Tom Carter

On September 30, 2011, the Obama administration, through its military and intelligence apparatus, assassinated US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen.

The purpose of this essay is to analyze the legal implications of the assertion by the Obama administration of the power to assassinate US citizens anywhere in the world.

From the standpoint of US and international law as it has developed historically, the killing of al-Awlaki is entirely illegal. Extrajudicial executions violate nearly every fundamental democratic legal protection.

At the request of the Obama administration, a lawsuit filed on al-Awlaki’s behalf was thrown out of US courts in September of last year on the basis of authoritarian precepts far exceeding any precedent in the country’s history. The decision in that case, left undisturbed, clears the way for the extrajudicial liquidation of opponents of the US government and, ultimately, for presidential dictatorship.

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Gilad Atzmon

A few days ago I compared two critiques of my new book ‘The Wandering Who?’. One was by rabid Zionist Mark Gardner and the other by American academic Kevin MacDonald. I called my piece ‘Supremacists on The Wandering Who?’.

In my article I labeled Gardner as a ‘Jewish Supremacist’ and MacDonald as a ‘White Supremacist’. However, since the publication of my column it has been pointed out by a few readers that I may have been insufficiently careful in the way I attributed supremacism to Kevin MacDonald.

The definition of supremacism is actually pretty straightforward. It is the belief that a particular race, species, ethnic group, religion, gender, sexual orientation, belief system or culture is superior to others, and thus entitles those who identify with it to dominate, control or rule those who do not.

What is clear beyond any doubt is that such a definition fits Zionist ideology, discourse or practice like a glove. Zionism is driven by the belief that Jewish people are entitled to dominate, control and rule their supposed ‘promised land’ at the expense of its indigenous population i.e. the Palestinians. But is this only true of Zionism? Is not any Jewish ‘progressive’ discourse, driven by tribal and racial inclinations towards segregation and determined to enforce on others how their struggle must be conducted, is not this also fundamentally supremacist?

My point is actually very simple and, also it seems, devastating. I believe that every single Jewish political discourse is chauvinist to the bone and is either already supremacist or on the verge of becoming supremacist.

But what about Kevin MacDonald? Is he a White Supremacist? Well, now I‘m not so sure. He’s certainly concerned with his white heritage and, like many Jews, he is also concerned with his genetic pool. MacDonald's world view is clearly shaped by biological determinism and this is something I am very uncomfortable with. Yet, does he insist upon privilege? Does he seek to ‘dominate’, ‘control’ or ‘rule’ other non-white people? I’m not so sure, but I’m certainly going to look into it and it may take some time. But I will come with an answer.

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Adnan Al-Daini

Wikipedia dryly defines QE as: "The term quantitative easing describes a monetary policy used by central banks to increase the supply of money by increasing the excess reserves of the banking system. This policy is usually invoked when the normal methods to control the money supply have failed, i.e the bank interest rate, discount rate and/or interbank interest rate are either at, or close to, zero."

We all know QE stands for Quantitative Easing; a better description would be Questionable Economics. The Bank of England has just announced QE2, where £75bn is being electronically created and pumped into the banks. This is in addition to QE1, the £200bn injected in 2009 in exchange for mainly government bonds. The more I read about this system of finance, the more convinced I become that this is a racket that enriches the banks and endangers the real economy, with many economists arguing that it makes the current dire economic situation worse. The aim of the Bank of England is to enable the banks to lend to small businesses and entrepreneurs to create growth in the economy. The banks failed to meet their lending targets with project Merlin, using the first £200bn. The government hopes the banks will do more this time with the additional £75bn in their coffers. Why they believe this has not been explained. Why should the banks lend more to businesses if greater profits can be made elsewhere?

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Stephen Lendman

Chosen to serve power, not popular interests, Obama wrecked America's economy to save giant Wall Street banks. He's still doing it, despite claiming he's been out in front doing all he can.

By bailing out too-big-to-fail banks and waging multiple imperial wars, he intensified social misery.

As a result, Main Street is mired in protracted Depression. Economist David Rosenberg believes we're in the "third inning" of hard times malaise.

Four occurred in the 19th century. Until now, the 1930s Great Depression was America's last severe downturn, lasting a decade, punctuated by failed bounces.

