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.

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

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.

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

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 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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.”

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

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.

“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...

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.

Plenty of businesses and governments furloughed workers this year, but Hawaii went further — it furloughed its schoolchildren. Public schools across the state closed on 17 Fridays during the past school year to save money, giving students the shortest academic year in the nation and sending working parents scrambling to find care for them.

Faced with the steepest and longest decline in tax collections on record, state, county and city governments have resorted to major life-changing cuts in core services like education, transportation and public safety that, not too long ago, would have been unthinkable. And services in many areas could get worse before they get better.

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.

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.

Posted By Philip Giraldi On August 4, 2010 @ 11:00 pm In Uncategorized |

Dear Friends,

We have disturbing and urgent news. Our new executive director, Philip Giraldi, and other former U.S. intelligence officers have just published an extremely important analysis warning that Israel may plan to attack Israel as early as this month (full-length article below).

They detail the evidence for this possibility and warn that such an action would quite likely drag the United States into yet another tragic, needless, and disastrous quagmire. It would be a war that Israel would begin and the United States would have to finish.

Fortunately, they also describe actions that President Obama could take to prevent this.

1. We urge you to circulate this information widely.

Veterans Today
ISRAEL TO USE IRANIAN AND PAKISTANI DUPES IN DIRTY NUKE PLOY

By Stephen M. Walt – Foreign Policy

Via Ben Smith at Politico, we learn that the usual suspects have started yet another organization whose objective is to promote a hard-right, Likudnik agenda in the Middle East. The new group apparently intends to go after anyone who thinks U.S. Middle East policy has been less than totally successful in recent years, and who is willing to think for themselves (and U.S. interests), instead of reflexively echoing the positions favored by AIPAC and other groups in the “status quo” lobby.

- Snopes.com toes the militarists’ line -

Snopes.com, officially known as the Urban Legends Reference Pages, has since its humble inception in 1995 come to be regarded as one of the most trusted debunkers of conspiracy theories on the internet. Described by one of its many fans – it apparently has over 6 million visitors per month – as “the grand-daddy of all fact-checking sites,” Snopes is downright cavalier, however, in its attitude to facts surrounding Israel’s role in the 9/11 attacks.

Special for My Catbird Seat

“The Gaza invasion marked the climax of Israel’s descent into barbarism”

Quite simply, this is a cracker of a book and very timely.

In explaining how Israel’s war on Gaza in 2008/9 was not the defensive action it is always painted, Norman Finkelstein recalls the 1947 UN partition of historic Palestine and remembers how, in 1957, US President Eisenhower forced Israel to withdraw from Gaza by threatening sanctions and in the 1967 war Israel re-occupied it.

The book then takes us through the warm-up for the 2008/9 war and the subsequent whitewash.

Continue Reading

By Haitham Sabbah

Olympia, WA– The Olympia Food Co-op Board of Directors has decided to boycott Israeli goods at their two locations in Olympia, Washington. At a July 15th meeting packed with Co-op members, the Board reached this consensus. The Co-op becomes the first US grocery store to publicly join the international grassroots movement for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) on Israel for its human rights abuses.

Co-op board member Rob Richards explained, “My hope is that by being the first in the US to adopt the boycott we act as a catalyst for other co-ops to join in. Each additional organizational entity that joins may have a very small effect on the big picture, but drop by drop fills the tub.”

For the first time in half a decade, rock legends Pink Floyd reunited for a benefit concert in England to raise money for young Palestinians, MSNBC reported Tuesday.

Feuding PINK FLOYD stars DAVID GILMOUR and ROGER WATERS put their differences aside on Saturday (10Jul10) to perform together at a the Hoping Foundation awareness benefit in England.

The two rockers hit the stage at Kiddington Hall in Oxfordshire, England to the amazement of guests in attendance. It was the first time the duo had shared a stage since Pink Floyd’s Live 8 appearance in 2005.

The former bandmates, who were accompanied by Guy Pratt and Waters’ son Harry, among others, played Floyd favourites:

“Wish You Were Here”

“Comfortably Numb”

“Another Brick in the Wall”

By William A. Cook

By Justin Raimondo

We’re in the midst of a spy scare, one of those periodic bouts of paranoia that spreads, like a virus, from Washington on outward. This time, it’s alleged Russian spies, but the scare is already becoming a generalized fear, permeating official Washington and the “mainstream” media like a poisonous fog. Check out Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Michigan), a member of the House intelligence committee, Fran Townsend, CNN’s “national security correspondent,” and CNN anchor Suzanne Malveaux in the “Situation Room,” bloviating oh-so-knowledgably about this latest “threat”:

“MALVEAUX: Well, Congressman, I want you to weigh in on this. How concerned are you that this is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to spying inside of the United States?

