Stephen Lendman

Israel under Netanyahu reflects Arundhati Roy's view. Her book titled "Field Notes on Democracy" explained.

"What kind of India do they want," she asked? "A limbless, headless, soulless torso left bleeding under the butcher's clever with a flag driven deep into her mutilated heart?"

She compared Hindu right wing persecution of Muslims to Hitler's war on Jews. Occupied Palestinians are treated the same way. Hitler terrorized Jews for a dozen years. Israel waged war on Palestinians for decades. It rages out-of-control. It shows no signs of ending.

During his first late 1990s prime ministerial term, Netanyahu was Israel's most polarizing leader. He exceeded the worst of his predecessors. Right-wing extremists adore him. He's worse than ever now. Polls favor his January 22 reelection. Israelis will have themselves to blame. They're as out of touch as Americans. They accept what demands rejection. Netanyahu wages war on democracy. He threatens his own people. He defies them. He gives chutzpah new meaning. He spurns Palestinian rights. He accelerated lawless settlement construction. He's stealing Palestinian land faster than ever. His E1 Ma'aleh Adumin plan drew flack.

At issue is separating the West Bank from Jerusalem, Judaizing the entire city, surrounding Palestinian urban areas with encroaching Israeli settlements, and driving the last spike into the corpse of a two-state solution. It's no longer possible with or without E1 development. Proceeding with it divides the West Bank into separate north/south areas. Doing so reflects Netanyahu's divide, conquer, steal, and ethnically cleanse strategy. He calls Occupied Palestine "disputed territory." He believes Jews have sole "natural right and territorial claim." He spurns international law.

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Stephen Lendman

Marines from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit "inspect"
a house as they search for a Taliban position near the town
of Garmser, Helmand Province. (Source: Marine Times)

America came to stay. Accelerated withdrawal claims reflect subterfuge. Washington officials and media scoundrels don't explain. Misinformation and illusion substitute for reality.

Reuters headlined "Obama, Karzai accelerate end of US combat role in Afghanistan." "Obama's determin(ed) to wind down a long, unpopular war."

The New York Times headlined "Obama Accelerates Transition of Security to Afghans." Obama is "eager to turn a page after more than a decade of war." "(B)eginning this spring American forces (will) play only a supporting role in Afghanistan."

The Washington Post headlined "Obama announces reduced US role in Afghanistan starting this spring." Plans are "for a small troop presence in the country after the American mission formally ends there in 2014."

On January 11, Obama and Karzai's joint press conference was more surreal than honest. Duplicitous doublespeak substituted for truth. "(T)ransition is well underway," said Obama. Plans are for Afghan forces to replace Americans. By yearend 2014, they'll "have full responsibility for their security, and this war will come to a responsible end." [At the same time, US forces will] "continue to fight alongside (Afghans) when necessary." [By spring 2013,] "our troops will have a different mission - training, advising, assisting Afghan forces. It will be a historic moment and another step toward full Afghan sovereignty." "Afghanistan (has) a long-term partner in the United States of America."

Obama didn't say what troop strength will remain. Drone wars continue daily. US Special Forces and CIA elements came to stay. Search and destroy missions are prioritized. It's Washington's longest war. Iraq and Afghanistan are its most costly ones. Iraq boils out of sight and mind. Afghanistan rages. Experts agree. The war was lost years ago. It continues. Why US officials don't explain.

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Danny Weil

From Ecuador to Djibouti: A Tale of Cocaine Trafficking, Sex Crime Charges & Extraordinary Rendition

As reported at Dailycensored.com on November 14, 2012, two sources have alleged that the CIA has been engaging in cocaine trafficking in Chile to fund an $88 million campaign to defeat President Rafael Correa in Ecuador’s upcoming presidential election: former British Diplomat Craig Murray, and Chilean journalist Patricio Mery Bell.

It is no secret that the US wants to see Correa defeated and the presidential election scheduled next month in Ecuador will see whether he is. He has enacted policies the US government considers adverse to US interests including closing the US military base in Ecuador. Moreover, it is likely the US sees the defeat of Correa as key to getting its hands on Julian Assange.

There is also the $19 billion judgment by an Ecuadorean court against Chevron for despoiling the Amazon rainforest. A group of the plaintiffs have recently begun initiating legal proceedings to seize Chevron’s assets in Canada, Brazil and Argentina.

The allegations of Cocaine trafficking are strikingly similar to cocaine trafficking by the CIA in the 1980s to fund the Contras in Nicaragua.

