didn’t even mention refugees once during his May 22 speech to the annual conference of the powerful pro-Israel lobby, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee.

But Palestinian refugees themselves are not having any of that, despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vow that Palestinians’ insistence on returning is “not going to happen,” as he told President Obama at the White House May 20. As the Nakba day protests that erupted on May 15 show, the fate of Palestinian refugees, and their demands to return to their homeland in what is now Israel, remain a core issue in the conflict.

Obama is “now attempting to parse away the negotiations by turning it into a very piecemeal negotiation, where first you focus on borders and security, and then leave all of the other issues to a later date,” Diana Buttu, a former spokesperson of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Negotiations Support Unit, told the Institute for Palestine Studies. “This is the policy the Israelis have been pushing for a very long period of time.”

But Palestinian refugees are not waiting on a U.S. president to show them the way forward. Through the kinds of unarmed, popular resistance that have overthrown the regimes of Hosni Mubarak and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali–and that Palestinian themselves first used during their intifadas–they are reinserting themselves into the discourse on Israel/Palestine.

The next big event for refugees and their supporters will be June 5, a date that marks the start of the 1967 Six-Day War, in which Israel captured and occupied the Golan Heights in Syria, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt–all of which remain in Israel’s hands, save for the Sinai.

The Ma’an News Agency reported May 21 that “masses of Palestinian refugees will march to Israel’s borders and ceasefire lines again on June 5, organizers of the May 15 ‘return rally’ said…The committee organizing the ‘return rallies’ said Saturday that the May 15 protests were ‘just the beginning.’ In a statement, the group called on all Palestinian refugees living in exile to march peacefully to the borders of historic Palestine on June 5.”

The “right to return” rallies represent the clearest sign yet that Palestinian refugees are done waiting for a peace process that has done nothing for their rights. The rallies could be looked at as a wholesale rejection of a negotiations process that has systematically shut refugees and the whole Palestinian diaspora out. And it represents a rejection of the Obama/Netanyahu line on refugees.

Alex Kane, a freelance journalist based in New York City, blogs on Israel/Palestine and Islamophobia at alexbkane.wordpress.com, where this post originally appeared. Follow him on Twitter @alexbkane.

Israel puts barbed-wire fence around village of 247 Palestinians in W. Bank to prevent stonethrowing

May 23, 2011

Kate

and other news from Today in Palestine:

