Prableen Kaur Leder i Grorud AUF
(With rush translation from Norwegian into English)

Jeg har våknet. Jeg klarer ikke å sove mer. Jeg sitter i stuen. Føler sorg, sinne, lykke, Gud jeg vet ikke hva. Det er for mange følelser. Det er for mange tanker. Jeg er redd. Jeg reagerer på hver minste lyd. Jeg vil nå skrive om hva som skjedde på Utøya. Hva mine øyne så, hva jeg følte, hva jeg gjorde. Ordene kommer rett fra levra, men jeg vil samtidig anonymisere mange navn i respekt for mine venner.

Vi hadde hatt krisemøte i hovedbygget etter eksplosjonene i Oslo. Etter det var det et eget møte for medlemmene fra Akershus og Oslo. Etter møtene befant mange, mange seg rundt og i hovedbygget. Vi trøstet oss med at vi var trygge på en øy. Ingen hadde visst at helvete ville bryte ut hos oss også.

Jeg sto i hovedgangen da panikken brøt ut. Jeg hørte skudd. Jeg så ham skyte. Alle begynte å løpe. Det første tanken var: ”Hvorfor skyter politiet på oss? Hva faen?!” Jeg løp inn i lillesalen. Folk løp. Skrek. Jeg var redd. Jeg klarte å komme meg inn på et av rommene bakerst i bygget. Vi var mange der inne. Vi lå på gulvet alle sammen. Vi hørte flere skudd. Ble mer redde. Jeg gråt. Jeg skjønte ingenting. Jeg så bestevennen min gjennom vinduet og lurte på om jeg skulle gå ut for hente ham inn til meg. Jeg rakk det ikke. Jeg så frykten i øynene hans.

Vi ble liggende på gulvet inne i rommet i noen minutter. Vi ble enige om ikke å slippe flere inn i tilfelle morderen kom. Vi hørte flere skudd og bestemte oss for å hoppe ut av vinduet. Panikken brøt ut blant oss.

More »

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns the decision taken by the Israeli Prisons Administration on Wednesday, 20 July 2011, to stop the higher education program provided to the Palestinian prisoners. PCHR calls on the international community to exert pressure on Israel and compel it to respect international law and put an end to the systematic and continued inhumane and degrading treatment of more than 6,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and detention centres.

The gravity of this decision is that it forms part of a series of measures taken by Israeli occupation authorities against Palestinian prisoners following actual orders given to the Israeli Prisons Administration by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the end of last month to reduce what he termed as "advantages granted" to Palestinian prisoners. Other measures taken against prisoners include intensifying searching prisoners after forcing them to take off their clothes and placing Palestinian leaders, in Israeli jails, in solitary confinement. Palestinian prisoners have responded by declaring a set of actions in protest of such escalations. Prisoners went on a hunger strike for 10 sporadic days over the past two months.

This decision by the Israeli Prisons Administration is part of a general policy adopted by Israeli occupation authorities against Palestinian prisoners who are subjected to cruel living conditions as well as inhumane and degrading treatment, including torture, deteriorating health conditions and medical negligence towards prisoners - including those suffering from serious illnesses. This has, in some cases, led to death. This decision is extremely serious because it is based on instructions given from the top of the Israeli political establishment.

More »

Chris Marsden & Julie Hyland

For the last few days, the British public has been told that parliament has reasserted authority over Rupert Murdoch’s media empire and finally called the multibillionaire to order. Some have gone so far as to exclaim that Murdoch’s appearance before a parliamentary select committee Tuesday, alongside his son James, represents a “British Spring”.

This implicit reference to the so-called “Arab Spring”— revolutionary working-class struggles that forced Western-backed dictators in Tunisia and Egypt to resign this winter—is absurd and false. The spectacle of bought-and-paid-for parliamentarians respectfully questioning Murdoch aims to confuse the population and forestall a political accounting with the corporate oligarchy.

