	AfroCubaWeb

Sibel Edmonds and the Turkish Russian Israeli mafia

Suppressing Dissent
in the US

From
BlackVoterNet:

Elections 2008

Targeting Obama

Drug Traficking &
State Terrorism

Voting Fraud

Other news:

Anti-War News

War on Terrorism planned before 9-11

Central America

Beta Israel

Saudi Arabia

Somalia

Afghan Genocide

Chechnya

Tajikistan

Uzbekistan

Bin Laden, Narcoterrorism, the CIA, and the House of Saud

Risks of Nuclear War

The Far Right and Islamic Militants

Search the News

Daypop

Newstrove

World News Archives

7/1/09- today
5/1/09-6/30/09
2/1/09-4/30/09
2/1/08-1/31/09
10/1/08-11/30/08
8/1/08-9/30/08
6/1/08-7/31/2008
5/1/08-5/30/08
4/1/08-4/30/08
3/16/08-3/31/08
3/1/08-3/15/08
2/1/08-2/29/08
1/1/08-1/31/08
12/1/07-12/31-07
11/1/07-11/30/07
9/16/07-10/31/07
8/16/07 - 9/15/07
7/1/07-8/15/07
3/31/07-6/30/07
1/1/07-3/31/07
12/1/06-12/31/06
11/1/06-11/30/06
10/2/06-10/31/06
9/1/06-10/1/06
8/1/06-8/30/06
5/22/06-7/31/06
5/1/06-5/21/06
4/17/06-4/30/06
4/10/06-4/16/06
3/27/06 - 4/9/2006
3/6/06-3/26/06
2/20/06-3/5/06
2/6/06-2/19/06
1/23/06-2/5/06
12/20/05-1/22/06
11/28/05-12/19/05
10/31/05-11/27/05
10/10/05-10/30/05
9/26/05-10/9/05
9/12/05-9/25/05
9/5/05-9/11/05
8/29/05-9/4/05
8/15/05 - 8/28/2005
8/1/05 - 8/14/2005
5/30/05 - 7/31/2005
5/16/05-5/29/05
5/2/05-5/15/05
4/11/05-5/1/05
3/28/05-4/10/05
3/14/05-3/27/05
2/28/05-3/13/05
2/14/05-2/27/05
1/31/05-2/13/05
1/10/04 - 1/30/05
1/3/05-1/9/05
12/27/04-1/2/2005
12/20/04-12/26/2004
12/13/04-12/19/2004
11/29/04-12/12/2004
11/22/04-11/28/2004
11/15/04-11/21/04
11/8/04-11/14/04
11/1/04-11/7/04
10/25/04-10/31/04
10/18/04-10/24/04
10/11/04-10/17/04
10/4/04-10/10/04
9/27/04-10/3/04
9/20/04-9/26/04
9/13/04-9/19/04
9/6/04-9/12/04
8/30/04-9/5/04
8/23/04-8/29/04
8/16/04-8/22/04
8/9/04-8/15/04
8/2/04-8/8/04
7/26/04-8/1/04
7/19/04-7/25/04
7/12/04-7/18/04
7/5/04-7/11/04
6/28/04-7/4/04
6/21/04-6/27/04
6/14/04-6/20/04
6/7/04-6/13/04
5/31/04-6/6/04
5/24/04-5/30/04
5/17/04-5/23/04
5/10/04-5/16/04
5/3/04-5/9/04
4/26/04-5/2/04
4/19/04-4/25/04
4/12/04-4/18/04
4/5/04-4/11/04
3/29/04-4/4/04
3/22/04-3/28/04
3/15/04-3/21/04
3/8/04-3/14/04
3/1/04-3/7/04
2/23/04-2/29/04
2/9/04-2/22/04
2/2/04-2/8/04
1/26/04-2/1/04
1/19/04-1/25/04
1/12/04-1/18/04
1/5/04-1/11/04
12/29/03-1/4/04
12/22/03-12/28/03
12/15/03-12/21/03
12/8/03-12/14/03
12/1/03-12/7/03
11/24/03-1130/03
11/17/03-11/23/03
11/10/03-11/16/03
11/3/03-11/9/03
10/27/03-11/2/03
10/20/03-10/26/03
10/13/03-10/19/03
9/29/03-10/12/03
8/4/03-9/28/03
7/28/03-8/3/03
7/21/03-7/27/03
7/14/03-7/20/03
7/7/03-7/13/03
6/30/03-7/6/03
6/23/03-6/29/03
6/16/03-6/22/03
6/9/03-6/15/03
6/2/03-6/8/03
5/26/03-6/1/03
5/19/03-5/25/03
5/12/03-5/18/03
5/5/03-5/11/03
4/28/03-5/4/03
4/21/03-4/27/03
4/14/03-4/20/03
4/6/03-4/13/03
3/31/03-4/5/03
3/24/03-3/30/03
3/17/03-3/23/03
3/10/03-3/16/03
3/3/03-3/9/03
2/24/03-3/2/03
2/17/03-2/23/03
2/10/03-2/16/03
2/3/03-2/9/03
1/27/03-2/2/03
1/20/03-1/26/03
1/13/02-1/19/02
1/6/02-1/12/02
12/30/02 - 1/5/03
12/23/02-12/29/02
12/16/02-12/22/02
12/9/02-12/15/02
12/2/02-12/8/02
11/25/02-12/1/02
11/18/02-11/24/02
11/11/02-11/17/02
11/4/02-11/10/02
10/28/02-11/3/02
10/21/02-10/27/02
10/14/02-10/20/02
10/7/02-10/13/02
9/30/02-10/6/02
9/23/02-9/29/02
9/16/02-9/22/02
9/9/02-9/15/02
9/2/02-9/8/02
8/26/02-9/1/02
8/19/02-8/25/02
8/12/02-8/18/02
8/5/02-8/11/02
7/29/02-8/4/02
7/22/02-7/28/02
7/15/02-7/21/02
7/8/02-7/14/02
7/1/02-7/7/02
6/24/02-6/30/02
6/17/02-6/23/02
6/11/02-6/16/02
6/3/02-6/10/02
5/27/02-6/2/02
5/20/02-5/26/02
5/13/02-5/19/02
5/6/02-5/12/02
4/29/02-5/5/02
4/22/02-4/28/02
4/15/02-4/21/02
4/8/02-4/14/02
4/1/02-4/7/02
3/25/02-3/31/02
3/18/02-3/24/02
3/11/02-3/17/02
3/4/02-3/10/02
2-25-02-3/3/02
2/18/02-2/24/02
2/11/02-2/17/02
2/4/02-2/10/02
1/28/02-2/3/02
1/21/02-1/27/02
1/14/02-1/20/02
1/7/02 - 1/13/02
12/31/01-1/6/02
12/24/01-12/30/01
12/17/01-12/23/01
12/10/01-12/16/01
12/3/01-12/9/01
11/26/01-12/2/01
11/19/01-11/25/01
11/12/01-11/18/01
11/5/01-11/11/01
10/29/01-11/4/01
10/22/01-10/28/01
10/15/01-10/21/01
10/8/01-10/14/01
10/1/01-10/7/01
9/24/01-9/30/01
9/17/01-9/23/01
9/10/01-9/16/01

Local times around the world

Maps

Death from America : Irak

Statewatch
Civil Liberties in the EU

WebCam in Karachi

World News
5/1/09 - 6/30/2009

Monday 6/29/2009

Chavez threatens to invade as Honduran army stages coup  6/29/2009 Independent: "Mr Chavez went on state television later in the day claiming that the coup leaders had taken away the Cuban ambassador to Honduras and left the Venezuelan ambassador by the road in the capital, Tegucigalpa, after beating him. He said that if troops enter his embassy "that military junta would be entering a de facto state of war," and "we would have to act militarily".

