Stephen Lendman

Land Day, which began in 1976, marks the day Israeli forces killed six Palestinians during a protest against Israeli occupation of what Palestinians consider to be their land. Palestinians around the world will commemorate Land Day with protests and demonstrations. (Photo + Intro: International Solidarity Movement)

In 1948, Israel stole 78% of Palestine. In 1967, they took the rest. The Israeli/Palestinian conflict remains the longest unresolved one of our time.

Long denied justice awaits. Western complicity with Israel prevents Palestinians from living free. So did Arafat's Oslo surrender. Abbas and PA cronies continue working against their own people for whatever benefits they derive.

Palestine's an isolated prison. State terror is official Israeli policy. So is attacking nonviolent Palestinian protesters. Edward Said once said, "Jonathan Swift, thou shouldst be living at this hour."

He'd blanche at how bad things are now. We all should and do something about it. Change depends on it.

Occupied Palestine is the region's epicenter. Israeli police state terror suffocates Palestinians for not being Jews. An inexorable quest for dominance and corrupted self-interest deny justice.

Nonetheless, Palestinians persist. Living free on their own land drives them. Every March 30 they commemorate what's important to remember every day.

Since 1976, Palestinians worldwide observe Land Day and why it matters. Nationwide protests and general strike action erupted. At issue was Israel's land confiscation policy and brutal occupation harshness.

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Stephen Lendman

Palestinians Behind Bars: Prisoners Without Human Rights - A PCHR Video

■ For decades, Palestinians have been slaughtered, displaced, intimidated, humiliated, collectively punished, and denied equal rights as Jews. They've also been mass imprisoned.

■ Palestine is Israeli occupied territory. Military orders govern all aspects of daily life. Democratic rights are denied. Freedom is a non-starter, persecution a way of life.

■ Gaza is an open-air prison. The West Bank and East Jerusalem fare little better. Life in Occupied Palestine for about 4.2 million residents is hell. No one's safe from Israel's wrath.

According to the Addameer Prisoner Support Group, over 700,000 Palestinians were imprisoned since June 1967. Over 20% of the population was affected. For males, it's 40%. For women, it's about 10,000 and for children around 7,000 since 2000 alone.

No other country comes close to these figures. None calling themselves democracies would dare. With the world's largest prison population by far, America comes closest.

Mostly affected are Blacks, Latinos, and Muslims since Washington declared war on Islam. In America and Israel, praying to the wrong God is hazardous.

Palestinian prisoner numbers vary. Thousands are affected at all times. Virtually all are political prisoners. Arabs aren't welcome in Israel. In Palestine they're equated with terrorists.

Pre-dawn raids, arrests, false charges, harsh interrogations, torture, intimidation, rigged trials, and imprisonment terrorize them. Children young as 10 are affected. So is everyone wanting to live free on their own land in their own country. Perhaps one day, but not now.

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Philip Giraldi

Photo: A prostitute poses in a historical street in Cartagena on April 19, 2012. The White House expressed confidence in the chief of the US Secret Service, but the elite bodyguard unit's Colombian sex scandal deepened, with claims that 20 women were involved. More agents will be forced [to resign]. (Manuel Pedraza, Getty Images)

Americans are frequently most hypocritical when they are responding to a sex scandal. The tale of the sins and omissions of the Obama secret service team in Colombia is still being revealed, piece by piece. The miscreants constituted a so-called advance team, flying on a military aircraft, which goes into a location where a protected party is going to be present. The advance team liaises with local police and security personnel at the U.S. embassy or consulate. It checks out security at the airport, along the route of travel on the ground, at the hotel, and at the various venues where meetings will take place. It writes up reports so the team that actually travels with the president will be prepared to provide a security envelope, working with the locals. The advance team members normally leave well before the president arrives.

All of which is to say that the advance team members are not actually protecting anyone and are basically doing a survey to improve the level of security for someone who will follow. They are not normally on 24-hour duty and, in my experience, they tend to be unmarried young men who frequently take advantage of the opportunity provided by foreign travel to hit some bars and try to meet some women. There is not necessarily anything wrong with that.

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Peter Symonds

U.S. and Philippine marine forces are preparing for the annual Balikatan Exercises ("Shoulder-to-Shoulder") to hold combat drills at an oil rig in the Spratly Islands, Province of Palawan - West Philippines Sea (South China Sea). [This is] a potentially oil- and gas-rich chain of islands, shoals, coral outcrops and sand bars being disputed by China and the Philippines, along with Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei. The Spratlys have long been feared as Asia's next potential flashpoint for conflict.

The South China Sea oil field distribution

Joint US-Philippine military exercises are currently underway that can only heighten tensions with China over disputed territorial claims in the South China Sea and in the Indo-Pacific region more broadly.

Yesterday, 4,500 US Marines and 2,500 Philippine troops staged an amphibious landing drill at Ulugan Bay on Palawan Island to simulate the recapture of an island from “militants.” Despite denials by American and Philippine officials, the exercise was pointedly aimed at China, which contests the sovereignty of waters and islands in the South China Sea, including the Spratly Islands, adjacent to Palawan Island.

The South China Sea is rich in gas and oil reserves, leading to disputes over energy exploration and drilling in its waters. Last weekend, US and Philippine special forces troops took part in a simulated assault to retake an offshore oil rig from “militants” off northern Palawan.

The drills are part of annual US-Philippine Balikatan ("Shoulder-to-Shoulder") military exercises, which began last week and are due to conclude today. The confrontational character of the exercise is underlined not only by their location and type, but also by the involvement of troops from Australia, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia.

President Barack Obama declared last November that the US would focus on the Indo-Pacific region as its top strategic priority, announcing the greater use of military bases in northern Australia, including the stationing of US Marines near Darwin. Since mid-2009, the Obama administration has been engaged in an aggressive drive to strengthen alliances and strategic partnerships with countries throughout Asia in a bid to undermine Chinese influence.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asserted at an Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in 2010 that the US had “a national interest” in ensuring “freedom of navigation” in the South China Sea. Clinton’s comments signalled US backing for ASEAN nations to more vigorously press their territorial claims against China, and have resulted in the Philippines, in particular, taking a more aggressive stance.

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Stephen Lendman

■ Jefferson called an educated citizenry "a vital requisite for our survival as a free people."
■ Madison warned that "A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy, or, perhaps both."
■ Jack Kennedy said "The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all."
■ In 1748, Montesquieu said "The tyranny of a principal in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy."
■ In a June 1950 commencement speech, Boston University President Daniel Marsh said, "If the (television) craze continues....we are destined to have a nation of morons."
■ Well before television arrived, journalist Walter Lippmann called the public "the bewildered herd." In policy matters, their function is to be "spectators," not "participants." "The common interests elude public opinion entirely," he said, and that's the way it should be.

America's privileged class alone should manage them. Only the privileged need proper education and training. Treat others like mushrooms - well-watered and in the dark. In other words, distracted by bread and circuses. More on that below.

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