Articles

The Absurd U.S. Stance on IsraHell's Nukes: A Video Sampling of Denial

May 24, 2011

USA

NOVANEWS On Tuesday, at a rare joint session of Congress for a foreign leader, members of Congress will clap ...Read more

Libya: on track to be Britain's £1 billion war

May 24, 2011

Libya

NOVANEWS We were told it would cost "tens, not hundreds of millions", but after two months the war on Libya ...Read more

Helen Thomas and Move Over AIPAC

May 24, 2011

Campaigns

NOVANEWS Setting the Record Straight on Helen Thomas and Move Over AIPAC by Alison Weir I had not been planning ...Read more

Reporter Goes “Psycho” at AIPAC

May 24, 2011

Campaigns

NOVANEWS Tempers Fly as Israel Takes a Beating for Spying, Rights Abuses By Gordon Duff, Senior Editor Several years ago, ...Read more

Zionist Clinton: More NATO nations must join Libya mission

May 24, 2011

Libya

NOVANEWS LONDON – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday urged more NATO nations to take ...Read more

Dominique Strauss-Kahn: The Colonial Predator Legacy

May 24, 2011

Politics

NOVANEWS By James Petras The attempted rape and sexual abuse of an African cleaning woman by the Managing ...Read more

France and Britain to use attack helicopters in Libya

May 24, 2011

Libya

NOVANEWS Reuters France and Britain will deploy attack helicopters in Libya, French officials said on Monday, a step ...Read more

Zio-Nazi court sentences teen to 6 months

May 24, 2011

Human Rights

NOVANEWS Zio-Nazi military judges on Monday issued a six-month jail sentence to a teenager from Bil’in village near ...Read more

Father of Turkish-American flotilla victim to sue Zio-Nazi's in US court

May 24, 2011

Human Rights

NOVANEWS The father of a Turkish-American man killed last year in an Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla ...Read more

Attack on naval base precursor of threats to nukes

May 24, 2011

Pakistan & Kashmir

NOVANEWS ISLAMABAD: Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Imran Khan Monday said that the attacks on the key naval base could be a ...Read more

Zionist right mocks Obama’s rapid submission to Netanyahu

May 24, 2011

Campaigns

NOVANEWS Saleh Naami Jewish settler leaders were moved to express their satisfaction with Barack Obama’s Middle East speech ...Read more

Netanyahu at AIPAC: IsraHeLl not Mideast’s problem

May 24, 2011

Campaigns

NOVANEWS PM tells AIPAC recent Mideast developments prove regional problems not rooted in Israel. ‘Israel is what’s right about ...Read more

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The Absurd U.S. Stance on IsraHell's Nukes: A Video Sampling of Denial

NOVANEWS

On Tuesday, at a rare joint session of Congress for a foreign leader, members of Congress will clap hands raw for Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel — a nation many members of congress are incapable of speaking simple truths about.

The upshot of the professional wrestling “fight” between Obama and Netanyahu the last several days is that they both want the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to be decided by “negotiations between the parties.” These “negotiations” are between a nuclear armed Goliath Israel and largely defenseless Palestinians. It’s like “negotiations” between the Corleone family and a bandleader — except we’re not even supposed to notice the Corleone family comes to the table with huge guns drawn.

Yesterday at AIPAC Obama spoke of the “existential fear of Israelis when a modern dictator seeks nuclear weapons and threatens to wipe Israel off the face of the map — face of the Earth.” He spoke of “our commitment to our shared security in our determination to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.” Obama said to applause from the attendees at the pro-Israel group: “So let me be absolutely clear — we remain committed to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. … Its illicit nuclear program is just one challenge that Iran poses.” Of course, Netanyahu is ever more vociferous in his accusations regarding Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program.

But at his first news conference at the White House in February of 2009, Obama was asked by Helen Thomas if he knew of any country in the Middle East that has nuclear weapons. Obama replied that he didn’t want to “speculate.”

It’s simply not a credible position to have.

Obama is accusing Iran of having an “illicit nuclear program” (which seems to exaggerate the National Intelligence Estimate findings) while refusing to acknowledge the Israeli nuclear weapons arsenal. Mordechai Vanunu definitively exposed Israel’s nuclear weapons program in 1986 and was tossed into prison for 18 years, most of it in solitary confinement, for doing so. The Federation of American Scientists estimates that Israel has between 70 and 400 nuclear weapons. These weapons pose a real — not a potential or an imagined — threat to millions upon millions of people in and beyond the region. As do nuclear weapons held by other countries, but at least they are acknowledged.

But the U.S. and Israeli governments have maintained a stance of “deliberate nuclear ambiguity” since Richard Nixon and Golda Meir made a deal on the matter and stopped nuclear inspections in Israel in 1970.

The U.S. government stance is particularly absurd given that the main pretext for invading Iraq was false claims about that country’s alleged possession of WMDs.

As part of WashingtonStakeout, where I ask tough questions of politicians as they leave the Sunday morning chat shows, I’ve asked a host of politicians about Israel’s nuclear arsenal. Though they’ve varied somewhat in their answers, none has actually been straightforward.

John Negroponte, who when I questioned him was Director of National Intelligence, outright refused to engage on the issue: “I don’t want to get into a discussion about Israel’s nuclear powers.” While they were in office, Cheney and Rice wouldn’t stop for stakeout questions at all.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told me that “there is no comparison between Israel and Iran and those who would draw a comparison ignore the fact that Israel is our ally,” virtually defining what hypocrisy is. Similarly, I asked John Edwards “doesn’t Israel have nuclear weapons?” and he responded by voicing his concern about “Iran having a nuclear weapon” and the proliferation that would allegedly cause: “odds are high that if Iran goes nuclear that the Saudis will go nuclear, the Egyptians will go nuclear, the Jordanians may go nuclear” — all without acknowledging that Israel has nuclear weapons.

