Friday, May 17, 2013

البرنامج - الحلقه 23 كامله

Real News Video: Taxing Corporate Profits will Force Investment

Heiner Flassbeck: Corporations are sitting on mountains of cash and are unwilling to invest in the real economy - only high taxes on profit will make them do so  

More at The Real News

Current Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Online Poll


Do you support including Iran in the proposed international conference about the Syrian crisis?

So far, 71% said no.

Syria: Visit Reveals Torture Chambers

Opposition Should Secure Security Force Facilities, Safeguard Potential Evidence

Human Rights Watch
May 16, 2013

"(New York) – Government security branches in Raqqa city hold documents and potential physical evidence indicating that detainees were arbitrarily detained and tortured there while the city was under government control. Human Rights Watch researchers visited the State Security and Military Intelligence facilities in Raqqa, now under the de facto control of local armed opposition groups, in late April 2013.
Local opposition leaders with the support of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces and neutral international experts should safeguard potential evidence of torture and arbitrary detention in security forces centers in opposition-controlled areas, Human Rights Watch said.
“The documents, prison cells, interrogation rooms, and torture devices we saw in the government’s security facilities are consistent with the torture former detainees have described to us since the beginning of the uprising in Syria,” said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Those in control of Raqqa need to safeguard the materials in these facilities so the truth can be told and those responsible held accountable.”
In the State Security facility, Human Rights Watch researchers observed on the ground floor and in the basement, rooms that appeared to be detention cells.Among the documents were what appeared to be lists of security force members who had worked there. Human Rights Watch researchers also saw a “bsat al-reeh” torture device in the facility, which former detainees have said has been used to immobilize and severely stretch or bend limbs......."

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Egypt 'suffering worst economic crisis since 1930s'

Former finance minister and economist say Egypt is in dire predicament as foreign investment and tourism collapse

in Cairo
guardian.co.uk,

"Egypt is suffering its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, a former finance minister of the country and one of its leading economists have warned.

In terms of its devastating effect on Egypt's poorest, the country's current economic predicament is at its most dire since the 1930s, Galal Amin, professor of economics at the American University in Cairo, and Samir Radwan, finance minister in the months after Egypt's 2011 uprising, said in separate interviews with the Guardian......
Mohamed Morsi
Economists often predict a so-called "revolution of the hungry", should conditions worsen further. But for Radwan, Egypt is already at that stage: robbery rose 350% in 2012 as Egyptians took wealth redistribution into their own hands. "The elite sits there saying the revolt of the hungry is coming," said Radwan. "What do you mean it's coming? Are you waiting for a violent, bloody destruction of the Bastille? It's already there.""

Real News Video: Palestinians Mark 65th Anniversary of Nakba (Catastrophe of 1948)

On Nakba day, Palestinians commemorate the annual anniversary by holding rallies asserting their right of return. 65 years have passed since historic Palestine was occupied in 1948

More at The Real News

Real News Video: Systemic Malfunctioning of the Labor and Financial Markets

Dr. Heiner Flassbeck: Government has to step in and correct the imbalances of low wages and unregulated financial markets or a deeper recession and crisis is inevitable  

More at The Real News

From Nakba to Nakba, by Emad Hajjaj


Wednesday, May 15, 2013

A GREAT CARTOON BY CARLOS LATUFF: UN says eating insects could fight world hunger!


Chris Hedges: Monitoring of AP Phones a "Terrifying" Step in State Assault on Press Freedom

Democracy Now!

"The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges join us to discuss what could mark the most significant government intrusion on freedom of the press in decades. The Justice Department has acknowledged seizing the work, home and cellphone records used by almost 100 reporters and editors at the Associated Press. The phones targeted included the general AP office numbers in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Hartford, Connecticut, and the main number for the AP in the House of Representatives press gallery. The action likely came as part of a probe into the leaks behind an AP story on the U.S. intelligence operation that stopped a Yemen-based al-Qaeda bombing plot on a U.S.-bound airplane. Hedges, a senior fellow at The Nation Institute and former New York Times reporter, calls the monitoring "one more assault in a long series of assaults against freedom of information and freedom of the press." Highlighting the Obama administration’s targeting of government whistleblowers, Hedges adds: "Talk to any investigative journalist who must investigate the government and they will tell you that there is a deep freeze. People are terrified of speaking, because they are terrified of going to jail."......"