In an interview on the Council for the National Interest internet radio program “Jerusalem Calling,” MIT Professor Noam Chomsky, author of The Fateful Triangle and other books on Israel-Palestine, said that he opposes boycotting Israel.

In a July 8th interview with new CNI President Alison Weir, Dr. Chomsky at first denied that he opposed the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement, calling this an “internet rumor.”

However, when Weir said she had heard him say that he opposed boycott during a lecture at the University of California Berkeley several years ago, Chomsky admitted that he had opposed boycotting Israel then and said that he still did so now. He said that he felt that activists should instead only divest from American companies.

Andy Worthington

The Guantanamo Files: The Story of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison. In Andy Worthington’s The Guantanamo Files, the whole story of the Cuban camp emerges as a ghastly experiment in which the terrorist suspects became guinea pigs in a vast experiment of methods to crack the human soul. [This] is a powerful, essential and long-overdue piece of research, providing the first real Who’s Who of those held at the Cuban base. –Stephen Grey, New Statesman

BY MAZIN QUMSIYEH

“Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns. I am thankful that thorns have roses” - Alphonse Karr
It took over 10 hours to cross from Amman, Jordan to the Ghetto of Bethlehem, a distance of 60 miles. From the first moment on the bridge from Jordan, we begin to be immersed in Palestinian suffering.

SO MUCH MORE THAN THE BLOWHARDS, KERRY, McCAIN AND NORTH

I got back from Arizona a bit ago, visiting with friends, mostly Vietnam vets. From Veterans Today we had Jim Hanke, Jeff Gates, regular Army and me, as usual, the lone Marine and with our hosts, Navy Seal Hershel Davis. Years ago it would have been talk about POWs and politics. Now its down to motorcycles and single malt. We did get a few minutes in on John McCain as he is running around the state playing war hero to stay in the thieving Senate. Some of us had fought both Kerry and McCain for years as POW advocates.

Philip Weiss, author of the blog MondoWeiss, on Antiwar Radio discusses the role of the Israeli government, the Likudniks and the neoconservative movement in lying the American people into war in Iraq, the dishonesty of the American media on all issues related to the occupations of the West Bank and Gaza strip, the hillarious recent story of Gen. David Petraeus’ pathetic belly crawling before the feet of his neocon masters, as revealed in his correspondence with Max Boot, which he accidentally forwarded in an email to James Morris a long time, anti-neocon activist and author of the blog Wake Up America!, which gives it all away. There is no question of whose man Petraeus is!

It’s impossible to know what goes on in the Oval Office. All the public sees is photo-ops and scripted comments. Was Barack Obama’s adoration of the Israeli Prime Minister meant as a subtle manipulation? Was this “keep your friends close and your enemies closer?”

If so, that would be good news for the U.S. provided he grasps that he’s been played for a fool—with the help of his top advisers. His political career is a product of the Chicago Outfit, including his presidency. Can he rise above that? I need to believe that he can.

By Kenneth O’ Keefe
Welcome to Orwell’s ‘1984’ ladies and gentlemen, where black is white, white is black, and the truth is nothing but a word.

My 1984 reality is culminating with the United States and Israeli Governments treating me and/or charging me with being a “terrorist”. Americans worry not, you can sleep better at night knowing your “homeland” is being defended from the likes of me. And Israel, rest easy as well, it’s Ken O’Keefe and his Arab collaborators who are in the Mossad crosshairs.

All kidding aside, I am a family man, with a beautiful family, a loving wife and baby boy, a boy who will be the biggest victim if his father is no longer in his life.

THE MYTH OF DEMOCRACY, GOVERNMENT BY ORGANIZED CRIME

By GORDON DUFF

SIMPLE CARD TRICKS FOR WAR

By Puppet Government Productions

A hard hitting new video debunking the continuing puppet show in Washington DC, and the “doubletalk” complicity of President Obama in continuing the phony “war on terror.”

