Stephen Lendman

Zygmunt Bauman is UK-based University of Leeds Emeritus Professor of Sociology. His work spans five decades. He's now aged 87. His wide-ranging interests include consumerism, globalization, ethics, power, the status of workers, intellectuals in society, and nature of modern relationships.

He's best known for analyzing links between modernity and the Jewish holocaust, postmodern consumerism, and discussing broad moral/political perspectives. He distinguishes between earlier modernity forms ("solid modernity") and what's commonplace today. It's characterized by fragile social relations, he believes. They're created and broken by neoliberal harshness.

His metaphorical use of "liquidity" captures the shifting character of individualized/globalized lives. His new book is titled "Culture in a Liquid Modern World." Among other topics it discusses culture in a globalized world and what's happening in today's Europe. He describes utopia's end. In recent decades it's been privatized. It once meant imagining well-designed societies. They guaranteed meaningful, dignified, gratifying lives. Today's world is inhospitable. It's beyond redemption, he believes.

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Wolfgang Weber

German Chancellor Angela Merkel chats with
German government spokesman Steffen Seibert (R)
before the weekly cabinet meeting in Berlin.

The return of German imperialism
German industry, government planning for resource wars

On Tuesday, February 19, the German cabinet consisting of the Christian Democratic Union, Christian Social Union and Free Democratic Party agreed to deploy 330 German soldiers for a long-term mission in Mali.

Prior to March 1 the German parliament (Bundestag) will be presented with two separate mandates and is expected to give parliamentary approval to German participation in France’s shabby colonial war in Africa. The Bundestag debate on the cabinet proposal commenced on Wednesday.

According to the terms of the first mandate, 180 armed soldiers are to be deployed to Mali as part of a European Union “training mission”. The German contingent includes 40 engineers and 40 soldiers with medical training plus military physicians. The task of the other 100 soldiers is to “protect German soldiers” and provide “support when necessary”.

The second mandate involves 150 soldiers carrying out “logistical support”. This involves the use of an Airbus for the refuelling in the air of French Rafale fighter jets and Mirage bombers. Without air refuelling the French planes would be unable to cover the long distances from France and other African countries to their targets in Mali.

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Stephen Lendman

Jeremy Hammond

America is no democracy. It never was an isn't now. Obama enforces police state harshness. It's official policy. Lawless entrapment reflects it.

Hammond is one many victims. Some call him the other Bradley Manning. They do so for good reason. He founded the web site HackThisSite. In 2003, he created it after graduating from high school.

On March 5, 2012, FBI agents arrested him in Chicago. They'd been investigating the Anonymous hactivist group. They use computers for political activism. They're connected likeminded groups. They include LulzSec, Internet Feds and AntiSec. Hammond's an AntiSec member. He and five other computer hackers were charged with high-profile cyberattack crimes. Accusations allege he committed them against corporations and government entities. His views are clear and unequivocal.

"I have always made it clear that I am an anarchist-communist," he says. "I believe we need to abolish capitalism and the state in its entirety to realize a free, egalitarian society." "I am not into watering down or selling out the message or making it more marketable for the masses."

His commitment led to his undoing. He believed betrayal was a click away. "We know we'll finish in prison," a fellow hacker said. "Jeremy knew he'd be raided." It's why he worked quickly. "He wants people to remember him." He never imagined one of his own would betray him. Hector Xavier Monsegur (aka Sabu) was a trusted ally. He ended up conspiring with FBI agents instead. More on that below.

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Johannes Stern

Peter Schwarz: German industry, government planning for resource wars

Germany is making intensive preparations to conduct new wars to secure resources. This was the unmistakable message of a lead article in Germany's business newspaper Handelsblatt, “Expedition Resources: Germany's new course.”

The article shows the real face of the German bourgeoisie. As in the first half of the twentieth century, when it twice played a central role in plunging humanity into world war, it is again moving to enforce its imperialist interests through war. “The previous political measures to secure raw materials are reaching their limits,” the Handelsblatt states. Dependence on raw materials is the German economy’s Achilles heel, the paper writes: “Industry is plagued by the fear that the high-tech sector in Germany could be cut off from essential supplies.”

The very same business circles that financed Hitler are again banging the war drums.

The article cites an interview with Dierk Paskert, the manager of the Resource Alliance founded in 2011. Members of the alliance include Volkswagen, ThyssenKrupp, Bayer and BASF—firms that either directly supported Nazi war plans, or whose predecessors did. Now they work closely with the German government to plan how Berlin will secure access to critical raw materials across the globe, by force if necessary.