Al-Jazeera Video: Palestinians living in Egypt suffer an undignified existence


"For the Palestinian refugees living in Egypt, life is far from easy.

Roughly 3,500 of the estimated 70,000 Palestinian refugees in Egypt live in Geziret Fadel village.

They have built their mud-houses themselves and most are living subject to major restrictions on freedom to travel, access to healthcare, and education.

The majority of families can not afford to send their children to school, creating a generation of illiterate youngsters trapped in a cycle of poverty.

Despite this, many are just grateful to be allowed to stay in Egypt.

Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh reports from Geziret Fadel, Egypt."

Real News Video: Finance: "Aprés Moi, Le Déluge - Make Money Now To Hell With Tomorrow

Dr. Heiner Flassbeck: We're in worst shape now than in 2008 because at least then there was hope governments would face up to the situation


More at The Real News

Is Israel Hastening the Fall of Assad?


Israel’s official silence following its airstrikes on weapons depots in Syria earlier this month fueled accusations in every direction. Damascus condemned it as an attempt to destroy the regime, Tehran said the real targets were Iran and Hezbollah, analysts in the U.S. said it was a demonstration of “credibility.”
But now a Syrian rebel commander has a different take: “The assault was in support of Assad.”
Abdul Qader Saleh, commander of the Al-Tawhid Brigade, told the Turkish news agency Cihan that Bashar Assad’s regime has in fact already been defeated and that Iran and Hezbollah , with Israel’s backing, are preventing his downfall.
“The Syrian opposition was on the verge of taking over Assad’s weapons caches and that is why Israel attacked Syria,” Saleh claimed.
“There were several senior Syrian officers who were planning to defect and hand over weapons to the opposition. Israel bombed those caches for fear they would fall to the hands of the opposition. They contained air defense systems and heavy artillery. The assault was in support of Assad.”
This clashes with analyses that claim Israel aims to overthrow Assad in order to get to Iran. The claim is about as credible as the rest of the assertions of Israel’s intent. But Saleh’s accusation isn’t out of nowhere.
Efraim Halevy, who served as chief of the Mossad from 1998 to 2002, argued the same in a piece in Foreign Affairs:
Israel’s most significant strategic goal with respect to Syria has always been a stable peace, and that is not something that the current civil war has changed. Israel will intervene in Syria when it deems it necessary; last week’s attacks testify to that resolve. But it is no accident that those strikes were focused solely on the destruction of weapons depots, and that Israel has given no indication of wanting to intervene any further. Jerusalem, ultimately, has little interest in actively hastening the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
Israel knows one important thing about the Assads: for the past 40 years, they have managed to preserve some form of calm along the border.
If you compare the threat assessment Israel must be doing on Assad with the threat assessment Israel must be doing on Sunni rebel extremists possibly coming to power in Syria, clearly the latter is significantly worse. Israeli foreign policy is menacing and criminal, but it isn’t stupid.
Not only does Israel in all likelihood see Assad as less threatening than al-Qaeda-affiliated militias, but there is also an argument out there, made yesterday by Thanassis Cambanis in Foreign Policy, that Iran’s backing of Assad is draining the Islamic Republic’s resources and reputation in the region. Israeli policymakers may be viewing that favorably.

Return to Iqrit: how one Palestinian village is being reborn

Their parents and grandparents were evicted 65 years ago, when Israel was created. Now they are coming back

in Iqrit
guardian.co.uk,

Walaa Sbaid, 26, says people currently have the legal right to return to Iqrit 'only in a coffin'. Photograph: Harriet Sherwood


