Grand Betrayal
Grand Betrayal
by Stephen Lendman
Turkey and Israel reconciled. Headlines announced it. They reflect grand betrayal. It's duplicitous. It's too little, too late. More on that below.
Israel bears full responsibility. Officials ordering nine cold-blooded murders remain unaccountable. Corpses won't be reborn. Family survivors aren't assuaged. They deserve better. They were promised justice. They're denied it.
Payday Loans: Modern Day Usury
Payday Loans: Modern Day Usury
by Stephen Lendman
Payday loans let predatory lenders rip off unwary borrowers. They provide short-term unsecured quick cash. It comes at a high price. It matches the worst of loan shark practices.
Just a US Citizen, No Big Deal: Obama Doesn’t Demand Israeli Apology for Killing of an American Youth
By Dave Lindorff
The American media is full of praise for President Obama for “brokering” a detente between Israel and Turkey, two former allies who have been at loggerheads since May 31, 2010 when heavily armed Israeli Defense Force fighters boarded the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish-flagged vessel seeking to break Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza with non-military supplies, and killed nine unarmed peace flotilla activists.
The people we should be searching are the criminals hired by the TSA, by Amy Alkon
If they scanned and groped the unskilled workers (hired with cursory vetting by the TSA) before they left the airports, think of all the crimes they’d discover. In yet another of so many TSA-worker-perpetrated crimes, an Orlando TSA agent was arrested after he took home the computer that some honest traveler turned in to him.
Read the rest at TSA News.
High Noon in Cyprus
High Noon in Cyprus
by Stephen Lendman
The Wall Street Journal said "Cyprus braces for a long weekend." It's not over 'till it's over. What's ahead bodes ill for Cypriots.
Obama v Justice in Palestine
Sign: US leads terrorism (Raad Adayleh)
Obama in Jerusalem
Obama in Jerusalem
by Stephen Lendman
Rhetoric doesn't reflect policy. What matters most is what Obama means, not what he says. His agenda affirms one-sided Israeli support. He spurns Palestinian rights. He's done so throughout his tenure.
He's not about to change now. Palestinians have no friends in Washington. For sure they have none in high places.
Lawless NYPD Spying on Muslims
Lawless NYPD Spying on Muslims
by Stephen Lendman
Post-9/11, America declared war on Islam. Muslims became public enemy number one. They're stereotypically portrayed as culturally inferior, dirty, lecherous, untrustworthy, religiously fanatical and violent.
Doing so turns truth on its head. It also violates the Constitution's First Amendment. It guarantees religious freedom. It means free from persecution.
Don’t race on our blood, Bahrainis tell Formula 1 as repression continues
As the Formula 1 teams became under intensive pressure not to take part in the forthcoming race in Bahrain, the health of two of the most prominent human rights activists has deteriorated sharply in the past two days. Abdul Hadi Al Khawana, 51, and his daughter, Zainab, 29 began hunger strike last Sunday in protest at the way they were treated by the prison authorities and lack of access to their families. Mr Al Khawaja is protesting against the increasing brutality of the prison authorities, the use of torture even against those who had been sentenced and the monitoring regime of the family visits that had become less frequent. His daughter, Zainab is protesting against the way she has been prevented from seeing her three-years daughter, Joud. The health of both has deteriorated in the past two days and calls have been made to transfer them to the hospital for emergency treatment. Sources close to the Alkhalifa said that the regime prefers to have them dead as they have repe atedly challenged its policies of extra-judicial killings and systematic torture.
Meanwhile, the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights has issued a statement expressing concern at the health of Abdul Hadi and Zainab and calling for their immediate release. Also, Nabeel Rajab called Abdul Hadi’s wife urging her to remain composed and patient. He asked her to feel proud to have such husband and daughter. Despite his pains and chains, Mr Rajab has proven himself to possess great leadership and humane qualities.