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Peter Schwarz

Johannes Stern: The return of German imperialism

A year ago, leading German industrial companies launched the Resource Alliance (Rohstoffallianz) for the purpose of securing the supply of selected raw materials for its shareholders and corporate members. To achieve this goal, it is calling for the use of military assets.

In an interview with Reuters on Monday, the manager of the Resource Alliance, Dierk Paskert, called for “a strategically oriented foreign economic and security policy” to ensure the supply of raw materials for German business.

Although this policy should be guided by the “objective of free and transparent commodity markets,” Paskert said, “it would be naive to take this for granted in the near future.” Developments had moved in “exactly the opposite direction, unfortunately.” Therefore, Paskert concluded, “we [Germany], together with our partners in the EU and NATO, must take on more responsibility in foreign economic and security matters.”

“Taking responsibility in security matters” is a euphemism for military operations. This is indicated by the reference to NATO, a military alliance. — Paskert is calling for resource wars.

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Eric Peters

Something very good – though very dangerous to the congealing police state (but not to liberty-minded people) has occurred: Millions of Americans have decided they will not abide by any demand they register their firearms – much less surrender them. And are saying so – openly.

More than a few local sheriffs have also publicly stated they will not enforce any such demands. For the first time in living memory, the debate is not fundamentally about which guns – or how many guns. It is about whether the government has any business even knowing whether you’ve got guns at all – much less dictating the type you’re allowed to have.

It’s a Rubicon moment – because this idea involves a great deal more than merely firearms. It is an assertion – though not fully conscious, yet – that trampling the rights of any individual because of the actions of another individual is an ethical outrage. Not just the right to keep a gun. All rights.

The Beat-era author/philosopher William S. Burroughs once quipped: “After a shooting, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn’t do it.” He said that decades ago and at long last, people are coming to resent being vilified – and punished – not for anything they did. But because some other person did something. Or even worse, because some other person might do something.

Group guilt isn’t selling as well as it once did. And the stock people take in individual responsibility seems to be increasing.

Perhaps because the orbit of liberty has constricted so dramatically – especially during the past 10 years. Instead of gradually increasing the temperature so that the frog doesn’t notice he’s being boiled alive until it’s too late for him to hop out of the pot, they’ve cranked up the heat suddenly – and the frogs are now aware of what’s happening to them. And beginning to hop…

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Tony Cartalucci

Image: Rampant CO2, high global temperatures, rising sea levels. A look into the future? No, this is Mesozoic North America 250-65 million years ago. Climate change has happened long before humanity's emergence, it will happen again, with or without us. The key to preserving what we as humans value, including not only our cities, towns, and countrysides, but also ecosystems and species - is to devise technical, pragmatic solutions to ensure no matter what the climate does, we can not only survive, but thrive.

In reality, the diminutive, corporate-media inflated rally in DC was organized by the very corporate-financier special interests that have been wreaking terrible havoc on both the human population and the environment of this planet for decades. They are demanding action from a government that already represents their interests. Their demands are policies, particularly financial tax schemes that they themselves created and are are best positioned to benefit from while making no discernible impact on the very real environmental threats we collectively face.

It was an exercise in manufacturing consent for policies already long-ago devised and simply waiting for piecemeal implementation.

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Stephen Lendman

Editor: In a bid to shore up the Jewish vote, Democratic candidate Obama in 2008 made a surprise visit to Jerusalem's Western Wall. There he pledged his "unshakeable commitment to Israel's security". He also wore a yarmulke, the idea of which is to cover your head, certainly not in subservience to the Jews, but to show modesty before God.

Now, stooping to new levels of shamelessness and moral vacuity, he'll be back in stolen land again, to receive a piece of shiny metal for his services to the misbegotten Zionist state. Helping Peres murder people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere, Obama has put the phony political entity "Israel" above America and the Jews above everyone else. God apparently does not fit into their lethal scheme at all.

Imagining honoring crimes of war, against humanity and genocide. Imagine calling war on humanity honorable. Imagine granting a nation's highest civilian award for waging it. It shouldn't surprise. Obama will receive Israel's Presidential Medal of Distinction. More on him below.

On February 18, Shimon Peres announced the award. It'll be given during Obama's March visit. It's his first as president. He'll get it at Peres' Jerusalem residence. An Israeli press release said: "It will be the first time in history that a serving president of the United States of America will receive an award of this kind from the president of the State of Israel." Peres' spokesperson added:

"Barack Obama is a true friend of the State of Israel, and has been since the beginning of his public life. As president of the United States, he has stood with Israel in times of crisis." "During his time as president, he has made a unique contribution to the security of the State of Israel, both through further strengthening of the strategic cooperation between the two countries and through the joint development of technology to defend Israel against rockets and terrorism."

