Stephen Lendman

US Vice President Joe Biden headlined this year’s AIPAC
Policy Conference. (The full text of his groveling speech)

AIPAC disseminates disinformation, lies and hate. It menaces freedom and peace and glorifies war. It is a destructive, malevolent, evil force.

On March 3, AIPAC's 2013 conference began. It "Celebrat(es) 65 Years of Friendship." It's nothing to be admired. It supports war, occupation, exploitation and dominance. It deplores peace, equity and justice. It's contemptuous of fundamental human rights. It believes Jews are God's chosen people. It thinks Arabs are subhumans. It favors eliminating them altogether. War is its instrument of choice.

Washington again was venue. A rogue's gallery of participants attended. Warmongering speeches were featured. AIPAC does it annually. It disseminates disinformation, lies and hate. It viciously attacks opponents. It maliciously calls Iran "the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism and is racing toward a nuclear weapons capability." It lied saying so. No nation tops US and Israeli state terrorism. They menace humanity. AIPAC lobbied successfully to impose lawless sanctions on Iran. It wants Tehran's government toppled. It manufactures threats to promote fear. It wants unchallenged Israeli regional dominance. It favors no-holds-barred belligerence to achieve it.

US legislators are heavily pressured. AIPAC wants Washington's diplomatic, military and economic support if Israel attacks Iran preemptively. AIPAC wants war. Doing so is lawless, madness and self-destructive.

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Bill Van Auken

The US-French intervention in Mali has been cast as a humanitarian venture aimed at rescuing the Malian people from Islamists. The reality is that the war has unleashed immense human suffering

The Obama administration is “markedly widening its role” in the escalating French-led neo-colonial war in Mali, according to a report published Monday in the Wall Street Journal.

According to unnamed French officials cited in the report, US Reaper drones have been utilized to track down alleged Islamist fighters in the Ifoghas mountain region of northern Mali, supplying targeting information for some 60 French airstrikes in just the past week. A force of 1,200 French troops alongside another 800 US-trained special forces soldiers from Chad and units of Mali’s own army have engaged in fierce clashes with the insurgents, who have operated in the region for many years and are well acquainted with its terrain.

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Stephen Lendman

Torture is official Israeli policy. It's longstanding. Palestinian suffering explains best. Thousands every year are subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment. Their physical and emotional scars bear witness. Accountability is long overdue.

Arafat Jaradat is Israel's latest victim. Israel tortured him to death. His body bore clear signs. Autopsy evidence proved it. Severe upper body bruising, blisters, and blot clots were visible. Multiple broken bones in his neck, ribs, spine, arms and legs were discovered.

Israel initially attributed his death to cardiac arrest. On February 28, Haaretz headlined "Death of Palestinian in Israeli jail not due to abuse or poisoning, autopsy finds." Israel's Health Ministry said so. It lied. Alleged findings turned truth on its head. Institute of Forensic Medicine officials said Jaradat's cause of death remains undetermined.

Chief pathologist, Dr. Yehuda Hiss, conducted the autopsy. Israeli Health Ministry head, Arnon Afek, witnessed it. PA chief pathologist, Dr. Saber Aloul was there at the time. His assessment was blunt. Jaradat's body bore clear signs of torture, he said.

Shin Bet interrogators tortured him to death. They were caught red-handed. They denied culpability. Lies and coverup define Israeli policy. They follow all Israeli crimes.

Jaradat was in good health when arrested. Days later he was dead. Israel bears full responsibility.

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