A Must Watch:

http://mycatbirdseat.com/2010/07/puppet-government-new-video-%e2%80%9c...

CIA TRIES TO PREPARE AMERICAN PUBLIC FOR TRUTH ABOUT BUSH/BIN LADEN DECEPTION

VETERANS TODAY WRITER Ken O’Keefe ON BBC “HARD TALK”

WATCH THE SPARKS FLY….

Using the McChrystal Moment to Raise a Forbidden Question

By Prof. David Ray Griffin

Global Research, June 25, 2010

There are many questions to ask about the war in Afghanistan. One that has been widely asked is whether it will turn out to be “Obama’s Vietnam.”1 This question implies another: Is this war winnable, or is it destined to be a quagmire, like Vietnam? These questions are motivated in part by the widespread agreement that the Afghan government, under Hamid Karzai, is at least as corrupt and incompetent as the government the United States tried to prop up in South Vietnam for 20 years.

Israel agreed to sell South Africa nuclear weapons.

More than that, it makes any aid America gives Israel illegal. If Israel is nuclear, which is now official, and in violation of international treaties, just as with Iraq and Iran, then America has to demand inspections and disarmament. There is no choice. This is the law. Law for Iran, law for Iraq is also law for Israel. Israel has expected this day for years.

This book not only provides a detailed account and illustration of Israeli war crimes in Gaza but equally important it provides a comprehensive analysis of the reasons why more and more people are recognizing that the US Congress and White House are zionized occupied territory.

FROM THE PREFACE

Special thanks to our friends at: AUSTRALIANS FOR PALESTINE

Palestinian lawyer and advocate Diana Buttu will be joining fellow compatriot UCLA Prof SAREE MAKDISI in a forum entitled “Apartheid and Boycotts” that will also include Dr NED CURTHOYS from ANU and Sydney Peace Foundation Chairman Professor Emeritus STUART REES AM. Below you will find details of the event being held tomorrow evening in Melbourne and also some background to the participants in the forum. Ms Buttu has been brought out specifically to speak to unions, the media and the public on the impossible conditions endured by the Palestinians under Israel’s apartheid policies and brutal military rule.

By Stuart Littlewood

Letters From Palestine

By Kenneth Ring

I seldom read books from cover to cover. But when Kenneth Ring sent me his Letters from Palestine with a note saying “Here’s my baby,” I couldn’t put it down.

Ken presents a collection of personal stories from Palestinians, inside and outside the occupied territories, that provide penetrating insights – sometimes harrowing, sometimes funny, always fascinating – into their daily lives and thoughts. It would not surprise me if, in time, these accounts became inscribed in Palestinian folklore.

By Robert Parry (A Special Report) Veterans Today

As the Official Story of the 1980 October Surprise case crumbles – with new revelations that key evidence was hidden from investigators of a congressional task force and that internal doubts were suppressed – history must finally confront the troubling impression that remains: that disgruntled elements of the CIA and Israel’s Likud hardliners teamed up to remove a U.S. president from office.

Indeed, it is this disturbing conclusion – perhaps even more than the idea of a Republican dirty trick – that may explain the longstanding and determined cover-up of this political scandal.

To millions of Americans, the “end times” seem to be on us.

The BP disaster in the Gulf may leave 25% of America virtually uninhabitable, eco-systems destroyed for sure but maybe much more, a destroyed sea floor, toxic gas clouds moving inland and warnings of something worse, a geological disaster of biblical proportions sitting offshore like a ticking time bomb. Millions of American believe the president is a foreign born Muslim, a puppet of the terrorists while millions believe he is working for Israel. Every speech, every state visit, everything done is seen to support one side or another, sometimes both. The destruction of the American presidency is only part of it, part of a program of racial division, fear, hate and a descent into class warfare and violence.

Born and raised in America, I learned that my country was built on outstanding principles propped up by a great constitution. When I saw those principles violated and the constitution ignored, I complained. At times, I was told to shut up.

The Vietnam War was well underway when I started teaching at a California university. I learned as much as I could about the war, believed it was wrong and joined the protesters. My untenured position was at risk for joining the peaceniks.

I also learned that Arabs and Israelis were more alike than different when expressing their antagonism toward each other. One of each happened to be in a class I was teaching. Each would sidle up to me, separately and at different times, to explain what was wrong with the other.