America's Greatest Depression began in late 2007. Rosenberg calls is a "modern-day" one similar to what Japan experienced for over two decades. It's still ongoing, boding ill for US workers if America replicates Japan's experience.

Depressions occur "once it becomes painfully obvious" that conditions don't improve despite "repeated bouts of policy stimulus."

Most of America's went for banker bailouts, tax cuts for corporate favorites and super-rich elites, as well as quantitative easing money creation for speculation, not economic growth.

In contrast to recessions lasting six to 18 months, depressions last years.

From 2002 - 2007, America's economy was massively manipulated and levered. As a result, financial activities comprised 40% of profits. At the same time, household debt to income and assets "surged to unprecedented levels and the personal savings rate" was negative when the housing bubble peaked. As a result, America experience levered prosperity. Conditions are now reverting to the mean. A long way down remains.

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From Khalid Amayreh in occupied Jerusalem

There is no doubt that one of the main reasons for America's phenomenal economic and financial problems, which affect America's overall global standing, has to do with the so-called Israeli factor. I know it is politically incorrect to say so, especially in an electioneering atmosphere. Nonetheless, knowing and telling the truth shall set us all free.

President Obama admitted recently that the US is facing the severest economic crisis ever since the great depression. However, like most of his predecessors and nearly all others contemporary politicians in Washington, the last thing that comes to Obama's mind is pointing an accusing finger at Israel and her powerful lobbies and pressure groups that have effectively hijacked the American government, especially Congress, by making sure that the American political establishment is answerable, first and foremost, to the Zionist Jewish power-centers, not to the American people.

The backyard dogs of Israeli propaganda as well as the numerous political prostitutes who would do virtually anything to get Jewish attention (and money) would go to any extent in order to deny the obvious, namely that Israel is destroying America by utilizing and exploiting the erstwhile great country in order to expedite regional and global Zionist interests, including territorial expansion and regional supremacy.

Nonetheless, it seems that America's economic woes are too real and too pervasive to be obliterated through a façade of lies and prevarication by the Zionist-controlled media.

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Brandon Smith

The key is to cast off the dread of the machine and realize that none of us is alone in the fight. The juggernaut is hollow. Its terrible roar is choked with smoke. It rolls forward only because we have not yet dared to stand in its path.

At the very foundation of perhaps every modern day conflict between the expansive powers of unchecked bureaucracy and the dwindling freedoms of the ordinary citizen dwells the vital issue of privacy. Privacy and the right to hold personal and political views without being singled out and scrutinized by government is absolutely essential to any society which dares to deem itself “fair and just”. Ultimately, without the presence of these two liberties, and without people to defend them, a nation is ill equipped to circumvent the growth of tyranny, and anyone claiming to be “free” in the midst of such a culture is living a delusion of the highest order.

Often, social engineers attempt to direct debate over the issue of privacy towards rationalizations of relative morality, or artificially delineated priorities. We quibble over the level of government intrusion that should be tolerated for the sake of the “greater good”. We struggle with questions of bureaucratic reach, wondering at which point we should consider government a threat to the safety and liberty of the people, rather than a servant and protector. The dialogue always turns towards “how much” room government should be given to lumber about our personal lives. Rarely do we actually confront the idea that, perhaps, government should not be welcomed at all into such places.

Really, what makes a governmental entity so special that it should be allowed free access to the activities of the average citizen? Why should ANY intrusion of privacy be tolerated, let alone the kind that goes on today? Our most important concern is not how much leeway our government should be given to snoop into our pocket books, our medical records, our education, our political leanings, or our child rearing philosophies, but rather, whether or not they fulfill any purpose whatsoever through these actions. Is the government, as it exists now, even necessary, or does it cause only harm?

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Stephen Lendman

Most people know about the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of England, and Bank of Japan.

Few ever heard of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the central bank for central bankers. Based in Basle, Switzerland, it's a banking boss of bosses accountable to no government.

Privately owned by its member central banks, dominant ones and financial elitists have most influence to eventually implement global control under one currency.

The BIS is a secretive 55-member nation global central bank run mainly by monetary authorities in America, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Japan and Britain.

In 2009, serving dominant banking interests, Obama proposed stealth financial reform for global monetary control.

Objective V addressed "Rais(ing) International Standards and Improving International Cooperation" by promoting global control in a single paragraph:

"The United States is playing a strong leadership role in efforts to coordinate international policy through the G-20, the Financial Stability Board, and the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. We will use our leadership position in the international community to promote (an) initiative compatible with the domestic regulatory reforms described in this report."

