Iran: Five Minutes to Zero Hour

Tehran in the crosshairs

by Justin Raimondo, November 09, 2011

"If you wade through the International Atomic Energy Agency’s much-awaited report [.pdf] on Iran’s alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons technology – a fate I wouldn’t wish on anyone – what you’ll find is a studious ambiguity. “May,” “might,” and “could” are words that modify practically every assertion of Iranian perfidy.....

What jumps out at the careful reader of the IAEA report is that there is nothing concrete involved in this nefarious plot: only hearsay descriptions of blueprints and computer models, including various publicly available scientific studies authored by Iranian scientists. According to Khan, what was transferred to the Iranians was know-how: theoretical knowledge and contacts with suppliers. Yet throughout the IAEA report, although there are plenty of instances where Iran is alleged to have sought this or that dual use component, we are never told if they actually succeeded in procuring the item. While the report attributes its information to “Member States,” why will I not be surprised if this “intelligence” comes from the same folks who brought us the Niger uranium forgeries?

Although there is no smoking gun, the injection of the A.Q. Khan network into the propaganda mix at this level is a relatively new development, one that links the latest Enemy of the Moment (Pakistan) with longtime-favorite Iran. Why not kill two birds with one stone? .....

In the context of the long propaganda war the neocons have been faithfully waging over the past decade or so, we’re five minutes to zero hour.

The key to understanding the fraud at the heart of the IAEA report is the first paragraph of the summary:

“While the Agency continues to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material at the nuclear facilities and LOFs declared by Iran under its Safeguards Agreement, as Iran is not providing the necessary cooperation, including by not implementing its Additional Protocol, the Agency is unable to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities.”

Translation: the Iranians have no suitably enriched fissile material – but because they won’t surrender their sovereignty and allow us to occupy their nuclear facilities at will, there is no “credible assurance” of this. Iran is guilty, and must prove its innocence: that’s what the justice of the West means in the context of its relations with Iran."

A bad case of nuclear Iranophobia

By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times

".....
Dodgy intel

The IAEA insists is relying on "credible" intelligence - over 1,000 pages of documentation - from more than 10 countries, and has drawn on eight years of "evidence".

Yet the IAEA has no independent means to confirm the enormous mass of information - and disinformation - it receives from mostly Western powers. Mohammad ElBaradei - who was the predecessor of the Japanese Yukya Amano as the head of the IAEA - said so, explicitly, many times. And he always disputed what passes for "Iran intelligence" - knowing it was politicized to the extreme, and trespassed by waves of rumor and speculation.

No wonder ultra-conservative Iranian newspaper Kayhan had reason to ask whether that was a IAEA report or an American diktat to the meek, easily pressured Amano....

Predictably, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel will keep barking to deafening levels, while trying by all ruses necessary to wag the (American) dog.

The same Netanyahu that neither US President Barack Obama nor French President Nicolas Sarkozy can stand anymore has a single-minded strategy; to draw Washington and a few minions, from the Brits to the House of Saud - and this has nothing to do with "international community" - to exercise maximum pressure on Tehran. Otherwise, Israel will attack.....

So what's left is the possibility of even more sanctions. Four rounds of harsh UN Security Council sanctions already target Iran's imports and banking and finance. But that's the end of the line..... "

Iran's nuclear programme: the IAEA report (pdf)

Read the November 2011 IAEA report warning that Iran appears to be on a structured path to building a nuclear weapon

(25 pages)

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 8 November 2011

Israel Deports Democracy Now! Correspondent Jihan Hafiz; Most Gaza Flotilla Activists Still Detained

Democracy Now!

A MUST WATCH SEGMENT



"The Israeli government continues to detain a number of passengers seized in international waters Friday while trying to challenge the Israeli naval blockade on Gaza. The passengers were on two boats — one from Canada and the other from Ireland — as part of the “Freedom Waves to Gaza” flotilla — which aimed to port in Gaza. According to flotilla organizers, some 20 activists are believed to remain in custody after refusing to sign statements asserting they had entered Israel illegally. Flotilla organizers have accused the Israeli military of abusing the activists, with allegations of physical assault and the use of tasers. Democracy Now! correspondent Jihan Hafiz was among those detained in the Israeli interception of the Gaza-bound ships despite her press credentials. While jailed, Hafiz says an Israeli official told her, “the Israeli government does not see my reporting, or Democracy Now!’s, as reporting, as journalism. It’s to them activism. They said that this form of journalism is actually activism.” Hafiz had been filing daily reports for Democracy Now! from the Canadian ship named “Tahrir.” She spent three nights behind bars, where she was strip-searched and denied phone calls to relatives for 48 hours. She was finally deported Monday night and arrived in New York City just hours ago. Israel has not returned her $20,000 worth of equipment or footage. In a Democracy Now! exclusive, Hafiz joins us in studio to describe what took place on Friday and her detention. “All of the [Israeli] commandos on all of these boats were heavily armed. They did not look like they were taking two much smaller boats, filled with unarmed people, with activists and civilians. They looked like they were taking on an army of a foreign country,” says Hafiz, noting the soldiers pointed their guns at the heads of those on board....."

There’s Nothing Idealistic About the One-State Solution

Response to Michael Neumann

By Jonathan Cook
CounterPunch

"This is at least the third time in the past four years that philosophy professor Michael Neumann has used these pages to lambast the supporters of a one-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. On each occasion he has offered a little more insight into why he so vehemently objects to what he terms the “delusions” of those who oppose – or, at least, gave up on – the two-state solution.
In his most recent essay, Neumann suggests that his previous reluctance to be more forthright was motivated by “politeness”. Well, I for one wish the professor had been franker from the outset. It might have saved us a lot of time and effort.
Even though I have identified myself as a supporter of the one-state solution, I find much to agree with in what Neumann writes on this occasion. Like him, I do not believe that a particular solution, or resolution, will occur simply because the Palestinians or their wellwishers make a good moral case for it. Success for the Palestinians will come when a wide array of regional developments force Israel to conclude that its current behaviour is untenable.....

Ordinary Palestinians have no power, as Neumann notes, to force Israel to establish a state for them. But they do have the power to demand from Israel a say in their future, and press for it through civil disobedience, campaigns for voting rights, and the establishment of an anti-apartheid movement. Such a struggle will take place within – and implicitly accept – the one-state reality already created by Israel. If Palestinians march for the vote, it will be for a vote in Knesset elections.

None of this will win them either a state or the vote, of course. But the repression needed from Israel to contain these forces will serve to rapidly erode whatever international sympathy remains and to further galvanise the regional forces lining up against Israel into action.

In short, however one assesses it, the promotion of a one-state solution can serve only to hasten the demise of the Israeli elites who oppress the Palestinians. So why waste so much breath opposing it?"

Al-Jazeera Video: Activists deface Syrian official websites

"Despite an apparent agreement negotiated by the Arab League to bring an end to the Syrian government's violent crackdown on protests, fighting still continues in some of the country's major cities.

At least 110 people have died in Homs, where armed opposition elements centred in the Bab Amr area have fought back against security forces, while at least four people were injured in Hama on Tuesday.