BY DEBBIE MENON

THE events that have unfolded in the past decade, we would never have thought would have occurred 10 years ago. Elements of changes in world power, focus upon the Middle East, battle cries of holy wars, nuclear threats, thousands of innocents taken in a single morning, and the list goes on.

Now, I am battling the impulse to generalize my anger at to “be prejudiced” against all Americans in general.

How can that be? I definitely know that most Americans are decent, good hearted, peaceful people who, while gullible perhaps, do not generally advocate the mass murder of others in the name of war on terror or war on anything. But in my emotions they are and my heart aches and I am angry at “Americans”.

MFSO says “Seize the Moment” – Veterans Today

The reverberations from General McChrystal’s interview in Rolling Stone are just beginning. It will likely gain more attention as the 24-hour news outlets dig in to cover it from every conceivable angle. The circumstances that have been revealed by General McChrystal’s lapse in judgment reflects more than an out-of-control general in Afghanistan. It’s about a failed strategy that puts young men and women – our family members – at risk.

This is an opportunity to get our voices included in the discussion. As military family members who have loved ones who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, our perspective has impact!

Last week Palestine Monitor reported that Israeli police shot and killed Shu’fat resident 39-year-old Ziad Jilani in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Wadi Joz. Now his widow, a U.S. citizen, reflects on her husband’s life and death, and the journey he’s taken her on. Reporting from Kara Newhouse.

Moira Jilani remembers her experience vividly, “I felt happy that day. We were going to go out and celebrate, because the children finished exams the day before,” she tells me from her brother-in-law’s house, where she’s spent her days since Ziad’s death on June 11. “We were cleaning, getting rid of the winter clothes. We had the music loud, the girls were dancing. We were ready to leave.”

The Technological Revolution and the Future of Freedom, Part 1
by Andrew Gavin Marshall at Globalresearch.ca.

There is a new and unique development in human history that is taking place around the world; it is unprecedented in reach and volume, and it is also the greatest threat to all global power structures: the ‘global political awakening.’ The term was coined by Zbigniew Brzezinski, and refers to the fact that, as Brzezinski wrote:

For the first time in history almost all of humanity is politically activated, politically conscious and politically interactive. Global activism is generating a surge in the quest for cultural respect and economic opportunity in a world scarred by memories of colonial or imperial domination.[1]

An articulate and angry Kenneth O’Keefe, in a pretty intense interview, with BBC. He was on the MV Mavi Marmara ship carrying aid to Gaza, when Israeli commandos raided the ship, killing nine peace activists onboard and wounding several. Kenneth claims he helped disarm the Israeli commandos. He starts of at the very outset by stating, “Palestinians are killed everyday by Israelis and we never hear about it in the Media.” A classic BBC HARDTALK, every bit worth watching.

PLEASE click here to WATCH :

http://mycatbirdseat.com/2010/06/video-bbc-hardtalk-with-kenneth-o%e2%...

PRESS RELEASE

Yasser Kashlak, a Syrian of Palestinian decent, businessman, and chairman of Lebanese Institute of International Studies heads the international group Free Palestine Movement that is organizing the trip.

Yasser Kashlak

American delegation to join international humanitarian effort to break the siege of Gaza

Twenty-two American citizens will be among the more than two hundred persons who will be sailing aboard the Arab flotilla to Gaza, now scheduled for Wednesday, June 30. The flotilla of Arab ships are hoping to break the blockade on Gaza, despite the harsh Israeli reaction to an earlier flotilla from Turkey and other Mediterranean states killing nine peace activists, causing an international incident.

Turkey is the Key

Bombs go off in Turkey, a great spree of terrorist bombings and attacks. Practically every day Turkish soldiers and civilians are being killed. The killings are done ostensibly by the Kurd terrorists of PPK, but this is a new step in Israel’s warfare against Turkish independence. Encouraged by Israel, PKK extended its operations to the Aegean and the Black Sea resorts all the way to Izmir.

DID PAT TILLMAN REACH OUT FROM THE GRAVE?

Why would a general want to leave a command, especially one as challenging as Afghanistan? Think of it, no more meetings with President Karzai. Picture yourself, sitting in Kabul. Still in Kabul, looking south at failure. Long ago, when Paul Wolfowitz and Karl Rove, called “Dog Boy and Turd Blossom” by President Bush, were selecting the worst possible weaklings and con men to act as American puppets, the new governments of, first Afghanistan and then Iraq, the names Hamed Karzai and Ahjmed Chalibi were, not just the short list, they were the only list.

ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES, MICHAEL OREN “WE DON’T SPY ON AMERICA, ROGUE ISRAELI GROUPS DID IT”

“…we’re talking about an event that was run by a rogue organization in the Israeli intelligence community” (Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren on the Jonathan Pollard spy case)

By Dr. Mohamed Khodr – My Catbird Seat

A Petition:

[Author’s Note: I urge all worldwide citizens who read this petition to please consider signing it to provide a voice for the voiceless Palestinians and to disseminate it as widely as possible urging others to do the same. Thank you for your humanity.]

This Petition will be presented to the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki- Moon, Members of the U.N. Security Council and Governments and Organizations in respective nations of Signers.

PLEASE SIGN PETITION AT:

http://www.petitiononline.com/pal0610/petition.html

CAN ANYONE PROVE KARZAI IS BETTER THAN THE TALIBAN?

Do we actually call what we are doing in Afghanistan a war? Recent estimates are that 88% of the people support what we call “the enemy.” The German’s were much more popular than us during their occupation of France during World War 2. What does that say about our friends? Even Petain and Laval, the French Vichy traitors, had more public support that Karzai has in Afghanistan.

Rex Williams and Earl Aiman

“What can we do to stop them from hating us?”

Simple! Stop acting like a tyrant.

“The new American Tyranny,” … nothing new, actually!

Prior to 1776 the British Colonies of the New world practiced British tyranny against the native American and the French colonists of North America. Post 1776, the practiced the “New American” tyranny against what remained of the Native American, and the Spanish Colonial in North America. And when they were all subdued or brought to heel, went on to export it overseas, product which they have continued to export ever since, in an ever greater degree.

We have become the tyrant which we overcame to escape, and we have assumed his mantle and the hatred of our own victims of tyranny.

IS GENERAL STANLEY McCHRYSTAL THE NEXT “HELEN THOMAS?”

General Stanley McChrystal, top US commander in Afghanistan has been summoned home for a “briefing,” read “waterboarding session” after news of an upcoming article in this week’s Rolling Stone magazine hit the White House. His crime? General McChrystal is guilty of honesty, discernment, good judgement and communicating his sanity in private with the kind of candor we lived without during the Bush years, much to our sorrow. It is obvious that General McChrystal was targeted, not unlike White House correspondent Helen Thomas. Why? Who or what did General McChrystal threaten?

By Paul Balles

Pakistani writer Mohsin Hamid, tells of a polite Oklahoman who held a copy of his latest novel, “The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” and examined the face on its cover, comparing it to Hamid’s.

The Oklahoman then said to the Muslim writer, nodding once as if to dip the brim of an imaginary hat: “So tell me, sir. Why do they hate us?”

Hamid then goes on to voice the propaganda he’d been fed, attributing it to envy, adding, “The richest, most powerful country in the world attracts the jealousy of others in much the same way that the richest, most powerful man in a small town attracts the jealousy of others.”

Of course, the Washington Post who published Hamid’s article devoured his explanation as if he was serving them and the country a lesson in deserved pride.

The WSJ defends Israel’s deadly apartheid politics, but then what would you expect?
(SALEM, Ore.) – Who should be surprised that the media group named for the biggest curse in America is decidedly pro-Israeli? Why would anyone fall over in shock that the Wall Street Journal laments the role of the killer, while demonizing those who simply seek world peace?

Their newest article, ‘Israel and the Surrender of the West’ tears into the notion of “world opinion” as if a global view is some kind of liability. I guess it is for Israel after the deadly flotilla incident[1].

WSJ writer, Shelby Steele, seems to really wrinkle her nose over the bigger picture:

Message from the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions(PGFTU)

To our respected sisters, brothers and comrades in the trade unions, labor councils and workers’ organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Since the beginning of the workers’ struggles in your country – the United States of America – international solidarity has been a constant part of workers’ organizing and struggle in solidarity with workers and people facing injustice everywhere in the world. We, the workers and the people of Palestine are suffering under oppression of the Israeli occupation of our land and people. This occupation began long ago, the longest-lasting occupation of the modern era.

CONTINUE SEE VIDEO:

This is long but worth a read...

