"Reconciliation" of the Crooks

Please Welcome the President of the New "Palestinian State".....
Which Obama Will Admit to the UN Next Year.
Mickey Mouse Declined the Offer to be President....
He Will Stay in Disneyland.


With the "Reconciliation" of the Crooks Imminent....
Barney is My Last Hope!
Go.....Barney!

Al-Jazeera Video: Arabs face discrimination in Israel

"Discrimination faced by Palestinians living within Israel's borders remains one of the key sticking points in Middle East peace talks.

Umm al-Fahm is a town made up almost entirely of Palestinian Israelis - those who found themselves within the new border when Israel was created in 1948.

Israel's declaration of independence, the equivalent of a constitution, states that all citizens are equal but the one-fifth of the population who are Palestinian, believe they are less equal than others.

Al Jazeera's Dan Nolan reports from Umm al-Fahm, Israel."

Video: Full Length Interview with Ali Abunimah

Dissecting Obama's UN speech
AN EXCELLENT SHORT INTERVIEW

Video: Gaza Aid Convoy Leaves Milan.

Press TV

Obama Knows the War is Dumb, but Prefers Power Over Peace

by Ray McGovern, September 25, 2010

"One thing that comes through clearly in Bob Woodward’s new book, Obama’s Wars, is the contempt felt by Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, toward President Barack Obama.

One of Woodward’s more telling vignettes has Petraeus, after quaffing a glass of wine during a flight in May, telling some of his staff that the administration was "[expletive] with the wrong guy."

No need to divine precisely what may be the "expletive deleted." Petraeus’s Douglas-MacArthur-style contempt for the commander-in-chief comes through clearly enough. But Obama is no Harry Truman, facing down a popular general who may fancy himself a future president.

Pity poor Obama.....

Yet, wooden-headedness prevails. On Thursday, Adm. Mullen attempted to reassure the press about Afghanistan, stating that although "this is a very, very difficult year, we’ve got the inputs right" and "we’re starting to move forward."

For his part, Defense Secretary Gates expressed full confidence in the current approach and predicted only "some adjustments and tweaks" during a planned December war review "to try and enhance what’s going on."

God help us! "

'We were looking for a nice, peaceful place near Jerusalem'

If the construction of settlements in the West Bank is meant to be on hold, why are Israeli buyers being offered new properties on Palestinian land at knock-down prices?

Rachel Shabi
The Guardian, Saturday 25 September 2010

"The housing project currently under construction in Almon offers enticingly priced, spacious family homes with a garden and a view. The surrounding neighbourhood, also known as Anatot, sits on a ridge overlooking the Judean hills, near Jerusalem, a blaze of cultivated greenery in the parched landscape. Residents have a relaxed air, and newcomers who have recently relocated from Jerusalem wish they'd made the move years ago. If I were a prospective house-buyer, I'd be charmed. But I would not be looking here – because Almon is in the occupied West Bank.....

How hard would it really be to divert funds from the occupied West Bank back into Israel, thus encouraging settlers to move back – especially from somewhere like Almon, where residents have already said they will relocate if political realities dictate that they should?....."

Ahmadinejad and the 9/11 attacks

Surveys show large segments of the world population agree with the Iranian leader's "US government involvement" claims.

Al-Jazeera

"Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, has again managed to steal the global spotlight, after levelling a series of rhetorical attacks on the US and Israel - the "Zionist entity" in his words - during an address to the UN General Assembly.

Specifically, he told world leaders on Thursday that the "majority of the American people, as well as most nations and politicians around the world agree" that "some segments within the US government orchestrated" the September 11, 2001, attacks in order to "reverse the declining American economy" and to justify US military operations in the Middle East to "save the Zionist regime".

Western diplomats, including the US, Canada and the 27-member EU bloc, walked out during the tirade. PJ Crowley, the US assistant secretary of state, told Al Jazeera that the statement was "totally outrageous".

But, for better or worse, significant segments of the world's population are sympathetic to Ahmadinejad's "conspiratorial" view of the 9/11 attacks which killed about 3,000 people....."

حماس وفتح تتفقان على المصالحة

Isn't This Sweet?

Is This Next?

Palestinians in new bid for unity

Hamas and Fatah officials meet in Syria in their latest attempt to restart reconciliation talks that stalled in October.

Current Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Online Poll

The poll asks:

Do you agree with Ahmadinejad's charges that Washington was involved in the 9-11 attacks?

With over 1,700 responding so far, 83% said yes.

Obama UN Speech on Mideast Talks "Filled With Empty Words"–Palestinian Attorney Diana Buttu

Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman






"President Obama makes the Israel Palestine conflict the centerpiece of his address to the UN General Assembly. Urging the international community to support his plan for peace, the President called on Palestinians to move ahead with "genuine reconciliation" with Israel and said Israel should extend it’s "settlement moratorium" We speak with attorney Diana Buttu, a former advisor to Palestinian negotiators...."

It's Obama vs infinite war

By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times

"The key - one may say tragic - point of Bob Woodward’s latest court opus Obama's Wars is that the United States president not only cannot end the Afghan war, he cannot even downscale it without incurring blowback. Even if Barack Obama is seriously betting on his exit strategy, the Pentagon wants infinite war. The corporate media-orchestrated narrative will never tell us why...."

Why Mitchell Said 'No': Hamas is Not Ready to be 'Engaged'

By Ramzy Baroud
Palestine Chronicle

"....Abbas, despite his authority’s lack of legitimacy and shrinking popularity among Palestinians, remains the best option of a ‘Palestinian leadership’ as far as the US is concerned. He is flexible, both morally and politically. His Authority’s bread and butter are US funds and US-Western political validation. Abbas gleaned from the Gaza experience that popular democracy is worthless in the age of draconian sieges and Blitzkriegs. In fact he used both the siege and the Israel war on Gaza to strengthen his political stance and to bargain with the US. But his language and action will remain predictable.....

