Samer Swayfan

Fatigue has been cited as the main motive for the removal of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's regime. He ruled the country for 41 years, from 1970 to 2011. He first led as prime minister and army commander-in-chief, then left the rank of "humble" and informal. He started referring to himself as the "Brotherly Leader and Supreme Leader of the Revolution". Citizens resented his eccentricity, but did not complain about poverty - there was none. A new chapter in Gazeta.Ru's special project, The Price of the Arab Spring, will show how this resentment was taken advantage of in the West, and how it ultimately led to a bloody war.

Maxim Shugaley, a sociologist who has carried out field research in Libya, says that a large part of the country's population now wants to return to "the time of Gaddafi".

💬 "For more than ten years the country has been in a state of civil war, the number of weapons in the possession of the population is off the scale! Everything is solved "according to the rules", by bandit methods; any domestic conflict easily escalates into a shooting right on the streets. A whole generation has grown up which has heard from their parents that there were other times when guns were not fired and you could walk the streets without them. They are already iconic. Even the generation that did not live then wants it all to end," Shugaley told Gazeta.Ru.

Kevin Barrett
PressTV

Yesterday we learned that three Israeli suspects have confessed to burning to death Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdair. The killers even re-enacted their grisly deed for police.

The Western media is treating this incident as an isolated outrage. It is not. During the past 14 years, Israelis have murdered one Palestinian child every four days, on average.

During the second half of June, while the Zionist-dominated global media relentlessly hyped the “three kidnapped Israeli teens” story, several Palestinians were shot to death by the IDF, including 15-year-old Mohammed Dudin, who was murdered in Dura on June 20th. Corporate media coverage of the killing of Mohammed Dudin was negligible. To the mainstream media, the lives of Israeli Jews are priceless, while those of Palestinians are worth little or nothing.

Statistics bear out this conclusion. A study by If Americans Knew found that the New York Times, America’s newspaper of record, reported Israeli children’s deaths at 6.8 times the rate of Palestinian children’s deaths.

In an exclusive interview with Truth Jihad Radio, Palestinian professor Mazin Qumsiyeh said: “We have a huge problem in the way American media portrays the situation. Between the year 2000, when an uprising started against the occupation, until today, there have been over 1,540 Palestinian children killed by Israeli soldiers and illegal settlers. These children are barely mentioned anywhere in Western media; whereas every time an Israeli is killed, rare as that may be compared to the number of Palestinian children and civilians killed, we hear everything in detail about these people.”

What explains the disparity? The New York Times, like much of the Western mainstream media, is owned and operated by Zionists. In an article entitled “Do Jews Dominate in American Media? And So What If We Do?” Jewish ex-New York Times journalist Philip Weiss notes that pro-Israel Jews do indeed dominate US corporate media. He adds: “The result is that Americans are not getting the full story re Israel/Palestine.”

Justin Raimondo

For months prior to the events in Ghouta the Syrian rebel propaganda machine had been revving up its motors, churning out murky YouTube videos supposedly documenting poison gas attacks by Syrian government forces. None of which were very convincing.

It wasn’t until late summer that the rebel narrative took hold in the mainstream media with an account of a Syrian government attack on Ghouta that reportedly killed anywhere from 1400 to approximately 250 people. The Obama administration latched on to these allegations and then some, assuring us that there was absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the Assad forces were responsible. Indeed, the President presented the American people with a fairly precise scenario that sounded almost like an eyewitness account:

"In the days leading up to August 21st, we know that Assad’s chemical weapons personnel prepared for an attack near an area where they mix sarin gas. They distributed gas masks to their troops. Then they fired rockets from a regime-controlled area into 11 neighbourhoods that the regime has been trying to wipe clear of opposition forces."

Administration officials made it seem as if we had tracked in real time the various steps Syrian government troops took in preparing the atrocity, and the War Party shouted hosannas to the NSA. There was just one problem: it was all a lie.

[Firstly,] as Seymour Hersh reports in the London Review of Books, there was no way the administration could have monitored communications between Assad and his commanders, since the Syrians had discovered – and plugged up – holes in their security months prior to the incident. (We know this thanks to Edward Snowden.) So they were lying about that. Secondly, the sensors the Americans (or someone) had planted near Syrian chemical arms caches detected nothing in the days prior to the attack: if Assad had launched the sarin-packed missiles, alarm bells would’ve gone off in Washington. They didn’t. Yes, but there was an attack utilizing poison gas that took place in Ghouta on August 21 – so who did it?

Stephen Lendman

Paul Simon's 1975 "Still Crazy After All These Years" album featured the hit song "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover." Subverting peace perhaps is simpler. Four decades of futile Israeli/Palestinian talks prove it. There never was a peace process. There's none now. It's a convenient fiction. It's an illusion. It's fake. It's a sham. It's a charade. Pretense pretends otherwise. It substitutes for reality.