One well-known Syrian celebrity, activist Fadwa Suleiman, also lent her voice to the demonstrators, saying children were being killed in the crackdown. The United Nations says 3,500 people have died since protests began in March.

Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal reports."

Current Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Online Poll

Do you believe that the Syrian regime's acceptance of the Arab initiative is a ploy to gain time?

With about 800 responding, 89% said yes.

Video: Mass walkout at Wayne State leaves "IDF" spokesman lecturing to empty room

By Ali Abunimah




"Students at Wayne State University in Detroit staged a silent protest and mass walk-out that left Israel Army reserve spokesman and Jerusalem Post correspondent Gil Hoffman lecturing to a virtually empty auditorium on November 1.
A video of the event just posted on YouTube shows Hoffman lecturing to hundreds of students. Many of them have their mouths symbolically covered in red tape, or have signs pinned to them protesting Israeli war crimes and calling to hold Israel accountable.
At a certain point, the students walk out of the large auditorium en masse leaving only a handful of people listening to the speaker.
Hillel, the national pro-Israel advocacy organization which sponsored Hoffman’s talk, billed him as “Chief Political Correspondent and Analyst for the Jerusalem Post.”
But Hoffman’s personal website identifies him as “A reserve soldier in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.” Perhaps only in Israel can someone be taken seriously as an objective journalist reporting on military and political affairs while at the same time acting as an official mouthpiece for the army."

Bracing for the Iran Nuclear Report: Will 'Military Action' Rhetoric Develop its Own Momentum?

By Tony Karon

"If the proverbial "drumbeat" for war with Iran has grown more insistent in recent weeks, it's about to turn into something akin to the opening bars of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man". That's because the International Atomic Energy Agency is expected, in a report on Iran's nuclear program due for release early this week, to suggest that the Islamic Republic's nuclear program may include a "possible military dimension", giving Tehran the means -- possibly with the help of foreign scientists -- to relatively quickly build nuclear weapons should it choose to do so.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog is expected to publish some evidence -- long ago shared among key international players -- suggesting that Iran may have in recent years conducted theoretical work on warhead design, and experiments on high-explosive triggering systems that don't appear to have any purpose outside of nuclear weapons development.......

It has, of course, become par for the course over the past five years for Israel and its allies to imply that war is imminent whenever the international community's schedule turns to Iran. With Obama Administration officials, speaking anonymously, hyping the IAEA report as a "gotcha" moment that will leave little doubt of Iran's intentions, the saber-rattling fits a familiar pattern of seeking to scare reluctant international players into adopting tougher sanctions on Iran as the lesser evil necessary if only to restrain Israel from launching a war that could set the Middle East ablaze......"

بيروت وكلام الحرية!

بيروت وكلام الحرية!
الياس خوري

"لم تكن الكلمات فارغة من معانيها مثلما هي اليوم. بيروت، وسط ربيع العرب الدموي، تتهاوى كمدينة وكمشروع ثقافي. كلمة حرية التي كانت محور لقاءات معرض الكتاب الفرنكوفوني السنوي في 'البيال'، جاءت ناشفة وبلا معنى.
شيء يثير السخرية والقرف في آن معاً. على بعد امتار قليلة من قاعة 'البيال'، قامت بلدية ضاحية برج حمود بما يشبه التطهير العرقي للعمال الأكراد المقيمين فيها. بؤس العمالة الأجنبية امتزج بالعنصرية، كي نشهد وصول الوقاحة الى ذروتها.
وفي شوارع المدينة وازقتها، تجري عمليات خطف لمواطنين سوريين، وتقوم اجهزة حزبية بالطلب من السوريين تعبئة استمارات، كي يكونوا تحت القبضة الأمنية. واخيرا لا آخرا وصلت الأمور الى حد اعتقال معارضين سوريين في مطار بيروت.
وعلى بعد كيلومترات قليلة تدور المجزرة الأكثر وحشية في تاريخ سورية. ومع ذلك تصمت المدينة، وتتدثّر بالخوف. والخوف في الحقيقة ليس من شبيحة النظام السوري او بعض الأحزاب الفاشية، فهؤلاء لا يخيفون احدا. بيروت تخاف من نفسها، لذا تتقوقع وتستسلم لزعماء الطوائف اللبنانية الذين يشبهون الرسوم الكاريكاتورية، بعضهم يغلّف حقده الدفين وعنصريته ضد الشعب السوري بمعزوفة خوف الأقليات، وبعضهم الآخر ينتظر سقوط النظام السوري كي يصفي حساباته الطائفية الداخلية. لا احد يرى او هو على استعداد لأن يرى حقيقة الانتفاضة السورية بوصفها ثورة ضد كل الممارسات الاستبدادية، ودعوة الى الانعتاق، لذا لا تستطيع ان تكون جزءا من برنامج طائفي عنصري تافه.
نجح النظام الطائفي اللبناني في ان يبرهن انه نظام استبدادي وان استبداد الطوائف هو اكثر انواع الاستبداد قدرة على تجريد الانسان من روحه وتحويله الى كائن عنصري.
السلطة اللبنانية تعلن انحيازها الكامل الى جانب الديكتاتور ضد الشعب. امن اللاجئين السوريين في لبنان رهينة 'اصدقاء' سورية، حيث يقود حزب الله الأمن، تاركاً لحليفه الجنرال عون تقديم التغطية الايديولوجية والسياسية لذلك.
اما على المستوى الاعلامي، فان الثورة السورية اعلنت موت الاعلام اللبناني. ففي ظل انحياز صحيفتين كبريين للنظام السوري، وضمورالصحيفة الثالثة التي دخلت ما يشبه الموت السريري المهني، نستطيع القول ان هناك ازمة حقيقية في الاعلام اللبناني المكتوب، وان الصحافة اللبنانية تواجه تراجعا لم تشهده في تاريخها.
اما محطات التلفزيون اللبنانية فهي خارج الصورة بشكل غرائبي. بعضها لا يملّ من ترداد معزوفات النظام السوري، فيما يعاني بعضها الآخر تخشباً يرده البعض الى ازمة سيولة مالية، لكنه يعبّر في الواقع عن ازمة سيولة فكرية وابداعية ضربت القطاع الاعلامي برمته.
يستطيع الاعلام التلفزيوني اللبناني ان يتذرع بعجزه المادي عن منافسة الاعلام الفضائي الخليجي، وهو محق في ذلك، لكنه نسي انه يملك رأسمالاً رمزياً كبيراً هو الحرية، قام بالتخلي عنه طوعا، عندما صارت القنوات اللبنانية اداة سياسية في ايدي الطوائف وجنرالاتها، وبذا فقدت حريتها، وتحولت الى ابواق دعائية.
اما الثقافة اللبنانية فهي شبه غائبة، فباستثناء تجمع كبير يتيم دعا اليه بعض المثقفين وبيانات متفرقة صدرت هنا وهناك، ، فان مساهمات المثقفين اللبنانيين تنحصر في كتابة مقالات صحافية، والتعبير من خلال وسائل الاتصال الاجتماعية.
وباستثناء تجمعين ثقافيين- فنيين نظما في مسرح 'دوّار الشمس'، الذي يديره روجيه عسّاف، فان اصوات الفنانين والمثقفين اللبنانيين تكاد لا تُسمع. والطريف ان تقنيات الفن المفهومي والعرض (البرفورمانس)، التي كانت سمة خروج الفنانين الللبنانيين الشباب الى عوالم ما بعد الحداثة، تتحول اليوم الى ادوات رئيسية يستخدمها شابات وشبان الثورة السورية، بينما يغيب الفنانون اللبنانيون الما بعد حداثيين لاهثين خلف تجاربهم العالمية!
صورة انهيار بيروت الثقافي والاخلاقي مروّعة وتثير الخوف والقلق، لأنها تهدد بطي صفحة كبرى في تاريخ الثقافة اللبنانية بدأت فصولها مع النهضويين الكبار وامتدت على مساحة المناخ الثقافي اللبناني الذي استقبل الثقافة العربية الهاربة من القمع وتفاعل معها، وصولا الى 'شقاء العرب'، كما كتبه الشهيد سمير قصير.
من الصعب القبول بهذا الخمول الثقافي والسياسي والأخلاقي الذي لا اجد له تفسيراً سوى في مناخات الخيبة التي اعقبت فشل انتفاضة الاستقلال التي استولى عليها الطائفيون، معلنين عجز البنى الطائفية عن بناء افق يوحد الاستقلال بمقاومة الاحتلال الاسرائيلي، ما يعني بقاء الوطن مؤجلا لأن الطائفية في جوهرها نزعة عنصرية، وبنية لا وطن لها سوى مصالحها الضيقة.
الغريب ان الثورات العربية التي تعلن ولادة وطنيات مختلفة بأفق عربي، تعلن في الوقت عينه افول الوطنية اللبنانية وانحلالها الأخلاقي، وتحولها الى اطر للكراهية العنصرية، تبرر الدفاع عن الاستبداد الأسدي بخواف الأقليات وضرورة تحالفها مع الطغاة!
عقلية زمن المتصرفية تجتاح لبنان، وتحيله الى المكان الأكثر خمولا في المشرق العربي اليوم، وهذه نهاية لا تليق بأحفاد احمد فارس الشدياق، ولا علاقة لها بالصورة التي رسمتها بيروت لنفسها، حين كانت عاصمة الحرية والمقاومة.
المأسوي ان اغلبية الناس لا يشعرون بالمأساة. صارت المدينة مجرد مكان لفولكلور ثقافي يبدأ من عجائب الدنيا السبع وينتهي في ازقة الحمرا حيث يعُتدى بالضرب على كل من تسوّل له نفسه اطلاق هتاف مؤيد للثورة السورية، ويخطف سوريون على مرأى من رجال الأمن او بواسطة الأمن اللبناني المولج بحماية سفير النظام السوري، ويرتفع الصراخ العنصري، الذي يحظى ببركة بعض المراجع الدينية، ويعطينا 'سيد المقاومة' دروساً في ممانعة لا تجد لها حليفا سوى في مافيات النهب والقتل في سورية.
انه البؤس.
والبؤس لا يتحول الى حقيقة الا اذا رضي البائسون ببؤسهم، وتأقلموا معه وحولوه الى نمط حياة.
البؤس ليس قدرا ايها الرفاق.
هنا يقع دور المثقفين والشباب، فعليهم تقع مسؤولية انقاذ بيروت من نفسها ومن انتحارها.
وهذه مسؤولية نبيلة تنتظر من يتصدّى لها قبل فوات الاوان.
"