Sunday 6/28/2009

First round in Internet war goes to Iranian intelligence  6/28/2009 Debka, Israel

World Movement for Democracy-Made in the USA  6/28/2009 Political Research Associates: published 7/05 - "Together with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the National Endowment for Democracy has functioned as an instrument of the U.S. government’s democratization strategy over the past two decades. Whereas USAID is an agency of the State Department, quasi-governmental NED is organized as a nonprofit but funded almost entirely by the U.S. government. Since 1982, when President Reagan launched what he called a “crusade” to foster “free market democracies” and spread the a neoliberal version of the “magic of the marketplace,” both USAID and NED have channeled U.S. government development and public diplomacy funding into the democratization programs of the international institutes of the Republican and Democratic Parties, the AFL-CIO, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, as well as a wide range of institutes, political parties, and nongovernmental organizations abroad."

The Assassination of A Venezuelan Attorney - The CIA behind Danilo Anderson’s Murder?  6/28/2009 VoltaireNet: published 12/04

Was the Iranian Election Stolen? Does It Matter?  6/28/2009 WaPo: "According to their account, there are 14 people working at each polling place, in addition to an observer representing each candidate. Most polling places are schools or mosques; if the polling place is a school then the team of 14 people would include teachers. There are 2-4 representatives of the Guardian Council, and 2 from the local police. After the last votes are cast, the ballots are counted in the presence of the 14 people plus the candidates' representatives. All of them sign five documents that contain the vote totals. One of the documents goes into the ballot box; one stays with the leader of the local election team; and the others go to other levels of the electoral administration, including the Guardian Council and the Interior. The vote totals are then sent to a local center that also has representatives of the Guardian Council, Interior, and the candidates. They add up the figures from a number of ballot boxes, and then send them to Interior. In this election, the numbers were also sent directly to Interior from the individual polling places, in the presence of the 14-18 witnesses at the ballot box. Each voter presents identification, and his or her name and information is entered into a computer, and also recorded in writing. The voter's thumbprint is also put on the stub of the ballot. The voter's identification is stamped to prevent multiple voting at different voting places, and there is also a computer and written record of everyone who voted at each polling place. If this information is near accurate, it would appear that large scale fraud is extremely difficult, if not impossible, without creating an extensive trail of evidence. Indeed, if this election was stolen, there must be tens of thousands of witnesses -- or perhaps hundreds of thousands - to the theft. Yet there are no media accounts of interviews with such witnesses."

Saturday 6/27/2009

Mohawk Nation News: Militias Formed to Attack Mohawks  6/27/2009 Akwesasne Counterspin

Friday 6/26/2009

Guatemalan fears a tweet will make him a jailbird  6/26/2009 AP

Iran’s Coming Revolution: For Civil Rights Or Beyond?  6/26/2009 Global Research: "Simplifying the events in Iran as yet another attempt at a U.S. financed “color revolution” is shortsighted, to say the least. But this is the shallow position many on the left are taking. Fortunately, millions of people partaking in mass demonstrations cannot be reduced to “mere puppets” of Uncle Sam — they have aspirations of their own and ways to achieve them."

Reporters Without Borders’ lies about Venezuela  6/26/2009 VoltaireNet

Thursday 6/25/2009

Iran's streets are lost, but hope returns By Pepe Escobar  6/25/2009 Asia Times: "Mohsen Sazegara, president of the Washington-based Research Institute for Contemporary Iran, was one of the founders of the IRGC, in the earliest stages after the 1979 revolution. He does not mince his words. For him, Khamenei "made the biggest mistake of is life"; "he thought that with the Revolutionary Guards and the Ministry of Interior he could conquer a nation". Sazegara stresses, "for the first time in 120 years, Iranians mobilize themselves without religious help and with no religious motivation". As for the regime's repression machine, he points out that "those who kill the protesters, those we call the 'white shirts', are Revolutionary Guards, they belong to a special brigade of the intelligence division [he's referring to the above-mentioned Ashura brigade]. They look like civilians, but they have knives, iron bars and weapons"."

Top US commander warns of Iran influence in Latin America  6/25/2009 Global Research: "The real concern is not a nation-to-nation interaction, it is the connection that Iran has with extremist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah and the potential risk that that could bring to this region," Fraser told journalists ahead of taking up the post."

Venezuela's Chavez sees CIA hand in Iran unrest  6/25/2009 Global Research: "People are in the streets, some are dead, they have snipers, and behind this is the CIA, the imperial hand of European countries and the United States," he said, "from my point of view that is what is happening in Iran."

Martyrs persecuted beyond death  6/25/2009 Uruknet: "To readers of JSF all this should sound awfully familiar, the persecution of the families of martyrs, the disruption of funerals, and of course the fabrications, all standard operating procedures of the IDF. Let's refresh our memories with just a few stories. Click on the links to read the full account. Of course these stories would never get the amount of publicity that oppression in Iran gets."

Wednesday 6/24/2009

Iran Divided & the 'October Suprise'  6/24/2009 Consortium News: "Former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims he is the rightful winner of the June 12 presidential election, was part of the group (along with his current allies former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and former House Speaker Mehdi Karoubi) that favored secret contacts with the United States and Israel to get the military supplies needed to fight the war with Iraq."

Toussaint: The Movie  6/24/2009 Repeating Islands: "During a visit to Paris last month for a seminar on film, [Danny Glover] told AFP that “Producers said ‘It’s a nice project, a great project… where are the white heroes?’” He added, “I couldn’t get the money here, I couldn’t get the money in Britain. I went to everybody. You wouldn’t believe the number of producers based in Europe, and in the States, that I went to. The first question you get, is ‘Is it a black film?’ All of them agree, it’s not going to do good in Europe, it’s not going to do good in Japan. Somebody has to prove that to be a lie!”, he said. “Maybe I’ll have the chance to prove it.” “Toussaint,” Glover’s first project as film director, is to start shooting next year in Venezuela, starring Don Cheadle, Mos Def, Wesley Snipes and Angela Bassett, after Glover raised 18 of the 30 million dollars needed from a Venezuelan cultural body set up in 2006 by his friend President Hugo Chavez to counter what he termed “the Hollywood film dictatorship.” The project will film in Venezuela as part of the agreement but also because the degree of environmental degradation in Haiti since the Revolution has been such as to make it impossible to recreate the natural environment in which the Revolution was fought."