A Kuwaiti blogger and human rights activist, Nawaf Al Hendal said on his Twitter on Thursday that he had been banned from entering Bahrain. He was on his way via the Bahrain-Saudi causeway, attempting to enter Bahrain when he was stopped and told that he was “persona non grata” and should go back to Kuwait. He described how a person in plain clothes informed him of the decision by the ruling family that he was “no longer welcomed in Bahrain”. Bahraini activists have apologised to Mr Al Hendal for being turned away by a murderous regime.
The people’s Revolution has continued unabated. The past week has seen protests and demonstrations in most areas, especially after night fall. Several people were injured, some of them seriously as the dictator continued to issue orders to his troops to shoot at peaceful protesters. The situation is becoming desperate especially that the “dialogue” that started one month ago has practically come to a halt as Bahrainis declared their opposition to any political settlement that leaves the ruling family in charge. The jailed leaders have rejected this meaningless “dialogue” between the political societies and agents of the regime.
At another level, the ProPublica website reported that the International Peace Institute, a New York-based think tank closely associated with the United Nations, announced last month an agreement to open an office in Bahrain to “promote development, peace and international security.” Institute President Terje Rød-Larsen, a veteran diplomat in the Mideast who is also a United Nations under-secretary-general, said that taking money from Bahrain’s government would not compromise the institute’s work. He declined to say how much money Bahrain is providing. Rød-Larsen has been a frequent visitor to Bahrain in recent years, regularly meeting with government officials both in his capacity as the institute’s president and as a U.N. official. Organized as a nonprofit charity in New York, the institute had a budget of nearly $11 million in 2011 and Rød-Larsen received about $495,000 in compensation. According to the group’s 2011 annual report, its major donors that year included the United States, several governments in Europe, as well as Bahraini regional allies Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The institute’s international advisory council includes Prince Turki Al-Faisal, the former head of Saudi intelligence. Saudi Arabia sent troops to help put down the protests in Bahrain in 2011.
Bahrain Freedom Movement
22nd March 2013
Syria News - Mar 23
Obama Warns Syria Could Become Enclave For Extremists - ABC News
VIDEO: Obama expresses concern for extremism in Syria - The Washington Post
France, Britain fail to win EU easing of Syria arms ban - Reuters
Syria: no peace through arming rebels, Aleppo's bishops says - ANSAMed.it
Russian Navy calls for agreement on possible port calls in Lebanon - Russia Beyond The Headlines
Xi Jinping in Russia to Promote Cooperation - NYTimes.com
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France, Britain sound alarm over Assad's willingness to use chemical weapons - Yahoo! News
VIDEO: Syria Rebels: Assad Shot Chemical Weapon SCUD into Aleppo - YouTube
VIDEO: Kurds in Syria celebrate Newroz While the Arabs fight Each Other - LiveLeak.com
To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com
Grand Theft Cyprus: Part II
Grand Theft Cyprus: Part II
by Stephen Lendman
Cypriot legislators rejected Plan A. At issue was taxing savings accounts over 100,000 euros 9.9% and small depositors 6.75%. Plan B followed.
On March 21, the Financial Times headlined "Cyprus targets big depositors in bank plan," saying:
TSA disrespects paraplegic Marine — again, by Bill Fisher
As we reported here the other day, a wounded Marine wrote to his Congressman after being humiliated by the TSA at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.
Unbreakable US/Israeli Ties
Unbreakable US/Israeli Ties
by Stephen Lendman
Longstanding US/Israeli ties remain firm. Obama's visit reinforces them. It does more.
It assures continued support. It endorses hardline extremism. It affirms occupation harshness. It lets Israel do what it pleases.
Washington Supports Venezuelan Opposition
Washington Supports Venezuelan Opposition
by Stephen Lendman
It's an open secret. Throughout Chavez's tenure, America supported opposition candidates. Quasi-government agencies did so. They're at it again now.