Why is no one protecting Saudi Arabia's child brides?

The support of the Saudi monarchy and its apologists in the west means the barbaric practice of child marriage is unchallenged

Ali al-Ahmed
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 8 November 2011

"Atgaa, 10, and her sister Reemya, 8, are about to be married to men in their 60s. Atgaa will be her husband's fourth wife. Their wedding celebrations are scheduled for this week and will take place in the town of Fayaadah Abban in Qasim, Saudi Arabia.
The girls are getting married because their financially struggling father needs the money that their dowries will provide: young girls of this age can fetch as much as $40,000 each.
Many readers might be shocked at this news. How can it be legal? The answer is that Saudi Arabia has no minimum age for marriage, and it is perfectly legal to marry even an hour-old child.....

So far, no UN body, such as Unicef or the human rights council, has issued a single statement condemning child marriages in Saudi Arabia. In fact, not one country has made a statement in the human rights council on this issue, and not a single western government has asked the Saudi monarchy to stop the practice. The ugly tradition of child marriage thus continues with the help of the monarchy and its apologists in the west.

If any governments, especially in the west, are seriously concerned with this barbaric and medieval practice, they should ban the heads of Saudi justice, interior and health ministries from entering their countries. If this action were taken against government leaders facilitating crimes against children we would soon see a resolution of this issue.

Saudi Arabia must be pressured to set a minimum age for marriage and save children like Atgaa and Reemya."

Sarkozy calls Netanyahu a liar

Microphones accidently left on after G20 meeting pick up private conversation between US, French presidents. Sarkozy admits he 'can't stand' Israeli premier. Obama: You're fed up with him? I have to deal with him every day!

French President Nicolas Sarkozy reportedly told US PresidentBarack Obama that he could not "stand" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that he thinks the Israeli premier "is a liar."

Islamists on Probation

The Ghosts of the "Islamic Menace"

By Ramzy Baroud
CounterPunch

"Following Tunisia’s first fair and free elections on 27 October, the Western media responded with a characteristic sense of fear and alarm. For many, it seemed that the ghost of the Islamic menace was back to haunt Western Values throughout the Arab world. The narrative employed by media outlets was no more than cleverly disguised Islamophobia, masquerading as genuine concern for democracy and the welfare of women and minority groups.

The victory of the Al-Nahda (Renaissance) Party was all but predictable. Official results showed that the party won more than 41 per cent of the vote, providing it with 90 seats in the 217-member new Constituent Assembly, or parliament......

The Middle East “really worries me”, said Congressman Dan Burton. He asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton what the Obama administration “plans to do make sure that we don’t have a radical government taking over those places”.

“I think a lot of the leaders are saying the right things and some are saying things that do give pause to us,” she said. “We’re going to do all that we can within our power to basically try to influence outcomes.”

Is any further comment necessary?"

Israel Intercepts Gaza-Bound Flotilla; Dozens Detained Including Democracy Now! Correspondent

Democracy Now!



"Israeli forces intercepted two Gaza-bound boats in international waters on Friday to prevent the boats from breaking the naval blockade of Gaza. The Canadian and Irish boats made up the "Freedom Waves to Gaza" flotilla. Israel detained the 27 activists on board, as well as all of the journalists — including Democracy Now! correspondent Jihan Hafiz. According to flotilla organizers, 21 people remain in Israeli custody, including Hafiz. The flotilla marked the latest failed attempt by international activists to challenge the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. We speak to journalist Lina Attalah, who was on the Canadian boat named "Tahrir" in the flotilla and was deported to Egypt yesterday. She is the managing editor of Al-Masry Al-Youm, English edition, an independent news website. The Israeli navy "cornered our boats from all sides... We were all equally put at gunpoint. Even before they boarded our boat, everyone was put at gunpoint from Israeli ships," Attalah says. "Although we were clearly showing that we are journalists, Jihan Hafiz, for example, who is a Democracy Now! journalist, had her press card out and clear, but she was one of the first people asked to kneel on her knees and to raise her hands." Attalah said some passengers were tasered...."

