Kourosh Ziabari

Syria crisis: Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora (C) meets
with members of the Arab League delegation. (UPI)

After the Arab League hypocritically suspended the membership of Syria amid the mounting pressures of NATO and the United States, the resurgence of violence in Egypt and the increasing use of excessive force in Bahrain and Yemen and the unrelenting massacre of innocent civilians by the barbaric regime of Al Khalifa and Ali Abdullah Saleh once again attracted the attention of conscientious observers in the international community.

According to official figures released by the "Bahrain Center for Human Rights" website, so far 44 Bahraini citizens were killed at the hands of the mercenaries of Al Khalifa regime. The Bahraini martyrs include the 6-year-old Mohammed Farhan, 14-year-old Ali Jawad Alshaikh and 15-year-old Sayed Ahmad Saeed Shams. The Bahraini organization has reported that many of these martyrs were killed while in custody. The Center has also published documents indicating that more than 1,500 Bahrainis including about 100 women were incarcerated since the eruption of turmoil in the Persian Gulf country on February 14, 2011 and that more that 90 journalists face life threat.

It's also said that the Bahraini government has blocked the citizens' access to more than 1000 opposition websites which are mainly used to organize and plan protests and mass demonstrations.

The Bahraini regime commits all of these aggressive and brutal actions with the direct involvement of the Saudi Arabia and the implicit support and backing of NATO and the United States. The author of the "Hidden Harmonies China" blog in a March 14, 2011 post referred to the abuses of human rights in Bahrain with the flagrant, duplicitous support of the White House: "the Entry of Saudi security forces to crack down on the protesters with deadly force is a complication for U.S. policies, to say the least, since U.S. is reluctant to criticize its oil ally dictators in the region."

He also called Bahrain the "Las Vegas" of the Middle East, host to the U.S. 5th Fleet and a haunt for the rich Saudis who are forbidden by Islamic laws at home from indulging in alcohol and other immoral enjoyments, "but who often vacation in Bahrain for these reasons."

Bahraini citizens have uploaded several video files on the internet, showing the cruel and ruthless torturing and persecuting of the protesters by the Al Khalifa lackeys. These videos depict the Bahraini forces using tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters and killing many of them straight away. Some of these videos also show the Saudi and Bahraini cars nonchalantly running over Bahraini children and women, killing them at once.

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Paul Craig Roberts

November 23, 2011: The day before the Thanksgiving holiday brought three extraordinary news items. One was the report on the Republican presidential campaign debate. One was the Russian President’s statement about his country’s response to Washington’s missile bases surrounding his country. And one was the failure of a German government bond auction.

As the presstitute media will not inform us of what any of this means, let me try.

With the exception of Ron Paul, the only candidate in either party qualified to be the president of the US, the rest of the Republican candidates are even worst than Obama, a president who had the country behind him but sold out the American people to the special interests.

No newly elected president in memory, neither John F. Kennedy nor Ronald Reagan, had the extraordinary response to his election as Barack Obama. A record-breaking number of people braved the cold to witness his swearing in ceremony. The mall was filled for miles distant from the Capitol with Americans who could not see the ceremony except as televised on giant screens.

Obama had convinced the electorate that he would end the wars, stop the violation of law by the US government, end the regime of illegal torture, close the torture prison of Guantanamo, and attend to the real needs of the American people rather than stuff the pockets of the military/security complex with taxpayers’ money.

Once in office, Obama renewed and extended the Bush/Cheney/neoconservative wars.

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Stephen Lendman

Post-9/11, America waged war on Islam. Innocent victims are targeted for political advantage. They're called fundamentalists, extremists, terrorists and fanatics.

Why Muslims when, in fact, Islam teaches love, not hate; peace, not violence; charity, not selfishness; and tolerance, not terrorism?

Who knows though in today's climate of hate and fear at a time America wages global wars on Islam, including at home.

Perhaps Jose Pimental (aka Muhammad Yusaf) is the latest entrapped Muslim in a plot he never planned or intended. So far, it's unclear.

Born in the Dominican Republic, he's a naturalized US citizen convert to Islam. Except for five years in Schenectady, New York, he lived mostly in Manhattan.

On November 20, New York Times writers Joseph Goldstein and William Rashbaum headlined, "Man Arrested and Charged in Bomb Plot," saying:

NYPD authorities arrested Pimentel on Saturday. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., and New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly "announced the charges against (him) at a Sunday evening news conference at City Hall."