It also recommended "Strengthen(ing) the Financial Stability Board....complet(ing) its restructuring and institutionaliz(ing) its new mandate to promote global financial stability by September 2009."

In addition, it urged "work(ing) with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and standard setters to develop macroprudential tools." Obama asked other nations to follow America's lead.

A Financial Stability Board (FSB) would be a step closer to global monetary control. G-7 nations, the BIS, IMF and other international lending agencies would dominate it. Wall Street would have greater than ever power. Dictatorial finance capital would follow.

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Jonathon Blakeley

Atlantic Bridge was set up as the name suggests to bridge across the Atlantic; as an Atlanticist think tank. To foster and maintain that “special relationship” between the US and UK. Founded by Liam Fox in 1997 Atlantic Bridge was ostensibly a charity but failed to meet the basic guidelines for a charity and was booted off in September 2011 by the Charity commission. It was supposed to have an educational role but failed to do so and spent all its donated money on travel, accommodation and social events for its supporters. BICOM (The British Israel Communications and Research Centre) was one of its primary sources of donations.

BICOM lists its activities as:

● Providing daily, expert news summary and analysis of events in Israel and the region through our online publications.
● Taking British journalists, opinion formers and policy makers to Israel and the Palestinian territories to learn about the issues first-hand.
● Bringing analysts, journalists and politicians from the region to Britain, to share their insights with their British counterparts.
● Promoting a balanced discourse about Israel in the British media by creating opportunities for a wide range of voices to be heard.
●Organising events and seminars in the UK aimed at deepening the discussion about Israel in Britain.
● Engaging in dialogue with British opinion formers, policy makers and the media on issues of importance to Israel and the Britain-Israel relationship.
● Providing resources to individuals and organisations in Britain who share BICOM’s agenda to promote a better understanding of Israel.

Bicom has been keen to foster close relationships with all media people as can be seen here by this interesting leaked email. As well as the media interests Bicom has close links and donates large amounts to all three political parties in the UK; but this is not directly. Bicom donates to CFI (Conservative Friends of Israel) & the LFI (The Labour Friends of Israel) as well and many other Political organisations. It is through these mediator organisations that money is channeled to the politicians themselves.

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Patrick Martin

Today the “commander-in-chief” targets an Islamic preacher, claiming he is a terrorist. Tomorrow, he may simply target the Islamic preacher because he is “anti-American.” And the day after, he can target any individual, organization or party that opposes the policies of American imperialism.

The Obama administration drafted a secret legal memorandum last year claiming that the president had the power to order the killing of an American citizen without a trial, a power that was exercised ten days ago with the drone missile murder of Anwar al-Awlaki, an Islamic radical cleric born in the United States of Yemeni parents.

Awlaki and three other men—one of them also an American citizen, Samir Khan—were blown to pieces by a missile fired from a CIA-operated drone in northern Yemen. The Obama administration claimed, without providing any evidence, that Awlaki was a high-level “operational leader” of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and justified the killing as a preemptive military action, using almost the same language as the Bush administration before it.

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Stephen Lendman

On October 6, thousands massed in Washington on the 10th anniversary of America's illegal Afghan war against a nonbelligerent country.

Years ago it was lost. Nonetheless, it continues without end. The business of America is war, permanent wars, multiple ones. One nation after another is plundered for wealth and power while homeland needs go begging.

US duopoly power spurns human and civil rights, rule of law principles, and democratic values. Long ago they were abandoned to advance Washington's imperium globally.

Allied with America's military/industrial profiteers, Wall Street runs America. Political Washington serves them. Public needs are increasingly shut out.

The criminal class in Washington is bipartisan. Every new administration and Congress exceed the worst of previous ones. America's heading straight downhill.

Political Washington is corrupted, broken, and unfixable. Thomas Jefferson wrote in America's Declaration of Independence:

"Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government..."

That time is now! Change never comes top down, only bottom up by committed people demanding no less.

Fed up Americans across the country want long denied social justice. Slogans like "Banks Got Bailed Out! We Got Sold Out!" are chanted. Occupy Together.org said "meetups" were established in 761 cities and towns.

