Britain's free speech and human rights culture doesn't seem to extend to those who disagree with powerful minorities. Activists are crying foul over a series of scandals and arrests for offending certain sections of society. Sara Firth reports on the thin line between extremism and freedom of speech.

Claims from Malcom Fraser (pictured) that Israel deliberately bombed the USS Liberty in June 1967 is a “mad, demented conspiracy theory”, Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) national chairman Mark Leibler said this week. The former prime minister made the assertion while promoting his new book Dangerous Allies during an interview with ABC Radio Melbourne broadcaster Jon Faine last Friday, during which he also said former foreign minister Bob Carr was “absolutely correct” in his view that the pro-Israel lobby wielded too much power. ● “Israel years ago, during one of the wars, killed 30 or 40 Americans on a spy ship in the Western Mediterranean,” Fraser told Faine. “The Americans tried to cover it up. It wasn’t a mistake. It was deliberate.” When asked on what he based the claim, Fraser said: “Information I have. I am not going to tell you the source.” Asked by Faine if he agreed that “the pro-Israel and in particular Jewish community lobby in Australia wielded too much power”, Fraser responded, “They certainly do.”

Gilad Atzmon et la quenelle de Dieudonné by ERTV

I was recently interviewed by Romain Red for ERTV. I am very happy with this short clip and I am sure that it will upset a few.

Afghan police say at least 11 people have lost their lives in an air raid conducted by US-led forces in the troubled eastern Ghazni Province. ● Local officials said the fatalities were all Taliban members who came under attack somewhere near the Andar district. Authorities added that the group was gearing up to carry out an attack when it was targeted. The Taliban militants have yet to comment on the incident. The United States regularly uses drones for airstrikes and spying missions in Afghanistan among other places. Washington claims that the airstrikes target militants, but local sources say civilians have been the main victims of the attacks over the years.

The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) won’t participate in the election of the Ukrainian president on May 25, says the new prime minister of the breakaway region in the East of the country. ● “There won’t be any presidential elections on the territory of the republic,” announced Aleksandr Borodai, who was elected leader of the self-proclaimed republic on Friday. Donetsk, along with the neighboring Lugansk region proclaimed self-rule on Monday, after May-11 referendums, which were called illegal by Kiev and the West. The Ukrainian coup-imposed government listed the self-proclaimed republics as ‘terrorist’ organizations and launched criminal cases to investigate their formation. Donetsk republic, for its part, considers the Kiev regime “occupiers” of its territory. “Here is a sovereign state – Donetsk People’s Republic. We are entitled to decide ourselves what will be done on our territory,” the republic’s press-service told Itar-Tass on Saturday. “We consider Ukraine’s attempt to have elections here as an activity of another state on an occupied territory.”

A political disaster planned and funded by Washington is entering a new and even Orwellian stage. What is Victoria Nuland's impact on the Ukrainian crisis? Is there a peaceful resolution of the crisis? And what is in Nuland's mind? CrossTalking with Rick Rozoff, Brian Becker and Ray McGovern.

Professor Lennart Bengtsson says recent McCarthy-style pressure from fellow academics forced him to resign from his post on a climate sceptic think-tank. ● The research fellow from the University of Reading believes a paper he co-authored was deliberately suppressed from publicatoin in a leading journal because of an intolerance of dissenting views about climate change by scientists who peer-reviewed the work. “The problem we have now in the scientific community is that some scientists are mixing up their scientific role with that of climate activist,” he told the Times. Professor Bengtsson claims a scientist advised that the paper, which challenged findings that global temperature would increase by 4.5C if greenhouse gases were to double, should not be published in a respected journal because it was “less than helpful.” The unnamed scientist, who was asked to peer review Professor Bengtsson’s paper, said in his comments: “Actually it is harmful as it opens the door for oversimplified claims of ‘errors’ and worse from the climate sceptics side.”

Roy Spencer: The Bullying of Bengtsson and the Coming Climate Disruption Hypocalypse
Adriana Cohen: Climate change yet another excuse for the ‘Nanny State’

Peter Symonds ■ Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday took another major step toward the revival of Japanese militarism. In a televised speech, he backed a panel report, released on Wednesday, which justified a constitutional reinterpretation allowing Japan’s armed forces to engage in what is euphemistically described as “collective self-defence.” Japan’s post-war constitution, in which Article 9 formally renounced war and declared that land, air and sea forces would never be maintained, has already been “reinterpreted” beyond recognition. The Japanese “self-defence” forces are large and well-equipped. Over the past two decades, they have been dispatched overseas to join so-called UN peacekeeping missions, as well as to participate in the US-led neo-colonial wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—none of which have anything to do with “self-defence.”

The Hindu communalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) have swept to power in India’s general election, buoyed by popular anger over soaring food prices and mass unemployment and the support of Indian big business and the corporate media. ● The BJP will have 282 seats in the incoming Lok Sabha—the first time in three decades any single party has secured a majority in the 545-member lower house of India’s parliament. The 54 seats won by the BJP’s NDA allies are more than the total secured by any of the opposition parties and mean that the government will have the support of at least 336 Lok Sabha MPs. What hopes India’s workers and toilers have that the BJP will deliver on its election campaign promises of jobs and development will soon be dashed.