Land, property, resources theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Settlers
New buildings in Mehola settlement
JVS 23 May — For few days now, Mehola settlement, in the Northern Jordan Valley, builds new houses. Mehola is located at the junction between the ‘Road 90’ and ‘Alon Road’, made to isolate the Jordan Valley from the rest of the West Bank. Mehola was the first settlement established in the Jordan Valley, in 1968. Today, the children of Mehola founders continue to build. Some of them build inside Mehola, others, build in an outpost just beside Mehola that, if legalized by the Israeli government, could become a part of Mehola, creating a very large colony. The northern Jordan Valley is now occupied by four major settlements (Mehola, Rotem, Maskkiyot and Shdemot Mehola) and Mehola outpost. Each one of these settlements builds new houses and expend on a regular basis in order to constitute a big single colony that would control the all area. The Palestinian communities that are now surrounded by all those colonies, struggle on an everyday basis to stay on their land, as they face house demolitions, denial of access to water, education and health.
http://www.jordanvalleysolidarity.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=271:new-buildings-in-mehola-settlement&catid=15:2010&Itemid=21
Settlers set up new outposts
Ynet 23 May —  Rightist activists attempted to set up a new farm in the contentious E1 area, near the settlement of Maale Adumim, in an apparent bid to provoke and embarrass Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is currently in Washington. Meanwhile, another outpost was set up in the Binyamin region in the West Bank. Ynet learned that settlers were planning to set up yet another outpost in the Hebron region. Several dozen members of the so-called “Hilltop Youth,” accompanied by Knesset Member Michael Ben Ari and rightist activists Itamar Ben Gvir, Baruch Marzel and Meir Bratler established the farm near Maale Adumim under the slogan “We’re all E1.” Riot police who prepared for their arrival allowed the activists to reach the site but prevented one of them from positioning a caravan in the area. During the encounter, rightist activists cursed Arabs who were riding their horses nearby … Meanwhile, hilltop youth Aryeh Bloomberg asked to convey a personal message to US President Barack Obama: “I too am an American citizen, but before that, I’m Jewish. This land is mine because it was given to us by God; it says so in the Torah.” “Obama, you have no right to tell us what to do,” Bloomberg said. “Deal with your own country.”
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4072939,00.html
Settlers try to set up new West Bank outposts during Netanyahu’s US visit
Haaretz 23 May — Palestinians and the international community, including the United States, have long objected to the E-1 plan on the grounds that it would cut the West Bank in two and sever East Jerusalem from the rest of the area.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/settlers-try-to-set-up-new-west-bank-outpost-during-netanyahu-s-u-s-visit-1.363598
Settlers fabricate nonexistent ‘eternal rights’ / Yossi Gurvitz
+972mag 23 May — Why settlers lie and claim that an article of the UN charter grants “eternal rights” to Jews in Palestine — A bunch of senior settlers – Gershon Messica, Boaz Ha’etzni, Benni Katzover, Ariel mayor Ron Nahman, and others – have boldly gone where no nutjob has gone before. They sent a threatening letter to the General Secretary of the UN, Ban Ki Moon (Hebrew), stiffly informing him that if he would not stop his odious custom of noting facts and referring to the West Bank as an occupied territory, they will sue him an international court, and demand damages. Whatever for? Well, the NRG article breathlessly informs that Moon’s statements contradict Article 80 of the UN Charter of 1945, known colloquially as the “Eretz Israel article,” which, claim the settlers, lays down the “judicial rights of the Jewish people for Eretz Israel as eternal rights, which cannot be abrogated without the agreement of the Jewish people.” This seemed rather strange. I mean, if such an article existed, I’m pretty certain I’d have heard of it by now.
http://972mag.com/settlers-fabricate-non-existent-%E2%80%9Ceternal-rights%E2%80%9D/
Israeli forces install fence around Qalqiliya village
QALQILIYA (Ma‘an) 23 May — Israeli forces began to install a barbed-wire fence on Monday around a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank, saying it was meant to prevent stone throwing. Residents of Izbat At-Tabib, located east of Qalqiliya, awoke to the sounds of construction, and were told that lands made inaccessible by the construction were being confiscated for the construction of a buffer area between the village and the settler road that passes to its north … Bayan Tabib, president of the village’s council, said the construction and confiscations came without warning, and effectively caged in residents. “This was an arbitrary decision meant to isolate the village and part of the Israeli effort to take it over. Israeli forces have threatened more than once to displace our people,” he said. The village is located about 1.5 kilometers from two settlement blocs, one of which extends some 22 kilometers into the occupied West Bank.
Izbat At-Tabib is the second Palestinian population center that has been fenced in under the pretext of preventing stone throwing. In March, the town of Beit Ummar wasfenced in from one side, and three homes and workshops demolished.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=390349
IOF seal off Sheikh Jarrah suburb as settlers attack Palestinian children
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 23 May — The Israeli occupation troops sealed-off Sunday the Sheikh Jarrah suburb in the occupied city of Jerusalem after extremist Israeli settlers went on the rampage in the area and attacked Palestinian children and women. The Quds Press agency quoted Palestinian journalist Rasem Abdul Wahid, a resident of the suburb, as saying that a number of extremist Israeli settlers assaulted Palestinian children in the suburb prompting strong clashes by hands with Palestinian families who rushed to save their children. He added that one of the settlers who had occupied part of the house of Palestinian citizen Refqa Al-Kurd unleashed his dog to terrorize and assault Palestinian children and women. The IOF troops, he explained, arrived to the suburb and sealed it but instead of expelling the Israeli attackers, they arrested a number of Palestinian minors alleging they attacked the settlers.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd
Israel attacks Izbat Tabib, resumes annexation
PalMon 23 May — Israeli bulldozers are moving right now on Izbat Tabib in order to build a so-called security fence through the small, ancestral village farms. “The army started working and we are standing, about twenty, with people from International Solidarity Movement and the village. We want to stop them if we can,” said the mayor Bayan Al Tabib. “We are fighting with them and we want stop them if we can, by our bodies.” Ten kilometers east of Qalqiliya, Izbat Tabib’s privately owned land was the scene two weeks ago of a violent confrontation: three activists were beaten and one 60-year old woman’s wrists were broken by Israeli soldiers. Located in Area C, the 45 homes of the village are under direct Israeli military control. Almost half of their historic lands have already been lost to the annexation wall.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1826
Right to education under attack in Beit Ommar
PalMon 23 May — In a direct affront to Palestinians’ basic right to education, Israeli Occupation Forces threaten university students with arrest during their final exam week if they do not cease demonstrations outside the illegal settlement, Karmei Tsur.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1824
Detention / Court actions
Israel detains mother of senior Hamas official
RAMALLAH, (PIC) 23 May — Israeli forces arrested Monday morning the mother of senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri after raiding her home in Aroura village near Ramallah. Soldiers surrounded the Arouri residence in the village and then tampered with the contents inside while searching the premises, Salama al-Arouri told the Palestinian Information Center. He added that they notified Arouri’s mother A’isha, 70, that an arrest warrant had been issued against her. The soldiers brutally apprehended her when she expressed refusal to respond. Arouri said his mother suffers from several illnesses and is unable to walk without the help of others. He held Israel liable for harm caused to her. Arouri’s son Asim was arrested a few days back for questioning. The Hamas politburo member spent a total of 18 years in Israeli prisons before Israel exiled him to Syria last year.
It was not the first incident where Israel abducted the mothers of activists, said Fuad al-Khuffash, Ahrar center director. A year back, Rabi‘a Bilal was arrested to pressure her sons during interrogations. Israel also arrested the mother and wife of Yahya Ayyash, who was wanted and on the run.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcO
Israeli court sentences teen to 6 months
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 23 May — Israel’s military judges on Monday issued a six-month jail sentence to a teenager from Bil‘in village near Ramallah. Amjad Ayed Abu Rahma, 15, was sentenced at Ofer military court near Ramallah, local activists said. He was detained in January for participating in Bil‘in’s weekly non-violent protests against the separation wall.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=390272
British parliamentarians take on treatment of teens in Israeli military court / Amira Hass
Haaretz 23 May — Israel’s West Bank military court was debated in two sessions of the House of Lords, with a focus on the issue of the detention and sentencing conditions for Palestinian minors by the Israeli military … Lord Alf Dubs made the following statement to the House of Lords on May 4: “My Lords, I recently visited the West Bank; it was my first time there … In the court we visited we saw a 14 year-old and a 15-year-old, one of them in tears, both looking absolutely bewildered. What shocked me as much as anything was to see that these young persons – children – had chains or shackles around their ankles while sitting in court … When being interrogated these young people do not have the security of video recordings, lawyers or parents present … “The court proceedings are in Hebrew, with translations of a doubtful quality. The verdicts are mostly based on uncorroborated confession evidence…” … But perhaps Lord Dubs himself, of Britain’s Labor Party, would interest our legislators. At the age of six he was one of 669 mostly Jewish children that British citizens evacuated from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/british-parlimentarians-take-on-treatment-of-teens-in-israeli-military-court-1.363436
IOA extends solitary confinement of captive Hamid for six more months
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)- The administration of the Israeli Ramle prison has decided Sunday to extend the solitary confinement of Palestinian captive Ibrahim Hamid for six more months without giving reasons for the extension. Hamid, 46, was arrested in 2006 and remained in isolation. The IOA denied him family visit him since then. He is a father of two children Salma and Ali. According to Palestinian records, there were around 37 Palestinian captives are still incarcerated in isolation, many of them for years now.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7uSdxPWD9%2bXdZgoVAaIlt4gtf8NX5lKpooKh4DNCFYDQmZ2GN%2fUI%2fYJvtpytNg5CLvNJynMxStfM0EcpLHwX7REszAudm4pViToRPLnBjkrI%3d
Detention extended for Silwan man accused of participation in clashes
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC)  23 May — Silwan resident Sa‘id Sarhan, 34, was arrested during a large-scale dawn raid on his home on 19 May. Sarhan faces allegations of participation in recent clashes in Silwan that erupted in response to Israeli settlement policies and house demolitions. Israeli forces infiltrated the Sarhan premises by using ladders to climb the outer walls of the property. They forced their way into the house, searching for specific items of clothing they claim Sarhan was wearing during confrontations with Israeli forces and will prove his alleged guilt. Sarhan was then detained. Sarhan’s wife was also summoned for investigation. Sarhan’s detention has now been extended until Tuesday 24 May, when he is scheduled to appear before the Magistrates Court for the second time in less than a week.
http://silwanic.net/?p=16861
PA security nabs man over failure to respond to summons
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 23 May — PA security agencies arrested Sunday night former captive in Israeli occupation jails, Muhannad Abdo al-Heimoni, 24, after he declared refusal to respond to a summons earlier. Locals reported that the force took him to security headquarters at gunpoint and released him after three hours of interrogation. They also confiscated his ID and bank cards. Heimoni said in interview that part of the interrogation revolved around a Facebook page protesting the continued summonses by West Bank security agencies.
West Bank intelligence arrested the same day noon ex-captive Abdurrahman Hindiyya from Nablus. He refused to respond to a summons as well.
Separately, the Islamic Jihad has confirmed that the Palestinian Authority’s intelligence service has notified ten of the group’s men that they must appear at police headquarters.
Fatah, which controls the West Bank, had agreed to release all political prisoners as a condition for a historic deal with Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bc
Israel police to compensate man blinded in intifada NIS 810,000
Haaretz 23 May — Haifa Court rules in favor of Nazareth man, who claims Israel police shot two rubber bullets into his face while he was walking home from work in October 2000.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-police-to-compensate-man-blinded-in-intifada-nis-810-000-1.363599
Gaza – under siege for 1440 days now
Man killed in Rafah tunnel collapse
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 23 May — A Palestinian man was killed and another sustained injuries Monday morning when a smuggling tunnel collapsed over them in the southern Gaza Strip. Gaza’s emergency services spokesman Adham Abu Salmiya identified the victim as 32-year-old Muhammad Mustafa An-Najjar. Abu Salmiya said a second man was critically injured in the same tunnel accident under the border between Egypt and Gaza
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=390180
Malaysia aid ship ends sea attempt to Gaza
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) 23 May — A Malaysian aid ship attempting to land in Gaza after being warned off by Israeli naval forces last week has been forced to abort its mission after engine trouble, activists said. Matthias Chang, who is heading the mission for the Perdana Global Peace Foundation, told AFP on Monday that the MV Finch was now stuck six nautical miles from Egypt’s El-Arish port. “At about 5:30pm local time (0330 GMT), our vessel developed engine trouble and we lost our steering capability, so we had to stop our attempt to reach Gaza by sea,” he said. “However, the Egyptian foreign minister has given his assurance that we will be allowed to unload our humanitarian cargo and that it will be taken by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency into Gaza,” Chang said, adding that Egypt is bound by international law to lead the vessel to safety.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110523/wl_asia_afp/malaysiaisraelegyptpalestiniansconflictgaza
Gaza’s children mark first anniversary of Freedom Flotilla raid
MEMO 23 May — Palestinian children have launched paper aeroplanes into the skies above Gaza’s small port to commemorate the first anniversary of the Israeli attack on the Freedom Flotilla on 31st May last year. The children held Palestinian and Turkish flags in a symbolic gesture to the countries taking part in the flotilla and carried banners with the photographs and names of the men who were killed in the massacre. The residents of Gaza are following closely the latest developments regarding Freedom Flotilla 2, due to set sail from Turkey closer to the anniversary, and are anticipating its arrival eagerly as it attempts to break the siege. Formal preparations to receive Freedom Flotilla 2 in Gaza are nearing completion
http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/middle-east/2386-gazas-children-mark-first-anniversary-of-freedom-flotilla-raid
UNRWA strikers enraged after being ‘blackmailed’
GAZA (PIC) 23 May — UNRWA’s “blackmail” and threats to dock strikers for the two days of work they missed for protests “will only increase the staff’s determination to defend their cause and rights,” said a statement released Sunday night by the UNRWA labor union …All UNRWA facilities in the Gaza Strip went on strike on Wednesday and Thursday after the administration dismissed three men who were exonerated of various charges by the Palestinian courts. In a related development, a teacher at an UNRWA school in Gaza has filed a claim against UNRWA after he was dismissed from his job unfairly.He was reported to have been fired for alleged political activity “outside of UNRWA’s framework.”
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87
Gaza crossing partially open
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 23 May — Israeli authorities decided to open the Kerem Shalom crossing on Monday to allow limited aid into the coastal enclave. Palestinian liaison official, Raed Fattouh, said Israel would allow approximately 300 truckloads into Gaza, including 20 new cars. Of these, 82 truckloads would bring cement and iron into the coastal enclave for projects funded by the German Development Agency and UNRWA. Limited quantities of domestic gas will be pumped via the same crossing, Fattouh said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=390176
Gaza police say bomber caught outside supermarket
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 23 May — Gaza police on Monday arrested a man they said was attempting to plant an explosive device outside a supermarket in Gaza City. An official from the investigations department said officers received a tip and were able to catch the man in action, but identified the alleged bomber only as H.M. Police said an investigation had been opened
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=390252
Unity
Abbas backs unity with Hamas
AFP/Ynet 23 May — Palestinian president responds to Obama’s AIPAC speech, in which he said Fatah-Hamas truce ‘poses obstacle to peace’, by saying ‘Hamas is part of Palestinian society, will take part in democratic game as opposition’
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4072485,00.html
Abbas: I will navigate Palestinian gov’t
Ynet 23 May — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday that both Israel and the United States fail to understand the true meaning of the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation. Abbas’ comments followed US President Barack Obama’s statement that Israel will not be able to negotiate with Hamas as long as it is dedicated to its annihilation.  The future Palestinian government, he said, “Will be neither a Fatah government nor a Hamas one. It will operate according to my policy and strategies. “Speaking in a press conference in Amman, following a meeting with King Abdulla II of Jordan, Abbas said that the Palestinian factions were aiming to create a technocracy — a government comprised of independent individuals, who will not include any PLO delegates.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4072849,00.html
Egypt: Obama misreading unity deal
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 23 May — Egypt will counter any external pressure that could endanger the progress of the Palestinian unity process, Egyptian ambassador to the Palestinian Authority Yasser Othman said Monday after the US president raised concerns.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=390271
PFLP: No candidate chosen to lead new government
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 23 May — The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine on Monday denied media reports that PLO factions had agreed on a candidate to lead the interim government. As part of the Palestinian unity deal signed in Cairo earlier this month, PLO parties agreed to form a transitional government of technocrats to prepare for national elections. But factions have not tackled the issue of who will head the new government “at all” in meetings since the signing of the reconciliation agreement, PFLP said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=390410
PLO factions to convene in Gaza City
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 23 May — Palestinian factions will meet in Gaza City on Tuesday to discuss ways to ensure that all parties participate in the reconciliation agreement signed in Cairo earlier this month. The factions, operating under the umbrella of the Palestine Liberation Organization, will meet at the office of the Arab Liberation Front,
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=390196
Fatah, Hamas make progress on accord: Russian FM
MOSCOW (AFP) 23 May — Russia said on Monday that rival Palestinian leaders from Fatah and Hamas had further bridged their differences and made progress on the details of a new Palestinian reconciliation accord. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced after talks with visiting Palestinian delegations that Fatah and Hamas representatives had put their names on a new statement detailing the agreement signed in Cairo in early May.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110523/wl_mideast_afp/russiapalestiniansdiplomacy
Political / Diplomatic / International
Obama’s ‘Jewish state’ reference jars Palestinians
AP 23 May — JERUSALEM — U.S.-Israel tension over Barack Obama’s endorsement of Israel’s pre-1967 borders is obscuring a flip side of the Middle East coin: The past days’ speeches by the U.S. president contained difficult challenges for the Palestinians as well … Most difficult for Palestinians is Obama’s call to recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland, essentially requiring the Palestinians to accept that most refugees will be denied the “right of return” to what is now Israel. Perhaps for this reason, the Palestinians have remained largely quiet about the substance of Obama’s speeches, seemingly content to watch Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clash with the U.S. administration over Israel’s future borders. “It’s really premature to jump into any of these details,” said Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, when asked by The Associated Press about the demands Obama made of the Palestinians.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110523/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_mideast_jewish_state
Hamas: Let’s discuss 1948 lines
Mahmoud al-Zahar says US president’s plan for Mideast peace similar to that of George Bush. ‘Obama wants to place us within 22% of area of Palestine,’ he says, while Islamic Jihad calls Obama ‘helpless before Zionist lobby’
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4072740,00.html
Quartet, EU back Obama plan
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 23 May — Members of the Middle East Quartet and the EU’s foreign policy chief came out in full support of statements made by US President Barack Obama this week, urging Israel and Palestine back into direct talks. The Quartet members, including the US, EU, UN and Russia, issued a statement saying all were “in full agreement about the urgent need to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=390191
AIPAC chief: Obama should not be even-handed toward Israel and Palestinians
Haaretz 23 May — AIPAC Executive Director Howard Kohr said Monday that U.S. President Barack Obama should not take an even-handed approach to the Middle East conflict, as it puts Israel at a disadvantage … “In a world which is demonstrably on the side of the Palestinians and Arabs – where Israel stands virtually alone – the United States has a special role to play,” said the AIPAC director.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/aipac-chief-obama-should-not-be-even-handed-toward-israel-and-palestinians-1.363579
The reader’s guide to peace talks
Ynet 23 May — US President Barack Obama’s Mideast vision uses basic terms which are part of the negotiation’s lingo. Ynet offers a quick guide to the glossary [Ynet’s interpretation, that is]
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4072671,00.html
Report: Netanyahu phones Egypt’s Tantawi
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 23 May — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telephoned Egypt’s military ruler Muhammad Hussein Tantawi last week, for the first time since the army council took power after Hosni Mubarak was toppled, Israeli media reported Monday. Netanyahu’s office did not give any details of the discussion, Hebrew-language daily Maariv reported, noting that the reported conversation took place ten days after Israeli ministry of defense official Amos Gilad visited Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=390321
Report: Fayyad hospitalized after heart attack
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 23 May — Prime Minister in Ramallah Salam Fayyad suffered a heart attack while visiting the US and is recovering in hospital, a spokesman told The Associated Press late Monday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=390497
Shalit family to Congress: Freeze PA funds
Ynet 23 May — Gilad Shalit’s family calls US senators to urge Obama to stop PA, Hamas funds pending his release. ‘The PA is directly responsible for Gilad’s well-being, has clear duty to locate him,’ they wrote
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4072890,00.html
Report: Russia warned Israel before expelling attaché
Ynet 23 May — Moscow paper reports Israel received three warnings that Colonel Leiderman was violating Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations before Russia expelled him. In response, Israel vowed he would observe diplomatic law
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4072583,00.html
Other news
Sports center to reclaim Hebron Old City
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 23 May — Deep in Hebron’s divided Old City, a sports club will open in June offering residents access to a swimming pool, gymnasium and sports courts, in an effort to bring residents back into the area. Home to 700 Israeli settlers, protected by 1,500 Israeli soldiers and police, the outdoor life of Hebron’s Old City has been stifled for years. Violent assaults from settlers who took over homes in the area drove out shoppers from the once-busy souk, and whole streets were closed down to Palestinians as settlers moved in. With the help of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron, and the French sporting federation Fédération Sportive et Gymnique du Travail, groups in Hebron alongside the municipality prepared to open the Tareq Bin Ziad Sports Club. The building — in an area of the city center under Israeli control and amid settler housing — will offer 1,000 square meters of sports space, with a swimming pool, wrestling hall, sauna and steam room to 5,000 young men and women living in the Old City.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=390041
Filipina mother of Israeli toddler to be deported despite ministry promises
Haaretz 23 May — Evelyn Belseng had a son with her Israeli husband, who passed away shortly after; she is set to be deported despite declarations by Interior Minister Eli Yishai that she would be allowed to stay.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/filipina-mother-of-israeli-toddler-to-be-deported-despite-ministry-promises-1.363411
Analysis / Opinion
Prepare to be awed!
Friday Lunch Club 23 May — click on The Palestine-Israel border! for an interactive map
http://friday-lunch-club.blogspot.com/2011/05/prepare-to-be-awed.html
Video — Omar Barghouti: Self-determination, ethical decolonisation and resistance
Toward a Secular Democratic State in Historic Palestine. Omar Barghouti – Introduction by Gilbert Achcar
http://palestinevideo.blogspot.com/2011/05/omar-barghouti-self-determination.html
Obama to Palestinians: Eh, colonization happens / Yousef Munayyer
23 May  — (from Obama’s AIPAC speech) “That’s what mutually agreed-upon swaps means. It is a well-known formula to all who have worked on this issue for a generation. It allows the parties themselves to account for the changes that have taken place over the last 44 years. It allows the parties themselves to take account of those changes, including the new demographic realities on the ground, and the needs of both sides.” It is hard to tell what is most disturbing about this. There is of course the near vomit-inducing reality that an American President is repeating the narrative of a foreign Prime Minister before a room full of lobbyists who are lobbying for that very Prime Minister’s interests. Then there is the narrative itself. To reduce the conscious and calculated process of colonization in the occupied Palestinian territory, illegal under international law, to the equivalent of moss growing on a tree for a few decades is not only ludicrous and offensive but it is the whitewashing of a crime which Palestinians have been the direct victims of. 500,000 Israelis did not fall to sleep in on one side of the Green Line in places like Tel Aviv only to wake up on the other side in places Kiryat Arba, Ariel, Har Homa and Pisgat Ze’ev. Colonization is not a passive natural process that happens over time, as described by the Israeli Prime Minister before being repeated by the American President. It is a violent and state-driven process which involves breaking international law, dispossessing land owners through the use of force and monopolizing the natural resources of another people.
http://blog.thejerusalemfund.org/2011/05/obama-to-palestinians-eh-colonization.html
Netanyahu’s bizarre response to Obama’s Palestinian proposal / Peter Beinart
DailyBeast New York 23 May — President Obama’s parameters for a new round of Mideast peace talks were designed to head off U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state based strictly on 1967 borders—which would be catastrophic for Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu’s immediate rejection of the plan suggests he has no grasp of the real world. A sailor throws a drowning man a life preserver. How dare you, screams the man. Because of you, people are going to think I can’t swim. That about sums up the relationship between Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailybeast/20110523/ts_dailybeast/14280_benjaminnetanyahusbizarreresponsetoobamasproposalfornegotiationswithpalestinians_1
The Israeli reality that Obama doesn’t understand / Merav Michaeli
Haaretz 23 May — “President Obama doesn’t understand the reality,” according to “associates” of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who spoke after the meeting between the two leaders … You can’t blame him: It really is impossible to understand this reality. It’s impossible to understand why a country and a people continue to refuse to do the right thing, something that could have been done a long while back, and prefer to continue to bang their heads against the wall until blood flows, with absolutely no logic, literally amok, like someone who has gone insane. It’s hard to understand a reality in which a prime minister sits and, contrary to all logic and every code of conduct, arrogantly lectures his host, the president of the United States. It’s hard to understand a reality in which a day before their scheduled meeting, a prime minister responds to the speech of the U.S. president, who is about to host him, with an announcement that is as good as spitting in his face. So President Obama, here is the reality: The reality is that in the prime minister’s own reality show, he is “the leader of a persecuted people” and he likes being “the leader of a persecuted people.” That is why no reality in the world has ever convinced our leaders to stop being a persecuted nation.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-israeli-reality-that-obama-doesn-t-understand-1.363442
Rightists cause a near-riot during Abdallah Abu Rahmah  speech in Paris / Joseph Dana
972mag 22 May — Ethnic violence in France usually causes headlines during Muslim riots on the outskirts of Paris. But on May 5th it was a different story. Far right “pro Israel” activists disrupted a speech by Bil’in’s Abdallah Abu Rahmah and Israeli Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS)activist Ronnie Barkan. Members of a Paris based Jewish group claming to be an off shoot of the  Jewish Defensive League interrupted Abu Rahmah’s speech with incitement to violence against the Palestinian people. French police were able to intervene and stop any outbreak of physical violence. The second video can’t be embedded in the post, please follow the link to view it
http://972mag.com/rightists-cause-a-near-riot-during-abdallah-abu-rahmah-speech-in-paris/
www.theheadlines.org (archives)
groups.yahoo.com/group/f_shadi (listserv)

