Ilan Pappé
Patrick Mac Manus Blog

The view from Israel is that if they indeed succeed, the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions are bad, very bad. Educated Arabs — not all of them dressed as “Islamists,” quite a few of them speaking perfect English whose wish for democracy is articulated without resorting to “anti-Western” rhetoric — are bad for Israel.

Arab armies that do not shoot at these demonstrators are as bad as are many other images that moved and enthused so many people around the world, even in the West. This world reaction is also bad, very bad. It makes the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and its apartheid policies inside the state look like the acts of a typical “Arab” regime.

For a while you could not tell what official Israel thought. In his first ever commonsensical message to his colleagues, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked his ministers, generals and politicians not to comment in public on the events in Egypt. For a brief moment one thought that Israel turned from the neighborhood’s thug to what it always was: a visitor or permanent resident.

It seems Netanyahu was particularly embarrassed by the unfortunate remarks on the situation uttered publicly by General Aviv Kochavi, the head of Israeli military intelligence. This top Israeli expert on Arab affairs stated confidently two weeks ago in the Knesset that the Mubarak regime is as solid and resilient as ever. But Netanyahu could not keep his mouth shut for that long. And when the boss talked all the others followed. And when they all responded, their commentary made Fox News’ commentators look like a bunch of peaceniks and free-loving hippies from the 1960s.

The gist of the Israeli narrative is simple: this is an Iranian-like revolution helped by Al Jazeera and stupidly allowed by US President Barack Obama, who is a new Jimmy Carter, and a stupefied world. Spearheading the Israeli interpretation are the former Israeli ambassadors to Egypt. All their frustration from being locked in an apartment in a Cairean high-rise is now erupting like an unstoppable volcano. Their tirade can be summarized in the words of one of them, Zvi Mazael who told Israeli television’s Channel One on 28 January, “this is bad for the Jews; very bad.”

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Kourosh Ziabari
Interview by Kourosh Ziabari

Craig LaMay is an associate professor of journalism at the Northwestern University. He is a former editorial director of the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center and editor of Media Studies Journal; and a former newspaper reporter. LaMay's articles and commentaries have appeared on New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Newsweek, Communication & the Law and a number of other media outlets.

LaMay has published several books on journalism and mass media of which we can name Journalism and the Problem of Privacy (2003), Commercial Transformation of the Nonprofit Sector, with Burton Weisbrod (1998) and Abandoned in the Wasteland: Children, Television and the First Amendment with Newton Minow (1995).

Prof. LaMay joined me in an exclusive interview to discuss the constraints of journalism in the United States, freedom of speech in the EU, the performance of local magazines as opposed to the national news outlets and the gradual disappearance of traditional media with the emergence of new internet-based technologies. What follows is the complete text of my interview with Prof. Craig LaMay of the Northwestern University.

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John W. Whitehead
Online Journal

“We end up punishing honor students to send a message to bad kids. But the data indicate that the bad kids are not getting the message.” — Professor Russell Skiba

What we are witnessing, thanks in large part to zero tolerance policies that were intended to make schools safer by discouraging the use of actual drugs and weapons by students, is the inhumane treatment of young people and the criminalization of childish behavior.

Ninth grader Andrew Mikel is merely the latest in a long line of victims whose educations have been senselessly derailed by school administrators lacking in both common sense and compassion. A freshman at Spotsylvania High School in Virginia, Andrew was expelled in December 2010 for shooting a handful of small pellets akin to plastic spit wads at fellow students in the school hallway during lunch period. Although the initial punishment was only for 10 days, the school board later extended it to the rest of the school year. School officials also referred the matter to local law enforcement, which initiated juvenile proceedings for criminal assault against young Andrew.

Andrew is not alone. Nine-year-old Patrick Timoney was sent to the principal’s office and threatened with suspension after school officials discovered that one of his LEGOs was holding a 2-inch toy gun. That particular LEGO, a policeman, was Patrick’s favorite because his father is a retired police officer. David Morales, an 8-year-old Rhode Island student, ran afoul of his school’s zero tolerance policies after he wore a hat to school decorated with an American flag and tiny plastic Army figures in honor of American troops. School officials declared the hat out of bounds because the toy soldiers were carrying miniature guns. A 7-year-old New Jersey boy, described by school officials as “a nice kid” and “a good student,” was reported to the police and charged with possessing an imitation firearm after he brought a toy Nerf-style gun to school. The gun shoots soft ping pong-type balls.