Far from demonstrating the vitality of the British political system, the sycophancy of Murdoch’s questioners revealed its rottenness and corruption. Prime Minister David Cameron—despite ample evidence of his compromising relations with top personnel from Murdoch’s UK media group, News International—did not even face a motion of no-confidence during Wednesday’s emergency parliamentary sitting. If there were any commitment to democracy left in the British establishment, this would not be possible.

It is a matter of record that representatives of News International were involved in hacking the phones of over 12,000 people, bribing police officers and using ties to the criminal underworld to blackmail and intimidate leading public figures. Moreover, the disturbing and unexplained death on Monday of the chief whistle-blower, Sean Hoare, was immediately declared “not suspicious”.

Every major institution and leading politician is implicated in the Murdoch scandal. Besides their own nefarious relations with Murdoch’s media group, top officials of the Metropolitan Police, the Crown Prosecution Service and successive governments have blocked investigations into criminal behaviour at News International for at least six years.

The ruling establishment’s claims of shock and outrage now are rank hypocrisy. Everyone in the political class knew full well the basic character of Murdoch’s operations, and either acquiesced or played an active part in them. For three decades Murdoch was a kingmaker, not only in Britain but also in the US, Australia, and beyond. Politicians, whether nominally “conservative” or “labour”, pledged fealty to him. That is why not a single individual has been prosecuted, much less held to political account, in the News International scandal so far.

More »

Stephen Lendman

Though a long shot at best, her doggedness during hard times makes anything possible. However, the notion of President Bachmann should chill everyone to fight it at a time America already is no fit place to live in. Imagine it under her, making Washington Christian fascist occupied territory. Don't rule her out.

Frances Fitzgerald titled her 2000 book on Reagan's Star Wars Strategic Defense Initiative, "Way Out There in the Blue," leaving [it] unsaid but letting readers conclude that America during his tenure was run by right wing extremists.

He and most others around him were ideologically hard right, their legacy including:

● disdain for working Americans;
● contempt for the rule of law, civil liberties, human rights, and democratic freedoms; and
● support for concentrated wealth, power and budget-busting militarism.

They backed:

● sweeping deregulation;
● destructive "free trade;"
● offshoring high-paying manufacturing, service, and other jobs;
● the war on drugs - in fact, a war on poor minorities, escalating America's prison population to the highest by far in the world, two-thirds in it Blacks and Latinos, most for nonviolent offenses;
● tax cuts for the rich;
● draconian social program cuts;
● support for global despots, apartheid South Africa, star wars, death squads, proxy wars in Central America, Africa, Afghanistan, and Middle East by helping Iran and Iraq wage war; and
● contempt for gays, lesbians, people of color, the poor and disadvantaged, and more.

Age 24 in 1980, Bachmann voted for Reagan and worked for his campaign. In Congress and as a Tea Party presidential candidate, her extremism may be unrivaled.

More »

Charles E. Carlson

Walid Shoebat, available for your anti-Islam shindig...

Anderson Cooper on CNN News’ show, Anderson Cooper 360o, exposed a former Palestinian school boy named Walid Shoebat, who has become a manufactured "terror expert" promoting anti-Islamist hysteria among federal law enforcement officers and in Evangelical, Christian Zionists churches. The CNN piece[1] focused on unraveling Shoebat's claimed history as a "terrorist" into a pile of yarn, showing it consisted of not even half truths. It also revealed how much money Shoebat is being paid by US taxpayers to train federal police and American Christian Zionists.

CNN stopped short of saying what will be tough to prove… that Shoebat is a de-facto Israeli agent operating in the USA. Furthermore, it is likely he was recruited here, because it appears that Israel never heard of him when he lived with his family in Beit Lahor, near Bethlehem, where he claims to have been a "terrorist" trying to kill Jews.

Shoebat's written response, “I Confess…”, to Anderson Cooper’s telling exposé, was immediately spread far and wide by World Net Daily and other news sources in sympathy with Israel and Christian Zionists.[2]

Why is Shoebat so well paid? Here is an example of what he says to earn his money. CNN News researcher Drew Griffin recorded Shoebat's lecture to law enforcement and first respondent personnel in South Dakota. Griffin’s remarks included,

"Shoebat’s message to the law enforcement agencies, churches and universities that pay him to speak is to trust no Muslims, especially the ones that organize. 'All Islamic organizations in America should be the No. 1 enemy. All of them,' he said at the South Dakota conference."

