A free public service offered by Paul Kemp - Central Nova - Nova Scotia There are ten steps, or stages, to the evolution of a practical and efficient form of representative government, and these are: 1. Freedom of the person. Slavery, serfdom, and all forms of human bondage must disappear. 2. Freedom of the mind. Unless a free people are educated -- taught to think intelligently and plan wisely -- freedom usually does more harm than good. 3. The reign of law. Liberty can be enjoyed only when the will and whims of human rulers are replaced by legislative enactments in accordance with accepted fundamental law. 4. Freedom of speech. Representative government is unthinkable without freedom of all forms of expression for human aspirations and opinions. 5. Security of property. No government can long endure if it fails to provide for the right to enjoy personal property in some form. Man craves the right to use, control, bestow, sell, lease, and bequeath his personal property. 6. The right of petition. Representative government assumes the right of citizens to be heard. The privilege of petition is inherent in free citizenship. 7. The right to rule. It is not enough to be heard; the power of petition must progress to the actual management of the government. 8. Universal suffrage. Representative government presupposes an intelligent, efficient, and universal electorate. The character of such a government will ever be determined by the character and caliber of those who compose it. As civilization progresses, suffrage, while remaining universal for both sexes, will be effectively modified, regrouped, and otherwise differentiated. 9. Control of public servants. No civil government will be serviceable and effective unless the citizenry possess and use wise techniques of guiding and controlling officeholders and public servants. 10. Intelligent and trained representation. The survival of democracy is dependent on successful representative government; and that is conditioned upon the practice of electing to public offices only those individuals who are technically trained, intellectually competent, socially loyal, and morally fit. Only by such provisions can government of the people, by the people, and for the people be preserved.

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War Propaganda: Western Media, Not Israeli Hasbara   by Ramzy Baroud Global Research, February 19, 2010   With the dreadful threat of yet another Israeli war in the Middle East looming, Israeli propaganda machine is likely to go into full gear.   In fact, trial balloons have already been sent out bearing supposedly unrehearsed comments by former Israeli Army general and current Minister Yossi Peled, suggesting that another war is on its way. More recently, Israel's ultra-right and unabashedly racist Foreign Minister Avigador Lieberman threatened to topple the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad in case of a war.   And so it begins....Read Article   Descent Into Barbarism: The US and NATO Wage War on the World   by Finian Cunningham Global Research, February 9, 2010 Email this article to a friend Print this article The argument is won: capitalism as an effective system to organise society and provide for human needs has expired. The evidence is conclusive. Trillions of dollars to kickstart the economy in the US and Europe may have given an ephemeral lease of life to the financial class to spin the casino wheel once again, but it is more apparent by the day that the tentative “recovery” has spluttered to a standstill. Gridlocked by unprecedented levels of personal and national debts, the engine of production – the real economy – is in a state of rigor mortis. This collapse has been a long time in the making. Decades of easy credit was up to now a way for the ruling class – government, corporations, financial institutions – to let the majority of workers subsidise the chronic loss in their livelihoods, which have been drained since the mid-1970s by the oligarchy’s self-aggrandisement from wage cutting, regressive taxation and public spending cuts. The political class – whether liberal or conservative, right or left – have facilitated this giant wealth-siphoning process......Read Article   The Great Global Arms Bazaar A new, world-wide arms race is underway Michael Werbowski (minou)     Published 2010-02-04 11:51 (KST) We all would do well to read, or re-read perhaps, Anthony Sampson's outstanding anatomical study of the international arms trade: "The Arms Bazaar." It gives us some perspective on how the "defense industry" has grown to what it is now: an unwieldy Golem, that's out of control. Even in these hard times, "the military-industrial complex" seems to be thriving. There are mammoth weapon sales underway on a global scale. For instance, in Asia, the U.S is bolstering militarily cooperation with its close alley and Chinese foe, by selling a large weapons package to the island of Taiwan. A regional arms race seems to be developing. This has riled the Chinese, who have "vehemently" protested by means of all diplomatic channels available to them. The reaction to Washington's planned military shipment to Taipei was swift and strident. "The People's Daily" considers the U.S. move to be a sign of a "preemptive cold-war mentality and moral hypocrisy."......Read Article Yemen and The Militarization of Strategic Waterways Securing US Control over Socotra Island and the Gulf of Ade by Michel Chossudovsky "Whoever attains maritime supremacy in the Indian Ocean would be a prominent player on the international scene." (US Navy Geostrategist Rear Admiral Alfred Thayus Mahan (1840-1914)) The Yemeni archipelago of Socotra in the Indian Ocean is located some 80 kilometres off the Horn of Africa and 380 kilometres South of the Yemeni coastline. The islands of Socotra are a wildlife reserve recognized by (UNESCO), as a World Natural Heritage Site.   Socotra is at the crossroads of the strategic naval waterways of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden (See map below). It is of crucial importance to the US military. Among Washington's strategic objectives is the militarization of major sea ways. This strategic waterway links the Mediterranean to South Asia and the Far East, through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. It is a major transit route for oil tankers. A large share of China's industrial exports to Western Europe transits through this strategic waterway. Maritime trade from East and Southern Africa to Western Europe also transits within proximity of Socotra (Suqutra), through the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. (see map below). A military base in Socotra could be used to oversee the movement of vessels including war ships in an out of the Gulf of Aden........Read Article The Sword and the Shield: Surround Russia and China with Mobile "Missile Defense" Systems   by Bruce Gagnon Global Research, February 5, 2010 Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space - 2010-02-04 Email this article to a friend Print this article The latest news is that Romania will be hosting the U.S. Army's ground-based "missile defense" systems. Russia is not pleased with these developments. These same Army Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) systems are going to be deployed in Taiwan as the U.S. continues its military encirclement of China. U.S. PAC-3 systems have already been deployed in Japan and South Korea Army Ground-based "missile defense" interceptors The Standard Missile-3 (SM-3), already in the Persian Gulf and soon to be permanently based on Navy Aegis destroyers in the Baltic, South China, Mediterranean and Black Seas, has a range of 500 kilometers but can be enhanced for longer distances. The missile was used by the U.S. Navy to destroy a satellite 130 miles above the Pacific Ocean in February of 2008 in a test viewed by Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. "The satellite was unlike any target the system was designed to go after....The satellite was in orbit rather than on a ballistic trajectory. Also, the satellite was traveling at incredible speeds," Mullen said..............Read Article Published on Monday, February 1, 2010 by Reuters 'Peace Prize' President Submits Largest War Budget Ever Obama Seeks Record $708 Billion in Defense Budget WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Monday asked Congress to approve a record $708 billion in defense spending for fiscal year 2011, including a 3.4 percent increase in the Pentagon's base budget and $159 billion to fund U.S. military missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.   The White House budget request also included $33 billion in additional funding for fiscal 2010 to pay for increasing military and intelligence operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and drawing down U.S. forces in Iraq. That comes on top of $129.6 billion already provided for the current fiscal year, which ends September 30..........................Read Article Published on Monday, February 1, 2010 by Agence France-Presse Afghan 'Geological Reserves Worth a Trillion Dollars' Karzai exclaims 'very good news for Afghans', but perhaps history tells us that regular Afghans should be very cautious of such news KABUL - Afghanistan, one of the world's poorest countries, is sitting on mineral and petroleum reserves worth an estimated one trillion dollars, President Hamid Karzai said Sunday. Miners work in the Anyak copper mine in Afghanistan. While Afghanistan is not renowned as a resource-rich country, it has a wide range of deposits, including copper, iron ore, gold and chromite, as well as natural gas, oil and precious and semi-precious stones. (Afghan Government photo) The war-ravaged nation could become one of the richest in the world if helped to tap its geological deposits, Karzai told reporters. "I have very good news for Afghans," Karzai said. "The initial figures we have obtained show that our mineral deposits are worth a thousand billion dollars -- not a thousand million dollars but a thousand billion," he said. He based his assertion, he said, on a survey being carried out by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), due to be completed in "a couple of months"............Read Article U.S.-China Military Tensions Grow by Rick Rozoff Global Research, January 20, 2010 Email this article to a friend Print this article      Even though the U.S. military budget is almost ten times that of China's (with a population more than four times as large) and Washington plans a record $708 billion defense budget for next year compared to Russia spending less than $40 billion last year for the same, China and Russia are portrayed as threats to the U.S. and its allies. China has no troops outside its borders; Russia has a small handful in its former territories in Abkhazia, Armenia, South Ossetia and Transdniester. The U.S. has hundreds of thousands of troops stationed in six continents..........Read Article Source Never Mind the Facts, Let’s Have a War...   by Finian Cunningham Global Research, January 8, 2010 Gulf Daily News - 2009-12-23 Email this article to a friend Print this article A missile test-fired by Iran last week was reported on the BBC World Service as being “capable of striking Israel”.   The choice of words was not unusual. On previous occasions when Iran has test-fired a long-range rocket, the BBC and other western news media dutifully inform us that the said device is “capable of striking Israel”. The well-worn phrase is so reliably heard in these news bulletins that its use betrays a coded script. The not-too subliminal implications are that Iran is: a) a hostile state; b) doing something illegal in test-firing a long-range missile; and c) gearing up to deliver on its alleged threat to wipe out the state of Israel......Read Article                Source Published on Thursday, January 7, 2010 by Agence France Presse Afghan War Kills 3 Children a Day: Report by Lynne O'Donnell KABUL - Children are the biggest victims of the war in Afghanistan, with more than 1,050 people under 18 years old killed last year alone, according to an Afghan human rights watchdog.   Afghan children watch a US soldier in the mountains of Nuristan Province, December 19. Children are the biggest victims of the war in Afghanistan, with more than 1,050 people under 18 years old killed last year alone, according to an Afghan human rights watchdog. (AFP/File/Tauseef Mustafa)   Taliban-linked militants caused around 64 per cent of all violent child deaths last year, the Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM) said in a report. Children were also press-ganged, sexually exploited, deprived of health and education, and illegally detained by all sides in a war that is dragging into its ninth year since the U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime. "At least three children were killed in war-related incidents every day in 2009 and many others suffered in diverse but mostly unreported ways," ARM director Ajmal Samadi said.....Read Article.

The US and China: One Side is Losing, the Other is Winning   by James Petras Global Research, January 3, 2010 Email this article to a friend Print this article   Introduction:   Asian capitalism, notably China and South Korea are competing with the US for global power.  Asian global power is driven by dynamic economic growth, while the US pursues a strategy of military-driven empire building.   One Day’s Read of the Financial Times   Even a cursory read of a single issue of the Financial Times (December 28, 2009) illustrates the divergent strategies toward empire building.  On page one, the lead article on the US is on its expanding military conflicts and its ‘war on terror’, entitled “Obama Demands Review of Terror List”.  In contrast, there are two page-one articles on China, which describe China’s launching of the world’s fastest long-distance passenger train service and China’s decision to maintain its currency pegged to the US dollar as a mechanism to promote its robust export sector.  While Obama turns the US focus on a fourth battle front (Yemen) in the ‘war on terror’ (after Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan), the Financial Times reports on the same page that a South Korean consortium has won a $20.4 billion dollar contract to develop civilian nuclear power plants for the United Arab Emirates, beating its US and European competitors......Read Article

Escalating War in Afghanistan Apt to Hurt Fragile U.S. Economy   by Sherwood Ross If Iraq war spending helped plunge the U.S. economy into its worst slump since the Depression, what does President Obama think his escalation of the Afghan war will do it?   Besides forcing taxpayers to cough up fresh billions to enable the Pentagon to chase down a few hundred Taliban fighters, the Afghan war is liable to continue to inflate oil prices---and this means more than the ongoing swindle of motorists at the pump...........Read Article

Published on Wednesday, December 30, 2009 by the Los Angeles Times Afghan Panel Says U.S. Strike Killed 8 Schoolboys by Laura King KABUL, Afghanistan -- An Afghan presidential delegation looking into reports that up to 10 civilians were accidentally killed by U.S. troops earlier this week said today that it had so far confirmed at least eight deaths -- all schoolboys ages 12 to 17. Afghans chant anti American slogans in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2009, during a protest against the recent killings of 10 civilians allegedly by US forces in Kunar province. The head of a presidential delegation investigating the deaths the 10 people in eastern Afghanistan concluded Wednesday that civilians, including schoolchildren, were killed in an attack involving US troops, disputing US reports that the dead were insurgents.(AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

That contradicts initial findings by the NATO force regarding Sunday's strike in Kunar, a remote northeastern province. Western military officials earlier reported nine killed, all adult males and all insurgents, and said today that the incident remains under investigation..........Read Article

NATO, which had originally denied carrying out operations in the area at the time of the deaths, now says a joint Afghan-Western force carried out the strike. But a spokesman for Afghanistan's
	Defense Ministry, Gen. Mohammed Azimi, told reporters today that only U.S. special forces had been involved.

