The "other half" of Amb. Freeman's very recent public utterances.
The interviewer Malsin was very competent in asking the right questions

By Jared Malsin

New York – When it comes to the normally stultified American debate on Middle East issues, Charles Freeman, the former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, is one of the most outspoken US officials.

His pronouncements, by his own admission, break established taboos against criticism of Israel, against skepticism about the two-state solution, against supporting engagement with Hamas. And the central taboo, he argues, which underpins the others, prohibits discussion of the role of right wing organizations lobbying for Israel, such as AIPAC.

Another "FACT" Buster:

By Mehdi Hasan–

Our ex-prime minister is still the best Bliar in the business.

I’m knackered and sleepy, hungry from all the Ramadan fasting and — officially — on vacation. But I couldn’t go to bed without commenting on Tony Blair’s new book, A Journey, extracts of which have been published online here.

Much of the instant attention from the chattering classes in the Westminster village has been on the Gordon Brown (GB) chapter, and on Martin Kettle’s pre-publication interview with Tony Blair (TB) in the Guardian, in which the latter says he always believed GB would be a “disaster” as prime minister.

Under the current system of counting emissions, greenhouse gases created during the manufacture of goods are counted in the country where they are made, not used.

As a result, the true extent of the emissions caused by the UK is masked as many goods consumed here, from electrical products to clothes, are manufactured abroad and imported to this country.

Prof Watson said: "At face value UK emissions look like they have decreased 15% or 16% since 1990.

"But if you take in carbon embedded in our imports, our emissions have gone up about 12%. We've got to be more open about this."

Loud noises from Washington about a US pull-out from Iraq are a poor disguise for America’s determination to keep waging war. And the same sort of spin is at work here in Britain

Tony Blair has announced that all proceeds from his book will be donated to a charity for helping rehabilitate seriously injured soldiers. This is very welcome but Mr Blair should be left in no doubt that donating a small fraction of the £20 million he is estimated to have earned since he left office in 2007 cannot absolve him for the war crimes he committed as prime minister.

Please send an email to Waterstone's urging them not to host Blair's memoir launch on Wednesday 8 September. Use the model letter at the link above or delete this and write your own. Personal letters are more effective.

Ambassador Charles W. (“Chas”) Freeman, Jr. (USFS, Ret.)

Remarks to staff of the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and, separately, to members of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs –

You have asked me to speak to current American policies in the Middle East, with an emphasis on the prospects for peace in the Holy Land. You have further suggested that I touch on the relationship of the Gulf Arabs, especially Saudi Arabia, to this. It is both an honor and a challenge to address this subject in this capital / at this ministry.

Gilad Atzmon remind us of the murky not-so-distant past of former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who is a leading contender for the Labour Party leadership, from his complicity in “extraordinary rendition” to his support for suspected Israeli war criminals.

While the democratically elected government of Palestine is left out of "Peace" negotiations between Israel and Palestine, yes they still call it "Peace negotiations", the Jordanian and Egyptian governments have been invited to partner the negotiations as has been going on every two years, with no results. The name of the game is: “Waltz Me Around Again, Willie.” Have these men no shame ?

--Debbie Menon

Salem-News.Com

President Obama with leaders of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan & Egypt, White House Photo, Pete Souza, 9/1/10

Remarks by President Obama, President Mubarak, His Majesty King Abdullah, Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas Before Working Dinner?. East Room 7:05 P.M. EDT

Here’s a news flash for Tel Aviv: it’s not a sign of respect when the bulk of humanity views you as psychopathic.

The concerns of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are misplaced. The legitimacy of Israel is no longer threatened. It’s already lost. Long gone. Kaput.

Nation states are shared states of mind. The mindset in Iceland differs from India. Israel is the most unlike of all. Founded by extremists and terrorists, it’s been downhill ever since.

Psychopaths want to be loved. That’s why they’re so charming, albeit only superficially. They’re also pathological liars, egocentric, callous and remorseless.

Every women wants a man to show her his chivalric side - but when this damsel was distressed by a spider, and her husband had a burning desire to save the day, there were explosive results.

IT engineer Chris Welding, jumped into action after the arachnid frightened his wife Janine yesterday evening, and chased the spider into their bathroom in Clacton, Essex.

Wielding a flammable aerosol can, he sprayed the spider as it cowered behind the toilet pan - then lit a cigarette lighter to see if he had killed it.

However, the flame ignited the gas and caused a massive explosion which blew the man off his feet and lifted the loft door off its hinges, causing severe burns.

By Alan Hart — My Catbird Seat

I never thought a day could come when I would agree with anything stated by Moshe Arens (three times an Israeli minister of defense, a one-time foreign minister, a former ambassador to the U.S. and, in my opinion, Zionism’s in-Israel equivalent of Richard “Prince of Darkness” Perle in America). But the day came.

On 31 August, in article for Ha’aretz with the headline Blame game on the horizon. Arens wrote the following about the nakedness of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as he was making his final preparations for the start of direct negotiations in Washington DC.

Any serious effort to understand the extraordinary influence of the Zionist power configuration over US foreign policy must examine the presence of key operatives in strategic positions in the government andlocal Zionist organizations affiliated with mainstream Jewish organizations and religious orders.

There are at least 52 major American Jewish organizations actively engaged in promoting Israel’s foreign policy, economic and technological agenda in the US (see the appendix).

A YouTube video of Maidhc Ó Cathail’s article on the “radical Muslims” behind the South Park controversy shows just how easy it is to foster Islamophobia in America…

Like the contrived Danish cartoon controversy, the much-hyped Times Square car bomb incident provided an ideal opportunity for those who seek to make Islam look bad in the eyes of the world.

Before the arrest of Faisal “The Fizzler”...

Go here to view and read the the full article:

http://mycatbirdseat.com/2010/09/view-video-how-to-foster-islamophobia...

Everything taking place today viz a viz Israel and the Jewish people is about turning back the clock and undoing history. While the rest of the world has moved forward, they are a people who have remained frozen in time, back when a jealous, vindictive God supposedly promised them the world and everything with it. As such, they are holding on to a lottery ticket they say has all the winning numbers on it, even though it is for a lottery that does not exist, and they are out to collect every cent of what they say is theirs.

By Gus Bridi (Sabbah Report)

“There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia. The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over.”- Newt Gingrich

Has Lebanon officially become more tolerant and progressive than the United States?

Let’s talk about Lebanon’s Ground Zero and you can decide for yourself.

One must first understand what “Ground Zero” means to most Lebanese.

Antiwar.com radio

Among nations considered to be friendly to Washington, Israel leads all others in its active espionage directed against American companies and the Defense Department. It also dominates two commercial sectors that enable it to extend its reach inside America’s domestic infrastructure: airline and telecommunications security. Israel is believed to have the ability to monitor nearly all phone records originating in the United States, while numerous Israeli air-travel security companies are known to act as the local Mossad stations.

By Alan Hart for My Catbird Seat

Short answer. Iran’s President Ahmadinejad did NOT call for Israeli Jews to be annihilated. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of Israel’s Shas party, HAS called, more than once, for the Palestinians (and, in fact, all Arabs) to be exterminated.

As reported by the mainstream Western media, Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be “wiped off the map”. What that meant, it was asserted, was the destruction, the driving into the sea, of Israel’s Jews.