Which raises a central question: If Iran is going nuclear, why would that be? One possible answer is because Israel has nuclear weapons. Contrary to conventional wisdom, that seems to have been the case with Iraq. Imad Khadduri, who worked on the Iraq nuclear weapons program beginning in 1981 — after Israel bombed an Iraqi nuclear reactor — told me that the Israeli attack actually drove him and others to work on a weapons program: “I worked on the pre-1981 nuclear program and I was certain it would not be used for military purposes. But after the 1981 bombing, we were so angry that we were ready to work on a military program.” (Before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Khadduri argued that, contrary to what the Bush administration was claiming, the Iraqi nuclear weapons program had been dismantled.)

Another reason that regimes might get weapons of mass destruction is self-preservation. That is certainly a lesson one could draw looking at Iraq and Libya the last ten years: Both disarmed and both were attacked. Viewing U.S. policy in that light, it would seem rather suicidal for the Iranian government to not develop nuclear weapons. Of course, we don’t know that they are, but if anything, militarized U.S. policy seems to be pushing them in that direction.

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), who is vice-chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, paused when I asked him if he knew that Israel had nuclear weapons, then said “I’m aware that Israel is our most cherished ally…” I followed up: “Do you think it increases or decreases U.S. credibility around the world when U.S. government officials can’t even acknowledge that Israel has a massive nuclear arsenal?” Pence stuck to his line: “The American people support Israel. I call Israel our most cherished ally…” He was utterly incapable of engaging on the issue.

Somewhat similarly, former Amb. Martin Indyk replied: “What does that got to do with it, sir?”

Newt Gingrich, initially when asked if he knew Israel had nuclear weapons, said “of course,” but then backtracked, saying it was a “guess” since the Israeli nuclear weapons program could be a “Potemkin village.” My friend Jabari Zakiya retorted that perhaps Gingrich would be inclined to question the reality of the moon landings. Carl Levin (D-Migh.), when I questioned him, was chair of the House Armed Services Committee. He similarly said he “thought” Israel had nuclear weapons, but didn’t “know,” because “I’m not the government.”

I questioned Russ Feingold in 2010, shortly before he lost his seat, and he initially said “I’m not free to comment on that.” I asked: “Why can you not say that Israel is a nuclear power, Senator?” Feingold replied: “I basically think it is, but I’m not somebody who is privy to all the details on that.” But Finegold was on the Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time of this exchange. In any case, the necessary information on Israel’s nuclear weapons is public.

This year, I questioned Kerry: “Do you know that Israel has a nuclear weapons program?” Kerry: “Sure. Everybody — it’s common knowledge and commonly understood.” Question: “Why won’t the administration acknowledge that?” Kerry: “I don’t know what the administration policy is on that.” It was good to get a “sure,” but it’s rather remarkable that Kerry states he doesn’t know what the administration policy is given that he is chair of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty — and presidential aspirant: “It’s a determination for Israel. … If it’s been established as a matter of fact, it speaks for itself.” Thomas Pickering, former U.S. ambassador to the UN: “It’s a decision for Israel to make.”

In April, 2007 I asked former president Jimmy Carter at the National Press Club about why no administration would acknowledge Israel’s nuclear weapons. He responded: “When I was president, I did not comment on Israel’s nuclear arsenal. But it’s generally known throughout the diplomatic and scientific world that Israel does have [a] substantial arsenal. … It’s [Israel’s nuclear power] well known anyway to every diplomat, scientist involved in nuclear affairs, it doesn’t make it incumbent or important that the president of the United States announces that another nation does have nuclear arsenal. … I don’t think it’s up to the U.S. government, president or officials to announce that another country does indeed have or have not nuclear arsenal if they themselves don’t acknowledge it. I don’t think it’s helpful to do that, but … it’s not harmful either because everybody knows it.” (The Press Trust of India, April 5, 2007)

Finally, in 2008 Carter acknowledged the obvious truth somewhat more forthrightly: “The U.S. has more than 12,000 nuclear weapons; the Soviet Union [sic] has about the same; Great Britain and France have several hundred, and Israel has 150 or more.” Perhaps, when he is years out of office, Obama will tell the truth about things like Israel’s nukes.

In 2006, in what were described as “slips,” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and then-incoming Secretary of Defense Robert Gates referred to Israel’s nuclear arsenal.

Similar to anticipated moves at getting the Palestinian issue seriously before the United Nations in September of this year (a move Obama is denouncing), in 2009, the U.S., Canada and other Western nations attacked and tried to block a vote by the International Atomic Energy Agency calling on Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. After 18 years of trying the measure finally passed.

In his widely-heralded 2009 speech in Cairo, Obama emphasized the need for truth. It’s long past time to stop the games and get real about the Mideast and have a fact-based discussion. A good place to start is an acknowledgement of the threatening elephant in the room that is Israel’s nuclear weapons arsenal.

Libya: on track to be Britain's £1 billion war

NOVANEWS

We were told it would cost “tens, not hundreds of millions”, but after two months the war on Libya is already over £100 million, and by September it’s likely to top £1 billion.

By Richard Norton-Taylor and Simon Rogers

The Guardian

Britain’s involvement in the Libya conflict will cost the taxpayer as much as £1bn if it continues into the autumn as expected, according to expert analysis and data gathered by the Guardian.

Two months after western powers began bombing Libyan targets to protect civilians in Operation Unified Protector, the cost to Britain so far of the dozens of bombs dropped, hundreds of sorties flown and more than 1,000 service personnel deployed is estimated at more than £100m, according to British defence officials.

But defence economists have told the Guardian the costings are conservative. Francis Tusa, editor of the Defence Analysis newsletter, estimates that by the end of April Libyan operations had already cost the UK about £300m and that the bill was increasing by up to £38m a week.

Military chiefs have acknowledged that the air campaign would last six months. At this rate, the Ministry of Defence’s own estimates will put the cost of war at about £400m, but the expert view is that the figure will top £1bn by September.

Another defence analyst told the Guardian £1bn was probably at the top end of the scale, but that it would not be a complete surprise in Whitehall if this was the final bill for six months of operations.

“A lot of what they are doing out there is a substitute for training that would have cost anyway,” he said.

“The final cost will depend on whether the Treasury is prepared to pay for replacements for all the bombs and missiles that have been used so far.”