Shoebat has a handler, but we cannot see him. His written rebuttal to CNN is revealing in that it is far more professional than he is capable of himself. Shoebat was stumbling, shamefaced and sometimes belligerent in his CNN interview with Drew Griffin; he could not even recall the names of his Board of Directors, and he had no explanation for why his alleged crimes and arrest time in Israel were unknown there.

Shoebat’s written rebuttal, however, is brilliant in its ability to avoid questions, while scoffing at the CNN documentary, and could only have been done by a PR pro who realized that a lie still has value so long as some will believe it. Shoebat cries, “poor me”, a persecuted philanthropist giving money to save Christians, who he says are being murdered by Muslims. He makes no mention of his largesse from the Department of Homeland Security. Too bad we can not uncover his agent and his writer. I would guess from their style that both are Israelis.

More »

Stephen Lendman

After months of ruling Al Khalifa family crackdowns against nonviolent protesters, political opponents, human rights activists, medical professionals, independent journalists, and others wanting democratic change, reports suggest Washington may move its Fifth Fleet elsewhere.

According to the Australian and London Times, "Sources in Washington and the Gulf confirm (a) growing consensus" around the idea of relocating away from Bahrain because of unease over violence and instability.

On July 21, Hugh Tomlinson said:

"Politicians in Washington are concerned the navy's continued presence a few kilometres from the centre of the capital Manama lends tacit support to Bahrain's suppression of the opposition, amid allegations of systematic human rights abuses."

Other concerns are that violence and instability may compromise base security. According to one source:

"There was talk on Capitol Hill about moving the fleet within days of the protests breaking out, and that increased in March and April as people realized that what was happening in Bahrain ran counter to our interests."

In mid-March, however, Obama backed Saudi troops invading Bahrain guns blazing, attacking peaceful protesters, arresting opposition leaders and activists, occupying the country, denying wounded men and women medical treatment, and enforcing Al Khalifa family imposed martial law.

More »

Philip Giraldi

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was at it again last week. She was in Turkey attending a NATO gathering dealing with what to do about the succession in Libya, based on the perhaps erroneous assumption that Muammar Gadhafi is on his way out. Clinton and NATO decided, based on their own admittedly partial view of the situation, that the Gadhafi regime is no longer legitimate and that the rebels who are trying to topple him are now to be regarded as the legal government. The “international recognition” will enable them to use the roughly $30 billion in frozen Libyan government assets, mostly located in American and European banks. Hopefully, things will go better than they did in Iraq back in 2003. Washington sent in a proconsul supported by a host of neocon Myrmidons to make sure things would run smoothly. More than $20 billion of Iraqi state “reconstruction” funds were unfrozen and then went missing after liberation took place. The Iraqi people are still waiting for the electricity to come back on.

Clinton also took some heavy-handed swipes at Syria, making clear that both she and her boss want to see regime change. Three hundred fifty representatives of Syrian dissident groups were perhaps not coincidentally present in Istanbul for a “National Salvation Conference,” so Clinton took the opportunity to denounce President Bashar al-Assad’s government as having “lost legitimacy.” The White House backed up Clinton’s possibly impromptu comment, and over at Foggy Bottom, Victoria Nuland, the State Department’s neoconnish press spokeswoman, made the case more explicitly, denouncing “a Syrian government that continues to beat, imprison, torture, slaughter its own people.”

If Syria sounds like any number of regimes that the United States has quite comfortable relationships with, it should. While it would seem that international conferencing and seeking to overthrow two regimes would make for a busy weekend for even the most peripatetic secretary of state, Hillary also decided to take on her host, Turkey.

More »

Adnan Al-Daini

There's a slogan that has become the emblem of the revolution in the entire Arab world: “The people want the fall of the regime” - “Alshaab youreed isqat elnidham”. 

