Stephen Lendman's blog

Shin Bet Mistreatment of Palestinian Detainees - by Stephen Lendman

An October B'Tselem/HaMoked, Center of the Defence of the Individual report, titled "Kept in the Dark: Treatment of Palestinian Detainees in the Petach-Tikva Interrogation Facility of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet)" is discussed below. Though, in some respects, treatment over the years has changed, it remains harsh, abusive, and in violation of international law, prohibiting all forms of torture and mistreatment at all times, under all conditions, with no allowed exceptions.

The report is based on testimonies from 121 Palestinian detainees during Q 1 and Q 4, 2009. Clear patterns of mistreatment were revealed - torture and abuse by any standard, what Israel practices as official policy.

An earlier article explained it in detail, accessed through the following link:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2008/08/torture-as-official-israeli-policy...

Obama's Fake Muslim Outreach - by Stephen Lendman

While slaughtering Muslims abroad, supporting Israeli's illegal occupation and genocidal Gaza siege, as well as waging domestic war on Islam, Reuters, on November 9, headlined, "Obama says US earnest, reaching out to Muslim world," saying:

From Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country, "President Barack Obama said Tuesday that Washington's effort to reach out to the Muslim world was earnest and would help improve security, although he acknowledged that there was still more work to do."

At a news conference with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhovono, he said, "With respect to outreach to the Muslim world, I think that our efforts have been earnest and sustained. We don't expect that we are going to completely eliminate some of the misunderstandings and mistrust that have developed over a long period of time, but we do think that we're on the right path."

Israeli and American Rankings on Violence and Corruption - by Stephen Lendman

Launched in May 2007, the Global Peace Index (GPI) ranks nations according to peacefulness. Its 2010 report includes 149 countries, graded on the basis of "ongoing domestic and international conflict, safety and security in society and militarisation...."

An earlier article discussed GPI's 2008 survey, accessed through the following link:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2008/05/disturbing-2008-global-peace-index...

This year's index includes 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators, "which combine internal and external factors ranging from a nation's level of military expenditure to its relations with neighboring countries and the level of respect for human rights."

According to GPI's founder, Australian entrepreneur Steve Killelea, indicators were chosen by an international panel of academics, business people, philanthropists, and peace organization members.

They include:

Israeli Banks Profiteering from Occupation - by Stephen Lendman

Wall Street does it. Other Western banks do it. They all exploit markets, often ripping off customers illegally. Why not Israeli banks also in their own back yard, easily in expanding settlements.

The Coalition of Women for Peace (CWP) includes 10 feminist organizations and non-affiliated activist women in Israel. Founded in 2000, it advocates "radical social and political change," and is "a leading voice against the occupation, committed to feminist principles of organizing and Jewish-Palestinian partnership in a relentless struggle for a just peace."

In October, it released a report titled, "Financing the Israeli Occupation, The Direct Involvement of Israeli Banks in Illegal Settlement Activity and Control over the Palestinian Banking Market."

Open Season on Muslims in America - by Stephen Lendman

More than ever today, Muslims are public enemy number one. Post-9/11, they've been ruthlessly vilified and persecuted for their faith, ethnicity, prominence and activism. As a result, innocent men and women have been spuriously called terrorists, or charged with conspiracy to provide them material support.

No wonder as an earlier article explained. They've been unfairly portrayed as culturally inferior, dirty, lecherous, untrustworthy, religiously fanatical, violent, gun-toting terrorists. As a result, hundreds have been wrongfully arrested, charged, convicted and imprisoned, guilty only of being Muslims in America at the wrong time. Their treatment represents a clear indictment of US injustice, targeting innocent victims for political advantage.

QuantItative Easing: Elixir or Poison? - by Stephen Lendman

Ahead of the November 11 - 12 G-20 meeting in Seoul, South Korea, the Fed announced QE II, another $600 billion between now and end of June 2011, a flexible figure to be raised or lowered freely, the Fed saying it will:

"....regularly review the pace of its securities purchases and the overall size of the asset-purchase program in light of incoming information and will adjust the program as needed to best foster maximum employment and price stability."