On a breezy hilltop in sight of the Lebanese border, a village last populated 65 years ago is being reclaimed from the dead for the living. Vegetables and herbs have been planted amid the rubble; a couple of donkeys graze on spring grass; traditional food is cooked and eaten in a makeshift structure next to the Church of Our Lady, where mass is celebrated for up to 200 worshippers on the first Saturday of every month.
This is Iqrit, a Palestinian Christian village in northern Galilee, whose inhabitants left in the bitter war that followed the declaration of the state of Israel in 1948, and who have never been permitted to return to their land and razed homes.
But in recent months, a group of young men, grandsons of Iqrit's original residents, have moved back in an attempt to reclaim and rebuild the village.
And as Palestinians commemorate on Wednesday the Nakba, or catastrophe, of the loss of their land to Israel 65 years ago, work is being completed on a proposal for around 500 homes to be built on the site for the descendants of Iqrit's inhabitants, 90% of whom wish to return to the village. The plan is expected to be published in September.
What is unusual about this demand for the "right of return" is that the villagers and their descendants are Israeli citizens, mostly living in the area, rather than refugees in Palestine and in the diaspora.
In November 1948, six months after the state of Israel was declared, the new Israeli army arrived at Iqrit to tell the villagers they must leave because the area was dangerous. Most of the 490 inhabitants were transferred to a nearby village, taking only basic necessities, in the belief they would be gone for two weeks. But the area was declared a military zone and the villagers were forbidden from returning........"

Al-Jazeera Cartoon


Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Al-Jazeera Video:في العمق- القضية الفلسطينية والثورات العربية

The Hopeless and Helpless Arabs!

By Emad Hajjaj

Al-Jazeera Video: Moaz al-Khatib Exposes Roles of Saudi Arabia and Qatar in the Syrian Crisis on al-Jazeera


A MUST WATCH VIDEO!

"Outgoing Syrian National Coalition President Moaz al-Khatib is interviewed by al-Jazeera English about the issues he was facing as the head of the Syrian National Coalition. He said that he felt like a salesman for foreign governments who had their own agendas in Syria rather than representing the Syrian people, as he was being used to sign papers on behalf of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. He also stated that many red lines that have been crossed, most importantly foreign interference and manipulation of the "opposition", is what led him ultimately to step down from his position."

Monday, May 13, 2013

دم وكلمات

AS USUAL, A GREAT COMMENT!