The standard response of every dictator in the Arab world is: Who, me? Then they blame everything and everybody except themselves.  What arrogance!  In fact, to any objective observer of the Middle East, the question is not why the revolution is happening, but why it has taken so long!  The reality of politics in the Arab world was succinctly summed up by a Syrian pro-democracy demonstrator with: “We the people are only allowed to open our mouths when we go to the dentist”.

Arab despots see the legitimate demands of their people for justice, human rights and freedom as a challenge to their manliness. It has inhibited them from responding intelligently and flexibly.  Arab society with a culture that generally excludes women from politics, and admires a “fearless” leader, who is ruthless and unable to tolerate dissent, is a poor one with ruinous consequences for its people.

Stubbornness and domination have become characteristics to be admired in the male with varying degrees in the entire Arab world.  Girls are encouraged to defer to their brothers, and taught to hide their intelligence and good sense in discussions with their male counterparts.  Males are burdened from an early age to assume the mantle of family leadership, and encouraged to see themselves as protector of the extended family against all external threats.  This macho tradition is transferred to the politics of an Arab world that largely excludes women, and has produced an unhealthy imbalance between the sexes that has been to the detriment of everyone in society.

More »

Khalid Amayreh in occupied Jerusalem

As many as 5000 Christian Zionists gathered this week at the Convention Center in Washington, D.C. for the annual conference of the organization CUFI, Christians United For Israel.

The annual event is considered a key occasion when Christian supporters of Israel reassert their nearly hysterical embrace of the Zionist apartheid regime, including the policies of ethnic cleansing of non-Jews (Muslims and Christians), lebensraum, and even its genocidal designs.

Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu addressed the evangelical conference, telling the huge audience that "when you support Israel, you don’t have to choose between your interests and your values, you get both.."

Netanyahu, like most other Israeli leaders, is a pathological liar who lies as often as he breathes oxygen. He knows deep in his heart that what Israel has been doing and the way it has been behaving ever since its birth 63 years ago represents the ultimate contradiction to true Christian values, the values that Jesus preached and because of which he incurred the wrath of the Jewish establishment of his time.

One of the most enthusiastic Zionist Christian supporters of Israel is Glen Beck, a tomfool par excellence, who would do anything in order to obtain a kosher certificate of good conduct from the very same people who would view Beck himself a slave, and his mother, daughter and sister as Shiksas or whores.

The news commentator, who visited Israel a few days ago in order demonstrate his Zionist credentials, sounded very much as if he was a Kahana disciple.

Meir Kahana is the Judeo-Nazi rabbi and former Knesset member who urged Israel to carry out a genocidal ethnic cleansing of its non-Jewish population and subjects in order to create a goyem-free Talmudic theocracy.

More »

Stephen Lendman

Beggar in Jerusalem. No longer allowed at Kotel (Western Wall /
Wailing Wall.) (Photo: Shlomi Cohen)

Notably since the early 1980s, neoliberalism began replacing New Deal/Great Society values to the detriment of millions harmed. It means markets know best so let them, liberating enterprise to move capital, goods and services freely, benefitting the few at the expense of the many.

Britain's Thatcher and America's Reagan were pivotal figures, endorsing elitism, class power, and private enterprise unconstrained by rules, regulations or taxes, producing inequality and social injustice.

It plagues Israel like the West, notably since the mid-1980s when power shifted from various government agencies to the Finance Ministry and central bank (the Bank of Israel), similar to American financialization that empowered Wall Street, the Fed, and US FIRE sector overall (finance, insurance, and real estate).

A race to the bottom followed, especially since the 1990s by mass privatizations, welfare and social benefit cuts, and, like America, shifting wealth to the rich. Predictable results produced social injustice and inequality, harming Jews as well as Arab citizens.

Various studies show it, including annual Latet ones, its latest saying 1.77 million Israelis are poor. About 850,000 children live in poverty. As a result, 75% of those affected miss meals, a 21% increase from 2009. Moreover, 83% of poor children lack proper dental care, most getting none. Some beg for money. Others steal to eat.