Published on Tuesday, December 29, 2009 by Agence France-Presse Escalated Afghan War Brings Escalated Civilian Death Afghan Civilian Casualties Up 10%: UN by Sardar Ahmad KABUL — Civilian deaths in Afghanistan rose more than 10 percent in the first 10 months of 2009, UN figures showed Tuesday, amid anger over the alleged killing of children in a Western military operation. Figures released to AFP by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) put civilian deaths in the Afghan war at 2,038 for the first 10 months of 2009, up from 1,838 for the same period of 2008 -- an increase of 10.8 percent. The figures were released a day after President Hamid Karzai launched an investigation into reports that 10 people, most of them school children, were killed in a raid by foreign troops near the Pakistan border............Read Article

NOAM CHOMSKY: “The Unipolar Moment and the Culture of Imperialism”.............Read Article

An Imperial Strategy for a New World Order: The Origins of World War III Part 1 by Andrew Gavin Marshall Global Research, October 16, 2009 Email this article to a friend Print this article In the face of total global economic collapse, the prospects of a massive international war are increasing. Historically, periods of imperial decline and economic crisis are marked by increased international violence and war. The decline of the great European empires was marked by World War I and World War II, with the Great Depression taking place in the intermediary period.   Currently, the world is witnessing the decline of the American empire, itself a product born out of World War II. As the post-war imperial hegemon, America ran the international monetary system and reigned as champion and arbitrator of the global political economy.   To manage the global political economy, the US has created the single largest and most powerful military force in world history. Constant control over the global economy requires constant military presence and action.   Now that both the American empire and global political economy are in decline and collapse, the prospect of a violent end to the American imperial age is drastically increasing..................''.....Read Article

Colour-Coded Revolutions and the Origins of World War III Part 2 by Andrew Gavin Marshall Global Research, November 3, 2009 Email this article to a friend Print this article This is Part 2 of the Series, "The Origins of World War III" Part 1: An Imperial Strategy for a New World Order: The Origins of World War III Introduction   Following US geo-strategy in what Brzezinski termed the “global Balkans,” the US government has worked closely with major NGOs to “promote democracy” and “freedom” in former Soviet republics, playing a role behind the scenes in fomenting what are termed “colour revolutions,” which install US and Western-friendly puppet leaders to advance the interests of the West, both economically and strategically.   Part 2 of this essay on “The Origins of World War III” analyzes the colour revolutions as being a key stratagem in imposing the US-led New World Order. The “colour revolution” or “soft” revolution strategy is a covert political tactic of expanding NATO and US influence to the borders of Russia and even China; following in line with one of the primary aims of US strategy in the New World Order: to contain China and Russia and prevent the rise of any challenge to US power in the region..........''.....Read Article

A New World War for a New World Order The Origins of World War III: Part 3 by Andrew Gavin Marshall

Global Research, December 17, 2009

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This article is Part 3 in the Series, "The Origins of World War III."

Part 1: An Imperial Strategy for a New World Order: The Origins of World War III
Part 2: Colour-Coded Revolutions and the Origins of World War III

Introduction In Parts 1 and 2 of this series, I have analyzed US and NATO geopolitical strategy since the fall of the Soviet Union, in expanding the American empire and preventing the rise of new powers, containing Russia and China. This Part examines the implications of this strategy in recent years; following the emergence of a New Cold War, as well as analyzing the war in Georgia, the attempts and methods of regime change in Iran, the coup in Honduras, the expansion of the Afghan-Pakistan war theatre, and spread of conflict in Central Africa. These processes of a New Cold War and major regional wars and conflicts take the world closer to a New World War. Peace is only be possible if the tools and engines of empires are dismantled. ........''.....Read Article

September 11, 2001: America and NATO Declare War on Afghanistan NATO's Doctrine of Collective Security by Michel Chossudovsky Picture Global Research, December 21, 2009 Email this article to a friend Print this article   Why are American and NATO troops in Afghanistan? What is the justification for waging war on a country of 28 million people? What justifies Obama's military surge? Both the media and the US government, in chorus, continue to point to the 9/11 attacks and the role of Al Qaeda led by "terrorist mastermind" Osama bin Laden. The bombing and invasion of Afghanistan is described as a "campaign" against Islamic terrorists, rather than a war. To this date, however, there is no proof that Al Qaeda was behind the 9/11 attacks. Neither is there evidence that Afghanistan as a Nation State was behind or any way complicit in the 9/11 attacks. The Afghan government in the weeks following 9/11, offered on two occasions to deliver Osama bin Laden to US justice, if there were preliminary evidence of his involvement in the attacks. These offers were refused by Washington. Where was Osama on September 11, 2001? To this date, Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, is identified in military documents and official statements of both the Bush and Obama administrations as the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks. The Afghan government (the "Taliban regime" in official documents) is identified as supporting Al Qaeda and providing refuge to its leader Osama bin Laden inside Afghan territory at the time of the 9/11 attacks.   On September 10, 2001, according to a CBS news report, Osama bin Laden had been admitted to a Pakistani military hospital in Rawalpindi. (CBS Evening News with Dan Rather;  CBS, 28 January 2002, See also Michel Chossudovsky, Where was Osama on September 11, 2001?, Global Research,11 September 2008): "DAN RATHER, CBS ANCHOR: As the United states and its allies in the war on terrorism press the hunt for Osama bin Laden, CBS News has exclusive information tonight about where bin Laden was and what he was doing in the last hours before his followers struck the United States September 11. This is the result of hard-nosed investigative reporting by a team of CBS news journalists, and by one of the best foreign correspondents in the business, CBS`s Barry Petersen. Here is his report...........Read Article

Published on Tuesday, December 15, 2009 by Haaretz Israel Confirms UK Arrest Warrant Against Livni by Barak Ravid The Foreign Ministry on Tuesday called for an end to the "absurd situation" in which arrest warrants were being issued to Israeli officials over alleged war crimes in the Gaza Strip. Senior officials in Israel confirmed reports on Monday that a British court had issued an arrest warrant against opposition leader Tzipi Livni for her role in orchestrating Israel's military offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip nearly a year ago...........Read Article

Published on Thursday, December 10, 2009 by Raw Story Kucinich Plans to Force Vote on US Withdrawal from Afghanistan by Daniel Tencer For Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Afghan President Hamid Karzai's announcement Tuesday that his country would need the US's military support for another 10 or 15 years seems to have been the last straw. The outspoken House representative says it was Karzai's statement that prompted him to draft a resolution calling for a House vote on the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and Pakistan. "We shouldn't be there another 15 to 20 months, let alone 15 to 20 years," Kucinich told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "When I'm in my district talking to people, nobody has come up to me and said we need to be in Afghanistan for the next 15 to 20 years. They do say we need jobs, we need to protect our basic industry, we need education, we need to protect retirement security. I'd like to see us start taking care of things here at home." Kucinich is circulating a letter (PDF) among congressional colleagues asking them to co-sponsor his resolution............Read Article

The Great Game: U.S., NATO War In Afghanistan Fifty or more countries in a single war theater by Rick Rozoff Global Research, December 5, 2009 Stop NATO   Email this article to a friend Print this article The U.S. (and Britain) began bombing the Afghan capital of Kabul on October 7, 2001 with Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from warships and submarines and bombs dropped from warplanes and shortly thereafter American special forces began ground operations, a task that has been conducted since by regular Army and Marine units. The bombing and the ground combat operations continue more than eight years later and both will be intensified to record levels in short order. The combined U.S. and NATO forces would represent a staggering number, in excess of 150,000 soldiers. By way of comparison, as of September of this year there were approximately 120,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and only a small handful of other nations' personnel, those assigned to the NATO Training Mission - Iraq, remaining with them. "Secretary Gates has made clear that the conflicts we're in should be at the very forefront of our agenda. He wants to make sure we're not giving up capabilities needed now for those needed for some unknown future conflict. He wants to make sure the Pentagon is truly on war footing....For the first time in decades, the political and economic stars are aligned for a fundamental overhaul of the way the Pentagon does business."............Read Article

Published on Monday, November 30, 2009 by CommonDreams.org An Open Letter to President Obama from Michael Moore by Michael Moore Dear President Obama, Do you really want to be the new "war president"? If you go to West Point tomorrow night (Tuesday, 8pm) and announce that you are increasing, rather than withdrawing, the troops in Afghanistan, you are the new war president. Pure and simple. And with that you will do the worst possible thing you could do -- destroy the hopes and dreams so many millions have placed in you. With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your campaign into disillusioned cynics. You will teach them what they've always heard is true -- that all politicians are alike. I simply can't believe you're about to do what they say you are going to do. Please say it isn't so...................Read Article

America and Russia: Has the Cold War Really Ended? US nuclear doctrine, missile defence in Europe and NATO expansion by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya Global Research, November 25, 2009 The Caucus (University of Ottawa), Vol. 10, No. 1 (Fall 2009): pp. 20-22. - 2009-11-12 Email this article to a friend Print this article This article was first published in The Caucus, a political science and international development journal published by the University of Ottawa. The article raises an important question in relation to the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall (November 9, 1989):  Has the Cold War really ended?  The article deals with Russian anxieties with the U.S., American nuclear doctrine, American missile defence in Europe, and NATO expansion. The twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall is approaching, but has the Cold War really ended and is it really a historic relic of the not too distant past? The Soviet Union may no longer exist and the Warsaw Pact may have long been dissolved, but many of the remnants of the Cold War still exist, like the conflict in the divided Korean Peninsula, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and finally the issue of missile defense. In the last few years the relations between NATO and the Russian Federation have become tense and described in terms reminiscent of the Cold War. One of the main impetuses for this resumption of Cold tensions has been the U.S. missile shield project in the European continent. The Russians have consistently made no secret about maintaining that the missile defense shield, above all else, is a threat to them...........Read Article

Former Soviet States: Battleground For Global Domination   by Rick Rozoff Global Research, November 23, 2009 Stop NATO   Email this article to a friend Print this article A Europe united under the EU and especially NATO is to be strong enough to contain, isolate and increasingly confront Russia as the central component of U.S. plans for control of Eurasia and the world, but cannot be allowed to conduct an independent foreign policy, particularly in regard to Russia and the Middle East. European NATO allies are to assist Washington in preventing the emergence of "the most dangerous scenario...a grand coalition of China, Russia, and perhaps Iran" such as has been adumbrated since in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Four years after the publication of The Grand Chessboard, Brzezinski's recommended chess move was made: The U.S. and NATO invaded Afghanistan and expanded into Central Asia where Russian, Chinese and Iranian interests converge and where the basis for their regional cooperation existed, and Western military bases were established in the former Soviet republics of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, where they remain for the indefinite future. As the United States escalates its joint war with NATO in Afghanistan and across the Pakistani border, expands military deployments and exercises throughout Africa under the new AFRICOM, and prepares to dispatch troops to newly acquired bases in Colombia as the spearhead for further penetration of that continent, it is simultaneously targeting Eurasia and the heart of that vast land mass, the countries of the former Soviet Union..............Read Article