Egypt’s Military Widens Crackdown As Prominent Blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah Remains Imprisoned

Democracy Now!



"The mother of prominent Egyptian political activist and blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah began a hunger strike yesterday protesting her son’s detention by the country’s military council. Abdel Fattah was arrested last week after being accused of instigating clashes between military forces and Coptic Christians nearly a month ago at the state television building, Maspeero. At least 28 people were killed in the incident. As calls among activists grow for limiting U.S. military assistance to Egypt, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said that the United States is not in favour of imposing any conditions on American aid. Democracy Now! correspondent Anjali Kamat is in Cairo and filed this report. Special thanks to Jacquie Soohen of Big Noise Films and Mosireen for foot...."

حنين زعبي تنهي تقديم شهادتها أمام محكمة راسل: "نحن لسنا أمام سياسة عنصرية، وإنما أمام نظام عنصريّ"

"النائبة زعبي تنهي تقديم شهادتها أمام "محكمة راسل" في جنوب أفريقيا:

- "نحن لسنا أمام سياسة عنصرية، بل نحن أمام نظام عنصري".

- "في الوقت الذي يقوم العالم فيه في الكشف عن إسرائيل كدولة عنصرية، تقوم فيها إسرائيل بمطالبة العالم الإعتراف بها كدولة يهودية".
- "إسرائيل تطالب العالم بالاعتراف بحقها في أن تكون عنصرية".
- هيئة القضاة والطاقم القانوني للمحكمة أعلن عن دعمه للنائبة زعبي.

- تقرير خاص بعرب 48 -

....
إسرائيل لم تكتف بسرقة الأرض كما الأبرتهايد، إنما تسرق وطننا أيضا عبر التهويد

وأكملت زعبي قائلة: "الأبرتهايد سرق الأرض من السود، أما إسرائيل فتحاول سرقة الوطن منا، هي تحاول مصادرة علاقتنا مع الوطن، فتمحو الأسماء العربية من فضاء الوطن، وتعبرن الشوارع والمفارق، وتمحو أي إشارة للقرى والمدن العربية، وتهود المكان برمته."

وأضافت: "يريدون أن يسرقوا منا وطنا وليس فقط أرضا"، وتابعت "أكثر من هذا، في الكنيست وفي بعض قرارات المحكمة، يبررون مصادرة الأرض بأننا غزاة للأرض، وليس أصحابها الأصليين. كما أن جنوب أفريقيا لم تقم بهندسة هويات، ولم تحاول تشكيل أو محو هوية السكان الأفارقة، السود أو الملونين، ولم تنكر عليهم هويتهم، ولم تحاول خلق هوية جديدة مشوهة، وتختلف طبيعة الصراع على مستوى الهويات التي تتقاطع بشكل مركب في أفريقيا، أما السياسات الاسرائيلية، فقد قامت بشكل عنيف وهمجي بتشكيل هوية <صهيونية>، وفي الوقت نفسه تحارب الهوية الفلسطينية، وتمنع تدريس كل ما يتعلق بها، وتحاول تشويهها، وتشكيل ما يعرف بـ <عرب-إسرائيل>".

سياسات الولاء والهوية

وأوضحت النائبة زعبي أن سياسات الولاء هذه "تطورت" بدرجات، وتم تقنينها بما أصبح يعرف بقوانين الولاء، إذ أن إسرائيل هي الدولة الوحيدة في العالم التي تطالب مواطنيها بالولاء لأيديولوجية الدولة، وليس فقط احترام قوانينها، وتابعت: "إسرائيل تريد أن تكون عنصرية تجاهي، وتطالبني بأن أقتنع بأن هذا جزء من قناعاتي الخاصة أيضا!"
....."

Finding Freedom in Handcuffs

By Chris Hedges

Posted on Nov 7, 2011

"Editor’s note: Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges, an activist, an author and a member of a reporting team that won a 2002 Pulitzer Prize, wrote this article after he was released from custody following his arrest last Thursday. He and about 15 other participants in the Occupy Wall Street movement were detained as they protested outside the global headquarters of Goldman Sachs in lower Manhattan.

Faces appeared to me moments before the New York City police arrested us Thursday in front of Goldman Sachs. They were not the faces of the smug Goldman Sachs employees, who peered at us through the revolving glass doors and lobby windows, a pathetic collection of middle-aged fraternity and sorority members. They were not the faces of the blue-uniformed police with their dangling cords of white and black plastic handcuffs, or the thuggish Goldman Sachs security personnel, whose buzz cuts and dead eyes reminded me of the East German secret police, the Stasi. They were not the faces of the demonstrators around me, the ones with massive student debts and no jobs, the ones whose broken dreams weigh them down like a cross, the ones whose anger and betrayal triggered the street demonstrations and occupations for justice. They were not the faces of the onlookers—the construction workers, who seemed cheered by the march on Goldman Sachs, or the suited businessmen who did not. They were faraway faces. They were the faces of children dying. They were tiny, confused, bewildered faces I had seen in the southern Sudan, Gaza and the slums of Brazzaville, Nairobi, Cairo and Delhi and the wars I covered. They were faces with large, glassy eyes, above bloated bellies. They were the small faces of children convulsed by the ravages of starvation and disease.
I carry these faces. They do not leave me. I look at my own children and cannot forget them, these other children who never had a chance. War brings with it a host of horrors, including famine, but the worst is always the human detritus that war and famine leave behind, the small, frail bodies whose tangled limbs and vacant eyes condemn us all. The wealthy and the powerful, the ones behind the glass at Goldman Sachs, laughed and snapped pictures of us as if we were a brief and odd lunchtime diversion from commodities trading, from hoarding and profit, from this collective sickness of money worship, as if we were creatures in a cage, which in fact we soon were...."

Mr Amano goes to Washington

By Kaveh L Afrasiabi

Asia Times

"The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, is in Washington ahead of a new report on Iran's nuclear program that is being released into the less-than-rarefied air of disinformation. Not since 2002-2003, when United States officials willingly lied to the world community about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, has there been such a deafening noise surrounding an IAEA country report....

According to a well-placed source in Washington, who didn't want to be identified, Israel's real intention is not war, but rather to accelerate the Iran sanctions, particularly by the US Congress, which is mulling energy sanctions and the like. If so, Israel is doing a good job, even though its bluff may backfire next time around, especially with the Iranians having warned Israel of very dire consequences if it were to attack Iran.

To be successful, an Israeli strike at Iran has to target dozens of sites, some in or around populated areas, which simply means a strong likelihood of high civilian casualties. That would trigger a tsunami of Iranian popular anger that would in turn impel the political leaders to try to respond as hard as possible at Israeli and US interests. It is a sure bet that the conflict would spread to the Persian Gulf and adversely affect the flow of oil from the region....."