Chris Matthews is in, and up to the hub! Taking on AIPAC

May 23, 2011

Philip Weiss

Watch this space. Chris Matthews just started, I’m making dinner; and in the tease, he’s asking why Republican lawmakers are lining up with a foreign prime minister against their president — Netanyahu and AIPAC. If Democrats did this, the Republicans would be all over them, he said.

So the wedge has been driven, on party lines. And if this is what it takes to politicize the issue, I’ll take it.

UPDATE: The pudding turned out to be lukewarm. Matthews cast the story as Republicans siding with Netanyahu on a point that Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton had already accepted — ’67 lines. And said that when the inevitable deal is struck, the Israelis will have most of Jerusalem. “We all knew that.”

And then Matthews said that he would show us how Herman Cain, a candidate for the Republican nomination, has no understanding of a basic issue in the Middle East.

The right of return. Apparently Cain said he had no intelligence about the issue when he was asked by Chris Wallace– then later issued a statement denouncing the right of return.

So again, you see what is happening: Obama has driven the wedge, on party lines. Forget about party, let’s talk about dual loyalty and the right of return. Oooweee, riding be high, tomorrow’s the day that my brides are going to come! Oh and my headline is from Huck Finn. I’m in, and up to the hub!!

Taking on AIPAC

May 23, 2011

Philip Weiss

3 images re AIPAC. Top two are from Andrew Courtney in Washington, from Moveoveraipac, featuring encounters between members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and anti-AIPAC demonstrators. Bottom one is of Israeli citizens gathered at Bil’in in the occupied territories.

Obama’s overflowing ‘love’ for Ireland shows up his rage toward Israel/the lobby

May 23, 2011

Philip Weiss

If you want to understand how angry Obama is at the Israel lobby and Israel, watch the speech he just gave in Dublin.

He is a generous man (I say as a fellow Leo) and generosity brims in every word of that speech. The speech is filled with love. He is grateful to Ireland for supporting the abolitionist movement, he is grateful to Ireland for helping preserve the union, grateful to it for the American revolution and for the cultural contributions to America today.

But the most direct contrast is Obama’s celebration of Ireland’s ability to end the troubles and struggle toward the goal of human equality, with his grim support for Israel yesterday. There wasn’t a soaring word of praise yesterday. But today, some of the phrases: The Irish obeyed “the irrepressible human impulse to love.” America will stand by you always for this. “You already have surpassed the world’s highest hopes.. A dream has turned to reality…”

You faced an intractable problem. (I believe he used that word intractable– very important, no transcript up yet). The world said, your problems are too big, your challenges are too great, you shouldn’t even try. But America stands by you. “Is feidir linn. Yes we can.”

Obama, the Arab Spring and irrelevance

May 23, 2011

Omar Barghouti

In his policy speech on Thursday, 19 May, US President Barack Obama said that with the eruption of the Arab peoples’ revolutions for freedom and democracy Al-Qaida lost its relevance. In my view, so did the US, relatively speaking, but few in the US establishment are yet ready to admit that. In his speech before AIPAC on Sunday, 22 May, Mr. Obama came across, again, as more of an Israel advocate than a US president, further alienating Arab — and many other — audiences.
With Arabs crossing the barrier of fear and taking the initiative to rebuild their societies freely, on democratic principles, the last thing they need is the US government’s offer for help; having seen exactly how the US is building democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr. Obama will excuse Arabs for being skeptical about his offer, to put it mildly.
The Arab Spring happened despite the US administration’s decades-old staunch support for the dictatorships in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and elsewhere. US support for the Saudi dictatorship, arguably the most totalitarian and reactionary of all, has been critical in suppressing popular revolt and democratic reform in the oil-rich oligarchy. In Tunisia and Egypt, only after victory became a fait accompli did the US and most of Europe start paying lip service to the need for democratization and an orderly transfer of power.