By Richard Forer

[A letter I wrote to a college student who had written the Coalition to Stop $30 Billion to Israel asking the group to remove a billboard that said "Tell Congress. Stop Killing Children. No More Military Aid to Israel." The billboard was erected in Albuquerque in the Spring of 2009 after the Gaza catastrophe. I was the spokesperson.]

Hi J,

By Debbie Menon

No, dialogue is NOT a solution! It is merely another, quite common, much overused, abused, and never quite successful method of attempting, or pretending to attempt, to find or describe a solution; and it is usually compromised by bad faith on the part of one, two or all parties. Furthermore, it takes the bad faith of but one participant to thoroughly compromise it, and turn it into a strategic tool for forestalling the search for a solution, perpetuating the status quo, or worse.

History has demonstrated this.

The movement for Australian union action against Israel is gaining strength after the apartheid state’s latest murderous attack on the unarmed aid flotilla to Gaza.

The South Coast Labour Council (SCLC) and the New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory branches of the Australian Services Union have joined the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union in committing to the international boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against the aggressive Israeli state.

Australian unions and peak bodies have also called on members to attend the many protest actions.

Ronen Bergman, a senior military and political analyst for the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, recently wrote what I consider to be one of the most important articles for decades on the subject of the mindset of the Zionist state’s military and political leaders. It was reproduced in the Wall Street Journal under the headline Siege Fatigue and the Flotilla Mistake.

Getting to the main thrust of his analysis, Bergman wrote this (my emphasis added):

ANALYZING STAGED WORLD CONFLICT

In 2006, North Korea exploded a plutonium based nuclear weapon, an unsuccessful test of either a “found” nuke in poor repair, or something poorly designed. America had predicted that they were at least five years from this capability, we always hear the same story, everyone is five years from having nuclear weapons. On May 25th, 2009, North Korea exploded its second bomb, its first clearly identifiable nuclear weapon, a “Hiroshima sized” bomb, tiny by US standards. What we didn’t say is that the signature of this bomb had been seen before.

Resisting the Occupation and Siege
Millions worldwide demand it. So does the Arab League, according to an Al Jazeera June 13 report quoting Amr Moussa, Arab League secretary-general, saying:

“This blockade….must be lifted and must be broken and the Arab League decision is very clear in this regard.”

On June 13, Moussa commented after visiting Gaza for talks with Hamas Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, Haaretz reporting he’s the highest Arab official to do so since Hamas’ 2006 election, after which an Israeli/West embargo followed, then the June 2007 siege.

Moussa entered through Rafah after Egypt reopened it following the Freedom Flotilla massacre, saying it will continue indefinitely.

According to Haaretz:

By Rich Wiles

Through the recent murderous events in international waters Israel has once again shown its true colours and its total disregard for humanity. From the global reaction over the last week it seems that, for once, a huge majority of people around the world have seen these attacks in a clear light. Let us call a massacre a massacre. Whilst these atrocities have clearly appalled millions of people, the inhumanity of the Zionist regime should have come as no surprise, for this is nothing new.

MUST READ:

Editors Note: Mrs Julia Irwin’s MP adjournment debate speech on 16th June, 2010 in the Australian Parliament and the Government minister Dr Craig Emerson’s shameful disassociation on behalf of the government at the conclusion of the adjournment debate.

If Craig Emerson’s comment reflects the Labor Party’s policy on this matter as Israel and its merciless treatment of the whole nation of Palestine is clearly reprehensible, then sadly the compromised parliamentarians both in Australia and in the US Congress is an indication that Israel has captured and is dictating the foreign policies of both countries and whereas one could once have expected an independent stance on matters of importance from Australia, such as the Middle East, this appears not to be the case.

Turkey and the Neocons

Israel’s Flotilla “Investigation” – Accused Murderer Chooses Own Jury; Court Reporter is Family Member

Isabel Kershner is the New York Times' correspondent in Israel, formerly of The Jerusalem Report and the wife of Hirsch Goodman.

The New York Times, whose regional bureau chief has a son in the Israeli military, reports that Israel has just appointed a panel charged with investigating its attack on an aid flotilla that killed nine aid volunteers, including a 19-year-old American.

Isabel Kershner, who is an Israeli citizen and has refused to answer questions about her possible family ties to the Israeli military, writes the report.