An additional $300 billion received from maturing securities will also be used. Easing, in fact, began around mid-year. Wall Street insiders knew it to take advantage, but not the public, QE being used to debauch the currency, harm the economy, and destroy, not create, jobs.

Israeli Settlers Threaten Sheikh Jarrah - by Stephen Lendman

Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, including Fourth Geneva's Article 49 stating:

"Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of the motive."

In addition, various UN resolutions (including 446, 452 and 465) condemned Israel's settlement building, declaring they have "no legal validity" to exist. However, they do and regularly expand, endangering all Palestinian communities, Sheikh Jarrah one of many and their longstanding residents.

Eroding Conditions for Israeli Arabs: Part II - by Stephen Lendman

An earlier article reviewed the April Mossawa Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in Israel report titled, "One Year for Israel's New Government and the Arab Minority in Israel," accessed through the following link:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/07/deteriorating-conditions-for-israe...

This article discusses a new Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) report titled, "Project Democracy - Fighting for the Ground Rules" for Israeli Arabs.

Israel's bogus democratic credentials are shameless and transparent, for growing numbers of Israeli Jews, but mainly for denying equal rights to minority Arabs, comprising 20% of the population. ACRI explained, saying:

America: Land of Police State Persecution - by Stephen Lendman

An earlier article discussed America's violent culture, accessed through the following link:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2007/09/culture-of-violence.html

Its opening comments are expanded below:

What do you call a country that glorifies wars and violence in the name of peace. One that's been at war every year in its history against one or more adversaries. One that believes pacifism is sissy and unpatriotic. One that feels militarism is a higher form of civilization. One that threatens planetary life.

One corrupted by malfeasance. One with the world's largest prison population, a domestic gulag besides others abroad. One placing no value on human rights and life. One exploiting the many for the few. One empowering money over people, championing concentrated wealth. One calling fake elections real.

US Elections: America's Right Turn - by Stephen Lendman

Since the 1980s, neoliberalism dominated US politics under Democrats and Republicans. Bush I continued Reagan policies. Clinton hardened them. Bush II much more, and Obama so far matched Star Trek, going where no administration went before. Count the ways. They're manyfold, favoring business over popular interests, yet he's accused of being socialist.

On November 2, angry voters responded, shifting right despite favoring many left of center issues, a combination of outrage and angst overriding their best interests. Go figure because what they got will incense them more.

Haiti's Cholera Outbreak: A Disease of Poverty - by Stephen Lendman

On October 22, Reuters confirmed Haiti's cholera outbreak, saying efforts were being made to prevent an epidemic that so far "killed nearly 200 people and sickened more than 2,000," official reports understating the threat.

On the same day, New York Times writer Donald McNeil, Jr. headlined, "Cholera Outbreak Kills 150 in Haiti," saying:

"A cholera outbreak in a rural area of northwestern Haiti....overwhelmed local hospitals with thousands of sick," according to the World Health Organization. Rural Artibonite, Haiti's main rice-growing area, 62 miles north of Port-au-Prince was struck, though cases were surfacing elsewhere. They're now in the nation's capital where overcrowding threatens a possible epidemic.

French Worker Struggles for Justice - by Stephen Lendman

Since early October, France resembles May 1968, at least in part, predatory capitalism again on trial. More on that below. Today it's over austerity moves, not for raising the retirement age to 62 as misreported. It's much more, as Diana Johnstone explained in her article titled, "Collapse of Social Security: French Workers Confront the Neoliberal Policy Agenda," saying:

"For one thing, (public outrage) is an expression of exasperation with the (Sarkozy) government....which blatantly favors the super-rich over the majority of working people in this country." Elected on the slogan, "Work more to earn more," today's reality is "work harder to earn less."

David Broder: Symbol of Major Media Depravity - by Stephen Lendman

Currently writing a twice-weekly Washington Post column, Broder is called America's "dean" of political journalists, having covered every presidential campaign since Kennedy-Nixon. At age 81 (ironically born September 11, 1929), his bio lists an array of awards as well as accolades like:

-- "Washington's most highly regarded columnist;

-- Best Reporter;

-- Hardest Working;

-- the high priest of political journalism;

-- the most respected and influential political journalist in the country; and

-- Least Ideological," among others.