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Steve James
WSWS

"This is all smoke and mirrors. Working people in Ireland confront a constellation of political parties committed to the defence of capitalism, to bailing out most or all of the Irish banks and state finance at the expense of social spending, while defending the island as an investment base."

Campaigning has begun for Ireland’s general election on February 25. The poll was called following the collapse of the Fianna Fail/Green coalition led by Taoiseach Brian Cowen, after revelations about Cowen’s close relations with leading figures in the ruined Anglo-Irish Bank. The next government, whatever its labels, will aim to take up where Fianna Fail and the Greens left off, by sharply intensifying the attack on the working class.

Facing electoral disaster following a string of emergency cuts imposed to transfer banking debts onto the working class, Fianna Fail and the Greens sought to delay the election as long as possible. In the end, however, Cowen was forced to resign as leader of Fianna Fail, shortly before the Greens walked out of the government, convinced that a change of government was needed to press ahead with attacks on living standards. The coalition’s final act was to ensure that a Finance Act was passed, implementing the first tranche of cuts demanded by the European Union/International Monetary Fund following the €85 billion bailout last year.

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Rick Rozoff
Stop NATO

On January 27 the North Atlantic Treaty Organization took the most decisive step yet toward the implementation of the decades-old project first proposed by the Ronald Reagan administration for a Strategic Defense Initiative, popularly known as Star Wars.

In what will be the culmination of five years of extensive planning by the U.S. and NATO to construct an impenetrable interceptor missile shield to cover the European continent, the military bloc announced on the above date that it had handed over the first-ever theater ballistic missile defence capability to NATO military commanders at the NATO Combined Air Operations Centre in the German city of Uedem, which occurred “after NATO technicians computer-tested a software system linking anti-missile equipment from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United States.” [1]

Italian Air Force Brigadier General Alessandro Pera, head of the NATO Active Layered Theatre Ballistic Missile Defence (ALTBMD) Programme Office, delivered the plan to NATO Deputy Secretary General Claudio Bisogniero while the second day of a NATO Military Committee meeting at the Atlantic Alliance headquarters in Brussels with chiefs of defense staff and other military representatives from 66 countries was underway.

Those also present in Germany included U.S. Air Force Major General Mark Ramsay, deputy chief of staff for Operations and Intelligence at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (NATO’s main European command) and other military and civilian authorities from the Alliance and Germany. General Mark Welsh III, commander of Allied Air Command Ramstein, paid his first visit to the NATO Combined Air Operations Centre to coincide with the capability demonstration of the ALTBMD program. Brigadier General Pera “handed over a symbolic key to the operational user of the capability,” represented by Major General Ramsay. [2]

This year the Pentagon will begin its announced ten-year Phased Adaptive Approach (sometimes with a comma between the first two words) project to deploy medium- and intermediate-range interceptor missiles on ships in the Baltic Sea and Mediterranean Sea, which will be followed by the stationing of no fewer than 48 advanced Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) interceptors in Eastern Europe: 24 each in Romania and Poland.

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Stephen Lendman

On February 12, AFP headlined, "Euphoria sweeps Arab cities as Mubarak ousted," saying:

As news spread, jubilant crowds responded. "Across the Middle East and north Africa, loudspeakers on mosques called on citizens to rejoice in their own cities....In Lebanon, where the Cairo protests (were) reminiscent of mass anti-Syrian" 2005 demonstrations, "convoys bearing Egyptian flags blared their horns as fireworks went off across the country." Thousands came out to celebrate, a scene repeated in many Arab countries.

Hezbollah and Hamas observed Egypt's "historic victory." Crowds turned out in Beirut, across Lebanon, and "en masse (throughout) Gaza....joyfully shooting in the air and honking their car horns." Hamas' armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, also rallied in support.