He'd been under surveillance for over two years. Authorities claimed he was close to completing at least three bombs.

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Melanie Butler

On Monday I made a second attempt to salvage some of what was seized by the police in their raid of Liberty Square last week. Having already wasted an entire afternoon trekking uptown to the NYC Department of Sanitation garage only to be turned away at the door, and having received plenty of warning about the difficulties of of the process from those who had actually made it inside, I set out early in the morning armed with an mp3 player and prepared to get my zen on.

Five police officers were gathered at the entrance. One searched my bag, confiscating a plastic take-out knife and a fistful of markers (lest I try to claim someone else’s property by writing my name on it, he explained) while another examined my identification. Watching him record my personal information, I couldn’t help but think of the chant I had recited so jubilantly with my fellow “day-oners” – people who had been with OWS since Sept 17th –on our one-month anniversary: “Show me what a no-fly list looks like! This is what a no-fly list looks like!” So much for not getting arrested – I was now officially on record as part of the 99%.

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Stephen Lendman

Libya's model is being replicated in Syria. So far, it's short of war. For how long is uncertain. Expect it if current tactics fail. More on that below.

At issue is regime change, establishing another client state, and isolating Iran ahead of similar tactics there. It's part of America's Middle East project to redraw the region according to US/Israeli geopolitical aims.

Washington's dirty hands lie behind what's happening. Partners include Israel, Britain, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Lebanon's March 8 Alliance, Jordan, and other despotic Arab League states.

Obama, the peace candidate, wages wars like a crazed psychopath. Already fighting multiple failed ones, he can't wait to start another. Someone please post a sign outside the White House saying stop me before I bomb again.

In mid-November, Russia's Vladimir Putin called NATO's Libyan intervention "a complete affront to the international community."

Meeting with Valdai groups members in Moscow, he warned against similar tactics in Syria. He also accused Washington and other Western states of hypocritically attacking regimes they previously supported.

Saying he'll be as internationally combative if again elected president next March, he stressed that Russia won't support interventionist anti-Syrian Security Council resolutions similar to ones targeting Libya.

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Stuart Littlewood

When new recruits join British Petroleum (BP) they are fed romantic tales about how the company came into being.

William Knox D'Arcy, a Devon man, studied law and, after emigrating to Australia, made a fortune from the Mount Morgan gold-mining operations in the 1880s. Returning to England he agreed to fund a search for oil and minerals in Persia and negotiations with the Mozaffar al-Din Shah Qajar began in 1901. A sixty-year concession to explore for oil gave D'Arcy the oil rights to the entire country except for five provinces in northern Iran. The Iranian government would receive16 per cent of the oil company's annual profits.

Mozzafar ad-Din, seldom consulted on matters of state by his father, was naive in business matters and unprepared for kingship when the time came. He borrowed heavily from the Russians in order to finance his extravagant personal lifestyle and the costs of the state, and in order to pay off the debt, he signed away control of many Iranian industries and markets to foreigners. The deal D'Arcy cut was too sharp by far and would eventually lead to trouble.

He sent an exploration team headed by geologist George B Reynolds. In 1903 a company was formed and D'Arcy had to spend much of his fortune to cover the costs. Further financial support came from Glasgow-based Burmah Oil in return for a large share of the stock.

Drilling in southern Persia at Shardin continued until 1907 when the search was switched to Masjid-i-Souleiman. By1908 D'Arcy was almost bankrupt. Reynolds received a last-chance instruction: "Drill to 1,600 feet and give up." On 26 May, at 1,180 feet, he struck oil.

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Jim Casy

"We must once again honor one another, as human beings, as friends, by the will of All Things."

Nearly 400 years ago, some of the first white pilgrims arrived on the Eastern coast of what they considered to be the "New World" - a place of hope and opportunity, void of tyrannical governments, class hierarchy and religious elitism that they and their families longed to escape from.

Yet this land was not new - it was old as the whole Earth itself is old, and had long been the home of millions upon millions of human beings who had learned not only to survive and prosper with what their Creator had provided for them, but to celebrate their place in the great mystery and song of life. These were the Americans.

Driven solely by the desire to escape the darkness of European oppression, the white Pilgrims were ill-equipped to survive in the new land they'd journeyed so far to find. Their crops failed, supplies ran short, and disease plagued their settlements and families. Despair reigned over them.

The Americans who had been cautiously watching these strange white settlers did not see a threat to their land - they saw bizarre, confused neighbors stricken by hardship. Setting their concerns aside, they decided to act, and reached out to assist the Pilgrims.