In order for Hamas to become politically manageable, from the US point of view, it would have to depart from these commitments, and become as politically flexible, predictable and controllable as Fatah and Abbas. The US can only work with a weak Palestinian leadership which it can easily manipulate. Hamas, thus far, doesn’t fit the criterion, thus the lack of any prospect of ‘engagement’, and the continued betting on Abbas and Netanyahu, despite the predictable - and possibly disastrous - outcome of their talks."

Our Next Wars: Yemen and Somalia

America’s clandestine activities in both nations only provoke the conflicts they are meant to prevent

By Philip Giraldi

"....So what do these countries have in common? They are frontline states in the burgeoning but still secret phase three of the Global War on Terror being planned by the Pentagon and spy agencies with the concurrence of the Barack Obama White House. Those who thought there might be some kind of peace dividend with the Democrats holding the presidency can bid those thoughts goodbye. The administration is clearly thinking beyond Afghanistan (and even Iran), anticipating the next battlefronts in Yemen and Somalia. It is assiduously gathering resources to enter the fray, including setting up business fronts that can be used by covert operatives...."

After the journey — a UN man’s open letter to Tony Blair

Hans von Sponeck, UN humanitarian co-ordinator from 1998-2000, demands answers from the former prime minister to a simple question: Why is Iraq in such a mess?

By Hans von Sponeck
New Statesman

"....My predecessor in Baghdad, Denis Halliday, and I were repeatedly barred from testifying to the Security Council. On one occasion, the US and UK governments, in a joint letter to the secretary general, insisted that we did not have enough experience with sanctions and therefore could not contribute much to the debate. You were scared of the facts.

We live in serious times, which you helped bring about. The international security architecture is severely weakened, the UN Security Council fails to solve crises peacefully, and there are immense double standards in the debate on the direction our world is travelling in. A former British prime minister - "a big player, a world leader and not just a national leader", as you describe yourself in your book - should find little time to promote his "journey" on a US talk show. You decided differently. I watched this show, and a show it was. You clearly felt uncomfortable. Everything you and your brother-in-arms, Bush, had planned for Iraq has fallen apart, the sole exception being the removal of Saddam Hussein. You chose to point to Iran as the new danger....."

Is Gideon Levy the most hated man in Israel or just the most heroic?

For three decades, the writer and journalist Gideon Levy has been a lone voice, telling his readers the truth about what goes on in the Occupied Territories.

A GOOD, LONG INTERVIEW

Interview by Johann Hari
The Independent

"Gideon Levy is the most hated man in Israel – and perhaps the most heroic. This “good Tel Aviv boy” – a sober, serious child of the Jewish state – has been shot at repeatedly by the Israeli Defence Force, been threatened with being “beaten to a pulp” on the country’s streets, and faced demands from government ministers that he be tightly monitored as “a security risk.” This is because he has done something very simple, and something that almost no other Israeli has done. Nearly every week for three decades, he has travelled to the Occupied Territories and described what he sees, plainly and without propaganda. “My modest mission,” he says, “is to prevent a situation in which many Israelis will be able to say, ‘We didn’t know.’” And for that, many people want him silenced.

The story of Gideon Levy – and the attempt to deride, suppress or deny his words – is the story of Israel distilled...."

Feuds in Obama's Wars are not just soap opera

Coalition soldiers and Afghan civilians are dying daily – as an insecure Obama fails to exert discipline over a sordid tug-of-war

A GOOD COMMENT

Peter Beaumont
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 23 September 2010
"....What the latest disclosures have achieved is to flesh out the deeply dispiriting picture painted during the summer – of a dysfunctional team at war with itself. They describe a president, deeply insecure about his military inexperience, who – despite his denials – was "jammed" by the Pentagon in 2009 into authorising a controversial surge in Afghanistan. Whose only options, provided by the Pentagon to consider, were whether he should increase troop numbers by 30,000 or 40,000.

Taken together, the sum of the recent disclosures suggests strongly that Obama's weak personal leadership in the debate over his Afghan policy has created a climate in which feuds between his senior advisers have been allowed to breed to toxic and damaging levels. For what is most fascinating about the disclosures from Obama's Wars is how they supply the context for much that has happened in the last year.....

What seems clear, even before the details of Woodward's book began to leak out, is that it is a battle that is far from over, with General Petraeus, McChrystal's replacement, even this week manoeuvring to throw cold water on early plans for a draw-down in Afghanistan.

But in the pathology of these things, the feuds at the heart of Obama's Afghanistan policy are simply symptoms. One expects towering egos and conflicts of ideas, arguments and rivalries – some over policy and some borne out of personality or shared history. The real problem, it is increasingly apparent, lies not with the subsidiary personalities but is located at the very top, resting in Obama's inability to bring any kind of real discipline to this feuding team, protected as some are by senior figures within his administration, including his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton....

Most damaging of all, if it is clear that the strategy for Afghanistan barely enjoys the support of those tasked with drawing it up, then how possibly can it be sold to anybody else, not least the long-suffering people of Afghanistan?"

Al-Jazeera Video: Dissecting Obama's UN speech

Palestinian-American journalist (Ali Abunimah) says president should be judged by Middle East actions.



"Barack Obama, the US president, has urged countries in the United Nations to get behind Middle East peace efforts in an address at the UN General Assembly.

But Ali Hasan Abunimah, a Palestinian-American journalist and co-founder of Electronic Intifada, an independent website about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said Obama's speech did not represent anything new.