Afghanistan Is Worse Off Than Ever, Thanks to the Sham Army We're Propping Up By Chris Hedges, Truthdig. Posted November 11, 2009. Cultural barriers and naked corruption have rendered the Afghan National Army completely inept. Success in Afghanistan is measured in Washington by the ability to create an indigenous army that will battle the Taliban, provide security and stability for Afghan civilians and remain loyal to the puppet government of Hamid Karzai. A similar task eluded the Red Army, although the Soviets spent a decade attempting to pacify the country. It eluded the British a century earlier. And the United States, too, will fail...................Read Article

Stealing Money, Selling Heroin and Raping Boys -- The Very Dark Side of the Afghan Occupation By Patrick Cockburn, CounterPunch. Posted November 13, 2009. One reason Afghan villagers prefer dealing with the Taliban than govt. security forces is that the latter have a habit of seizing their sons at checkpoints and sodomizing them. Just when President Barack Obama looked as if he might be railroaded into sending tens of thousands more US troops to Afghanistan the American envoy to Kabul has warned him not to do so. In a leaked cable to Washington sent last week, the US ambassador to Afghanistan, Gen Karl W. Eikenberry, argues that it would be a mistake to send reinforcements until the government of President Hamid Karzai demonstrates that it will act against corruption and mismanagement..........Read Article

How the U.S. Funds the Taliban By Aram Roston, The Nation. Posted November 13, 2009 The U.S. government is funding the very forces its troops are fighting -- funds that add up to a huge amount of money for the Taliban. On October 29, 2001, while the Taliban's rule over Afghanistan was under assault, the regime's ambassador in Islamabad gave a chaotic press conference in front of several dozen reporters sitting on the grass. On the Taliban diplomat's right sat his interpreter, Ahmad Rateb Popal, a man with an imposing presence. Like the ambassador, Popal wore a black turban, and he had a huge bushy beard. He had a black patch over his right eye socket, a prosthetic left arm and a deformed right hand, the result of injuries from an explosives mishap during an old operation against the Soviets in Kabul...................Read Article

Republicans and Democrats Come Together to Launch Unprecedented Attack on International Law By Stephen Zunes, AlterNet. Posted November 5, 2009. This is George W. Bush's foreign policy legacy, which — through this resolution — the Democrats, no less than their Republican counterparts, have now eagerly embraced. In a stunning blow against international law and human rights, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a resolution on Tuesday attacking the report of the United Nations Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict. The report was authored by the well-respected South African jurist Richard Goldstone and three other noted authorities on international humanitarian law, who had been widely praised for taking leadership in previous investigations of war crimes in Rwanda, Darfur, the former Yugoslavia, and elsewhere. Since this report documented apparent war crimes by a key U.S. ally, however, Congress has taken the unprecedented action of passing a resolution condemning it. Perhaps most ominously, the resolution also endorses Israel's right to attack Syria and Iran on the grounds that they are "state sponsors of terrorism."......Read Article

.War Crimes Conference, Kuala Lumpur Here is the speech by George Galloway MP at the War Crimes Conference & Exhibition that took place at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia on 28th October 2009. Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Global Research Articles by George Galloway

"Those who make a conscientious judgment that they must not participate in this war... have my complete sympathy, and indeed our political approach has been to give them access to Canada. Canada should be a refuge from militarism." Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau giving refuge to war resisters from the United States "The courage of the flesh is the lowest form of bravery. Mind bravery is a higher type of human courage, but the highest and supreme is uncompromising loyalty to the enlightened convictions of profound spiritual realities. And such courage constitutes the heroism of the God-knowing man". Jesus of Nazareth "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God"  Jesus of Nazareth

Bush and Blair accused of War Crimes: Kuala Lumpur Tribunal: Criminalize War by Shad Saleem Faruqi Regardless of size or power, no country or national leader is exempt from international humanitarian law.   ON Saturday Oct 31, the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal (KLWCT) heard the opening arguments from the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC) about war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.   The Commission submitted on many grave issues of international law of war and of humanitarian law, arising out of the invasion of Afgha nistan in 2001 and the conquest of Iraq in 2003 by the United States and its allies.   There are well documented allegations that the invading armies used banned weapons of mass destruction, bombed civilian areas and committed mass murders. There were kidnappings, torture, racial and religious profiling and many other acts of savagery and lawlessness that satisfy the legal definitions of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity........Read Article

Global Research, October 31, 2009

After Downing Street - 2009-10-30

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"Glaubt es mir - das Geheimnis, um die größte Fruchtbarkeit und den größten Genuß vom Dasein einzuernten, heisst: gefährlich leben." - Friedrich Nietzsche

On Thursday night I had the privilege of viewing a premier of a film together with its star. The theater was in the U.S. Capitol, and the film was "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers" ( http://www.mostdangerousman.org ). This is a powerfully and engagingly constructed film about one of the most effective instances of whistle-blowing in our nation's history.

Ellsberg risked life in prison to expose the lies that had taken this nation into war in Vietnam, lies from Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson. And Nixon believed that Ellsberg had incriminating documents on his own lies, which led Henry Kissinger to call Ellsberg "the most dangerous man in America.".....

An Imperial Strategy for a New World Order: The Origins of World War III Part 1 by Andrew Gavin Marshall Global Research, October 16, 2009 Introduction   In the face of total global economic collapse, the prospects of a massive international war are increasing. Historically, periods of imperial decline and economic crisis are marked by increased international violence and war. The decline of the great European empires was marked by World War I and World War II, with the Great Depression taking place in the intermediary period.   Currently, the world is witnessing the decline of the American empire, itself a product born out of World War II. As the post-war imperial hegemon, America ran the international monetary system and reigned as champion and arbitrator of the global political economy.   To manage the global political economy, the US has created the single largest and most powerful military force in world history. Constant control over the global economy requires constant military presence and action.   Now that both the American empire and global political economy are in decline and collapse, the prospect of a violent end to the American imperial age is drastically increasing.........more

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Global Research, October 11, 2009

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When war becomes peace, When concepts and realities are turned upside down, When fiction becomes truth and truth becomes fiction. When a global military agenda is heralded as a humanitarian endeavor,  When the killing of civilians is upheld as "collateral damage",  When those who resist the US-NATO led invasion of their homeland are categorized as "insurgents" or "terrorists".   When preemptive nuclear war is upheld as self defense. When advanced torture and "interrogation" techniques are routinely used to "protect peacekeeping operations", When tactical nuclear weapons are heralded by the Pentagon as "harmless to the surrounding civilian population" When three quarters of US personal federal income tax revenues are allocated to financing what is euphemistically referred to as "national defense"  When the Commander in Chief of the largest military force on planet earth is presented as a global peace-maker, When the Lie becomes the Truth.  Obama's "War Without Borders" We are the crossroads of the most serious crisis in modern history. The US in partnership with NATO and Israel has launched a global military adventure which, in a very real sense, threatens the future of humanity. At this critical juncture in our history, the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to President and Commander in Chief Barack Obama constitutes an unmitigated tool of propaganda and distortion, which unreservedly supports the Pentagon's "Long War":  "A War without Borders" in the true sense of the word, characterised by the Worlwide deployment of US military might.  Apart from the diplomatic rhetoric, there has been no meaningful reversal of US foreign policy in relation to the George W. Bush presidency, which might have remotely justified the granting of the Nobel Prize to Obama. In fact quite the opposite. The Obama military agenda has sought to extend the war into new frontiers. With a new team of military and foreign policy advisers, the Obama war agenda has been far more effective in fostering military escalation than that formulated by the NeoCons.......more

Global Research, September 24, 2009

Stop NATO

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Over the past week U.S. newspapers and television networks have been abuzz with reports that Washington and its NATO allies are planning an unprecedented increase of troops for the war in Afghanistan, even in addition to the 17,000 new American and several thousand NATO forces that have been committed to the war so far this year........more

 

Published on Monday, September 28, 2009 by Al Jazeera English Iran Tests Long-Range Missiles Iran has test-fired two long-range missiles which defence analysts say are capable of hitting Israel or US bases in the Gulf region. The state-sponsored Press TV news channel said that the Shahab 3 and Sejil missiles were fired on Monday, the second day of military exercises by Iran's Revolutionary Guard forces.....more   Nuclear War against Iran   by Michel Chossudovsky Email this article to a friend Print this article The launching of an outright war using nuclear warheads against Iran is now in the final planning stages.  Coalition partners, which include the US,  Israel and Turkey are in "an advanced stage of readiness".  Various military exercises have been conducted, starting in early 2005. In turn, the Iranian Armed Forces have also conducted large scale military maneuvers in the Persian Gulf in December in anticipation of a US sponsored attack.  Since early 2005, there has been intense shuttle diplomacy between Washington, Tel Aviv, Ankara and NATO headquarters in Brussels. In recent developments, CIA Director Porter Goss on a mission to Ankara, requested Turkish Prime Minister  Recep Tayyip Erdogan "to provide political and logistic support for air strikes against Iranian nuclear and military targets."  Goss reportedly asked " for special cooperation from Turkish intelligence to help prepare and monitor the operation." (DDP, 30 December 2005). In turn, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has given the green light to the Israeli Armed Forces to launch the attacks by the end of March:  All top Israeli officials have pronounced the end of March, 2006, as the deadline for launching a military assault on Iran.... The end of March date also coincides with the IAEA report to the UN on Iran's nuclear energy program. Israeli policymakers believe that their threats may influence the report, or at least force the kind of ambiguities, which can be exploited by its overseas supporters to promote Security Council sanctions or justify Israeli military action. (James Petras,  Israel's War Deadline: Iran in the Crosshairs, Global Research, December 2005) The US sponsored military plan has been endorsed by NATO, although it is unclear, at this stage, as to the nature of NATO's involvement in the planned aerial attacks.........more

9/11 Mind Swell Scientific evidence refutes the official story by Joel S. Hirschhorn Global Research, August 11, 2009

As we approach the eighth anniversary of 9/11 consider this paradox.  In the post 9-11 years the scientific evidence for disbelieving the official government story has mounted incredibly.  And the number of highly respected and credentialed professionals challenging the official story has similarly expanded.  Yet, to the considerable disappointment of the international 9/11 truth movement, the objective fact is that there are no widespread, loud demands for a new government-backed 9/11 investigation.  The 9/11 truth movement is the epitome of a marginalized movement, one that never goes away despite not achieving truly meaningful results, which in this case means replacing official lies with official truth.  What has gone wrong?...........more

“One must take draconian measures of demographic

reduction against the will of the populations.

Reducing the birthrate has proved to be impossible

or insufficient.  One must therefore increase

the mortality rate.  How? By natural means.

Famine and sickness.” 

~Robert McNamara, past president, World Bank~

Obama’s Rollback Strategy: Honduras, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan (and the Boomerang Effect)   by Prof James Petras

The recent events in Honduras and Iran, which pit democratically elected regimes against pro-US military and civilian actors intent on overthrowing them can best be understood as part of a larger White House strategy designed to rollback the gains achieved by opposition government and movements during the Bush years.