The Assembly of Experts  6/24/2009 Tehran Bureau: "Ahmadinjed came to power with the backing of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) and the Basij paramilitary units. These two divisions of the armed forces, unlike the Iranian Army which remains outside the cities, are ideological groups present in all urban and rural regions of the country. Ahmadinjead and some members of his cabinet have belonged to various ranks of the IRGC. They wield an ultra-conservative rhetoric, and many of them are students of a powerful, shadowy cleric, Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, who has been linked to a series of publicized political chain-murders. Soon after the 2005 elections, reformist politicians and those close to Rafsanjani began warning that a “Talibanite” faction, the students of Mesbah Yazdi, had begun a systematic takeover of every aspect of the IRGC and the government. Understanding the connection between Ahmadinejad, Mesbah Yazdi, and the higher ranks of the IRGC is imperative to understanding the current situation in Iran. Information on the topic is particularly sparse, because Mesbah Yazdi is not well-known to the Western media. Muhammad Sahimi has described the relationship in clear detail in his article The Leaders of Iran’s ‘Election Coup.’ Suffice it to say here that Mesbah Yazdi is the confirmed religious leader of the faction supporting Ahmadinejad, he is openly opposed to any democratic aspect of the Islamic Republic, and he is rumored to entertain the ambition of one day assuming the position of the Supreme Leader."

Tuesday 6/23/2009

Meet Shah Ali Khamenei By Pepe Escobar 6/23/2009 Asia Times: "The key move for the next few days revolves around Grand Ayatollah Husayn Montazeri's call for three days of mourning for the dead, from Wednesday to Friday. The progressive view in Tehran - and among the exiled Iranian intelligentsia - is that this is a very sophisticated, back to 1979, civil disobedience code, suggesting citizens should go indefinitely on strike. To strike is safer, and much more subversive, than hitting the streets and being bloodied by the paramilitary Basiji. Strikes were a fundamental element for the success of the revolution 30 years ago. Montazeri is also subtly signaling the strategy to seduce Iran's silent majority - which may hover around 30% to 40% of the total population. This strategy, judiciously applied over the next few days and weeks, may expand the people power river into a formidable ocean."

Brainstorming Iran: An X-Ray of Immediate History 6/23/2009 NarcoNews

Monday 6/22/2009

A Hard Look at the Numbers - What Actually Happened in the Iranian Presidential Election?  6/22/2009 Counterpunch: "More than thirty pre-election polls were conducted in Iran since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his main opponent, former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, announced their candidacies in early March 2009. The polls varied widely between the two opponents, but if one were to average their results, Ahmadinejad would still come out on top. However, some of the organizations sponsoring these polls, such as Iranian Labor News Agency and Tabnak, admit openly that they have been allies of Mousavi, the opposition, or the so-called reform movement. Their numbers were clearly tilted towards Mousavi and gave him an unrealistic advantage of over 30 per cent in some polls. If such biased polls were excluded, Ahmadinejad’s average over Mousavi would widen to about 21 points. On the other hand, there was only one poll carried out by a western news organization. It was jointly commissioned by the BBC and ABC News, and conducted by an independent entity called the Center for Public Opinion (CPO) of the New America Foundation. The CPO has a reputation of conducting accurate opinion polls, not only in Iran, but across the Muslim world since 2005. The poll, conducted a few weeks before the elections, predicted an 89 percent turnout rate. Further, it showed that Ahmadinejad had a nationwide advantage of two to one over Mousavi."

Reports: Iran's clerics considering removal of Khamenei and Ahmadinejad  6/22/2009 IB Times, UK: http://angryindian.blogspot.com/

Afrodescendientes tras la verdad numérica  6/22/2009 IPS: "¿Cuántos somos? Los afrodescendientes en Venezuela quieren dejar de ser estadísticamente invisibles, como se ha logrado en Brasil o Ecuador, y, cifras en mano, proseguir la lucha por sus reivindicaciones y contra el racismo y la exclusión. "Para reforzar nuestra demanda de reconocimiento, queremos saber dónde estamos. Quizá somos el 30 por ciento de los 27 millones de habitantes de Venezuela", dijo a IPS Jesús García, líder de la Red de Organizaciones Afrovenezolanas."

A velvet revolution in Iran?  6/22/2009 Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist: "The post-election crisis in Iran has prompted individuals and groups on the left to reduce it to an imperialist plot to foment a “color” or “velvet” revolution. In doing so, they are following the lead of Ali Khamenei, the country’s most powerful leader and a man who has never run in an election himself."

The Iranian Election and the Revolution Test  6/22/2009 Stratfor: "Now, as we saw after Tiananmen Square, we will see a reshuffling among the elite. Those who backed Mousavi will be on the defensive. By contrast, those who supported Ahmadinejad are in a powerful position. There is a massive crisis in the elite, but this crisis has nothing to do with liberalization: It has to do with power and prerogatives among the elite. Having been forced by the election and Khamenei to live with Ahmadinejad, some will make deals while some will fight — but Ahmadinejad is well-positioned to win this battle."

9/11 FEMA videographer at Ground Zero goes public  6/22/2009 VoltaireNet: "There were many things, in hindsight, that were disturbing at Ground Zero. It was odd to me that I was dispatched to go to New York even before the second plane hit the South Tower, while the media was still reporting only that a “small plane” had collided with the North Tower — far too small of a catastrophe at that point to involve FEMA . FEMA was mobilized within minutes, whereas it took ten days for it to deploy to New Orleans to respond to Hurricane Katrina, even with abundant advance warning! It was odd to me that all cameras were so fiercely prohibited within the secured perimeter of Ground Zero, that the entire area was declared a crime scene and yet the “evidence” within that crime scene was so rapidly removed and destroyed. And then it was very odd to me when I learned that FEMA and several other federal agencies had already moved into position at their command center at Pier 92 on September 10th, one day before the attacks!"

Sunday 6/21/2009

Deaths confirmed in Iran unrest  6/21/2009 Al Jazeera

Why Iran's Ahmadinejad is preferred in Israel  6/21/2009 CSM: "But even though Mr. Ahmadinejad has threatened the Jewish state with destruction, many officials and analysts here actually prefer the incumbent president because – short of the downfall of Iran's theocratic system of government – he'll be easier to isolate. Reformist leader Mr. Mousavi, by contrast, isn't expected to alter Iran's drive for nuclear power, but he would win international sympathy. "Just because Mousavi is called a moderate or a reformist doesn't mean he's a nice guy. After all he was approved by the Islamic leadership," says Ephraim Inbar, director of the Begin Sadat Center at Bar Ilan University. "If we have Ahmadinejad, we know where we stand. If we have Mousavi we have a serpent with a nice image.""

Venezuelan President: World Must "Respect Iran"  6/21/2009 Dow Jones: "The world must respect Iran and the election "triumph" of its incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Sunday. "We call on the world to respect Iran because there are attempts to undermine the strength of the Iranian revolution," Chavez said in his weekly radio and television address."

Saturday 6/20/2009

Iranian Woman’s Martyrdom Told on Facebook Spreads Protests  6/20/2009 Digital Journal

Robert Fisk: Khamenei is fighting for his own position as well as Ahmadinejad's  6/20/2009 Independent: "Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was Thomas Cromwell yesterday, praising those he loathed with just enough directness for the recipient to know that a Supreme Leader's anger will embrace a senior cleric or two. When he expressed his admiration for Ali Akbar Rafsanjani's revolutionary credentials and added that "nobody has accused this gentleman of corruption" – who said they had? – you knew exactly what he meant. Think profits from pistachio nuts and the Tehran Metro."