The following is my keynote address to the annual re-union dinner of the Liberty Veterans’ Association – Long Island, 12 June 2010.

I want to begin by saying that though I covered wars wherever they were taking place on Planet Earth in my television reporting days – it was in Vietnam as a very young correspondent that I first started to ask myself questions about why things are as they are in the world – I am an Englishman and one who didn’t serve in his country’s armed forces. (Not because I was a draft dodger. Conscription had ended). So it is both an honour and a privilege for me to be with you this evening. And please believe me, I really mean it. I’m not a politician just saying it.

By Juan Cole

One problem with the focus the Israeli raid on the Gaza aid flotilla is that it may make it appear that the Israeli blockade of Gaza is the central issue. Then any Israeli loosening of the blockade would seem to be an advance.

By Ahmed Amr

By now anyone paying attention understands the broad outlines of Israel’s notion of what constitutes an ‘impartial’ inquiry into the murder of nine activists on the Free Gaza Flotilla. Except for Netanyahu and the cabinet ministers who ordered the armed assault on the humanitarian convoy, no other witnesses will be called. The Israelis now say their inquiry will not even take testimony from the IDF commanders who planned and executed the assault or the seven hundred first hand witnesses who survived the carnage. Besides, the activists have already been deported.

ANOTHER “DANCING ISRAELI” FILM PRODUCTION

..SEE PEOPLE WALK THROUGH STEEL LIKE GHOSTS

BUSTED! I didn’t believe they would be that stupid. You could see the cursor moving in the picture. I saw a man handed a metal bar. Then he walked through, just like a ghost, a solid steel protrusion from the deck, the size of an ashcan. This thing would have stopped a truck but the Fox News “fighters” on the Mavi Marmara were like ghosts. In fact, the “steel bar thugs” were exactly that, or more appropriately, cartoons.

HONOLULU (AP) - Prison officials said tensions in inmate populations rose last month because of inadequate meals caused by a low supply of food.

The Department of Public Safety told the state Procurement Office that if not addressed, the rising tensions could result in serious inmate disturbances.

Deputy Director for Corrections Tommy Johnson said the prisons that house 6,000 inmates were in danger of running out of food because not enough bids were received on a number of items.

In an interview with Paul Jay of The Real News

Former Presidential candidate Ralph Nader launched a scathing critique of US media and politicians for what he said was “Professional Execution,” over the sudden retirement of senior White House correspondent Helen Thomas after she made remarks critical of Israel that were considered offensive to Jews.

Nader said American pundits had gotten away with much worse comments about Muslims and Arabs. “antisemitism against arabs is rife in politics today,” he said.

“How about Ann Coulter? she didn’t lose a 30,000 dollar speech? She didn’t lose her column, and she said horrific things about going over there and slaughtering Muslims, if they can’t be converted to christianity, she added.”

By Aijaz Zaka Syed
Opinion Editor - Khaleej Times- Dubai

Can we have a new UN ?

Given the intensity of global outrage over the assault on the Gaza aid flotilla, some of us were beginning to hope that the world might finally confront Israel. We were obviously mistaken — once again.

American activists who supported, organized, or were on the flotilla headed to Gaza with humanitarian aid stormed the office of U.S. Congressmen Brad Sherman and turned themselves in for their “crimes.” The stunt was in response to Sherman’s call for Americans on the flotilla to be arrested for helping “terrorists.”

It illustrates the disconnect between a U.S. Congress who supports Israel unrelentingly, a White House that calls policies in Gaza unsustainable, and an international community condemning Israel’s raid of the flotilla.

Continue here:

http://mycatbirdseat.com/2010/06/flotilla%e2%80%9darrest-me-i%e2%80%99...

Editors Note: See more smuggled Raw Video Footage by Lara Lee "what happened that day" below.

--

One of the most striking trends following the flotilla attack has been how quickly Israeli hasbara is being exposed by internet journalists.

Whenever Israel commits yet another atrocity, its defenders are quick to redirect public attention away from the grisly crime scene.

Currently, there are headlines about allegedly anti-Semitic comments made by senior White House correspondent Helen Thomas. Pundits across the land evince outrage at her off-the-cuff 25-second statement made to a man who appears to be holding a camera right in her face.

Thomas issued a public apology for her words, but this was insufficient to assuage the wounded feelings of powerful antagonists, and she has now retired from a long and distinguished career.

