Tom Eley & Barry Grey

Screen captures from “Collateral Murder”: Top left, Reuters reporters and other Iraqi civilians, talking. Top right, the group comes under fire from Apache gunship. Bottom left, men fleeing. Bottom right, men all dead. From now on this could happen anywhere. To anyone. Legally.

In a speech delivered Monday at Northwestern University Law School in Chicago, US Attorney General Eric Holder asserted the “right” of the president to secretly order the assassination of US citizens. Laying out a brief for virtually unchecked executive power to carry out military aggression abroad and repression at home, the speech was a sweeping attack on fundamental democratic and constitutional principles.

Holder’s remarks were cast within the framework of the so-called “war on terror.” In words intended to instill fear and panic, he declared early in his remarks that America had reached an “hour of danger.” He continued: “We are a nation at war… there are people currently plotting to murder Americans, who reside in distant countries as well as within our own borders.”

The attorney general’s remarks come five months after President Obama ordered the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, a US citizen, in a drone attack in Yemen. Another US citizen, Samir Khan, was killed in the same attack. Two weeks later, Awlaki’s 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, was killed in subsequent US drone strike.

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William Blum

The Saga of Bradley Manning, Julian Assange, and Wikileaks, to be put to ballad and film

"Defense lawyers say Manning was clearly a troubled young soldier whom the Army should never have deployed to Iraq or given access to classified material while he was stationed there ... They say he was in emotional turmoil, partly because he was a gay soldier at a time when homosexuals were barred from serving openly in the U.S. armed forces." (Associated Press, February 3)

It's unfortunate and disturbing that Bradley Manning's attorneys have chosen to consistently base his legal defense upon the premise that personal problems and shortcomings are what motivated the young man to turn over hundreds of thousands of classified government files to Wikileaks. They should not be presenting him that way any more than Bradley should be tried as a criminal or traitor. He should be hailed as a national hero. Yes, even when the lawyers are talking to the military mind. May as well try to penetrate that mind and find the freest and best person living there. Bradley also wears a military uniform.

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Stephen Lendman

Pied Pipers & The Mainstream Media: Darkness over America.

Merriam-Webster defines 'journalism' [2b] as involving

"writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation."

In other words, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing else.

The Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics Preamble states:

"....public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues. Conscientious journalists from all media and specialties strive to serve the public with thoroughness and honesty. Professional integrity is the cornerstone of a journalist's credibility."

The Radio-Television News Directors Association Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct stresses public trust, credibility, accuracy, and truth. "(R)eporting (must exclude) anything known to be false." It must stress fairness, integrity, independence, accountability, and "responsibility to the profession of electronic journalism."

Clearly, major media print and broadcast journalism fails on all counts. They serves wealth and power. They feature managed and junk food news. They exclude truth and full disclosure. Readers, viewers, and listeners are cheated by lies, damn lies, and an agenda harming their vital interests.

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Stephen Lendman

Born in blood, Israel's been drenched in it since. Its agenda reflects racist state terror ruthlessness.

"Can you hear the sound of injustice," asked Palestine Solidarity Campaign's Alexei Sayle, saying:

"To me the behavior of Israel and the uncritical support it gets from western governments is like" a destructive force harming bodily organs.

Its sound resonates "24 hours a day and poisons the whole world with its malignance." Palestinians bear the burden, besieged Gazans and thousands of political prisoners most of all. More below.

"Let's make 2012 the year that injustice ends," says Sayle. The world can't wait nor should it. Injustice to anyone harms everyone.

For Palestinians, it's a way of life. Daily oppression terrorizes them. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) publishes weekly reports documenting it.

Its latest March 1 one said dozens of Israeli security forces "attempt(ed to storm) the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem while Palestinian worshippers were inside" praying.

Systematic terror attacks occur regularly. They include bombing and shelling Gaza, killing civilians, middle-of-the-night neighborhood incursions, attacking peaceful protesters, and daily arrests.

Thousands of political prisoners reflect them. Many resist heroically. Hunger striking is their weapon of choice. Khader Adnan preferred death to unjust detention. Hana Shalabi joined his struggle for justice.

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Peter Symonds

His Master's Voice: Obama getting his marching orders...

Whatever the exact outcome of today’s haggling between Obama and Netanyahu, it has the character of two gangsters plotting the details of their next crime.

In his most explicit threat against Iran to date, US President Obama declared yesterday that he would “not hesitate to use force” to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons. The speech was pitched not just to his immediate audience—the pro-Israeli American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)—but to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who he meets today.