Wall Street Philosopher King Bashes Fed Policy - Stephen Lendman

Besides less prominent investment/economic advisors, no one does it better than Jeremy Grantham, based in Boston, not Wall Street. In 1977, he co-founded Grantham, Mayo and Van Otterloo, now known as GMO. Quarterly in letters to clients, he assesses current economic and market conditions, taking a longer view as well.

His commentaries are reflective, refreshing, scholarly, sober and clear, although in recent ones (compared to the previous 15 years) he's been uncharacteristically upbeat. Not in his latest, however, titled, "Night of the Living Fed: Something Unbelievably Terrifying," below which, in billboard film promotion form, he lists the following:

"Runaway Commodities!

(Zombi) Banks Come Back to Life!

Homes Destroyed!

Families Evicted!

Currency Wars!

Starring BEN BERNANKE

and introducing JANET YELLEN (current Fed vice chairman)

Viciously Attacking Israeli Arabs - by Stephen Lendman

Reminiscent of Kristallnacht violence, Israeli Arabs in Haifa District's Umm al-Fahm community were attacked, Haaretz writers Fadi Eyadat, Jack Khoury, and Chaim Levinson headlining, "Police clash with Arab protesters as rightists rally in Umm al-Fahm," saying:

In Arab Umm al-Fahm, "Dozens of extreme rightists (hooligan West Bank settlers) held a protest against the Islamic Movement," an initiative advocating Islam among Israeli Arabs on three levels - religious, social, and support for Palestinian self-determination.

Clashes followed, pitting Arab residents against 1,500 police, including special paramilitary and undercover forces, aiding hooliganism, "fir(ing) tear gas and stun grenades" to scatter crowds. Nine Arab residents were arrested, portrayed as instigators when they responded in self-defense.

Farooque Ahmed: Entrapped by an FBI Sting - by Stephen Lendman

The story is disturbingly familiar. FBI agents arrest a suspect on terrorism related charges, nearly always a Muslim, photographed full bearded to look menacing. Media reports highlight it, headlining government charges to incite fear. Announced arrests are strategically timed, this one days before mid-term elections. The message - Obama keeps America safe, vote Democrat.

Though too early to conclude guilt or innocence, what's so far known is worrisome, involving an FBI sting to entrap. Based on numerous previous cases, without exception, innocent men and occasionally women have been targeted, evidence later showing no plot and no crime. Yet suspects are arrested, charged, tried, and convicted by manipulated/intimidated juries, right-wing judges sentencing them to long prison terms.

Reviewing Project Censored's Top 2009-10 Stories - by Stephen Lendman

Founded in 1976 by Carl Jensen, Mickey Huff now heads PC, working cooperatively with former director Peter Phillips' Media Freedom Foundation (MFF) and other investigative research and media related organizations. Together they counter major media real news and information censorship and suppression - what PC and MFF call "managed news" along with infotainment and miscellaneous "junk food news."

As a result, a "truth emergency" exists at a time, more than ever, real information is needed because media giants:

-- support privilege over populism;

-- endorse imperial wars and sham elections;

-- suppress corporate lawlessness;

-- ignore growing poverty, hunger, homelessness, despair, and

-- an unprecedented wealth gap;

-- 9/11 truth;

-- a private banking cartel controlling the nation's money and stealing it at public expense;

-- democracy for the select few alone; and

Adnan Mirza: Another US War on Terror Victim - by Stephen Lendman

Post-9/11, Mirza is one of legions of war on terror victims - framed, charged, indicted, tried and convicted on bogus terrorism related charges.

On October 22, the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas headlined, "Pakistani Student Sentenced to prison for conspiring to support the Taliban and unlawful possession of firearms," saying:

Adnan Mirza was "convicted in May 2010 (on nine counts) following a jury trial....Senior US District Judge Ewing Werlein (imposed) the maximum applicable prison term for each" one, complying with prosecutors' request for terrorism enhancements, used when they claim a crime aimed to influence or coerce government policy. Mirza was also fined $1,000 for each count, $9,000 in total.