In a manner reminiscent of Ronald Reagan’s New Cold War policies, Obama has vastly increased the military budget, increased the number of combat troops, targeted new regions for military intervention and backed military coups in regions traditionally controlled by the US . However Obama’s rollback strategy occurs in a very different international and domestic context. Unlike Reagan, Obama faces a prolonged and profound recession/depression, massive fiscal and trade deficits, a declining role in the world economy and loss of political dominance in Latin America, the Middle East, East Asia and elsewhere. While Reagan faced off against a decaying Soviet Communist regime, Obama confronts surging world-wide opposition from a variety of independent secular, clerical, nationalist, liberal democratic and socialist electoral regimes and social movements anchored in local struggles..........more

McNamara was a warped prophet, a flesh-and-blood monument to the folly of militarism. And yet Americans failed to listen.

The announcement of Robert McNamara's death brought the good Doctor Hunter S. Thompson to mind. These two men were contemporaries on the public and political stage. While vastly different in so many ways, Thompson and McNamara were profoundly American and their stories offer some thoughts on where we are today...........more

Spies In the Classroom: The Government Is Running a Secretive Intelligence Recruitment Program in Schools

By David Price, CounterPunch. Posted June 24, 2009.

The "Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program" may become a permanent budget item, making universities unwitting agents of state intelligence.

As the continuities and disjunctures between the Bush and Obama administrations come into focus it becomes increasingly clear that while Obama’s domestic agenda has some identifiable breaks with Bush’s, at its core, the new administration remains committed to staying the course of American militarization. Now we have an articulate, nuanced president who supports elements of progressive domestic policies, can even comfortably say the phrase LGBT in public speeches, while funding military programs at alarming levels and continuing the Bush administration’s military and intelligence invasion of what used to be civilian life.......more

Ending the Era of Torture

Published on Thursday, June 4, 2009 by The Real News Network

A Report on Afghanistan

 

......more

The embrace by any society of permanent war is a parasite that devours the heart and soul of a nation. Permanent war extinguishes liberal, democratic movements. It turns culture into nationalist cant. It degrades and corrupts education and the media, and wrecks the economy. The liberal, democratic forces, tasked with maintaining an open society, become impotent. The collapse of liberalism, whether in imperial Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire or Weimar Germany, ushers in an age of moral nihilism. This moral nihilism comes is many colors and hues. It rants and thunders in a variety of slogans, languages and ideologies. It can manifest itself in fascist salutes, communist show trials or Christian crusades. It is, at its core, all the same. It is the crude, terrifying tirade of mediocrities who find their identities and power in the perpetuation of permanent war.........more

As Barack Obama heads into his second hundred days in office, let's head for the big picture ourselves, the ultimate global plot line, the tumultuous rush towards a new, polycentric world order. In its first hundred days, the Obama presidency introduced us to a brand new acronym, OCO for Overseas Contingency Operations, formerly known as GWOT (as in Global War on Terror). Use either name, or anything else you want, and what you're really talking about is what's happening on the immense energy battlefield that extends from Iran to the Pacific Ocean. It's there that the Liquid War for the control of Eurasia takes place....more

Taliban policies not nice, not new LAST WEEK I had the opportunity to promote my recently published memoirs at a series of speaking events across Nova Scotia. What made this experience so rewarding was the fact that it gave me a first-hand opportunity to hear the concerns and viewpoints of Canadian citizens. Although my book, Unembedded:   Two Decades of Maverick War Reporting, covers a multitude of conflicts from all corners of the globe, not surprisingly the vast majority of the questions posed to me were about Canada’s continued involvement in Afghanistan.......more

Published on Tuesday, May 5, 2009 by Reuters

Truckloads of Dead Civilians After Afghan Battle

Published on Monday, May 4, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

The Planet’s Imperative: Stop War, Shine On

Time to wake up to the threat of a Taliban takeover Mon. Apr 27 - 6:36 AM WHAT we have here is a failure to connect the dots. Many Canadians still wonder what we are doing in Afghanistan, except placating our American allies. Many Canadians scoff at the idea that the Taliban represent a direct threat to our national security. And many Canadians are naïve enough to think that when we leave Afghanistan, we won’t be back. The truth is the Canadian Forces do need a hiatus to replenish materiel and personnel after holding down the fort in Kandahar for several years. But the worrisome developments in Central Asia will continue to command our attention – and NATO’s military resources – for years to come......more

Published on Monday, March 30, 2009 by the Independent/UK

A Brave Man Who Stood Alone. If Only the World Had Listened to Him

Published on Monday, March 30, 2009 by Haaretz (Israel)

IDF Ends Gaza Probe, Says Misconduct Claims Are 'Rumors'

Military Advocate General Brig. Gen. Avichai Mendelblit on Monday instructed the Military Police Investigation unit to close the investigation into soldiers' accounts of alleged misconduct and serious violations of the army's rules of engagement during Operation Cast Lead.

In a press release issued Monday the army said that the preliminary Military Police investigation into the testimonies revealed that they "were based on rumors and not first-hand experience."

However, the Military Advocate General's announcement does not address testimonies published by the Associated Press on Friday that corroborate soldiers' accounts with testimonies given by Palestinians.......more

In early March, more shocking details emerged about George W. Bush legal counsel John Yoo's memos outlining the destruction of the republic.

The memos lay the legal groundwork for the president to send the military to wage war against U.S. citizens; take them from their homes to Navy brigs without trial and keep them forever; close down the First Amendment; and invade whatever country he chooses without regard to any treaty or objection by Congress.

It was as if Milton's Satan had a law degree and was establishing within the borders of the United States the architecture of hell........more

John Yoo's Legal Groundwork for Subverting the Republic

Read More: Bush Administration, Bush Doj, Bush Justice Department, Bush Memos, George W. Bush, John Yoo, John Yoo Memo, Politics News

If history gets this recent era right, future textbooks will have to show that the US narrowly averted a carefully planned but thorough and unmistakable conspiracy to subvert the rule of law and the process of democracy from 2001-2008. For three years, since writing End of America, I have been arguing that the Bush team sought irretrievably to subvert our liberty. Fortunately, this appalling and conceivably irrevocable subversion of the tenets of freedom was narrowly averted by citizens at every level -- from the grassroots to the courts -- resisting in time. But the release this week by the Justice Department of the "secret memos" sought valiantly by the ACLU confirms that Bush's legal architects were building up the framework for something even scarier than our most anguished projections.....more

Sy Hersh's recent discussion at University of Minnesota included a number of tidbits, two of which are pertinent to this post. Hersh explained that the Joint Special Operations Command was doing operations that directly reported to Cheney, up to and including assassination. And Hersh revealed that Cheney had convened a meeting not long after 9/11 where he and other alumni of Iran-Contra brainstormed how to avoid the legal problems they had with Iran-Contra. A recent Congressional Research Service article on covert ops and presidential findings helps to show how these two revelations relate to each other.

The Assassination Squads Were Revealed Because CIA Demanded a Finding

While the assassination revelation got all the press, much of what Hersh said was not new. Hersh had described much of what was going on in a July 2008 article describing operational tensions between JSOC and CIA surrounding a presidential finding authorizing covert ops in connection with Iran's alleged nukes program. The Gang of Eight had reviewed (to the extent they do) the finding, but the JSOC went beyond the scope of that finding........more

Want a billion dollars in development aid? If you happen to live in Afghanistan, the two quickest ways to attract attention and so aid from the U.S. authorities are: Taliban attacks or a flourishing opium trade. For those with neither, the future could be bleak....more

Published on Monday, March 23, 2009 by The Guardian/UK

US Will Appoint Afghan 'Prime Minister' to Bypass Hamid Karzai

The creation of a new chief executive or prime ministerial role is aimed at bypassing Karzai. In a further dilution of his power, it is proposed that money be diverted from the Kabul government to the provinces. Many US and European officials have become disillusioned with the extent of the corruption and incompetence in the Karzai government, but most now believe there are no credible alternatives, and predict the Afghan president will win re-election in August..........more

 

Published on Monday, March 23, 2009 by The Guardian/UK

Guardian Investigation Uncovers Evidence of Alleged Israeli War Crimes in Gaza

Click more to watch video evidence....more

Published on Friday, March 20, 2009 by the Times Online (UK)

Israeli Soldiers Admit to Deliberate Killing of Gaza Civilians

JERUSALEM - The Israeli army has been forced to open an investigation into the conduct of its troops in Gaza after damning testimony from its own front line soldiers revealed the killing of civilians and rules of engagement so lax that one combatant said that they amounted on occasion to "cold-blooded murder"................more

Last year, one of the most deadly earthquakes on record devastated China, killing over 80,000 people and rendering millions homeless. Yet last month, reports surfaced stating that the 8.0 magnitude Great Sichuan Earthquake could have possibly been induced not by Earth but its people. Particularly, the ones that decided to build the 4-year-old Zipingpu reservoir, which held 320 million tons of water, near a major fault line........more

At a “Great Conversations” event at the University of Minnesota [Monday] legendary investigative reporter Seymour Hersh may have made a little more news than he intended by talking about new alleged instances of domestic spying by the CIA, and about an ongoing covert military operation that he called an “executive assassination ring..........more

Global Research, March 9, 2009

Stop NATO - 2009-03-08

American Vice-President Joseph Biden at the Munich Security Conference in early February pledged to "press the reset button" with Russia.

Since then prominent Washington officials have repeated their intention to reset, reboot and so forth relations with Russia but have, starting with Biden at Munich, not relented in any substantive manner on any of the behaviors and projects that have antagonized Moscow............more

 

Published on Monday, March 2, 2009 by the Associated Press

Afghan Civilians Could Bear Brunt of Increased War

Civilian casualties in Afghanistan are "significantly higher" today than a year ago, and an intensification of the conflict this year could mean that consequences for many more Afghans will be "dire in the extreme," said Pierre Krahenbuhl, the director of operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross.

"The daily lives of people living in areas where the fighting is taking place are being disrupted, be it because of airstrikes, night raids, suicide attacks, the use of IEDs, or because of intimidation and the population being pressurized or co-opted by the different parties to this conflict," he said.

The U.N. last month said 2,118 civilians died in the Afghan conflict in 2008, a 40 percent jump over 2007. The world body said insurgent attacks caused 55 percent of those deaths, while U.S., NATO or government forces caused 39 percent of the deaths. The remaining 6 percent were caused in crossfire...................more

America's neighbor to the north is erecting barriers to Iraq War resisters seeking asylum.

In the past weeks, the Harper Administration has moved swiftly to push U.S. Iraq War resisters out of Canada, issuing removal orders to five more resisters who had resettled up north. Two have recently been forced out of the country, and the rest continue their appeals through the Canadian Courts. This adds to the growing number of U.S. war resisters in Canada who are being threatened with deportation and eventually U.S. military court martials and imprisonment.