Obama spelled out the meaning of his oft-repeated phrase that “all options are on the table” in relation to Iran. “That includes all elements of American power,” he said, “a political effort aimed at isolating Iran, a diplomatic effort to sustain our coalition and ensure that the Iranian program is monitored, an economic effort that imposes crippling sanctions and, yes, a military effort to be prepared for any contingency.”

Obama’s only note of caution was against “too much loose talk of war”, as he urged Israel to allow time for punitive sanctions to force Tehran into negotiations. However, he also left no doubt that the US was prepared to attack Iran. Citing US President Theodore Roosevelt’s maxim “speak softly and carry a big stick,” Obama added menacingly: “Rest assured that the Iranian government will know of our resolve.”

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Adnan Al-Daini

The Legacy Of Milton Friedman: Thatcher’s policies caused
widespread chaos in Britain. Moment of defeat. After 51 weeks
out, miners' lodge members meet at Easington Miners' Welfare
Hall to discuss the end of the strike. (Photo: Keith Pattison)

Market fundamentalism is to be given free reign; never mind that it was the erroneous notion “the market knows best” that brought us the economic depression engulfing western societies.  Austerity programmes and cuts are causing distress, hardship and misery to the majority of people in the west.  This same blind belief in markets is also blighting the lives of billions more worldwide.  Those who are the true believers in the divinity of the market want less regulation; health and safety regulations at work - forget it; this is red tape devised by bleeding heart liberals and misguided leftists. Employment protection laws, fairness at work; oh no, this is stifling business and enterprise, and should be abandoned. 

The Conservative government of Great Britain, with the connivance of the Liberal Democrats, is busy slowly dismantling the institutions that are working for the common good and serving the people.  The National Health Service, if the health and social care bill is to become law, will be salami-sliced into a disjointed health service where private providers and businessmen compete for a slice of the resources, with profits pumped up from the poor and middle classes to the super rich, to the detriment of the service for the many. The Prime Minister, David Cameron, asserts that the bill will be implemented in spite of opposition by almost all the medical professionals.  The “we know best” arrogance of politicians is breathtaking.

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Gilad Atzmon

As’ad AbuKhalil has now completed his transformation into a honorary Sabbath Goy. [1]

The ‘angry’ man has finally joined the Anti Zionist Zionists (AZZ) and like his Jewish Marxists allies, he insists upon my rejection from the Palestinian solidarity movement. For him, I am not Kosher enough.

I must say though that judging by the level of circulation of my writing and my latest book The Wandering Who?, it seems as if my views are actually far more popular than angry AbuKalil and his AZZ comrades put together. Also my current coast to coast American tour is supported by the leading Palestinian solidarity organisations in this country such as The Washington Report, The Global March to Jerusalem, One Democratic State (Texas), Students for Justice in Palestine, Deir Yassin Remembered and many more.

As if this is not enough, my latest book is endorsed by the greatest intellectuals and humanist in this movement, isn’t this enough to make me into a kosher candidate? And if not what else do I need to prove my? Do I also need a Jewish Marxist Advocate?

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Philip Giraldi

Senator Dan Coats (R-IN) speaking at a BPC anti-Iran conference.

The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) is surely one of the more bizarre pro-Israel think tanks doing business in Washington. Its sage advice pops up here and there, most recently in The Wall Street Journal, where it advocated giving Israel tanker aircraft so its warplanes can fly to Iran, bomb the hell out of that country’s nuclear facilities, and make it safely back. The BPC’s National Security Project is headed by Charles Robb, a former senator and governor from Virginia and living proof that you can fool most people more than once. Robb argues that enabling a devastating Israeli attack on Iran would create a credible deterrent to Tehran’s misbehavior and maintains that his judgment is derived from a “fact-driven consensus.”

But perhaps more interesting than the center itself is the reaction to the horse manure that it was trying to sell in the Journal. It is worth looking at the comments on the op-ed, which are generally hostile to the idea of a new war on behalf of Israel. It is refreshing to think that maybe Americans, even readers of The Wall Street Journal, are actually wising up to the con job they have been subjected to, even if it is a bit late to do anything about it.

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Stephen Lendman

Free expression in all forms is fundamental in democratic societies. Without it, all other freedoms are at risk. Included are free speech, a free press, freedom of thought, culture, and intellectual inquiry. It also includes the right to challenge government authority peacefully, especially in times of war and cases of injustice, lawlessness, official incompetence, and abusive government behavior. Denying it risks tyranny.

Voltaire defended it, saying "I may disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

Howard Zinn called dissent "the highest form of patriotism." It includes the right to speak and write freely, assemble, protest publicly, and associate with anyone for any reason lawfully.