British warplanes are increasingly involved along with the French and Italians. According to data collected by the Guardian for the six weeks of aerial operations up to 5 May, the British have flown 25% of nearly 6,000 sorties over Libyan skies – second only to the Americans. The US total was inflated by an early surge, and it has now scaled back its operations. For the five weeks to 5 May , Britain flew more sorties than any other country. But British planes have been dropping far fewer bombs than their allies, relative to the number of flights .

So far, they have attacked about 300 targets, perhaps only 10% of the few thousands destroyed by Nato aircraft.

Norway and Denmark have by some distance the highest ratio of bombs dropped in relation to population.

The true cost of the operation will not be announced for weeks, according to defence officials. It is certain to be significantly more than the “tens of millions” stated in parliament by the chancellor, George Osborne, shortly after the bombing started. One other thing is certain: the cost of the bombs has been significantly more than the targets they have destroyed.

The Nato operation was designed to implement a UN security council resolution authorising force to defend civilians. But after stopping Muammar Gaddafi‘s forces wresting back chunks of the east of the country, the campaign has had little discernible impact in recent weeks on Gaddafi’s stronghold in the capital.

Tripoli has been heavily bombed for the past 10 days, with all Libyan fighting ships either sunk or damaged and many command posts and bunker complexes also hit. However, demonstrations in support of Gaddafi are still common and dissident groups are unwilling to engage his loyalist army, which still controls the west of the country. Defence chiefs in the UK and US are also said to be concerned that some Nato countries are unwilling to commit air power to the campaign.

It is not only the cost that is worrying the Ministry of Defence, and, indeed, defence chiefs in the Pentagon.The reluctance of most countries to commit their air forces to action – Norway, which has dropped about 300 bombs, is to pull out at the end of June.– is causing serious concern among military commanders throughout the alliance about whether Nato countries have the political will and military capability to continue operations that now have the stated aim of removing power from Gaddafi, his sons, and closet advisers.

For Britain, the Libyan conflict has also presented military commanders and ministers alike with an uncomfortable reminder of the perilous state of the defence budget. As Paul Cornish, head of the international security programme at the thinktank Chatham House, has observed, many of the military capabilities used in and around Libya – HMS Cumberland, the Nimrod R1 eavesdropping plane, the Sentinental surveillance aircraft, and Tornado jets – are among the first casualties to be scrapped or their numbers reduced (in the case of Tornados) as a result of last year’s strategic defence and security review.

“The obvious question to ask,” Cornish writes in the latest issue of The World Today, “is whether Britain could have made a contribution to the intervention in Libya had the crisis developed later in 2011 when most of the decommissionings, disbandments, and retirements would otherwise have taken place.”

The US led the assault, during the first week flying more than 800 sorties in Libya, of which over 300 were strike sorties. It fired more than 200 Tomahawk cruise missiles from its ships. Britain has fired fewer than 20 Tomahawks, costing an estimated £1m each, from the submarine HMS Triumph.

Britain, which has accounted for some 25% of all sorties, was so worried about the gap left by the US when it ceded command to Nato, and stood down its aircraft – including low-flying A10 tankbusting “Warthogs” and C130 gunships

Helen Thomas and Move Over AIPAC

NOVANEWS

Setting the Record Straight on Helen Thomas and Move Over AIPAC

by Alison Weir

I had not been planning to write about the controversy inside the Move Over AIPAC coalition that occurred awhile ago, but I’ve discovered that an inaccurate statement was published by Mondoweiss about this. I’m surprised this statement was sent to Weiss, since most people had sought to keep this discussion only within the coalition itself. However, now that this has become public, it seems important to set the record straight:

Awhile ago Move Over AIPAC organizers issued a press release, which they didn’t send to the coalition but which was published by a number of Israeli and pro-Israel publications.

It said:

“Helen Thomas was invited to speak, as a journalist who is fearless about questioning power and unnecessary wars, but because some of her comments have sparked controversy, several members of the coalition and our grassroots community had concerns about her appearance.”
As a member of two coalition organizations, I was extremely concerned about this. I felt it was important that Helen not be pushed out of our conference as she had been pushed out of numerous other speaking engagements by the ADL and Israel partisans, and I tried to contact the organizers about the situation by phone and email.

Unfortunately, I received no response.

I then contacted some other coalition members, endorsers, and panelists, who looked into the situation more.

Two individuals managed to speak to Helen Thomas directly. Thomas told them that she “did not withdraw voluntarily,” that she had been “pressured into it,” and that she had been “disinvited.”

James Abourezk wrote an article containing information on this.

We also learned that Jewish Voice for Peace had objected to Thomas. We were unable to discover who else (if anyone) objected.

It seemed extremely inappropriate to us that in a coalition of about 100 groups, only one or two had been involved in an important discussion about a prominent speaker.

While JVP has often done excellent work and many of its members are exemplary human rights defenders, the organization also, by its own admission, includes members who support Israel’s right to discriminate. Jeffrey Blankfort has occasionally written about this.

It’s perhaps indicative that JVP’s media monitoring website had carried an article that, while it criticized the media’s handling of Thomas, stated: “It’s impossible to defend Grande Dame of White House journalists Helen Thomas’ recent off the cuff statement …. It was deeply offensive and wrong.”

My article on Thomas provided an entirely different perspective, as did that by Ralph Nader.

A number of prominent endorsers and panelists, among these James Abourezsk, Paul Findley, Hatem Bazian (founder of American Muslims for Palestine), Hedy Epstein, Hassan Fouda, and a number of others (there were eventually about 20 signatories) sent a statement to coalition members saying:

Dear fellow Move Over AIPAC endorsers,

We are deeply concerned that Helen Thomas has said that she was pressured into withdrawing from speaking at the upcoming Move Over AIPAC conference. This was apparently done at the behest of two anonymous groups, one of which threatened to leave the conference if Helen spoke at the event. It appears that none of the other close to 100 groups endorsing the conference were part of this discussion. Since the Lobby prefers to work in darkness, the objecting parties should not be allowed to remain invisible. Granting them anonymity enables exactly what we oppose.