"That bodes very ill for the peace process that he's so invested in," Abunimah told Al Jazeera's Shihab Rattansi, speaking from the US state of Indiana.

"Let's judge him not by what he says, but what he does.""

Terry Jones and the Qur'an, by Emad Hajjaj

Terry Jones: "I don't need to burn the Qur'an. The Muslims are doing that and more to themselves (in their sectarian fights between Sunnis and Shiites)"

Obama: Black Skin White Mask

Ali Abunimah

When Obama spoke of "the young girl in Gaza who wants to have no ceiling on her dreams" I thought of her (graphic)

In his speech to the UN General Assembly on 23 September, U.S. President Barack Obama had a throwaway line typical of folksy American campaign speeches to justify why "this time" the so-called "peace process" would be different:

This time, we will think not of ourselves, but of the young girl in Gaza who wants to have no ceiling on her dreams, or the young boy in Sderot who wants to sleep without the nightmare of rocket fire.

When he uttered those words, this was the image that came to my mind. It is of the body of a young girl from the al-Daya family dug out of the rubble after her family's home was destroyed by an Israeli bombing on 6 January 2009.

This young girl and all the other hundreds of children slaughtered by Israel in cold blood with American-supplied weapons. Of course if Mr. Obama did care about the children of Gaza, he would have stood at the UN podium and demanded that the war crimes and crimes against humanity that the Goldstone Report alleges Israel committed be fully investigated and those responsible brought to justice. What he would not do is what he did -- stand there and utter cheap words, even having the chutzpah to tell people not to "tear Israel down" as if those who demand justice and accountability were simply schoolyard bullies picking on a blameless but unpopular student.

Obama, who often uses his own daughters to score political points and pander, once inserted them in a speech to the Israel lobby AIPAC. He recalled a January 2006 visit to the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona near the border with Lebanon that resembled an ordinary American suburb where he could imagine the sounds of Israeli children at "joyful play just like my own daughters." It was in that particular speech that he justified Israel's 2006 bombing of Lebanon as "self-defense" just as he justifies every Israeli massacre of civilians as "self-defense."

He has never -- as far as we know -- imagined his daughters as Palestinian or Lebanese children (or Iraqi, or Afghan, or Somali, or Pakistani) victimized by the weapons his administration supplies to Israel and other rogue states or drops from the sky. Quite naturally, no parent, anywhere in the world, would want to imagine their daughter or son going through what children in Gaza suffer and have suffered as a result of Israel's illegal blockade -- itself a crime against humanity -- let alone its regular massacres of civilians whose only crime is that they don't belong to the privileged group under Israel's system of apartheid and racialism
.

Abbas Meets With Leaders of American Jewish Community

Calls Prime Minister Netanyahu “My Partner in Our Quest for Peace,” Addresses Settlement Moratorium, Security, Incitement, Hamas, Right of Return, Anti-Semitism

THIS IS A MUST READ!
(Scroll down for more new posts)


"New York, NY—The S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace hosted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for dinner on Tuesday, September 21, 2010, with over 50 top leaders of the American Jewish community and former American administration officials. The dinner, hosted by Center founder and chairman Dan Abraham and Center president Robert Wexler at the Plaza Hotel, was organized at the request of Abbas, following a dinner hosted by the Center with Abbas and Jewish leaders in Washington DC in May.....

Abbas stipulated that “we accept the state of a demilitarized Palestine,” and expressed his willingness to allow Jewish soldiers to participate in a third-party security force within Palestinian territory. When asked if he is willing to compromise on the right of return for Palestinian refugees, Abbas said, “We have to discuss it. We have a problem.....

When asked about the likelihood of Prime Minister Netanyahu not extending the settlement construction moratorium, Abbas said, “I cannot say I will leave the negotiations.....

In response to a question about recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, Abbas said, “If the Israeli people want to name themselves whatever they want, they are free to do so.” He said he would accept Israel’s characterization as a Jewish state if the Israeli Knesset voted to designate the state as such. Abbas reiterated the Jewish people’s historical connection to the Middle East, as well as the historical tragedy of the Holocaust.....

Abbas expressed his understanding of Israel’s security concerns, and how those concerns are shared by Palestinians. “We know the Israelis want to live inside their borders, inside secure borders, they want their families to feel that they are secure, no suicide bombers, I know that they want peace and they want security. If you ask me how that in three or four years until now no single event comes from the West Bank, why? I’ll tell you it’s because we decided to cooperate with the Israeli side, and we prevent anybody from doing anything against Israel, because the security of Israel is our security,” Abbas said. “The goal of maintaining law and order is in Palestinians’ interest.”.

Abbas emphasized the importance of the Arab Peace Initiative, which offers full diplomatic recognition of Israel by the countries of the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference once peace is reached with the Palestinians. “We are not only looking for a peace between the Palestinians and Israelis, we are looking for a peace with all the Arab and all the Muslims,” Abbas said. “We are working very hard on this.”....."

US Businessman: Blackwater Paid Me to Buy Steroids and Weapons on Black Market for its Shooters

A Texas businessman who has worked extensively in Iraq claims that Blackwater paid him to purchase steroids and other drugs for its operatives in Baghdad, as well as more than 100 AK47s and massive amounts of ammunition on Baghdad's black market. Howard Lowry, who worked in Iraq from 2003-2009, also claims that he personally attended Blackwater parties where company personnel had large amounts of cocaine and blocks of hashish and would run around naked. At some of these parties, Lowry alleges, Blackwater operatives would randomly fire automatic weapons from their balconies into buildings full of Iraqi civilians. Lowry described the events as a "frat party gone wild" where "drug use was rampant." Lowry says he was told by Blackwater personnel that some of the men using the steroids he purchased were on the security detail of L. Paul Bremer, the original head of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). Lowry also claims that Blackwater's owner Erik Prince tried to enlist his help to win contracts for Blackwater with the Iraqi government using an off-shore security company, Greystone, which Prince owns. The purpose, Lowry says, was to conceal Greystone's relationship to Blackwater.

