No, I Do Not Support “The Troops”
Arthur Silber
…On the occasion of this Memorial Day and on the days to come, all of which promise to be deeply tragic and murderously bloody so long as the goals of the American ruling class remain unchanged, the objects of your reverence must be severely restricted. That reverence must be reserved for innocent lives, and especially for those innocent lives ended, maimed and altered forever by needless, futile, endlessly destructive war, past, present and future. The historical and contemporary record makes possible only one conclusion: those needless and futile wars are not just “a few” or only “some” of them, and the trail of devastation is not the result of “regrettable misjudgments” for which amends have been made, or are even possible. No, almost every single war ever fought by the United States was entirely unnecessary in terms of any justifiable conception of self-defense; this is unquestionably true of every intervention since World War II. The murders are the result of intended and intentional policy, reached after deliberation and in service to the goals of the ruling class: power, wealth, dominion and control — and always more power, wealth, dominion and control. To challenge those goals and to begin to alter them, you must challenge every assumption underlying the myths upon which the United States feeds, as it continues to brutalize and kill in vast numbers. One of the key assumptions that you must question and finally reject is the demand for glorification of “the troops.”…
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Ha’aretz: Obama quashed Israel military option against Iran
Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent
Israel’s military option against Iran has died. The death warrant was issued courtesy of the new U.S. administration led by Barack Obama. All the administration’s senior officials, from the president to his vice president, Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and others are sending strong, clear hints that Israel does not have permission to strike Iran. Yet, given their familiarity with the Israeli client, they have not m ade do with simple hints and intimations. Washington dispatched the new CIA director, Leon Panetta, to Israel. Panetta made clear to Netanyahu, in so many words, that an Israeli attack would create “big trouble.”..
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Demolishing Al-Quds Future
IslamOnline.net
akhri Abu Diab still can not imagine leaving the homeland and birthplace of his father in Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem). “They are coming to demolish our future, our lives, our homes,” the 47-year-old told The Toronto Star on Friday, May 22. “I was born here. My grandfather was born here.” The Palestinian father of five received an order from Israeli authorities to demolish his house in the Silwan neighborhood in Al-Quds. He is one of more than 1,500 Palestinians facing the u nknown following Israeli decision to demolish their homes in the Palestinian neighborhood…
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Internet Threatened by Censorship, Secret Surveillance, and Cybersecurity Laws
Stephen Lendman
At a time of corporate dominated media, a free and open Internet is democracy’s last chance to preserve our First Amendment rights without which all others are threatened. Activists call it Net Neutrality. Media scholar Robert McChesney says without it “the Internet would start to look like cable TV (with a) handful of massive companies (controlling) content” enough to have veto power over what’s allowed and what it costs. Progr essive web sites and writers would be marginalized or suppressed, and content systematically filtered or banned….
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Remembering Omid Reza
Let the first blogger to die in prison be the last
The March 18 Movement
The March 18 Movement was born out of a tragedy. On this day in 2009, Omid Reza Mir Sayafi, Iranian blogger and journalist, died in Evin Prison in Tehran. The December before his death, he was sentenced to two and half years in prison for allegedly insulting religious leaders, and engaging in “propaganda” against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Omid Reza was the first blogger to die in prison and his death reveals that getting censored is far from the worst thing that can happen to a blogger. The irony is that, as more members of both the public and the media praise the ability of bloggers to inform, the more these de facto journalists around the globe become victims in fact. The March 18 Movement aims not only to make sure that Omid Reza is remembered, but also that other persecuted bloggers around the world do not disappear into interrogation rooms and prison cells. The March 18 Movement would like to become a voice for bloggers everywhere who are in risk of being crushed under the heavy machinery of repression…
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Biden Does Beirut
How not to win votes for the ‘US team’
Franklin Lamb
…Quite by chance, on “my” delegation was Vice President’s Biden’s Ophthalmologist from Wilmington, Deleware, a nice fellow with a dynamite Palestinian wife named “Mike”. (no, no, she’s a real and beautiful woman. “Mike” is a nickname for her real Arabic name which she never bothered to mention) Joe’s eye doctor explained to Walid that Biden had changed from his “I’am a Zionist” campaign assurances to AIPAC. “Well”, Walid replies skepti cally, “I have met with Biden before. Why is he coming and can your government not understands that such visits are not helpful to the Majority but only help Hezbollah?” (…) Issam continued to explain that the Lebanese are no longer much impressed with US officials coming and reciting, sometimes word for word, the pro-Israel, anti-Resistance mantra of ‘free and independent “democratic Lebanon, without armed militias et cetera.” If Hezbollah wins the election one reason will be these “demeaning visits”, Issam concludes…
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Convoy of Hope for Gaza Update
Pal Telegraph
The Hope for Gaza Convoy, organised by the European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza (ECESG), are making final preparations in Port Said for departure this morning, heading to Al Areesh and Al Rafah. The organisers gathered the delegation into groups in order to consult on urgent procedural matters and to review current progress.There have been numerous delays since the cargo arrived in Alexandria last Saturday. Since then the organisers have been awaiting the arrival of a shi p in Alexandria to take the medicines and medical equipment to Port Said where it will leave by road for the border crossing at Al Rafah…
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