Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Real Causes of Endless War

Sometimes "peace talks" are a way to cover up more war. This is especially true when one side has all the military power and no incentive to resolve the conflict. The Annapolis talks between the Palestinians and Israelis are an example of war making dressed up like peace negotiations.

Israel holds all the cards. It has the fourth most powerful military in the world, with all the latest fighter jets and tanks that American tax dollars can buy. Moreover, It has 200 nuclear weapons, and the unquestioning support of the world's only superpower. The Palestinian people are virtually powerless, prisoners in their own land. This year, Israel killed 650 Palestinians while suffering 27 fatalities. Human rights groups estimate that 80% of Palestinians were civilians.

Israel just sent 30 tanks into Gaza on another killing spree, murdering 8 "gunmen." In addition, Israeli Minister of Housing announced that 307 more units would be added to the illegal Jewish settlement in east Jerusalem on Jabal Abu Ghunaym. This is reminiscent of the Clinton era "peace talks," during which Israel doubled its Jewish settlements in the Palestinian West Bank.

And the hope of real peace keeps receding, as senators like Clinton and Schumer spend more time boosting Israel than New York State. Israel recently won a new arms deal with the US, getting $6 billion aid in one year. The Israeli lobby and their allies in our government are the real causes of endless war in the Middle East.

Fred Nagel

FANTASY LAND: US Media

Israel faced a battery of calls yesterday to alleviate what the Red Cross unusually called a "deep human crisis" by easing restrictions on Palestinian movement.

The World Bank and the Western-backed emergency Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, warned that the $5.6bn (£2.7bn) they hope the conference will pledge in Paris on Monday will not reverse the collapse of the Palestinian economy unless there is a significant reduction in checkpoints and closures.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which prides itself on its neutrality, said that Israel's "harsh security measures" came at an "enormous humanitarian cost" and that the "dignity of the Palestinians is being trampled underfoot day after day, both in the West Bank and Gaza."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article3249900.ece

And the NY Times? It runs a story about an Israeli boy who was injured by a Palestinian rocket. All the criticisms of Israel are just left out.
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What don't we hear about Israel? This year, Israel killed 650 Palestinians while suffering 27 fatalities. Human rights groups estimate that 80% of Palestinians were civilians.

Israel just sent 30 tanks into Gaza on another killing spree, murdering 8 "gunmen." In addition, Israeli Minister of Housing announced that 307 more units would be added to the illegal Jewish settlement in east Jerusalem. This is reminiscent of the Clinton era "peace talks," during which Israel doubled its Jewish settlements in the Palestinian West Bank.

But American media keeps Israel's image clean, something that is impossible to do in the rest of the world. Many countries actually have a much greater freedom of the press than we do.

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GENEVA - A United Nations investigator said on Thursday he strongly suspected the CIA of using torture on terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, suggesting many were not being prosecuted to keep the abuse from emerging at trial.

On a visit to the U.S. detention centre in Cuba last week, Martin Scheinin, U.N. special rapporteur on protecting human rights while countering terrorism, attended a pre-trial hearing of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s former driver.

“Bringing them to court would bring to the court’s attention the method through which the evidence, including the confessions, were obtained. So this is one further affirmation of the conclusion that the CIA or others have been involved in methods of interrogation that are incompatible with international law,” he said.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/14/5834/

And the NY Times? Martin Scheinin? Never heard of him!

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

FANTASY LAND: US Media

The “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007

This bill would establish a Commission to study and report on "facts and causes" of "violent radicalism" and "extremist belief systems." It defines "violent radicalism" as "adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change." The term "extremist belief system" is not defined; it could refer to anything.

"Ideologically based violence" is defined in the bill as the "use, planned use, or threatened use of force or violence by a group or individual to promote the group or individual's political, religious, or social beliefs." Thus, "force" and "violence" are used interchangeably. If a group of people blocked the doorway of a corporation that manufactured weapons, or blocked a sidewalk during an antiwar demonstration, it might constitute the use of "force" to promote "political beliefs."

The bill charges that the Internet "has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens." This provision could be used to conduct more intrusive surveillance of our Internet communications without warrants.
National Lawyers Guild

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Getting bad coverage of the election? All about Hillary, Ophra and Obama? Consider what you aren't being told by our media:

Is health care reform really on the table? Hillary gets 1 in 4 of her campaign dollars from the healthcare industry. It is 1 in 5 for Obama. For Edwards, it is 1 in 20. Any wonder that Edwards doesn't get much coverage by the corporate controlled media?