To underline this point, the US has maintained its crucial backing of the Yemeni and Bahraini despotic regimes, despite brutal violations of human rights, arbitrary killings of peaceful protesters, and imprisonment of reform leaders, simply because the regimes there have proven to be able — at least temporarily — to hold back the revolts by brute force. Once the regimes start to crumble, so will US public support for them, no doubt. Realpolitik wins, at the end, while principles and a true commitment to human rights and international law — the latter being completely missing from the entire Obama speech — take a back seat, as always.
And now the US administration is offering Tunisians and Egyptians petty “debt-relief” bribes after having colluded with the tyrannical regimes there in the pillage of their respective nations’ wealth and the investment of these sums in the US and Western Europe, for the most part. Mr. Obama must think that Arabs have a very shallow memory or are somewhat slow. The sooner he realizes that he is wrong on both accounts, the more likely his administration will be able to absorb the true historic meanings and transformative repercussions of the Arab Spring and, consequently, the more just, fair, consistent and relevant US foreign policy can become.
In his policy speech on Thursday, Obama’s mere mention of the 1967 borders as a territorial basis for “negotiations” triggered a “synthetic” outrage by the Israeli government. Obama’s caveat that followed, “with agreed land swaps,” was intentionally ignored by Israeli officials’ and lobbyists’ irate attacks on Obama. As a result, Obama bent over backward in his speech before AIPAC to explain that what he really meant was that the 1967 borders will not stay the same as they must accommodate Israel’s colonies built on occupied Palestinian land over the last 44 years of occupation. By bluntly putting Israel’s interests ahead of everything else, including long established US interests in ensuring “stability” and winning hearts and minds in the region, Mr. Obama’s two speeches made those US interests even more remote. The fact that Obama’s strongest argument for ending the Israeli occupation is that it serves Israel’s interest of securing a Jewish state and circumvents the fast growing international isolation further confirms where his allegiances lie.
Judging by myriad opinion columns and media interviews on main Arab TV channels President Obama’s original policy speech largely failed to impress the Arab publics, including Palestinians, for several reasons; I shall focus on the most blatant.
First, very few Arabs today actually trust the Obama administration, particularly after its demeaning U-turn on the US demand for Israel to freeze its colonial settlements illegally built on occupied Palestinian and Syrian territory. The utter failure of the US administration to compel Israel to stop construction of those colonies — which constitute war crimes according to international law — has cost the US a severe hemorrhage of credibility in the eyes of the Arab world. If Israel will not listen to its main benefactor over such a relatively small matter, can anyone expect the US to pressure Israel to recognize the more substantial inalienable rights of the Palestinian people?
Second, the fanatic-right Israeli government with Netanyahu at its helm has, through its well endowed lobby groups, shown beyond doubt that it commands far more influence over the US Congress than Obama and his administration when it comes to setting Mideast policy. Not only was the US forced to accept the humiliation of being seen by the world as obsequiously complying with Israeli diktats by reversing long standing US policy condemning Israel’s settlements as illegal and an obstacle to peace; it had to cast a veto a resolution at the UN, supported by an overwhelming majority of the world community, that reiterated this US policy staple.
Netanyahu’s latest public rebuff of Obama at their meeting on Friday did not help ameliorate the damage either. As a result, no matter what Mr. Obama says now, very few will take it seriously, knowing that Israel’s far-right government will ultimately have the upper hand in setting US policy in this part of the world.
Third, Mr. Obama’s double standard has reached a new record, as he threw around lofty terms such as “self determination,” “inclusive democracy,” “the inalienable right to freedom,” but he largely excluded the Palestinian people from the set of nations entitled to these inherent rights. He spoke of the “self-evident truth that all men are created equal,” but ignored Israel’s system of racial discrimination that the US Department of State has itself consistently condemned as constituting “institutional, legal, and societal” discrimination against the indigenous Palestinians who are citizens of Israel. In fact, this legalized discrimination fits the UN definition of apartheid.
Furthermore, while Obama spoke about his government’s support for non-violent struggle for freedom and equal rights, he again excluded Palestinian peaceful resistance against the Israeli occupation and apartheid. Non-violence is exactly what most Palestinians have been engaged in over many years, whether in the civil society-ledboycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, the mass peaceful protests against the wall and colonies, or the most recent Nakba commemoration peaceful marches that succeeded in crossing the border into the occupied Golan Heights, setting a historic precedent that is pregnant with far reaching potential.
What added insult to injury in the speech was Obama’s insistence on recognizing Israel as a “Jewish state,” which he emphasized further by calling it a “state of the Jewish people,” thus endorsing Israel’s extraterritorial definition of nationality, a clear violation of international law that fundamentally denies the non-Jewish citizens of Israel, the indigenous Palestinians, equal rights simply because of their identity. Imagine if the US President were to describe the US as a Christian nation, or a nation of Christians around the world. Why should Israel be treated as above the law of nations and allowed to maintain an ethnocentric, exclusionary regime that automatically reduces its “non-Jewish” citizens to second-class citizenship with circumscribed rights due to their ethnic or religious identity? How can any state be allowed to define itself as a state of some of its citizens, and many others who are not, but not of all its citizens? Whatever happened to Mr. Obama’s supposed commitment to equality and “inclusive democracy”?
By the same logic, international law does not condone an exclusionary, racist Islamic, Christian, Hindu or any other state that institutionalizes racial discrimination and apartheid against part of citizenry, based on their ethnic, religious or any other identity attribute.
Charting a path to a just, comprehensive, and sustainable peace in the Middle East requires that all parties abide by international law and universal human rights. So long as the US administration carries on with its massive, multi-billion dollar annual subsidy for Israel’s intransigence and to protect from international censure and sanctions Israel’s multi-tiered system of colonial oppression against the Palestinians, no glamorous oratory from Mr. Obama stands a chance to slow down the US’s descent into irrelevance in the ongoing reshaping of the modern history of this strategic region.

Jewish man, 62 y.o. but vital, seeks unh… world domination

May 23, 2011

Philip Weiss

Because you asked for it, today Mondoweiss is unrolling a new feature, personal ads. Here are our first three. Email Weiss if you want to hook up:

–Devilishly handsome 62 y.o. Jewish man looking to explore wildside on UES, NY. Beaut hotel suite. Speaks many languages, runs world economy, who knows, may be next pres of France. Has understanding with wife.

–Squarejawed, 61, power-is-greatest-aphrodisiac type. In NY/DC on business trip, into domination. Raised outside Philly so has American accent, Israeli but you’d never know it, may even hold office there. Looking for media, finance, pols, 30-70 y.o., to bend American president to his will

–62 y.o., great hair, better resume. Raised by Jewish mother/Cath father but ran shop  opposing intermarriage. Slender, boyish, plays for both teams– though close to powerful Dem, seeks meetings w Repub pres’l candidates so can continue to run Middle East policy in White House forever.

First they came for Norman, then they ate the hummus

May 23, 2011

Philip Weiss

From the president of DePaul University today on a proposal to boycott Sabra Hummus:

To the University Community,

As you are aware, DePaul agreed last winter to study whether to boycott a food product on our shelves, stemming from concerns raised about a parent company’s alleged support of forces involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As is customary, the Fair Business Practices Committee (FBPC) was asked to study the issue and make a recommendation. The FBPC consists of faculty, staff and student representatives and has met throughout the past six months among themselves and with proponents of both sides of the debate.

I am attaching the executive summary of their analysis and their recommendation: https://wd.is.depaul.edu/FileAccess/uec/1107439601/FBPC_Sabra_Executive_Summary.doc /

The document concludes with the following sentence:

“While we recognize the original complaint made by DePaul students arose from genuine concerns surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in the judgment of the Fair Business Practices Committee there do not appear to be sufficient grounds for a boycott of Sabra Hummus, primarily because the Committee did not find evidence that the Strauss Group provides direct military support for units within the Israeli Defense Forces.”

I encourage you to read the entire three-page statement. Their recommendation has been accepted and the product will remain on our shelves.

I am well aware that these concerns were raised with good faith and honorable intentions. I’m proud of all our students at DePaul, and very glad that they would fight on behalf of justice as they see and understand the issues at hand. At a university, we approach such issues with study and deliberation, and then make an informed decision. I am grateful to all those who participated in this process. I ask that we continue to seek ways to support a lasting peace in this troubled and important part of the world.

Respectfully,

Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M.

President

Obama missed the point about ‘endless delay’

May 23, 2011

Bruce Wolman

In case you haven’t seen it, I find Pepe Escobar’s analysis of Obama’s Middle East speech in Asia Times the most clear-eyed, convincing and on the money: “What Obama could not possibly say.” I bring one quote to your attention:

And when Obama stressed that “endless delay” won’t “make the problem go away” he totally missed the point; it’s by employing “endless delay” tactics that every Israeli government has kept settlement-building on overdrive and totally encircled East Jerusalem, while relentlessly applying a “divide and rule” strategy (pitting Fatah against Hamas) to crush Palestinian morale.

Saudi woman campaigns for right to drive

May 23, 2011

Seham

and other news from the Arab Spring!!!