"According to the Nuremberg principles, people have the right to a free conscience," said Ryan Johnson, a former soldier who refused deployment to Iraq and resettled in Canada in June 2005. "We should be allowed to stay based on that.".....more

"Those who make a conscientious judgment that they must not participate in this war... have my complete sympathy, and indeed our political approach has been to give them access to Canada. Canada should be a refuge from militarism." Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau

Few stories are as complex and cumbersome as the continuing friction in the Middle East. Modern history mixes with ancient history; boundaries are drawn and redrawn. There is no shortage of opinion or misinformation. Accusations of media bias abound. Yesterday’s elections in Israel promise yet another dose of upheaval in the region, and additional uncertainty for Israel’s neighbors..........more

JERUSALEM/GAZA - February 18 - Israel should urgently end its unlawful restrictions on desperately needed humanitarian aid and basic goods entering Gaza, Human Rights Watch said today. Security concerns do not justify overly broad limitations on the delivery of food, fuel, and other essential supplies...... more

Eastern Partnership: The West's Final Assault On the Former Soviet Union by Rick Rozoff

Global Research, February 13, 2009

Stop NATO

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At a meeting of the European Union's General Affairs and External Relations Council in Brussels on May 26 of last year, Poland, seconded by Sweden, first proposed what has come to be known as the Eastern Partnership, a program to 'integrate' all the European and South Caucasus former Soviet nations - except for Russia - not already in the EU and NATO; that is, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.............more

 

Published on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 by Reuters

America’s Predators: Fighting the Afghan War From Las Vegas

 

 

Photos of What is in Gaza

Published on Tuesday, January 20, 2009 by the Times Online (UK)

Ban Ki-Moon Lambasts Shelling of UN in Gaza

Ban Ki-moon today called for those responsible for bombing UN-run buildings and schools in Gaza to be held accountable following Israel's 22-day war on Hamas.

Clearly angry, the United Nations Secretary-General was speaking outside the still-smouldering main UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) compound in Gaza City that was hit during shelling by Israeli artillery last Thursday, setting fire to the building and to the food aid stored inside.

Other UN buildings were hit during the fighting, and a number of Palestinian refugees allowed by the UN to take shelter inside its schools were killed..........more

Canada Complicit with Israeli War Crimes

By Jim Miles – Canada

Canada lives in the unfortunate position of being under the thrall of U.S. media for most its information and cultural relevance. At the same time, its own media, apart from the national broadcast company CBC, is highly centralized under the influence of two media empires (Canwest Global and CTV GlobeMedia) who support the same kind of biased coverage that is provided by the U.S. In sum, Canadians who wish to receive a balanced view of events in the Middle East, Gaza in particular, have to rely on alternate or external media. Canwest Global (Israel Aspers’ media empire) provides nightly updates with little context and “balanced” reporting of showing deaths in Israel from the Qassam rockets as being equally as devastating as the IDF attacks in Gaza.........more

Olmert, Bush and Red-faced Rice

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has boasted that he forced US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to abstain from a UN Security Council resolution on Gaza, which she supported and even helped draft.

"In the night between Thursday and Friday, when the secretary of state wanted to lead the vote on a ceasefire at the Security Council, we did not want her to vote in favor," Olmert said in a speech cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Pouring on political bravado, Olmert said he demanded to talk to Bush with only 10 minutes to spare before a UN Security Council vote on Thursday on a resolution opposed by Israel calling for an immediate ceasefire............ more

January 8, 2009 - Washington Post

By Craig Whitlock and Griff Witte

JERUSALEM, Jan. 8 -- The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday that it had found at least 15 bodies and several children -- emaciated but alive -- in a row of shattered houses in the Gaza Strip and accused the Israeli military of preventing ambulances from reaching the site for four days.............more

'We Are Very Violent': Israeli War Crimes Mount

Published on Saturday, January 10, 2009 by The Guardian/UK

By Jonathan Cook, AlterNet. Posted January 10, 2009.

And so does international criticism of Israel's utter disregard for civilian lives.

Criticism by international watchdog groups over the increasing death toll in Gaza mounted this week as the first legal actions inside Israel were launched accusing the army of intentionally harming the enclave's civilian population.

The petitions -- over attacks on medical personnel and the shelling of United Nations schools in Gaza -- follow statements by senior Israeli commanders that they have been using heavy firepower to protect soldiers during their advance on built-up areas. "We are very violent," one told Israeli media............more

 

Gazans Warned of Escalation While Israel Faces War Crime Accusations

Israel rains fire on Gaza with phosphorus shells

Israel is believed to be using controversial white phosphorus shells to screen its assault on the heavily populated Gaza Strip yesterday. The weapon, used by British and US forces in Iraq, can cause horrific burns but is not illegal if used as a smokescreen.

As the Israeli army stormed to the edges of Gaza City and the Palestinian death toll topped 500, the tell-tale shells could be seen spreading tentacles of thick white smoke to cover the troops’ advance. “These explosions are fantastic looking, and produce a great deal of smoke that blinds the enemy so that our forces can move in,” said one Israeli security expert. Burning blobs of phosphorus would cause severe injuries to anyone caught beneath them and force would-be snipers or operators of remote-controlled booby traps to take cover. Israel admitted using white phosphorus during its 2006 war with Lebanon.

The use of the weapon in the Gaza Strip, one of the world’s mostly densely population areas, is likely to ignite yet more controversy over Israel’s offensive, in which more than 2,300 Palestinians have been wounded............more

Israel / Palestine

Top 5 Lies About Israel’s Assault on Gaza

January 3, 2009

by Jeremy R. Hammond

Lie #1) Israel is only targeting legitimate military sites and is seeking to protect innocent lives. Israel never targets civilians.

 

The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated pieces of property in the world. The presence of militants within a civilian population does not, under international law, deprive that population of their protected status, and hence any assault upon that population under the guise of targeting militants is, in fact, a war crime........ more

 

Published on Saturday, January 10, 2009 by Haaretz

The Time of The Righteous

Want to End the Violence in Gaza? Boycott Israel.

By Naomi Klein, The Nation. Posted January 9, 2009.

To end the bloody occupation, Israel should become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to South Africa's apartheid.

It's time. Long past time. The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa.

In July 2005 a huge coalition of Palestinian groups laid out plans to do just that. They called on "people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era." The campaign Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions -- BDS for short -- was born......more

What You'd Know About Israel If You Watched Al Jazeera TV

By Shane Bauer, New America Media. Posted January 9, 2009

Live coverage of the war hasn't made it into most American living rooms.

DAMASCUS, Syria -- Throughout the 11 days of Israel's pummeling of Gaza, live coverage of the war hasn't made it into most American living rooms.

That's because Israel, America's staunch ally, isn't allowing journalists to enter Gaza while Al Jazeera, called anti-American and pro-terrorist by many in Washington, is the only network broadcasting live images from Gaza to the world....more  

Israeli Militants Poised to Resettle Gaza After Assault

By Linda Mamoun, AlterNet. Posted January 7, 2009.

As Israeli troops fight their way into Gaza, scores of determined settlers are prepared to enter in their wake.

Israel's "Operation Cast Lead" is reported to have overwhelming support among the Israeli public, but few are as enthusiastic as the former residents of the Israeli settlements in Gaza. As tens of thousands of Israeli troops descend on Gaza in an apocalyptic frenzy, scores of determined settlers are prepared to enter in their wake. 

The Gaza settlements were dismantled in August 2005 as part of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan. In a single stroke, the Israeli army removed 8,000 people from the Gush Katif settlement bloc in the southwest corner of the Gaza Strip near the Egyptian border and from four smaller settlements in northern and central Gaza..........more

 

Reports: Israel Targeting Medics and Ambulances

Posted by Siun , Firedoglake at 8:38 AM on January 6, 2009.

Multiple sources report medics and ambulances have come under attack in Gaza by Israeli forces.

Multiple sources are reporting that medics and ambulances have come under repeated attack in Gaza by Israeli forces. Aid workers are also reporting that even when Red Crescent ambulance teams contact the Red Cross and the Red Cross contacts the IDF to coordinate the ambulance mission, they are often prevented from reaching the injured.

Amira Hass in Ha’aretz told of one such case yesterday in “Wounded Gaza family lay bleeding for 20 hours." Oxfam reported the death of one of their medics on Saturday. Now Ma’an reports:

Midmorning on Sunday, Israeli warplanes bombed a house in the town of Beit Hanoun, where Palestinians were mourning the death of a paramedic who was killed on Saturday. Some 40 others were wounded in this most recent attack.............more

Home > Headlines

Published on Wednesday, January 7, 2009 by Inter Press Service

Israel May Face Charges for War Crime

RAMALLAH - Israel has committed war crimes and should be prosecuted in an international court, says Raji Sourani, head of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) in Gaza.

 

"The repeated bombing of clearly marked civilian buildings, where civilians were sheltering, crosses several red lines in regard to international law," Sourani told IPS.

 

Palestinian Authority (PA) delegate to Britain Professor Manuel Hassassian has said the PA will launch legal proceedings against Israeli leaders it says are responsible for war crimes in Gaza, according to a Palestinian news report.

Another 22 Palestinians were killed Wednesday morning in bombing and shelling as Israel's Operation Cast Lead entered day 11. The dead included four people killed in the shelling of a children's playground near a mosque in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza city.

Six Israelis were treated for shock as several rockets from Gaza hit Israel.

Hassassian's comment came in the wake of Israeli shelling of a UN school in Jabaliya refugee camp Tuesday afternoon which killed over 40 Palestinians. Several other UN schools in the Gaza Strip were also hit in the last few days, resulting in a number of casualties......... ..........more

Unprecedented Numbers of Americans Question Israel's Actions in Gaza

By Max Blumenthal, Huffington Post. Posted January 6, 2009.

Could it be the rise of online progressive media telling the truth about Israel, or that the public rejects the same pundits who sold us Iraq?

Almost as soon as the first Israeli missile struck the Gaza Strip, a veteran cheering squad suited up to support the home team. "Israel is so scrupulous about civilian life," Charles Krauthammer claimed in the Washington Post. Echoing Krauthammer, Alan Dershowitz called the Israeli attack on Gaza, "Perfectly 'Proportionate.'" And in the New York Times, Israeli historian Benny Morris described his country's airstrikes as "highly efficient."

While the cheerleaders testified to the superior moral fiber of their team, the Palestinian civilian death toll mounted. Israeli missiles tore at least fifteen Palestinian police cadets to shreds at a graduation ceremony, blew twelve worshipers to pieces (including six children) while they left evening prayers at a mosque, flattened the elite American International School, killed five sisters while they slept in their beds, and liquidated 9 women and children in order to kill a single Hamas leader. So far, Israeli forces have killed at least 500 Gazans and wounded some two thousand, including hundreds of children. Yesterday, the IDF blanketed parts of Gaza with white phosphorus, a chemical weapon Saddam Hussein once deployed against Kurdish rebels................more

Unconventional Weapons against The People of Gaza Interview of Dr. Mads Gilbert by Akram al-Sattari

Global Research, January 6, 2009       Press TV

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This report confirms that these attacks are quite deliberately directed against civilians, using new unconventional weapons.  

This is a carefully planned humanitarian catastrophe. How can anybody in their right mind support the actions of the Israeli government.

Read this interview with a distinguished and courageous Norwegian doctor.

Here are some of the highlights.

"The Israelis are using a new type of very high explosive weapons which are called Dense Inert Metal Explosive (DIME) and are made out of a tungsten alloy. These weapons have an enormous power to explode." "these weapons will have a cancer effect on those who survive. They will develop cancer we suspect." "All that is happening in Gaza here now is against international law, it is against humanity" "Almost all of the patients we have received have these sever amputations. They seem to have been affected by this kind of weapon. Of course, we have many fragment injuries and burns but those who have got their limbs cut off, constitutes quite a large proportion. You know we have a lot to do. Palestinian doctors, nurses and paramedics do an incredibly heroic job to save their people. Doctor Eric and I are just a small drip in the ocean, but we learn from them." And then decide where do you stand. We stand with the people of Palestine whose lives are being destroyed. We stand in solidarity with their struggle. We stand for humanity against the US-Israeli war criminals..................more   Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, January 5, 2009

Atrocities in Gaza: Piecing Together the Story

By Liliana Segura, AlterNet. Posted January 6, 2009.

As Europe calls for a ceasefire, Israel is accused of cruel tactics and use of deadly white phosphorous in its blood-soaked assault on Gaza.

A week ago, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced that "Operation Cast Lead," as the current bombing of Gaza has been dubbed, "will continue until all its goals are met."