Bill Clinton's 'Russian immigrants are obstacle to peace' comment draws fire in Israel

Foreign Policy magazine quoted Clinton as saying that Russian immigrants are the Israelis least interested in a peace deal with Palestinians. "They've just got there, it's their country, they've made a commitment to the future there," Clinton said. "They can't imagine any historical or other claims that would justify dividing it."

"An increasing number of the young people in the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] are the children of Russians and settlers, the hardest-core people against a division of the land. This presents a staggering problem," Clinton told a roundtable with press in New York. "It's a different Israel. Sixteen percent of Israelis speak Russian."

Lessons of resistance from southern Lebanon

Hasan Abu Nimah, The Electronic Intifada, 23 September 2010

"......Much of the equipment left behind by Israel and its collaborators is now exhibited at a museum housed in a former Hizballah command center in the village of Mlita, in the heart of southern Lebanon.

I was in Mlita last week. From that hilltop, one can see occupied Palestine very close across the border fence. While there were thousands of Lebanese families and foreign tourists inspecting Israeli military debris, which included tanks, artillery, ammunition, helmets, boots, small arms, jeeps and lots more, and joyfully posing for photos on top of the displayed equipment, there was no sign of movement on the Israeli side....

For the first time in the history of Arab-Israeli wars, an Israeli military victory was not matched by any political gain.

The 1982 invasion was the war which marked the end of Israeli military power as an effective tool for imposing political realities. Since then, Israel has used brute military force without limits, as it did against Lebanon in 1996 and 2006, and against Gaza in 2008-2009. But Israel's atrocities and massacres offer at best a reprieve from whatever problem it is trying to "solve" while its standing, legitimacy and deterrent power continue a long and steady decline.

When the Israeli invaders withdrew from most of Lebanon in 1983, Israel decided to keep a so-called "security zone" of roughly ten kilometers inside Lebanese territory. This was policed by the SLA, created and financed by Israel with Lebanese collaborators. Israel later envisaged the Palestinian Authority's security apparatus along the same lines -- a local native militia meant to serve and protect the occupier and relieve the Israeli army as much as possible of the burden of occupation. But it was the local Lebanese resistance that foiled Israeli plans, and this is what the museum at Mlita commemorates and celebrates....."

Mixed Weddings, by Emad Hajjaj

Groom-to-be: "Forget about the nauseating politics, tell me what is the latest about the wedding?"

Bride-to-be: "I have just received some bad news, love. If we hold a mixed wedding, the Islamists will boycott it!"

Al-Jazeera Video: Witness - Nablus Workers

"The third film in the series 'The Business of Occupation' looks at how the Israeli occupation impacts the workers of Nablus."

Al-Jazeera Video: East Jerusalem clash turns deadly

"A Palestinian has been killed after a Jewish settlement guard opened fire at a group of men in an Arab neighbourhood of East Jerusalem.

The incident occurred after clashes broke out between Jewish settlers and a number of local Palestinians in the Silwan neighbourhood, Al Jazeera's Dan Nolan reports from Jerusalem."

Real News Video with Transcript: Gaza-Bound Convoy Leaves UK

Bashi: While Israel eased Gaza closure, only 40% of imports enter, and export is banned

Activists face broad PA crackdown in West Bank

Nora Barrows-Friedman, The Electronic Intifada, 22 September 2010

""The Palestinian Authority (PA) forces came late at night and started shooting inside the camp," Shihab said. "They came in, shooting, acting like the Israeli military. They wanted to make the people afraid. Everyone went to the main street and started throwing stones, because people thought they were the Israelis, not the PA forces."

Shihab, who didn't want to give his last name, is a spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Marxist-Leninist political party, in Dheisheh refugee camp in southern Bethlehem in occupied West Bank. He told The Electronic Intifada that in the last few weeks, the PA's security services have been waging a campaign of intimidation and violence inside Dheisheh, intent on what he called "destroying the unity and community within the camp."....

Shihab said that the PFLP's responsibility now is to protect everyone in the Dheisheh refugee camp community. "We operate within the refugees' culture, and we support each other regardless of political beliefs or affiliation," he said. "When [al-Qassam Brigades leader] Iyad Asad Abu Shelbaya was assassinated in Tulkarem by Israeli forces, where was the PA for the security they're talking about? Everyone in our community understands that their version of security is the security of the occupation, not the security of the Palestinians. Where is the PA to defend us?"

He added, "where was the PA a month ago, when the Israeli army came into the camp to destroy houses? Where are they every night when [the Israeli army] comes in to arrest people?" Taking a sip of coffee, Shihab said, "They will never succeed at destroying the unity within the refugee camps. We will remain unified.""

Demonizing Hezbollah; A Déjà Vu Prior To 1982 Invasion of Lebanon

AN IMPORTANT ANALYSIS

Al-Manar

"Between theory and practice, calming down the deteriorating political situation in Lebanon could determine the fate of the country, and even the region.

What had started as a debate on whether false witnesses in the Rafiq Hariri murder case existed or not, whether the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) was politicized or not, or even whether Israel was behind the assassination or not, has turned into political wrangling and tense rhetoric.

Worse, March 14 bloc members have taken their speech to a more dangerous sectarian level....

NEXT INVASION?