We are appalled that conference organizers caved to pressure to remove Thomas from the agenda and we call on them to reconsider this decision.

The ADL and associated organizations and individuals have pushed Helen out of numerous previously scheduled lectures, pressured organizations to rename or dissolve journalistic scholarships in her name, and have otherwise committed a sustained assault on one of the nation’s only top journalists willing to oppose the Israel Lobby. Please see the recent CounterPunch article on Helen Thomas by James Abourezk and the article last year by Ralph Nader denouncing the smears and bigotry of anti-Semitism against Arab American, Helen Thomas, that led to the dictated firing of this legendary journalistic pioneer.

We will not stand by and allow this to be done at a conference we are endorsing and whose stated goal is to oppose this very lobby.

We call on Move Over AIPAC to affirm the invitation to Helen Thomas to speak at the upcoming event. As a veteran White House correspondent, Helen has had many years to observe the workings of the Lobby from the inside and can undoubtedly make uniquely salient contributions to the event.

Alison Weir — President of Council for National Interest (CNI)

We invite all conference endorsers of commitment and principle who refuse to see Helen Thomas silenced once again – this time by a project of which we are a part – to join us.

I am pleased that the organizers then re-invited Helen Thomas to speak. I am not surprised that she declined to do so.

Now most of us are moving forward as positively as possible. I am pleased that a number of excellent op-eds relating to the conference have been successfully placed (including by the Washington Report‘s Janet McMahon and by Hedy Epstein), and that the event will most likely be a success.

Nevertheless, the fact that one or two individuals/organizations played a major behind-the-scenes role in the unfortunate episode with Helen Thomas (and probably continue to do so on other aspects) is disturbing.

Once again, very few Palestinian organizations – who probably have the valid worry that they are being used as tokens – are taking part. Even those who have publicly remained as endorsers have withdrawn their active participation.

I am looking forward to a future conference and a movement in which this type of thing doesn’t occur; in which groups with partial commitment do not call the shots, and in which the full diversity of this movement for justice is integrally represented. I feel that time is coming.

Alison Weir, President, If Americans Knew

Reporter Goes “Psycho” at AIPAC

NOVANEWS

Tempers Fly as Israel Takes a Beating for Spying, Rights Abuses

By Gordon Duff, Senior Editor

Several years ago, Steve Rosen, top Bush security advisor, had been arrested for spying for Israel. Charges were mysteriously dropped, even though the nations most vital nuclear secrets had been handed over. Blackmail was suspected involving Bush and male “overnight visitors” at the White House. A few years before, “they” used Monica Lewinsky to go after Clinton, who reacted differently. Bush surrendered to Israel. Clinton held out and was impeached, an unsuccessful attempt by Israel to remove the most popular American president of our era.

Sources indicate that Dick Cheney’s problem was Chandra Levy. She fell victim to a mysterious street crime. “They” is AIPAC and half our government is attending “their” convention in Washington this week. If that could be done to presidents, who could stand against them?

Israel had made lightning “strike twice.” In truth, it has struck hundreds of times, enough to keep congress and most of Washington in a state of terror, fearful of offending Israel. Ever see one of those lists of mysterious deaths, Washington insiders who are shot, blown up, beaten to death or simply disappear?

Rosen became poison, no decent employer would touch him anymore. Thus he went to work for AIPAC, an Israeli organization that claims to “lobby.”

Rosen, a funny, rather charming and quite independent guy, for an accused spy, was fired. Charm and AIPAC don’t get along well. AIPAC claimed they couldn’t have spies working for them, although he had been accused before they hired him. AIPAC is famous for lying. AIPAC is also famous for something else, spying.

Rosen sued. His rationale? “How can I be fired for spying when I was working for a spy organization. They do nothing else, other than look at pornography on computers all day.”

AIPAC does far more than simply bribe congress and organize spies. The greatest part of their spying operations is getting dirt on members of congress, the State Department, CIA, FBI and military. With an army of “rent boys,” hotel maids and call girls on the payroll along with Chandra Levy and Monica Lewinsky types that sometimes end up dead, getting information can be very easy. Watch a modern day “kapo” in action;

YouTube – Veterans Today –

Phil Giraldi, formerly of the CIA, spent much of his life watching America’s national security undermined by traitors, some in the CIA, but more in congress and certain, almost all of the mainstream press with the exception of Helen Thomas. The video above is good reason for Helen Thomas’ “meltdown” on camera. AIPAC employs hundreds of violent and unstable types as seen in the video above, petty criminals, thugs and moral reprobates to ply their trade. If one were to be brutally honest, AIPAC is a combination of Himmler’s GESTAPO with more than a touch of Barnum and Bailey.

Few understood Obama’s speech. When he mentioned “September,” and how the world would be wasting its time condemning Israel, few Americans understood the reference.

What he meant, of course, is that the United Nations is scheduled to vote to condemn Israel as a criminal apartheid state. Israel has been named such and voted by the United Nations as such dozens of times. Each time the United States vetoes passage but Israel gets two votes only, their own and the American veto.

Another video going around shows a small demonstration inside Israel. This is a minor incident, in fact there are more IDF there than demonstrators. There are more people filming than demonstrators. The real question is why was the army called out to deal with a couple of women who became quite hysterical when punched and kicked by Israeli soldiers.

The real point, for those of us who served in the military, is the quality of the troops themselves. We saw the films of the Israeli “commandos” that murdered unarmed civilians on the Mavi Marmara. Former Marine and Veterans Today correspondent, Ken O’Keefe disarmed and captured 3 of them himself.

YouTube – Veterans Today –

We can see the troops are very well equipped. What those of us who have experience in this area notice, however, is that they are poorly trained, and by American standards, unfit. These are weaklings, part of an army that has not seen real combat for 30 years except for an unsuccessful foray against Hizbollah. Israel is protected by a third rate military grown dependent on the “overkill” of advanced American technology which they use, quite generously, on unarmed civilians on a daily basis.

