Guantanamo Torture and AIPAC — Information Clearinghouse Digest

The Torturer’s Apprentice

On 5 May, 2009, in Current events, by joe

Obama Returns to Bush Era on Guantánamo

By Andy Worthington

Two distressing pieces of news emerged last week regarding the Obama administration’s plans to close Guantánamo, and both were delivered by Defense Secretary Robert Gates in testimony to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22549.htm

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The Torturer’s Apprentice

Australia’s role in the American Inquisition.

By Richard Neville

In the panicky aftermath of 9/11, the West forged a pact with the Devil. It was not only Dick Cheney who felt the call of the dark side – it was virtually the entire governing class of America, Britain and Australia. Yes, even Australia, a former penal colony that started life as Britain’s Guantanamo.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22552.htm

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Mashaal: Hamas Wants 10 Year Cease-fire

By JPOST.COM STAFF

May 05, 2009 “JPOST” — -Hamas has stopped launching rockets at Israel and is looking to establish a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, the Islamist group’s political leader Khaled Mashaal told The New York Times in an interview published Monday
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22548.htm

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Gaza is Israel’s Warsaw

Zionist Lobby Targets Another Tenured Professor

By Doug Henwood

You know that anyone who criticizes the policies of the state of Israel is silenced, and is given that label of anti-smitism; that’s a way of creating this atmosphere of intimidation, that no one can speak out about what’s going on in Israel-Palestine, and so forth. That’s the larger context.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22547.htm

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The Power of Nightmares

Must Watch Video Documentary

In the past our politicians offered us dreams of a better world. Now they promise to protect us from nightmares. The most frightening of these is the threat of an international terror network. But just as the dreams were not true, neither are these nightmares.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/video1037.htm

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Breaking the Bonds of People and Land:

Native American Removal in the United States and Mexico

Video Lecture

In both the Delawares and Yaquis examples, greed and land hunger on the part of the U.S. and Mexican governments appears to have been the main reasons for the forced migration of these indigenous people.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22550.htm

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Lieberman Gives Iran Three Months:

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Monday that the international community should give Iran three months to respond to diplomatic attempts to curtail its nuclear program – afterwards “concrete steps need to be taken” against Iran.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/164640

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Egypt: Israeli nukes ‘greatest threat’ to security:

Western policies based on pressuring Iran to give up its nuclear program will fail because they disregard Israeli nuclear capabilities, which is “the first and greatest threat to security in the region,” an Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday.
http://snipurl.com/hf9it

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UN report accuses Israel over Gaza war:

A UNITED NATIONS report into the war in Gaza has concluded unequivocally that Israel deliberately fired at UN institutions and has accused the Israel Defence Forces of excessive use of force
http://snipurl.com/hfdlc

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Hamas leader: Militant group is part of solution:

The group’s exiled leader, Khaled Mashaal, said in an interview with The New York Times published Tuesday, that Hamas has halted its rocket fire from the Gaza Strip on communities in southern Israel and is willing to support a two-state solution.
http://snipurl.com/hfdo5

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Hamas deploys forces in Gaza to stop rockets into Israel: witnesses:

The witnesses added that Hamas people in the National Security uniform were checking cars and the identities of people who travel outside the towns, especially in northern Gaza Strip.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-05/05/content_11318960.htm

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Hamas chief leaning towards two-state solution:

Exiled Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal said the Palestinian Islamist movement could support a two-state solution with Israel based on 1967 borders but repeated it was not prepared to recognize the Jewish state, according to a Tuesday report.
http://snipurl.com/hfdr3

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Change… What change?

U.S. rejects Syria’s suggestion to engage Hamas, Hezbollah:

The United States on Monday rejected Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s call for talks with Hamas and Hezbollah, both designated as so-called “terrorist organizations.”
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-05/05/content_11313535.htm

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Biden tells AIPAC: Israel must support two-state solution:

Biden, speaking to a conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), said Palestinians must halt militant violence and Israel “has to work for a two-state solution … not build more settlements, dismantle existing outposts and allow Palestinians freedom of movement.”
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1083213.html

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At Annual Meeting, Pro-Israel Group Reasserts Clout:

More than half the members of the House and Senate attended Monday night’s dinner, which featured the group’s “roll call” in which the lawmakers all rise. It is a conscious – and effective – effort to demonstrate the group’s influence on Capitol Hill.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/us/politics/05aipac.html?ref=politics

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Springtime for AIPAC: Annual Confab Draws Protest: Video:

Its Springtime for AIPAC! The mega-Israel Lobby convenes annually in Washington, D.C. at the convention center
http://snipurl.com/hfdux

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US forgives Israeli spies amid AIPAC heat:

A US court has formally dropped espionage charges against two pro-Israeli lobbyists amid a scandal that had threatened to expose the extent of Israeli grip on US politics.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=93624&sectionid=3510203

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Gonzales says US should be open to torturing again:

In an interview posted Monday, former Bush Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said that because use of torture “may be necessary” in the future, the Obama administration erred in disclosing the Bush administration’s “enhanced interrogation” techniques.
http://snipurl.com/hfdxh