Democracy depends on it. Bill of Rights freedoms affirm it. Nonetheless, US history is strewn with abusive laws. The 1798 Sedition Act criminalized publishing "false, scandalous and malicious writing" against President John Adams or Congress, but allowed it against Vice President Thomas Jefferson.

The 1917 Espionage Act imprisoned anyone convicted of "insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or (encouraging) refusal of duty in the military or naval forces of the United States."

It targeted First Amendment speech against WW I and American's participation in it. The 1918 Sedition Act went further. It criminalized "disloyal, scurrilous (or) abusive" anti-government speech.

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Bill Van Auken

"Behind the crocodile tears shed by the war criminals in Washington, the demands for regime-change in Syria have no more to do with human rights than the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq had to do with protecting the American people from terrorism."

Testifying before a Senate committee Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated that Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad could be branded a “war criminal.”

"Based on definitions of war criminal and crimes against humanity, there would be an argument to be made that he [Assad] would fit into that category,” Clinton told the Senate panel.

The ratcheting up of Washington’s rhetoric is aimed at winning public support for yet another imperialist intervention in the Middle East, with regime-change once again dressed up as a crusade for human rights. Clinton’s statement, however, begs a question. How precisely does she determine when armed violence against civilians constitutes a war crime?

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Philip Giraldi

The American people must be prepared to defend to the death their rights against all comers, including their own government.

I have long nurtured this thoroughly depressing conviction that the United States, far from being a shining city on the hill, has become one of the most corrupt of nations. Why does America have more lawyers than the rest of the world combined? It is because the corruption has been institutionalized at every level of political life and is protected by laws and procedures created precisely to enable elites to maintain dominance over the rest of us.

I appreciate that my viewpoint may be regarded as somewhat simplistic as I am neither a judge nor a lawyer, and I do concede that many of those in the legal profession are both honest and dedicated to the Constitution. Still, the bad taste of the past 11 years continues to remind me that there is something seriously wrong with how our political system and rule of law operate.

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Stephen Lendman

"The whole world's watching, but not irresponsible leaders. Their complicity lets Israel continue state terror with impunity. They share equal guilt in its crimes."

Major media scoundrels suppress reports about daily Israeli state terror. Most Americans, and many others, can't imagine what Palestinians endure.

Every imaginable depravity's included. Torture and murder are state policy. So are forced dispossessions, violence as a weapon of choice, collective punishment, apartheid worse than South Africa's, isolation, home demolitions, land theft, mass arrests, economic strangulation, and much more.

Rule of law principles are systematically spurned. Rogue state policies ignore them. Even Jews face risks. However, Palestinians and Israeli Arabs live under constant threats, especially besieged Gazans facing slow-motion genocide.

Except for death camps, Israel treats Arabs like Nazis treated Jews. Holocaust survivor Hajo Meyer was outspoken, saying:

"The Israelis try to dehumanize the Palestinians, just like the Nazis (did) to me. Nobody should dehumanize any others, and those who (do it) are not human." "It may be that Israel is not the most cruel country in the world....but one thing I know for sure is that (it's) the world champion in pretending to be civilized and cultured."

He also said:

"Formerly, an anti-Semite was somebody who hated Jews because they were Jews and had a Jewish soul. But nowadays an anti-Semite is somebody who is hated by Jews." He added that criticizing Israel isn't denigrating Jews.

A German native, Meyer survived 10 months at Auschwitz. His parents weren't so fortunate. He fled, went into hiding, but was caught and imprisoned. Post-war, he because a physicist, political activist, and wrote three books on Judaism, the Holocaust, and Zionism.

He now lives in the Netherlands, is a member of the Dutch Green Left and International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, and supports the global BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) Movement for Freedom, Justice and Equality.

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Stephen Lendman

Israel administratively detains hundreds of Palestinians indefinitely without charge lawlessly. Like thousands of others incarcerated, their "crime" is wanting to live free on their own land in their own country. Israel calls it terrorism.

A young Palestinian woman, Hana Yahya Shalabi, is one of many abused. 50 Israeli soldiers, an intelligence officer, and attack dogs arrested her on February 16. Violently they stormed her home pre-dawn. In the process, her family, including young children, was terrorized.

After searching and ransacking it, she was arrested with no warrant or charge. Soldiers prohibited her from dressing. Her brother heard the intelligence officer say: "Hana must die."

During arrest, soldiers beat her. Her brother Omar was also viciously attacked. Hana was painfully handcuffed, blindfolded, put in a military jeep, and ordered to remain uncomfortably on its floor on her knees. Each time she moved, she was threatened.