CAPTURED AFTER EXECUTING JOURNALIST

Last week, O’Keefe and his film crew were with peaceful demonstrators inside Gaza. They were fired upon by Israeli snipers shooting from the cover of concrete towers across the border. The week before, Colonel Gaddafi was charged with war crimes at the International Tribunal for Justice at the Hague for the exact same thing. Check out the live combat footage including an American donated Apache helicopter firing Depleted Uranium munitions into civilian demonstrators.

YouTube – Veterans Today –

Reports from Israel indicated that the group in the video above were armed, had missiles and rocket launchers and were in uniform. Israel listed this incident, officially, as a massive terror attack.

Zionist Clinton: More NATO nations must join Libya mission

NOVANEWS

LONDON – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday urged more NATO nations to take an operational role in the air campaign in Libya, and defended her own country’s contribution to the mission.

Speaking ahead of President Barack Obama’s scheduled two-day visit to Britain, Clinton acknowledged that additional support would help put military pressure on Moammar Gadhafi’s regime.

“We have a lot of confidence in what our joint efforts are producing. We would like to see some other of our NATO friends and allies join in with us, in order to make sure that the pressure is maintained consistently,” Clinton told reporters, following talks with British Foreign Secretary William Hague.

Clinton also defended the contribution of the U.S. — which handed control of the mission to NATO in late March — following questions over Obama’s commitment.

“Even today, the United States continues to fly 25 percent of all sorties, we continue to provide the majority of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets,” Clinton said.

NATO said that 13 of its 28 member nations are offering equipment to the 17-nation strong alliance carrying out the air campaign in Libya.

Some British lawmakers have claimed that the U.K. and France have shouldered an unfair burden in the Libya campaign, and called on the U.S. to deploy additional jets in an attempt to increase the pace of airstrikes.

“It’s not our business this week to criticize the role of the United States, which has clearly been crucial — the military tempo has increased in recent weeks and in recent days,” Hague said.

British Prime Minister David Cameron and Obama planned talks Tuesday and Wednesday, including on Libya, Syria and the future of the conflict in Afghanistan.

Cameron told British lawmakers last week that about 400 of the 9,500 British troops in Afghanistan will be withdrawn over the coming year.

Clinton said Britain and the U.S. were in harmony over their approach to Syria after the European Union on Monday imposed an assets freeze and a visa ban on President Bashar Assad and nine other members of his regime. It followed similar action taken by the United States.

“The cruelty must end and the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people must be honored,” Clinton told reporters.

She said London and Washington were “both absolutely consistent on our message to the Assad government: Stop the killings, the beatings, the arrests. Release all political prisoners and detainees. Begin to respond to the demands that are upon you for a process of credible and inclusive democratic change.”

Hague said that until Assad halted his violent crackdown on protesters Britain would work with the U.S. to ratchet up pressure on his regime.

Clinton also insisted that the U.S. was continuing to pursue terrorist targets across the globe following the killing of Osama bin Laden.

“We are determined to continue to press al-Qaida and its affiliates on all fronts, even after killing its leader Osama bin Laden,” she said.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn: The Colonial Predator Legacy

NOVANEWS

By James Petras

The attempted rape and sexual abuse of an African cleaning woman by the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) embodies, in microcosm, the entire historical and contemporary legacy of colonial neo-colonial relations. Efforts to portray this criminal act as an individual obsession or a personal failing or a “Latin idiosyncrasy” fail to take account of the ‘deep history’ in which these psychological pathologies are embedded.

The first clue is evident on the very surface – skin deep – of the antagonists: On the one-hand, a powerful white European politician representing the collective will of an organization representing the global capitalist class, one with the financial resources to severely punish poor and indebted countries that disobey its prejudicial economic fiats; on the other, a single mother, a black working woman from a former French colony in West Africa (Guinea), which was ‘stripped clean’ by the departing French colonial officials for daring to assert its independence and subsequently forced to submit to endless ‘neo-colonial’ economic impositions ensuring its stagnation and subordination.

Was it “lunacy”, as Martin Wolf of the Financial Times would claim, that DSK would throw over a powerful, prestigious post and likely the Presidency of France, for a moment of violent sex? Or was it the playing out, and living through, the historical roles, deeply embedded in the psyche and cultural mores of a descendant and practioner of colonial realities: imposing his sexual demands on a ‘black servant’. No doubt the fact that the cleaning woman spoke French and came from a former French colony, one which had suffered numerous subsequent ‘French’ and IMF impositions, gave the powerful predator the sense of ‘entitlement’ to prey on black flesh, just as so many of his compatriot predecessor officials had done to ‘their’ servants in the course of administrating the colony. No doubt, in more recent times , it is common for top officials from international financial institutions visiting Africa to pad their expense accounts by hiring hookers to “service them,” while they impose austerity policies impoverishing countries and forcing millions to flee overseas in search of menial labor … as cleaning workers in luxury hotels. “Colonial familiarity”, the ‘shared’ language of oppressor and victim – perhaps excited the perverse sexual obsession.

The Colonial Legacy: The Social Psychology of Rape

The history of the European, and later US, colonial conquests, imperial wars and military occupations is a story of plunder, enslavement, exploitation and, above all, assertion of supremacy and power. Profits and pleasure accrue to the big mining and banking executives as well as colonial officials, especially among those in the upwardly mobile middle class who see in their new found power a chance to satisfy the whims and fancies denied them in their ‘home’ cities and among their domestic families and friends.

The absolute power of the colonial administrators allows them to secure total submission from those who are powerless – the single African women isolated from family, friends – before the Courts of Justice and denied equality .The latter is subject to firing, blacklisting, unemployment, intimidation, humiliation and insults for daring to denounce their colonial superiors. These circumstances and relations are reproduced today in all the countries subject to the dictate of the IMF, the Central Bank of Europe and the US Treasury.

Contemporary Neocolonialism: They Come, They Plunder, They Rape

The IMF and their imperial financial accomplices take advantage of the debts and crises of corrupt and complicit rulers to dictate terms for loans. The top officials seize sovereignty and impose economic policies, which privatize and de-nationalize the entire economy, reduce wages and pensions, worsen working conditions and retain a veto on all local economic appointees. The IMF and Central Banks re-colonize the debtor country: All earnings from trade and investment are primarily directed outward and upward. The neo-colonial division of labor involves imperial capital and black labor.