Before we examine her comments and evaluate their possible validity, let’s look at other recent events having to do with Israel.

The claim that Israel serves as a valuable ally for the United States is made by both pro-Zionists and much of the anti-war and anti-Zionist Left that is influenced by Noam Chomsky. As a result of the Gaza flotilla massacre, which has caused a world-wide uproar against Israel, the value of Israel to the United States is being publicly questioned in more mainstream foreign policy forums.

Writing shortly before the massacre, the always astute Philip Giraldi critically analyzed the claim of Israel’s value to the United States in “The Strategic Ally Myth,” which focuses on a recent article by Israel Firster Mort Zuckerman entitled, “Israel Is a Key Ally and Deserves U.S. Support.”

By Jonathan Kalmus

Britain’s largest union, Unite, has unanimously passed a motion to boycott Israeli companies at its first policy conference in Manchester on Wednesday.

The motion, which passed unanimously, called the union “to vigorously promote a policy of divestment from Israeli companies”, while a boycott of Israeli goods and services will be “similar to the boycott of South African goods during the era of apartheid”.

Reflecting the University and College Union’s call at their Manchester conference earlier in the week, Unite will similarly host a “Palestine conference” to support trade union action against Israel.

From the Project on ExtraJudicialExecutions

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 4, 2010 (IPS) – If, as expected, the U.N. Security Council remains politically impotent and refuses to penalize Israel for the killings of nine pro-Palestinian civilians on a ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, what is the next course of action?

Continue reading :

http://mycatbirdseat.com/2010/06/a-global-civil-society-campaign-to-de...

Original posting:

The Israeli military attempted to confiscate and erase the photographic and video evidence of its brutal asault on the Mavi Marmara aid ship on Memorial Day. But it turns out that digital images can often be recovered after erasure, and can be put on small memory sticks that can be hidden in nooks and crannies of luggage. So some images are in fact surfacing.

The most damaging is a film of an Israeli soldier kicking an American citizen while the latter is on the ground,and then executing him. This film completely refutes the rightwing Israeli government’s narrative of besieged lightly armed troops haplessly fending off naked aggression on the part of the aid workers. The video, which has not been confirmed, is now at Youtube:

Continue:

Dr. Franklin Lamb says that the Gaza flotilla survivors can certainly take legal action in their own countries. The family of the American who was murdered can sue Israel under the Federal Tort Claims Act – this will allow the family to use American Federal Court.
He added, cases may be brought against Israel for murder,

Continue reading:

http://mycatbirdseat.com/2010/06/press-tv-international-lawyer-frankli...

By Justin Raimondo

One of my readers, in the comments section below, wrote the following in response to my last column on Israel’s hijacking of the Gaza flotilla: “Again I ask the question: What do the Israelis have on our politicians that makes them such whores? Dirty pictures? Threats of withholding campaign contributions? It’s really embarrassing as well as infuriating to see congress with its collective pants down around their legislative ankles just waiting for Israel to do it again.”

Not that there’s anything wrong with that …

Press TV correspondent, Hassan Ghani, was aboard one of the Freedom Flotilla ship that came under the Israeli attack and in this 3-part video interview, he gives a most credible and measured account of the events of that tragic night, despite the horrors he had witnessed. He mentions in Part 3, a friend Ken O’Keefe who was severely beaten by the Israelis and a picture of Ken in a shocking condition is provided below. Also provided is Ken’s statement given in Istanbul after being deported by Israel.

Hassan Ghani was released from Israeli captivity and went to Turkey to attend the funerals before visiting Iran.

The following is a rush transcript of Press TV’s interview with Hassan.

Press TV: Tell us about your ordeal Hassan, What happened on the day of the attack?

by Robert Booth – The Guardian.co.uk

Nine Turkish men on board Mavi Marmara were shot a total of 30 times, autopsy results reveal

Israel was tonight under pressure to allow an independent inquiry into its assault on the Gaza aid flotilla after autopsy results on the bodies of those killed, obtained by the Guardian, revealed they were peppered with 9mm bullets, many fired at close range.

Nine Turkish men on board the Mavi Marmara were shot a total of 30 times and five were killed by gunshot wounds to the head, according to the vice-chairman of the Turkish council of forensic medicine, which carried out the autopsies for the Turkish ministry of justice today.

It still holds two stolen nukes for possible port attack