Graduates are facing the most intense scramble in a decade to get a job this summer, as a poll of employers reveals the number of applications for each vacancy has surged to nearly 70 while the number of available positions is predicted to fall by nearly 7%.

The class of 2010 have been told to consider flipping burgers or stacking shelves when they leave university as leading firms in investment banking, law and IT are due to cut graduate jobs this year.

Furious that state involvement in major terror attacks is being exposed to a wider audience than ever before via the Internet, a UK think tank closely affiliated with the Downing Street has called for authorities to infiltrate conspiracy websites in an effort to “increase trust in the government”.

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said recently that Abbas was too weak to stand up to Israel and negotiate a just deal at the talks in Washington. “If the talks succeed they will succeed to Israeli standards and liquidate the Palestinian cause. They’ll give us parts of 1967 lands. They’ll draw the borders as they want and they’ll confiscate our sovereignty,” said Meshaal

This superlative op-ed, which I read at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/opinion/29abunimah.html, provides ample evidence to justify my great respect for Ali Abunimah. He’s fearless, uncompromising, articulate, knowledgeable in both historical and current facts, and right: right for our America, right for Palestine, and, yes, right even for Israel, if only it were capable of regaining its sanity and applying norms of morality, law and justice commonly accepted by the community of man. If right were to take hold and to prevail in our country, Ali Abunimah would be on the evening news as an analyst/commentator every night, every channel.

Thanks to the New York Times for (unexpectedly, to be sure) offering space to him.

– Robert H. Stiver
Pearl City, Hawaii

A mother whose son suffered severe brain damage after he was given the controversial MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine as a baby has been awarded £90,000 compensation.

The judgment is the first of its kind to be revealed since concerns were raised about the safety of the triple jab.

Robert Fletcher, 18, is unable to talk, stand unaided or feed himself.

By Mike Whitney ( Information Clearing House)

– Robert Herz was forced to resign from his job as chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) because he insisted that the banks assign a fair value to their assets. That’s not what you’ll read in the papers, but it’s true just the same. Herz was a major proponent of mark-to-market accounting, a simple means of determining the value of a bond or security by comparing the price of similar assets sold at market. In other words, Herz is a defender of universally-accepted accounting principles, which is why he was terminated, er, I mean, resigned. According to the Wall Street Journal:

By Gordon Duff

IS THE SILENCE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE COMPLICITY IN WAR CRIMES?

I am not against war. I am a combat veteran. I sit on my tail, watch TV, go to restaurants and have fond delusional memories about Vietnam. In my bedroom closet, I have a trash bag. It is never opened, it has been there for years. It has, along with other “military mementos,” a small green “government issued” address book. Marines, long ago, scrawled their names in it. Half of them never came back from Vietnam, never had children, grandchildren, got to finish college or even high school. Many, maybe most, had never had sex, owned a car or traveled more than 50 miles from home.

By Stuart Littlewood

The Palestinians’ champion – their White Knight – is preparing to ride forth next week and do battle at the negotiating table with the racist regime’s Black Knight and his minder, the Great Satan.

The rules of chivalry don’t apply, so the outcome is not in doubt.

However, the White Knight is not quite as white or brave as he seems. Eager to do his lord’s bidding, Mahmoud Abbas is a willing fall guy. On this occasion Obama has imperiously snapped his fingers and announced he wants direct talks started “well before” the Black Knight (aka Israeli prime minister Netanyahu) ends the partial freeze on illegal settlements in a month’s time.

And, by the way, US mid-term elections are coming up in two months’ time and Obama has to look good.

So Abbas jumped.

A hero soldier who lost a leg in Afghanistan has been denied a disabled parking badge three times by council bosses.

Lance Corporal Johno Lee has clocked up £800 in fines for parking in disabled bays in his home town of Newark, Nottinghamshire, on days when he uses a wheelchair or feels unable to walk very far.

When he first applied to Nottinghamshire County Council for a blue badge, he was advised he was young and 'may get better'.

A mother whose son suffered severe brain damage after he was given the controversial MMR vaccine as a baby has been awarded £90,000 compensation.

The judgment is the first of its kind to be revealed since concerns were raised about the safety of the triple jab.

Robert Fletcher, 18, is unable to talk, stand unaided or feed himself.

He endures frequent epileptic fits and requires round-the-clock care from his parents Jackie and John, though he is not autistic.

He suffered the devastating effects after being given the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine when he was 13 months old.

Ted Clement-Evans introduces a detailed and forensic-like analysis of the transcript of the BBC Panorama programme “Death on the Med”, broadcast on 16 August 2010, which reveals chronic bias and lack of impartiality on the part of the BBC.

Dr. Lawrence Davidson
We invaded a country and overthrew its dictator. Americans might take pride in that accomplishment if it were not for the fact that we did so on false pretenses. In other words, we initiated war on the basis of lies rather than actual self-defense. Such an action constitutes the most serious of international crimes. It is the one for which the Nazi leaders were tried at Nuremberg.

Bishop Donald R.Corder
Now we are faced with reports of Zionist participation in blowing up the World Trade Center on 9/11. Articles are circulated throughout the Internet and alternative media channels, elaborating upon the Israeli government’s fabrication of intelligence and the subsequent war in Iraq, the subsequent execution of their rightful sovereign Saddam Hussein and murdering of hundreds of thousand of Iraqi civilians

Theodore Herzl(founder of Zionism) :“We must arm ourselves with all the weapons which our opponents might employ against us. The intensification of armaments, the increase of police forces - are all essential for the completion of the aforementioned plans. We must be in a position to respond to every act of opposition by war with the neighbors of that country which dares to oppose us: but if these neighbors should also venture to stand collectively together against us, then we must offer resistance by a universal war

The story of mass-destruction weapons was fabricated; and here are the facts today which show that terrorism did not exist in Iraq before the war. It was the invaders who opened the doors wide open for terrorism. The ex-MI5 chief Eliza Manningham-Buller confirmed to the Chilcot inquiry that “Our involvement in Iraq radicalised a few among a generation of young people who saw [it] as an attack upon Islam.” She adds: “There was no evidence of any link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida – not even the CIA believed that”.

Interviewer Peter B. Collins

LINK TO PETER B. COLLINS INTERVIEW

"THE WORLD ACCORDING TO DUFF"

MyCatbirdSeat –

Remarkable in its sense of human sensibilities and awareness. This poem reaches beyond the understanding of most westerners, who have been fed on the poison of the White Man’s burden, but it will, someday, when it is all over, be treasured as an everlasting gem of light, a spark in the period of the darkest darkness.

William Blake, another poet of Universal humanitarian dimensions was once imprisoned for his poetry in the narrow cell of his own culture.

–MCS

Watch the video here:

http://mycatbirdseat.com/2010/08/the-capture-of-saddam-hussein-by-rich...

By Gilad Atzmon –

Introduction by Gilad Atzmon:

Living in a world dominated by relentless Zionist lobbying, I am far from being captivated by the current state of Western democracy. I am not impressed at all by the lethal enthusiasm to democratize the World in the name of ‘moral interventionism’.

I am sickened by the murderous zeal that led the USA and Britain into a criminal war that left already more than 1.5 million Iraqi fatalities….