At Salem Detention Center, she was beaten and humiliated, then transferred to HaSharon Prison. Immediately, she began hunger striking in protest.

For several days, she was held in solitary confinement, then moved to another isolated room. She was constantly threatened and intimidated. On February 21, she was transferred back to Salem for interrogation.

On February 23, she appeared in military court. Her lawyer warned about administrative detention without charge. When issued, six months were ordered until August 16. At the same time, she received seven days in solitary confinement for hunger striking. Four days later, she returned to the general prison population.

On February 29, she was moved to HaSharon Prison's security wing for refusing to ingest food. She's determined to continue until freed.

On March 1, she began day 15. Only drinking water, she excludes food and supplements. After an initial medical exam, she refuses others.

On February 29, a military court hearing was held. The presiding judge postponed ruling until meeting with an intelligence official on March 4. Hana and her lawyer are prohibited from attending.

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Charles E. Carlson

Pastor Lon Solomon is #3 from left. (Click to enlarge.)

Money power from above, voting power from below

A look at American Israeli Public Affairs Committee's (AIPAC) website, reveals that Israel is selling war at the Washington DC Convention Center on the first week in March. Every front page story is about war against Iran, except one that is against Palestinian statehood. AIPAC is in Washington to get Americans to pay for its war of choice upon its distant neighbor that just happens to produce a great deal of oil.

Our American president will address this foreign lobby. Newt Gingrich and many members of Congress will also be there. Is AIPAC a danger to world peace? Sure it is.

A second danger to world peace is the Christian Zionist churches that are selling their congregations on the need to finance Israel's wars. [1]

Zionist Christianity has some 70 million Americans under its influence; it is AIPAC's trump card. We, who claim to follow Christ, must examine the forces that are deliberately pushing for war; we must know why and how they do it, and we must figure out how we can generate peace else we will be locked into in wars unending. - Can't happen? The USA first attacked Iraq 21 years ago! Can we afford AIPAC and Christian Zionism?

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Mike Head

"Australian authorities, acting on the instructions of the Gillard government, are heavily involved in the conspiracy against Assange."

Internal emails obtained from the US private intelligence firm Stratfor indicate that the Obama administration has had a secret indictment against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for more than 12 months. The emails, published by WikiLeaks this week, also point to the close involvement of the Australian Labor government and intelligence agencies in the operation against Assange, an Australian citizen.

The emails were sent by Fred Burton, Stratfor’s vice-president for counterterrorism and corporate security. Burton is a former Deputy Chief of the US Department of State’s counterterrorism division for the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS). The DSS is playing a leading investigative role in the ongoing operation to extradite Assange to the US, where he would be tried under the Espionage Act of 1917 and could face the death penalty.

In January 2011, Burton revealed in Stratfor correspondence that a secret Grand Jury had issued an indictment: “Not for Pub—We have a sealed indictment on Assange. Pls protect.” According to Burton: “Assange is going to make a nice bride in prison. Screw the terrorist. He’ll be eating cat food forever.”

A few weeks earlier, following Assange’s release from a London jail, where he had been remanded as a result of a Swedish prosecutor’s arrest warrant, Burton told SkyNews: “extradition [to the US is] more and more likely.”

Burton’s emails indicate that the US government is employing the same “counter-terrorism” methods against WikiLeaks as against Al Qaeda, “Take down the money. Go after his infrastructure. The tools we are using to nail and de-construct Wiki are the same tools used to dismantle and track aQ [Al Qaeda],” he wrote.

Later Burton pointed to a relentless dirty tricks and destabilisation operation. “Ferreting out [Assange’s] confederates is also key. Find out what other disgruntled rogues inside the tent or outside [sic]. Pile on. Move him from country to country to face various charges for the next 25 years. But, seize everything he and his family own, to include every person linked to Wiki.”

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Stephen Lendman

The vultures: Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International
Monetary Fund and Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany.

Greece is being systematically raped, pillaged and destroyed. Bankers demand it. What they want, they get, no matter the human toll and economic ruin. Standing armies pale by comparison. Financial oligarchs wage war by other means and take no prisoners. Greece is Exhibit A. More on it below.

Last July, Christine Lagarde became IMF managing director. She replaced Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Spurious attempted rape allegations forced him out. In fact, he was targeted for supporting more responsible IMF policies. Bankers wanted his head and got it.

Lagarde's mandate is making IMF policy meaner and tougher. Straightaway, she backed harsh austerity measures banks demand. They include debt peonage and forcing nations to place money master interests above sovereign ones.