In 2012, Peres established the award. Henry Kissinger among others received it. Israelis and non-citizens are eligible. It's given to those "who have made an outstanding contribution to the State of Israel or to humanity, through their talents, services, or in any other form."

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Jacob G. Hornberger

Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar,
was kidnapped in 2003 by the CIA from the streets Milan
and sent to Egypt. (Photograph: EPA / The Guardian)

An appeals court in Italy has just sentenced two former Italian officials, Nicolo Pollari and Marco Mancini, to 10 years and 9 years in jail. Pollari served as head of Italian military intelligence and Mancini was head of counterintelligence.

Their crime? They conspired with the CIA to kidnap a man named Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr off the streets of Milan and rendition him to Egypt to be tortured.

What’s wrong with that? you ask. Well, nothing in the minds of U.S. officials. As everyone knows, ever since 9/11 the U.S. military and the CIA have claimed the authority to kidnap, rendition, torture, kill, and assassinate anyone they want, so long as it’s done as part of the “war on terrorism” and in the name of “national security.”

What about the laws of other nations — laws that make it a criminal offense for people to kidnap people, torture them, murder them, or assassinate them? Oh, they still count for everyone except U.S. military officials and CIA agents. After 9/11, U.S. officials made it clear to the world that the criminal laws of every country on earth would now be subordinate to the actions of the U.S. military and the CIA. The “war on terrorism” now trumped the laws of foreign jurisdictions. Don’t forget, after all, that in the “war on terrorism” the entire world is the battlefield, or so U.S. officials tell us.

That’s why the CIA felt that it could go into Italy, kidnap a man it suspected of being a terrorist, and forcibly transport him against his will to Egypt to be tortured. In the minds of U.S. national-security state officials, their war on terrorism trumped Italian laws that made kidnapping and torture criminal offenses.

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Stephen Lendman

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan (left) and the New
Republic Literary Editor Leon Wieseltier (Photo by Reuters)

Israeli racism is longstanding. It's institutionalized. Imagine honoring it. Israel did so. It finds new ways of reaching new lows. It disgraces itself in the process.

It shouldn't surprise. It's common practice. Jews alone matter. Arabs are considered subhuman.

Mondoweiss co-editor Philip Weiss headlined "Defense of separation wall = Prize for service to humanity."

"Israel honors New Republic literary editor Leon Wieseltier." [He's] "in the money."

He got the million dollar Dan David prize. It's from a Tel Aviv University foundation. It's awarded for innovative and interdisciplinary research. It's been done since 2002. Israeli critics are excluded. Past honorees include Tony Blair and Al Gore. They're war criminals. They deserve prison time, not awards.

Wieseltier's a notorious racist. He supports occupation harshness. He opposes Palestinian liberation. He's against their right to resist. He shames himself for doing so.

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Paul Craig Roberts

The tenuous connection between the US government and the interests of citizens is on its way to being severed entirely.

Americans have been shamed many times by their elected representatives who cravenly bow to vested interests and betray the American people. But no previous disgraceful behavior can match the public shame brought to Americans by the behavior of the Senate Republicans in the confirmation hearing of Senator Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense.

Forty Senate Republicans made it clear that not only do they refuse to put their service to America ahead of their service to Israel, but also that they will not even put their service to America on a par with their service to Israel. To every American’s shame, the Republicans demonstrated for all the world to see that they are wholly owned subsidiaries of the Israel Lobby. (The Israel Lobby is not their only master. They are also owned by other powerful interest groups, such as Wall Street and the Military/Security Complex.)

The most embarrassing behavior of all came from the craven Lindsay Graham, who, while in the act of demonstrating his complete subservience by crawling on his belly before the Israel Lobby, dared Hagel to name one single person in the US Congress who is afraid of the Israel Lobby. If I had been Hagel, I would have written off the nomination and answered: “You, Senator Graham, and your 40 craven colleagues.”

Indeed, Hagel could have answered: The entire US Congress, including Rand Paul who pretends to be different but isn’t. The real question is: Who in the Congress is not afraid of the Israel Lobby? The hatchet job on Hagel is driven by fear of the Israel Lobby.

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Stephen Lendman

■ Multiple previous P5+1 talks were held. America manipulated them to fail. So did Israel covertly. Western nations were pressured to go along.