Franklin Roosevelt's Second Bill of Rights - by Stephen Lendman

Ferdinand Lundberg's "Cracks in the Constitution" deconstructed what framers, in fact, created, men he equated with a Wall Street crowd, given their economic status and prominence as bankers, merchants, lawyers, politicians, judges, and overall wheeler-dealers. In 1787, they convened for their own interests, not the general welfare as most people believe.

As a result, they produced no "masterpiece of political architecture (falling far short of) one great apotheosis (bathed) in quasi-religious light," as Lundberg masterfully explained. His book, if not the Constitution, is an epic work, must reading about America's most important document, the Bill of Rights added belatedly in the first 10 Amendments, again not for reasons commonly believed.

They protected property owners, not ordinary people, who wanted:

-- free speech, press, religion, assembly and petition rights for their interests, not "The People;"

America's Gulf: Ongoing Coverup and Denial - by Stephen Lendman

On October 22, AP reported that over 7,000 square miles of Gulf waters off Florida's Panhandle were declared oil-free and reopened to fishing. According the the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 96% of Gulf waters are now safe and reopened, spokeswoman Jane Lubchenco saying, "Our tests continue to reveal seafood from the reopened areas is safe to eat." Others disagree. More on that below.

The newly opened area is about 60 miles east of the Macondo wellhead. About 9,400 square miles of fishing waters remain closed, 4% of federal waters, down from 37% earlier.

Anti-Defamation League Demagoguery and Islamophobia - by Stephen Lendman

Founded by B'nai B'rith in 1913, its stated mission is "to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all," calling itself "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency, (fighting) anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry...."

In fact, Abraham Foxman, its national director, uses high-mindedness and unfounded anti-semitism hysteria as cover for backing Jewish supremacy and the right of Israelis over Arabs, including by occupation and belligerently enforced apartheid.

One of the 52 listed Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organization (CPMAJO) Zionist organizations, ADL disseminates pro-Israeli propaganda and conducts smear campaigns against Israeli critics, under the guise of fighting anti-semitism and supporting human rights equitably. Overall, in fact, its long history is disturbing.

Congressional Fleecing the Public Legislation - by Stephen Lendman

On February 23, HR 4646: Debt Free America Act was introduced "To establish a fee on transactions which would eliminate the national debt and replace the income tax on individuals."

Sponsor Representative Chaka Fattah's (D. PA) same day press release said:

The bill offers a "simple new approach to paying off the debt now escalating past" $13.6 trillion as of late October. "The breakthrough legislation proposes a 1 percent fee (on) all payment instruments including cash transactions, checks, credit cards, those processed through the Federal Reserve Bank, and those collected at the point of sale."

Systemic Washington-Sanctioned Fraud - by Stephen Lendman

It's the American way. More for the rich. Crumbs for the rest, and fraud as a way of life since the republic's beginning, though hardly on today's scale. Perhaps the first prominent example was in 1792, involving former Assistant Treasury Secretary William Duer. Appointed by Alexander Hamilton in 1789, he left a year later to profit from insider trading, or so he hoped.

At the time, US bonds were junk paper. The market for them was volatile, so profiting meant being savvy enough or tipped off in advance to buy or sell ahead of news. As a former Treasury official, Duer had insider information. Using leverage, it paid handsomely for a while until too much money caused a speculative glut, an earlier type bubble that took down much of the New York Stock Exchange when it burst, Duer with it.

Lynne Stewart Given "Fighter for Justice" Award - by Stephen Lendman

Six previous articles highlighted the injustice, culminating in her November 19, 2009 internment at MCC-NY, 150 Park Row, New York, NY, prisoner number 53504-054. Later she'll be transfered to a federal prison to serve 10 years (unless reversed on appeal) for working honorably, ethically, and admirably with distinction for over three decades.

Access the most recent article on her and previous ones through the following link:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/07/darkness-in-america-lynne-stewarts...

Though incarcerated, she's not forgotten and will honored at the Party for Socialism and Liberation's (PSL) November 13 and 14 National Conference on Socialism at the University of Southern California's (UCLA) Los Angeles campus. The program will feature alternatives to capitalism's destructive growth, especially in recent years.