Last November, Mario Draghi replaced Jean-Claude Trichet as ECB president. Like Largarde, his mandate also entails raping and pillaging nations to pay bankers.

In late February, he told Wall Street Journal interviewers that forced austerity is firm policy. Enforcing it he claims will return troubled economies to long-term prosperity. In other words, starving people fills bellies. Withholding treatment cures patients, and destroying villages save them. Journal interviewers never asked him to explain:

• what right have bankers to prioritize their demands over sovereign state needs;
• how can ritual sacrifice increase demand; and
• how can 17 dissimilar economies coexist under straightjacket Eurozone rules.

Instead, they unquestioningly accepted his assertions about needed austerity and ending Europe's "obsolete" social contract. "There is no feasible trade-off" between social and labor related structural changes and fiscal belt-tightening, he claimed. Only banker demands matter. Draghi and Lagarge enforce them. Corrupt politicians go along.

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Nil Nikandrov

Chavez took the first round of hammering over alleged antisemitism at the early phase of his presidency in 1999 for his association with Argentinian political scientist and Peronist Norberto Rafael Ceresole who, in the early 1990ies, introduced the future Venezuelan leader to his Caudillo, Ejército, Pueblo (Leader, Army, Nation) doctrine of ascension to power. Ceresole used to be a vehement critic of Israel's policy in Palestine, denied Holocaust, and upheld a plan for a Venezuelan strategic intelligence service which he evidently expected to personally chair. It used to be an open secret that Mossad operatives kept the Venezuelan intelligence community on a short leash in the pre-Chavez epoch. Even though they had to pack and go when the populist regime took over, deeply entrenched supporters of Israel in Venezuela's state machine put up strong opposition to Ceresole's presence in the country and representatives of the Jewish community of Venezuela showered its secret police DISIP with complaints that Ceresole, “a present-day Nazi”, presented a permanent problem. At the time, Chavez was preoccupied with concentrating power and preparing Venezuela's new constitution, and Ceresole's deportation came as a foregone decision. DISIP agents saw Ceresole off to the airport, and he later told journalists that Zionists coerced him into leaving by murder threats.

Zionist forces took an active part in the 2002 anti-Chavez coup. Mass rallies and middle-class protests against the regime were orchestrated by the media which, with the exception of the state-run Channel 8, were uniformly Jewish-controlled. The distorted media coverage fanned unrest and left much of the population under an impression that Chavez and his inner circle were about to resort to armed force with the aim of retaining power. In the settings, the shootout perpetrated by unidentified gunmen at the Llaguno Bridge, which led to fatalities among both Chavez's supporters and opponents, was seen by a part of the population as the regime's attempt to regain control at the cost of violence. It is still unclear who the gunmen were, though, according to a fairly realistic hypothesis, they could be agents of the municipal police whose command sided with the opposition. An alternative hypothesis is that the gunmen were skilled snipers who came from abroad, which indeed used to be a recurrent scenario throughout the 1990ies era of “anti-terrorist” wars.

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Stephen Lendman

On February 25, international and supportive Israelis joined 500 Palestinians protesting in Hebron's Old City.

Youths Against Settlements organized it. They're "a national Palestinian non-partisan group" against colonization, including settlements, "through nonviolent popular struggle and civil disobedience." They demanded Shuhada Street be reopened. More on its closure below.

As they approached the street, soldiers attacked them violently with tear gas, sound bombs, and rubber bullets. Ten were arrested, including a Palestinian journalist and Quran. In the process, he was assaulted, beaten, and detained for allegedly pushing an Israeli soldier.

In fact, his offense was peacefully protesting Israeli policy with others. In response, soldiers attacked him with pepper spray, smashed his face against a jeep metal bar, and arrested him with other nonviolent participants.

They were protesting closure of Hebron's Shuhada Street. It's a main thoroughfare Palestinians have been forbidden to use for many years. It links north and south city areas. It also passes by major markets, the Old City, the Tomb of the Patriarchs, and Israeli settlements.

In 1994, restrictions began. Access was alternately allowed, then denied. Since October 2000, Palestinians were entirely prohibited from walking or driving on Shuhada and adjacent streets.

Doing so caused center city economic collapse. Over 300 shops and other commercial facilities closed. Israel turned Hebron's central bus station into an army base. Area properties, including homes, were closed by army order. Many residents left. A ghost town remained.

Settlers can use the street freely. They also harass Palestinians with impunity. Closing Shuhada Street reflects longstanding Israeli policy to make life so unbearable residents will give up and leave Occupied Palestine.

Some do, but most resist courageously and won't quit. It's their country, their land, and they're struggling to regain it and end decades of abusive occupation.

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