Though suspicious of one another at first, some of their first meetings were filled with humor - the Americans, veterans of this wilderness, strong in their way, treated the Pilgrims as inexperienced younger brothers, held back by their lack of confidence and knowledge. They began to trade with one another, not only goods and materials, but in thoughts and laughter, in games and drink and life. Friendships were formed, as never had been seen before on Earth.

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Stephen Lendman

On November 25, 2009, a New York Times editorial headlined, "A Thanksgiving Toast," saying:

"Sitting down with friends and family today, there will be thanks for the steady currents, flowing out of the past, that have brought us to this table....And there will be prayerful thanks for the future."

Fact check

At a time when federal, state and local authorities increasingly turn a blind eye to growing poverty, unemployment, homelessness, hunger and despair, Times editors gave thanks for their blessings others lack.

They also ignored multiple imperial wars slaughtering millions, and draining trillions of dollars needed for vital homeland needs.

What else to expect from America's leading establishment broadsheet, serving wealth and power, not popular interests.

Its current Thanksgiving topics include:

• holiday football matchups;
• "Thanksgiving Thrift: The Holiday as a Model for Sustainable Cooking;"
• "Vegetarian Thanksgiving: Tipsy Vegan Recipes;"
• "A Radical Rethinking of Thanksgiving Leftovers;"
• "Thanksgiving and Wine in the Willamette Valley;" and
• other food and dining out topics.

Nothing substantive was discussed, including holiday myths, traditions, duress most people face, corporate crime, government culpability, and America's out-of-control militarism and imperial wars.

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Evelyn Hecht-Galinski

Introduction by Gilad Atzmon: From time to time, I do meet some very brave Jews, people who fight for humanism while stripping themselves of any trace of choseness and exeptionalism. Evelyn Hecht-Galinski is such a person.

♣ ♣ ♣

Evelyn Hecht-Galinski: After 1945, my father issued a 'Denazification Certificate' to the then GDR leader Erich Honecker, amongst others. In today's sad present, a point is already reached where critics of Israel have to be provided with a 'Antisemitism-free Certificate' in order to kosherize them.

A point is already reached where representatives of Jewish interests are pressing to prevent public appearances of any such critic perceived as dangerous to them for simply working on the basis of facts.

A son of German Jewish immigrants, Prof. Ilan Pappe was banned by the highest representative of the city of Munich, Mayor Christian Ude (Social Democratic Party, SPD), from delivering a public talk in a local cultural centre. In Vienna the 'Wiener Zeitung' (Vienna newspaper) called him a 'controversial' historian with the aim of challenging his appearance at a conference right from the start. Public funding is being withdrawn in order to nip all criticism of Israel in the bud. In Freiburg, it was only by means of a court order that the cancellation of a Nakba exhibition in public spaces could be averted. Then the city of Düsseldorf staged a replay of its inglorious past: the early eighties had already seen the enforcement of a ban on performing Joshua Sobol's “The Palestinian Girl” at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus (Düsseldorf theatre) at the instigation of Mr. Scheinmann, president of the local Jewish community. Even my public protest, e.g. in WDR-TV and in various print media, didn't succeed in lifting the ban. It was, however, possible to get "asylum" at the theatre in Bonn (general director Volker Canaris from Düsseldorf). In these days, it is again Düsseldorf that prevented a Nakba exhibition.

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Jerry White

The November 18 police assault on protesting students at University of California, Davis has exposed the reactionary and brutal character of political, social and economic relations in the United States.

For all its endless and self-congratulatory tributes to democracy, the American ruling elite’s hypocrisy and insincerity are unmasked for all to see the moment the super-rich and their government perceive a threat to the interests of the corporate and financial aristocracy that controls the United States.

The university police were armed as if they were entering a battle zone. It is clear from their actions that they looked upon the students not as human beings, but as things - to be controlled, brutalized and even shot down if the orders to do so were given. The policeman who sprayed the students with a noxious chemical went about his work placidly and methodically, treating his victims as if they were insects or, perhaps, weeds in his backyard. His fellow storm troopers did not indicate the slightest discomfort with his actions.

The US government has used the issue of human rights to justify its attacks on whatever regime runs afoul of its geo-political interests. One can imagine the uproar in the media if the events at UC Davis had occurred at Tehran University. In fact, there is not a ruling class in the world that has anything to teach the American corporate elite when it comes to repression and violence.