Whatever those goals are, exactly, they are clearly incomplete; Barak told Israel's Army Radio, the strikes would intensify "as much as needed to meet the goals we set for ourselves, to bring quiet to the south."

Over a week after the start of this blood-soaked chapter in the Israel/Palestine saga, there is no quiet but the silence of the dead -- over 530, and counting. On Sunday, Israeli ground troops entered Gaza, escalating the violence. "At least 75 Palestinians have been killed since Saturday," the AFP reported on Monday, "when Israel upped a weeklong bombardment of Hamas targets in Gaza by pouring in ground troops into the densely populated territory.".......more

Israel's blonde bombshells and real bombs in Gaza
Yosefa Loshitzky, The Electronic Intifada, 5 January 2009

I am not sure that most people understand the meaning of the name "Operation Cast Lead" chosen by Israel for its murderous and criminal attack on Gaza. The name is borrowed from a Hebrew nursery rhyme which was (and may still be) very popular among Israeli children in the 1950s. In this song, a father promises to his child a special Hannukah gift: "a cast lead sevivon." Sevivon, in Hebrew (A dreidel in Yiddish) is a four-sided spinning top, played with during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Somebody, in the Israeli army, who apparently feels nostalgic about his childhood, decided that if Israeli kids would enjoy a sevivon cast from lead there is no reason why Palestinian children would not appreciate it too. After all Operation Cast Lead is not the first (and unfortunately, will not be the last) of Israel's cruel war games.

The cynicism embedded in the name, selected for what Ari Shavit, one of Israel's most celebrated commentators, called "an intelligent, impressive operation," is symptomatic to the cold, meticulous and calculated cruelty with which this attack was "designed," "executed" and "marketed" to the world. As the perpetrators themselves proudly boast, Operation Cast Lead is not only a great military victory but also a success story of Israeli hasbara (meaning in Hebrew, explanation, but practically referring to misinformation, spin and lies).....................more

Published on Monday, January 5, 2009 by the Times Online (UK)

Israel Rains Fire on Gaza With Phosphorus Shells

JERUSALEM - Israel is believed to be using controversial white phosphorus shells to screen its assault on the heavily populated Gaza Strip yesterday. The weapon, used by British and US forces in Iraq, can cause horrific burns but is not illegal if used as a smokescreen.

As the Israeli army stormed to the edges of Gaza City and the Palestinian death toll topped 500, the tell-tale shells could be seen spreading tentacles of thick white smoke to cover the troops' advance. "These explosions are fantastic looking, and produce a great deal of smoke that blinds the enemy so that our forces can move in," said one Israeli security expert. Burning blobs of phosphorus would cause severe injuries to anyone caught beneath them and force would-be snipers or operators of remote-controlled booby traps to take cover. Israel admitted using white phosphorus during its 2006 war with Lebanon..............more

Israel's Ground Invasion of Gaza Continues

Posted by Siun , Firedoglake at 9:00 AM on January 4, 2009.

Updates: Conditions worsen; Civilian causalities include women and children; American International School destroyed; Is Israel using cluster bombs?

Updates will appear on this page as more information becomes available. These updates will be clearly marked.

Update #4 -- Cluster Bombs:

There’s more evidence today of Israeli use of cluster bombs, originally noted by Laura Doty at Oxdown. The Times of London features a photo in it’s coverage (see Gaza Conflict slide show) with the following description:

An artillery round sends out bomblets above Gaza City, which continues to be attacked by Israeli forces

(h/t Brandon of VoteVets who points in email to this description of the weapons seen).

The use of cluster bombs - which have a large footprint when initially dropped and then remain a threat for decades - in a location like the Gaza Strip which is so packed with people is horrifying.

Conditions in Gaza continue to worsen: ......more.

Sunday, January 4 2009   -   Other Important News Understanding the Gaza Catastrophe by Richard Falk, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Huffingtonpost.com January 2, 2009 For eighteen months the entire 1.5 million people of Gaza experienced a punishing blockade imposed by Israel, and a variety of traumatizing challenges to the normalcy of daily life. A flicker of hope emerged some six months ago when an Egyptian arranged truce produced an effective ceasefire that cut Israeli casualties to zero despite the cross-border periodic firing of homemade rockets that fell harmlessly on nearby Israeli territory, and undoubtedly caused anxiety in the border town of Sderot. During the ceasefire the Hamas leadership in Gaza repeatedly offered to extend the truce, even proposing a ten-year period and claimed a receptivity to a political solution based on acceptance of Israel's 1967 borders. Israel ignored these diplomatic initiatives, and failed to carry out its side of the ceasefire agreement that involved some easing of the blockade that had been restricting the entry to Gaza of food, medicine, and fuel to a trickle...........more.

Did You Know 200,000 Vets Are Sleeping on the Streets?

By Aaron Glantz, New America Media. Posted January 3, 2009.

America's promise to "Support the Troops" ends the moment they take off the uniform and try to make the transition to civilian life.

SAN FRANCISCO - Roy Lee Brantley shivers in the cold December morning as he waits in line for food outside the Ark of Refuge mission, which sits amid warehouses and artists lofts a stone's throw from the skyscrapers of downtown San Francisco.

Brantley's beard is long, white and unkempt. The African-American man's skin wrinkled beyond his 62 years. He lives in squalor in a dingy residential hotel room with the bathroom down the hall. In some ways, his current situation marks an improvement. "I've slept in parks," he says, "and on the sidewalk. Now at least I have a room."........more

An Israeli War Crimes Tribunal (ICTI) May be the Only Deterrent to a Global War by Francis A. Boyle

Global Research, December 31, 2008

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The United Nations General Assembly must immediately establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI) as a "subsidiary organ" under U.N. Charter Article 22. The ICTI would be organized along the lines of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY), which was established by the Security Council.

The purpose of the ICTI would be to investigate and prosecute Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine.

The establishment of ICTI would provide some small degree of justice to the victims of Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine--just as the ICTY has done in the Balkans. Furthermore, the establishment of ICTI by the U.N. General Assembly would serve as a deterrent effect upon Israeli leaders such as Prime Minister Olmert, Foreign Minister Livni, Defense Minister Barak, Chief of Staff Ashkenazi and Israel's other top generals that they will be prosecuted for their further infliction of international crimes upon the Lebanese and the Palestinians.

Without such a deterrent, Israel might be emboldened to attack Syria with the full support of the Likhudnik Bush Jr. Neoconservatives, who have always viewed Syria as "low-hanging fruit" ready to be taken out by means of their joint aggression. If Israel attacks Syria as it did when it invaded Lebanon in 1982, Iran has vowed to come to Syria's defense..............more

America's Democratic Collapse

By Chris Hedges, Truthdig. Posted June 3, 2008.

In a dramatic speech, Chris Hedges warns that the nation is on the verge of becoming a full-blown corporate state.

When it was announced in May that Bush would deliver the commencement address, 222 students and faculty signed and posted on the school's Web site a statement titled "We Object." The statement cites the war in Iraq and the administration's "obstructing progress on reducing greenhouse gases while favoring billions in tax breaks and subsidies to oil companies that are earning record profits."

"We are ashamed of the actions of this administration. The war in Iraq has cost the lives of over 4,000 brave and honorable U.S. military personnel," the statement read. "Because we love this country and the ideals it stands for, we accept our civic responsibility to speak out against these actions that violate American values."..........more

 

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Published on Sunday, January 4, 2009 by The Sydney Morning Herald

Invasion a Monstrosity, Says UN Leader

by Ian Munro

NEW YORK - In an extraordinary outburst, the president of the United Nations General Assembly has branded Israel's ground offensive in Gaza a "monstrosity" and a marked failure for the UN. Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, of Nicaragua, blasted the Israeli action on Saturday as the UN Security Council convened its third Gaza emergency session. "I think it's a monstrosity; there's no other way to name it," Mr Brockmann said. "Once again, the world is watching in dismay the dysfunctionality of the Security Council." His remarks were seen as putting a slight upon the United States, which again prevented the council from issuing an agreed statement on the crisis. The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, lamented Israel's incursion after a week-long bombardment of Gaza that had already killed at least 460 people and injured thousands more. Israel has said it is targeting Hamas militants and resources, but according to early estimates about one quarter of those killed were civilians...........more

Killing Without Consequences in Gaza

By Mustafa Qadri , Foreign Policy in Focus. Posted January 1, 2009.

It is becoming increasingly clear that Israel’s latest attack on Gaza was a pre-meditated attempt to destabilize the Hamas regime.

It was about midnight last Sunday when my phone rang. “I’m not sure I will survive tonight, the Israelis are bombing us everywhere.” It was Mahmoud, a young resident of Rafah, a city in the Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt. We first met when I visited the troubled coastal territory after Israel dismantled its settlements there in September 2005. On December 27, just before midday, Israel’s powerful air force, the fourth largest in the world, commenced a deadly air assault on over 40 separate locations in the Gaza Strip. The strikes were as calculated as they were cold – the targets were almost entirely people and facilities vital to the Hamas government. In one of the areas hit, where police officers had gathered for a parade, body parts were strewn along a courtyard................. more

 

A Better World Must Start from Gaza

By Abdul Basit – Kuwait

New Year Greetings and resolutions have become a meaningless custom of lip service while with every passing year the condition of humanity deteriorates from bad to worse. The international community has become insensitive to the sufferings of the downtrodden and have taken for granted the repetitive brutality and oppression conducted by certain regimes year after year on the innocent populace around the world.

2008 has been one of the worst years in the recent history. Compared to the previous years, it saw many new issues coming to the forefront. 2008 saw the collapse of the global financial system and food crises after many decades of superficial stability, which has resulted in globalization of hunger and poverty that was earlier limited to some regions of Africa, Asia and South America. The growing unemployment, corruption, bankruptcy, conflicts and terrorist attacks created great deal of instability and uncertainty about the future. According to some financial and economic pundits the worst of the financial crises is not yet over and when that happens, it might result in social and economic breakdown thus forecasting a nightmarish scenario for 2009............ more

Published on Friday, January 2, 2009 by the Irish Times

Attacks Condemned as Supplies Dwindle and Deaths Rise

Deposed Palestinian prime minister and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh yesterday called for an immediate halt to the Israeli attack on Gaza, lifting of the siege and opening of all crossings.

This war does not target just Hamas and the government, it is targeting Palestinians and their cause," he stated in a televised address as Gaza's death toll rose to 417.

Some 2,070 Gazans have been wounded since Israel's offensive began on Saturday. Among the latest targets were the Palestinian legislative council building and a complex housing the ministries of health, education and transport, all facilities belonging to the Palestinian National Authority and built with donations from Europe and elsewhere.

Dr Ziad Abu Amr, an independent legislator from Gaza, said he and colleagues had made fruit- less protests against the "total destruction" of Gaza but there is international "complicity" with Israel. He said these institutions will have to be rebuilt before governance can be restored."