Syria News - Mar 22
Top pro-Assad Sunni cleric killed as suicide bombing hits Damascus mosque killing 42 - RT News
VIDEO: Suicide Bombing in Al-Iman Mosque in Damascus - YouTube
VIDEO: More on the suicide bombing at Al-Iman mosque in Damascus - YouTube
U.N. to launch probe of alleged Syria chemical arms attack - reuters.com
Syrian opposition chief criticizes US in chemical attack debate - todayszaman
Muslim Brotherhood Holds Sway Over Syrian Opposition - Al-Monitor
Syrian bishop says 30,000 Christians have fled Aleppo - AFP
BBC Weather Twitter Account Hacked By 'Syrian Electronic Army' (PICTURES) - Huffington Post
VIDEO: Al-Nusra Beheading Assad supporter - EuropeNews
VIDEO: Islamic flag raised in Raqqa - LiveLeak.com
VIDEO: Rising Inflation in Syria - YouTube
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EU set for showdown on Syria arms embargo -AFP
Paris pushing ahead with plans to arm Syria militants - PressTV
Survey: Cameron, Hollande at odds with voters on Syria - yougov.co.uk
Key senators push Obama to use limited military options in Syria crisis - Yahoo! News
Syrian radical Islamic rebels capture areas near Golan Heights - The Burleson Star
Lebanese Army arrests 10 Syrians for arms possession in border raids - THE DAILY STAR
Syria hands over seized Lebanese fighter to Beirut - Yahoo! News
US report says Turkey could be drawn into war with Syria, Iran - todayszaman
China, Russia move toward full-fledged strategic partnership - Xinhua | English.news.cn
To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com
Iran War Weekly - March 18, 2013
Iran War Weekly
March 18, 2013
Hello All – As readers may/will recall, we are between negotiating sessions about Iran’s nuclear program. After an eight-month hiatus, restarting negotiations between the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council) and Iran was significant. Even more significant, and also surprising, was that the negotiations in Kazakhstan in February generated cautious optimism among diplomats, and a second round of negotiations is now scheduled for early April, again in Kazakhstan.
NABEEL RAJAB: Global Week of Action – March 21-28
Men Who Kick Down Doors
Tyrants at Home and Abroad
By Ann Jones, TomDispatch
Picture this. A man, armored in tattoos, bursts into a living room not his own. He confronts an enemy. He barks orders. He throws that enemy into a chair. Then against a wall. He plants himself in the middle of the room, feet widespread, fists clenched, muscles straining, face contorted in a scream of rage. The tendons in his neck are taut with the intensity of his terrifying performance. He chases the enemy to the next room, stopping escape with a quick grab and thrust and body block that pins the enemy, bent back, against a counter. He shouts more orders: his enemy can go with him to the basement for a “private talk,” or be beaten to a pulp right here. Then he wraps his fingers around the neck of his enemy and begins to choke her.
Iraq: So was it a war for oil?
By Greg Muttitt, http://www.fuelonthefire.com/?
Tony Blair always did like to think of himself as a world statesman. I sometimes wonder whether he had an eye on Winston Churchill when he said of the Iraq War in 2003, “the oil conspiracy theory is honestly one of the most absurd”. Back in 1920, Churchill told parliament that the idea of an oil motive behind Britain´s Mesopotamia Campaign during the First World War was “too absurd for acceptance.”
The road to hell is paved with the good intentions of the TSA, by Sommer Gentry
Another kick-ass post by our resident mathematician, Sommer Gentry.
Read the rest at TSA News.
New York Times Hypocrisy
New York Times Hypocrisy
by Stephen Lendman
NYT's attempts to set the record straight are duplicitous. They come too late to matter.
On May 26, 2004, Times editors headlined "The Times and Iraq," saying:
Obama in Israel
Obama in Israel
by Stephen Lendman
His visit bodes ill, not good. He left late Tuesday night. On March 20, he arrived around noon Israeli time.
Secretary of State John Kerry came earlier. Scores of officials, aides and security personnel accompanied him and Obama.