Patricio Mery Bell is head of the Panorama news service in Chile. In October 2012, Bell arranged to meet with the Ecuadorian president while Correa was in Chile, to present evidence of CIA cocaine trafficking in Chile to fund Correa’s defeat. On his way to meet with Correa, Patricio Bell was arrested and charged with assaulting a woman. His cell phone, which contained evidence to be presented to Correa, was confiscated and never returned.

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Stephen Lendman

January 11, 2013 marked Guantánamo's 11th anniversary. On January 11, 2002, its first 20 prisoners arrived there. It's one of many US torture prisons globally.

US Law Prohibits Transferring Guantánamo Prisoners to America. FY 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) legislation proscribes it.

Most held there are innocent victims. They're not terrorists. They're lawlessly detained. Many remained for years uncharged and untried. Fundamental rights are denied. Seton Hall University Law Professor Mark Denebeaux analyzed unclassified government data. He got them through FOIA requests. They revealed what's vital to know. The vast majority of Guantánamo detainees weren't accused of hostile acts. Afghan bounty hunters seized around 95% of them. They sold them to US forces for $5,000 per claimed Taliban and $25,000 for alleged Al Qaeda members.

Evidence of criminality wasn’t sought. Washington wanted prisoners. It still does. Innocence or guilt didn't matter. It still doesn't. What George Bush began, Obama continues. It's institutionalized. Torture and other crimes against humanity reflect official US policy. On January 20, 2009, Obama became America's 44th president. He promised closure. On January 22, 2009, his Executive Order followed. It said:

"By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, in order to effect the appropriate disposition of individuals currently detained by the Department of Defense at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base (Guantánamo) and promptly to close detention facilities at Guantánamo, consistent with the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice…" [He promised] "immediate review of all" detainees within 30 days and "humane standards of confinement."

He lied. He's a serial liar. He broke every major promise made. He's a moral coward. He's an unindicted war criminal. He belongs in prison, not government. He's got four more years to wage war on humanity. Expect him to take full advantage.

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Ray McGovern

Consortiumnews Exclusive: When President Obama’s national security nominees reach the Senate, the toughest challenge is expected against Chuck Hagel for Defense, but CIA Director-designee John Brennan has more to explain about his work over the past decade on the terror war’s “dark side,” says ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern.

As Washington’s pundit class sees it, Defense Secretary-designee Chuck Hagel deserves a tough grilling over his hesitancy to go to war with Iran and his controversial detection of a pro-Israel lobby operating in the U.S. capital, but prospective CIA Director John Brennan should get only a few polite queries about his role helping to create and sustain Dick Cheney’s “dark side.”

During the upcoming confirmation hearings of these two nominees for President Barack Obama’s national security team, we all may get a revealing look into the upside-down world of Washington’s moral and geopolitical priorities, where too much skepticism about rushing to war is disqualifying and complicity in war crimes is okay, maybe even expected.

Still, there is at least a hope that Brennan’s confirmation hearing might provide an opening for the Senate Intelligence Committee to force out the secret legal justifications and the operational procedures for the lethal drone program that has expanded under Obama, including successfully targeting for death U.S. citizen and al-Qaeda operative Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen.

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Andre Damon

Obama appointee Jacob Lew (C) and Julius Genachowski (R),
the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission attend
a special lighting ceremony for the National Hanukkah Menorah,
the world’s largest, on the Ellipse, just across from the White
House on the first night of the eight-day Jewish holiday. This
annual event is sponsored by American Friends of Lubavitch.

US President Barack Obama announced the nomination of current White House chief of staff Jacob Lew as treasury secretary Thursday, underscoring the administration’s commitment to slashing entitlements and its domination by Wall Street.

Lew, a longtime Washington operative and former Wall Street executive, helped negotiate cuts to Social Security with the Reagan administration in 1983, worked to slash social spending in the Clinton administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and served as the Obama administration’s point-man in budget-cutting negotiations with congressional Republicans.

Prior to joining the Obama administration in 2009, he earned millions of dollars as the chief operating officer of Citigroup’s Alternative Investments unit, which made bets against the housing market as it collapsed.

Nominating one of the Democrats most associated with deep cuts to Social Security and Medicare underscores the administration’s commitment to attacking these programs. “For all the talk out there about deficit reduction, making sure our books are balanced—this is the guy who did it,” Obama said at Lew’s nomination on Thursday afternoon.

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Wayne Madsen

Palestinian Loss of Land 1946 to 2000 (Map)

The Israeli government calls them Areas A, B, and C of “Judea and Samaria.” To the rest of the world, the areas are known as Palestine, a nation that has state observer status in the United Nations and is a full member of the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Arab League.

No other country in the world recognizes the existence of “Judea and Samaria” but 142 nations recognize the independence and statehood of Palestine.