It is no mere coincidence that the attack on UC Davis students occurs as the US-backed military regime in Egypt is brutally suppressing demonstrators in Tahrir Square. The scale of the attacks may be different, but the content is the same. Throughout the world, workers and young people are involved in an expanding class struggle against austerity and mass unemployment. The response of every government is to use state repression to impose the dictates of the financial elite.

The brutal treatment of the California students is a measure of the fear and anxiety felt within the corporate and political establishment. If this is the response to the first stages of social opposition, involving as yet a relatively small number of students and young people, one can only imagine the scale of violence the American ruling elite will unleash once it confronts mass strikes and demonstrations by far broader sections of the working class.

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Francis J. Ward & Francis P. Ward

A father-son research team believe they have broken the code of the ancients and solved the riddle of the Great Pyramid (Giza). They think it reveals the solutions to global poverty, world hunger, and the end to the worldwide economic depression. Some of our readers may want to listen to what they have to say. - Editor

The Great Pyramid of Egypt has been called “the Bible in stone”[1], and according to an ancient Arab legend, the Great Pyramid contains the past and future history of the world.[2] Indeed, the solutions to Mankind’s toughest and most intractable problems have been symbolically written into the ground plan of the pyramids at Giza. In ancient times, Mankind solved the problem of the inequitable division of land and natural resources via a periodic declaration of economic renewal known as the Jubilee Year. The Jubilee Year of “Clean Slate” debt forgiveness and redistribution of the land and natural resources has been hard-wired into the ground plan of the pyramids at Giza, and according to the Dead Sea Scrolls, when the Messiah returns, he is going to declare a Jubilee Year. Moreover, Jesus Christ himself tried to re-establish the ancient tradition of the Jubilee Year.

The key to saving the world is contained in the first line of the American Declaration of Independence, where the American people declared their national sovereignty based upon “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God.” This is the ancient notion that God and the Law of God can be discovered in Nature—in Creation—as opposed to the warp and woof of someone’s limited personal experiences, or fraudulent supernatural revelations whispered into a false prophet’s ears.[3] If Almighty God reveals himself to Man through Nature, then supernatural revelations —like God appearing to Moses in a burning bush, or God whispering into Muhammad’s ear— are abominable frauds.

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Evelyn Hecht-Galinski

Ich betrachte es als eine große Ehre, dass ich als deutsche Jüdin hier bei Ihnen auf dem 8. Europäischen Palästinenserkongress in Berlin sprechen darf. Das heutige geschichtsträchtige Datum des 8. Mai, des Tages der Befreiung vom Faschismus und der Nazi-Diktatur vor 65 Jahren, sollte dem Staat Israel und allen Verfolgten, die selbst so Schreckliches erlebt haben, Mahnung sein, nie wieder Unrecht und Unterdrückung zu dulden oder selbst auszuüben.

62 Jahre Vertreibung und ethnische Säuberung sind genug! 43 Jahre Besetzung und Unterdrückung sind genug! Schlimmerweise ist es für Israel nie genug. Am 13. April trat die neueste Perversion des “Jüdischen Staates” in Kraft: Ein Militärerlass, der den Boden für Massendeportationen aus der Westbank bereitet. Diese Verordnung ist ein klarer Verstoß gegen Artikel 49 der Vierten Genfer Konvention. Dieser Erlass ist ungesetzlich und verstößt gegen internationales Recht, da israelische Gesetze im Westjordanland — also auf besetztem Gebiet — nicht anzuwenden sind. Diese Anordnung beweist nur ein weiteres Mal die Macht und die Willkür der israelischen Armee, gegen unliebsame Palästinenser vorzugehen.

Ich fordere Sie, Frau Bundeskanzlerin Merkel, daher auf, gegen diese Besatzerwillkür zu protestieren und sich bei der israelischen Regierung dafür einzusetzen, dass diese unrechtmäßigen Verordnungen zurückgenommen werden. Außerdem fordere ich Sie, Frau Bundeskanzlerin Merkel, auf, den Begriff der Sicherheit Israels als Staaträson für die deutsche Politik rückgängig zu machen. Dieser Begriff stützt sich nicht auf eine demokratische Legitimität. Nein – ganz im Gegenteil -, das verstößt gegen unser Grundgesetz und gegen allen politischen Anstand, die Sicherheit Israels zur deutschen Staatsräson zu erklären. Genau diese Feststellung führt uns auch zur Problematik der Beziehungen zwischen Deutschland und Israel.