They're heading everywhere, despite enormous obstacles confronting them. Corporate money wants them co-opted. Corrupt union bosses and political insiders are involved.

Committed leaders city by city aren't evident. Neither is focus on what matters most. Without it, only cosmetic changes are possible.

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John Pilger

The High Court in London will soon to decide whether Julian Assange is to be extradited to Sweden to face allegations of sexual misconduct. At the appeal hearing in July, Ben Emmerson QC, counsel for the defence, described the whole saga as "crazy". Sweden's chief prosecutor had dismissed the original arrest warrant, saying there was no case for Assange to answer. Both the women involved said they had consented to have sex. On the facts alleged, no crime would have been committed in Britain.

However, it is not the Swedish judicial system that presents a "grave danger" to Assange, say his lawyers, but a legal device known as a Temporary Surrender, under which he can be sent on from Sweden to the United States secretly and quickly. The founder and editor of WikiLeaks, who published the greatest leak of official documents in history, providing a unique insight into rapacious wars and the lies told by governments, is likely to find himself in a hell hole not dissimilar to the "torturous" dungeon that held Private Bradley Manning, the alleged whistleblower. Manning has not been tried, let alone convicted, yet on 21 April, President Barack Obama declared him guilty with a dismissive "He broke the law".

This Kafka-style justice awaits Assange whether or not Sweden decides to prosecute him. Last December, the Independent disclosed that the US and Sweden had already started talks on Assange's extradition. At the same time, a secret grand jury - a relic of the 18th century long abandoned in this country - has convened just across the river from Washington, in a corner of Virginia that is home to the CIA and most of America's national security establishment. The grand jury is a "fix", a leading legal expert told me: reminiscent of the all-white juries in the South that convicted blacks by rote. A sealed indictment is believed to exist.

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Michael Rectenwald

To avoid being co-opted or crushed, the Wall Street Occupation must become Occupy Main Street. It must attract the many layers of the 99% that are not yet literally represented within its ranks.

The world economic order is in the throes of severe crisis, a crisis for which economic or political experts and advisors have no answers at all. The crisis is the direct result of the contradictions of capitalist production and exchange, which have come to a head as capitalists have reached (perhaps temporary) limits in global labor exploitation and resource acquisition. The political establishment is also hostage to the same capitalist crisis. It has nothing on offer for the vast majority within existing conditions, and certainly cannot propose anything beyond them. Reformers have no new tricks left in their bag and the reforms that haven't been enacted are beyond the reach of the system.

The Occupy Wall Street movement represents the long-standing, brewing and boiling over of anger, disillusionment, dispossession, and growing despair of the many millions affected by this systemic crisis. Indeed, the movement represents, at least figuratively, the cry of the vast majority of the nation’s and the world's population – "the 99%." The movement thus contains the germ of revolutionary potential – a potential, however incipient and faint -- to completely overthrow the existing state of affairs and to commence the long revolutionary process of inaugurating a successor social order.

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Wayne Madsen

[Codename: Operation Enduring Turmoil - Zionist Neocon Plans for Pakistan and rest of the World. Read this document to understand the game plan.]

Paraphrasing the old anti-Vietnam War song,

"And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Pakistan"

It does appear that for some Pentagon brass, including Defense Secretary Leon Panetta; the CIA under former U.S. Central Command and Afghanistan commander General David Petraeus; and top Republican and Democratic politicians that, indeed, Pakistanis next on the target list of nations that will soon be feeling the military muscle of the United States. Unlike other Muslim nations that have been subjected to U.S. military intervention, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, and Libya, Pakistan’s ultimate prize for the West is its nuclear weapons arsenal…

A number of observers, including former senior figures with the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, have made no secret of western contingency plans, which appear to be going active, to secure Pakistan’s nuclear weapons in order to eliminate the nation as a nuclear weapons power. The plans have been coordinated between the CIA, India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) intelligence service, and Israel’s Mossad.

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Stephen Lendman

Major Wall Street banks occupy and control Washington. They recycle their officials in and out, make policy, and enforce it with money power supremacy for virtually everything they want.

Political Washington salutes and obeys. Money power in private hands and democracy can't co-exist. It buys what it wants at the expense of government of, by and for the people. It never was and isn't now.

On December 23, 1913, Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act, violating the Constitution's Article 1, Section 8, giving Congress sole power to coin (create) money and regulate the value thereof.