War and the Word Cloud

Why the usual war propaganda won’t save the American empire

by Justin Raimondo, November 07, 2011

"An alleged “nuclear weapons” site in Syria has been revealed to be a textile factory – and another of the War Party’s tall tales is debunked. To those of a skeptical mindset – i.e., nearly anyone outside of Washington – this throws fresh doubt on the claim that the Israeli raid on a supposed Syrian nuclear weapons facility at Deir ez Zour, in 2007, destroyed anything more dangerous than an empty warehouse.
The War Party doesn’t give up quite so easily, however: now we are being told that the International Atomic Energy Administration (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency, has a new report coming out with satellite photos of a supposed nuclear facility in Iran – just as in the case of the two Syrian sites.
Get out your bullshit detector, press the “on” button, and watch it light up like a fourth of July fireworks display......

This is not something to be celebrated. Empires can fall gracefully, with minimum damage to the imperial power – but only if they are dismantled quite deliberately, rather than simply lost. Because losing implies a fight to retain it, a battle that slowly (or rapidly) drains the very lifeblood out of us. The political class has no intentions of relinquishing its vaunted role as the World’s Sole Superpower, and so what we are in for is a ruinous and protracted implosion that pulverizes the social order and flattens longstanding political institutions. What’s left is a void, an enormous vacuum waiting to be filled – but with what?........"

Reports: Israel, Saudis United in Desire to See Attack on Iran

Saudis, GCC Members Seen as 'Cornerstone' for US Moves Against Iran

by Jason Ditz, November 06, 2011

"Though Israel’s traditional rhetoric suggests any Arab nation is automatically at odds with their position, media reports tonight are marveling at the growing unity between Israel and the Saudi leader GCC nations in their desires to see Iran attacked.

Both Israel and the Saudis are long time enemies of the Iranian government, and even if they both came by this in very different ways it should come as no surprise that the Sunni-dominated regimes of the Gulf nations are fine with Israel attacking a major Shi’ite nation.

Of course the Israeli preference remains seeing the US starting the war, but increasingly Israel’s current far-right government is mulling attacking unilaterally. Either way, Gulf officials seem to hope starting a war with Iran will quiet their respective Shi’ite populaces, which they are convinced are being roused to protest primarily by Iran...."

Over 200 Killed Since Syria Agreed to Stop Crackdown

Arab League to hold emergency meeting

by Jason Ditz, November 06, 2011

"Early last week the Syrian government agreed to an Arab League plan that would have them removing all troops and tanks from cities and releasing thousands of political prisoners detained for participating in pro-democracy rallies.

Today, the Arab League is calling an “emergency meeting” on Syria, as the crackdown in the nation has continued and even escalated, with over 200 slain just since the regime agreed to the Arab League’s plan.

The violence continued again today, as protesters took to the streets along with many others to celebrate the festival Eid al-Adha, and troops killed at least 16 of the celebrants. After Eid prayers many of the worshipers launched new protests against Assad....."

Syria's rebuff threatens the Arab League with relegation

The Assad regime's disdain for the Arab League's peace initiative is another blow to the organisation's credibility

Simon Tisdall
guardian.co.uk, Monday 7 November 2011

"The Syrian regime's refusal even to pretend to implement last week's peace "road map" has provoked a portentous response from the deal's diplomatically challenged progenitors, the Arab League. "The failure of the Arab solution will have disastrous consequences in Syria and the region," the 22-nation organisation's secretary general, Nabil el-Araby, warned. What Araby did not say is that the apparent collapse of the initiative, only days after its launch in Cairo last week, is a potential catastrophe for the league, which was forced to call an emergency meeting after further deaths on Sunday.....

The Arab League faces a momentous, possibly make-or-break decision. To avoid a big split involving the likes of Iraq, it either goes on pretending a peace process is in place and the regime is genuinely engaged – at the risk of destroying what little credibility it has left. Or it takes the courageous step of expelling Syria, one of the league's six founding members in 1945, imposing additional, punitive sanctions – and in effect sending a message to the west that Arabs cannot manage Arab problems.

There is a third option, of course: collective Arab military intervention to bring Assad to book. Sadly, this sort of Lawrence of Arabia fantasy is out of fashion."

Al-Jazeera Video: Rula Amin reports on ongoing Syrian violence

Real News Video: Denying Civil Rights is a Crime

Paul Jay on austerity, mass protests and mass arrests (TRNN Replay)

The globalisation of protest

Protesters around the world say they are part of a generation that played by the rules but has no hope for the future.

Joseph E Stiglitz
Al-Jazeera

"The protest movement that began in Tunisia in January, subsequently spreading to Egypt and then to Spain, has now become global - with the protests engulfing Wall Street and cities across America. Globalisation and modern technology now enables social movements to transcend borders as rapidly as ideas can.

And social protest has found fertile ground everywhere: A sense that the "system" has failed, and the conviction that even in a democracy, the electoral process will not set things right - at least not without strong pressure from the street.

In May, I went to the site of the Tunisian protests; in July, I talked to Spain's indignados; from there, I went to meet the young Egyptian revolutionaries in Cairo's Tahrir Square; and, a few weeks ago, I talked with Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York. There is a common theme, expressed by the OWS movement in a simple phrase: "We are the 99%.".....

On one level, today's protesters are asking for little: A chance to use their skills, the right to decent work at decent pay, a fairer economy and society. Their hope is evolutionary, not revolutionary. But, on another level, they are asking for a great deal: A democracy where people, not dollars, matter, and a market economy that delivers on what it is supposed to do.

The two are related: As we have seen, unfettered markets lead to economic and political crises. Markets work the way they should only when they operate within a framework of appropriate government regulations; and that framework can be erected only in a democracy that reflects the general interest - not the interests of the 1%. The best government that money can buy is no longer good enough."

Empire: A revolution for all seasons

Empire asks what has become of the Arab revolutions after the initial euphoria has passed.

"The winds of change have swept the Arab world, with uneven results. Progress in places like Tunisia and Egypt, repression in Syria, bloody stalemate in Yemen, and unfinished business in Libya: the Arab Spring is at a crucial stage.

The impressive achievements since January have also highlighted new challenges. Islamist movements, long banned during decades of repression, are out in the open and face new types of political challenges and responsibilities. Will political changes in the region pass the test of national unity in the likes of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya?

Whilst the Syrian regime attempts to crush the growing opposition, killing thousands from Homs to Dar'a, the Syrian people continue their marches calling for change and democracy. As the Arab League enters the fray and Syria asks for international protection, where is the country heading? Militarisation of the revolution and growing sectarianism is threatening the unity of the country.

Meanwhile, as Libya emerges from NATO's aerial bombardment and Muammar Gaddafi's death, much work has to be done to avoid anarchy and civil war.

As the contest between democracy and dictatorships continues apace, what has become of the Arab revolutions after the initial euphoria?"

GUESTS ON THIS MONTH'S SHOW

Nir Rosen, author, Aftermath: Following the Bloodshed of America's Wars in the Muslim World
Seumas Milne, associate editor, The Guardian
Professor Nadje Al-Ali, Gender Studies, SOAS
Dr Radwan Ziadeh, Human Rights Center, Harvard University.

Al-Jazeera Video: Bahrain security forces clash with protesters

Syria: Homs military attacks continue, say activists

BBC

"Syrian military forces have resumed attacks in the city of Homs, activists say, despite agreeing to withdraw from urban areas under an Arab League deal.