More »

Peter Smith

Lord Monckton addressed a rowdy crowd at the anti-
carbon tax rally in Sydney. (AAP: Lema Samandar)

Saw Lord Monckton in Sydney this month. It was fittingly cold. I remember my first Sydney winter many years’ ago. It was colder than I expected. Memories play tricks but my impression is that this winter is as cold as it was then. However, I am not putting this forward as evidence for the absence of global warming. Sceptics and warmists are at one in acknowledging that the earth has warmed since the end of the little ice age and, I think, most agree with the proximate extent of the warming; even if sceptics are suspicious of data fiddling and many badly-placed land temperature gauges.

Everyone also agrees that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and that more of it will warm the planet. Thus far there is agreement. It is therefore annoying (to put it mildly) at this juncture to have people (scientist and non-scientists) say that some ice is melting or that seas levels are rising as though this were additional information to bolster the case of warming. It simply isn’t. Warming is warming and it will have an effect on ice and sea level. For those whose reason has been impaired by mumbo-jumbo climate science, put some cubes of ice in a sieve over a pan of water and warm the pan. Measuring the temperature inside the pan is all that is needed to establish that the pan is warming. You can then observe that the ice cubes have melted and the water level has risen but this gives no added information on the fact of the warming.

If everyone agrees basically with what has happened (though of course not why it has happened from the late 1970’s until about 2000) then disagreement of substance must surely be restricted to what will happen in the future. Back to Lord Monckton. Let us first of all dispense with his credentials. Is he a lord? This seemed to fascinate Adam Spencer on ABC radio. Well no one disputes that he has a hereditary peerage. Does that, as he claims, entitle him to describe himself as a non-sitting member of the House of Lords? I have no idea. His explanation seems okay to me but he may be indulging in a little pedantic vanity. Is this as bad as an imaginary dodging of bullets on an airport tarmac, for example? Would Mr Spencer have quizzed Hillary Clinton about this at the start of an interview on foreign affairs? Spencer also thought it was relevant to get Monckton to concede that he was neither a climate scientist nor an economist. To what point? Surely everyone knows that neither Monckton nor Al Gore, nor anyone on the multi-party climate change committee is a scientist or economist.

Monckton’s credentials are that he has looked thoroughly into the science and drawn conclusions. He has done what we all should do, to some extent at least, rather than to simply fall into line like sheep. His views stand or fall on their merits and have to be challenged on their merits.

More »

Stephen Lendman

Pretending to restart Israeli/Palestinian peace talks, Quartet representatives met in Washington on July 11. Attending were Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and former UK Prime Minister/reinvented war criminal/current Middle East envoy Tony Blair.

Ahead of talks, Clinton and Ashton expressed determination to overcome previously unresolved issues.

On July 12, an unidentified senior US official called the meeting an "excellent and serious discussion on the next steps. (Representatives) expressed support for (Obama's) May Middle East speech and called to start preparatory phases of talks without any preconditions."

However, "(t)here are still gaps, and they need to be closed before the Quartet can go forward with public statements."

In fact, chasms define still unresolved issues. More on that below.

On July 12, Haaretz writer Barak Ravid headlined, "Israel and Palestinian sources to Haaretz: US peace efforts have failed," saying "Intensive US strong-arming failed. America "was unable to find a formula that (all) parties could accept." Manipulative Washington demands were unacceptable. Netanyahu blamed Palestinians for the impasse.

Last January's Palestine Papers revealed that Obama rejected unacceptable Bush era two state solution "Road Map" terms, effectively accepting settlements as Israeli territory. Or did he?

More »

Andy Worthington

[Photo: U.S. “enemy combatant” Jose Padilla’s losing his mind in a U.S. military brig during his ordeal of solitary confinement and torture.]

“Some issues,” the New York Times declared in an editorial on June 25, “require an unwavering stand. Preserving the role of law enforcement agencies in stopping and punishing terrorists is one of them. This country is not and should never be a place where the military dispenses justice, other than to its own.”