Robert Fisk’s World: In Tehran, fantasy and reality make uneasy bedfellows  6/20/2009 Independent: "Now for the very latest on the fantasy circuit. The cruel "Iranian" cops aren't Iranian at all. They are members of Lebanon's Hizbollah militia. I've had this one from two reporters, three phone callers (one from Lebanon) and a British politician. I've tried to talk to the cops. They cannot understand Arabic. They don't even look like Arabs, let alone Lebanese. The reality is that many of these street thugs have been brought in from Baluch areas and Zobal province, close to the Afghan border. Even more are Iranian Azeris. Their accents sound as strange to Tehranis as would a Belfast accent to a Cornishman hearing it for the first time."

Preparing the Battlefield - The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran - by Seymour M. Hersh  6/20/2009 New Yorker: published 7/08

Iranian protesters defy ban, clash with police in streets  6/20/2009 Raw Story: "Members of the Basij Islamic militia, which has been at the forefront of the regime’s efforts to face down a week of protests against official results giving hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second four-year term, were again out in force. However, protestors were catching Basijis on motorbikes and beating them, a witness said."

Friday 6/19/2009

New Tricks to Confront State Power - What the Left Should be Learning From Iran By AL GIORDANO 6/19/2009 Counterpunch: "There are those who really seem to believe that the three million plus people in the streets are merely dupes of the manipulation of destabilization plans hatched in Washington or Tel Aviv. The latter claim is confounded by the words of Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak, who said yesterday, "We should not be confused about Mousavi - these people are fundamentalist Muslims," and those of Israeli Mossad chief Meir Dagan, who joins the neocon chorus in pooh-poohing the popular revolt as insignificant: "The riots are taking place only in Teheran and one additional region. They won't last for long." That reeks of wishful thinking and reveals that Israel's government, for one, wants Ahmadinejad to survive the tumult."

From Mossadegh to Ahmadinejad - The CIA and the Iranian experiment 6/19/2009 VoltaireNet: "First, SMS were sent during the night of the counting of the votes, according to which the Guardian Council of the Constitution (equivalent to a constitutional court) had informed Mir-Hossein Mousavi of his victory. After that, the announcing of the official results — the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with 64 % of cast votes — seemed like a huge fraud. However, three days earlier, M. Mousavi and his friends were considering a massive victory of M. Ahmadinejad as certain and were trying to explain it by unbalanced campaigns. Indeed the ex president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was detailing his grievances in an open letter. The US polling institutes in Iran were predicting a 20 points lead for M. Ahmadinejad over M. Mousavi. M. Mousavi victory never seemed possible, even if it is probable that some fraud accentuated the margin between the two candidates. Secondly, Iranian citizens were selected or volunteered on the Internet to chat on Facebook or to subscribe to Twitter feeds. They received information —true or false— (still via SMS) about the evolution of the political crisis and the ongoing demonstrations. These anonymous news posts were spreading news of gun fights and numerous deaths which to this day have not been confirmed. Because of an unfortunate calendar overlap, Twitter was supposed to suspend its service for a night to allow for some maintenance of its systems. The US State Department intervened to ask them to postpone it. According to the New York Times, these operations contributed to spread defiance in the population."

Thursday 6/18/2009

Armed Radical 'Minutemen' Kill Father and 9-Year-Old Daughter in Anti-Immigrant Hate 6/18/2009 Center for Community Change: "On May 30, 2009, a group of armed men and women killed 9-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father in Arivaca, Ariz. The vigilantes were Minutemen, members of a "civilian defense corps" that polices the U.S.-Mexico border for undocumented immigrants. When Jason Bush, 34, Shawna Forde, 41, and Albert Gaxiola, 42, allegedly busted down the front door of the Flores home and killed Raul Junior Flores and his daughter, and seriously injured Flores' wife, the armed gang was supposedly looking for drugs and cash to fund their anti-immigrant organization. Arizona police allege Shawna Forde was the ringleader. Forde was the executive director of Minuteman American Defense and a spokeswoman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, often touted as a "mainstream" voice opposing immigration. But if Forde was indeed involved, the bloody acts in Arivaca reveal the true hatred and contempt behind anti-immigrant organizations in our country."

Tuesday 6/16/2009

Why American Jews Should Resist the US's Blind Support of Israel - Israel's Angels in America  6/16/2009 Counterpunch: "A national organizing effort spreading across America’s Jewish Diaspora is approaching critical mass, still underappreciated by reporters and bloggers. I was asked to facilitate the public discussion following a recent rollout of a local organizing effort in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where I live. The new group, comprised mainly of New Mexico Jews, named itself “Another Jewish Voice.” It promotes an unapologetic mission that goes beyond the common vision shared by innumerable “peace” organizations around the world to end the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem and affirm the national aspirations and human rights of the Palestinian people. AJV states that it “recognizes the powerful role of U.S. policy in the region and believes that the United States’ unconditional support of Israeli government policy is profoundly harmful to the cause of peace with justice."

Why the US Wants to Delegitimize the Iranian Elections - Are You Ready for War with a Demonized Iran?  6/16/2009 Counterpunch: "An independent, objective poll was conducted in Iran by American pollsters prior to the election. The pollsters, Ken Ballen of the nonprofit Center for Public Opinion and Patrick Doherty of the nonprofit New America Foundation, describe their poll results in the June 15 Washington Post. The polling was funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and was conducted in Farsi “by a polling company whose work in the region for ABC News and the BBC has received an Emmy award.”* The poll results, the only real information we have at this time, indicate that the election results reflect the will of the Iranian voters. Among the extremely interesting information revealed by the poll is the following: “Many experts are claiming that the margin of victory of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the result of fraud or manipulation, but our nationwide public opinion survey of Iranians three weeks before the vote showed Ahmadinejad leading by a more than 2 to 1 margin -- greater than his actual apparent margin of victory in Friday's election."

Neo-Nazis are in the Army now  6/16/2009 Salon

Monday 6/15/2009

Proof: Israeli Effort to Destabilize Iran Via Twitter #IranElection  6/15/2009 Charting Stocks: "Were these legitimate Iranian people or the works of a propaganda machine? I became curious and decided to investigate the origins of the information. In doing so, I narrowed it down to a handful of people who have accounted for 30,000 Iran related tweets in the past few days. Each of them had some striking similarities - 1. They each created their twitter accounts on Saturday June 13th. 2. Each had extremely high number of Tweets since creating their profiles. 3. “IranElection” was each of their most popular keyword 4. With some very small exceptions, each were posting in ENGLISH. 5. Half of them had the exact same profile photo 6. Each had thousands of followers, with only a few friends. Most of their friends were EACH OTHER."

What If Ahmadinejad Really Won?  6/15/2009 Consortium News

Jones vs. Ross - Knock Out In The Third Round  6/15/2009 Moon of Alabama: "Haaretz is reporting that Dennis Ross will be fired from his position as the Iran coordinator of the Obama government: "Dennis Ross, who most recently served as a special State Department envoy to Iran, will abruptly be relieved of his duties, sources in Washington told Haaretz. An official announcement is expected in the coming days."