Area C of the West Bank of Palestine is under full Israeli political and military control and there are plans underway to annex Area C to Israel. The Israeli military has security control over Area B, largely Palestinian rural land and in danger of being gobbled up by Israeli annexation if the expansionist Israel Home Party, Yisrael Beiteinu, and the right-wing of Likud have their way. Area A is under the control of the Palestinian Authority and includes its administrative headquarters city of Ramallah and other Palestinian population centers.

When one looks at a map of the Israeli area boundaries in the West Bank one can only be reminded of the patchwork quilt of majority African “Bantustans” created by apartheid South Africa.

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Stephen Lendman

On January 6, Assad called for "comprehensive national dialogue in the near future." He rules out negotiating "with a puppet made by the West." He advocates responsibly engaging opposition elements and other political parties. "Syria wants peace and reconciliation," he stressed. "(A)rmed groups must halt terrorist acts."

Since early 2011, Washington waged war on Syria. Proxy deaths squads are used. They're recruited abroad. They're heavily armed, funded, trained and directed. They infiltrate across borders. Syria was invaded. Nothing civil reflects protracted conflict. Syrians depend on Assad for protection. He's vilified for doing his job. He's blamed for death squad crimes.

Propaganda wars target him. Media scoundrels are merciless. They march in lockstep with imperial US policy. They turn truth on its head. Doing so violates fundamental journalistic ethics. They do it anyway. They're paid liars. They mock legitimate journalism. Their reports and commentaries don't rise to the level of bad fiction. They embarrass themselves shamelessly. More on their comments below.

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Nureddin Sabir

Photo: 'One is Known by the Company One Keeps.' - Who is it that Khaled Abu Toameh is hugging so friendly here? - She's Arlene Peck, a Jewish syndicated columnist and television talk show hostess, who works indefatigablly for Israel. In all probability she's a sayan working for Mossad, writing nasty screeds (like this one) and connecting with powerful people in Israel and the Jewish community in the US. All this and more for Israel. So this is whom Khaled Abu Toameh is being so friendly with while his fellow Palestinians are suffering under the yoke of occupation and Israeli state terror.

Khaled Abu Toameh, Israeli hasbara agent

Observers of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict expect from time to time to come across individuals and organizations whose intent is to find the worst possible news and information from the Arab and Muslim worlds and disseminate them widely while painting a rosy picture of Israel and Zionists.

Usually these tarnished messengers are themselves Israelis or organizations with close links to the Israeli intelligence service Mossad such as Memri, foreign Jews who act as Israeli agents abroad (known as sayanim) or non-Jews who perform services on behalf of Israel (sometimes referred to as Sabbath Goyim) such as the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel lobby groups in the British Parliament. Rarely, however, are they Arabs, let alone Palestinians, although, as the British and French discovered in World War II, traitors and fifth columnists can be found everywhere.

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Hamid Reza Emadi

It was an interesting year on Press TV’s calendar. The channel was taken off the air in Europe, Asia and South America. If you think this happened in the censorship era of the 1950s think again; it all took place in 2012.

The attack on the news channel was so belligerent that it was reasonable to think that even if the world survived the 2012 ‘end of the world’ scare, Press TV wouldn’t. It suffices to say that the scale and intensity of the war on the increasingly popular channel has been unprecedented in international television history.

But what does Press TV say that’s causing so much anger in Western capitals, and where does the violation of Press TV’s right to free expression leave the West’s claims of protecting media? And will the increasing pressure on Press TV force the channel to stop telling the truth to gain the West’s permission to stay on a little longer?

Iran’s 24/7 English-language international news channel hit the airwaves in 2007. Press TV appeared on TV screens around the world to cover the story - with a focus on topics that the ‘free’ world’s mainstream media tends not to cover. From revealing the real faces of democracy-looking dictatorships in Europe to divulging covert ties between the West and terror rings in Syria and highlighting the plight of women and children in war-torn countries, Press TV has sought to be a voice for the voiceless.

Press TV has established a distinctive discourse that communicates the message directly to the audience like no other. It has raised many fundamental questions and made sure that they remain in the minds of its audience: Why has al-Qaeda, as a questionably Islamist group, never attacked or done anything against the interests of Israel?

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Tony Cartalucci

The West quietly attempts to censor growing global opposition and begins with Iranian media.

Iran's Press TV reported in their article, "Press TV viewers slam EU move to ban Iran channels as illegal, hypocritical," that "Press TV viewers have condemned as illegal and hypocritical the ban imposed by the European officials on the broadcast of several Iranian satellite channels."