A doctor who lives in Gaza city asserted, "We have never, never, never heard such explosions."........ more

Gaza - Israel's Butchering Block

By Dr. Elias Akleh

As usual, Israel, once again, demonstrated its blatant contempt to humanity and to all religions when its fourth most powerful army desecrated on Saturday December 27 the most Christian, Muslim and Jewish holiest religious holidays, and even their own supposed-to-be holy Sabbath, by spelling the blood of the weak, the hungry, the thirsty, the poor, the desolate, and the two-years besieged Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. So it’s merry Christmas, happy New Year, happy Hanukkha, and Shabat shalom

Israel started what it called “operation cast lead” on Saturday by sending 60 F-16 fighter jets to drop 100 tons of explosives on Gazans, whose children, under the age of 18, comprise 50% of the population. The targets were, initially, police stations and academy and government buildings. Many of them were hit multiple times to inflict casualties among medical teams, civil service personnel, and regular citizens, who gathered to save the victims. Later the Israeli war planes targeted charity institutions, civilian homes, apartment tower buildings, educational institutions and Islamic mosques, seven of which were totally leveled to the ground. Up till today, Tuesday 30th, 400 Palestinians were murdered and 1057 others were wounded many with life-threatening wounds that may raise the death toll.................more

Published on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Cynthia McKinney Relief Boat Hit by Israeli Ship

A boat carrying international activists, including former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, and medical supplies to the embattled Gaza Strip sailed back into a Lebanese port on Tuesday after being turned back and damaged by the Israeli navy, organizers of the trip said.

The crowds on the docks in the Lebanese port city of Tyre were jubilant and cheering as they welcomed the vessel.

The boat, which set off from Cyprus Monday wanted to make a statement and deliver medical supplies to embattled Gaza. The trip's organizers said the boat was clearly in international waters, 90 miles off the coast of Gaza, at the time of its close encounter with the Israeli navy.

"Our boat was rammed three times, twice in the front and one on the side," McKinney told CNN Tuesday morning. "Our mission was a peaceful mission. Our mission was thwarted by the aggressiveness of the Israeli military."

Yigal Palmor, a spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry, denied there had been any shooting although the two ships had made "physical contact."...............more

Israel's Onslaught: One of Its Bloodiest Attacks on Palestinians in 60 Years

By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!. Posted December 30, 2008.

Reports indicate that 350 people have been killed and 1,400 injured in the aerial strikes across the Gaza Strip since Saturday morning.

Update: The Gaza death toll has passed 350.

Amid worldwide protests, Israel is continuing its bombing campaign against Gaza for the third consecutive day and preparing to launch a possible ground invasion. Following months of a crippling blockade, this has been described as one of Israel's bloodiest attacks on Palestinians since 1948. Latest reports indicate that 310 people have been killed and 1,400 injured in the aerial strikes across the Gaza Strip since Saturday morning. The latest targets of the air strikes include the Hamas Interior Ministry building and the Islamic University. Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced today that Israel is in an "all-out war with Hamas and its proxies" in Gaza. Fears of a ground invasion are growing after Israel declared a military buffer zone around Gaza, closing off the strip and its 1.5 million residents to journalists and civilians..............more

Britain and US refuse to demand end to Israeli airstrikes on Gaza

Nicola Smith

Britain and the United States were on a collision course with their European allies last night after refusing to call for an end to Israeli airstrikes on Hamas targets in Gaza.

The wave of attacks marked a violent end to President George W Bush’s sporadic Middle East peace efforts. The White House put the blame squarely on Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organisation, for provoking the Israeli blitz.

Britain echoed the call for “militants” to stop firing rockets into Israel while calling for “maximum restraint” to avoid casualties.

The response was in sharp contrast to demands by the European Union for an “immediate ceasefire” and criticism by France of the use of “disproportionate force”......more

 

Amira Hass / 'Gaza strike is not against Hamas, it's against all Palestinians'

By Amira Hass

Tags: israel, israel news, gaza

At 3:19 P.M. Sunday, the sound of an incoming missile could be heard over the telephone. And then another, along with the children's cries of fear. In Gaza City's Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, high-rise apartment buildings are crowded close together, with dozens of children in every building, hundreds in every block. Their father, B., informs me that smoke is rising from his neighbor's house and ends the call. An hour later, he tells me that two apartments were hit. One was empty; he does not know who lives there. The other, which suffered casualties, belongs to a member of a rocket-launching cell, but no one senior or important.............more

Gaza Update: 'Closed Military Zone'

Posted by Siun , Firedoglake at 10:31 AM on December 29, 2008.

Defense officials said that Israel would not hesitate to target the homes of civilians who protected Hamas terrorists throughout the operation.

Overnight, the BBC is reporting that Israel has declared the region around Gaza "a closed military zone," which is seen as sign that a ground invasion is about to begin (no link available yet). The Gaza death toll (at 1:25 p.m. PST) is 307, there are unconfirmed reports that captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was among those wounded by the Israeli attack on Gaza, and the Israeli navy has now joined the attack.

The Israeli air force is apparently very happy with the performance of a "new bunker-buster missile that it received recently from the United States" (Israel ordered 1,000  GBU-39 in September) and while "Col. Moshe Levy was interviewed by several Arab news outlets during which he stressed that Israel was not against the Palestinian public in Gaza but was operating against Hamas":...................more

Gaza truce broken as Israeli raid kills six Hamas gunmen

• Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 5 November 2008 14.32 GMT
• Article history

A four-month ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza was in jeopardy today after Israeli troops killed six Hamas gunmen in a raid into the territory.

Hamas responded by firing a wave of rockets into southern Israel, although no one was injured. The violence represented the most serious break in a ceasefire agreed in mid-June, yet both sides suggested they wanted to return to atmosphere of calm.

Israeli troops crossed into the Gaza Strip late last night near the town of Deir al-Balah. The Israeli military said the target of the raid was a tunnel that they said Hamas was planning to use to capture Israeli soldiers positioned on the border fence 250m away. Four Israeli soldiers were injured in the operation, two moderately and two lightly, the military said.........more

CEASE FIRE NOW!

**ad in Ha'aretz**

This war is inhuman, unnecessary and harmful. Nothing good for Israel will come out of it!

The killing of hundreds of Palestinians and the destruction of the infrastructure of life in the Gaza Strip are abominable acts. Those who hope to reap electoral profits from them are.....................more

Global Research, December 30, 2008

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It's not the first time and won't be the last. On December 27, AP reported that:

"Israeli aircraft struck Hamas security compounds across Gaza on Saturday in unprecedented waves of simultaneous attacks, and Hamas and medics reported dozens of people were killed."

Haaretz headlined:

"Israel launched (Operation Case Lead) Saturday morning (at around 11:30AM with no warning) the start of a massive offensive against Qassam rocket and mortar fire on its southern communities, targeting dozens of buildings belonging to the ruling Hamas militant group."...........more

Israeli attacks rage on Monday, 345 Palestinians killed, 1,450 injured

Gaza / PNN – Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip are unrelenting since the first bomb of this major operation was dropped on Saturday at 11:30 am. The death toll has reached 345 Palestinians with 1,450 injured at 6:00 pm Monday.

Palestinian medical sources report that among the injured are 850 still in overflowing Gaza hospitals. As the sun set another seven passersby were killed in the northern Strip's Beit Lahia when Israeli forces shelled the home of Al Qassam leader Maher Zakout...........more

The Paradox of Israel: Regional Super Power and the Largest Jewish Ghetto Ever Created

By Ira Chernus, AlterNet. Posted January 2, 2009.

Israelis keep saying they only want security, while they go on electing leaders whose policies make them less secure.

Trying to understand the psychology of a people at war is a lot like trying to find the bodies buried under a bombed-out building. 

For more than 40 years, I've been watching my own Jewish people in wartime, repeating the same self-defeating pattern over and over. Most Jews say that they want Israel to be more secure, and they really mean it. Yet they support and vote for leaders who perpetuate the conflicts that make Israel less secure.....more

Published on Monday, December 29, 2008 by The Guardian/UK

Civilian Death Toll Rises After Second Day of Air Strikes

To the doctors at the Shifa hospital in Gaza City it was another body on a chaotically busy day. By early Saturday afternoon the morgue was already overflowing so they laid out the corpse of 20-year-old Ali Abu Rabia on the floor outside. One of the hospital staff pulled out a mobile phone from his pocket, scrolled through the numbers, and called the young man's father..........more

Peter Prontzos: How many Canadians will die for nothing in Afghanistan?

Published on Friday, December 12, 2008 by Inter Press Service

US Arms Deployed in Wars Around the Globe

WASHINGTON - Pundits these days warn of a Middle East arms race if Iran brings its alleged nuclear weapons programme to fruition, while others fear that missile defence in Eastern Europe could spark escalation involving Russia.

But despite all the fear in Washington, it turns out that the U.S. need look no farther than its own shores to find the greatest single source of weapons proliferation around the globe.

It's the U.S, according to a new report from the New America Foundation, which "is the world's largest arms supplier". And with 23 billion dollars in receipts in 2007 and 32 billion dollars in 2008, including only foreign sales, the U.S. is also cashing in.

From escalating hostilities to encouraging human rights abuses, these arms deals have a plethora of potential negative effects.............more

Dostum's men hauled the bodies into the nearby desert and buried them in mass graves, according to Afghan human rights officials. By some estimates, 2,000 men were buried there..........more

"The deal South Korea’s Daewoo Logistics is negotiating with the Madagascar Government looks rapacious…The Madagascan case looks neo-colonial…The Madagascan people stand to lose half of their arable land." Financial Times Editorial, November 20, 2008

"Cambodia is in talks with several Asian and Middle Eastern governments to receive as much as $3 billions US dollars in agricultural investments in return for millions of hectares of land concessions…" Financial Times, November 21, 2008

"We are starving in the midst of bountiful harvests and booming exports!: Unemployed Rural Landless Workers, Para State, Brazil (2003)

Introduction

Colonial style empire-building is making a huge comeback, and most of the colonialists are late-comers, elbowing their way past the established European and US predators.

Backed by their governments and bankrolled with huge trade and investment profits and budget surpluses, the newly emerging neo-colonial economic powers (ENEP) are seizing control of vast tracts of fertile lands from poor countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, through the intermediation of local corrupt, free-market regimes. Millions of acres of land have been granted – in most cases free of charge – to the ENEP who, at most, promise to invest millions in infrastructure to facilitate the transfer of their plundered agricultural products to their own home markets and to pay the ongoing wage of less than $1 dollar a day to the destitute local peasants......................more

In violation of its pledge to the United Nations not to recruit children into the military, the Pentagon “regularly target(s) children under 17,” the American Civil Liberties Union(ACLU) says.

The Pentagon “heavily recruits on high school campuses, targeting students for recruitment as early as possible and generally without limits on the age of students they contact,” the ACLU states in a 46-page report titled “Soldiers of Misfortune.”

This is in violation of the U.S. Senate's 2002 ratification of the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Pentagon recruiters are enrolling children as young as 14 in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps(JROTC) in 3,000 middle-, junior-, and high schools nationwide, causing about 45 percent of the quarter of million students so enrolled to enlist, a rate much higher than in the general student population. Clearly, this is the outcome of underage exposure.........................more

If Obama Doesn't Prosecute Bush's Torture Team, We'll Pay a Big Price Down the Road

By Liliana Segura, AlterNet. Posted November 28, 2008.

Obama isn't likely to pursue torture atrocities during the Bush era, but this is one problem you simply can't wish away.

"How did it come about that American military personnel stripped detainees naked, put them in stress positions, used dogs to scare them, put leashes around their necks to humiliate them, hooded them, deprived them of sleep and blasted music at them? Were these actions the result of 'a few bad apples' acting on their own? It would be a lot easier to accept if it were. But that's not the case."

-- Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, June 17, 2008..............more

'This Was an Assault on the Law Itself'

Published on Thursday, November 27, 2008 by The Independent/UK

'Nobody Supports The Taliban, but People Hate The Government'

The collapse of Afghanistan is closer than the world believes. Kandahar is in Taliban hands - all but a square mile at the centre of the city - and the first Taliban checkpoints are scarcely 15 miles from Kabul. Hamid Karzai's deeply corrupted government is almost as powerless as the Iraqi cabinet in Baghdad's "Green Zone"; lorry drivers in the country now carry business permits issued by the Taliban which operate their own courts in remote areas of the country.................more

Massive 'Homeland Defense' Joint Exercise Is Under Way

By Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive. Posted November 15, 2008.