By Alan Hart (My Catbird Seat)

I have written and often say that very many if not most Jews do not want to know the truth of history as it relates to the making and sustaining of the conflict in and over Palestine that became Israel. (An essential element of the truth being that Israel was created, mainly, by Zionist terrorism and ethnic cleansing).

Read the full article and more here:

http://mycatbirdseat.com/2010/08/do-most-israelis-and-many-other-jews-...

By Stephen J. Sniegoski (My Catbird Seat)

The mainstream media acclaim Neoconservatism: The Biography of a Movement as the best book on neoconservatism—the definitive account—and portray its author, Justin Vaïsse, a French specialist on American foreign policy and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, as a veritable Alexis de Tocqueville for his masterly insights.

The mainstream’s high praise of this book, however, would seem to be due in large part to its minimization of two taboo issues—neoconservatism’s Jewish nature and its focus on Israel. Where the book breaks through what was heretofore largely blacked-out in the mainstream media is its discussion of the major role played by the neoconservatives in bringing about the war on Iraq.

READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE:

A priest suspected of being an IRA leader and masterminding a bombing atrocity was allowed to escape arrest after a secret deal was struck between police, the Government and the Catholic Church, a report revealed today.

Father James Chesney was the ‘prime suspect’ after nine people, including an eight-year-old girl, were killed and 30 injured when three car bombs exploded in the quiet Northern Ireland village of Claudy in July 1972.

By Stephen J. Sniegoski

The mainstream media acclaim Neoconservatism: The Biography of a Movement as the best book on neoconservatism—the definitive account—and portray its author, Justin Vaïsse, a French specialist on American foreign policy and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, as a veritable Alexis de Tocqueville for his masterly insights. The mainstream’s high praise of this book, however, would seem to be due in large part to its minimization of two taboo issues—neoconservatism’s Jewish nature and its focus on Israel. Where the book breaks through what was heretofore largely blacked-out in the mainstream media is its discussion of the major role played by the neoconservatives in bringing about the war on Iraq.

Israeli intelligence steps up its activity in the U.S. — and gets away with it.

FOR OUR FRIENDS WHO STILL DON’T GET IT

How can a nation like the United States be duped into two wars and total bankruptcy? It would be one thing if the “truth” about 9/11 was internet conspiracy theory. This isn’t the case. It was all right there in everyone’s living room. They fooled us once and then fooled us again and again. Yes, America has some tail to kick but this time, maybe we should make sure our boot goes up the right rear end for a change.

BBC choose instead to try to demonize the passengers on the from the word go MV ‘Mavi Marmara’ by trying to make them out as violent terrorists. They choose to collude with the Israeli propaganda of lies and manipulation of facts thus trying to turn the victims into aggressors.

Greta Berlin for Free Gaza Team:

Excerpts:

Two years ago today, 44 people from 17 countries were on the Mediterranian heading toward Gaza. We were in two dilapidated fishing boats, the seas were rough, most of us were seasick, and all of us were worried that Israeli military warships would prevent us from getting into the illegally blockaded port of Gaza.

We successfully went in four more times, taking in another 100+ witnesses, European members of Parliament, charity workers from the Gulf, doctors, activists who stayed to work in Gaza, and Palestinians who just wanted to go home and visit. We brought out 38 Palestinians, including students who had visas to attend universities, yet Israel would not allow them to leave.

Read the Full Story here:

Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate (www.peacepeople.com)

Dear BBC Panorama Team

I write to you regarding your programme of 16th August, 2010, about The Freedom Flotilla and particularly the killings of unarmed civilians by Israeli Navy Seals on the ship MV “Mavi Marmara’, on 3lst May, 2010.

I have been campaigning for the rights of Palestinians for over ten years. I have visited Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories many times. I was part of the Freedom Flotilla in May on the MV ‘Rachel Corrie’, my third journey on a Free Gaza boat. I am deeply disappointed at the misrepresentation, lack of truth, and bias displayed by your programme.

By Medea Benjamin (opednews.com)
With the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq, the administration, the military and the media are trying to put a positive spin on this grim chapter of U.S. history. It would certainly give some comfort to the grieving families of the over 4,400 soldiers killed in Iraq if their sacrifices had left Iraq a better place or made America safer. But the bitter truth is that the U.S. intervention has been an utter disaster for both Iraq and the United States.

Banks were accused last night of luring consumers back into the red with credit card offers even more generous than before the recession.

Despite the fragile state of the economic recovery, they are offering eye-catching ‘interest free’ benefits to encourage borrowing.

The introductory promotions are promised to last for an average of 12.2 months – even longer than at the peak of the credit boom in July 2007.

Other companies are offering cash rebates and incentives to spend while the average interest-free ‘balance transfer’ deal, aimed at borrowers switching debts between cards, now runs for nearly 16 months.

But once the zero per cent periods expire, the rates credit card borrowers pay are soaring.

The Attorney General, Dominic Grieve, will examine 'important new evidence' about the death of Dr David Kelly after the pathologist who examined his body called yesterday for a full inquest.

Nicholas Hunt declared that a full and open hearing into the former weapons inspector's death is necessary to clear up once and for all whether he did commit suicide, as the Hutton Report ruled.

British Attorney-General Dominic Grieve’s response to widespread calls for Dr David Kelly’s postmortem files to be released continues to indicate that the government is hiding something of importance, argues Christopher King.

Before you scream ‘lies!’ or ‘anti semite!’ please, I beg you. Parent to parent. Human to human. in the name of the God of all faiths, take a breathe, suspend your disbelief a while longer, then read on. Because, oh Israel. What if, just suppose, I’m not the anti semite your wiki trained extremist supporters try to paint me as? And what if, just ten per cent of the 64,000 google entries for “IDF looting’ are utterly true?

by strong>Lauren Booth (Lauren Booth is Tony Blair's sister in Law

Sometimes a topic simply will not go away. These weeks, Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, Q.C., former Prime Minister, alleged potential war criminal, surreal Middle East Peace Envoy - who led an administration who shared responsibility for, if not quite rivers of blood, bloodied market places, mosques, squares, homes, humans, hospitals, beyond counting - just keeps coming back and back.

By Bob Nichols – Veterans Today

(San Francisco) Many people are asking if Iran can build a nuclear weapon. The answer is No, they cannot. Iran does not have the tools or material to do so. Some 40 countries would probably like to build a reactor, though, according to the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency. A reactor is the first step to a nuclear weapon.

But, the President of the US, politicians in Israel and other important people say Iran “might” be able to build a weapon in a few years. So what? I might like to jump over the moon too; but, it ain’t gonna happen.

More than one group was involved in smuggling heroin out of Lebanon and into the USA using PanAm flights.

Reportedly, these groups included:

A. The group working for Syrian Monzer al Kassar, a CIA asset with reported links to Oliver North and Mohammed Atta. (Monzer al-Kassar - Wikipedia / Madcow Morning News.)

B. Members of the PFLP-GC (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command) which had links to Monzer al Kassar, the CIA asset.

The PFLP-GC bomb-maker Marwan Khreesat was a Jordanian intelligence service (GID) agent with links to the CIA. (Pan Am Flight 103.)

C. The CIA unit known as Corea, which worked with Monzer al Kassar. (Franklin, Dutroux, Mossad, McKee)

The number of people in Britain seized under the controversial "no-evidence-needed" European Arrest Warrant rose by more than 50 per cent last year, figures obtained by The Sunday Telegraph show.