Friday 6/12/2009

Chavez: Gov't may shutter critical TV channel 6/12/2009 AP

Thursday 6/11/2009

Up to 250 Indigenous Peruvians Killed in Bagua, Says Leader Miguel Palacin  6/11/2009 Ground Report: "Miguel Palacin says that the official version of the government on the Bagua massacre says there are 25 police and nine indigenous people dead. But his organization contacts in that area reveal that there are more than 250 people missing, all of them Indigenous leaders who are presumably dead. These missing people are not in the list of injured nor detained, and there is a national commission to investigate this crimes and they were in Bagua yesterday but they found only blood in the road -in an area that is now under the control of Peruvian military."

2 Japanese carrying $134 bil worth of U.S. bonds detained in Italy  6/11/2009 Japan Today: "According to the report in il Giornale, two unidentified Japanese in their 50s concealed the bonds, including 249 U.S. Treasury bonds each worth $500 million, in a suitcase with a false bottom that was searched by the Italian authorities June 3 when they were in Chiasso, at the border with Switzerland, about 50 kilometers north of Milan."

Canada: Colombian president clashes with NDP, Bloc MPs  6/11/2009 Toronto Sun

Wednesday 6/10/2009

Women in Darfur: We Saw No Evidence of Genocide 6/10/2009 Black Agenda Report: "When Colin Powell used the word genocide in 2004, it kicked off $1 billion-a-year international aid program, much higher than that afforded Somalia or Congo. But why?" [The Congo has had millions of victims, far higher than Darfur.]

Tuesday 6/9/2009

Tens of Thousands Rally for Mousavi in Tehran 6/9/2009 Juan Cole

Monday 6/8/2009

Two Colombian Generals Face Charges 6/8/2009 Consortium News: "In July, 2003, just before Urapalma's USAID application, Colombia's national daily El Tiempo reported that "the African palm projects in the southern banana region of Uraba are dripping with blood, misery, and corruption." The region is where Urapalma is active. The Nation article goes on to report that in 2003, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights singled out Urapalma for collusion with paramilitaries in these words: "Since 2001, the company Urapalma SA has initiated cultivation of the oil palm on approximately 1,500 hectares of the collective land of these communities, with the help of 'the perimetric and concentric armed protection of the Army's Seventeenth Brigade and armed civilians'", i.e., paras. All of the above, of course, has gone on by fleecing American taxpayers, courtesy of SOA and USAID."

Turning Point? by Noam Chomsky 6/8/2009 Znet: "The Obama-Netanyahu-Abbas meetings in May, followed by Obama's speech in Cairo, have been widely interpreted as a turning point in US Middle East policy, leading to consternation in some quarters, exuberance in others... A closer look, however, suggests considerable caution."

Sunday 6/7/2009

Key Figures in Global Battle Against Illegal Arms Trade Lost in Air France Crash 6/7/2009 Sunday Herald, Scotland: "Dreyfus was an advocate of the stringent labelling of ammunition by weapons firms, arguing that by clearly identifying ammunition not only by its producer but also its purchaser, the likelihood of weapons being sourced by criminals from corrupt police or armed forces personnel is greatly reduced."

Friday 6/5/2009

NED Articles 6/5/2009 International Endowment for Democracy: The National Endowment for Hypocrisy Democracy

Wednesday 6/3/2009

What It's Like to Go Undercover and Infiltrate Some of America's Most Dangerous Hate Groups 6/3/2009 Alternet

Tuesday 6/2/2009

Presidente Chávez: Inteligencia estadounidense y Luis Posada Carriles planearon magnicidio con cohetes en San Salvador 6/2/2009 Aporrea: “Y este atentado que se estaba preparando (…) fue por la gente de Posada Carriles. Le exijo al presidente Obama que cumpla con la ley. Mándenos a Posada; debe estar en prisión”, pidió a su par de Estados Unidos, Barack Obama. También especificó que los servicios de inteligencia de EE UU están “detrás de todo esto, no estoy acusando a Obama. Más allá de Obama hay un imperio, eso está vivito, sus tentáculos, sus asesinos y sus paramilitares”.

Venezuela Chavez says "Comrade" Obama more left-wing 6/2/2009 Reuters: "Hey, Obama has just nationalized nothing more and nothing less than General Motors. Comrade Obama! Fidel, careful or we are going to end up to his right," Chavez joked on a live television broadcast."

Monday 6/1/2009

CIA was responsible for the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy  6/1/2009 Big News: "According to this documentary the CIA was responsible for the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in November of 1962 at Daley Plaza in Dallas Texas. John Barbour produced this landmark film, The Garrison Tapes. This documentary tells the story of District Attorney Jim Garrison, who investigated the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy his independent investigation according to the movie looked closely into evidence available to him and came forward with an interpretation that went beyond the Warren Commission's authorized report."

Navy Vet Honored, Foiled Israeli Attack  6/1/2009 Consortium News

Bill O’Reilly’s jihad against Dr. George Tiller  6/1/2009 Daily Kos: "Since 2005, Bill O’Reilly has waged jihad against Dr. George Tiller, dedicating 29 segments of his show to demonizing and dehumanizing Tiller, who he invariably called "Tiller the baby killer."

Saturday 5/30/2009

Protesta mapuche durante visita de Bachelet a los Países Bajos 5/30/2009 Libertad Ahora

Right-Wing Hate Machine Launches Vicious Campaign of Racist and Sexist Attacks on Sotomayor 5/30/2009 The Progress Report

Friday 5/29/2009

State Dept.: Obama’s Demands To Stop West Bank Expansion Includes Jerusalem 5/29/2009 Philadelphia Bulletin: "Ms. Clinton’s press spokesman was asked if President Obama’s demand to halt expansion of “West Bank Jewish communities” included a demand to stop expansion of Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem. The answer was affirmative. The U.S. State Department demands that Israel limit Jewish growth in these areas of Jerusalem, “whose status remains to be determined” in negotiations. Israeli Government Press Director Daniel Seamen reacted to this Obama administration statement by saying: “I have to admire the residents of Iroquois territory for assuming that they have a right to determine where Jews should live in Jerusalem.”

Tuesday 5/26/2009

Oil Company Says Protests Causing Fuel Shortages in Peru 5/26/2009 Latin American Herald Tribune: "State-owned oil company Petroperu said Sunday protests organized by Indians in Peru’s Amazon region were causing fuel shortages in several jungle cities. Protests by Indians in the Imaza, Cenepa, Santiago and Condorcanqui districts, as well as in Datem del Marañon province, paralyzed operations at the Norperuano pipeline, which runs from the Loreto region to the Paccific coast, Petroperu said. The state-owned oil company’s stations 5 and 6 in Loreto have been occupied by Indians since April 23, preventing the transfer of crude to the Bayovar terminal in the Piura region."

Sunday 5/24/2009

Group Says Coal Protesters Unable to Make Bail 5/24/2009 NYT: "Environmental group Mountain Justice says six people arrested on trespassing charges during a coal mining protest are still jailed. The group said Sunday the six have been unable to raise $2,000 cash apiece to make bail. All six were arrested a day earlier at Richmond, Va.-based Massey Energy Co.'s Marfork Coal mining complex in Pettus. Mountain Justice says they were protesting Massey's plan to blast at the mine. Mountain Justice and a group called Climate Ground Zero say blasting could cause a coal slurry dam at the site to collapse."