Playing on the sectarian chord has proved to be the most effective way to keep a people divided; it’s been tried in Lebanon before, and the 1982 invasion came as civil war was reaching its peak.

The STL today is under Hezbollah’s microscope until it proves it is handling the Hariri assassination case properly, in light of the provided evidence that point to Israel, the persecution of the false witnesses who deluded the investigation for five years, and the upcoming indictment.
“If the indictment echoed the Der Spiegel report, this will mark the beginning of a US-Israeli invasion similar to that of 1982. Every invasion necessitates a proper confrontation. The objective of the 1982 invasion was the May 17, 1983 agreement and the new invasion, should it happen, aims at a new May 17 agreement which we will categorically refuse. When Lebanon comes under invasion, the resistance has an obligation to defend the country,” Hezbollah MP Nawaf Moussawi said in a televised interview Wednesday.

Pending the outcome of the tripartite Arab efforts and the indictment, Hezbollah sees no possible settlement to the political deterioration in Lebanon. Calm, amid incitement and sectarian mobilization by some March 14 officials, could only be a temporary solution.

The ultimate solution for Hezbollah is to stop targeting the resistance.

With Israel preparing for worst case scenarios, the US striking multi-billion dollar arms deals with Gulf States, and US-Israeli threats to strike Iran are on the rise, the sectarian rhetoric by some March 14 officials in Lebanon is giving US-Israeli warmongers the strategic advantage, the power and the needed spark to enflame the region. "

The Terrorism Fraud

by Philip Giraldi, September 23, 2010

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

Fear of terrorism has been exploited by those who seek a hegemonistic role for the United States. To be sure, 9/11 was a horrific event and subsequent terror attacks in London, Madrid, Moscow, and Bombay were reminders that there will always be individuals and groups prepared to sacrifice their own lives to kill at random for a cause. But the horror of a terror attack should be placed in context and should not be allowed to justify actions on the part of government that are even more damaging in the long term. In the United States, that is precisely what has happened.

Terrorism has been the justification for the two Patriot Acts and the Military Commissions Act that have gutted key parts of the Bill of Rights; the creation of an all-powerful unitary executive in the person of the US president; the exploitation of state-secrets privilege to cover-up government wrongdoing; and the evolution of a security state in which individual rights to privacy are constantly assailed by a government intent on collecting more and more information on each citizen....."

EU shares responsibility for PA persecution of its people

By Khalid Amayreh in Ramallah

"The European Union (EU) is considered the main donor and bankroller of the Palestinian Authority (PA), an entity that more or less lives off European' tax payers. Hence, the EU is supposed to have certain leverage on PA domestic policies, including the extent to which the Ramallah-based government is committed to human rights and civil liberties.

Unfortunately, the EU has done next to nothing in terms of urging the PA to conform with internationally-observed human rights standards. The fact that the PA, a virtual police state without a state, continues to be a serious human rights violator, shows that the EU may not really be sufficiently concerned about the status of human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territories.

In recent months and weeks, the PA seriously stepped up its human rights violations, including arbitrary arrests, provocative raids on homes and business of ideological rivals, and torture....."

THE IRAQ WAR -- PART I: The U.S. Prepares for Conflict, 2001

U.S. Sets "Decapitation of Government" As Early Goal of Combat

The National Security Archive

"Washington, D.C., September 22, 2010 – Following instructions from President George W. Bush to develop an updated war plan for Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered CENTCOM Commander Gen. Tommy Franks in November 2001 to initiate planning for the “decapitation” of the Iraqi government and the empowerment of a “Provisional Government” to take its place.

Talking points for the Rumsfeld-Franks meeting on November 27, 2001, released through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), confirm that policy makers were already looking for ways to justify invading Iraq – as indicated by Rumsfeld’s first point, “Focus on WMD.”

This document shows that Pentagon policy makers cited early U.S. experience in Afghanistan to justify planning for Iraq’s post-invasion governance in order to achieve their strategic objectives: “Unlike in Afghanistan, important to have ideas in advance about who would rule afterwards.”

Rumsfeld’s notes were prepared in close consultation with senior DOD officials Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith. Among other insights, the materials posted today by the National Security Archive shed light on the intense focus on Iraq by high-level Bush administration officials long before the attacks of 9/11, and Washington’s confidence in perception management as a successful strategy for overcoming public and allied resistance to its plans.

This compilation further shows....

السلطة الفلسطينية وتأييد الاستيطان

A Very Good Analysis by One of My Favorite Palestinian Thinkers
Dr. Abdul-Sattar Qassem

"فوجئ مذيع إحدى المحطات التلفزيونية عندما قلت له في إحدى المقابلات إن السلطة الفلسطينية تؤيد الاستيطان، وإن ما أسمعه في الإعلام لا يعنيني بقدر ما يعنيني ما أراه على الأرض، وكان واضحا أن ترتيب أسئلته قد أصيب بإرباك، واضطر إلى أن يبحث معي في هذا الرأي
....
المعنى أن الساحة العربية ليست ساحة ديمقراطية، والبحث العلمي لا يتمتع بحرية في الوصول إلى المعلومات، والعربي يتعرض لكثير من التضليل والكذب من قادته ومن وسائل الإعلام، وعلى المرء أن يطور قدرات كبيرة من أجل تحصين نفسه من غسيل الدماغ والتشويهات التي يتعرض لها.