Tanks have been shelling parts of the city, and medics at the main hospital told the BBC more than 100 bodies had arrived in the past two days.

Activists say at least 19 people were killed in protests in Homs and other cities on Friday.

Wednesday's Arab League deal had called for an end to suppression of protests....

'Machine-gun fire'

Homs has been a focus of opposition to President Bashar al-Assad since the uprising against him began in March.

Local human rights groups report continued operations against opposition strongholds, including artillery bombardments of residential areas.

The killings over the past two days have mostly been in the Baba Amr district. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights group said the area had been "raked with heavy machine-gun fire" on Friday, with a number of deaths.

It also reported that troops had opened fire in the city's Ghuta neighbourhood, killing two civilians and wounding four.

At least seven protesters were also killed by troops in the town of Kanaker, outside Damascus, the Observatory said....."

Is Netanyahu bluffing once again?

By Trita Parsi - Special to CNN

"Should the latest episode of Israeli calls for bombing Iran be taken seriously, or is it – like the many cases prior to it – yet another (politically motivated) false alarm? Like clockwork, Israeli alarm bells have gone off in the past fifteen years with predictable regularity. Bellicose statements by Israeli officials have been followed by alarmist analyses describing military measures as both necessary and inevitable. And then, without any explanation, the bellicosity recedes and Iran and Israel return to their more normal levels of animosity.

By now, as WikiLeaks documents show, U.S. officials tend to view the Israeli threats as a pressure tactic to get the United States and Europe to adopt tougher measures against Iran, and to refrain from any compromise with Tehran over the nuclear issue. These intense periods of Israeli warnings about its imminent intent to bomb Iran have indeed tended to coincide with times when the international community has been debating additional sanctions on Tehran.

This latest call for war is no different....."

Down With The Rule of The Slaughterhouse!

Courtesy of Arabs48.com



Down With The Rule of The Slaughterhouse!

Guardian Video: Israel's navy intercepts Gaza flotilla

Two protest boats heading to Gaza to try to break the blockade have been boarded by the Israeli navy. The military said forces moved after repeated calls for the boats to turn around were ignored. It added that the boarding was carried out peacefully and nobody was hurt

guardian.co.uk, Friday 4 November 2011

Guardian Video: Occupy demonstrators at St Paul's link up with protests in Syria

Occupy London protesters take part in a two-way livestream connecting demonstrations at St Paul's Cathedral with those in Damascus and Homs in Syria. They claim it is the first such event in the UK, and part of their attempts to link protest movements around the world. Around 50 UK-based Syrians took part in the protest, which streamed live to Syria

John Domokos and Mustafa Khalili
guardian.co.uk, Friday 4 November 2011

Current Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Online Poll

Do you believe that the Syrian government will abide by the terms of the Arab League's initiative?

With about 600 responding so far, 93% said no.

Syria and Iran: the great game

Regime change in Syria is a strategic prize that outstrips Libya – which is why Saudi Arabia and the west are playing their part

Alastair Crooke
guardian.co.uk, Friday 4 November 2011

Note:

I don't agree with a lot in this comment, but the author is well-connected and some of the points he makes are worth taking into account. I think that the author is close to Hizbullah, or at least very sympathetic to it.

"This summer a senior Saudi official told John Hannah, Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, that from the outset of the upheaval in Syria, the king has believed that regime change would be highly beneficial to Saudi interests: "The king knows that other than the collapse of the Islamic Republic itself, nothing would weaken Iran more than losing Syria."

This is today's "great game" – losing Syria. And this is how it is played: set up a hurried transitional council as sole representative of the Syrian people, irrespective of whether it has any real legs inside Syria; feed in armed insurgents from neighbouring states; impose sanctions that will hurt the middle classes; mount a media campaign to denigrate any Syrian efforts at reform; try to instigate divisions within the army and the elite; and ultimately President Assad will fall – so its initiators insist.....

The origins of the "lose Assad" operation preceded the Arab awakening: they reach back to Israel's failure in its 2006 war to seriously damage Hezbollah, and the post-conflict US assessment that it was Syria that represented Hezbollah's achilles heel – as the vulnerable conduit linking Hezbollah to Iran. US officials speculated as to what might be done to block this vital corridor, but it was Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia who surprised them by saying that the solution was to harness Islamic forces....

Hypothetical planning, however, only became concrete action this year, with the overthrow of Egypt's President Mubarak. Suddenly Israel seemed vulnerable, and a weakened Syria, mired in troubles, had heightened strategic allure. In parallel, Qatar had stepped to the fore. Azmi Bishara, a pan-Arabist who resigned from the Israeli Knesset and self-exiled to Doha, was according to some local reports involved in a scheme in which al-Jazeera would not just report revolution, but instantiate it for the region – or at least this is what was believed in Doha in the wake of the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings. Qatar, however, was not merely trying to leverage human suffering into an international intervention, but was also – as in Libya – directly involved as a key operational patron of the opposition....."

Exclusive: Video from Gaza Flotilla as Israeli Navy Prepares to Intercept Boats

Democracy Now!



"Two Gaza-bound boats carrying pro-Palestinian activists are within 50 nautical miles of their destination, but reports are emerging that Israeli Navy ships have intercepted the "Freedom Waves to Gaza" flotilla. Communication with the boats has largely been cut off. Prior to losing contact, we received two exclusive video reports from aboard the "Tahrir," the Canadian ship. Speaking to Democracy Now! correspondent Jihan Hafiz last night, passenger Ehab Lotayef said, "We are approaching the 100-nautical-mile point away from Gaza, which is usually the point where Israel declares—starts the blockade ... Will they try to come and board us? All these questions are now at the moment of truth. The major preparation we did is to prepare that we don’t want anybody to act in any violent way or in any way that can even induce violence by the Israelis."....."

Al-Jazeera Video: Footage from aid boat en route for Gaza

Al-Jazeera Video: Israel preparing for a nuclear Iran

"On Thursday the Israeli army practised evacuations near Tel Aviv. On Wednesday, it test-fired a long-range ballistic missile, its first in three years. And earlier in the week, the military was involved in joint exercises with the Italian air force near Sardinia.

Israel says the timing of these operations is a coincidence, but with the International Atomic Energy Agency about to release a new report on Iran's nuclear capabilities next week, some have speculated that Israel may be considering a strike against Iran.

Al Jazeera's Nicole Johnston reports from Jerusalem."

Al-Jazeera Video: Injured Syrians seek medical help in Jordan

Al-Jazeera Video: Raw footage from Gaza-bound ships

"The two boats carrying pro-Palestinian activists bound for the Gaza Strip have left the port of Fethiye in southwest Turkey on Wednesday after Turkish authorities gave them permission to sail to the Greek island of Rhodes.

The following raw footage shows the Canadian boat Tahrir and the Irish boat MV Saoirse at sea."