Bahrain
Bahrain updates: or what does not bother Obama
“Today was the appeal for the 4 protestors who got death sentences for supposedly killing the policemen. Two got their sentences changed to life, two others are getting the death penalty. I can’t believe they are actually going threw with this. The four men are so young.   In another trial today, Shaikh Al Muqtad, one of Bahrain’s most important religious figures that was imprisoned, told the judge that drilled a hole into his leg and showed the judge the hole. He then said he has even more torture marks but he’s not allowed to show them.  Oh they also arrested a high school girl from the Al Khawaja family (they really can’t stand that family). She called her family and told them to bring her clothes. She says they tortured her.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/bahrain-updates-or-what-does-not-bother.html
Bahrain court upholds death sentences
Special court upholds death sentences for two men convicted of killing policemen during anti-government demonstrations.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/05/2011522112055924720.html
Bahrain insists open to dialogue with opposition (AFP)
AFP – The Bahraini government insisted on Friday it remains open to dialogue with the opposition, in line with a call by the US president that was praised by the kingdom’s main Shiite opposition group.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110520/wl_mideast_afp/mideastusdiplomacyunrestbahrain
How Bahrain is oppressing its Shia majority
Bahrain’s parliament once gave me a standing ovation, now I’ve been banned from the kingdom – both for pursuing human rights
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/22/bahrain-change-view-human-rights
Egypt
In Egypt, anger grows over Mubarak’s health reports
The former president insists, with the help of state medical evaluations, that he has a heart condition too complex to be treated in prison. Activists say the medical reports in question can’t be trusted.It has been more than three months since former President Hosni Mubarak was ousted and more than a month since he was detained, yet he has not set foot inside Tora prison, where his two sons have been held during a corruption probe.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/PYbFLaXtrq4/la-fg-mubarak-doctors-20110522,0,7341156.story
Death sentence for Egyptian policeman
Officer convicted of shooting dead 20 protesters during upheaval that led to Mubarak’s fall.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/05/2011522154824715521.html
The trial of Egypt’s Khaled Said, adjourned
The trial of two policemen accused of beating 28-year-old Khaled Said to death has been postponed to June 30. Khalid Said died almost a year ago, but it was his death which contributed to growing discontent in the weeks leading up to the Egypt’s revolution. While Said’s mom waits for justice to be served, so do thousands of Egyptians across the country. Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher reports from Alexandria, Egypt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SidsA8U5HtY&feature=youtube_gdata
Former Mubarak minister’s trial postponed
Case against Mubarak’s former interior minister adjourned amid courtroom chaos as lawyers scuffle with police.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/05/20115211816200964.html
Egyptian Military Cracking Down On Journalists
CAIRO — Military prosecutors summoned and then released the editor and two journalists of an independent newspaper for reporting on an alleged deal to offer amnesty to ousted president Hosni Mubarak. The three were released after they signed a pledge agreeing not to report on issues involving the armed forces that might cause “confusion” in the streets, Egypt’s state news agency and a rights activist said Friday.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/20/egyptian-military-crackin_n_864745.html
In new Egypt, police talk to human rights groups
CAIRO, May 20 (Reuters) – Egypt’s police, whose credibility was shattered for using excessive force against anti-government protesters who toppled President Hosni Mubarak from power, will give more focus to human rights, the government said on Friday. police, who in Mubarak’s era, routinely took bribes, used torture to get confessions and crushed opposition, have been on a charm offensive to regain credibility and deal with a security breakdown threatening the country’s economic recovery.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/in-new-egypt-police-talk-to-human-rights-groups
Why Saudi King was outraged: he wanted to Mubarak to kill them all
“It is not an easy sell in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, where King Abdullah was outraged by Mr. Obama’s abandonment of President Hosni Mubarak. (He told Mr. Obama that he needed to support the Egyptian leader even if the protesters in Tahrir Square were fired upon.) Saudi Arabia’s drive now is to stop the threat to established governments — even as Mr. Obama seeks partners in helping integrate a new Egypt into the world economy.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/why-saudi-king-was-outraged-he-wanted.html

Egypt official: Obama misreading unity deal
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Egypt will counter any external pressure that could endanger the progress of the Palestinian unity process, Egyptian ambassador to the Palestinian Authority Yasser Othman said Monday after the US president raised concerns. In his Thursday speech about the “Arab spring,” and again during a Sunday speech to an American-Israel lobby group, Obama said the unity agreement between rival Palestinian parties “raised profound and legitimate questions for Israel: How can one negotiate with a party that has shown itself unwilling to recognize your right to exist?”
http://maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=390271

Regarding #SCAF Again and Again
Today is the #NoSCAF where Egyptian bloggers and tweeps speak and criticize the supreme council of armed forces in Egypt aka our military junta. Some are doing this in solidarity with Maikel Nabil while others are doing in solidarity with the victims of the military trials. I talked and criticized the SCAF before and I will not stop doing it till ends its emergency meeting , I will not stop doing it till we have transparent answers about the allegations surrounding the practices of the military police against our own civilian citizens whether in the military prison and in the Egyptian museum. Up till now we have not got any answer about the investigation done in issues concerning the allegations of abuse whether against women protesters or what happened in Cairo university or lately at the Israeli embassy. I will not stop till we got an explanation why the SCAF claimed that it was not detaining any “so called revolutionary” youth in its prisons but later we found that the SCAF is starting to release these young men after denying in the first time !? How can we have a real trust then !?
http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/05/regarding-scaf-again-and-again.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EgyptianChronicles+%28Egyptian+chronicles%29
Hossam el-Hamalawy, “Now Overthrow the Workplace Mubaraks”
So this is phase two of the revolution, the phase of socio-economic change. What we need to do now is take Tahrir to the factories, the universities, the workplaces. In every single institution in this country there is a mini-Mubarak who needs to be overthrown. In every institution there are figures from the old state security regime who need to be overthrown. These guys are the counter-revolution.
http://bit.ly/msJhIW
Libya
Fighting continues on Libya-Tunisia border
NATO has stepped up its bombing campaign in Libya with air raids on Tripoli and a residence of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.   In the west of the country, pro and anti Gaddafi forces are battling for control of a border crossing between Libya and Tunisia. Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel Hamid reports from the border crossing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_PM6PXD1uc&feature=youtube_gdata
EU opens Libya office in Benghazi
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton opens an EU office in the rebel-held Libyan city of Benghazi.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-13494248
‘Forced to gang-rape’
Captured Libyan soldiers tell of campaign of abuse in Misrata
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-13502715
Libyan women demand louder voice
For women who took a prominent role in an uprising against Muammar Gaddafi, the lack of female rebel leaders points to a long struggle.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/feature-through-din-of-war-libya-women-demand-louder-voice
Morocco
Moroccan police beat up protesters
Protesters calling for more rights and economic benefits dispersed by police in Rabat and Casablanca.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/africa/2011/05/2011522204645915126.html
Saudi Arabia
Saudi woman arrested after defying driving ban
Saudi authorities detained a female activist who uploaded a video of herself behind the wheel of a car on to YouTube, in a campaign to overturn a ban on female drivers in the deeply conservative kingdom.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-woman-arrested-after-defying-driving-ban-2287817.html
Saudi women: why they are not on the agenda of Western feminists
Can you imagine if this happened in Iran? Can you imagine the world reactions? Can you imagine the outrage that would pour from Western capitals?  “RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Authorities detained a Saudi woman on Saturday after she launched a campaign against the driving ban for women in the ultraconservative kingdom and posted a video of herself behind the wheel on Facebook and YouTube to encourage others to copy her.   Manal al-Sherif and a group of other women started a Facebook page called “Teach me how to drive so I can protect myself,” which urges authorities to lift the driving ban. She went on a test drive in the eastern city of Khobar and later posted a video of the experience.” Western governments have as much credibility on democracy and human rights as much as Dominique Strauss-Kahn has credibility on gender issues.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/saudi-women-why-they-are-not-on-agenda.html
Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri calls for uprisings in Saudi Arabia
NICOSIA — Ayman al-Zawahiri, the longtime Egyptian number two to Osama bin Laden, the Al-Qaeda leader killed earlier this month, has called on Saudis to take up this year’s wave of Arab revolt.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/22/al-qaeda-chief-ayman-al-zawahiri-calls-for-uprisings-in-saudi-arabia/
House of Saud’s contributions to civilization
“Islamic charities from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates financed a network in U.S. ally Pakistan that recruited children as young as eight to wage holy war, a local newspaper reported on Sunday, citing Wikileaks.  A U.S. diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks said financial support estimated at $100 million a year was making its way from those Gulf Arab states to a jihadist recruitment network in Pakistan’s Punjab province, Dawn newspaper reported.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/house-of-sauds-contributions-to.html
Saudi women are being driven to rebellion | Nesrine Malik
The driving ban in Saudi Arabia does little to actually protect women, it is merely a backward, pre-emptive act of repression. While all eyes are on Libya, Syria and Yemen, a different kind of rebellion is taking place in Saudi Arabia. A group of Saudi women have set up Women2Drive, a right-to-drive campaign, with a launch date of 17 June. Last week one of its members, Manal al-Sharif, took to the streets and drove a car for a couple of hours, filming her trip (her father assisted) and posting it on YouTube. On Sunday, she was arrested along with her brother, who reportedly has now been released.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/23/saudi-women-driving-ban-rebellion
Syria
55 Dead in Syria’s Weekend of Rage, Juan Cole
The protest began as a funeral procession for demonstrators killed on Friday, when 10 died in Homs and some 44 died at government hands throughout the country. In Homs on Saturday, an AFP reporter and eyewitness said that tens of thousands were in the streets.Despite a heavy government crackdown in past weeks and hundreds of deaths, the protests in Syria appear to be spreading. On Friday, they broke out in the Kurdish city of Qamishli, in Banias and Latakia to the west, in Deir al-Zor (a small petroleum-producing area) and in Damascus suburbs.
http://www.juancole.com/2011/05/55-dead-in-syrias-weekend-of-rage.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+juancole%2Fymbn+%28Informed+Comment%29
Syria mourners ‘attacked by security forces’
At least 11 dead and 27 injured in Homs, activists say, as thousands attend funerals for those killed on Friday.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/05/20115211441542189.html

Protester who exposed lies at the heart of Syria’s regime
In most countries it would have been inconsequential. But for Ahmad Biasi, a young man from a small town in north-west Syria, the simple act of filming himself in his home town captivated the Syrian protest movement, made him a symbol of the nationwide insurrection – and may have put his life in danger.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/protester-who-exposed-lies-at-the-heart-of-syrias-regime-2287789.html