Despite Israeli and PA security forces banning anti-Mubarak demonstrations, Palestinians celebrated across the West Bank. In Ramallah, hundreds turned out, waving flags, cheering Egypt's people. Activist Saed Karazon told AFP:

"What happened in Egypt is not only for the Egyptian people, it is for all Arabs. The whole Arab world is going to change."

Tunisia had a carnival-like atmosphere, crowds out in streets dancing and chanting joyously. A student named Nourredine said:

"It's wonderful! Two dictators have fallen in less than a month."

Many more are left, however, and major hurdles remain against very long odds.

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Stephen Lendman

World headlines are worrisome. On February 13, London's Guardian headlined, "Egypt's military rejects swift transfer of power and suspends constitution," saying:

Ruling generals rejected protester demands, saying they intend "to rule by martial law until elections are held." The announcement followed suspension of constitutional rule, retention of Mubarak's cabinet, and military police head, Mohamed Ibrahim Moustafa Ali, ordering protesters out of Tahrir Square under threat of arrest.

Many left "but a hardcore refused, saying they would remain until the army took a series of steps toward democratic reform including installing a civilian-led government and abolishing the repressive" Emergency Law, in force since 1981.

Instead, communiques have said chaos, disorder and strikes are prohibited, an ominous police state sign tolerating no dissent for an indefinite period. In other words, new faces are enforcing Mubarak-style despotism if harsh crackdowns follow.

Many pro-democracy supporters were alarmed, including Mohamed ElBaradei saying

"We need heavy participation by the civilians. It cannot be the army running the show."

One of the protest organizers, Mahmoud Nassar, said demonstrations will continue, adding:

"The revolution is continuing. Its demands have not been met. The sit-in and protests are in constant activity until the demands are met. All are invited to join."

On February 14, Reuters headlined, "Army orders last protesters out of Egypt's Tahrir," saying:

Those who held out out were cordoned by military police and soldiers, then told to leave under threat of arrest. One there said:

half an hour left, we are condoned by military police. We don't know what to do. We are discussing (it) now. (They) told us we have one hour to empty the square" or else.

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Stephen Lendman

Cars moved through Tahrir Square in Cairo again on Sunday,
though protesters remained. (Ed Ou for The New York Times)

What's unfolding looks different than what protesters demand. World headlines partly reflect it, mostly outside America, especially on US television reporting an illusion of change, when, in fact, coup d'etat rule is in charge, headed by authoritarian generals used to giving, not taking orders.

On February 13, Al Jazeera's said, "Egypt army tries to clear Tahrir," adding:

Scuffles broke out "as soldiers tried to remove activists from the epicenter of Egypt's uprising...." Hundreds courageously remained, saying they won't leave until "more of their demands are met." [...] As a result, "(S)oldiers shoved pro-democracy protesters aside to force a path for traffic to start flowing through Tahrir Square for the first time in more than two weeks."

Tents were removed. Al Jazeera's James Bays reported "flashpoint" confrontations, saying:

"I think it reflects a bigger problem, that the military believes that now Mubarak is out, it's time for stability. But some of the protesters think not enough has been done yet. They don't want to clear that square until the army (is) handed over to a civilian government."

As a result, they threaten more rallies if Egypt's ruling Supreme Military Council ignores their demands. Protest leader Safwat Hegazi spoke for others saying:

"If the army does not fulfill (them), our uprising and its measures will return stronger."

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Vera Macht
Gilad Atzmon's Blog

Vera Macht Reporting From Gaza

We in the West, we like to have the feeling that we have the Arab world under control. The states there are strategically important, full of oil, and the people strange, in what is for us a disturbing way. But they are hopefully largely under control by dictatorial regimes and the political or sometimes military interventions of the West. The Western discourse revolves around the question of whether Islam is at all compatible with democracy, and thus whether Arab Muslim immigrants can be integrated into European societies.

But now this through oppression installed stability has started to crumble in the Arab world. In Tunisia, the dictator has already fallen, in Egypt the 30 years old chair of Mubarak is broken, and other dictators in the Arab world have started to feel uneasy. But it is not the salvation and democracy bringing West which has brought this development to roll, no, it wasn’t even able to predict it, so that at first no Western politician was really sure how to react.

