Memo confirms Bush and Blair knew claims Iraq had WMDs were lies
By Paul Bond
A confidential memo obtained by the Observer, detailing a meeting between President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, confirms their determination to press ahead with the invasion of Iraq in 2003 without any evidence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and without United Nations approval. The five-page memo, written by Blair’s foreign policy adviser Sir David Manning, is dated January 31, 2003, some two months before the invasion be gan. It records the thinking of Bush and Blair as it became increasingly obvious that United Nations weapons inspectors would not find the advanced weaponry, including a nuclear capability, that both leaders were using to justify military action…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=55491
|
|
A question to the left on Iran: Can the people make history or not?
By Mike Ely
There is a self-deceptive politics (among some leftists) that seeks to prettify all kinds of reactionary forces that (for one reason or another) are in opposition to U.S. imperialism — including Islamic reactionaries, Kim Jung Il, “hardline” revisionists of the Li Peng and Eric Honecker type and so on. And in the process they have a real, almost startling, hostility toward sections of the people who rise up in important if still-inarticulate w ays. My sense is that such politics arise from a despair over actually developing our own revolutionary forces — and a resigned assumption that we have no other alternative but to fall behind any forces (ugly, oppressive, reactionary or not) who (one way or another) who seem to be on America’s shit list. This is not a uni-polar world with only one defining contradiction. Yes, we understand (and must understand) that the U.S. acts as a central pillar of world capitalism… but it is hardly the only pillar or the only reactionary force…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=55484
|
|
Open letter of support to the demonstrators in Iran
Various undersigned
…Years of foreign-sponsored ‘democracy promotion’ in various parts of the world have helped to spread a well-founded scepticism about civic movements which claim some sort of direct democratic legitimacy. But the principle itself remains as clear as ever: only the people themselves can determine the value of such claims. We the undersigned call on the government of Iran to take no action that might discourage such determination….
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=55494
|
|
An Electrifying Argument…
Layla Anwar, Uncensored Arabwomanblues
…6 years down the line and Baghdad still has no electricity. The “opposition” which is now the current puppet mafia ruling Iraq, used to claim that the “dictatorship” was deliberately cutting electrical output to oppress the Iraqi people.Of course, the current ruling mafia cannot explain why there is less electricity today in the “free” Iraq than during sanction times where one could not even find a light bulb to buy…One thing is for sure, occupied Bag hdad is not contributing to global warming with excessive electrical consumption. Nor is it contributing to global water shortages and desertification, since there is no water…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=55505
|
|
Martyrs persecuted beyond death
Gabriel Ash
… Of course, most of the hypocrites who are so shocked with the behavior of the Iranian government during this crisis don’t even blink at the fact that this is normal behavior in Israel for decades. Obama criticized Palestinians in Cairo for not following the ways of Martin Luther King, but passed in silence Israel’s routine murder of protesters like Martin Luther King. Those Iranians who justifiably resent the Western politicians’ and media hypocritical attention need only car ry signs “Free Palestine” to their next protest to see Gordon Brown and the BBC losing all their feigned sympathy….
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=55504
|
|
CIA’s Panetta Says He Will Continue Renditions, Not Penalize Torturers
By Sherwood Ross
CIA Director Leon Panetta says he is not going to penalize agents who tortured prisoners if they “were doing their duty,” explaining, “If you have a President who exercises bad judgment, the C.I.A. pays the price.” In an interview published in the June 22nd issue of The New Yorker magazine, Panetta acknowledged to reporter Jane Mayer the CIA may still employ some people tainted by the torture program. Nevertheless, Panetta said, “I re ally respect the people who say we shouldn’t have gotten involved in the interrogation business but we had to do our jobs.”..
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=55493
|
|
Mashaal to Obama: we appreciate your words, but actions speak louder
From Khalid Amayreh in occupied Palestine
In a landmark speech in Damascus Thursday afternoon, Hamas leader Khalid Mashaal urged President Barack Obama to transform his positive words about the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people into “concrete actions.” “We do appreciate Obama’s new language, we think it is a step in the right direction. However, we expect the American administration to put these words into actions and to refrain from imposing conditions on Hamas.” Mashaal said dealing with Hamas must be based on respecting the Palestinian people’s democratic choice, not imposing conditions such as those imposed by the Quartet, which included demands for unconditional recognition of the apartheid Israeli regime, giving up resistance entirely and accepting without reservation all the vague agreements and understandings reached by Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA)..