Andrew Gilligan -- The Telegraph

In total 1,032 people – almost three a day – were detained and extradited by British police on the orders of European prosecutors in the 12 months to April, up from 683 in 2008-09. The Home Office expects a further 70 per cent rise, to 1,700 cases, next year.

“Antiwar.com” — Jeffrey Goldberg’s current cover story in The Atlantic, “The Point of No Return,” achieved massive distribution across a broad spectrum of old and new media in the United States. Some observers – including Glenn Greenwald in “How Propagandists Function” – noted how well the methodology and message of Goldberg’s piece serves the Israeli government’s efforts to push U.S. military action against Iran. Gareth Porter views it as part of an overarching strategy to keep the U.S. from restoring productive relations with Iran. A huge trove of newly declassified documents subpoenaed during a Senate investigation reveals how Israel’s lobby pitched, promoted, and paid to have content placed in America’s top news magazines with overseas funding.

By James Petras

Two elections in Latin America this fall will have decisive importance in the direction of economic and foreign policy for the coming decade.

Venezuelan legislative elections on September 26 will determine whether President Chavez can secure the two-thirds majority needed to proceed with his democratic socialist agenda without the procedural obstructionism of an increasingly hardline Right.

Brazil the most powerful and dynamic industrial and agro-export economy in the region, faces Presidential elections on October 3rd.

In both countries, the electorate is highly polarized, though in Brazil not along a socialist-capitalist axis.

Read the Full Story Here:

http://mycatbirdseat.com/2010/08/brazil-and-venezuela-two-turning-poin...

WHISTLEBLOWER OR “KAPO QUEEN,” AMERICAN CENSORSHIP IN HIGH GEAR

“I am in favor of the Zionist state. I would gladly kill Arabs, even slaughter them. I can’t allow Arab lovers to ruin the perfect life I lead.”….Eden Abergil

By Debbie Menon

President Barack Obama on Friday backed the construction of a proposed mosque and Muslim cultural center, then retracted. No surprise there, to retract or weasel out, has become the norm for any American in a position of influence, including the President, the General or anyone speaking against Zionist interests in America.
“As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country,” Obama said to applause at an event attended by diplomats from Islamic countries and members of the U.S. Muslim community. “That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances,” he said.

A rather bizarre looking series of slide shows on the UK mainstream media website Telegraph.co.uk under the name "Blackjack" appears to depict a mini-nuke attack on London, England followed by similar attacks on NYC , Washington DC, Toronto, LA, Portland Oregon, and Mexico City. It starts of with MI5 getting a warning that "a coalition of home-grown extremists, Islamists, and Christian doomsday cultists may have acquired the means to carry out a mass-casualty attack..."

There is very little text to explain what is going on, just the depictions of the cities undergoing what appears to be mini-nuke attacks and then the pics also appears to depict the formation of a new state comprising England and North America after these attacks.

Rather bizarre looking for a mainstream media type web site. Looks like someone is pulling a psy-op.

On Edit, ok it looks like this is old news from 2009 and has been discussed in prisonplanet.com articles, but this was the first time I saw it and it just struck my as very psy-op like.

You can see it at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/4220575/Bla...

Russia Today interviews Grant F. Smith, Director of Institute for Research on Middle Eastern Policy Files declassified in America have revealed covert public relations and lobbying activities of Israel in the U.S. The National Archive made the documents public following a Senate investigation. They suggest Israel has been trying to shape media coverage of issues...

FOR MORE CONTINUE HERE:

http://mycatbirdseat.com/2010/08/declassified-massive-israeli-manipula...

The Government's most senior law officer signalled today he was prepared to intervene over the controversy surrounding the death of David Kelly in order to 'give the public reassurance'.

Dominic Grieve said those concerned that Lord Hutton's inquiry into the death of the government weapons inspector left unanswered questions 'may have a valid point'.

If the United States backs an attack on Iran, a large percentage of Americans will have nothing to do with it.
Protests and riots will begin and never stop. The US military will splinter and fall into factions. The US economy will collapse, more Americans will be sent to die in a needless war.

Palestinians have been put through that sort of mangle for decades. Death and misery still stalk their daily lives thanks to piss-poor Palestinian leadership and the international community’s moral bankruptcy.

NY Times “German 9/11 mosque” article plagued by false statements, Islamophobia

Not everybody “got” the ambivalent humor of my Build a Mega-Mosque on Ground Zero proposal. So I’m returning to straightfaced seriousness — all outrage and no wit. Below is today’s letter to the New York Times ombudsman.
-KB

CONTINUE READING HERE:

http://mycatbirdseat.com/2010/08/the-kevin-barrett-show-2/

(San Francisco) – Russia is burning down this summer. The smoke is engulfing Moscow and the European Union. Embassies are emptying.

What’s the deal?

Thousands of forest fires are burning all over Russia. More importantly, the nuclear weapons factories and reactors around Mayak and the former Soviet Union’s Uranium Project are going up in smoke. The smoke is toxic and radioactive in every possible sense of the words.

By Stuart Littlewood

Littlewood calls on Hamas – indeed, on all Palestinians – to hone their long-neglected public relations strategy, arguing that “whoever rules in Palestine will never win any battles with Israel or the US without a proper media set-up and an effective communications strategy”.

In the five years since I became interested in the Palestinians, only two things of positive note have happened in the occupied territories.

The Palestinians held full and fair elections in 2006 to establish themselves as a democracy – and much good it did them.

Kenneth O’Keefe, who witnessed the Israeli assault on the Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship, the Mavi Marmara, highlights the prejudices, distortions and lies of the BBC, whose Panorama programme on 15 August propagated the Israeli line regarding the assault on the aid ship and murder of nine peace activists, hook, line and sinker.

Christopher King argues that Tony Blair’s decision to pay blood money to a UK servicemen’s charity should not detract from the need to release the postmortem report on the death of Iraq war whistleblower and UN weapons inspector David Kelly, who allegedly committed suicide but is suspected of having been murdered by US, Israeli or UK agents.

By Franklin Lamb

Part XI of a series on securing civil rights for Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon “Palestinian guests in Lebanon are working with total freedom. First of all we do not refer to them as “refugees”. They are our brothers who are suffering and in a very difficult situation that they did not cause [...]

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE:

http://mycatbirdseat.com/2010/08/lebanon-scatters-a-little-chicken-fee...

One document in particular, Plan Dalet, demonstrated the army’s intention to expel the Palestinians from their homeland. Its existence explains the ethnic cleansing of more than 80 per cent of Palestinians in the war, followed by a military campaign to destroy hundreds of villages to ensure the refugees never returned.

By Tim King of Salem-News.Com
If Iran is attacked, a large percentage of Americans will have nothing to do with it.

Artwork by the amazing Carlos Latuff & Jame-Jam. Carlos is a friend of Salem-News.com located in Rio de Janeiro. To see more of his work, visit: Latuff Gallery

(SALEM, Ore.) – Want to see the end of the world as we know it? If you do, you are in luck, because your chance to see the future of your kids and grandkids go up in smoke is nearing, and if the republicans and Israelis’ have anything to say about it, the grand final act will be here before you know it.