Embedded in this world-historic system of power, the powerful officials of international organizations have the financial and military backing of the US and the EU: the Directors are appointed by Euro-Americans and they enforce the rules of the game by which they prosper. As close collaborators and past and future partners of the private corporate wealthy, and likely political leaders in imperial regimes, the ‘international officials’ live and share the power, wealth, luxury and perks of the very wealth. They fly first class and they stay at the most luxurious suites in 5-star hotels. They are treated by their debtor ‘hosts’ as royalty. Above all, they are used to being obeyed: They expect submission. They believe their whims and perversions are ‘natural outgrowths’ of their ‘healthy appetites’ stimulated by their high-energy travels, frequent meetings and forcible dictates. If the top local officials of a debtor nation submit, who are the cleaning women to object? They should be honored to be chosen “to serve” the makers and breakers of entire economies and the livelihoods of millions.

The Resistance

DSK, the imposing ruler over the major global financial institution, did not expect his sexual advances to be resisted by an immigrant, a former French colonial subject. Initially denied submission, DSK relied on force and violence. Just as when workers and the unemployed launch general strikes and mass protests against IMF-dictated austerity programs, the regimes order the police and armed forces to impose subjection through violence. The black cleaning worker did not struggle and then submit, as too often is the case with workers’ movements. She made her outrage a public issue – she un-masked the violent criminal behavior that lay behind the respectable, affluent facade. She confronted the ruler before the larger democratic public. The public face of international finance capital, the head of the same predatory institution that rapes entire working populations in the name of vacuous euphemisms (“financial stabilization”) is nothing less than a crude crotch grabber – a sleazy lecher.

How many millions of Indo-Chinese and Algerian working-class and peasant women and their descendants, who suffered similar indignities during the French colonial administrations, must now feel vindicated by the simple act of denunciation by the Guinean cleaning woman, so far from Africa, but so close to the hearts of rebellion against the universal injustices inflicted daily by the IMF and its local accomplices!

The Reactions of the Left: the French Socialists)

Not surprisingly, the majority of French “Socialist” opinion has defended DSK and accused his victim, the black African working woman, of being part of a sinister capitalist conspiracy against the principle chosen mouthpiece and enforcer of international capital.

The French Socialist Party has a long and sordid history of supporting bloody colonial wars: Indo-China, Algeria and dozens of military interventions in Africa. Today they support the wars against Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan. As always, there are “dissidents”, left-wingers, “critical” intellectuals and “Trotskyist” factions who speak for the “rights” of the accused, as well the victim, but who looked to DSK, the head of the IMF and his millionaire backers, as their ticket back to the Palace Elysee, the Presidency and the spoils of office.

“Colonial Socialism” in Europe, like “imperial liberalism” in the US, has a long and ignoble history: Both ‘trust’ the word of innocence of an indicted financier over the accusations of an immigrant black cleaning woman, which is not too surprising. They have a history of converting criminals into victims and the victims into criminal… conspirators.

One has only to look at the French Socialists and US Liberals support for Israeli colonialist over the Palestinians “terrorists”; or NATO occupiers against the Afghan resistance; or Tunisian autocrats over pro-democracy protestors.

The fact that sectors of the ‘left’ in France and America can claim DSK as a victim of some ‘elite conspiracy’ is a clear sign of their total and complete degeneracy and the perversion of any semblance of progressive sentiment. Under Strauss-Kahn’s dictates the IMF has imposed the most reactionary social cuts in recent history on Spain, Greece, and Portugal: Unemployment is 45% for under-30 year-olds in Spain and overall 22%; in Greece 16% and Portugal 13%. Pensions have been reduced by 15% and wages by a similar or greater amount. Vast sectors of the Greek economy, valued at 50 billion Euros are to be privatized, as DSK plays to the private multi-nationals. Under IMF austerity policies Southern European economies are regressing – as public investments and private consumption shrink and negative growth rates hover between 5% – 10% over the past 3 years with no end in sight.

If there is any ‘conspiracy’ to frame DSK it certainly does not come from any ‘elite’ or ‘banking cartel’. What is much more likely, is that after the initial jailing and indictment, the financial powers backing DSK will move into action – they have secured his conditional release under bail; the victim and accuser has been subject to intense police interrogation and more ‘media’ and legal pressure can be expected to force her to retract charges. The legal system rarely ever works in favor of working-class victims facing a high powered legal team backing a millionaire predator, especially one who speaks and works for the international capitalist class.

France and Britain to use attack helicopters in Libya

NOVANEWS

Reuters

France and Britain will deploy attack helicopters in Libya, French officials said on Monday, a step aimed at better targeting Muammar Gaddafi’s forces which could help rebels break the stalemate.

Continued shelling of the rebel-held western port of Misrata illustrated the problem facing rebel forces and NATO. Rebels said Gaddafi forces were trying to advance into the long-besieged city under cover of rocket and mortar shells.

Hospital officials said two people were killed and several wounded in Monday’s fighting in Misrata. Later in the day, explosions were heard outside the city, lasting about an hour.

A rebel spokesman said forces loyal to Gaddafi also shelled the rebel-held town of Zintan and massed troops close to another town in the mountainous region bordering Tunisia, intensifying operations on the war’s western front.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in an interview with CBS News, said pressure on Gaddafi was increasing.

“I think we are seeing slow but steady progress. The pressure on the Gaddafi regime has increased to the point that Gaddafi’s wife and daughter fled across the border into Tunisia in the last two days,” she said. “The oil minister has defected.”

“There is an enormous amount of increased messaging going to Gaddafi, not just because of the military strikes but from those who he thought were in his camp or at least wouldn’t try to push him to leave.”

Residents in the capital Libya have heard fewer planes overhead in the last day or two, but a NATO official said bad weather had temporarily hampered NATO air strikes.

Confirming the proposed use of helicopter gunships, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told reporters in Brussels the move was in line with a United Nations resolution to protect Libyan civilians and NATO’s military operations.