Das unbeschreibliche Unrecht, das von Deutschen organisiert, an den europäischen Juden/ Jüdinnen begangen wurde, darf nicht dafür herhalten, dass anderen Menschen und Völkern Unrecht angetan wird.

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Stephen Lendman

An Israeli settler attacks an Israeli activist during a demon-
stration against settlements in the town of Hebron.

Palestinians are doubly cursed. Israel's military attacks them regularly. During the past week alone, Israeli air strikes killed four Gazans, wounding another 14.

Al-Nabi Saleh village residents participating in a peaceful demonstration were assaulted. Two injuries were reported, including a child. Israel's navy arrested three Palestinian fishermen, confiscating their boats.

Their security forces conducted 91 incursions (13 a day on average) into Palestinian communities, arresting 14 civilians. One injury was reported.

Israeli security forces raided homes of recently released Palestinian prisoners. They were ordered to appear for questioning to harass and perhaps re-incarcerate them.

In addition, Palestinian property was attacked, bulldozed, otherwise destroyed or damaged.

All the above incidents and similar daily ones violate international and Israeli law.

Lawless Israeli settlers also assault Palestinians with impunity. Investigations when held are whitewashed. Rarely is anyone prosecuted even for offenses too serious to ignore.

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Stephen Lendman

First the good. On November 22, the International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC) said a "Freedom Spring" convoy arrived through Rafah's border terminal, connecting Gaza and Egypt.

Arab Spring movement members will meet Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyya and other Palestinian officials. In addition, meetings will be held with women's groups, local NGOs, and others.

Tours through Gaza's refugee camps and visiting UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency) are planned.

Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) head Ahmad Bahar called the visit historic, saying "convoy members managed to defend their people's dignity and honor, and now, they came to Gaza to express support and solidarity with their people."

"You came to challenge this siege. I want to tell you that today is the beginning of the end of this siege, the siege that was never lifted, despite conspiracies and claims of easing it. This conspiracy is against the steadfastness of our people, the people who defend their dignity, children and country, the people who want to liberate Jerusalem."

Egyptian Popular Committee Against the Judaization of Jerusalem head, Salah Sultan, said convoy members will "return as fighters and liberators of Jerusalem and the Al Aqsa Mosque. We will stand with you. The world will stand with you to defend Jerusalem, especially after the Zionists declared plans to demolish the historic Moghrabi (Magharba) Gate in Jerusalem that links between the Al Boraq Wall and the Al Aqsa Mosque."

Arab Spring activists represent solidarity with besieged Gazans. They also reflect a growing spirit that others support their liberating struggle.

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Irina Lebedeva

Last October, headlines in US media were grabbed by reports showing that some six decades ago US “researchers” deliberately exposed Guatemalans to syphilis and gonorrhea. The revelations forced the US to apologize. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius released a statement saying: “The sexually transmitted disease inoculation study conducted from 1946-1948 in Guatemala was clearly unethical. Although these events occurred more than 64 years ago, we are outraged that such reprehensible research could have occurred under the guise of public health. We deeply regret that it happened, and we apologize to all the individuals who were affected by such abhorrent research practices”.

What seems strange about the whole story is that the US did make an apology for what was done ages ago. US history abounds with cases where one or another American Doctor Mengele subjected humans to experiments with a panacea against some XX or XXI century plague. Only once did Washington apologize before light was shed on the experiments conducted in Guatemala: in 1997 US President Bill Clinton expressed regrets over the Tuskegeeproject carried out in Alabama. The apology was triggered by the publication of data unearthed by Susan M. Reverby of Wellesley College (Massachustes), then an activist of a female committee which took a bite at the Tuskegee case.

According to official reports on the Tuskegee project, 600 African Americans - sons and grandsons of slaves - of whom 399 were allegedly diagnosed with syphilis and 201 were healthy, were subjected to “a medical study”. Many of the people had never seen a doctor prior to the experiment. The authors of the experiments circulated free medical treatment invitations among African American males in a church and at cotton plantations, offering them to consent to a medical checkup to be carried by mobile field brigades. Those who were picked for a study of natural evolution of syphilis in African American males were told that they had “bad blood” and were kept in the dark about the actual cause of their conditions and the purposes of the study. No medications were provided. The Tuskegee experiment subjects who lost eyesight and were exhausted by endless blood and backbone marrow tests were watched without treatment for 40 years. The study was to end with an autopsy as the final part, and the US government provided a funeral insurance in the amount of $50 to secure the consent of the people's families to it. The last of the people thus treated died in 2004.

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