Join the World Can't Wait Conference Call
by World Can't Wait Director Debra Sweet
On the phone THURSDAY March 20
10pm Eastern / 7pm Pacific
The “American” War Isn’t Over for the Iraqi People...
by World Can't Wait Director Debra Sweet Yes, I know it wasn’t all of the countries of the Americas which made war on Iraq. It was the United States of America, as Barack Obama is so fond of saying, dragging along with it the coalition of the bribed and coerced. Just as it was for the Vietnamese people an American war, while we called it the Vietnam War, this one is known in Iraq as the American War. We have to accept that.
Syria News - Mar 21
Syrian govt, rebels urge UN investigation into ‘chemical attack’ - RT News
West stalls Syria chemical attack probe in U.N.: Russia - chicagotribune.com
Report of chemical-weapons use in Syria being investigated, Obama says - The Washington Post
VIDEO: Obama on Syria: Chemical weapons a 'game-changer' - vancouversun.com
Israeli official: Chemical weapons used in Syria - Yahoo! News
Chemical weapons likely used in Syria, but detection window closed, expert says - Fox News
Alleged Rebels' Web Page Adopting and Proud of Chemical Attack in Aleppo - Real Syria Updates
VIDEO: Syria Rebels Caught on Tape Discussing Chemical Weapons Attack - LeakSource
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PYD: Hitto does not represent Kurds - ANF
Syria’s Oil a Source of Contention for Competing Groups - NYTimes.com
Syrian Christians turn to Turkish churches, not refugee camps, for help - Catholic Philly
Jordan king warns Syria could become jihadi state, says Assad's days numbered - Fox News
Recent videos show international makeup of Syrian jihad - Threat Matrix
To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com
Talk Nation Radio: Wenonah Hauter on Foodopoly
Wenonah Hauter is the executive director of Food and Water Watch and the author of Foodopoly. She discusses the 20 companies that make our processed food -- and the 2 companies, both foreign, that make our beer (despite the hundreds of brands all pretending a diversity of origins and owners). Hauter tells a story of how we got here and how we can get out of here.
Total run time: 29:00
Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
Music by Duke Ellington.
Download or get embed code from Archive or AudioPort or LetsTryDemocracy.
Syndicated by Pacifica Network.
Please encourage your local radio stations to carry this program every week!
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Teach the Children War
The National Museum of American History, and a billionaire who has funded a new exhibit there, would like you to know that we're going to need more wars if we want to have freedom. Never mind that we seem to lose so many freedoms whenever we have wars. Never mind that so many nations have created more freedoms than we enjoy and done so without wars. In our case, war is the price of freedom. Hence the new exhibit: "The Price of Freedom: Americans at War."
The exhibit opens with these words: "Americans have gone to war to win their independence, expand their national boundaries, define their freedoms, and defend their interests around the globe." Those foolish, foolish Canadians: why, oh, why did they win their independence without a war? Think of all the people they might have killed! The exhibit is surprisingly, if minimally, honest about imperialism, at least in the early wars. The aim of conquering Canada is included, along with bogus excuses, as one of the motivations for the War of 1812.
The most outrageous part of the opening lines of the exhibition, however, may be the second half: ". . . define their freedoms, and defend their interests around the globe." The exhibition, to the extent that I've surveyed it online, provides absolutely no indication of what in the world can be meant by a war being launched in order to "define our freedoms." And, needless to say, it is the U.S. government, not "Americans," that imagines it has "interests around the globe" that can and should be "defended" by launching wars.
The exhibit is an extravaganza of lies and deceptions. The U.S. Civil War is presented as "America's bloodiest conflict." Really? Because Filipinos don't bleed? Vietnamese don't bleed? Iraqis don't bleed? We should not imagine that our children don't learn exactly that lesson. The Spanish American War is presented as an effort to "free Cuba," and so forth. But overwhelmingly the lying is done in this exhibit by omission. Bad past excuses for wars are ignored, the death and destruction is ignored or falsely reduced. Wars that are too recent for many of us to swallow too much B.S. about are quickly passed over.