Fine words, indeed, although the Times itself has, over the last ten years, in common with most, if not all of the American establishment, failed to thoroughly and repeatedly condemn efforts, first by George W. Bush, and then by the Obama administration, to hold military trials for the mixed bag of soldiers and terrorist suspects held at Guantánamo.

This is where the rot set in, for which everyone in a position of authority, whether in politics or the media, bears responsibility. However, the failure to stem the poison flowing from this wound to the established order — in which terrorists are criminals and soldiers are not terrorists — has led to an outrageous situation in which lawmakers (both Republicans and Democrats) have decided that the aberrations introduced by the Bush administration, which should, by now, have been thoroughly discredited, were, instead, just the first steps in the creation of an all-encompassing military state.

In this dystopian future, coming to America within months, if lawmakers are successful, anyone regarded as a terrorist must be held in military detention, where, it is planned, they may be subjected to abuse with impunity, and, if required, held forever without a trial and without any rights.

This was the aberration initially dreamt up by Bush and his close advisors for their “war on terror” and implemented at Guantánamo, throughout the war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq, and around the world in a network of secret prisons. Although it should have died as an enduring concept when President Obama took office, it took less than a year for supporters of military detention for terror suspects to start proposing its continuation and expansion, suggesting that no foreign terror suspect should ever receive a federal court trial.

More »

Medea Benjamin

("ΛΕΦΤΑ" means MONEY)

The people of Greece are fed up with this wasteful military spending.

When U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Greece, she praised the Greek government’s austerity measures to reduce deficits and cut spending. The U.S. and Greece face a common challenge of dealing with soaring deficits, but they also face something else in common: a refusal to deal with out-of-control military spending. And given that the United States is a major arms seller to Greece, Hillary Clinton will encourage the Greeks to slash workers’ wages and pensions, but not its enormous military appetite.

With a population of just 11 million, Greece is the largest importer of conventional weapons in Europe—and ranks fifth in the world behind China, India, the United Arab Emirates and South Korea. Greece spends a whooping 3 percent of its gross domestic product on military hardware, compared to an average 1.7% in the other European NATO countries, including nations involved in international conflicts such as Britain, France and Germany.

The justification has been the ongoing disputes with Turkey over Cyprus and disagreement over the sovereignty of certain islets of the Aegean. But for years now there has been no military conflict over these decades-old disputes, and relations with Turkey have been steadily improving.

I recently spent time with Greek activists who have been camping out in Athens’ Syntagma Square to protest the austerity program. They are not happy with Clinton’s visit, or her thumbs up for a financial package that slashes wages, reduces pensions, increases joblessness and privatizes government services. And they noted that the very nations in the European Union and the United States that have been pushing the Greek government to squeeze Greek workers are the same ones that have been, for the last decade, pushing Greece to purchase massive amounts of worthless weapons.

More »

Stephen Lendman

In July 2011, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) issued a new report titled, "Education Denied: Israel's Systematic Violation of Palestinian Children's Right to Education," even though it's a fundamental human right.

It involves progressively developing children as individuals and responsible citizens. It's key in helping them "raise their standard of living, and (be able to further their) economic, social and cultural development and growth of society."

PCHR's report addresses Israeli policies that affect primary education achievement for all Palestinians by 2015.

International law recognizes the right to education for everyone, including Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) stating:

"The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to education....(It) shall enable all persons to participate effectively in a free society, promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations and all racial, ethnic or religious groups," as well as advance activities for peace.

More »

Robert Stevens and Chris Marsden

Parliament and its parties are nothing more than the hirelings of an obscenely wealthy oligarchy that has complete liberty to pursue their self-enrichment and impose their counterrevolutionary social agenda by whatever means they see fit.

The two select committees are nothing more than a cover for the refusal to conduct a serious investigation of the News International scandal that would bring the guilty to book.

The appearance of Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and CEO of News Corporation, and his son James Murdoch, its deputy chief operating officer, before the British Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sports Select Committee was a piece of well-choreographed political theatre.

