Empire looks at the Israeli-Palestinian talks and asks what it will take to reach the promised land.

PressTV: 'Israel rearranging occupation'
IMEMC: Barghouthi: “Construction Continues In Dozens of Settlements”

First, they tried the "legal" route. When it became apparent that American Muslims had a constitutionally guaranteed right to religious, cultural, and communal services in lower Manhattan just like everyone else, they invoked the "sensitivity to the 9/11 families" line. When it was argued that there is nothing insensitive about Muslims with no connection to 9/11 establishing a center two blocks away (unless you assume collective guilt), and that Muslims died in the Twin Towers, too, they tried to smear the center's imam as a radical.

When it was revealed that imam Feisal's 37-year track record was so consistently antithetical to radicalism that it earned him the "moderate model imam" accolade from this administration, the Bush administration, the FBI, and the New York interfaith community, they tried the "sacred ground" argument.

Privately, however, there seems to be little such confusion. The reasons there are given clearly, and it turns out it is precisely what many of us have argued all along: opposition organizers are motivated by an ideological belief that "Islam is evil and must be stopped; America is Judeo-Christian." That's it.

NYT: The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party
Bob Altemeyer: Comment on the Tea Party Movement
Ernest A. Canning: 'Tea Party' Future: Fascism, Feudalism, Economic Collapse

A fresh US strike has killed at least five people in Pakistan's northwestern tribal region, amid growing discontent over climbing number of civilian casualties. The unmanned plane fired two missiles at a vehicle in Data Khel area of North Waziristan Agency on Monday, a Press TV correspondent reported. The vehicle was destroyed in the attack. Security officials in the area say several others have been wounded in the attack. US-led strikes have killed at least two dozen people over the past four days in the volatile tribal region near the Afghan border. The attacks come as Pakistan struggles with devastating floods, the country's worst natural disaster. US drone attacks have killed some 1,000 Pakistanis over the past two years. The United States claims its drone attacks target militants, but civilians have been the overwhelming majority of victims in such bombing raids. The issue of civilian casualties has strained relations between Islamabad and Washington. Islamabad has repeatedly condemned the strikes, saying that the attacks are in clear violation of Pakistan's sovereignty.

AWIP: Amid flooding, CIA resumes Pakistan drone campaign.

STATE TERROR: US drone attacks kills people in Pakistan. + 44 US drone hits in Pakistan killed 700 civilians in 2009.

Commander of the US-led forces in Afghanistan wants 2,000 extra troops in the country as foreign soldiers are experiencing their deadliest year since the 2001 invasion. General David Petraeus claims the extra troops are intended to mainly train Afghan security forces, a NATO official said on Monday. "There is now a discussion underway for additional resources, principally trainers, that could be sent to Afghanistan to bolster the mission," AFP quoted the official as saying. The mission comes in addition to the 30,000 extra troops sent by US President Barack Obama to bolster the unpopular war. But Obama has also set July 2011 as the deadline for starting troops' withdrawal from the war-ravaged country. Reports say the request by Petraeus has been relayed to the transatlantic alliance's 28 members and that it is up to individual governments to decide on whether to make contributions. There are around 150,000 US-led foreign troops in the war-torn country. Some 500 US-led soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year, making 2010 the deadliest year so far for foreign forces since they invaded the country nine years ago.

Eight Years of Horror Perpetrated upon Afghan Civilians by the American Military and its Megaphone, the Corporate Media

Now you will discover the definitive truth about 9/11 and learn why even the most popular movies on the subject have failed to address the evidence exhaustively presented in this video. The facts will make it abundantly clear that the so-called 9/11 Truth movement has been infiltrated and is ultimately controlled by the same criminal group who masterminded the attacks. As they say, 'if you want to control the dissent you lead the dissent.' Utilizing evidence from the FBI, CIA, NSA, US Armed Forces Intelligence sectors, Foreign Intelligence organizations, local law enforcement agencies and independent investigators, Missing Links goes where no other 9/11 video has dared to.

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Parts 1-12 HERE Full Video HERE.

The world's most repressive workplace environments -- where trade unions are suppressed, workers' rights are ignored, and forced labor is not unknown.

London, England (CNN) -- Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has canceled a central London book-signing event for his new autobiography over concerns of the "inevitable hassle" that will be caused by protesters, his office said in a statement Monday. Blair's decision came after police made some arrests Saturday in Dublin, Ireland, where he attended another signing event for his book, titled "A Journey." A crowd of people, some of them anti-war demonstrators, had gathered outside the shop to protest Blair's role in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and there were unconfirmed reports of eggs and shoes being thrown at Blair.

"I very much enjoyed meeting my readers in Dublin and was looking forward to doing the same in London," Blair said in the statement Monday. "However, I have decided not to go ahead with the signing as I don't want the public to be inconvenienced by the inevitable hassle caused by protesters.

The Guardian: Tony Blair scrapped London book signing to avoid protest 'hassle'

Most Americans don’t realize we have elected a president whom we know very little about. Researchers have discovered that Obama’s autobiographical books are little more than PR stunts, as they have little to do with the actual events of his life. The fact is we know less about President Obama than perhaps any other president in American history and much of this is due to actual efforts to hide his record. This should concern all Americans.

A nation-wide network of researchers has sprung up to attempt to fill in the blanks, but at every opportunity Obama’s high-priced lawyers have built walls around various records or simply made them disappear. It is estimated that Obama’s legal team has now spent well over $1.4 million dollars blocking access to documents every American should have access to. The question is why would he spend so much money to do this?

The president who campaigned for a more “open government” and “full disclosure” will not unseal his medical records, his school records, his birth records or his passport records. He will not release his Harvard records, his Columbia College records, or his Occidental College records—he will not even release his Columbia College thesis. All his legislative records from the Illinois State Senate are missing and he claims his scheduling records during those State Senate years are lost as well. In addition, no one can find his school records for the elite K-12 college prep school, Punahou School, he attended in Hawaii.