Kourosh Ziabari (Salem-News.Com)

The three countries stressed the importance of Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and underlined the inalienable right of the NPT member states to use the nuclear power for peaceful purposes.

(TEHRAN) - The Trilateral Summit of the presidents of three Persian-speaking countries of Iran, Tajikistan and Afghanistan wrapped up on 5 August in Tehran and recorded another unforgettable event in the memory of the three brother nations.

By Ken O’Keefe
If you Haven’t Seen It, Check out the BBC Panorama’s “Death in the Med” program (watch video below) and You’ll be Treated to First Class Propaganda as Only the BBC Can Deliver

I am one of the passengers/witnesses interviewed for this program and I am very much aware of BBC’s role in justifying war and covering up Israeli crimes. I am in no way naive about this; to the contrary my motivation for the interview lay largely in the all too likely opportunity to expose the BBC.

Gilad Atzmon considers the attempts by British Zionists stop an exhibition of paintings by children from Gaza from being shown in UK schools in order to minimize the impact of Israeli war crimes on the British public.

“… what the Jewish community leaders who rush to assist the Jewish state are doing is giving a clear message of Jewish collective support of Israel and its crimes.”

Gilad Atzmon considers the background and significance of a newly-formed alliance between British Zionists and the far-right English Defence League, which has set up a “Jewish Division” led by a Jewish-Brazilian émigré called Roberta Moore.

Experts say that over-generous subsidies mean hundreds of turbines are going up on sites that are simply not breezy enough.

Britain’s most feeble wind farm is in Blyth Harbour in Northumberland, where the nine turbines lining the East Pier reach a meagre 4.9 per cent of their capacity.

Another at Chelker reservoir in North Yorkshire operates at only 5.3 per cent of its potential, the analysis of 2009 figures provided by energy regulator Ofgem found.

Taxes to pay for contentious climate change policies are set to treble over the next decade, soaring to more than £16billion a year.

The hike is the equivalent of 4p on the current rate of income tax, a report from think tank Policy Exchange claimed.

By 2020 the tax take from green levies will be roughly equivalent to total public spending in England on both the police and fire services, the figures show.

Householders will pay £4.3billion in taxes on their energy bills by 2015 – more than double the £2billion they will pay this year. This will soar to £6.4billion by 2020, or around £280 for every household.

Personal drug use should be legalised to cut crime and improve health, a top doctor has said.

Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, the outgoing president of the Royal College of Physicians, suggested that relaxing the law on possessing substances such as heroin, cocaine and cannabis would not increase the number of addicts.

This could save vast amounts of taxpayers' money, he suggests.

By Samira Quraishy

As Russia prepares to deliver fuel for Iran’s nuclear reactors, it is worth casting a reviewer’s eye over the potential for further conflict in the Middle East. In one corner we have the Zionist state of Israel and its somewhat reluctant – although faithful-ally, the United States. In the other corner we have Iran, Lebanon and Syria and their various proxies.

An animated interview of John Perkins, author of ‘HoodWinked’ and ‘Confessions Of An Economic Hitman’

John Perkins has seen the signs of today’s economic meltdown before.
The subprime mortgage fiascos, the banking industry collapse, the rising tide of unemployment, the shuttering of small businesses across the landscape are all too familiar symptoms of a far greater disease.

WATCH THE 2 MINUTE INTERVIEW AND READ MORE HERE:

http://mycatbirdseat.com/2010/08/economic-hitmen-by-john-perkins/

STEALING AMERICA’S FREEDOMS LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT…

It’s 2010 and a few members of congress have noted that we have a corruption problem in Afghanistan. Over a period of 9 years. $2.4 trillion dollars has been stolen with a dozen enquiries, dozens of reports, audits, all saying the same thing. The “war on terror” was more “pickpocketing” and not so much “Osama bin Waldo.” It’s 2010 and reports are trickling in that, just maybe, terrorist mastermind Osama has been dead for years and years. More reports tell us, finally, that he never ran a terror organization at all. For years, all those threats from a dead man. What a pack of fools we are.

By Maidhc Ó Cathail
Who’s keeping the terror myth alive?

In the trigger-happy post-9/11 world, the favoured way to instigate a war is to demand that the designated “evildoer” prove a negative.

Iraq was invaded because it couldn’t prove that it didn’t have WMDs. Iran is under constant threat of attack unless it can demonstrate that it’s not seeking nuclear weapons. And now Pakistan is being chastised for allegedly harbouring Osama bin Laden—who in all probability has been dead and buried for eight years.

By Hillel Koren

No reason for the sale was mentioned in the report to the SEC.

In another blow to Israeli shares, the Harvard Management Company notified the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday that it had sold all its holdings in Israeli companies during the second quarter of 2010. No reason for the sale was mentioned. The Harvard Management Company manages Harvard University’s endowment.

by Glenn Greenwald (source: Salon Magazine)

Jeffrey Goldberg, in the new cover story in The Atlantic, on an Israeli attack on Iran:

Israel has twice before successfully attacked and destroyed an enemy’s nuclear program. In 1981, Israeli warplanes bombed the Iraqi reactor at Osirak, halting — forever, as it turned out — Saddam Hussein’s nuclear ambitions; and in 2007, Israeli planes destroyed a North Korean-built reactor in Syria. An attack on Iran, then, would be unprecedented only in scope and complexity.

Good news! Israel can successfully end a country’s nuclear program by bombing them, as proven by its 1981 attack on Iraq, which, says Goldberg, halted “forever, as it turned out — Saddam Hussein’s nuclear ambitions.”

All golfers strive for a birdie and the occasional eagle - some even dream of hitting an albatross or the mythical condor.

But one lucky golfer can now spend long hours in the clubhouse regaling his mates with the time he once hit a 'kestrel'.

The only trouble is that it is not a rare golfing score - he actually struck a hovering kestrel with his ball, knocking it out of the sky and leaving it with a king-sized headache.

Dr. Fredrick Toben
The materialism that still physically sustains the western democracies is exhausting itself. This is so evident by the number of countries where US troops are stationed. This physical overreach has a negative impact on the US itself, one being that its physical infrastructure is falling apart.

An elderly widow has been threatened with a £2,500 fine by council officials for dropping cigarette ash on the pavement.

Sheila Martin, 70, was smoking at a bus stop when a warden pounced and handed her the £75 fixed penalty for littering.

The cash-strapped gran refused to pay and has now been warned it could rise to £2,500.

Talks with N. Ireland dissidents no betrayal: police chief
AFP
Sun Aug 15, 6:12 pm ET
BELFAST (AFP) – Northern Ireland's police chief said on Sunday that opening talks with armed groups would not amount to a betrayal, despite recent bomb attacks that have targeted members of the police and army.
Chief Constable Matt Baggott said dissident republicans, who are seeking to derail the province's peace process and have been blamed for the attacks, had to be confronted to bring an end to the violence.

In the United States, even Jewish organizations with a track record of anti-racism, such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), are signaling support for right-wing opponents of an Islamic community centre in New York City, criticism of which borders on racist Islamophobia.

by Felicity Arbuthnot
For your years as an enthusiastic partner in the silent slaughter of Iraq's children under the embargo, a dedication to the seventeen infants in the neo-natal unit of Basra's formerly fine maternity hospital, all who died on the very threshold of life due to your representative at the UN, with his US counterpart, vetoing importation of oxygen. You were jointly responsible for denying even the air that we breathe to Iraq's newborn.