لا الإعلام الفلسطيني ولا القيادات الفلسطينية مستثناة من هذه الظاهرة، وأكبر دليل على ذلك أن مختلف الشعارات التي تم رفعها من قبل القيادات عبر حقب متعددة من تاريخ القضية الفلسطينية قد تهاوت، وأن كل الزمجرة والتظاهر بالرجولة التي رافقتها لم تكن سوى فقاعات تلاشت
....
لم تختلف السلطة الفلسطينية في موقفها عبر سنوات طويلة عن الموقف الأميركي الذي طالما ردد بأن الاستيطان يشكل عقبة في طريق السلام، ولم يتطور إلى إجراء عملي يرغم إسرائيل على وقف الاستيطان. الاستيطان استمر في ظل مختلف الحكومات الصهيونية، واستمرت المفاوضات.

ثالثا- أوباما ورّط الجانب الفلسطيني، إذ لم تعلن السلطة الفلسطينية أنها لن تفاوض إلا إذا تم تجميد الاستيطان تماما، إلا بعدما أعلن الرئيس الأميركي أوباما معارضته للاستيطان في خطابه الشهير بجامعة القاهرة، وكأن السلطة أرادت أن تلحق بركب أوباما الذي ظنت أنه سيكون قادرا على وقف الاستيطان، أي أن المسألة كانت عبارة عن انتهاز فرصة حتى لا تبدو السلطة في موقف دون الموقف الأميركي من الاستيطان.

وقد كان رأيي منذ البدء أن أوباما لن يصمد عند أقواله، وأن السلطة الفلسطينية ستعود إلى المفاوضات دون أن يتوقف الاستيطان
.....
لا قيمة لوقف المفاوضات ما دامت الأجهزة الأمنية الفلسطينية تعتقل الفلسطينيين بسبب علاقتهم بالمقاومة أو بسبب نواياهم، وكل الحديث ضد الاستيطان في مثل هذا الوضع لا يمكن أن يكون مقنعا، خاصة عندما يشاهد المرء أن الأجهزة الأمنية الفلسطينية تعمل ضد ما من شأنه أن يقض مضجع المستوطنين
....
السلطة الفلسطينية تقول إنها ضد الاستيطان وهي تملك خيارات للتفاوض، وتشرح بأن خيارها هو الذهاب إلى مجلس الأمن لفك الأزمة.

خيار لا شك أنه ساذج إذا كان حسن النية لأن أميركا تشكل محورا أساسيا في المجلس وهي تملك حق النقض، أي أن الهروب من أميركا إلى مجلس الأمن عبارة عن ارتماء في الحضن الأميركي
.....
وعلى أي حال، قال الرئيس الفلسطيني محمود عباس إنه سيفاوض إن فشلت المفاوضات، وسيفاوض إن فشل الفشل، وسيفاوض إن فشِل فشَل الفشَل، وكبير مفاوضيه كتب أن الحياة مفاوضات.

لم يحصل في التاريخ الإنساني أن أصبحت المفاوضات منهج حياة بدل أن تكون أداة أو آلية إلا لدى فلاسفة السياسة الفلسطينيين.

المعنى أن فلسفة التفاوض الفلسطينية لا تحيد عن استمرار التفاوض، وإذا كان للاستيطان أن يستمر، فإن الفشل لا يعني وقف التفاوض
....
من لا يريد أن يفاوض، عليه أن يقوم بخطوات عملية لإثبات مواقفه مثل: وقف التنسيق الأمني وتغيير التحالفات واستبدال جهات التمويل وتغيير الأوضاع الداخلية بما فيها الوزارة وإدارات المؤسسات وإطلاق يد المقاومة والعودة بالأمور إلى وحدة وطنية فلسطينية على قاعدة التحرير.

أما الحديث ضد الاستيطان ضمن معطيات الهزيمة والخنوع فلا طائل منه ولا جدوى، ولا يعني إلا شيئا واحد هو أن السلطة الفلسطينية تؤيد الاستيطان عمليا وترفضه إعلاميا.
"

Abbas signals renewed settlement construction won't end talks

HAARETZ

"Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has signaled that a renewal of settlement construction in the West Bank would not necessarily end peace talks, attendees at a dinner with the Palestinians leader in New York told Haaretz on Wednesday...."

Russia bans Iran missile delivery

Citing UN sanctions, Russia has cancelled a planned sale of advanced missiles to Iran. Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, has issued a decree prohibiting the delivery of S-300 air defence missile systems and other weapons to Iran.

Reuters news agency reports that the presidential decree, issued on Wednesday, brings trade rules for Russia and its companies into line with the sanctions, pleasing the United States and other Western nations that are deeply worried about Iran's military capability.

"What's interesting about this order is that it not only bans the sale of surface-to-air S-300 missiles, it also bans other weapons system," Alexander Nekrassov, former adviser to the Kremlin, told Al Jazeera.

He added that the decree also bans senior Iranian officials "who are somehow linked to the nuclear programme" from visiting Russia.

Locking Up Activists

Israel Uses Vague Law to Make Meeting Another Arab a Crime

By JONATHAN COOK
CounterPunch

"A vague security offence of “contact with a foreign agent” is being used by Israel’s secret police, the Shin Bet, to lock up Arab political activists in Israel without evidence that a crime has been committed, human rights lawyers alleged this week.

The lawyers said the Shin Bet was exploiting the law to characterise innocent or accidental meetings between members of Israel’s large Arab minority and Arab foreign nationals as criminal activity....."

"A Departure to Be Welcomed": Robert Scheer on Resignation of White House Economic Advisor and De-Regulation Proponent Lawrence Summers

Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman


"The makeup of President Obama’s economic team is being shaken up some more as Lawrence Summers has announced he is resigning as director of the National Economic Council later this year to return to Harvard University. According to Bloomberg news, the White House is considering naming a "prominent corporate executive" to replace Summers in order to counter Wall Street criticism that the administration is "anti-business." We speak to veteran journalist Robert Scheer, author of "The Great American Stickup: How Reagan Republicans and Clinton Democrats Enriched Wall Street While Mugging Main Street."...."