“What we want is to better tailor our ability to strike on the ground with ways that allow more accurate hits,” he said.

NATO bombing has damaged Gaddafi’s armour but not enough to break a deadlock between rebels and government forces. While helicopters could make it easier to strike urban targets, they would also be more vulnerable to ground fire.

Britain was also sending helicopters, French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet said, but no other nation planned to follow suit. London was tight-lipped. “We are not in the habit of talking about any new missions we undertake until they are in operation,” a British government spokeswoman said.

The French daily Le Figaro reported 12 helicopters were shipped to Libya on the French warship Tonnerre on May 17.

A U.N. Security Council resolution allows NATO to strike Gaddafi forces in defence of civilians, but it explicitly excludes any military occupation. Critics such as Russia accuse NATO of overstepping their mandate in prosecuting a systematic campaign to force an end to Gaddafi’s 41-year rule.

According to Le Figaro, French special forces, who have been in Libya to identify targets for NATO since the start of air strikes, could now be reinforced to guide helicopter attacks.

MORE RISKY

The use of helicopters would pose additional risks for NATO. Helicopters would fly lower and be more exposed than aircraft flying well above depleted air defences.The downing of helicopters could draw ground forces into rescue efforts.

Intensifying diplomatic activity ahead of a G8 meeting of world powers in France this week, the most senior U.S. diplomat to visit during the uprising arrived in the eastern city of Benghazi for talks with leaders of the rebellion.

Jeffrey Feltman, assistant secretary of state for the Near East, met members of the National Transitional Council formed to administer the eastern regions under rebel control.

Gaddafi describes his opponents as religious extremists, criminals and foreign-backed mercenaries. He says he has no intention of stepping down after the manner of Tunisian and Egyptian autocratic leaders overthrown in an “Arab Spring” of democratic protest that swept the Middle East.

Zio-Nazi court sentences teen to 6 months

NOVANEWS

Zio-Nazi 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.

Villagers have demonstrated every Friday since 2005 to protest against the wall, which runs deep inside the West Bank and confiscates around 60 percent of Bil’in’s land.

The village has become a symbol of non-violent protests in the West Bank, and hosts annual conferences on non-violent resistance.

The Zio-Nazi military regularly shuts down the rallies, firing tear-gas canisters and sound grenades, and conducts frequent night raids to detain teenagers and protest organizers from the village.

Father of Turkish-American flotilla victim to sue Zio-Nazi's in US court

NOVANEWS

The father of a Turkish-American man killed last year in an Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla will file a compensation case against the Israeli government Tuesday in the United States, his lawyer has said.

“We will open a compensation case against Israel and we’ll declare this at a press conference tomorrow [Tuesday] in front of the U.S. Capitol,” Ramazan Arıtürk, a lawyer for the Humanitarian Relief Foundation, or İHH, which organized the ill-fated flotilla, told the Hürriyet Daily News on Monday.

The declaration will come after the lawyers meet with officials from the U.S. Department of Justice as well as U.S. senators and congressmen on the issue, the lawyer said.

The Israeli raid May 31, 2010, killed nine people aboard the Mavi Marmara, including Furkan Doğan, an American of Turkish descent, and eight Turkish citizens.

“Furkan is an American citizen. He was martyred in international waters. The United States has not taken any action against Israel over the past year. The legal procedures launched by U.S. authorities have not reached any result,” Hüseyin Oruç, an İHH board member and the spokesman for a new flotilla set to sail to Gaza next month, told the Daily News.

He declined to comment on the amount of compensation that is being sought, saying this would be set by Doğan’s father, Ahmet, who is currently in the United States along with a group of lawyers.

Eight other compensation cases for the other victims will be opened in Turkey “very soon,” Arıtürk said.

Last year, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan criticized the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama for remaining silent on the death of an American citizen. “We are protecting the rights of our eight martyrs. The United States is not taking care of Furkan, its own citizen. Is it because of his Turkish origin?” Erdoğan said.

Despite calls from the U.S. for Ankara to block the new flotilla from setting off for Gaza in late June, İHH officials ruled out any Turkish government interference to prevent the trip.

“There has been no interference from the Turkish government so far. We are insistently saying that this is a civil-society initiative and İHH is only one of 22 separate [groups involved], including those from a wide range of countries, from Indonesia to Canada,” Oruç said.

In remarks published in daily Bugün, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said the second flotilla was a civil-society initiative. “There are also citizens from other countries [set to be onboard],” he added, but repeated that the government might advise the İHH not to go.

“All the teams are very much determined. These are civilian vessels and carry nothing threatening Israel’s security,” Oruç said. “Israel has not yet given an account of what it did last year despite significant reports released by the U.N. We believe Israel will not repeat the same mistake because any action aimed at stopping the flotilla will receive an enormous amount of reaction from the world.”

This year 25 vessels will set out carrying 1,500 activists, up from six vessels and 700 activists last year. The İHH will be represented by 100 activists. One ship is expected to set out from New York on Saturday and all the vessels of the flotilla will meet in the Mediterranean before steering for Gaza.

A ceremony will be held May 30 at Istanbul’s central Taksim Square to commemorate victims of last year’s raid. According to Oruç, the event will be attended by the international participants in this year’s flotilla.

Attack on naval base precursor of threats to nukes

NOVANEWS

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Imran Khan Monday said that the attacks on the key naval base could be a precursor to further such attacks on our strategic assets including Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

He stated this on Monday, while reacting to Sunday’s night Karachi tragedy in which 11 personnel of Pakistan Navy and four of the terrorists perished besides destruction of two high-tech aircraft in PNS.

“At a time when our internal security stands compromised due to hundreds of Raymond Davises roaming the streets of Pakistan with an international agenda to declare Pakistan a failed state, the Mir Jaffars and Mir Sadiqs ruling Pakistan are bending over backwards to destroy the country to remain in power on foreign crutches,” he observed.