It’s an honor to be attacked by the left and the right

Attacked by left, smeared by the right – I must be doing something right. That, at least, is what I’m led to believe by the two most recent polemics directed at your humble servant. The first, from the pages of the Daily Caller – the right-wing answer to the Huffington Post – is really a study in the damage that public school has done to our youth: the incoherence is palpable. Entitled “Sun Tzu versus Justin Raimondo,” the piece, by one Kerry Patton, takes on my most recent appearance on Judge Andrew Napolitano’s “Freedom Watch” program, albeit through a tangled thicket of tortured prose, to wit:

“While many conservatives and libertarians argue similar points of interest, they oftentimes are arguing the same message.”

ISRAEL’S PRE-ELECTION ATTEMPT TO DEFLECT A NEW 9/11 INVESTIGATION

There never were plans for a mosque at “ground zero.” The entire story is made up by a public relations agency working with the Israeli government and the GOP. There are plans for an Islamic center in an old Burlington Coat Factory store blocks away. That far down the island of Manhattan, a couple blocks away is “across town.” The idea that Israel is financing the “Ground Zero Mosque” controversy when Mossad agents were arrested, dancing in the streets on 9/11, is an obscenity.

By James Petras

The capitalist state, with Democratic President Obama in the lead, has transferred billions to big capital via direct bailouts, virtual interest free loans, tax cuts and by pressuring labor to accept lower wages and health and pension givebacks. The White House plan for ‘recovery’ has worked beyond expectations – corporate profits have recovered; “only” the vast majority of workers have fallen deeper into crises.

CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE:

http://mycatbirdseat.com/2010/08/crisis-what-crisis-profits-soar/

AS I OFTEN SAY, “IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE NEWS, MAKE UP YOUR OWN….EVERYONE ELSE DOES”

When Nelson Mandela stood to greet the thousands of people gathered to watch the world cup final in South Africa, everyone stood to show respect to the man whose moral authority and stardom is unrivalled and uncontested. One wonders how Mandela came to represent moral and human integrity in our age and how he was treated by a racist government before he defeated it. What were the accusations levelled at him during the different stages of his struggle?

Racists accused Mandela of ‘terrorism’, and was asked to abandon ‘violence’, but he continued his fight against apartheid having become convinced, after the massacre in the poor black township of Sharpeville (March 21, 1960), that the white minority and their western allies will not peacefully give up authority and its privileges.

By Ray McGovern,

“Information Clearing House” – I guess I was naïve in thinking that The Atlantic and its American-Israeli writer Jeffrey Goldberg might shy away from arguing for yet another war — this one with Iran — while the cauldrons are still boiling in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It’s worth remembering how Goldberg helped to make the case for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. For instance, on Oct. 3, 2002, as America’s war fever was building, Goldberg wrote in Slate, the online magazine:

“The [Bush] administration is planning … to launch what many people would undoubtedly call a short-sighted and inexcusable act of aggression. In five years, however, I believe that the coming invasion of Iraq will be remembered as an act of profound morality.”

A group of prominent legal and medical experts today called for a full inquest into the death of the government scientist David Kelly in 2003.

An inquest was suspended by Lord Falconer, then lord chancellor, before the Hutton inquiry into the circumstances of the scientist's death. It was not resumed after Hutton's report in 2004 concluded that Kelly killed himself by cutting an artery in his wrist.

Nine experts including Michael Powers, a QC and former coroner, and Julian Blon, a professor of intensive care medicine, said in a letter to the Times that the official cause of death – haemorrhage from the severed artery – was "extremely unlikely".

Why should retail outlets casually expect us to divulge personal information; even more amazingly, why do we go along with it? We have fought for personal freedom and the rule of law in two world wars, we have fiercely resisted the onset of ID cards, we see our homes as our castles and we fanatically shred every last supermarket receipt.

And yet in the shops we’re expected to hand over our emails, addresses and phone numbers like sheep.

Of the mainstream documentaries that have appeared in the five years since 7/7, all have stuck steadfastly to the official narrative of events, never daring to peer behind the superficial story that has been spun to explain away 56 deaths on the London transport network. No mainstream documentary has ever ventured into the territory that was once known as investigative journalism to look beyond the official narrative, nor have they ever endeavoured in earnest to elicit more information from the government and police than that which is already available.

With regard to the independently made documentaries available on the Internet, there was for a long time only one documentary that J7 would recommend anyone view, namely Ludicrous Diversion. Four years since the release of Ludicrous Diversion and another 7/7 documentary has appeared that receives the J7 seal of approval, 7/7: Seeds of Deconstruction.

(View embedded videos at link)

In the name of profanity they go to fight the pious puritans of Persia and the warrior monks of Lebanon. The Masters could overlook Iranian nuclear reactors, it is their belief in God they can’t tolerate.

1. Crying Wolf

Lying critically injured in a hospital bed, a brave soldier's sacrifice in Afghanistan is clear to see.

Kingsman Anthony Cooper was flown back to Britain close to death after a roadside bomb exploded while he was on patrol.

The 22-year-old lost both legs below the knee, his right eye, fingers on his left hand and fingertips on the right, as well as a severe brain injury.

By Jeff Gates

Treason in Plain Sight

The same two Senators who insisted that the U.S. invade Iraq on false intelligence are now marketing Pakistan as the next in a series of “plausible” Evil Doers.

Their complicity runs deep. The consistency of their conduct confirms that what we see again unfolding is treason—ongoing in plain sight and, to date, with legal impunity.

With transparency, that impunity will end. With exposure, accountability will follow. The Founders made treason a capital crime for good reason.

Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman, an outspoken Jewish Zionist, have long been political partners and fellow travelers. Along with Senator Jon Kyl, a Christian Zionist from Arizona, they co-sponsored the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998.

The Methodist Church has consistently expressed its concern over the illegal Occupation of Palestinian lands by the State of Israel. That Occupation continues not only compounds the state’s illegal and immoral action but also makes any accommodation with the Palestinian people and future peace in the region much less possible.”

Wake Up America!

Some might recall the enemies list that President Richard Nixon kept in his desk. The list was appended to a memo that asked “how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies?” Named were a number of journalists who had criticized Nixon’s administration as well as celebrities like actors Gregory Peck and Paul Newman and athletes like Joe Namath. Nixon was clearly on to something because in today’s America we have a new enemies list, one that is updated annually to make sure that nary a single malefactor is overlooked. It is the US State Department’s Country Reports on Terrorism, which was unveiled last week in its 2009 version at a briefing conducted by Ambassador Daniel Benjamin , Foggy Bottom’s Coordinator for Counterterrorism.

Steve Amsel – Desertpeace
Palestinian-American professor threatened by Israeli authorities

My Associate, Mazin Qumsiyeh, had his day in court today….. again….
Just days before his appearance he called the ongoing harassment of himself and other activists a blatant attempt by Israeli authorities to stifle dissent, and to silence those who would dare to speak out publicly against Israeli policies in the West Bank.

A few weeks ago the Methodist Church’s annual conference did a very courageous and praiseworthy thing. It voted to boycott products from Israeli settlements in Occupied Palestine, regarded as illegal under international law, and to encourage Methodists across Britain to do the same.