Nearly no mention is made in the Western media regarding the blatant act of censorship - an act that runs contra to all perceived notions of "Western values," and an act that directly undermines the narratives of the West supporting "freedom" and "democracy" around the globe.

The news has been buried under reports regarding a new round of sanctions passed by the EU which was recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize even while pursuing multiple wars across the globe, including continuing operations in Libya, the subversion of Syria, and a decade long occupation of Afghanistan which sees weekly civilian massacres by NATO air strikes on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border.

In fact, the most recent NATO atrocity occurred not even a week ago, killing 3 children in the Helmand province. Of course this was absent in Western headlines, but it did make headlines in Iran's Press TV, and indicates a more realistic explanation to the EU's decision to ban the Iranian news service.

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Jamal Kanj

The Zionist lobby keeps complaining about Chuck Hagel
not being sufficiently in favor of sanctions against Iran...

Ironically, American patriots are shoved aside by the Zionist lobby’s “thought police” while individuals with dual Israeli citizenship, ex-Israeli soldiers or even suspected spies are appointed unchallenged to the highest offices in US administrations.

The Zionist lobby is flexing its muscle against Barack Obama’s potential nominee for secretary of defence.

The frontrunner, Chuck Hagel, is co-chairman of the president’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.

Hagel was a Republican senator representing Nebraska from 1996 until his retirement in 2008. He was one of few senators who crossed party lines on issues most important to the American people.

Despite his Republican credentials and the fact that he is being considered by a Democratic president, Israel firsters from both parties are united in their effort to pre-empt Hagel’s nomination – not because he is ill-equipped for the position of defence secretary, but for not being adequately submissive to the Zionist lobby while in the Senate.

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Stephen Lendman

Senate confirmation on both is required. Expect little opposition to Brennan. More on him below.

Republicans will challenge Hagel. At issue is political opportunism more than who serves. Questions about Obama's nominee are exaggerated. More on that below.

Rarely ever are presidential nominations rejected. Expect nothing different this time. Candidates are carefully vetted. Selection depends on full support for US policies.

Hagel is a reliable imperial supporter. His Senatorial voting record offers proof. The Peace Majority Report rated him highly. The lower the score, the higher the rating. He scored 5%. John McCain got 4%, Joe Lieberman 26%, and Bill Clinton 74%.

The American Conservative Union called him solidly Republican. It gave him a lifetime 84% rating.

In 1996, Hagel suspiciously defeated Nebraska's popular Democrat governor Ben Nelson. At stake was a US Senate seat. Polls suggested a close race. Hagel won by 15 points. Few Nebraskans knew about Hagel's ties. He was part owner, chairman and CEO of Election Systems & Software (ES&S). It's an electronic voting machine company. At the time, it was called American Information Systems. AIS' parent company founder, Michael McCarthy, was Hagel's campaign treasurer. His easy victory made winning suspect. He never disclosed his business ties. A Senate Ethics Committee investigation was requested. It was rejected. Nothing followed. Expect little or nothing said now.

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Gilad Atzmon

Lebanon is incredible - an intoxicating blend of natural beauty, rebellious spirit, pious clarity, tolerance, wild night life and unbelievable hummus. I landed in Beirut four days ago. The purpose of my visit wasn’t all that clear. I knew that a talk and a musical performance were scheduled by Almayadeen TV, but I never expected such a spiritually transforming experience.

It was my second visit to the country. 30 years ago I crossed the Lebanese border along with an IDF convoy escorted by tanks and armed vehicles. Then I was an occupier, this time I came with only my saxophone and a desire to share my thoughts and deliver some beauty. But it didn’t take me a couple of hours to realise that Lebanon is much more than just humus, shisha, the sea and some captivating rural scenery.

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Michael Snyder

Please share this article with as many people as you can. Time is running out, and we need to wake up as many as we can while there is still time.

If someone were to ask you for an example of a “totalitarian society”, how would you respond? Most Americans would probably think of horribly repressive regimes such as the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Communist China, East Germany or North Korea, but the truth is that there is one society that has far more rules and regulations than any of those societies ever dreamed of having. In the United States today, our lives are governed by literally millions of laws, rules and regulations that govern even the smallest details of our lives, and more laws, rules and regulations are constantly being added.

On January 1st, thousands of restrictive new laws went into effect all over America, but most Americans have become so accustomed to the matrix of control that has been constructed all around them that it does not even bother them when even more rules and regulations are put into place. In fact, a growing number of Americans have become totally convinced that “freedom” and “liberty” must be tightly restricted for the good of society and that “the free market” is inherently dangerous. On the national, state and local levels, Americans continue to elect elitist control freaks that are very eager to tell all the rest of us how to run virtually every aspect of our lives.

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