UN Peacekeepers Complicit in Sex Trade - by Stephen Lendman

An earlier article, titled "UN Peacekeeping Paramilitarism" explained that although Blue Helmets are supposed to restore order, maintain peace and security, and help people transition to stability, they usually create more conflict than resolution as imperial enforcers, committing human rights abuses against vulnerable people, nearly always unpunished.

The article can be accessed through the following link:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2007/02/un-peacekeeping-paramilitarism.html

Wherever they're deployed, it's the same. In Haiti, for example, where for the first time ever, an illegal MINUSTAH mission enforced coup d'etat authority against democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, instead of staying out or backing his right to return.

Immanuel Wallerstein's Worldview - by Stephen Lendman

Wallerstein is a Yale University Senior Research Scholar, former President of the International Sociological Associatiion (1994 - 1998), and chair of the international Gulbenkian Commission on the Restructuring of the the Social Sciences (1993 - 1995). His writing focuses on three domains of world systems analysis, the historical development of the modern world system, the structures of knowledge, and the contemporary crisis of the capitalist world economy.

His many books include "The Capitalist World Economy," "After Liberalism," "The End of the World As We Know It," and "The Decline of American Power," in which he wrote:

America "has been a fading global power since the 1970s, and the US response to the (9/11) terrorist attacks has accelerated this decline....the economic, political and military factors that contributed to US hegemony are the same factors that will inexorably produce the coming US decline."

Israel Shooting and Electric-Shocking Palestinian Children - by Stephen Lendman

Defence for Children International (DCI) Palestine Section (DCI/Palestine) "is a national section of the international non-government child rights organisation and movement (dedicated) to promoting and protecting the rights of Palestinian children," according to international law principles.

Two earlier articles addressed their work, accessed though the following links:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/04/imprisoning-palestinian-children.html

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/09/israeli-soldiers-sexually-abuse.html

Both covered Israel's systematic, institutionalized use of torture of Palestinian children as brutally as against adults. DCI/Palestine's latest September Bulletin adds more, saying:

America's Tea Party Phenomenon - by Stephen Lendman

Tea Party.org calls itself "a grassroots movement (for making Americans aware of) any issue that challenges the security, sovereignty, or domestic tranquility of our beloved nation, the United States of America. From our founding, the Tea Party is the voice of the true owners of the United States, WE THE PEOPLE."

More below about these PEOPLE, and their deep-pocketed ability to manipulate minds effectively with considerable right wing media support.

Another web site headlines "Tea Party Patriots, Official Home of the American Tea Party Movement, A community committed to standing together, shoulder to shoulder, to protect our country and the Constitution upon which we were founded!"

Israel's Longstanding Middle East Plan - by Stephen Lendman

In 1982, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs senior advisor Oded Yinon published a revealing document for regional conquest and dominance. Still relevant today, it's titled "A Strategy for Israel in the 1980s, translated, edited, and retitled "The Zionist Plan for the Middle East" by distinguished Professor Israel Shahak (1933 - 2001), longtime activist, analyst, and outspoken Israeli critic.

Its publisher, the Association of Arab-American University Graduates called it "the most explicit, detailed and unambiguous statement to date of the Zionist strategy in the Middle East....Its importance....lies not in its historical value but in the nightmare which it represents," what thereafter continued to unfold.

Its two essential premises include:

-- to survive, Israel must dominate the region and become a world power, and

Palestinian Authority Traitors Serving Israel - by Stephen Lendman

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' duplicitous treachery exposes him as an enemy, not ally, of his people. An earlier article on him quoted Jeffrey Blankfort calling him a "double agent (serving) his Israeli and US masters in plain sight." In June 2003, Edward Said called him "Israel's sheriff," saying he's "colorless, moderately corrupt, and without any clear ideas of his own, except that he wants to please the white man," his Washington and bosses. Access the article through the following link:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/09/fatah-collaborationist-israeli-all...

Israeli Terror Throughout the Territories

Daily throughout Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, Palestinians face Israeli (and complicit PA) terror, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) documenting it, clear crimes against humanity ongoing for decades.