“The decision is a response to a call from a group of Palestinian Christians, a growing number of Jewish organizations, both inside Israel and worldwide, and the World Council of Churches,” said the press release.

“The commission has already ruled that confessions made by Khadr which were clearly obtained through coercion, abuse and torture will be admitted as evidence against him. Prior to the commencement of Khadr’s ”trial,” the commission ruled in another case that the sentence imposed on a Sudanese detainee Ibrahim al-Qosi — convicted as part of a plea bargain of the dastardly crime of being Osama bin Laden’s ”cook” — will be kept secret until he is released. What kind of country has secret sentences?”

CONTINUE READING:

http://mycatbirdseat.com/2010/08/the-omar-khadr-travesty-by-glenn-gree...

Taxpayers are facing a six-figure security bill to protect Tony Blair from angry protesters when he launches his autobiography next month.

The former prime minister has announced that he will sign copies of the book, for which he is being paid a £ 4.6million advance, at a public event at Waterstone’s flagship store in central London.

His decision comes despite warnings that the move will cause a massive security headache for police. Thousands of protesters are expected to stage an angry demonstration outside the store.

Stuart Littlewood looks at how Israel’s mouthpieces in the UK, from Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council to a band of dangerously naive simpletons called Methodist Friends of Israel, have grouped together to denounce the Methodist Church’s decision to boycott products from Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine.

European disdain for the United States is centuries old, of course. But over the course of decades of traveling in the U.K. and on the continent, I have never gotten the sense that I got on a recently completed three-week trip to Italy, Greece, Turkey, and the Black Sea. America is no longer admired, imitated, or feared. We remain—for now—a safe haven for dollars (of which there are too many in the world). But we increasingly are seen less as a model or as an empire than as a cautionary tale of national neglect and decline.

British scientists have found a superbug that is resistant to most antibiotics and are warning that it is widespread in India and could soon appear worldwide.

The superbug has so far been identified in 37 people who returned to the U.K. after undergoing surgery in India or Pakistan.

===

The next great pandemic?!?!?!?!?

By Kaveh L Afrasiabi – (CASMII | Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention)

The United States and Iran have reached a critical juncture, facing the alternative of further tension and escalating conflict spiraling toward military confrontation, or dialogue, diplomatic engagement and reciprocal compromise.

In light of the recent slew of sanctions after sanctions imposed by the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, Canada, Australia and others, it seems that chariots are blazing down the fork in the road toward more conflict. However, there is a glimmer of hope for a diplomatic solution in the form of a “double swap”.

CONTINUE:

http://mycatbirdseat.com/2010/08/us-iran-double-swap-points-to-peace/

By Rami G. Khouri

So, this week in Beirut, when I read reports that US President Barack Obama had briefed journalists on Wednesday about US-Iranian issues, especially the possibility of resuming nuclear negotiations, I juxtaposed that against the realities and sentiments I encountered in Iran a few weeks ago. The balance sheet was mixed.

Anthony Lawson

How long can we allow the maniacs who are driving us to the brink of World War Three to stay in power? We’d better do something soon, or we will all be done for.

My special thanks to Gilad Atzmon, whose reading of the “Israeli Peace Manifesto” helps to point up the gulf between what they say and what they do.

CONTINUE:

http://mycatbirdseat.com/2010/08/double-vendetta-%e2%80%94-the-insanit...

A police advert encouraging the public to report suspected terrorists has been banned for potentially causing "serious offence" to law-abiding citizens, a watchdog has said.

The radio advert for the Anti-Terrorist Hotline listed "suspicious" behaviour worth reporting to the police as: "The man at the end of the street doesn't talk to his neighbours much, because he likes to keep himself to himself. He pays with cash because he doesn't have a bank card, and he keeps his curtains closed because his house is on a bus route."

It continued: "This may mean nothing, but together it could all add up to you having suspicions. We all have a role to play in combating terrorism. If you see anything suspicious call the confidential Anti-Terrorist Hotline. If you suspect it, report it."

Thousands of British businesses will be liable for significant fines and charges under a new government “green tax” scheme.

Companies that fail to register their energy use by next month will be hit with fines that could reach £45,000 under the little-known rules.

Those that do participate in the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) initiative by declaring their energy use will face charges for every ton of greenhouse gas they produce.

These payments are expected to average £38,000 a year for medium-sized firms, and could reach £100,000 for larger organisations.

By Dr. Franklin Lamb

Part X of a series on securing Civil Rights for Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon

The State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (NIR) is part of the U.S. Intelligence Community’s panoply of 16 agencies, which comprise the US Intelligence Community (IC). According to Congressional sources consulted below, NIR and Israel have been working longer hours than most members of Lebanon’s Parliament, carefully analyzing the language of the main draft proposals concerning elementary civil rights for Palestinian Refugees. The proposals are currently scheduled for an August 17, 2010 Parliamentary vote and the US-Israel plan is to allow nothing to be enacted into law that would actually benefit Lebanon’s Palestinian refugees.

By Antoine Raffoul

Until recently, we had never heard of the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP). After some research on the subject of the One-State vs the Two-State solution, we discovered a long Study published by the ATFP in 2009 entitled “What’s Wrong With The One-State Agenda“. It made for interesting reading and shed some light on the people behind the ATFP which claim “to promote an end to the conflict in the Middle East through a negotiated agreement that provides for two states – Israel and Palestine – living side by side in peace and security”.

By Dr. Alan Sabrosky* for My Catbird Seat

As the US edges toward an unprovoked and utterly needless war with Iran, some remarks by an eminent and experienced observer of that part of the world caught my attention. First, he noted that Israel and the US realize that the next war will burn much of the Middle East and may well spell the end of Israel.

Second, he remarked that Every week Israel becomes weaker vis a vis the “resistance axis” and at what point does Israel decide to bring down the house and start again if it can survive with enough military power (backed by the US) to remake the region.

Continue reading:

http://mycatbirdseat.com/2010/08/israel%e2%80%99s-pillars-of-samson-no...

It is not “conspiracy theory” to suggest that leaders of nations betray their people into wars. It is undeniable fact. Falk, in this poem reminds us of the betrayal of the century.

All poetry is an investigation or an inquiry, and the best evokes or reminds. It prods the soul, and the awareness of humanity and God which resides therein. The harder the probe, the better, more effective the poetry.

IRAQ WAR BEGINS by RICHARD FALK [Poetry Video]

PHONY TERRORIST LEADER BEING “BRANDED” BY ASSOCIATED PRESS, THE “VOICE OF ISRAEL”

Adnan Shukrijumah, 35 formerly of Brooklyn, New York and Miami Beach is more likely to carry the real name Levine or Goldstein. The “legend,” intelligence jargon for a false background constructed for an imaginary person, created for Shukrijumah is paper thin. An FBI Agent named Brian LeBlanc in an “exclusive interview” with the Associated Press warned the world of this new “bin Laden” clone.

Jeffrey Rudolph – Informed Comment

Can You Pass the Terrorism Quiz?