■ On February 26, new talks will be held in Almaty, Kazahhstan. Expect no more this time than earlier. It bears repeating. Tehran's nuclear program isn't at issue. It's red herring cover for imperial aims. It's the oil, stupid, and regional dominance. Iran's sovereignty stands in the way. Its program is peaceful. It complies with NPT provisions. World leaders know it. So do IAEA inspectors.

■ Washington targets all independent governments. It wants pro-Western puppet ones replacing them. It invents reasons to do so. It operates extrajudicially in defiance of rule of law principles. It gets UN Secretary-Generals to go along. Ban Ki-moon is one of the worst. He shames the office he holds. He spurns UN Charter principles. He's complicit in war crimes. He's well rewarded for doing so. He lies for Washington. He's a longstanding imperial tool.

On February 14, the Washington Post headlined "Iran could use UN talks as cover to build bomb, Ban K-moon says." He knows Iran has no such intention. He lies and claims otherwise. Decisive swift action should prevent what doesn't exist, he urges. Accelerated action should be prioritized.

"We should not give much more time to the Iranians, and we should not waste time," he says. "We have seen what happened with the DPRK." "It ended up that they (were) secretly, quietly, without any obligations, without any pressure, making progress." The Security Council must "show a firm, decisive and effective, quick response."

Like America and Israel, he wants Iran to prove a negative. He told Imam Khamenei he's not satisfied with peaceful reassurances. He did so on orders from Washington. He's "frustrated" about failed international talks. He points fingers the wrong way. He blames Iran for Western intransigency. He speaks with forked tongue.

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Occupied Palestine | فلسطين

Message from Samer el Issawi, day 209 hunger strike

Via Rona Merrill, Neta Golan. Message from Samer Al Issawi, below, also his brother just got arrested at their home (and here’s hoping it’s not because of worse news):

MESSAGE FROM SAMER AL-ISSAWI – 16.02.13 – ‘I turn with admiration to the masses of our heroic Palestinian people, to our Palestinian leadership, to all forces, parties and national institutions. I salute them for standing by our fight to defend our right to freedom and dignity.

I draw my strength from my people, from all the free people in the world, from friends and the families of the prisoners who continue day and night chanting for freedom and an end to the occupation.

My health has deteriorated dramatically and I’m hung between life and death. My weak body is collapsing but still able to be patient and continue the confrontation. My message is that I will continue until the end, until the last drop of water in my body, until martyrdom. Martyrdom is an honor for me in this battle. My martyrdom is my remaining bomb in the confrontation with the tyrants and the jailers, in the face of the racist policy of the occupation that humiliates our people and exercises against us all means of oppression and repression.

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Harvey Thompson

The growing rivalry between Washington and Beijing is emerging as the major fault line in regional politics.

The first month of 2013 revealed not only the precarious state of the US-led occupation of Afghanistan, but also its potentially catastrophic regional consequences.

In a recent op-ed piece in the New York Times by Michael Keating and Matt Waldman, which argues for a deal between the US government and the Taliban, the authors paint a stark picture.

Pointing out that “even in the winter fighting ‘lull’ there are an average of 50 insurgent attacks a day across the country,” the authors write: “Disillusionment about Afghanistan in Washington and other capitals is growing… Meanwhile, the Taliban remain strong; warlords are reported to be rearming; and many Afghans that can are leaving or getting their money out. More than 32,000 Afghans made asylum applications in 2012—more than any other nationality worldwide.”

The authors warn of a “relapse into civil war” that would be disastrous “for the wider region.”

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Paul Craig Roberts

My experience with the American left and right leads to the conclusion that the left sees private power as the source of oppression and government as the countervailing and rectifying power, while the right sees government as the source of oppression and a free and unregulated private sector as the countervailing and rectifying power. Both are concerned with restraining the power to oppress, but they take opposite positions on the source of the oppressive power and remedy.

The right is correct that government power is the problem, and the left is correct that private power is the problem. Therefore, whether power is located within the government or private sectors cannot reduce, constrain, or minimize power.

How does the progressive Obama Regime differ from the tax-cut, deregulation Bush/Cheney Regime? Both are complicit in the maximization of executive branch power and in the minimization of citizens’ civil liberties and, thus, of the people’s power. Did the progressive Obama reverse the right-wing Bush’s destruction of habeas corpus and due process? No. Obama further minimized the people’s power. Bush could throw us in prison for life without proof of cause. Obama can execute us without proof of cause. They do this in the name of protecting us from terrorism, but not from their terrorism.

Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.

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