Syrian protesters defy crackdown
Thousands turn up for funerals of pro-democracy demonstrators and chant slogans seeking President Assad’s removal.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/05/201152222164736736.html
Syrian authorities set free human rights activist
DAMASCUS, May 22 (Xinhua) — The Syrian authorities on Sunday released Anwar al-Bunni, a Syrian lawyer and human rights activist, after he finished the five-year jail term, local news website Day Press reported. Al-Bunni, who was sentenced to five years in jail by the criminal court on charges of spreading false news that might weaken the nation’s morals, has often called for democratic reforms in Syria and spoken out on behalf of detainees and Kurdish activists, the report said.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-05/23/c_13888455.htm
Yemen
The crucible of Yemen
The two opposing forces of unity and disunity are helping to shape the future of the struggle against Saleh in Yemen.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/05/20115228013977326.html
Yemen transition deal collapses
Gulf nations suspend mediation efforts after Saleh fails to sign exit pact and warns of civil war.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/05/201152216373928689.html
Obama’s Speech/Other Op-ed & Analysis
Report: Nasrallah to address Obama position
BEIRUT (Ma’an) — Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is expected to speak about the US push for a return to Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in an address to be televised Wednesday, Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar reported Monday. The newspaper said Nasrallah would “snap back” at US President Barack Obama, who on Sunday accused Hezbollah of carrying out “political assassinations” during a speech to American pro-Israel group AIPAC.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=390220
Obama and the Israeli lobby
“When even Israel-devoted stalwarts such as former IDF Corporal Jeffrey Goldberg and the ADL’s Abe Foxman are dismissive of the condemnation of Obama’s statements, it’s crystal clear that they pose no challenge to the dominant pro-Israel orthodoxy that has shaped American policy (and political discourse) for decades. At most, Obama’s public endorsement of this position was a symbolic gesture to chide Netanyahu for his overt indifference to U.S. interests (and, more so, belligerence toward Obama), and a small rhetorical fig leaf to the populist forces driving the Arab rebellion. Yet even the most microscopic deviation from the dictates of the Israel Government produce shrill and ludicrous backlash from The inside-the-U.S. Israel Lobby.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/obama-and-israeli-lobby.html
Can you imagine if an Arab leader were to urge the US president to draft his speech differently??
“The Israeli government immediately protested, saying that for Israel to return to its pre-1967 borders would leave it “indefensible.” Mr. Netanyahu held an angry phone conversation with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday before the speech, officials said, in which he demanded that the president’s reference to 1967 borders be cut.  Israeli officials continued to lobby the administration until right before Mr. Obama arrived at the State Department for the address. White House officials said he did not alter anything under Israeli pressure, though the president made changes in the text that delayed his appearance by 35 minutes.”  If you believe that the president did not alter the text under Israeli pressure, you would believe that Obama did not stand by Mubarak.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/can-you-imagine-if-arab-leader-were-to.html
Egyptian revolt leaders react to Obama’s speech
This is what Egyptian youth leader, Asma’ Mahfuz, said about Obama’s speech to the pro-American Saudi mouthpiece of Prince Salman, Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat:  “I don’t understand the reason for Obama’s glorification of Arab revolts as his administration and previous administrations of the US have supported dictatorial regimes in the Middle East over the past years.  And we heard such words from Obama’s speech in Cairo.  We say to Obama: go play another game…And we believe that this speech comes as an attempt to break the isolation of Israel and to support it after it has felt a total siege.  And he has repeated more than once and stressed the friendship between the US and Israel while expressing his fear from the reconciliation agreement between Fath and Hamas which Egypt played a big role to achieve.”  This is a representative reaction: if you read other reactions by Arabs in Maryland or in Virginia by people favored by spokespeople of US administration in mainstream US media you may ignore.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/egyptian-revolt-leaders-react-to-obamas.html
Obama’s lousy speech
Comrade Joseph writes:  “Opposition to the United States and Israel in fact is something espoused by the peoples of the Arab world, not by their leaders, who have been insisting for decades that the US and Israel are the friends of Arabs. Indeed the people of the region have been the only party that insisted that US policies and domination in the region and constant Israeli aggressions are what make these two countries enemies of the Arab peoples, while Arab rulers and their propaganda machines insisted on diverting people’s anger toward other imagined enemies, which the US conjured up for the region, while making peace with Israel.  Obama’s attempt to deny the hatred that Arabs feel towards the United States and Israel because of the actions of these two countries is nothing short of the continued refusal of the United States and Israel (not of Arabs) to take responsibility for their own actions by shifting the blame for the horrendous violence they have inflicted on the region onto their very victims. When Obama and Israel call on Arabs to take responsibility for the state of the region and not blame the US and Israel for it, what they are essentially doing is to refuse to take responsibility for what they have inflicted on Arabs.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/obamas-lousy-speech.html
Obama’s speech and divisions in the Arab world
“President Obama, in his speech on Thursday about the changes in the Arab world, spoke directly to that feeling. “Divisions of tribe, ethnicity and religious sect were manipulated as a means of holding on to power, or taking it away from somebody else. But the events of the past six months show us that strategies of repression and strategies of diversion will not work anymore.””  Look at this sentence: as a quotation in a front page article in the New York Times and as a passage in Obama’s speech.  I mean, there is no need for a comment? No need to address the external factors in deepening and stoking Arab divisions? I mean, has there been any government (internal or external) that has done more to instigate sectarian, ethnic, tribal, and religious conflict in Iraq than the US itself?  I love how Western colonial powers operate.  They go to a country and they prop up half-dead tribal elders, and then they say: those societies are tribal.  I saw that in South Lebanon in 1982.  Leftist and Arab nationalist organizations have taken over most villages in South Lebanon in the 1970s and have marginalized the old traditional familial and tribal leaders, so the first thing that Israeli terrorist occupiers do is to prop up those old traditional leaders and give them powers.  Many of those folks were men in their 80s—kid you not.  And after Wikileaks, do we have doubts about US manipulation of sectarian divisions in the Middle East in cooperation with Saudi Arabia?  Who are you kidding?
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/obamas-speech-and-divisions-in-arab.html

Obama’s Arab Spring Silence on Saudi Arabia Is Deafening
Barrack Obama’s headland speech ‘A Moment of Opportunity’ has pledged billions of dollars in aid supporting the recent uprisings referred to as the Arab Spring. Obama pledged continuing aid for Egypt and Tunisia, pledged support for democratic reform Syria, Bahrain and Yemen, signaled out particular criticism Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, confirmed the imposition of sanctions on al-Assad and six senior officials because of human rights abuses, and called on the world’s financial institutions to underpin the region’s economies.

Obama’s Arab Spring Silence on Saudi Arabia Is Deafening


Obama’s favorite Arabs
Of course, I have maintained from day one that there will be no difference in foreign policy between Obama and Bush.  The same Zionist fanatics who ran Middle East policy, for example, in the Bush White House are either still there or there are people with similar views.  You can tell that the same Zionist hoodlums are there by looking at the most favored Arabs in both White Houses.  Not only in terms of House of Saud, for example, but even individual Arabs.  Look at this piece. Was it not sexy to invite bloggers from Bahrain or UAE or Saudi Arabia?
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/obamas-favorite-arabs.html
Osama bin Laden’s Death: There Is Much More To Say,  Noam Chomsky
We are left with two choices: either Bush and associates are guilty of the “supreme international crime” including all the evils that follow, crimes that go vastly beyond anything attributed to bin Laden; or else we declare that the Nuremberg proceedings were a farce and that the allies were guilty of judicial murder.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28161.htm

Tempers Flare Post CNI Press Briefing

NOVANEWS

 

“Israel Is Not Alone” member knocks phone out of my hand

– Alison Weir

 

 

We had just completed a CNI press briefing at the National Press Club, when the next group scheduled to use the room, “Israel Is Not Alone,” began to enter. One of their members saw our signs and began a discussion with a member of the CNI group. The conversation was heated but within appropriate bounds. Another “Israel Is Not Alone” member, however, then approached the CNI man in a somewhat threatening posture and loudly began to berate him.

At that point Lt. Col Karen Kwiatkowski, who had spoken on our panel, thought she recognized the man and he was asked his name. At first he only gave his first name, Jerry, but eventually also gave his last name: Boykin.

Lt. Gen Boykin (three stars) is known for making offensive statements about Islam and supporting Israel.

For some reason, I actually thought I might be able to convince him to rethink his positions. I told him I had been born at West Point and tried to tell him about Palestine. I was holding a booklet from our press conference, and asked him fervently to read it. He didn’t say anything.

As I was trying to describe the facts, another man came up and began haranguing me. He was almost shaking with fury. He yelled that Muslims tear the fingernails off Christians and similar things. I tried to answer him, but he shouted over everything I tried to say. I got my phone out and tried to video what he was yelling at me. I then tried to resume my conversation with Boykin and tell him about my first trip to Palestine, but the man continued shouting at me, drowning out my words, so I again tried to video what he was yelling at me. He suddenly violently hit my hand and phone, knocking the phone across the room.

I was stunned. A bit shaken, I asked someone to get security, which they did. Some of the “Israel Is Not Alone” group, probably realizing that their member had just crossed a serious line and was guilty of battery, brought me the pieces of my phone (fortunately, and surprisingly, it still works). The man (I haven’t yet learned his name) proffered an unconvincing apology.

Some people have suggested that I file charges. It turns out that a Press TV crew apparently filmed the whole incident and led off with part of it on their broadcast about our conference. You can see the video and news report here.

Allison Weir

I’m undecided about filing charges. I know that if the situation were reversed, they would do so.

I don’t know what’s behind this angry, disturbed man. Was he angry because he was spreading such venemous lies? Or is it that the people behind “Israel Is Not Alone” are exploiting a vulnerable man and intentionally creating or fueling his rage?

Alison Weir is President, Council for the National Interest Foundation (CNIF). CNI seeks to encourage and promote a U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East that is consistent with American values, protects our national interests, and contributes to a just solution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is CNI’s goal to restore a political environment in America in which voters and their elected officials are free from the undue influence and pressure of foreign countries and their partisans.

The Council for the National Interest Foundation (CNIF) is an independent 501(c)3 non-profit organization that provides information and analysis on the Middle East, its relationship to the United States, and about policy formation regarding this region. Its primary focus is on Israel-Palestine.

Obama Genuflects to AIPAC

NOVANEWS

 

Deferentially, Each Year, US politicians, Including Presidents, Flock to AIPAC’s Annual Conference Paying Homage to Israel and Its Influence

by Stephen Lendman

Edward Said once called AIPAC “the most powerful and feared lobby in Washington.” For years, it’s “drawn on a well-organized, well-connected, highly visible, successful, and wealthy Jewish population,” subverting potential opposition.

As a result, fear and respect “for AIPAC (exists) all over the country, but especially in Washington, where in a matter of hours, almost the entire Senate can be marshaled into signing a letter to the president on Israel’s behalf. Who is going to oppose AIPAC and continue to have a career in Congress, or” to represent the Palestinian cause “when nothing concrete can be offered by that cause to anyone who stands up to AIPAC?”

Deferentially, each year, US politicians, including presidents, flock to its annual conference, paying homage to Israel and its influence.

 

Calling itself “America’s Pro-Israel Lobby,” it’s represented Israeli interests since founded in 1953, then incorporated in 1963 as a division of theAmerican Zionist Council (AZC), its precursor.

Exempted from registering as a foreign agent, it’s had virtual fifth column veto power over war and peace, trade and investment, multi-billion dollar arms sales, and all Middle East policies affecting Israel under Democrat and Republican administrations alike.

In March 2001, discussing the power of American Zionist organizations, Edward Said said:

“I find it absolutely astonishing, given that Palestinian policy has been essentially to throw our fate as a people in the lap of the United States without any strategic awareness of how US policy is in effect dominated, if not completely controlled, by a small minority of people whose views about the Middle East are in some way more extreme than even those of the Israeli Likud.”

In fact, Zionist discourse in America reflects power, “and Arabs….are the objects of power – despised objects at that….To submit supinely to a Zionist-controlled (US) Middle East policy….will neither bring stability (for Israelis or Palestinians) nor equality and justice in the US.”

As a result, today’s status is what Said called “untrammelled immorality,” a shocking disregard for the most basic sense of fairness – unrecognized, undiscussed and spurned in political and major media discourse. Instead, they focus solely on the interests of a rogue Israeli state – occupying, persecuting, and immiserating millions of Palestinians whose only offense is not being Jewish.

No wonder Obama’s May 22 AIPAC speech affirmed rock solid support for a “strong and secure Israel,” leaving Palestinians entirely out of his equation, despite paying disingenuous lip service to their interests.

No wonder also that an official AIPAC statement expressed gratitude for his assurance that Washington doesn’t expect Israel to withdraw to June 1967 borders, besides explicitly calling Hamas a terrorist organization, ignoring its January 2006 electoral victory as Palestine’s legitimate government.