It was the people of those countries themselves who had enough of oppression, poverty and dictatorships. The millions of people who flocked to the streets are the same ones whose religion and mentality seemed contrary to the human and civil rights of a free political system. Millions of Egyptians have been persevering in liberation square for over two weeks, united in the fight for freedom, democracy and justice in their country. The only perhaps democracy compatible Arab Muslims risked their lives for a new democratic system, the revolution has cost hundreds of lives so far. Muslims form human chains for praying Christians to protect them as human shields from harassment.

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Joshua Holland
AlterNet

The ruins of the American economy represent a massive crime scene. Wall Street built a house of cards on fraud and misrepresentation, it crashed, and Americans' aggregate net worth is now more than $12 trillion off of its peak. Unemployment remains sky-high and the prospects for a robust recovery anytime soon are dim.

But as Naomi Klein artfully laid out in her book, The Shock Doctrine, a catastrophe for you and I usually presents an opportunity for the Titans of capital. And the grievous economic crisis affecting so many American families is no exception -- big business has found a number of ways to profit, directly, from Main Street's economic pain. Like vultures descending on a rotting corpse, they've come up with a variety of innovative methods to pull the last scraps of meat off the bones of America's middle-class.

Here are five ways these scavengers are making coin from our economic devastation.

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Stephen Lendman

Hopefully beneath celebratory euphoria, Egyptians know ousting Mubarak was simple, especially since Washington long wanted him out. Covertly with Egypt's military, it facilitated long-planned regime purging for with new faces under old policies. In other words, have everything change but stay the same, a common imperial bait and switch con.

As a result, the real liberating struggle continues against long odds for success because Washington, Egypt's military, Israel, Western powers, and big money will do everything to prevent it. The usual scheme was hatched - a facade of change that may or may not work, and will be months, maybe years, to know.

For now, however, Al Jazeera headlined, "Post-Mubarak era dawns on Egypt....just four weeks after Tunisians toppled their....ruler." Or did they? Their struggle also continues against comparable long odds. People throughout the region face them against powerful dark forces, representing imperial/monied interests, not theirs.

Al Jazeera, however, reported:

"Egyptians have woken to a new dawn after 30 years of rule under Hosni Mubarak." All night celebration preceded it. "Fireworks lit the night sky, cars honed under swathes of read, white and black Egyptian flags and people hoisted children above their heads. Some took souvenir pictures with smiling soldiers atop their tanks city streets," unaware that military commanders are enemies, not allies, a reality they'll confront ahead and should prepare. [...] For now, opposition figure Ayman Nour called February 11 "the greatest day in Egyptian history. This nation has been born again. These people have been born again, and this is a new Egypt."

Al Jazeera correspondents said street euphoria was "indescribable," "an explosion of emotion," quoting one pro-democracy campaigner, Dina Magdi, saying:

"I have waited, I have worked all my adult life to see the power of the people come to the fore and show itself. I am speechless. The moment is not only about Mubarak stepping down, it is also about people's power to bring about the change that no one....thought possible."

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Gilad Atzmon
Gilad Atzmon's Blog

"It was the moral force of non-violence” stated President Obama in his first comment on the revolution in Egypt. Yet it is far from being clear who was the Egyptian Mandela, Gandhi, or Martin Luther King? I guess that in Cairo it was the people themselves who peacefully transformed their own reality.

Jerusalem, Zionists, and some elements within the Left have demonised Arabs, Muslims and Islam for decades. Yet the people of Egypt just proved how restrained and peace-seeking Islam is for real.

Unlike some of our blood soaked Western revolutions, in Cairo millions of Muslims waited for 18 days for their tyrant to internalise the message. Day after day, they stood in the streets demonstrating patience and determination; five times a day they joined mass prayers for goodness to prevail. They reminded us all that Islam is derived from the word Salaam. Islam is all about peace. It is inherently non violent.

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Stephen Lendman

On February 10, indications were he'd step down. He didn't, but now it's official, vice president Suleiman saying he resigned, handing power to Egypt's military. A New York Times alert said "a historic popular uprising transformed politics in Egypt and around the Arab world."

Times rhetoric way overstated reality as resolution remains very much in doubt, though odds strongly favor continuity, not populist change. More on that below.

