Michael Deutsch
Truthout

In late September, the FBI carried out a series of raids of homes and antiwar offices of public activists in Minneapolis and Chicago. Following the raids, the Obama Justice Department subpoenaed 14 activists to a grand jury in Chicago and also subpoenaed the files of several antiwar and community organizations. In carrying out these repressive actions, the Justice Department was taking its lead from the Supreme Court's 6-3 opinion last June in Holder v. the Humanitarian Law Project, which decided that nonviolent First Amendment speech and advocacy "coordinated with" or "under the direction of" a foreign group listed by the Secretary of State as "terrorist" was a crime.

The search warrants and grand jury subpoenas make it clear that the federal prosecutors are intent on accusing public nonviolent political organizers, many of whom are affiliated with Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), of providing "material support" through their public advocacy for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The Secretary of State has determined that both the PLFP and the FARC "threaten US national security, foreign policy or economic interests," a finding not reviewable by the courts, and listed both groups as foreign terrorist organizations (FTO).

In 1996, Congress made it a crime - then punishable by 10 years, which was later increased to 15 years - to anyone in the US who provides "material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization or attempts or conspires to do so." The present statute defines "material support or resources" as:

...any property, tangible or intangible, or service, including currency or monetary instruments or financial services, lodging, training, expert advice or assistance, safe houses, false documentation or identification, communications equipment, facilities, weapons, lethal substances, explosives, personnel and transportation except medicine or religious materials.

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Khalid Amayreh

I understand that the term "Jewish Nazism" is harsh, shocking and might well be provocative and offensive to many, especially those adhering to the Jewish faith. I have nothing against the Jewish faith per se, but I do detest the absurd but widespread use of Judaism to justify decidedly racist and criminal conduct as is happening in occupied Palestine these days.

I am not going to spend time arguing why the use of the above-mentioned term is justified. In the final analysis, when Jews, or anyone else for that matter, think, behave and act in a Nazi way, we should have no compunctions or hesitation comparing them to Nazis.

Today, Zionist circles are waging a rabid campaign aimed at convincing as many Western institutions to deal with and treat Israel as above the laws of mankind based on the fallacious myth that Jews are intrinsically superior to the rest of mankind.

Proponents of this evil racism may not use the same words mentioned, probably for fear of a public relations backlash, but this is exactly what they mean.

Two years ago, for example, Israel urged the United States and a number of other western states to see to it that international laws, especially the Fourth Geneva Convention, be amended in a way that would allow Israeli soldiers to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity with impunity.

In other words, Israel wants to be accorded a special treatment by the community of nations in order to be able to murder, incinerate, and maim innocent civilians, even on a large, e.g. genocidal, scale, without being held accountable, prosecuted or even criticized.

To put it bluntly, Israel wants to act the Nazi way, e.g. commit genocidal crimes as it did in the Gaza Strip around this time two years ago, but without being called Nazi or any other similar epithet.

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Julie Hyland
WSWS

Veteran journalist and documentary filmmaker John Pilger, a two-time recipient of Britain’s Journalist of the Year award, is a well-known opponent of the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the media apparatus that lies about them to the public.

In 2003, the Australian-born Pilger co-directed Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror (2003), which exposes US government claims about the “war on terror” and documents the manner in which American and British intelligence financed and supported Islamic fundamentalism in Afghanistan.

On December 7, Pilger was one of a number of prominent individuals, including filmmaker Ken Loach, who offered to stand bail in a British court for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Assange faces extradition to Sweden where he is the target of fabricated and politically motivated charges of sexual misconduct.

The offer was rejected by the London magistrate and Assange was remanded in custody. There are reports that the Swedish authorities are already in discussions with Washington over Assange’s eventual extradition to the United States, where he would face trial on trumped-up charges of spying or facilitating terrorism.

Assange’s imprisonment is a legal travesty. Its aim is to punish the WikiLeaks founder for publishing documents exposing the crimes and conspiracies carried out by US officials and others, and to intimidate anyone who dares to oppose the political machinations and warmongering of the major powers.

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The Prudent Investor
The Prudent Investor

This post is essential reading for every liberty-loving human who opposes the trend of increasingly fascist governments that only focus on a bail-out of banks while completely ignoring that the people in the streets consider this the last priority in an environment where the once lauded social peace is in immediate danger to give way to a revolt of the sovereign in most European countries.

European politics has certainly descended to a new low when an essentially bankrupt Germany suddenly plays the terror hoax card to distract from the Eurosclerosis that is a direct result of irresponsible central bank policy coupled with profligate governments who have obviously totally disconnected from the needs and desires of the sovereign.

The military's involvement in the Afghanistan war is opposed by Afghans and Germans alike. Ruling with fear is a policy of tyrants but not a viable method for democratically elected governments who must not forget that historically all hardline leaders have only very rarely concluded life in peaceful retirement.

We Are All Debtors

To drive the point home: All of Europe is basically bankrupt when not even latest austerity measures help to rein galloping budget deficits that have grown to sizes that make it mathematically impossible to reduce them to sustainable levels again. Only unsuspecting politicians still hang on to a pipe dream that the Eurozone or the EU will manage to climb out of the debt hole in a foreseeable sluggish economy (at best) they had been so eager to dig in the first place. Record unemployment almost everywhere will perpetuate soaring social expenditures and drastically rising yields will bring a European replay of the US municipal bond crash.

Remember: All Eurozone members operate on growing fiscal deficits and not a single country has such a thing called savings. We are all 4-level debtors: supranational, national, communal and in private!

Let's be realistic: There can be only one Japan in the world with a debt / GDP ratio of 200% and we have not seen the final outcome of this funny fiat money experiment.

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