Saturday 5/23/2009

Two Sides of the Same Coin: Heads-Heads 5/23/2009 Common Dreams: By Sibel Edmonds, " the founder and president of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC). During her work with the FBI, she discovered and reported serious acts of security breaches, cover-ups, and intentional blocking of intelligence that had national security implications. After she reported these acts to FBI management, she was retaliated against by the FBI and ultimately fired in March 2002. Since that time, court proceedings on her issues have been blocked by the assertion of “State Secret Privilege” by Attorney General Ashcroft; the Congress of the United States has been gagged and prevented from any discussion of her case through retroactive re-classification by the Department of Justice."

Support for Israel Feeds Terrorism: Cheney Breaks the Taboo 5/23/2009 Counterpunch: "Cheney’s explanation of a motive mostly reprised George W. Bush’s old “the terrorists hate our freedoms” canard. Cheney said the terrorists hate “all the things that make us a force for good in the world — for liberty, for human rights, for the rational, peaceful resolution of differences,” an odd set of qualities for Cheney to cite given his roles in violating constitutional rights, torturing captives and spreading falsehoods to justify invading Iraq. But that’s also where Cheney slipped up. You didn’t notice? Well, Cheney couldn’t resist expanding on the complaints of the terrorists: “They have never lacked for grievances against the United States. Our belief in freedom of speech and religion…our belief in equal rights for women…our support for Israel… — these are the true sources of resentment…”

Friday 5/22/2009

Obama Orders Update to Iran Attack Plan  5/22/2009 AntiWar: "On NBC’s Today Show this morning, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that President Obama has ordered him to update the plans for a US attack on Iran, plans which were last updating during the Bush Administration. Gates says the plans are “refreshed” and insists that “all options are on the table” with respect to the potential attack. It was only a month ago that Secretary Gates was warning vigorously against the potential attack, saying that it would create a “disastrous backlash” against the United States to hit Iran’s civilian nuclear facilities. The Obama Administration has insisted it is intending to pursue the matter diplomatically with Iran, but Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has repeatedly said the administration doesn’t expect diplomacy to work, and the effort seems to be primarily to rally international support for more measures against Iran."

Newly declassified documents reveal More than $97 million from USAID to separatist projects in Bolivia  5/22/2009 Bolivia Rising: by Eva Golinger - "Recently declassified documents obtained by investigators Jeremy Bigwood and Eva Golinger reveal that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has invested more than $97 million in “decentralization” and “regional autonomy” projects and opposition political parties in Bolivia since 2002. The documents, requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), evidence that USAID in Bolivia was the “first donor to support departmental governments” and “decentralization programs” in the country, proving that the US agency has been one of the principal funders and fomenters of the separatist projects promoted by regional governments in Eastern Bolivia."

Venezuela Chavez nationalizes iron companies  5/22/2009 Reuters: "Chavez, who has already nationalized many of Venezuela's largest industries, named iron briquette makers with Japanese investors among the companies to pass into state hands. "Nationalize the iron briquette sector, there is nothing to discuss," Chavez said to euphoric union members during a televised speech in which he also announced a wage rise for thousands of workers and a cut in management salaries."

Thursday 5/21/2009

Tamil Tiger leaders 'killed trying to surrender'  5/21/2009 AFP: "Two top members of the Tamil Tigers may have been shot by their own side or executed by Sri Lankan troops while trying to surrender, according to conflicting accounts of the last days of the rebels. Hours before the Sri Lankan defence ministry announced the entire rebel leadership had been killed and the decades-old war won, Tamil Tiger political chief B. Nadesan and Peace Secretariat head S. Pulideevan were trying to give themselves up."

Italian Prosecutor: Enough Evidence for CIA Convictions  5/21/2009 CQ Politics: "We're continuing, but it is more of a formality," the lawyer for Nicolò Pollari, the former chief of Italian military intelligence, who is among those on trial, told the paper. Prosecutor Armando Spataro acknowledged that the ruling virtually ruled out obtaining a conviction of top Italian secret service officials charged with collusion in the February 2003 kidnapping of Abu Omar, whose real name is Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr. But in an email, the prosecutor, Armando Spataro, insisted "there was sufficient evidence for convictions [of the Americans], even excluding materials now deemed classified by the Constitutional Court.""

FBI Agent on Synagogue Case Has Questionable Record  5/21/2009 Village Voice: 'The FBI agent with a high-profile role in yesterday's arrests of four men for plotting a terror attack in New York has a pretty interesting -- and controversial -- track record. Special Agent Robert Fuller, whose name appears at the top of the federal criminal complaint in the case, had a hand in the FBI's failure to nab two of the 9/11 hijackers, had one of his informants set himself on fire in front of the White House, and was involved in misidentifying a Canadian man as a terrorist leading to his secret arrest and torture -- a case that is now the subject of a major lawsuit."

Wednesday 5/20/2009

Pro-Israel Mouthpiece Says Freedom of Speech Dangerous ‘JINSA’ article says outlets who oppose future wars should be silenced—killed if necessary—by military strike 5/20/2009 Atheo News: "In the spring 2009 issue of its Journal of International Security Affairs, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), a particularly vocal force of the Jewish lobby, published a series of articles devoted to the subject: “The U.S. Military Faces the Future.” One article, entitled “Wishful Thinking and Indecisive Wars,” written by Ralph Peters (described as “a retired U.S. Army officer”) states flatly that “Although it seems unthinkable now, future wars may require censorship, news blackouts and, ultimately, military attacks on the partisan media.” The JINSA essay says “Freedom of the press stops when its abuse kills our soldiers and strengthens our enemies. Such a view arouses disdain today, but a media establishment that has forgotten any sense of sober patriotism may find that it has become tomorrow’s conventional wisdom.”

Wishful Thinking and Indecisive Wars 5/20/2009 JINSA (Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs): "Of course, the media have shaped the outcome of conflicts for centuries, from the European wars of religion through Vietnam. More recently, though, the media have determined the outcomes of conflicts. While journalists and editors ultimately failed to defeat the U.S. government in Iraq, video cameras and biased reporting guaranteed that Hezbollah would survive the 2006 war with Israel and, as of this writing, they appear to have saved Hamas from destruction in Gaza. Pretending to be impartial, the self-segregating personalities drawn to media careers overwhelmingly take a side, and that side is rarely ours. Although it seems unthinkable now, future wars may require censorship, news blackouts and, ultimately, military attacks on the partisan media. Perceiving themselves as superior beings, journalists have positioned themselves as protected-species combatants. But freedom of the press stops when its abuse kills our soldiers and strengthens our enemies. Such a view arouses disdain today, but a media establishment that has forgotten any sense of sober patriotism may find that it has become tomorrow’s conventional wisdom. The point of all this is simple: Win. In warfare, nothing else matters. If you cannot win clean, win dirty. But win. Our victories are ultimately in humanity’s interests, while our failures nourish monsters."