Abolishing or nationalizing the Fed and giving people money power back through Congress is step one to regaining rights not possible under banker controlled government.

That's issue one Occupy Wall Street protesters and others spreading across America in dozens of cities must address.

Occupy Together is an "unofficial hub" for burgeoning initiatives heading everywhere "in solidarity with Occupy Wall St."

Word spreads. Hidden anger surfaces. Small numbers grow. So does commitment to stay the course. Activists and ordinary people know something's wrong they want changed. Key is understanding money power in private hands. Change depends on ending a system destroying futures for working Americans.

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Gilad Atzmon

"The Wandering Jew," by Joseph F. Keppler, 1901

Two days ago I referred to a critique of ‘The Wandering Who?’ written by Mark Gardner. Gardner is a rabid Zionist and Jewish supremacist who tends to conflate Jewish Nationalism (Zionism) with Jewish ethnicity. However, Gardner’s criticism of my book was, in the main, intelligent and fair, though certainly not free of error.

Yesterday, I found out that The Occidental Observer, a White Supremacist magazine, also published a lengthy review of ‘The Wandering Who?’ written by Prof. Kevin MacDonald. Like Gardner, MacDonald also conflates Jewish ideology and culture with ethnicity. His most controversial claim is that a suite of traits that he attributes to Jews, including higher-than-average verbal intelligence and ethnocentrisms, have eugenically evolved to enhance the ability of Jews to outsmart non-Jews in the competition for resources while, at the same time, undermining the power and self-confidence of the white majorities in Europe and America who, he insists, Jews seek to dispossess. Just like Gardner, MacDonald produced an interesting text, though Macdonald’s was somewhat more scholarly.

Although both are supremacist and ethnocentric thinkers, Gardner and MacDonald seem to be in a kind of dispute.

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Sheldon Richman

[A picture taken on March 30, 2007 shows an Iraqi woman walking past a US soldier with 4-9 Cavalry 2BCT 1 Cavalry Division B-troop as he patrols Sheikh Ali Muslim Sunni neighbourhood in Baghdad. Al-Jazeera released "startling new information" from US documents obtained by WikiLeaks on October 22, alleging state-sanctioned Iraqi torture and the killing of hundreds of civilians at US military checkpoints. (Patrick Baz/AFP/CSM)]

In October WikiLeaks released close to 400,000 U.S. classified military documents relating to the Iraq war. The American people, the theoretical masters of the government, were not supposed to see them. The government preferred that they not know. So just as when the website released 77,000 documents on the Afghan war in August, government officials and apologists for the empire’s war policies roundly condemned WikiLeaks. Apparently, the greatest breach of decorum is to let the American people know how their government conducts its wars. In November WikiLeaks began to release more than 250,000 secret diplomatic cables, creating even more heat for the organization.

In December the U.S. Justice Department was deliberating whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could be charged with conspiracy to obtain government documents. The government was looking for evidence that Assange assisted or encouraged Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is in custody on charges of leaking the information, rather than being merely a passive recipient of the information. The website Daily Beast said that “the U.S. effort reflects a growing belief that WikiLeaks and organizations like it threaten grave damage to American national security....” Or, at any rate, to the government’s ability to shape public opinion by withholding the truth of its wars.

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Stephen Lendman

[Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said on Tuesday (June 7, 2011) that he does not submit despite the violent raids of NATO and called on the Libyan people to resist, in an audio message broadcast by Libyan television. "Despite the bombing we never submit", "said Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, while NATO carries out violent raids on Tripoli since the beginning of its operations in Libya. "I am near the bombing but I always resist," he said, calling the people to resist NATO. "Do not be afraid! Forward, forward!," he said in his message he addressed to the Libyan people. He also warned countries participating in military operations in Libya, they could never defeat an armed people.]

For over six and a half months, Libyans tied down the world's mightiest military force despite overwhelming odds against them and enormous loss of life and human suffering.

Established in 1949, NATO was never a "military alliance for peace and security." It was for offense, not defense. Cold War hysteria was contrived to incite fear and assure an arms race for corporate dominance and enrichment.

Twenty years after Soviet Russia dissolved, NATO interventions under US control threaten world peace and humanity, lurching from one war to another.

Interdicting for corporate predators, it's a rogue killing machine. Its mission isn't liberation. It's slaughtering, ravaging and pillaging for power and profit.