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=55489
|
|
Weekly Report: On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory No. 525/2009 (18 – 24 June 2009)
PCHR – Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law escalated in the OPT during the reporting period (18 – 24 June 2009): Shooting: During the reporting period, five Palestinian civilians, including a journalist, and an international human rights defender were wounded when IOF used force against peaceful demonstrations organized by Palestinian c ivilians to protest the construction of the Annexation Wall in the West Bank. Incursions: During the reporting period, IOF conducted at least 19 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. IOF arrested 22 Palestinian civilians, including two children. In the Gaza Strip, IOF naval troops continued to chase and fire at Palestinian fishers. During the reporting period, they detained two fishers for several hours…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=55497
|
|
America’s “Bases of Empire”
by Stephen Lendman
Besides waging perpetual wars, nothing better reveals America’s imperial agenda than its hundreds of global bases – for offense, not defense at a time the US hasn’t had an enemy since the Japanese surrendered in August 1945. So when they don’t exist, they’re invented as former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Charles W. Freeman, Jr., suggested in a May 24, 2007 speech to the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs: “When our descendants look back on the end of the 20th century and the beginning of this one, they will be puzzled. The end of the Cold War relieved Americans of almost all international anxieties.” As the world’s sole remaining superpower, “We did not rise to the occasion.”…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=55488
|
|
Nasrallah, Hariri meet to boost cooperation
PressTV
The leaders of Hezbollah and the rival al-Mustaqbal party have held a meeting in order to enhance political cooperation. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Saad Hariri conversed about the prospects of the next Lebanese cabinet during the Thursday night’s meeting. The Lebanese parliamentary election which was held in early June was high on the agenda. The two leaders also discussed the aftermath of the parliamentary poll…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=55492
|
|
Video: Nahr al-Bared “Two Years Under Siege”
a-films
Two years after it was destroyed in the wake of fighting between the Lebanese army and a militant group, the fate of the Palestinian refugee camp, Nahr al-Bared remains unclear. Reconstruction of the official camp may start soon, but so far this has been delayed as the Lebanese army keeps a tight grip on the camp. Several checkpoints, barbed wire and military posts cut Nahr al-Bared off from its surroundings, making it difficult for the camp’s residents and visitors to come and go as they wish…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=55499
|
|
Let’s get a move on
Khaled Amayreh
Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council Aziz Duweik, just released from an Israeli detention centre, has called for “immediate reconciliation” between Fatah and Hamas, saying the rift between the two factions was inflicting incalculable damage on the Palestinian national cause. Khaled Amayreh talked to Duweik in Ramallah…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=55487
|
|
Paramilitary Thug With Long History With Top U.S. Democrats Arrested for ‘War Crimes’
Jeremy Scahill
A US-trained paramilitary figure from the Balkans with a lengthy history with leading Clinton-era Democrats, including some now in the Obama administration, has been arrested in Europe on an Interpol warrant for war crimes. Agim Ceku, an Albanian from Kosovo, is a former Croatian Army General who was trained by the private US security firm Military Professional Resources Incorporated (MPRI) during the Clinton Administratio n. Ceku, backed by the US, would go on to become the “prime minister” of Kosovo despite the fact that he was responsible for some of the worst acts of “ethnic cleansing” in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s and was the leader of a paramilitary organization with drug trade ties…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=55486
|
|
GI Special 7F15: Tyranny And Death [ 24 June 2009 ]
Thomas F. Barton
“Americans, Your Interventions Have Brought Us Tyranny And Death”. “Stay Home, Keep Your Hands Off And Leave Our Country To Us For A Change”. “Carrying A Picture Of Mossadeq Today Means Two Things: ‘We Want Democracy’ And ‘No Foreign Intervention’”. “These Demands Fit Together In The Minds Of Most Iranians”.
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=55496
|
|
MOHAMMED OMER; ONE YEAR AND COUNTING
Desertpeace
June 26, 2008 is a day I will never forget. For the events of that day irrevocably changed my life. That day I was detained, interrogated, strip searched, and tortured while attempting to return home from a European speaking tour, which culminated in independent American journalist Dahr Jamil and I sharing the Martha Gellhorn Journalism Prize in London — an award given to journalists who expose propaganda which often masks egregious human rights abuses. I want to address th e denials from Israel and the inaccurate reporting by a few journalists in addition to requesting state of Israel to acknowledge what it did to me, prosecute the members of the Shin Bet responsible for it and put in place procedures that protect other journalists from such treatment…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=55490
|
|
Mousavi blames organisers of ‘rigged’ Iranian poll for bloodshed during street protests
Robert Tait and Ian Black
Iran’s embattled opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, today kept up the pressure on the government and blamed those behind the “rigged” presidential election for the bloodshed during two weeks of mass street protests. Mousavi’s statement on his website came during a day of relative quiet, attributed in part to the fact that more than 1 million students were sitting their final exams. There was also confusio n over whether calls for a day of mourning for the 17 known victims of the protests had been cancelled or ignored. State media reported that eight members of the pro-government Basij militia had been killed…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=55483
|
|
Beyond Politics: People for Sale in Hungry World
Ramzy Baroud
… Dare I say that while human trafficking is itself an apolitical issue, recognizing and combating, or failing to combat, the problem is very much political. Think of the banking crisis, which fuelled a global recession, and the way astronomical amounts of money have been dedicated to solving it, trillions of dollars in global bailouts ultimately rewarding those who caused the crisis in the first place. Compare these efforts to the pathetic attempts at halting the disgraceful commercialization of humans, their organs, their sexuality, their very humanity. The problem is now compounded. UN food officials declared on 19 June that hunger around the world has passed the unprecedented threshold of one billion, that is one in six people…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=55498
|
|
|