الياس خوري

يهدرون الدم والكلمات، هذه هي سورية اليوم في عُرف النظام الاستبدادي وحلفائه. فبعد الغارة الاسرائيلية انفجر الرد الكلامي، وبدأ مسلسل اهدار الكلمات. صارت الكلمات جثثا، بينما تحولت اجساد ضحايا البيضا وبانياس، الى كلمات تقول صمت الضحايا وترسم الألم الإنساني الذي جعل من سورية اليوم ارض الوجع والتضحية والألم.
من الصعب ان نلجأ الى تحليل سياسي لهذا الهذر الكلامي الذي ينمو كالطحالب على ضفاف اجساد الضحايا، لأن المطلوب هو تحليل انعدام السياسة، التي تلخص اللحظة السورية الراهنة، جاعلة من سورية ساحة لصراعات القوى الاقليمية والدولية.
قصف قاسيون الذي أشعل سماء دمشق )لم يصدر حتى الآن اي توضيح سوري عن حجم الخسائر او المواقع التي استهدفها(، ليس حدثا استثنائيا، بل هو جزء من سياق اسرائيلي بدأ قبل اندلاع الثورة السورية، واستمر خلالها، وكان جواب النظام كلاماً عاماً عن اختيار زمان الرد ومكانه. لكن قصف ضاحية دمشق تميز هذه المرة بعنفه، وبالكلام السري الذي صاحبه، ما استدعى رداً كلامياً مختلفاً تولاه هذه المرة السيد حسن نصرالله نيابة عن حلفاء النظام السوري في طهران.
بالطبع لم يحظَ ردّ وزير الاعلام السوري السيد عمران الزعبي بأي اهتمام، كما لم يلتفت احد بشكل جدي الى الخبر الذي بثه التلفزيون الرسمي السوري عن قرار فتح جبهة الجولان امام المقاومة الفلسطينية! فهذا النوع من الكلام لا يجدي، لأن لا احد مستعد لتصديق بشار الأسد الذي وصفه افرايم هاليفي، الرئيس السابق للموساد الاسرائيلي بأنه ‘رجل تل ابيب في دمشق، لأن هذا الرجل ووالده تمكنا من الحفاظ على الهدوء في جبهة الجولان طوال اربعين عاما’. كما ان التسريبات التي نشرتها الصحف الإسرائيلية عن رسالة وجهها نتنياهو الى الأسد بأن الضربة لا تستهدف النظام، ولا تسعى الى احداث خلل في توازنات القوى في سورية، وضعت النقاط على الحروف، بحيث تابع النظام وميليشياته الحرب بضراوة ومن دون اي تردد.
لكن تصريحات السيد نصرالله، وقراره بتحويل سورية الى دولة مقاومة مسألة مختلفة. فالرجل الذي قاد مقاومة مديدة ضد اسرائيل، وجد نفسه محشورا في زاوية الصراع في سورية، خصوصا وان تدخل ميليشيا حزبه ومقاتلين عراقيين وايرانيين، زادا من تفاقم المشاعر الطائفية في سورية، كما ان مذبحتي بانياس والبيضا اللتين سبقتا الضربة الاسرائيلية، كي لا نقول تزامنتا معها، حملتا مؤشرات تطهير طائفي عرقي على الطريقة الصربية. وهذا التطهير هو من دون اي شك محل ترحيب اسرائيلي.
أمين عام حزب الله، على غير عادته، استبدل الأفعال بالكلام عن الأفعال. يعلم السيد نصرالله بالطبع ان ثقوب الخطاب الداعم لنظام الاستبداد لا يمكن سترها. كيف يكتشف الآن، وبعد اربعين سنة على احتلال الجولان ان سورية يجب ان تتحول الى دولة مقاومة؟ ماذا كانت سورية قبل خطاب السيد الأمين العام؟ التحالف مع المستبد كان بحجة انه نظام مقاوم ممانع، فإذا بنا نكتشف اليوم انه لم يكن كذلك، وان على حزب الله لعب دور كبير كي يحصل هذا التحول.
طيب اذا لم تكن سورية دولة مقاومة فماذا كانت؟ ام كان على الشعب السوري ان ينتظر اربعين عاما كي يستكمل آل مخلوف نهب ثروات سورية، قبل اتخاذ القرار بالتحول الى دولة مقاومة!
يبدو الكلام عبثيا واهدارا للكلام. المسألة لا علاقة لها بالمقاومة على الاطلاق، وعلى حزب الله، بدل ان يتكلم عن قرارات لن تُنفذ سحب مقاتليه من القصير والسيدة زينب وريف دمشق، ونشرهم على جبهة الجولان، عندها يصير الكلام فعلا، وعندها لا يستطيع احد ان يشكك في ان مقاومة الاحتلال هي الهدف، وان من يريد مقاومة العدو الاسرائيلي المحتل، لا يمكن ان يقبل بأن تتلوث يداه بالدم الطائفي، ويساهم في تلويث سورية بالجريمة.
لقد علمتنا تجربة الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية المريرة ان من يقاوم العدو لا يتلوث بالدم الطائفي، وهذا ما قام به حزب الله لحظة تحرير الجنوب. فكيف تصير الممارسات الطائفية واعمال التطهير المتوحشة التي يقوم بها النظام مدخلا الى المقاومة؟ وكيف يمكن للمرء ان يقبض هذا الكلام المليء بالثقوب، والعاجز عن قول الحقيقة؟
يقولون ان هناك مؤامرة في سورية، وهذا صحيح، يكفي ان نتابع مفاوضات كيري- لافروف كي نكتشف ان علامة المؤامرة الكبرى هي اخراج السوريين والسوريات من المعادلة، كي تستمر حرب تدمير سورية الى ما لا نهاية.
يقولون ان دول الخليج النفطية ضالعة في هذه المؤامرة، وان ايران شريك مضارب فيها، وهذا صحيح ايضا. فدول الخليج تريد وأد الديموقراطية في العالم العربي قبل ولادتها، وتسليم السلطة لقوى متأسلمة تعيد الزمن قرونا الى الوراء، كما ان ايران لا ترى في سورية الا نافذة تتسلل منها الى المشرق العربي بهدف توسيع نفوذها ونشر دعوتها الايديولوجية.
لكن ما لا يقال هو ان ستة أشهر من المظاهرات السلمية الصاخبة في مدن سورية واريافها التي رد عليها النظام بالقتل والذبح والدوس على الأجساد، ستة أشهر لم تحرّك نخوة حزب المقاومة في لبنان، وقوبلت بخبرات ايرانية كي تتحول الثورة الى ركام، مثلما حصل خلال الثورة الخضراء في ايران.
ستة أشهر من الكذب والقتل اوصلت الناس الى اليأس، وتفاقم اليأس مع قيادة سياسية للمعارضة، تميزت بالجهل والخفة وعدم الجدية والاتكال على الدعم الخارجي، والاستسلام للمال القطري، اوصلت الى فراغ سمح للقوى العظمى بتحويل سورية الى ساحة للدمار.
نعم الذي استجلب التدخل الخارجي هو بشار الأسد، والذي سمح لنفسه بالقتال ضد الشعب السوري هو ايران ومعها حزب الله، والذي اضاع الفرص هو المعارضة السورية التي لم تستطع ان تواجه هذا العسف المتوحش بعقلانية صارمة ورؤية جديدة.
كل هذا اوصلنا الى حقيقة سورية لها اسمان:
اسمها الاول هو الدم السوري الذي يغطّي العيون، وينتشر شهادة على الحرية التي يدفع السوريات والسوريون ثمنها مضاعفاً.
واسمها الثاني هو الكلام السياسي المهدور، الذي جعل من الكلمة ممسحة، ومن اللغة لغوا.
ليس بكلام خفيف عن تحويل سورية الى دولة مقاومة يمكن استعادة الموضوع. الموضوع يبدأ حين تكون مقاومة الاحتلال جزءا من بل طليعة مقاومة الاستبداد، ومتحررة من اي اعتبار مذهبي او طائفي.
لكن للأسف، فنحن امام فرصة جديدة ضائعة ثمنها اجساد الضحايا في سورية التي هي الشاهد والشهيد في آن معا. 