The exhibit helpfully provides a teacher's manual (PDF), and its entire coverage of the past 12 years of warmaking (which has involved the killing of some 1.4 million people in Iraq alone) consists of the events of 9/11/2001, beginning with this:
"September 11 was a modern-day tragedy of immense proportions. The devastating attacks by al Qaeda terrorists inside the United States killed some 3,000 people and sparked an American-led war on terrorism. The repercussions of that day will impact domestic and international political decisions for many years to come. At 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001, a passenger jet flew into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York. Fire and rescue crews rushed to the scene. As live TV coverage began, horrified viewers watched as a second plane slammed into the south tower at 9:03 a.m. Thirty-five minutes later a third airliner crashed into the Pentagon. Another jet bound for Washington, D.C., crashed in Pennsylvania after its passengers challenged the hijackers. The nation reeled. But Americans resolved to fight back, inspired by the words of a passenger who helped foil the last attack: 'Are you guys ready? Let’s roll.'"
If you talk to non-sociopathic teachers, you discover that the sort of "teaching" engaged in by our museums has a horrible impact on students' understanding. A new book called Teaching About the Wars is a great place to start. It's written by teachers who try to present their students with a more complete and honest understanding of war than what's expected by common text books, many of which are far worse than the museum exhibit described above. These teachers / authors argue that when a teacher pretends to have no point of view, he or she teaches their students moral apathy. Pretending not to care about the world teaches children not to care about the world. Teachers should have a point of view but teach more than one, teach critical thinking and analysis, teach skepticism, and teach respect for the opinions of others.
Students should not be taught, these teachers suggest, to reject all public claims as falsehoods and the truth as absolutely unknowable. Rather, they should be taught to critically evaluate claims and develop informed opinions. Jessica Klonsky writes:
"One of the most successful media-related lessons involved an exercise comparing two media viewpoints. First I showed the first 20 minutes of Control Room, a documentary about Al Jazeera, the international Arabic-language television network headquartered in Doha, Qatar. Students were shocked by the dead bodies and destruction shown on Al Jazeera. For many it was the first time they realized that it wasn't just soldiers who died in war."
U.S. soldiers were 0.3% of the dead in the 2003-2011 war on Iraq. These students had been unaware of the other 99.7% of the dead. Learning what war really looks like is perhaps the most important lesson missing from our usual education system.
Another important lesson is who engages in war and why. Bill Bigelow presents a model lesson through which teachers can present students with true situations, but with the names of the nations changed. They can discuss what the nations ought to have done, before learning that one of the nations was their own, and before learning what it actually did. Then they can discuss that reality. Bigelow also begins his teaching about the "war on terrorism" by asking students to work on defining "terrorism" (and not by attacking each other, which is presumably how the National Museum of American History would recommend "defining" such a term).
One teacher ends such a lesson by asking "What difference do you think it would make if students all over the country were having the discussion we're having today?" Clearly, that question moves students toward becoming potential teachers wanting to share their knowledge to a far greater extent than, say, teaching them the dates of battles and suggesting they try to impress others with their memorization.
Can good teaching compete with the Lockheed Martin-sponsored Air and Space Museum, the U.S. Army's video games, Argo, Zero Dark 30, the slick lies of the recruiters, the Vietnam Commemoration Project, the flag waving of the television networks, the fascistic pledges of allegiance every morning, and the lack of good alternative life prospects? Sometime, yes. And more often the more it spreads and the better it is done.
One chapter in Teaching About the Wars describes a project that connects students in the United States with students in Western Asia via live video discussions. That experience should be required in any young person's education. I guarantee you that our government employs drone "pilots" to connect with foreign countries via live video in a more destructive manner who never spoke with foreign children when they were growing up.
David Swanson's books include War Is A Lie and When the World Outlawed War.
