Stephen Lendman

■ Murdering Khader Adnan
■ Khader Adnan: Israeli Prisoner of Conscience
■ Israeli Political Prisoner Khader Adnan Near Death

Saturday marked his 56th hunger striking day. "My dignity is more precious than food," he said. He's willing to die courageously defending it.

He's protesting his lawless detention and treatment by repressive Israeli prison authorities. They're committing willful, malicious slow-motion murder.

He's uncharged because he's innocent. Yet Israel illegally detains him under horrific conditions. Without food for eight weeks, his life hangs by a thread. He could die before this article's published.

On February 9, a special Military Court appeal on his behalf was held at Safad's Zif medical center where he's held shackled to his bed near death.

For the hearing, he was moved to a separate room still shackled except for his hands. Despite his condition and gross injustice, Judge Moshe Tirosh won't rule until next week. By then it may not matter, and that's the whole idea.

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Nick Beams

The economic breakdown of the 1930s saw the sweeping away of all forms of democratic government on the European continent and the imposition of military and fascist dictatorships. This process is now underway again.

The Greek parliament has voted to approve a far-reaching austerity package that will push the country deeper into recession and bring further social misery.

With the parliament ringed by an estimated 4,000 police as some 80,000 people protested outside, the vote was taken after a special 10-hour session on Sunday, which ended at midnight.

Amid clashes between riot police and youth, Greece’s unelected Prime Minister Lucas Papademos declared: “Vandalism, violence and destruction have no place in a democratic country and won’t be tolerated.”

In fact, these social evils are at the very heart of the austerity program—based on spending cuts of around €3.3 billion—now agreed to by the Greek parliament in return for a €130 billion bailout of the financial system. The extraordinary session had been convened after European finance ministers declared they were not satisfied with commitments given last week and sent Greek government representatives with an order to do more—an additional €325 million in cuts.

The parliamentary vote came after a sustained propaganda barrage warning there was no alternative but to accept the dictates of the “troika”—the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund. Papademos threatened economic breakdown and social chaos, saying a default on Greece’s loans would condemn the country to a “disastrous ordeal.”

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Stephen Lendman

On February 11, the London Independent headlined, "BBC to issue global apology for documentaries that broke rules," saying:

"....(P)rograms were made by third-party in pay of governments and firms."

In other words, they were propaganda, not legitimate news and information. More on the scandal below.

Throughout its history, BBC's been an imperial tool. It replicates the worst of America's major media, its NPR/PBS managed news operations, and Qatar controlled Al Jazeera on major world and national issues.

Reliability's not its mandate. Owned, operated and controlled by Britain, government officials appoint its management. Nothing fundamentally changed from the 1922 inception to today. Only technology's different, not BBC's state controlled message.

It's pro-government, pro-imperial, pro-war, pro-Israel, pro-corporate, and anti-populist. Deception triumphs over truth. Step over the line and get fired.

In 2003, correspondent Andrew Gilligan, Chairman Gavyn Davies, and Director-General Greg Dyke got the boot because Gilligan reported government officials "sexed up" WMD documents, knowing they were false.

In other words, fake information, in league with Washington, promoted war on Iraq. Exposing it got Gilligan and top management axed. New bosses replaced former ones. Seamlessly it was back to business as usual, producing propaganda instead of truth and full disclosure.

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Paul Craig Roberts

El Baradei: “I wasn’t invited to the dress rehearsal.”
IAF general (handing an invitation): “Come to the
premiere.” (Amos Biderman / Haaretz)

Washington has made tremendous preparations for a military assault on Iran. There is speculation that Washington has called off its two longest running wars–Iraq and Afghanistan–in order to deploy forces against Iran. Two of Washington’s fleets have been assigned to the Persian Gulf along with NATO warships. Missiles have been spread amongst Washington’s Oil Emirate and Middle Eastern puppet states. US troops have been deployed in Israel and Kuwait.

Washington has presented Israel a gift from the hard-pressed american taxpayers of an expensive missile defense system, money spent for Israel when millions of unassisted americans have lost their homes. As no one expects Iran to attack Israel, except in retaliation for an Israeli attack on Iran, the purpose of the missile defense system is to protect Israel from an Iranian response to Israeli aggression against Iran.

Juan Cole has posted on his blog a map showing 44 US military bases surrounding Iran.

In addition to the massive military preparations, there is the propaganda war against Iran that has been ongoing since 1979 when Washington’s puppet, the Shah of Iran, was overthrown by the Iranian revolution. Iran is surrounded, but Washington and Israeli propaganda portray Iran as a threatening aggressor nation. In fact, the aggressors are the Washington and Tel Aviv governments which constantly threaten Iran with military attack.

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