As with Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, News Corp’s UK arm, who was questioned afterwards, the Murdochs knew beforehand that there was no danger of them being asked probing questions, let alone suffering any legal consequences from their testimony.

Far from the much vaunted reassertion of the authority of Parliament and the bringing of Murdoch to account, the event took on the character of a PR exercise for News Corp.

One would never have known by the committee’s deference that the three News Corp luminaries were appearing to answer questions relating not only to the News of the World’s phone hacking, but to bribery, corruption and blackmail of police officers, public officials and leading politicians by Murdoch’s media empire.

More »

Patrick Martin

An elderly man walks past The National Debt Clock, which displays the current United States gross national debt and each American family's share, on a wall in midtown Manhattan, in New York July 13, 2011. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Obama has escalated the war in Afghanistan, launched new military onslaughts in Libya, Yemen and Somalia, continued the Bush administration’s attacks on democratic rights, and now seeks to outdo the Republicans in imposing austerity policies at home.

Official Washington and American media attention will be focused for the next two weeks on the August 2 deadline for raising the federal debt ceiling. Without congressional action to increase the debt limit by that date, according to the Treasury Department, the US government will be unable to borrow money to cover payments, including Social Security checks being sent out to 50 million recipients on August 3, and interest payments on US government bonds due later in the month.

In order to understand the significance of the debt ceiling crisis, and the measures being proposed to resolve it, it is necessary to cut through the lies and distortions of the Democratic and Republican politicians in Washington, reinforced by the commentaries in the corporate-controlled media, both liberal and conservative.

Why is the demand for “deficit reduction” now being voiced so unanimously in every quarter of official American politics? What are the fundamental class issues that underlie this campaign?

The American ruling elite is engaged in the greatest robbery of working people in US history. In the bank bailout of 2008-2009, the financial aristocracy effectively transferred to the federal government its bad debts and losses from a decade of reckless speculation. Now the working class is being compelled to pay the price for Wall Street’s looting of the Treasury through the destruction of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other social programs in education, the environment, transportation and housing.

When they hear Barack Obama, John Boehner and other political and media representatives of big business declare that “there is no money” to sustain vital programs on which tens of millions of working people depend for their survival, workers should think back to the financial crisis that erupted less than three years ago. There was no suggestion then that “there is no money” to save the banks from collapse. On the contrary, staggering and essentially unlimited sums—as much as $23.7 trillion in combined cash, loans and guarantees from the Treasury, Federal Reserve and other institutions—were made available to defend the capitalist system and the financial interests of the super-rich.

More »

Julie Hyland

In the 2010 general election held on 6 May, the Conservatives won 307 seats in a hung parliament and Cameron was appointed Prime Minister on 11 May 2010, at the head of a coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. Using The Sun extensively, Rupert Murdoch had done his darned best to make it happen...

The political crisis surrounding the News of the World phone hacking scandal is now threatening the position of Prime Minister David Cameron.

With the arrest Sunday of former News International Chief Executive Rebekah Brooks, the Metropolitan Police and Rupert Murdoch’s media group are rounding on one another in public.

Brooks is the tenth person to be arrested as part of investigations into phone hacking and the corruption of police officers by News International. None as yet has been charged.

Brooks, a former News of the World editor, was invited to meet with police at the weekend on Friday, only hours after she resigned her post at News International, the company that controls Murdoch’s media outlets in Britain. Initially, there were allegations that the invitation was a ruse cooked up between the news group and the police to prevent her appearing Tuesday alongside Rupert Murdoch and his son James, News International’s chairman, before the parliamentary select committee investigating phone hacking.

The Murdochs had already made clear that their answers to the committee would be limited by the police investigations. Brooks’ arrest, it was argued, could see her exempted from appearing. In the event, a statement by Brooks’ lawyer said her appearance was a matter for the committee itself.

Brooks’ anger at being quizzed for nine hours under caution was made clear in the same statement. While she “is not guilty of any criminal offence,” it read, “the position of the Metropolitan Police is less easy to understand. Despite arresting her yesterday, and conducting an interview process lasting nine hours, they put no allegations to her and showed her no documents connecting her with any crime.