For the moment, however, huge Tahrir Square crowds erupted in celebratory euphoria, perhaps forgetting their liberating struggle just began. It didn't end with Mubarak's resignation. That was a baby step, removing an aging dinosaur Washington and Egypt's military wanted out. Now he's gone. Focus must follow through on what's next, requiring sustained popular protests. Otherwise, everything gained will be lost.

Behind the scenes, Washington and Egyptian military maneuvers were involved. They're always crucial, not visible orchestrated events. As a result, discerning reality is crucial. Hopefully, Egyptians understand, knowing the folly of letting up now and losing out.

Investigative journalist Wayne Madsen believes Obama waffled to buy time for CIA operatives to secure and purge Egypt's torture and rendition files, dating from when Attorney General Eric Holder was Clinton's Deputy Attorney General in the 1990s.

He also said Secretary of State Clinton wanted her husband protected, and former White House chief of staff (now CIA head) Leon Panetta had the same aim. Doing so, of course, requires keeping Washington-favorites in power, permitting no uncertain alternatives, people Egyptians need for real change.

Besides short-lived confrontations, orchestrated street violence was avoided. Whether it continues, however, is unknown as Egypt's military is notoriously brutal, a different reality than most on Cairo streets believe. Among them were hundreds, perhaps thousands experiencing its harshness, for the moment at least lost in a sea of celebratory humanity.

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Hrafnkell Haraldsson
Politicsusa

Minnesota Land Grab

(Author’s Note: This is Part 2 of a 3-part series. As of yesterday, February 10, 2011, Indian Country reports that the offending AFA blog post to which I refer here has been taken down. No point in letting up on the pressure though – Hrafnkell)

Historian Francis Paul Prucha calls government policy one of “paternalism”. That is, the white government had an obligation towards its wards just as a parent would, looking out for their interest and doing things that they themselves might not want to do, in other words: as a child does not know what is best for them, so too the Native American. Prucha points out the positive and negative aspects of this sort of viewpoint, the worst outcome being exploitation, a crime all too many parents are capable of.

Good or bad be the parents, children seldom get to choose. Neither did the Dakota. The land they would live on according to the reservation system in lieu of their old haunts was chosen for them by the United States Government, and from what follows, it does not seem as though the government negotiators looked at anything to do with the proposed reserve other than maps, ignoring what we would today call “the facts on the ground.”[1]

The reserve marked out for the Dakota (you can see the narrow band on the map above, flanking the Minnesota River) did not impress either agents or superintendents, who saw it as far inferior to the lands they had been dwelling on. Territorial Governor and therefore Superintendent, Willis A. Gorman, deplored the terrain of their new home upon seeing it for the first time: “From the vicinity of the new agency there commences a vast prairie of more than one hundred miles in extant, entirely destitute of timber.”[2] A year later, the Sioux Agent, Robert G. Murphy also mentions the “great scarcity of timber in the neighborhood.”[3] However, Murphy found the land good for farming purposes even if there was no game to hunt, and the fact that timber was so scarce was seen to benefit the Dakota in another way: “It…has not sufficient timber to be a temptation to white settlers.”[4]

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Stephen Lendman

Several previous articles discussed his right to return, accessed through these links here, here and here.

Since forcibly exiled on February 29, 2004, Washington and Haiti denied his right to return, though affirmed in Haiti's Constitution and international law.

Supporters of ex-president Aristide of Haiti
hold signs bearing his nickname "Titid" that
read "We are waiting for you," in Kreyol.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:

Article 9: "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile."
Article 13(2): "Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country."

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) states:

Article 12(2)(4): "Everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his own....No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country."

The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination states:

Article 5(d)(ii): Civil rights for everyone include "(t)he right to leave any country, including one's own, and to return to one's country."

The General Assembly's Declaration on the Human Rights of Individuals Who are Not Nationals of the Country in Which They Live states:

Article 5(2): They have "(t)he right to leave the country."
Article 10 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child affords the same right of return to children.

So does Article 8 of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of the Their Families (ICPMMW). Everyone has the right to go home.

International law provides clear affirmation, including freedom of movement as a fundamental human right. Hegemons like America, however, ignore it, forcing vassal states like Haiti to concur - at least up to now, so at issue has anything changed?

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