Obama also ignored:

– the Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (the Apartheid Convention), defined by the Rome Statute to include murder, extermination, enslavement, torture, arbitrary arrest, illegal imprisonment, denial of the right to life and liberty, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and other abusive acts imposed by one group on another;

– Israel’s abhorrence of peace and repeated international law violations;

– its decades of lawless occupation, aggression, and collective punishment;

– Palestinians denied free movement, expression and right of assembly;

– explicit recognition of Palestinian self-determination under provisions of the December 1960 UN General Assembly Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, and all other UN resolutions affirming it;

– the universally recognized right of return;

– Jerusalem as Palestine’s legitimate capital;

– Israel’s illegal July 1980 East Jerusalem annexation despite SC Resolution 478 a month later declaring the Jerusalem Law null and void and requiring its immediate rescinding;

– Israel’s Separation Wall on stolen Palestinian land, ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice;

– Palestinians denied access to their own land, air space, coastal waters, and control of their borders;

– extreme poverty, unemployment, exploitation and depravation;

– daily violence against defense civilians, including children;

– targeted assassinations and other killings;

– mass arrests, detentions and torture;

– illegal home demolitions;

– apartheid settlements for Jews only, numbering 500,000 in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, illegally transferred to Occupied Palestine;

– around half of the West Bank and East Jerusalem off limits to Palestinians, according to UN estimates, as well as denying them access to their own resources; and

– since June 2007, Gaza’s suffocating siege, condemning nearly 1.7 million Palestinians to slow-motion genocide after Israel illegally declared it a “hostile entity,” denying nonviolent civilians access to enough food, healthcare, fuel, electricity, and other essential needs.

Conditions in Besieged Gaza

The Gisha Legal Center for Freedom of Movement “promotes rights guaranteed by international and Israeli law.” In May 2011, it published a “Gaza Cheat Sheet” account of what Gazans endure daily out of sight and mind in Washington and other Western capitals.

As a result, Israel created a humanitarian crisis, requiring aid for over 70% of Gazans. Moreover, Cast Lead destruction remains rubble. Vital needs go unmet. Around 95% of Gaza’s industrial enterprises were impacted, suspended, closed, damaged or destroyed. The remaining 5% operate at from 20 to 50% of capacity. Lost jobs haven’t been regained.

Aside from Gaza’s tunnel economy to Egypt, vulnerable to Israeli bombing, Kerem Shalom is the sole crossing point to Israel for the limited amount of aid let in.

Excluded are goods and materials called dual use, basic construction materials like cement, steel and gravel (except for small amounts), spare parts, and other vital supplies to rebuild what Cast Lead destroyed. Overall, a small fraction of what entered freely pre-June 2007 gets in now.

Moreover, exports are largely banned, except for occasional small amounts of strawberries, flowers, peppers and tomatoes to European markets. On average, it’s about two truckloads a day compared to 400 or more in 2005.

In addition, travel between Gaza and the West Bank is extremely limited via Erez crossing to Israel and Rafah to Egypt. In fact, only “exceptional humanitarian cases” are allowed with an emphasis on medical emergencies, and not many of them.

Travel to other areas is only possible through Egypt, with very rare exceptions. By controlling Palestine’s population registry, Israel has decision-making power over passports, required to exit through Rafah. Since Mubarak’s ouster, only about 300 a day now cross.

As a result, students can’t study abroad. Families are divided, and commerce can’t operate freely. Further, Israel prohibits access to and from Gaza by air or sea. Fishing is allowed only up to three nautical miles offshore, excluding most Gazan waters from use. In fact, under Oslo, 20 nautical miles were established.

In addition, a 300 – 1,500 meter no-go “buffer zone” exists along Israel’s separating border fence, placing 17% of Gaza off limits and 35% of its arable land. Farmers daring to work it risk being shot and killed.

For many years, in fact, travel between the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem was highly restricted, preventing most Palestinians from doing it, let alone having access outside the Territories. In large measure, occupation, especially for Gaza, has meant imprisonment, unable to move freely as international law permits.

Moreover, the international community bears direct responsibility for letting Israel perpetuate this crisis by not imposing boycotts, divestments, sanctions and isolation until it ends.

In fact, the 2009 Lisbon Treaty affirms fundamental freedoms, peace, democracy, human rights and dignity, justice, equality, the rule of law, security, tolerance, solidarity, mutual respect among peoples, the rights of the child, strict adherence to the UN Charter and international law, environmental protection, sustainable development, conflict prevention, and combatting social exclusion and discrimination.

Western nations literally let Israel get away with murder by spurning these principles.

Spain: More Attacks on the Euro

NOVANEWS

 

Spanish Voters Reject Austerity

by Stephen Lendman

Since mid-May, Spain’s M-15 movement began protesting for “Real Democracy Now,” drawing large numbers of students, activists, unemployed workers, and other “los indignados” (the outraged ones) on streets throughout the country, defying a ban ahead of May 22 municipal and regional elections.

Tens of thousands said “No nos moveran” (We shall not be moved), opposing government imposed austerity to repay bankers at their expense.

Experiencing its worse economic crisis in decades, official figures show around 45% of Spanish youths unemployed, a crisis affecting all workers facing worsening, not improving conditions, some of the worst in Europe.

In response to growing needs, Jose Luis Zapartero’s Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) government proposed 5% or more public worker pay and pension cuts, halting cost of living adjustments, raising the retirement age from 65 to 67, ending payments for births or adopting children, and more ahead, including reforming labor protections and pensions, not stimulus when it’s most needed.

As a result, the populist “Real Democracy Now” manifesto states:

“We are ordinary people. We are like you: people who get up every morning to study, work or find a job, people who have family and friends. People who work hard every day to provide a better future for those around us,” calling for “an ethical revolution” for change.

The same crisis affects other countries throughout Europe, notably Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Italy, Latvia, Iceland, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, and elsewhere, what Michael Hudson calls a specter haunting Europe, showing no signs of letup under crushing debt burdens counterproductively dealt with by neoliberal austerity.

On May 22, Paul Krugman’s New York Times op-ed headlined, “When Austerity Fails,” saying:

For over a year, the European “pain caucus” insists “that sound money and balanced budgets” solve all problems when, in fact, austerity destroys jobs and private-sector confidence, “threaten(ing) to make Europe the flashpoint of a new financial crisis.”

As a result, “the confidence fairy hasn’t shown up.” It’s plunging, not rising. Greece, Ireland, Portugal and other nations can’t service their debts, and if one or more default, “financial dominoes” across Europe may fall because insisting banker interests come first is a diktat doomed to fail.

In the meantime, working households continue bearing the burden of bailing out banking giants responsible for the severest economic crisis since the Great Depression.

How? The usual IMF solution, involving preserving capital at workers’ expense – a package including wage and benefit cuts, less social spending, privatizing state resources, mass layoffs, deregulation, lower corporate taxes, maintaining debt service, and harsh crackdowns on resisters.

In the 1980s, it was Reaganomics, trickle down, and Thatcherism. Today it’s “shock therapy,” and forced austerity, the same scheme pitting capital against people – disposable workers tossed out for big money’s gain, bankers most of all. Michael Hudson calls it a:

“neoliberal experiment….to drastically change the laws and structure of how European society will function for the next generation. If (successful, they’ll) break up Europe, destroy the internal market, and render that continent a backwater.”

Calling it a “financial coup d’etat,” he said “bankers are demanding (and getting governments to) rebuild their loan reserves at labor’s expense,” Washington using the same ugly scheme.

Workers, of course, get hammered, spending cuts and high unemployment taking their toll. More are coming, assuring greater deprivation and anger on streets to protest and at polls, throwing out the bums for new ones, choosing the lesser of bad choices, assuring  everything changes but stays the same.

On May 22, Spain held regional and municipal elections, New York Times writer Raphael Minder headlining, “Spain’s Government Party Suffers Heavy Losses,” saying:

Indignant voters said they’d “pursue their protests to force an overhaul of their country’s political system.”

Conceding defeat, Prime Minister Zapatero admitted hard times caused Spaniards serious problems, exacerbated, he omitted, by imposed neoliberal austerity.

Protesters with no party affiliation handed his ruling Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) a stunning defeat with less than 28% of the vote. Most benefitting was its main challenger, the right-wing Popular Party (PP) with 38%. According to one protester:

“The message has surely gone through to politicians that they can’t keep ignoring our frustrations and pretend that nothing has changed,” though it’s hard imagining how any favoring business will outperform others any more than Democrats do in America over Republicans, or the reverse.

To no surprise, Zapatero said earlier he won’t seek reelection, anticipating popular rejection, affecting most PSOE members, PP ones also offering little social relief. As a result, “los indignados” urged voters to boycott major parties, serving banks and other corporate favorites at their expense.

They also want permanent protests through nationwide popular assemblies until key demands are met, including “Real Democracy Now” and essential needs; namely: jobs, decent pay and benefits, healthcare, education, housing, less military spending, privatized state enterprises re-nationalized, and putting popular needs ahead of business.

Achieving those goals requires uncompromising struggles for change, a popular groundswell for what politicians reject. So far it’s absent everywhere, but can happen with enough commitment, an incentive for workers to act.

Prominent African American Academic, Woman, Victimized

NOVANEWS

 

Is the Attack on Prof. Melissa Harris-Perry’s Article Criticizing Prof. Cornel West Due to Male Academic Cronyism?

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

It is a curious yet instructive phenomenon watching Black male academics rush to the defense of Dr. Cornel West after he called President Obama a “Black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs.” They also stood by when West went on to say that “Obama has a certain fear of free black men.” They said that it was perfectly legitimate for West to comment on the political environment as he saw it. But when Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry, West’s female colleague, indicated that West’s comment “smacks of birtherism,” they recoiled in shocked horror. How dare she publicly attack her colleague in that manner? They accused her of being motivated by either soar grapes or professional envy.  Hmmm, ok. But tell me, what makes Cornel West more sacrosanct than the President of the United States?


The fact is, anyone who considers West’s remarks toward President Obama merely an objective and scholarly critique of the political environment needs to go back and take a refresher course in both freshman English and forensics. The comments directed at President Obama by Cornel West was nothing short of a racist and petty personal tirade by a woefully presumptuous and undisciplined mind.

His comments were not only less than constructive and nonspecific, but they were also saturated with unsubstantiated personal attacks against the president. They were, indeed, Palinesque in both nature and intent. Thus, his behavior was both unprofessional and disrespectful to not only President Obama, but the office of the president itself. Then when you take into account that there is ample evidence that he was motivated by what he, in his own words, considered a personal slight, then combined that with his close association with Tavis Smiley – who is also smarting from what he considered a personal slight by the president – it is more than reasonable to view West’s behavior as the irate petulance of an embittered egomaniac.

On the other hand, Prof. Perry couldn’t avoid attacking West’s character, because it was his character that was at issue. So the fact is, Prof. Perry’s criticism of West was the more legitimate. Considering West’s behavior, Prof. Perry’s remarks constituted a detached and clinical assessment of the facts.  Her position was reasoned, specific, and substantiated with undeniable facts, while West’s criticism of Obama was reckless, overly broad, and filled with gross and unsubstantiated generalizations.