“They will in due course have to give an account of their actions and, in particular, their decision to arrest her with the enormous reputational damage that this has involved.”

The statement is indicative of the acrimony now breaking out at the highest levels of the state and political apparatus.

Murdoch’s Times editorialised that if the allegations of bribery amongst serving police officers proved true, it would mean, “Britain’s police are riven with corruption on an institutional scale. Journalists who bribe policemen are indicative of a flawed industry. Policemen who can be bribed are indicative of a flawed state.”

More »

Stephen Lendman

In Israel and Occupied Palestine, only Jews have rights. Arabs are denied them for being Muslims in a Jewish state, even on their own land.

Palestinians bear witness daily to Israeli state terror. Complicit Western and regional nations, in fact, condone it through silence or failure to condemn what never is tolerable and must end.

For nearly a week, Israeli aircraft struck Gaza preemptively. As a result, fear of a new war grows.

Israel claims strikes follow rocket attacks. In fact, when launched, they're few in number and respond to Israeli aggression in self-defense.

● On July 12, IDF jets struck alleged northern Gaza "weapons manufacturing sites," injuring one woman.
● On July 13, three tunnels were bombed. Israel falsely blamed them for "terrorist activity." Two Palestinians were missing after one of the tunnels collapsed. Later one body was recovered. Five or more other Palestinians were wounded.
● On July 14, other targets were struck, wounding four Palestinian civilians.
● On July 15, overnight attacks wounded four Palestinians, including two children. Over the weekend, other preemptive raids followed. Blaming the victims, a July 14 IDF statement said: "The IDF will not tolerate any attempt to harm Israeli civilians, and will respond with determination to any attempt to use terror against the State of Israel. The IDF holds the Hamas terrorist organization solely responsible for any terrorist activity emanating from the Gaza Strip."

In fact, Hamas is Palestine's legitimate government. Israel lawlessly terrorizes West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza residents preemptively, falsely claiming self-defense.

More »

Stephen Lendman

Rahm Emanuel, left, and Richard M. Daley. On December 15, 2010, Rahm Emanuel met privately with Chicago’s labor union leaders and informed them that if elected, he plans to cut pensions and not just for new hires. Emanuel must be some tough sob because union leaders having intentionally kept this information from its membership seem to fear Emanuel more than their members. (pbd)

Except for Harold Washington's 1983 - 1987 tenure until his untimely death, Chicago never had populist mayors, notably under father Richard J. (April 20, 1955 - December 20, 1976) and son Richard M. Daley (April 24, 1989 - May 16, 2011).

However, after two months in office, Emanuel looks likely to be Chicago's worst, based on policy initiatives he supports.

As White House chief of staff, he was criminally part of Obama's war cabinet. As Chicago's mayor, he's waging it against labor.

Candidate Emanuel, in fact, promised draconian anti-worker cuts "in attacking our budget deficit, (so) there must be no sacred cows....Chicago will have to make tough choices, (forcing) more than $500 million in efficiencies" on the backs of working Chicagoans already struggling to get by when they need help, not greater sacrifices they can't afford.

No matter, slash and burn now is policy, including layoffs, wage freezes, and benefit cuts, notably targeting healthcare and pensions. Then in June, Emanuel rescinded a contractual 4% raise owed 30,000 teachers, indicating the same policy would follow for other Chicago Public Schools (CPS) employees as part of his war on public education and Chicago workers.

In late June, it continued with 1,000 teachers fired, besides 4,000 since 2009, school closures, larger class sizes, and other draconian measures. Reassigned teachers retain salaries and benefits for one year as "interim" substitute staff. If not kept after 10 months, they're "honorabl(y) terminated."

In other words, fired, no matter their qualifications, tenure, or student needs. In fact, many other teachers were sacked without temporary pay or benefits, according to union officials, who have little to boast about after endorsing Illinois Senate Bill 7 (SB 7).

More »