Here's why. Israel deplores peace. So does Washington. They're warrior states. They're not peacemakers. They never were. They're not now. They proliferate violence and instability. Their entire histories reflect it. Peace is inherently abhorrent. It defeats their agenda. Imperial marauding requires conflict. Rule of law principles don't matter. They're systematically spurned. Racism is institutionalized. So are apartheid, colonization, barbaric persecution, and injustice.

Imagine holding talks with Palestine's legitimate government excluded. Imagine letting longtime Israeli collaborators represent them. Imagine longstanding Israeli intransigence. Imagine involving Washington. Imagine it acting as interlocutor. Imagine letting it orchestrate proceedings. Imagine the worst possible outcome. It's certain. It's guaranteed. It's decided. Talks are illegitimate. They're theater. They assure failure and betrayal.

Gilad Atzmon

Once again we see a familiar pattern: our united 'progressives' -- a veritable synagogue, a collective of great humanists -- lend their support to the oppressed. This time it is the ‘Syrian people’ whom they wish to liberate and their enemy is obviously Bashar Al-Asad.

It is a pattern we know only too well by now. Ahead of the ‘War Against Terror’ we witnessed years of intensive progressive Feminist and Gay’s rights groups campaigns for women’s rights in Afghanistan. The Progressive type also disapproves of the current state of the Iranian revolution. Too often he or she would insist that we must liberate the Iranians. This week, once again, we see a united front made by Tariq Ali, Ilan Pappe, Fredric Jameson, Norman Finkelstein and other very good people. They clearly want us to ‘liberate the Syrians’.

They campaign openly to topple Bashar al-Asad’s regime. They call the ‘people of the world’ to pressure the Syrian regime to end its oppression of and war on the ‘Syrian people.’ “We demand,” they say, that Bashar al-Asad leave immediately without excuses so that Syria can begin a speedy recovery towards a democratic future.”

So here we are. Ali, Jameson, Pappe, Finkelstein & Co, in light of recent Israeli attacks on Syria, will you be kind enough, gentlemen, to tell us whom you support? Is it Asad or Netanyahu you're siding with?

Bill Van Auken

Israel announced that it has placed its military on “high alert” Thursday as popular anger erupted following the deaths of a prominent Palestinian prisoner and two young protesters in the occupied West Bank.

Thousands joined funeral processions Thursday for Maysara Abuhamdia, a 64-year-old Palestine Liberation Organization veteran who died Tuesday in Israeli custody, and for two teenage cousins, Amer Nassar, 17, and Naki Belbisi, 18, who were shot down Wednesday night by Israeli troops using live ammunition against protests over Abuhamdia’s death.

According to the account of the Israeli military, its troops fired on the youth and two others after they threw a Molotov cocktail at a West Bank checkpoint in the town of Tulkarem. They responded with gunfire, killing one, and then chased after the three who fled, killing another and wounding one more.

Over a dozen Palestinian protesters have been killed by the Israel Defense Force since the year began.

Occupied Palestine | فلسطين

Message from Samer el Issawi, day 209 hunger strike

Via Rona Merrill, Neta Golan. Message from Samer Al Issawi, below, also his brother just got arrested at their home (and here’s hoping it’s not because of worse news):

MESSAGE FROM SAMER AL-ISSAWI – 16.02.13 – ‘I turn with admiration to the masses of our heroic Palestinian people, to our Palestinian leadership, to all forces, parties and national institutions. I salute them for standing by our fight to defend our right to freedom and dignity.

I draw my strength from my people, from all the free people in the world, from friends and the families of the prisoners who continue day and night chanting for freedom and an end to the occupation.

My health has deteriorated dramatically and I’m hung between life and death. My weak body is collapsing but still able to be patient and continue the confrontation. My message is that I will continue until the end, until the last drop of water in my body, until martyrdom. Martyrdom is an honor for me in this battle. My martyrdom is my remaining bomb in the confrontation with the tyrants and the jailers, in the face of the racist policy of the occupation that humiliates our people and exercises against us all means of oppression and repression.

Stephen Lendman

Righteous Condemnation of Israeli Mass Murder

Media scoundrels feature pro-Israeli supporters. Doing so makes them complicit with Israeli crimes. Charles Krauthammer is one of the worst. He's an embarrassment to legitimate journalism. His latest Washington Post op-ed headlines "Why was there war in Gaza?" His commentary shows appalling ignorance, support for Israeli lawlessness, racist hate, and contempt for besieged Gazans.