Using a proxy cutthroat mercenary army, Libya was pounded by relentless land and air assaults. A wasteland replaced a once peaceful country. Daily attacks ravage it further.

Corpses pile up on other ones. Human misery is incalculable. Death, disease and starvation haunt the living. Tens of thousands of Sirte residents face ferocious daily terror bombing.

Food, water, medical supplies and fuel were cut off. Indiscriminate mass killing targets civilians. Schools, hospitals, homes and other nonmilitary sites have been destroyed.

NATO's war on Libya is one of history's great crimes. Sirte is ground zero, facing genocidal slaughter and mass destruction.

Spread the word! Point fingers! Hold those responsible accountable for unconscionable imperial barbarism!

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Gilad Atzmon

So the shekel has dropped. The notorious Zionist, pro-war, Islamophobic, Harry’s Place has finally woken up. At long last it attempts to engage - and, for the first time ever, to engage intellectually. Perhaps someone at the centre of Israel Cyber Command has at last gathered that urgent, strategic rethinking is now desperately needed.

So far, every effort to destroy The Wandering Who? has backfired. Last week’s orchestrated attack led by the Jewish Chronicle, the Guardian and war-advocate Jeffrey Goldberg ended in vain. The book wasn’t pulled, but we were given a telling glimpse into the embarrassing continuum between the hardcore Zionist praxis and the onanist AZZ ( Anti-Zionist Zionist) discourse. If you want to know how the Guardian ended up in bed with both the Jewish Chronicle and ex-concentration camp guard Jeffrey Goldberg, I suggest you read The Wandering Who?.

As usual, the Guardian listened to the wrong people and so grossly miscalculated its position, power and influence. Its outrageous attack on Alison Weir, Counterpunch and myself was not picked by a single dissident journal around the globe. In fact, it led Jonathan Cook, the most respected writer on Palestine, to expose what he defined as the Guardian’s “Dangerous Cult”. Unlike the Guardian piece that was left hanging out to dry on some rabid Zionist sites, Cook’s article was reprinted by every dissident outlet on the net.

However, Harry’s Place seems to be slightly more sophisticated. This week, they were quick enough to sense that a change of tactics is needed.

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Khalid Amayreh in occupied Jerusalem

There are growing signs that Israel is traveling on a losing track. Indeed, with the prospects of finding a dignified, just and mutually-accepted settlement for the enduring Palestinian question nearly nonexistent, Israel is making sure that its future will be problematic, uncertain and even precarious.

True, Israel is militarily powerful and somewhat tightly controls the politics and policies of the United States, its guardian ally. However, the strategic value of the "American variable" or "American connection" is steadily becoming less certain and less than absolute in light of the progressive deterioration in America's global standing

Until a few years ago, the U.S. was thought of as a potentially positive force, a source of an absolute and matchless asset, facilitating rather than impeding the achievement of a prospective peace deal in the Middle East.

However, with the phenomenal domination of Zionist Jews of the American government, especially Congress, the U.S. seems to have become a handy tool in the hands of Zionist extremists pursuing maximalist goals in occupied Palestine, including the contemplated liquidation of the Palestine cause.

Hence, one would exaggerate little by saying that the U.S. has now a very limited ability to effect real change in the Middle East. One could even say that the U.S. is now a liability rather than an asset for efforts to effect real peace in the region.

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Stephen Lendman

[Photo: A Palestine woman reacts over relatives moments after they were killed in a US/Israel missile strike outside their home in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009. US/Israel mortar shells struck three U.N. schools where hundreds of Palestine people had sought refuge. The shells killed more than 40 people, many of them children. (The WE!)]

Colonialism and apartheid are especially serious international law breaches because they fundamentally violate core legal principles and values.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) affirmed self-determination as an essential principle of international law. All states must respect and promote it. Colonial occupation is in clear violation.

The 1960 Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (the Declaration on Colonialism), condems "colonialism in all its forms and manifestations," including illegal settlements.

According to the 1973 International Convention for the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (the Apartheid Convention), this practice is state-sanctioned discriminatory "inhuman" racism "committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them."

Apartheid is an international crime. The above definition builds on the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).

In addition, the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court calls apartheid a crime under the Court's jurisdiction. Israel is flagrantly guilty but yet to be held accountable.

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