Yet, in his article, Melissa Harris-Perry’s Attacks on Cornel West: Melissa, Are You Hiding Something?, Dr. Boyce Watkins says,

“One of the interesting things about all the criticism being thrust at Professor West is that much of it presumes that Cornel is attacking President Obama for personal reasons. There are rumors that he is angry that he was never invited to the inauguration, or that he felt dismissed because the administration won’t return his phone calls. There is no end to the reasons that people are coming up with to explain why Professor West has done what he’s always done, which is to advocate for black, brown, poor and working class people.”

But the “rumors” that Dr. Watkins speak of are not rumors at all. West is quoted as saying the following:

“I used to call my dear brother [Obama] every two weeks. I said a prayer on the phone for him, especially before a debate. And I never got a call back. And when I ran into him in the state Capitol in South Carolina when I was down there campaigning for him he was very kind. The first thing he told me was, ‘Brother West, I feel so bad. I haven’t called you back. You been calling me so much. You been giving me so much love, so much support and what have you.’ And I said, ‘I know you’re busy.’ But then a month and half later I would run into other people on the campaign and he’s calling them all the time. I said, wow, this is kind of strange. He doesn’t have time, even two seconds, to say thank you or I’m glad you’re pulling for me and praying for me, but he’s calling these other people. I said, this is very interesting. And then as it turns out with the inauguration I couldn’t get a ticket with my mother and my brother. I said this is very strange. We drive into the hotel and the guy who picks up my bags from the hotel has a ticket to the inauguration. My mom says, ‘That’s something that this dear brother can get a ticket and you can’t get one, honey, all the work you did for him from Iowa.’ Beginning in Iowa to Ohio. We had to watch the thing in the hotel.”

And further, I don’t see how the fact that Prof. Perry worked down the hall from West at Princeton has any bearing on this matter. If Dr. Watkins is suggesting that she had an ulterior motive, what evidence does he present to support that claim? Absolutely none. That makes it clear that Watkins is stretching for an equivalence that’s just not there. On the one hand, Prof. Perry presents direct evidence from the mouth of West himself that clearly substantiates her position that West felt slighted by the president, which ultimately led to his reckless behavior. While on the other hand, Dr. Watkins doesn’t present a shred of evidence leading to the conclusion that Prof. Perry had an ulterior motive for her criticism of Dr. West. The only thing he presents is gross speculation and vapors.

I’m not surprised at all that Dr. West has engaged in such reckless behavior. His fixation on personal affectations suggests the vanity of an undisciplined mind. And apparently I’m not alone. Syndicated columnistStanley Crouch pointed out in the “Daily News” that “serious black intellectuals privately dismissed West many years ago as no more than an academic loudmouth with a good show business game.”

But with respect to Dr. Boyce Watkins, I am indeed shocked to see a respected scholar engage in such sloppy thinking. His article suggests the following syllogism: All dogs have fleas. My cat has fleas. Therefore, my cat is a dog. What kind of logic is that?

Thus, at the risk of being presumptuous, I’d like to pass on to both of these gentlemen a piece of advice that was given to me by the very demure Ms. Immel in my freshman English class many years ago, and I quote: “Eric, if you expect to survive this class, every time you make an assertion, I expect you to start backing it up with compelling facts in the very next sentence, or no later than the following paragraph.”

That advice has served me well over the years, and it seems to me that you might benefit from it as well.

Eric L. Wattree
http://wattree.blogspot.com/
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It’s not that I hate everyone who doesn’t look, think, and act like me – it’s just that God does

The Patriot Act: When Truth Becomes Treason

NOVANEWS

 

Americans NOT Frightened Enough by the Un-Patriot Act

By Susan Lindauer

Many Americans think they understand the dangers of the Patriot Act, which Congress has vowed to extend 4 more years in a vote later this week. Trust me when I say, Americans are not nearly frightened enough.

Ever wonder why the truth about 9/11 never got exposed? Why Americans don’t have a clue about leadership fraud surrounding the War on Terror? Why Americans don’t know if the 9/11 investigation was really successful? Why the Iraqi Peace Option draws a blank? Somebody has known the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden— or his grave—for the past 10 years. But nobody’s talking to the people.

In significant part, that’s because of the Patriot Act— a law that equates free speech with sedition. It’s got a big agenda, with 7,000 pages of Machiavellian code designed to interrupt individual questioning of government policy. In this brave new world, free speech under the Bill of Rights effectively has been declared a threat to government controls for maintaining stability. And the Patriot Act has become the premiere weapon to attack whistle blowers and dissidents who challenge the comfort of political leaders hiding inconvenient truths from the public. It’s all the rage on Capitol Hill, as leaders strive to score TV ratings, while demogauging their “outstanding leadership performance” on everything from national security to environmental policy.

Truth has Become Treason

But wait—Congress assures us the Patriot Act only targets foreigners, who come to our shores seeking to destroy our way of life through violent, criminal acts. Good, law abiding Americans have nothing to fear. The Patriot Act restricts its powers of “roving wiretaps” and warrantless searches to international communications among “bad guys.” Congress has sworn, with hand on heart, it’s only purpose is breaking down terrorist cells and hunting out “lone wolf” mad men.

That’s what they told you, right? And you believed them? You trust the government. Well, that was your first mistake. With regards to the Patriot Act, it’s a fatal one. Would the government lie to you? You betcha! And they have.

The Patriot Act reaches far beyond terrorism prevention. In my home state of Maryland, State Police invoked the Patriot Act to run surveillance on the Chesapeake Climate Action Network dedicated to wind power, recycling and protection of the Chesapeake Bay. They infiltrated the DC Anti War Network, suggesting the group might be a front for “white supremacists,” and Amnesty International, claiming to investigate “civil rights abuses.” Opponents of the death penalty also got targeted (in case they got violent).

Bottom line: truth tellers who give Americans too much insight on any number of issues are vulnerable to a vast arsenal of judicial weapons typically associated with China or Mynamar. In the Patriot Act, the government has created a powerful tool to hunt out free thinking on the left or right. It doesn’t discriminate. Anyone who opposes government policy is at risk

How do I know all this? Because I was the second non-Arab American ever indicted on the Patriot Act. My arrest defied all expectations about the law. I was no terrorist plotting to explode the Washington Monument. Quite the opposite, I had worked in anti-terrorism for almost a decade, covering Iraq and Libya, Yemen, Egypt and Malaysia at the United Nations. At the instruction of my CIA handler, I had delivered advance warnings about the 9/11 attack to the private staff of Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Office of Counter-Terrorism in August, 2001. FBI wire taps prove that I carried details of a comprehensive peace framework with Iraq up and down the hallowed corridors of Capitol Hill for months before the invasion, arguing that War was totally unnecessary.

I delivered those papers to Democrats and Republicans alike; to my own second cousin, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card; and to Secretary of State Colin Powell, who lived next door to my CIA handler. Gratis of the Patriot Act, we had the manila envelope and my hand written notes to Secretary Powell, dated a week before his infamous speech at the United Nations. My papers argued that no WMDs would be found inside Iraq, and that the peace framework could achieve all U.S. objectives without firing a shot.

In short, I was an Asset who loudly opposed War with Iraq, and made every effort to correct the mistakes in assumptions on Capitol Hill.

Then I did the unthinkable. I phoned the offices of Senator Trent Lott and Senator John McCain, requesting to testify before a brand new, blue ribbon Commission investigating Pre-War Intelligence. Proud and confident of my efforts, I had no idea Congress was planning to blame “bad intelligence” for the unpopular War.

Over night I became Public Enemy Number One on Capitol Hill.

Thirty days later I awoke to hear FBI agents pounding on my door. My nightmare on the Patriot Act lasted 5 years— Four years after my arrest, the Court granted me one morning of evidentiary testimony by two supremely credible witnesses. Parke Godfrey verified my 9/11 warnings under oath. Otherwise, I never got my day in Court.

The Patriot Act’s Arsenal to Stop Free Speech

If you care about America and the traditions of freedom, whether you’re progressive or conservative, you should be angry about this law.

First come the warrantless searches and FBI tracking surveillance. My work in anti-terrorism gave me no protection. I got my first warrantless search after meeting an undercover FBI agent to discuss my support for free elections in Iraq and my opposition to torture and sexual humiliation of Iraqi detainees. (Sorry guys, body wires don’t lie.)

If truth tellers don’t get the message to shut their mouths, the Justice Department ratchets up the pressure. Defendants face secret charges, secret evidence and secret grand jury testimony. Throughout five years of indictment, my attorneys and I never got to read a single FBI interview or grand jury statement. Under the Patriot Act, the whistleblower/defendant has no right to know who has accused him or her of what criminal activities, or the dates of the alleged offenses, or what laws got broken.

Of course, I was able to piece together my activities. I knew that “sometime in October, 2001″ an Iraqi diplomat gave me the English translation of a book on depleted uranium, which showed how cancer rates and birth defects had spiked in Iraqi children.

And I was quite certain that on October 14, 1999, an Iraqi diplomat asked me how to channel major financial contributions to the Presidential Campaign of George Bush and Dick Cheney. The Justice Department got the date from me, since I reported my conversation immediately to my Defense Intelligence handler, Paul Hoven.

It’s unlikely the grand jury knew that, since the Justice Department has the prerogative to keep a grand jury in the dark. In this brave new world, a grand jury can be compelled to consider indictments carrying 10 years or more in prison, without the right to review evidence, or otherwise determine whether an individual’s actions rise to the level of criminal activity at all.

That’s just the beginning. Once Congress scores an indictment against a political opponent, the Justice Department can force Defense attorneys to undergo protracted security clearances, while the whistle blower cum defendant waits in prison— usually in solitary confinement or the SHU. After the security clearance, prosecutors have an ironclad right to bar attorneys from communicating communications from the prosecution to the defendant, on threat of disbarment, stiff fines or prison sentence.

Scared yet? Once you get to trial, the situation gets much worse. The Patriot Act declares that a prosecutor has no obligation to show evidence of criminal activity to a jury at all. And the Defense can be denied the right to argue a rebuttal to those secret charges, because it requires speculation that might mislead the jury—or might expose issues that the government considers, well, secret. After all that a Judge can instruct a jury that the prosecution regards the secret evidence as sufficient to merit conviction on the secret charges. The Jury can be barred from considering the lack of evidence in weighing whether to convict.

Think I’m exaggerating? You would be wrong. That’s what happened to me. All of it—with one major glitch. All of this presumes the whistle blower’s lucky enough to get a trial. I was denied mine, though I fought vigorously for my rights. Instead, citing the Patriot Act, I got thrown in prison on a Texas military base without so much as a hearing—and threatened with indefinite detention and forcible drugging, to boot.

Americans are not nearly afraid enough.

Neither is Congress. As of this week, members of Congress should be very afraid. Anyone who votes to extend the Patriot Act should expect to pack their bags in 2012. They will be targeted for defeat. Above all, the words “freedom” and “Constitution” will never appear in their campaigns without suffering extreme public scorn—never, ever again.