The PTI chairman said that the massive participation of people from all walks of life in the PTI sit-in (Dharna) at Karachi is proof of the fact that the people of Pakistan are united in their efforts to regain the lost national sovereignty. They want to bring an end to the murderous drone attacks, and stop the double-faced politics practiced by the ruling party and the so-called opposition in parliament, he added.

The Karachi Dharna condemns the continuing drone attacks in the face of the Joint Resolution of the Parliament which was yet another attempt to hoodwink the people by the incumbent rulers, fully aided and abetted by a complicit opposition.

Meanwhile, PTI passed a resolution during a Dharna held in Karachi against drone attacks that demands the resignation of the government for its failure to protect the fundamental rights of the people including the right to life and security, PTI leaders stated.

PTI reiterated to free Pakistan from foreign domination and the stooges that rule Pakistan. It also demanded the cancellation of all 7,000 visas issued without security clearance and the expulsion of all private US security contractors within 7 days. “If the government fails to expel the private security contractors within one week, the PTI would expose the residences of the private security contractors in all major cities of Pakistan,” it warned.

PTI resolved to block NATO supply routes in different parts of the country without any prior notice. The PTI would hold a national convention in Islamabad to unite and mobilize all segments of the society against the present government, the resolution added.

The PTI calls on the Army Generals to live up to their oath to protect the life and property of Pakistanis against any foreign force that breaches the sovereignty.

The PTI also warned to hold a Dharna for an indefinite period in front of the Parliament in Islamabad. The date of the Dharna would be announced soon, the PTI sources said.

Zionist right mocks Obama’s rapid submission to Netanyahu

NOVANEWS

Saleh Naami

Jewish settler leaders were moved to express their satisfaction with Barack Obama’s Middle East speech at the AIPAC annual conference, going as far as inviting the US president to join the leadership of their association.

Benny Katzover, longtime leader of the West Bank settlement movement, said that the speech didn’t just represent a victory for Israel, but it was also a great statement of support to the concept of settlement and to the “entrenchment of Jewish presence” in the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Golan.

In an interview with Israel’s Channel Seven, Katzover explained that Obama’s honest and clear mention of the necessity to take into consideration the demographic shifts taking place in the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Golan after 1967 gives legitimacy to Israel’s right to keep Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and supports without reservation the Jewish right to reinforce the settlement project as a whole and the Judaisation of Jerusalem. In his speech, Obama implied his support for Jerusalem to be the eternal and unified capital for the Jewish people, said Katzover.

In its turn, Israeli Radio, reporting in Hebrew, said Sunday night that one of Banjamin Netanyahu’s aides said that Obama’s AIPAC speech showed that Netanyahu’ firmness and determination forced the US president to back down from his statements in last Thursday’s Middle East speech that had angered Israel.

The aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Netanyahu is now able to return to his country with pride and veneration after demonstrating his capability of saying no to the president of a foreign country, even if it was the most powerful country in the world and Israel’s biggest ally.

On another note, many writers and intellectuals of the Israeli right were sarcastic at the speed by which Obama backed down.

In his column in Israeli daily Ma’ariv, writer Arel Segal criticised circles in the Israeli left who had been against Netanyahu’s aggressive stance towards Obama. Netanyahu, he said, had proved that he is worthy of representing Israeli interests, as proven by Obama’s capitulation to him.

Netanyahu at AIPAC: IsraHeLl not Mideast’s problem

NOVANEWS

PM tells AIPAC recent Mideast developments prove regional problems not rooted in Israel. ‘Israel is what’s right about Middle East,’ he says; reiterates ‘Israel cannot return to the indefensible 1967 lines’

WASHINGTON – The State of Israel is not the root of the Middle East’s problem and must not be blamed for the region’s troubles, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the AIPAC conference early Tuesday (Israel Time).

“Israel’s not what’s wrong with the Middle East. Israel is what’s right about the Middle East,” he said to the cheering audience.

Israel and the US “have forged an enduring friendship not merely between our governments but between our peoples. Support for Israel doesn’t divide America. It unites America.”

Netanyahu further stressed that Israel could not return to the “indefensible” 1967 lines, telling the pro-Israel lobbying group that his coming speech before Congress will outline his own vision for an eventual peace between Israel and the Palestinians. “It must leave Israel with security, and therefore Israel cannot return to the indefensible 1967 lines,” he said.

The prime minister said recent events in the Middle East are making it clear that the region’s problems are not rooted in Israel. Referring to various regional countries, he said that the problems of citizens there have nothing to do with Israel.

“They are thinking of freedom,” he said. “It’s time to stop blaming Israel for all the region’s problems,” he said.

For full coverage of the Obama-Netanyahu meeting and speeches click here

While peace with the Palestinians is a “vital interest” for Israel, it will not resolve problems throughout the Middle East, the PM said. “What will do that is democracy,” he added.

At the beginning of his speech, PM Netanyahu thanked the Jewish lobby members for the “staunch support” they offer the Jewish State. “Israel is America’s indispensible ally,” the prime minister said.

Highlighting Israel’s uniqueness in the Middle East, Netanyahu said that the Jewish State is the only place that offers Christians in the region full freedom of worship.

“Only Israel can be trusted to ensure freedom for all faiths,” he said: “This is why Israel’s more than one million Muslim citizens enjoy full democratic rights. This is why the only place in the Middle East where Christians are completely free to practice their faith is in the democratic State of Israel. And this is why only Israel can be trusted to ensure freedom for all faiths in our eternal capital, the united city of Jerusalem.”

Stressing the strong ties between the two countries, the PM noted that the friendship between the nations is not only limited to the political leaderships but encompasses the people as well. Netanyahu highlighted the cooperation between Israel and the US on many fronts, especially stressing the anti-missile Iron Dome system’s success.

He thanked US President Barack Obama for the US’ assistance in maintaining Israel’s military edge: “I want to thank the President and Congress for providing Israel with vital assistance so that Israel can defend itself by itself,” he said.

Addressing the economic ties between the countries, Netanyahu noted that in recent years Israeli companies invested more than $50 billion dollars in the US.

He further noted Israel and the US’ wide-range cooperation in the medical and energy fields, saying that if the joint efforts to find a substitute to fuel come to fruition “we can change history.”