Hillary has always maintained that we need to keep troops in Iraq indefinitely. Obama wants US forces to stay in the Middle East with an "over the horizon" capability to reinvade. Neither mentions any deadline for pulling all our troops out. Peace candidates?

Hillary is receiving more money than any other candidate from the defense and energy sectors. Obama is second. Edwards, who is more critical of the occupation of Iraq and planned attacks on Iran is much further down the list.

Polling data consistently show that Edwards has the best chance against ALL republican candidates. Moreover, he does much better than Hillary and Obama in key battleground states like Iowa, Wisconsin and Ohio.

Hillary has remarkable negatives in the general population. Over 50 percent of Americans polled consistently say they would NEVER vote for her. So why does our media concentrate on the Hillary Obama "horse race"? Could be that Edwards is not as trusted by the corporations that run our media and our country.
Z Magazine Dec. 2007
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Burmese military rule hard to understand? Not if you look at the natural gas desposits discovered in 1982 in the Yadana field. A pipeline was completed in 1998 by a consortium including Unocal, a Us corporation, and French oil company TOTAL. During Clinton's presidency, companies already doing business with Burma were exempted from international sanctions, despite the gross human rights violations.

Chevron (the second-largest U.S. energy company) and Total (French) are, in fact, refusing to pull out of Burma. Other investors in the natural gas industry include companies from Australia, China, India, Janan, and Russia.

Sales of natural gas account for the single largest source of revenue to the military government. Gas exports accounted for fully half of the country's exports in 2006.

But why little mention of Chevron and the natural gas industry in our extensive media coverage of Burma (Myanmar)? Corporate gas and oil interests almost always trump our democratic right to know, and our media is to blame.
Z Magazine Dec. 2007

Quote from the NY Times (September 29, 2007): "But in a sign of how limited Washington’s leverage is against the country, which has long been the target of American sanctions, officials said they were concerned that China, a trading partner and neighbor of Myanmar, would block any serious effort to destabilize the Burmese government...Given the dearth of American investment and trade with Myanmar, the financial levers appear limited, officials acknowledged."

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

FANTASY LAND: US Media

H.R 1955: the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 recently passed by the House-a companion bill is in the Senate-is barely one sentence old before its Orwellian moment: It begins, “AN ACT - To prevent homegrown terrorism, and for other purposes.” Those whose pulse did not quicken at “other purposes” have probably not read George Orwell.

Future “other purposes” will undoubtedly be justified by the Act’s use of the term “violent radicalization,” which it defines as “the process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence . . .” or by the folksy, Lake Wobegonesque “homegrown terrorism,” defined as “the use, planned use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a group or individual born [or] raised . . . within the United States . . . to intimidate or coerce the United States, the civilian population . . . or any segment thereof .

In the service of some self-serving “other purposes,” will “extremist beliefs” become any belief the temporary occupants of the White House consider antithetical and threatening to their political agenda?

Where is our national media when free speech is under attack? Same place it has always been, supporting the powers that profit from shutting us up.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/01/5551/

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US Says It Has Right to Kidnap British Citizens. A senior lawyer for the American government has told the Court of Appeal in London that kidnapping foreign citizens is permissible under American law because the US Supreme Court has sanctioned it.

Until now it was commonly assumed that US law permitted kidnapping only in the “extraordinary rendition” of terrorist suspects.

There was concern this weekend from Patrick Mercer, the Tory MP, who said: “The very idea of kidnapping is repugnant to us and we must handle these cases with extreme caution and a thorough understanding of the implications in American law.”

Shami Chakrabarti, director of the human rights group Liberty, said: “This law may date back to bounty hunting days, but they should sort it out if they claim to be a civilized nation.”

This story, like many that cast the US in a bad light, never made it to the NY Times.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/02/5566/

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WASHINGTON, DC - November 30 - Green Party leaders called on President Bush to cancel an order directing the CIA to interfere with a December 2 voters' referendum in Venezuela and to cease actions intended to stabilize the Chavez government.

"President Chavez and the people of Venezuela are not America's enemy. We demand that the White House respect the sovereignty of other countries and the democratic will of the Venezuelan people, who have repeatedly affirmed their support for President Chavez and his policies," said Jill Bussiere, Wisconsin representative to the Green Party's International Committee.

"The memo describes secret US-supported actions against the Chavez government that constitute acts of war against a nation at peace with the US. These operations are consistent with other US acts of aggression against Venezuela, including the failed 2002 coup attempt, to which the Bush Administration lent active support," Ms. Bussiere added.

But the NY Times continues to Chavez as a "strongman" and never questions the US attempts to undermine his elected government.
http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/1130-10.htm