Real News Video: Euro-Chaos and Global Capitalism

Leo Panitch: We are witnessing the irrationality of capitalism and the incredible struggle of people in the street

Israel’s Big Bluff

How we'll go to war with Iran

By Justin Raimondo
November 04, 2011

".....The Israeli government has been openly threatening Iran with attack for years, and we have learned not to take their outbreaks of war hysteria too seriously. During the last year of George W. Bush’s final term in office, there was heightened speculation that Tel Aviv was pressuring Washington to launch such an attack, and indeed it appears Vice President Dick Cheney argued for precisely that, albeit to no avail. Now the war talk has been revived by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who, along with his defense minister, Ehud Barak, has not only been arguing within the Cabinet for such a strike, but has now supposedly moved into the implementation stage.

We are told by the Israeli media that there is a big debate going on, with two former top officials – Meir Dagan, recently retired as head of the Mossad, and Yuval Diskin, head of Shin Bet – going so far as to leak the specifics of Bibi’s scheme in order to torpedo the plan. Dagan is said to have remarked that the war plans are "the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard" – and he’s quite right.

The problem with this alleged plan is that Israel doesn’t have the military capacity to do the job and do it well: Iran’s nuclear facilities are enclosed within hardened sites, and are spread out to such a degree that Israeli war planes would have trouble reaching them. While the Israelis have recently tested a long-range missile that has the capacity to hit Iranian targets, the idea that they could take out all the intended targets in one fell swoop is simply a fantasy. Therefore, this alleged "debate" taking place within the Israeli leadership, complete with a phony "investigation" by Netanyahu into who leaked the nonexistent Israeli attack "plan," is a non-event. The whole thing, in short, is a bluff.

But who is being bluffed here? Not the Iranians, who are surely aware of Israel’s incapacity. The volume of the war hysteria is being turned up with one purpose in mind: the Israelis want the US to do their dirty work for them. This is a threat aimed not only – or even primarily – at Iran, but at us......"

Fear and loathing in the Cannes debt festival

By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times

"After posing as the Great Liberator of Libya, French President Nicolas Sarkozy thought this week's Cannes Group of 20 summit would crown his Napoleonic ambitions. Instead, the Greeks made the (invisible) God of the Market angrier than Zeus and more psychotic than a German chancellor. All eyes are on China, but the Middle Kingdom's generosity carries a hefty price tag - European exceptionalism itself...."

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine can promote peace, truth and reconciliation

The Israel-Palestine situation demands truth and reconciliation. We hope to aid that process

Desmond Tutu and Michael Mansfield
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 3 November 2011

"Opportunities to break seemingly intractable and deadlocked situations are rare – especially on a scale which has rapidly developed this year from the beleaguered cries of citizenry across North Africa and the Middle East. There is a palpable consensus that the provenance of this movement is lodged firmly in the fundamental prerequisite for meaningful democracy: self-determination. All conventions on human rights have this tenet as a core rationale. Where it is repeatedly denied and suppressed there will never be peace or justice, let alone stability.

On Saturday the Russell Tribunal on Palestine will open its third session: after Barcelona and London, this session will take place in South Africa, the location of a seminal struggle for self-determination by a community oppressed by apartheid. Partly as a result of this courageous and persistent protest by thousands of ordinary people, who were regularly demonised as terrorists by political opponents within the South African regime (and by certain world leaders, including the UK's), there was a concerted international effort to bring international law to bear upon an entrenched position.

Between 1948 and 1990, the UN regularly condemned apartheid as a crime.....

As part of a South African religious delegation to Israel in the 1980s, Michael Nuttall, the bishop of Natal, pointed out that there were things happening in Israel that did not even happen in South Africa – forms of collective punishment. This has special resonance in the light of Richard Goldstone's attempt to pre-empt the tribunal in the New York Times this week by an assertion that nothing in Israel comes close. His analysis is simplistic. No one is suggesting the two situations are identical.

These are all matters the tribunal will be assessing in order to ascertain what parallels and comparisons can be drawn. Whatever they may be, the ultimate objective is to consider the Israel-Palestine situation on its own facts and apply the norms of international law to identify three major issues. Have there been violations? If so, what are they and who is responsible? And thirdly, what are the legal ramifications and processes which should ensue? It is hoped that this process may contribute and not detract from the urgent need to progress understanding and peace, truth and reconciliation."

Egyptians call for day of action to revive their 'stifled' revolution

Links between Cairo and Occupy movement strengthen as anger grows at actions of military junta

Jack Shenker
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 3 November 2011

"Egyptian activists have called for an international day of action to defend their country's revolution, as global opposition mounts towards the military junta.

In a statement appealing for solidarity from the worldwide Occupy movement that has taken control of public squares in London, New York and hundreds of other cities, campaigners in Egypt claim their revolution is "under attack" from army generals and insist they too are fighting against a "1%" elite intent on stifling democracy and promoting social injustice.

The announcement came as Alaa Abd El Fattah, the jailed Egyptian revolutionary who has become a rallying figure for those opposed to the junta, had his appeal against detention refused by a military court. He and 30 other defendants accused of inciting violence against the military will remain in prison for at least 10 more days. The authorities could then choose to extend their incarceration indefinitely....

Meanwhile, in Egypt, more political leaders have spoken out against draft constitutional principles released by the interim cabinet that would see the military's influence over civilian government permanently enshrined in law....."

Guardian Video: Syrian city of Homs hit by shelling

Amateur footage purportedly shows the besieged city of Homs being shelled less than a day after Damascus agreed to a regional plan to withdraw its armed vehicles and stop a violent crackdown against dissent. Activists in Syria's third city claimed at least seven people were killed and several more injured in the shelling. One Homs resident said the violence had intensified overnight

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 3 November 2011

Video: يا مجلس عسكر إنت كذاب وقليل القيمة

جمال عيد في مؤتمر لا للمحاكمات العسكرية للمدنيين

Courtesy of Hossam El-Hamalawy

Goldstone walks alone on a bridge to nowhere

The former judge who wrote the Gaza War report recently - and wrongly - wrote that Israel does not practice apartheid.

Richard Falk
Al-Jazeera

"Surely the New York Times would not dare turn down a piece from the new Richard Goldstone. He had already recast himself as the self-appointed guardian of Israel’s world reputation. This, despite the fact that he had earlier been anointed as the distinguished jurist who admirably put aside his ethnic identity and personal affiliations when it came to carrying out his professional work as a specialist in international criminal law.

Goldstone was even seemingly willing to confront the Zionist furies of Israel when criticised by one of their own adherents in chairing the UN panel appointed to consider allegations of Israeli war crimes during the Gaza War of 2008-09. A few months ago Goldstone took the unseemly step of unilaterally retracting a central conclusion of the "Goldstone Report" during those attacks on Gaza.

The former judge wrote in a column in the Washington Post that the Goldstone Report would have been different if he had known then what he came to know now, an arrogant assertion considering that he was but one of four panel members designated by the UN Human Rights Council, and considering that the other three publicly reaffirmed their confidence in the original conclusion as presented in the report, which was written and released months earlier....

Fall from grace

The sad saga of Richard Goldstone’s descent from pinnacles of respect and trust to this shabby role as legal gladiator recklessly jousting on behalf of Israel is as unbecoming as it is unpersuasive....