Tuesday 5/19/2009

Unexceptional Americans: Why We Can't See the Trees or the Forest - The Torture Memos and Historical Amnesia 5/19/2009 Tom Dispatch: by Noam Chomsky

Sunday 5/17/2009

Hersh Details JSOC Killings 5/17/2009 AntiWar: "Hersh had previously revealed details about JSOC’s assassinations in March during a talk at the University of Minnesota. The group reportedly went to countries across the world, assassinating people suspected of planning anti-American activities. Reports about JSOC’s activities had been floating around in the media for quite some time, but the issue is being revived by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ decision to recommend Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal as the new commander of American troops in Afghanistan. Lt. Gen. McChrystal was the JSOC commander for the vast majority of the Bush era."

Saturday 5/16/2009

Here's how Israel would destroy Iran's nuclear program 5/16/2009 Haretz

Friday 5/15/2009

Little Known Military Thug Squad Still Brutalizing Prisoners at Gitmo Under Obama  5/15/2009 Alternet: "As the Obama administration continues to fight the release of some 2,000 photos that graphically document U.S. military abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, an ongoing Spanish investigation is adding harrowing details to the ever-emerging portrait of the torture inside and outside Guantánamo. Among them: "blows to [the] testicles;" "detention underground in total darkness for three weeks with deprivation of food and sleep;" being "inoculated … through injection with 'a disease for dog cysts;'" the smearing of feces on prisoners; and waterboarding. The torture, according to the Spanish investigation, all occurred "under the authority of American military personnel" and was sometimes conducted in the presence of medical professionals."

Panetta’s ‘Secret Mission’ to Stop Israeli Attack on Iran  5/15/2009 AntiWar

US Blames Eritrea for Somali Instability  5/15/2009 AntiWar: "Eritrea appears to be America’s scapegoat of choice as the situation in Somalia continues to deteriorate, and only last month it was reported that the Obama Administration had threatened a US invasion of Eritrea over its support for the Islamist al-Shabaab faction."

Lieberman's party proposes ban on Arab Nakba  5/15/2009 Reuters: "Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's party wants to ban Israeli Arabs from marking the anniversary of what they term "the Catastrophe" or Nakba, when in 1948 some 700,000 Arabs lost their homes in the war that led to the establishment of the state of Israel. The ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party said it would propose legislation next week for a ban on the practice and a jail term of up to three years for violators."

The hidden hand of Dick Cheney by Juan Cole  5/15/2009 Salon: "In the government's commitment to a doctrine of "state secrets" that protect the executive from the scrutiny of other branches of government, in the continued attempt to block lawsuits and release of important documents, and in the shielding of secret programs of torture, unlawful kidnapping and warrantless wiretapping, Obama is preserving policies to which Cheney is deeply committed. In configuring Pushtun fundamentalists in southern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan as a mortal threat to the U.S. and potentially even a nuclear power, the Obama administration is picking up themes from Cheney's old speeches and running with them. Cheney may or may not win his struggle for the soul of the Republican Party. If we are not careful, he will win the struggle for the soul of the country as a whole."

Leon Panetta's mission to stop Israel bombing Iranian nuclear plant  5/15/2009 Times: "America’s spy chief was sent on a secret mission to Israel to warn its leaders not to launch a surprise attack on Iran without notifying the US Administration. As Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, prepares to visit Washington, it emerged yesterday that Leon Panetta, the head of the CIA, went to Israel two weeks ago. He sought assurances from Mr Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, the Defence Minister, that their hawkish new Government would not attack Iran without alerting Washington."

Wednesday 5/13/2009

Bolivia says Peru ties threatened by decision to harbor ex-officials accused in 2003 killings 5/13/2009 AP: "Bolivia's president says relations with Peru are at "high risk" after the neighboring nation gave refuge to two more former Bolivian officials accused in the 2003 army killings of dozens of protesters." [Peru also gave asylum to Venezuelan official fleeing corruption charges.]

Oswald, the CIA, and Mexico City 5/13/2009 Front Line: "Arguably, the most startling information so far brought to light by the release of these intelligence records is the CIA cover-up relating to Oswald's visit to Mexico City. Oswald was in Mexico City in late September and early October of 1963. During his one-week stay, he tried to obtain visas from the Cuban consulate and Soviet embassy. But intelligence documents released in 1999 establish that, after Oswald failed to get the visas, CIA intercepts showed that someone impersonated Oswald in phone calls made to the Soviet embassy and the Cuban consulate and linked Oswald to a known KGB assassin - Valery Kostikov - whom the CIA and FBI had been following for over a year.1 The news of this impersonation and the link to Kostikov, learned within hours of President Kennedy's assassination, electrified top government and intelligence officials and dominated their discussion in the immediate weeks following the assassination. It also became during the next 40 years one of the CIA's most closely guarded secrets on the Oswald case."

Tuesday 5/12/2009

Chavez, Citgo sued for five billion in damages 5/12/2009 AFP: "Guaripa worked for US-funded Radio Marti in Caracas until the end of 2004 when he went into exile, alleging he had been the target of death threats and intimidation by the Chavez government. "The people of Venezuela and the world have been terrorized by Chavez and his communist/terrorist henchmen for too long," Klayman said in a statement, adding that the president has taken several measures to "cement" his grip on power. "All the while he continues, through oil revenues and other means, to support terrorist countries and groups bent on destroying capitalism and the West in general." Freedom Watch accuses Chavez of supporting the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), as well as Middle East groups Hamas and Hezbollah. The US government has labeled all three groups terrorist organizations."

Monday 5/11/2009

Press Release: CHAVEZ CLASS ACTION AMENDED TO ADD CITGO AS DEFENDANT 5/11/2009 Freedom Watch

This is London – the capital of Somali pirates' secret intelligence operation 5/11/2009 Guardian

Sunday 5/10/2009

Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi Has Died In A Libyan Prison 5/10/2009 Andy Worthington: "Al-Libi recanted his story in February 2004, when he was returned to the CIA’s custody, and explained, as Newsweek described it, that he told his debriefers that “he initially told his interrogators that he ‘knew nothing’ about ties between Baghdad and Osama bin Laden and he ‘had difficulty even coming up with a story’ about a relationship between the two.” The Newsweek report explained that “his answers displeased his interrogators — who then apparently subjected him to the mock burial. As al-Libi recounted, he was stuffed into a box less than 20 inches high. When the box was opened 17 hours later, al-Libi said he was given one final opportunity to ‘tell the truth.’ He was knocked to the floor and ‘punched for 15 minutes.’ It was only then that, al-Libi said, he made up the story about Iraqi weapons training.” As I explained in a recent article, Even In Cheney’s Bleak World, The Al-Qaeda-Iraq Torture Story Is A New Low, drawing on reports in the New York Times and by Jane Mayer in the New Yorker, the use of al-Libi to extract a false confession that was used to justify the invasion of Iraq was particularly shocking, because a Defense Intelligence Agency had concluded in February 2002 that al-Libi was lying, and Dan Coleman of the FBI (which had been pulled off al-Libi’s case when the CIA — and the administration — decided to render him to torture in Egypt) had no doubt that the emir of an Afghan training camp would know nothing about Iraq. “It was ridiculous for interrogators to think Libi would have known anything about Iraq,” Coleman told Jane Mayer. “I could have told them that. He ran a training camp. He wouldn’t have had anything to do with Iraq.”"