Also, this by Robert Scheer:

So Long, Summers

Al-Jazeera Video: Inside Story: Sectarianism in the Gulf

Waltzing with The Great Satin: Ahmadinejad optimistic on dialogue

By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
Asia Times

".....In light of Ahmadinejad's multiple gestures of conciliation and compromise, including his offer of helping the US on Afghanistan and Iraq, the ball is now fully in the US's court. It can either reciprocate the Iranian president's gestures of goodwill toward the US, or it can continue on the present course of coercive action against Iran. In the event of the latter, it can be safely assumed that yet another window of opportunity in US-Iran relations will have been prematurely closed."

عباس: لا استطيع الجزم بوقف المفاوضات في حال استمر الاستيطان..

Surprise, Surprise! The Stooge Can't Say No.

عــ48ـرب

"قالت الإذاعة الإسرائيلية "ريشيت بيت" إن رئيس السلطة الفلسطينية، محمود عباس، أبدى مرونة وتراجع عن موقفه السابق بوقف المفاوضات في حال استمر الاستيطان.

وبحسب الإذاعة الإسرائيلية فإن عباس، وفي حديثه، مع عدد من قادة اليهود في الولايات المتحدة، قد صرح بأنه لا يستطيع الجزم بوقف المفاوضات في حال قررت إسرائيل مواصلة البناء الاستيطاني على أراضي الضفة الغربية.

ونقلت الإذاعة عن مصادر في مكتب رئيس الحكومة الإسرائيلية أنهم لا يتوقعون أن يقوم رئيس السلطة الفلسطينية بوقف المفاوضات في حال قررت مواصلة البناء الاستيطاني.

ومن جهتها كتبت "يديعوت أحرونوت" في موقعها على الشبكة أنه في ظل المخاوف من تفجر المفاوضات، فإن محمود عباس لم يكن قاطعا في موقفه من مواصلة البناء الاستيطاني أمام عدد من قادة اليهود في الولايات المتحدة، فجر اليوم الأربعاء، وبدا "لينا نسبيا".
...."

Viva Palestina leader appeals to Egypt not to exile him from Palestine.

Viva Palestina

"Viva Palestina's international leader George Galloway today responded to the statement by the spokesman of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry that he would not be permitted to enter Egypt. The British parliamentarian is currently leading an international convoy to Gaza which intends entering the besieged Palestinian territory through the Egyptian port of Al Arish. Responding from Paris he said:

" I am currently leading a huge international effort to break the siege on the Gaza Strip, imposed by Israel and its allies to punish the people for how they voted in a free, democratic election. The convoy will travel through France, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Syria and thence by ship to Al Arish. It will be joined by convoys which set out on the same day from the Gulf and from North Africa. I intend to continue to lead this convoy and I appeal to the Egyptian Government to reconsider the decision announced last night in Cairo. I was not deported from Egypt and I am not "persona non grata" there. No official notification of either has ever been conveyed to me. I have no wish to have a fight with the Egyptian government; my fight is with Israel....."

Best Option: Dignified Failure

By Sam Bahour, Al-Bireh, The West Bank
Palestine Chronicle

".....Thus, if these current direct talks are aiming to produce an agreement that ignores or attempts to coexist with the unrelenting, slow-motion, ethnic cleansing of Palestinians that Israel continues to this day, then it will be worthy of merely a few photo-ops that will be forgotten before the negotiating teams return to their respective homes. Even the creative idea floating around of using a failure in the talks to get the UN to admit Palestine as a state--if it does not remove the underlying system of apartheid--would merely be rearranging the legal status to serve the continuation of Israel's crimes against humanity.

The most dignified failure these talks can hope for is that the international community finally come to its senses, preferably with the U.S., and passes a UN resolution with specific punitive actions that identifies the status in Israel-Palestine, all of historic Palestine, for what it is: the crime of apartheid.

Only when the definition of the problem is crystal clear can we formulate an appropriate solution and have renewed faith in the international community's ability to act on what it knows very well to be reality: that Israeli actions over the last six decades have nullified the two-state solution. A new model of co-existence must be envisioned, a model built not on racism, separation and exceptionalism, but on mutual and equal human and civil rights across all of Palestine and Israel.

If the current peace talks surprise the world and result in a true sovereign Palestine, free of Israeli control and domination, then I'd be happy to be mistaken; if not however, it's time for the world to at least call reality for what it is. Anything less is an insult to our collective intelligence."

The Pollard Principle

Why Jonathan Pollard is a national hero in Israel

by Justin Raimondo, September 22, 2010

"On July 13 of this year, the municipal government of Jerusalem honored one of Israel’s most popular national heroes, a man who had suffered and sacrificed his all for the Jewish state, and is recognized by practically everyone as not only a hero but a modern exemplar of Zionist virtue. As evening fell, lights illuminating the walls of the Old City were dimmed “as a gesture of solidarity with convicted spy Jonathan Pollard,” reported Ha’aretz. “As part of Tuesday’s event, a special message calling upon US President Barack Obama to release Pollard will be projected onto the darkened city walls.” July 13 marked the 9,000th day of his incarceration.

Yes, in Israel they’re counting the days until this traitor is released, and their message – hand the traitor over – is now being projected by Israeli negotiators, who are pressing the US for Pollard’s release in exchange for yet another temporary halt to their aggressive “settlement” building campaign. The settlements have become a big sticking point obstructing the peace process, with unelected Palestinian “President” Mahmoud Abbas threatening to walk if the Israelis don’t lay off......