Real News Video: Hawking and the Growing Israel Boycott Movement

BDS activists in Gaza (Boycott, Divestment and Sanction) consider renowned physicist Stephen Hawking's decision to cancel his participation in an upcoming conference in Israel as part of an academic boycott "a huge victory for the BDS movement"


More at The Real News

Real News Video: Drums Beat for US Military Intervention in Syria but Israel finds a Weakened Assad "Convenient"

Phyllis Bennis: The humanitarian disaster in Syria is mostly ignored as external powers vie for position to control outcome of civil war  


More at The Real News

Sunday, May 12, 2013

April 6 founder decries political climate as 'worse than under Mubarak'


After being arrested at Cairo airport, April 6 Movement founder Ahmed Maher says that the only difference between Mohamed Morsi and deposed Hosni Mubarak is the 'religious tint'

Ahram Online , Sunday 12 May 2013

"Egypt’s April 6 Youth Movement founder Ahmed Maher stated late Saturday: "What is taking place now is worse than what was being experienced during Mubarak’s time."


"The only difference between Mohamed Morsi and Hosni Mubarak is the religious tint," asserted Maher during his phone-in to the channel.Maher’s comments on the private Al-Nahar channel’s Akher Al-Nahar programme came a day after being arrested when he landed at the Cairo International Airport from Austria en route from the United States.
He reflected on his place of detention, the Aqrab Prison, which he said is in exactly the same state as it was during the Mubarak era.
Maher decried that all those who decided to put their differences aside and support Morsi in the 2012 presidential elections against Mubarak-era minister Ahmed Shafiq (including Maher himself) have been viciously deceived.     
Police arrested Maher on Friday for "inciting protests" outside the interior minister’s Cairo residence in March.
More than simply calling for protests, Maher was arrested for the nature of the protest on 29 March at the home of Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim in the capital's New Cairo district.
Protesters held up banners – along with women's undergarments – accusing the ministry of "prostituting" itself to President Mohamed Morsi's administration.
Four other April 6 members were arrested and charged with rioting and resisting police after security forces dispersed the protest.
Maher was, however, ordered released from prison on Saturday, pending investigations by the Prosecutor-General, as the charges against him remain in place.
On Saturday, political analyst and member of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, Emad Gad, and veteran leftist writer, Amina Shafiq, were stopped at the Cairo International Airport because their names allegedly resemble those of listed terrorists.
Gad told Ahram Arabic news gate Saturday that this was a clear message to him and Shafiq, as they had both travelled in an out of Egypt for many years and this was the first time they had been subjected to such treatment.    
Gad, who is also a member of the opposition umbrella group the National Salvation Front, condemned what he claimed to be flagrant violations by the authorities targeting the youth and public figures."