Chávez seizures fuel Venezuela oil fears 5/10/2009 Financial Times

Saturday 5/9/2009

Mexican farm swine flu's 'ground zero': residents  5/9/2009 AP

Venezuela says weapons cache uncovered, 4 foreigners detained in suspected terrorist cell  5/9/2009 AP

Stanford drug informer role claim  5/9/2009 BBC

Arctic Groups Demand Global Chemicals' Ban  5/9/2009 Common Dreams

Congo Ignored, Not Forgotten - When 5 million dead aren’t worth two stories a year  5/9/2009 Extra!: "But conflict and the humanitarian crisis continue. The most recent survey (IRC, 1/08) estimated that 45,000 people are dying each month from conflict-related causes (primarily hunger and disease), nearly the same shocking rate as during the war itself. And with the recent flare-up of violence in Congo's volatile east, things don't seem to be getting any better. To put the death rate in perspective, at the peak of the Darfur crisis, the conflict-related death rate there was less than a third of the Congo's, and by 2005 it had dropped to less than 4,000 per month (CRED, 5/26/05). The United Nations has estimated some 300,000 may have died in total as a result of the years of conflict in Darfur (CRED, 4/24/08, SSRC.org, 3/25/09); the same number die from the Congo conflict every six and a half months."

Friday 5/8/2009

Criminalizing Criticism of Israel  5/8/2009 Counterpunch: "On October 16, 2004, President George W. Bush signed the Israel Lobby’s bill, the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act. This legislation requires the US Department of State to monitor anti-semitism world wide. To monitor anti-semitism, it has to be defined. What is the definition? Basically, as defined by the Israel Lobby and Abe Foxman, it boils down to any criticism of Israel or Jews. Rahm Israel Emanuel hasn’t been mopping floors at the White House. As soon as he gets the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 passed, it will become a crime for any American to tell the truth about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and theft of their lands. It will be a crime for Christians to acknowledge the New Testament’s account of Jews demanding the crucifixion of Jesus. It will be a crime to report the extraordinary influence of the Israel Lobby on the White House and Congress, such as the AIPAC-written resolutions praising Israel for its war crimes against the Palestinians in Gaza that were endorsed by 100 per cent of the US Senate and 99 per cent of the House of Representatives, while the rest of the world condemned Israel for its barbarity. It will be a crime to doubt the Holocaust. It will become a crime to note the disproportionate representation of Jews in the media, finance, and foreign policy. In other words, it means the end of free speech, free inquiry, and the First Amendment to the Constitution. Any facts or truths that cast aspersion upon Israel will simply be banned."

An invention called 'the Jewish people'  5/8/2009 Haaretz: published 2/08 - "On March 27, 1948, a meeting was held in Hiafa concerning the fate of the Bedouin of Arab al-Ghawarina in the Haifa area. "They must be removed from there, so that they, too, will not add to our troubles," Yosef Weitz, of the Keren Kayemeth (Jewish National Fund), wrote in his personal diary. Two months later, Weitz reported to the organization's director, "Our Haifa Bay has been evacuated completely and there is hardly a remnant of those who encroached our border." They were probably expelled to Jordan; some were allowed to remain in the village of Jisr al-Zarqa. The fate of the Arab al-Ghawarina Bedouin has recently made the headlines thanks to Shmuel Sisso, mayor of the Haifa suburb of Kiryat Yam. He has filed a complaint with the police against Google. The reason is the addition that one of the site's surfers, a resident of Nablus, attached to the center of Kiryat Yam in the world satellite photo, stating that the city is built on the ruins of a village that was destroyed in 1948, Arab al-Ghawarina. Sisso's complaint says that this is slanderous."

666: Goldman's latest bonus bears the mark of the beast  5/8/2009 Independent, UK

'The USS Liberty': America's Most Shameful Secret  5/8/2009 Lew Rockwell: " US Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, and Joint Chiefs of Staff head, Admiral Thomas Moorer, insisted the Israeli attack was deliberate and designed to sink "Liberty." So did three CIA reports; one asserted Israel's Defense Minister, Gen. Moshe Dayan, had personally ordered the attack."

Wednesday 5/6/2009

Is There A Save Darfur Industrial Complex? 5/6/2009 Black Agenda Report: "What does it mean for Africa when right wing end-of-the-world-is-near evangelical Christians join forces with the Robert F. Kennedy Center For Human Rights? What does it mean for African Americans when Bush, Obama, and nearly all last year's presidential candidates from both parties encourage the continuation of an African civil war rather than a political settlement between the parties? What does it mean when 21st century PR firms employ FaceBook, slick viral marketing and millions of dollars to create a simple, satisfying, feel-good excuse for military intervention on the African continent?"

Fed Dread - The New York Fed is the most powerful financial institution you've never heard of. Look who's running it. 5/6/2009 Slate: By Eliot Spitzer [who was conveniently removed from office as Governor of NY]

Tuesday 5/5/2009

Entrevista: Noam Chomsky analiza políticas de Venezuela y EE.UU. “Política exterior de Obama será como la segunda Administración Bush” 5/5/2009 Aporrea

Monday 5/4/2009

Where's the Justice at the Justice Department? The AIPAC Spy Case 5/4/2009 Counterpunch: by former Senator JAMES G. ABOUREZK

Gunned down Irishman ‘linked to neo-Nazi group’ 5/4/2009 Teelgraph, Belfast

Friday 5/1/2009

Chavez says Colombia rebels unwelcome in Venezuela  5/1/2009 AP

Covert Palestinian Authority-Iranian get-together in Caracas  5/1/2009 Debka, Israel: "Chavez is quoted as maintaining during his visits to Tehran and Doha that if US president Barack Obama is willing to talk to him, with Cuba and with Iran, there was no reason why Mahmoud Abbas should not engage Tehran directly. This would help overcome his Fatah's quarrel with Hamas, which Iran is actively supporting with arms, cash and military training."

Lawyers credit Obama team for dismissing AIPAC case  5/1/2009 JTA: "Lawyers for the two former AIPAC staffers charged four years ago with dealing in government secrets credited the Obama administration for dropping the case. “We are extremely grateful that this new Administration, in coordination with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Virginia, has taken seriously their obligation to evaluate cases on the merits and not to allow an unjust prosecution to continue solely due to momentum,” said the joint statement by lawyers for Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman issued Friday, hours after the government filed for a dismissal of the charges against the two former senior staffers for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. “This Administration truly shows that theirs is a Department of Justice, where the justice of any case can be re-evaluated and the government can admit that a case should not be pursued.”"

Chavez says Obama must prove change after handshake  5/1/2009 Reuters

"There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to Democracies as against despots: suspicion." -- Demosthenes

Contacting AfroCubaWeb

Electronic mail: acw_AT_afrocubaweb.com [replace _AT with @]

[AfroCubaWeb][Contents] [Music] [Arts][Authors & Teachers] [Arts][Organizations][News] [Conferences][Newsletter][Discussion Group][What's New][Search this site]

World News 5/1/09 - 6/30/2009

Contacting AfroCubaWeb

Copyright © 1997 AfroCubaWeb, S.A. Last modified: August 12, 2009

World News
5/1/09 - 6/30/2009

Copyright © 1997 AfroCubaWeb, S.A.
Last modified: August 12, 2009