The “free Pollard” campaign also raises another question, and it is this: if the Israelis have valorized Pollard, a convicted spy and a traitor to his own country, to this extent, and made such a diplomatic and domestic issue out of his fate, then what does this say about the current extent of Israeli spying on and in the US? How many more such “heroes” are doing their dirty work on US soil?"

That's right, it was all a Muslim plot

By Mark Steel
The Independent

"You might think that a plot to blow up the Pope would be news for a while. Popes don't get blown up all that often, and this one's enough of a celebrity that if he fell over drunk at the MTV awards with Kanye West it would be in the papers for a few days, so it's strange that a plot to blow him up was only of interest for one day.

On Saturday, the front-page headline in the Express was "Muslim plot to blow up Pope", and every paper had a similar headline.....

Luckily it's unlikely that being a street cleaner would have been enough to get all that close to the Pope, unless they were hoping to shout: "Hang on, Pontiff, you can't start Communion yet, there's a crisp packet under your cassock, I'll come and brush it away for you – KABOOM!"

So what happened to the plot? The most likely answer is obviously that its sudden disappearance was due to a miracle. But sceptics might suggest another explanation.

The Express told us: "The suspected plot was smashed." Other papers agreed it had been "foiled". But after the anti-terrorist squad raided the cleaning depot and arrested the six men, it turned out the only evidence against them was that someone had overheard them talking about the Pope, and they were released without charge. So the plot was smashed and foiled through the tactic of never having existed in the first place.

Maybe this is how the police can increase the number of crimes they solve, by foiling and smashing more such cases....

So the work is done, and they're free to make up the next one, such as "Muslims force Dalai Lama to harpoon a kitten" or something...."

Protests in Egypt against Gamal Mubarak succession plans

Hundreds of protesters take to streets of Cairo over widely held belief that president's son is being groomed to take over

Jack Shenker in Cairo
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 21 September 2010

"Clashes broke out in central Cairo today after hundreds of Egyptians took to the streets to protest against what they claimed were plans for the president's son to assume power.
Lines of riot police encircled and attacked demonstrators opposed to Gamal Mubarak outside Abdeen palace, the site of a 19th-century nationalist revolt against monarchical and colonial British rule.

It is widely believed that Gamal, now 46, is being groomed to succeed his father, Hosni, 82, as Egypt's next ruler. The younger Mubarak accompanied the presidential delegation to peace talks in Washington this month.....

"If Gamal Mubarak becomes president, this country will go to hell. He cares only about businessmen.

"The people of Egypt are all dying. We are dying of poverty and we are dying of a lack of freedom."

Referring to the 1882 uprising, when Ahmed Orabi declared that Egyptians should no longer be slaves, the protester said: "After 30 years of Hosni Mubarak's rule we are saying the same thing today: we should not be slaves......."

Celebrities cultural boycotting Settlements

Letter from Jerusalem: The Rise Of Blind Judaism

( (Religious men wearing veils sign of radicalization in face of modern world)
The world is home to Jews of all types: We have haredim, seculars, national-religious Jews, traditional Jews, and confused Jews. Yet the images of Breslov Hassidim with their eyes covered at the airport may indicate that a new and surprising Jewish stream is growing here – the blind Jews.

Haredi Judaism is a byproduct of the Enlightenment movement – detachment from modern Judaism in order to preserve the old ways. For years, the haredim attempted to distinguish themselves from the other Jews, to dwell alone, yet they understood that they are nonetheless part of the larger family – the family of Judaism. It may be a split, divided family (and too frequently so,) yet nonetheless, it’s family.

The Great Book Robbery : Zionists did not just steal the land, culture and food they also stole books

60,000 Palestinian books were systematically looted by the newly born State of Israel during the 1948 war. The story of the stolen books is not only at the heart of our project but also the launching pad of a much bigger and wider endeavor: We intend on communicating the scope and depth of the Palestinian tragedy through the destruction of Palestinian culture in 1948.

Currently we are seeking strategic partners and public financial support for the film as well as the website. If you are a Palestinian, Israeli, Christian, Muslim or Jew; if you live in Israel-Palestine or elsewhere in the world; if you are a sympathiser of the Palestinian cause or care about Israel’s moral character, we appeal to you to contribute whatever you can to this project.

Palestinians and the 'Jewish state'

If Palestinians recognised Israel as a Jewish state they would be effectively legitimising their own dispossession.

Avigdor Lieberman is at again. The right-wing Israeli foreign minister wants the Palestinian Authority (PA) to effectively accept the expulsion of Palestinian-Israelis (or Israeli-Arabs as they are known inside Israel) as part of an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

Speaking to a government committee on Sunday, Lieberman said that the guiding principle of the current Palestinian-Israeli negotiations should be the exchange of land and populations and not land for peace. In other words a peace treaty should involve the Israeli annexation of heavily populated Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the PA taking the Palestinian population of Israel into territories under its jurisdiction.

He explained that since both the Arabs and the Palestinians have refused to recognise Israel as a Jewish state, the status of the Arabs in Israel should be the focus of the negotiations.

Lieberman is often at odds with other Israeli officials over some of his extremist views, but these statements are consistent with the essence of Israel's insistence that the Palestinians accept Israel as a Jewish state.

Red line

According to Palestinian officials, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, rejected that demand during the first round of direct talks in Washington earlier this month on two grounds. The first being that it would be a betrayal of the rights of Palestinian-Israelis to stay in their homeland and to fight for equal civil rights and the second that it would amount to forfeiting the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

But these two reasons are exactly why Israel is pushing for Arab recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. It wants the Palestinian leadership in one swift move to legitimise the expulsion of Palestinian-Israelis and to end any discussion of the right of return.