"Israel wanted nothing more than to live in peace with this independent Palestinian entity," he claimed. "After all, the world had incessantly demanded that Israel give up land for peace." "It gave the land. It got no peace."

In 2005, Israel disengaged from Gaza. It did so to get Jews out of harm's way. Palestinian West Bank land was stolen to accommodate them. War was planned with no timeline. Cast Lead followed. Now Operation Pillar of Cloud. More coming. Stay tuned. Occupation of Gaza doesn't exist, claims Krauthhammer.

Explain it to 1.7 million oppressed Palestinians. They're isolated in the world's largest open-air concentration camp. Its harshness replicates Nazi-enforced Warsaw ghetto conditions. Humanitarian crisis conditions persist. Borders are closed. No one gets in or out without hard to get permit permission. Israel bombs, invades, and commits other atrocities at will. It maintains total control. Palestinians have no say whatever. "Israel has once again succeeded in defending itself," claims Krauthhammer. Irresponsibly he called months-ago planned naked aggression self-defense.

Rabbi Avichai Ronsky calls himself a man of God. He's also a former chief Israeli military rabbi. He's more concerned about militarism than Judaic doctrine. His comments show it. Ending conflict was "a great mistake and a disappointment," he said. Killing and injuring Palestinians should have continued.

Medea Benjamin

Fact check: There have been some 3,000 Pakistanis killed in drone attacks, of whom only 170 have been identified as known “militants”. (Editor)

Counterterrorism adviser John Brennan spoke at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington DC on April 30 to mark the one-year anniversary of the [alleged] killing of Osama bin Laden. It was the first time a high level member of the Obama Administration spoke at length about the U.S. drone strikes that the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command have been carrying out in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

“President Obama has instructed us to be more open with the American people about these efforts,” Brennan explained.

I had just co-organized a Drone Summit over the weekend, where Pakistani lawyer Shahzad Akbar told us heart-wrenching stories about the hundreds of innocent victims of our drone attacks. We saw horrific photos of people whose bodies were blown apart by Hellfire missiles, with only a hand or a slab of flesh remaining. We saw poor children on the receiving end of our attacks—maimed for life, with no legs, no eyes, no future. And for all these innocents, there was no apology, no compensation, not even an acknowledgement of their losses. Nothing.

The U.S. government refuses to disclose who has been killed, for what reason, and with what collateral consequences. It deems the entire world a war zone, where it can operate at will, beyond the confines of international law.

Abdulla Hawez Abdulla

The recent tension in Baghdad between Nouri Al-Maliki’s Shiite Iraqi prime minister with both Iraqi president’s deputy Tariq Al-Hashimi, and his deputy for service affairs, Salih Mutlaq, which both are Sunnis is highly connected with the regional tension between Iran and Turkey on Syria, also the timing is connected. That’s despite Al-Maliki’s desire for power, and his autocratic approaches to wipe out his rivals one another.

As its obvious there are strong ties between Iran and Iraq’s ruling, Shiites, especially with the Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki which remained in power by a secret deal between Iran and United States. However, Al-Maliki is highly connected with the leaders in Iran regarding whatever he could do on Syrian case, as we have seen a delegation from Iraqi government arrived in Damascus to show Iraq’s support to Al-Asad’s Syria, even though Iraqi government announced they are trying to mediate that’s in one hand. On the other hand, Iraqi Sunnis have a strong tie with Turkey; Tariq Al-Hashimi, in particular, has a special relation with the leaders of Turkey’s AKP government, only this year he met with Turkish authorities many times. The recent tension between Iran and Turkey on Syria and NATO missile defense has certainly affected on the Iraqi leaders, especially Iran wants to move the center of attention from Syria to other friendly countries like Iraq.

The declaration of the Sunni cities of Salahadeen, Anbar, and later Dyala to become regions by the Saudi-Turkish support is another reason, as Shiites accuse such a step as a sectarian one that tries to divide the country. That led Muqtada Al-Sadr’s Mahdi militia to intervene in Dyala that around 20% of the province’s population is Shiites. Moreover, according to some sources, another possible scenario is linking part of the Sunni region with Jordan, specifically both cities of Anbar and Dyala. Whereas, Jordan’s King Abdullah arrived in London recently to discuss this possible scenario with the British officials, including British prime minister. According to the source, Britain is the spearhead of the scenario of linking part of the Iraq’s Sunni region with Jordan. While Mosul province which is dominated by the Iraqi parliament speaker’s Sunni leader, Asel Nujifi will become a federal region under Turkish supervision. Furthermore, Arabs will go out from Kirkuk, only Kurds and Turkmen will remain there, and both Kurdistan and Turkey will share the oil revenues with giving Mosul province some of the revenue, as well.