The Palestinians' long ordeal is sufficiently grounded in reality that the defection of such an influential witness amounts to a further assault not only on Palestinian wellbeing but also on the wider struggle to achieve justice, peace, and security for both peoples. Contrary to Goldstone's protestations that the Russell Tribunal will hinder a resolution to the conflict, it is the Goldstones of this world that are producing the smokescreens behind which the very possibility of a two-state solution has been deliberately destroyed by Israel’s tactics of delay and programmes of expansion.

In the end, if there is ever to emerge a just and sustainable peace, it will be thanks to many forms of Palestinian resistance and a related campaign of global solidarity, of which the Russell Tribunal promises to make a notable contribution. We should all remember that it is hard to render the truth until we see the truth - ugly as it may be! "

Wall Street v. Greece: G20 Opens as Greek PM Pushes For Referendum on Bailout and Austerity Measures

Democracy Now!



"World leaders are gathering in Cannes for the opening of the Group of 20 summit today. On the top of the agenda is the Greece bailout and the European debt crisis. On Monday, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou angered many European leaders by announcing his support for a popular referendum — allowing the Greek people to decide if they want to accept the conditions of the $179 billion European Union bailout. After days of increasing criticism from European leaders, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou is now facing calls from within his party to resign. The Greek debt scandal has also pitted U.S. banking interests against France, Germany and other European powers. "The Americans are putting immense pressure on Europe saying, 'We will wreck your economy if you don’t wreck Greece's economy,’" says economic analyst Michael Hudson. President Obama is “basically telling Europe, ‘Don’t go the democratic route, support Wall Street.’”...."

EXCLUSIVE: Video Report from Gaza-Bound Flotilla Attempting to Break Israeli Blockade

Democracy Now!



"A Canadian boat and Irish boat quietly left a Turkish port Wednesday, bound for Gaza. Democracy Now! first broke the news on our live broadcast yesterday. This flotilla, named Freedom Waves to Gaza, marks the latest attempt by international activists to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. The ships are hoping to reach Gaza by Friday, but Israel has threatened to stop the ships. "I anticipate that the Israeli army, probably, the navy, is probably considering boarding us at some point on our way to Gaza and the siege," said passenger Kit Kittredge of the group Code Pink. "I’m not feeling fearful. I’m feeling actually pretty peaceful. And that’s what we are: we are a peaceful boat and a peaceful flotilla going to end the siege." Democracy Now! correspondent Jihan Hafiz filed this video report from the Tahrir boat from international waters and joined us live on the telephone from the ship in international waters...."

Al-Jazeera Video: Protesters shut down huge Oakland port in US

Al-Jazeera Video: Several reported killed in Yemeni unrest

Al-Jazeera Video: Israel withholds Palestinian tax revenues

Al-Jazeera Video: Trita Parsi speaks to Al Jazeera on Israel's ballistic missile test

"Israel has test-fired a ballistic missile capable of reaching Iran, from the central Israeli Palmchamin base, Israeli radio said.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Trita Parsi, the president of the National Iranian American Council, says if Israel decided to go ahead with a strike against Iran, the current political timing is in their favour."

Al-Jazeera Video: Nisreen El Shamayleh reports on events in Syria

"In Syria, activists said security forces killed at least 13 factory workers in a village northwest of Homs.

There were other violent attacks reported in parts of the country on Wednesday.

International media are banned from Syria, but Al Jazeera's Nisreen El Shamayleh, in the border town of Ramtha in Jordan, reports on the latest events."

Real News Video: Bill Black: Jobs Now, Stop the Foreclosures, Jail the Banksters

Bill Black: Here are three things the "Occupy Movement" could focus on

AN EXCELLENT INTERVIEW

Too Big to Jail

By Robert Scheer
TruthDig

"Can we all agree that a $1 billion swindle represents a lot of money, and the fact that Citigroup agreed last week to pay a $285 million fine to settle SEC charges for “misleading investors” demonstrates a damning admission of culpability?

So why has Robert Rubin, the onetime treasury secretary who went on to become Citigroup chairman during the time of the corporation’s financial shenanigans, never been held accountable for this and other deep damage done to the U.S. economy on his watch?....."

The Merchants of Death and Me

by Philip Giraldi, November 03, 2011

"I attended a recent talk on “defense cooperation” between the United States and the Arab world. Inevitably, no one on the panel of five bothered to ask why the United States should be fueling an arms race by selling to nearly every country in the region, but as each speaker had a personal interest in arming everyone to the teeth, the omission was perhaps understandable. It reminded me of Upton Sinclair’s famous quip that “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

One panelist was a senior employee of a major defense contractor. The other speakers were also cogs in the military-industrial complex. Most of the panelists were somewhat nuanced in their pronouncements even if they could not avoid slipping into government-speak with its mixture of acronyms and expressions like “kinetic” and “COIN doctrine” that are only used when Pentagon guys get together over a brewski (or when they are trying to impress a congressional committee).....

But perhaps the most startling insight revealed by the panel is the inability to understand why the United States has been unable to sell its message “Hollywood style.” Well, it should be obvious even to the masters of war who create the ordnance that goes off with a bang all around the world that the narrative proposed by the United States, i.e., that “we are here to protect you,” doesn’t sell too well in any part of the world where the people can look around and see the devastation that has actually been delivered. Garbage is still garbage no matter how you gift wrap it.

When the panel left the stage, with congratulations all around, I thought to myself, “What monsters we have become. Someone hand me a tomato so I can throw it.” Alas, there were no tomatoes. "

After Egypt's revolution, I never expected to be back in Mubarak's jails

I have been locked up, again on a set of flimsy charges, five years after imprisonment for supporting the judiciary

Alaa Abd El Fattah
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 2 November 2011

"I never expected to repeat the experience of five years ago: after a revolution that deposed the tyrant, I go back to his jails?

The memories come back to me, all the details of imprisonment; the skills of sleeping on the floor, nine men in a six-by-12-foot (two-by-four-metre) cell, the songs of prison, the conversations. But I absolutely can't remember how I used to keep my glasses safe while I slept.
They have been stepped on three times already today. I suddenly realise they're the same glasses that were with me in my last imprisonment; the one for supporting the Egyptian judiciary in 2006. And that I am locked up, again pending trial, again on a set of loose and flimsy charges – the one difference is that instead of the state security prosecutor we have the military prosecutor – a change in keeping with the military moment we're living now.

Last time my imprisonment was shared with 50 colleagues from the "Kifaya" movement. This time, I'm alone, in a cell with eight men who shouldn't be here; poor, helpless, unjustly held – the guilty among them and the innocent.

As soon as they learned I was one of the "young people of the revolution" they started to curse out the revolution and how it had failed to clean up the ministry of the interior. I spend my first two days listening to stories of torture at the hands of a police force that insists on not being reformed; that takes out its defeat on the bodies of the poor and the helpless.....

My thoughts wander as I listen to the radio. I hear the speech of the general as he inaugurates the tallest flagpost in the world – which will surely break all records. I wonder: does pushing the name of the martyr Mina Danial as one of those "accused of instigation" in my case break a record in insolence? They must be the first who murder a man and not only walk in his funeral but spit on his body and accuse it of a crime. Or perhaps this cell could break a record in the number of cockroaches in a prison cell? Abu Malek interrupts my thoughts: "I swear by God if this revolution doesn't do something radical about injustice it will sink without a trace.""