Rachel Stephens
Redress

Rachel Stephens argues that people should “celebrate the continuing tradition of Christ, who railed against the law makers of his time in an attempt to bring love, hope and justice”, by supporting and following the example of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in vowing “to spread the truth and to work against the tendency in governments towards evil”.

Some years go I decided to stop subjecting myself to the propaganda I received from daily news programmes. My knowledge of politics was poor, but the internet enabled me to educate myself and I was especially keen to learn about British involvement in the Middle East.

I have a Christian background, but I knew very little about Israel and Palestine. In my youth, working on a kibbutz seemed a laudable aim, although I’m relieved now that I didn’t ever get around to it. Like the majority in the West, I did not know that the country now called “Israel” had recently been Palestine.

The Old Testament did not mean a great deal to me. There was lot about Jews smiting their enemies, but it was the story of Samson and Delilah that brought home to me that the ethnic groups mentioned were comprised of real people living in Canaan at that time. The story of Samson slaughtering his wife’s Philistine kinsmen at their wedding feast is shocking, yet the Old Testament contains much more graphic material than this, despite the fact that there has been plenty of editing of the Bible, both Old Testament and New. Committees have chosen which bits to leave out and added parts where necessary to ensure readers receive the authorized version. Thousands of people who found themselves unable to accept the authorized version of the Bible promoted by their government at any particular time in history were tortured, burned alive (being buried alive was reserved for women only) or met other hideous deaths. Nevertheless, there is still plenty one can learn from the Old Testament and this article attempts to draw parallels between Biblical and modern times.

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Khalid Amayreh

Furniture is seen in the living room of a house that was damaged
during Israel's war on Lebanon, the summer of 2006.

Saad al Hariri's recent visit to Iran is undoubtedly a welcomed development. It served the interests of Lebanon, Iran and all other forces that stand against Israel's nefarious designs in the region.

We all know the diabolical nature of Israeli goals in Lebanon. These can be summarized into the following:

First, Israel is interested in keeping Lebanon in a constant state of civil or sectarian strife in order to weaken the country and show the western world that Israel is the Christians' friend in this predominantly Muslim region. Thank goodness, most of the Lebanese Christians have come a long way since they believed Zionist lies and propaganda about Israeli friendship.

In the mid 1970s, successive Israeli governments, especially under the Likud and other fascist-minded parties, privately entertained the idea of creating a Christian mini-state in Lebanon , which would be another Israel in the part of the Arab world.

Some misguided Lebanese leaders more or less fell in love with the satanic idea and showed a propensity to open the gates of Lebanon to the Israeli invaders, the coveters of Lebanon's waters and fertile land.

Some of these perfidious leaders eventually came to regret their solicitations with Israel; others, unfortunately, remained un-repentant, probably awaiting another opportunity to reactivate their treachery and un-patriotism.

Of course, collaboration with Israel transcended sectarian lines, as sick minds and hearts appear in every community regardless of race and religion.

The recent discovery of a vast network of Israeli spies in Lebanon was an additional proof showing that Israel's criminal goals in Lebanon have remained unchanged. Which more than justifies Lebanon's firm approach to "peace with Israel."

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Floyd Rudmin
Lew Rockwell

Why Does the NSA Engage in Mass Surveillance of Americans When It's Statistically Impossible for Such Spying to Detect Terrorists?

The Bush administration and the National Security Agency (NSA) have been secretly monitoring the email messages and phone calls of all Americans. They are doing this, they say, for our own good. To find terrorists. Many people have criticized NSA's domestic spying as unlawful invasion of privacy, as search without search warrant, as abuse of power, as misuse of the NSA's resources, as unConstitutional, as something the communists would do, something very unAmerican.

In addition, however, mass surveillance of an entire population cannot find terrorists. It is a probabilistic impossibility. It cannot work.

What is the probability that people are terrorists given that NSA's mass surveillance identifies them as terrorists? If the probability is zero (p=0.00), then they certainly are not terrorists, and NSA was wasting resources and damaging the lives of innocent citizens. If the probability is one (p=1.00), then they definitely are terrorists, and NSA has saved the day. If the probability is fifty-fifty (p=0.50), that is the same as guessing the flip of a coin. The conditional probability that people are terrorists given that the NSA surveillance system says they are, that had better be very near to one (p=1.00) and very far from zero (p=0.00).

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Darrell Castle
Constitution Party of Tennessee

[Wikileaks: Collateral Murder (VIDEO). This video shows men gathering on a Baghdad street on July 12, 2007, shortly before they were fired upon. View related photos wikileaks.org]

Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is, according to various politicians, the most dangerous and evil man alive.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that WikiLeaks’ release of a quarter million e-mails and diplomatic cables was an “attack upon the international community.”

Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee said that the person who leaked the information to Wikileaks is guilty of treason and should be executed.

Sarah Palin stated on her Facebook page,

“He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands. His past posting of classified documents revealed the identity of more than 100 Afghan sources to the Taliban. Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al-Qaida and Taliban leaders?”

Tom Flanagan, senior advisor to the Canadian prime minister, said that he should be assassinated, and that Obama should put out a contract on him “with maybe a drone or something.”

It’s not enough that Assange has an international criminal warrant out for him through Interpol; he should be hunted down and assassinated like al-Qaida and Taliban leaders.

My analysis of what Julian Assange did leads me to a different conclusion.

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Ray McGovern
Antiwar

“Show me your company, and I’ll tell you who you are,” my grandmother would often say with a light Irish lilt but a heavy emphasis, an admonition about taking care in choosing what company you keep.

On Thursday, I could sense her smiling down through the snow as I stood pinned to the White House fence with Daniel Ellsberg, Chris Hedges, Margaret Flowers, Medea Benjamin, Coleen Rowley, Mike Ferner, Jodie Evans, and over 125 others risking arrest in an attempt to highlight the horrors of war.

The witness was sponsored by Veterans for Peace, a group comprised of many former soldiers who have “been there, done that” regarding war, distinguishing them from President Barack Obama who, like his predecessor, hasn’t a clue what war is really about.

(Sorry, Mr. President, donning a bomber jacket and making empty promises to the troops in the middle of an Afghan night does not qualify.)

The simple but significant gift of presence was being offered outside the White House. As I hung on the fence, I recalled what I knew of the results of war.

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