Misconceptions about terrorism, regularly promoted by the mainstream media, have facilitated harmful US government actions—two wars, domestic legislation that curtailed civil liberties, excessive national security spending. That basic, factual information about terrorism is so rarely reported thus serves to reinforce the power of those who benefit from a fearful population.

strong>“Unfortunately, even if you believe that Israel is a necessary retreat for threatened Jewry, the use of the Holocaust as a justification for Israel and its policies is a grave strategic mistake. For by underpinning its continued existence on preventing a second Holocaust, the defenders of Israel invite some of their adversaries to call into doubt the first Holocaust”

Tikun Olam- Richardsilverstein.com

In the realm of the impossible is the following statement from Abe Foxman upon learning that Fareed Zacharia, noted Newsweek columnist and Muslim-American, would be returning an ADL award and honorarium in protest of the ADL’s position opposing the Cordoba House Muslim Cultural Center near Ground Zero:

“I am not only saddened but stunned and somewhat speechless by your decision to return the ADL Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize, you accepted in 2005,” ADL National Director Abraham Foxman said in a letter to Zakaria. “As someone I greatly respect for engaging in discussion and dialogue with an open mind I would have expected you to reach out to me before coming to judgment.”

By Bishop Donald R.Corder
Guan Jianzhong, chairman of Dagong Global Credit Rating, the head of China's biggest credit rating agency as saying, “America is insolvent and that U.S. credit ratings are a joke. The US is declared to be insolvent and faces bankruptcy as a pure debtor nation and - in the real world - America should have been downgraded to junk.”

Neocons are supporting an Israeli attack on Iran in the hope that the U.S. would be drawn into the ensuing conflict. “If the Israelis bomb now, American public opinion will probably be with them,” writes neocon Reuel Marc Gerecht.

“Perhaps decisively so.” Reuel Marc Gerecht’s screed justifying an Israeli bombing attack on Iran coincides with the opening of the new Israel lobby campaign marked by the introduction of House resolution 1553 expressing full support for such an Israeli attack.

What is important to understand about this campaign is that the aim of Gerecht and of the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu is to support an attack by Israel so that the United States can be drawn into direct, full-scale war with Iran.

PHONY TERRORIST LEADER BEING “BRANDED” BY ASSOCIATED PRESS, THE “VOICE OF ISRAEL”

Adnan Shukrijumah, 35 formerly of Brooklyn, New York and Miami Beach is more likely to carry the real name Levine or Goldstein. The “legend,” intelligence jargon for a false background constructed for an imaginary person, created for Shukrijumah is paper thin. An FBI Agent named Brian LeBlanc in an “exclusive interview” with the Associated Press warned the world of this new “bin Laden” clone.

By Martin Chulov
"For 30 years Saddam built Iraq, and now it is destroyed. There are more sick than before, more hungry. The people don't have services. People are being killed every day in the 10s, if not hundreds. We are all victims of America and Britain. They killed our country."

By Stuart Littlewood

Millions would love to see the present crop of war criminals dangling from lamp-posts.

But somebody called “Ellie” writing on Medialens has put a damper on this happy prospect. She explained the difficulties in bringing the scum to book. One of the things the British government wants to do, she said, is “stop the possibility of private prosecutions for (international) crimes committed by foreign nationals, so that friendly war criminals can continue to sup tea in Buckingham Palace”.

Unfortunately crimes that can supposedly be tackled under universal jurisdiction are limited and don’t include waging a war of aggression (although they do include war crimes in general), “so we can’t get anywhere with this charge (e.g. against Bush) in a domestic court”.

Tony Blair must be prosecuted, not indulged like his mentor Peter Mandelson. Both have produced self-serving memoirs for which they have been paid fortunes.

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger writes about the “paramount war crime” defined by the Nuremberg judges in 1946 and its relevance to the case of Tony Blair, whose shared responsibility for the Iraq invasion resulted in the deaths of more than a million people. New developments in international and domestic political attitudes towards war crimes mean that Blair is now ‘Britain’s Kissinger’.

New Yorkers Turn Out to Support U.S. Boat Sailing to Break Gaza Blockade.

More than 400 New Yorkers crowded into the Marco Polo Marina on 23 rd Street at the FDR Drive last night for a sunset cruise around Manhattan to support the U.S. Boat to Gaza.

Michael Leon at Veterans Today and Greta Berlin at witnessgaza.com

Will there be another Massacre in the Mediterranean; does Israel dare?
They said it couldn’t be done, that Americans couldn’t raise money fast enough to buy a boat to join Freedom Flotilla 2 in the fall. But never underestimate American determination in the face of Israeli intransigence and brutality. The launch of the US Boat to Gaza began last night in New York, and Free Gaza was there to participate.

Listen to Col. Ann Wright’s eloquent speech at witnessgaza.com.

And this is just a beginning, as witnessgaza.com gets ready to go live for events across the US and across Europe.

The US government is to start charging UK travellers $14 (£9) to apply for permission to enter the country.

The compulsory Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (Esta) is free at present, but from 9 September visitors to the US will have to pay for it.

...

The fee has been introduced to fund a programme which aims to promote tourism in the US and attract foreign spending.

...

"It is rather strange that this fee is mainly going to promote US tourism. You would've thought keeping it cheaper to get in would help more - after all, it's free for most Americans to come here."

Stuart Littlewood considers the impunity with which state-sponsored murderers and war criminals operate and argues that if universal jurisdiction is not made to work, then upright, socially responsible citizens may have to dispense justice themselves. “Assassination may not remain the private playground of shadowy CIA and Mossad operatives for much longer.”

Jonathan Cook reports from the Negev village of al-Araqib, which has been ethnically cleansed by the Israeli authorities twice in a few days as part of a plan financed by the Jewish National Fund, whose patrons include British Prime Minister David Cameron, former British prime ministers Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, and UK Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

Tony Blair must be prosecuted, not indulged like his mentor Peter Mandelson. Both have produced self-serving memoirs for which they have been paid fortunes. Blair’s will appear next month and earn him £4.6 million. Now consider Britain’s Proceeds of Crime Act. Blair conspired in and executed an unprovoked war of aggression against a defenseless country, which the Nuremberg judges in 1946 described as the "paramount war crime." This has caused, according to scholarly studies, the deaths of more than a million people, a figure that exceeds the Fordham University estimate of deaths in the Rwandan genocide.

By Justin Raimondo – Antiwar.com

I often make reference to “the War Party” in this space: it’s a convenient shorthand, one that evokes an image of something sinister, even Satanic, and this serves my rhetorical purposes well. But if we unpack the concept, and look for examples in real life, what we find is a little more prosaic than Satan with a sword.

Speaking of real life, I’ve been on Judge Andrew Napolitano’s Freedom Watch show twice, of late (the second show has yet to be aired), and in both cases I was matched up with someone we might reasonably describe as a charter member of the War Party.

By Vincent Bugliosi – Veterans Today

The Legal Framework for the Prosecution

“That the king can do no wrong is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution.”
—Sir William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1765

“No living Homo sapiens is above the law.”
—(Notwithstanding our good friends and legal ancestors across the water, this is a fact that requires no citation.)

By GWYNNE DYER | Arab News

When Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the highest-ranking American officer, was asked recently on NBC’s Meet The Press show whether the United States has a military plan for an attack on Iran, he replied simply: “We do.”

General staffs are supposed to plan for even the most unlikely future contingencies. Right down to the 1930s, for example, the United States maintained and annually updated plans for the invasion of Canada — and the Canadian military made plans to pre-empt the invasion. But what the planning process will have revealed, in this case, is that there is no way for the United States to win a nonnuclear war with Iran.