Joint military exercise ‘Vigilant Shield,’ involving maritime, aerospace, ballistic missile defense is under way.

This week and into next, NorthCom and NORAD are conducting a joint exercise called “Vigilant Shield ’09.”

The focus will be on “homeland defense and civil support,” a NorthCom press release states.

From November 12-18, it will be testing a “synchronized response of federal, state, local and international partners in preparation for homeland defense, homeland security, and civil support missions in the United States and abroad.”

NorthCom is short for the Pentagon’s Northern Command. President Bush created it in October 2002. (The Southern Command, or SouthCom, covers Latin America. Central Command, or CentCom, covers Iraq and Afghanistan. And the new AfriCom covers, well, you get the picture.)....more

Three Islamic militants were executed on November 9th for their alleged role in the 2002 Bali bombings that resulted in the death of 202 people. 

The official version of events was that the bombings were sponsored by Al Qaeda and carried out by members of an affiliate Islamic organization Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). 

Most of those killed in the bomb attacks were Western, mainly Australian tourists.  

Evidence Withheld.......more

Clip - - - But how is Barack Obama going to repair the titanic damage which his vicious, lying predecessor has perpetrated around the globe and within the US itself? John F Kennedy once said that "the United States, as the world knows, will never start a war". After Bush's fear-mongering and Rumsfeld's "shock and awe" and Abu Ghraib and Bagram and Guantanamo and secret renditions, how does Obama pedal his country all the way back to Camelot? Our own dear Gordon Brown's enthusiasm to Hoover up the emails of the British people is another example of how Lord Blair's sick relationship with Bush still infects our own body politic. Only days before the wretched president finally departs from us, new US legislation will ensure that citizens of his lickspittle British ally will no longer be able to visit America without special security clearance. Does Bush have any more surprises for us before 20 January? Indeed, could anything surprise us any more?................more

The Criminal Justice Reform Battle in California: Cynical Politicians and Powerful Interests Attacking the Public Good

By Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post. Posted November 2, 2008.

We can't allow a sensible solution to be drowned out by people know the "tough on crime" approach is worthless public policy.

Here is picture that sums up much that is wrong with American politics. Five governors of California, Democrats and Republicans, joining forces to oppose something that is indisputably in the public interest.

 

This is an image that could be repeated, with different faces, in region after region of our country, involving issue after issue. Public officials standing against the public good, with the disastrous results on display from Detroit to Wall Street. All suffering from the same destructive force: the power of entrenched special interests to cloud the vision of our leaders, causing them to thwart good sense, good legislation, and the will of the people............more

Who's Getting Rich Off Prohibition? Just Look Who Opposes CA's Prop. 5

Posted by Paul Armentano, NORML at 1:12 AM on November 1, 2008.

You can learn a lot about the merits of a proposal by taking a good, hard look at who's lobbying against it.

You can learn a lot about the merits of a proposal by taking a good, hard look at who's lobbying against it.

Take California's Proposition 5, the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act, which would require the diversion of certain non-violent offenders to drug treatment and increase funding for state-sponsored rehabilitation programs. The measure seeks to expand upon the alternative sentencing programs initially enacted by Proposition 36, which is estimated to have saved taxpayers some $1.7 billion dollars and reduced the number of people incarcerated for simple drug possession by one-third. So who would oppose this proposal?

If you guessed: the folks who make their living arresting non-violent drug offenders, you'd be right! According to the 'No on 5' website, the California State Sheriff's Association, the California Narcotics Officers Association, the California Peace Officers Association, the Police Chiefs of California, and the California District Attorneys Association all oppose Prop. 5...............more

For several years now, senior officials of the Bush administration including the President and the Vice President have intimated, in no certain terms, that there will be "a Second 9/11". 

Quotations from presidential speeches and official documents abound. America is threatened:

"The near-term attacks ... will either rival or exceed the 9/11 attacks...  And it's pretty clear that the nation's capital and New York city would be on any list..." (Former DHS Secretary Tom Ridge, December 2003).....more

It's Time for a Trillion-Dollar Tag Sale at the Pentagon

By Nick Turse, Tomdispatch.com. Posted October 29, 2008.

When we want to get serious about a long-term bailout strategy, we'll start dismantling the American empire and Pentagon programs.

Wars, bases, and money. The three are inextricably tied together.

In the 1980s, for example, American support for jihadis like Osama bin Laden waging war on (Soviet) infidels who invaded and constructed bases in Afghanistan, a Muslim land, led to rage by many of the same jihadis at the bases (U.S.) infidels built in the Muslim holy land of Saudi Arabia in the 1990s. That, in turn, led to jihadis like bin Laden declaring war on those infidels, which, after September 11, 2001, led the Bush administration to launch, and then prosecute, a Global War on Terror, often from newly built bases in Muslim lands. Over the last seven years, the results of that war have been particularly disastrous for Iraqis and Afghans. Sizable numbers of Americans, however, are now beginning to suffer as well. After all, their hard-earned taxpayer dollars have been poured into wars without end, leaving the country deeply in debt and in a state of economic turmoil............ more

Author's Website: www.thenewamericanempire.com/


"Greed is good. Greed is right. Greed Works."Gordon Gekko, corporate raider (played by Michael Douglas) in the movie Wall St.

“President [George W.] Bush will be remembered as the most fiscally irresponsible president in our nation’s history.” Sen. Kent Conrad, Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee

[The government's decision to buy shares in the nation's leading banks] “is not intended to take over the free market, but to preserve it.”President George W. Bush, October 14, 2008

"Our country for the first time in my life time has abandoned the basic principle of human rights. ...We've said that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to those people in Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo, and we've said we can torture prisoners and deprive them of an accusation of a crime to which they are accused." Jimmy Carter, former American president.......more

Despite the Threat of Harsh Punishment, Soldier Says "No" to Deployment in Afghanistan

By Sarah Lazare, AlterNet. Posted October 23, 2008.

How 21-year-old soldier Blake Ivey came to see war as "flat-out murder."

"I believe war is the crime of our times," Blake Ivey, a specialist in the U.S. Army, said over the phone in a slow, deliberate voice.

Ivey, currently stationed in Fort Gordon, Ga., is publicly refusing to deploy to Afghanistan. The 21-year-old soldier filed for conscientious objector status in July but was ordered to deploy while his application was being processed. He is determined not to go, and as of our last phone call, was still actively serving on his base, weighing his options for refusal............more

I Survived the Georgian War. Here's What I Saw.

I blame Georgia's leaders.

By Lira Tskhovrebova

08/10/08 "CSM" -- -Tskhinvali, South Ossetia - In a speech before the United Nations last month, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili implored world leaders to set up an international investigation to find out the truth about the war in South Ossetia.

I couldn't agree more. But I think the results of an honest investigation would reveal a very different "truth" than what President Saakashvili claims.

I know this because I was in Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, on Aug. 7 when Georgian troops marched into the city and killed my friends and neighbors. I huddled with my family in terror for three nights while Saakashvili's tanks and rockets destroyed hundreds of our homes, desecrated cemeteries, gutted schools and hospitals............more
http://www.helpossetianow.org/

The Prosecution for War Crimes of President Bush

Global Research, October 13, 2008

SHERWOOD ROSS ASSOCIATES

SHERWOOD ROSS ASSOCIATES
Media Consultants

PRESS RELEASE

Massachusetts law school Dean Lawrence Velvel will chair a Steering Committee to pursue the prosecution for war crimes of President Bush and culpable high-ranking aides after they leave office Jan. 20th.

The Steering Committee was organized following a conference of leading legal authorities and scholars from the U.S. and abroad convened by Velvel on Sept. 13-14 in Andover, Mass., titled “The Justice Robert Jackson Conference On Planning For The Prosecution of High Level American War Criminals.”

“If Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and others are not prosecuted,” Velvel said, “the future could be threatened by additional examples of Executive lawlessness by leaders who need fear no personal consequences for their actions, including more illegal wars such as Iraq.” .........more

Curbing Social Protest in America: Microwave "Non-lethal" Weapons to be used for "Crowd Control" Just in Time for the Capitalist Meltdown: Army, Justice Department to Field 'Pain Ray'.

by Tom Burghardt

Global Research, October 14, 2008

Antifascist Calling...

Back in July I reported that Raytheon (No. 4 on Washington Technology's "Top 100 List of Prime Defense Contractors," with $5,170,829,645 in revenue) was developing a microwave "non-lethal" weapons (NLW) system for the U.S. Army.

At a cost of $25 million, five truck-mounted NLWs will soon be shipped off to Iraq for heavy-lifting in Iraqi cities for use against militant oil workers and citizens should U.S. energy multinationals finally get their greedy little hands on that nation's oil wealth. A slimmed-down version of the Active Denial System (ADS) is sought for deployment in the "homeland. According to Aviation Week,

Raytheon is kicking off a U.S. Army program to mount Joint Silent Guardian non-lethal, directed energy weapons--with a range of more than 250 meters--on Ford 550 commercial trucks for crowd control............Continue

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 17, 2008 10:33 AM

CONTACT: The Real News Network Taruna Godric, 416-916-5202, ext. 414. Email: smcommunications@therealnews.com

The looming election - the process itself, not merely the feints and jabs of the candidates - is actually getting some mainstream media attention, as in, ahem, voting public, excuse me, but maybe you should be aware that irresponsible self-interest has been detected in the vicinity of our polling places and some bad choices have been made lately (electronic voting is unreliable) and, well, how badly did you want your vote counted?

In September, for instance, the Washington Post sounded this subdued, hapless warning: "Faced with a surge in voter registrations leading up to Nov. 4, election officials across the country are bracing for long lines, equipment failures and confusion over polling procedures that could cost thousands the chance to cast a ballot.".........Continue

WASHINGTON - The beginning of political talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban revealed by press accounts this week is likely to deepen the rift that has just erupted in public between the United States and its British ally over the U.S. commitment to an escalation of the war in Afghanistan.

According to a French diplomatic cable that leaked to a French magazine last week, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government is looking for an exit strategy from Afghanistan rather than an endless war, and it sees a U.S. escalation of the war as an alternative to a political settlement rather than as supporting such an outcome.

The first meetings between the two sides were held in Saudi Arabia in the presence of Saudi King Abdullah Sep. 24 to 27, as reported by CNN's Nic Robertson from London Tuesday. Eleven Taliban delegates, two Afghan government officials and a representative of independent former mujahideen commander Gulfadin Hekmatyar participated in the meetings, according to Robertson.....Continue

 

 

Defence Minister Peter MacKay promised his counterparts from across the Western Hemisphere on Wednesday that Canada will play a leading role in protecting the Americas with beefed-up funding and modernized equipment....Continue

 

 

  Cluster bombs: Hell from above
111 countries ban the use of cluster bombs, except Israel, Russia, China, India, Pakistan and the US view

The Canada-Israel "Public Security" Agreement Ottawa & Tel Aviv collaborate in counter-terrorism & Homeland security..........Continue

This next article demonstrates the character of our new Public Security Partners.

     Martial Law by Andrew G. Marshall information every Canadian should know.....Continue

  'US Plot Against Hamas' Revealed
 
 By Al Jazeera
 
 The US plotted to overthrow the democratically elected Hamas government in the Palestinian territories, according to leaked documents obtained by Al Jazeera. Continue

The Gaza Bombshell

By David Rose

After failing to anticipate Hamas’s victory over Fatah in the 2006 Palestinian election, the White House cooked up yet another scandalously covert and self-defeating Middle East debacle: part Iran-contra, part Bay of Pigs. With confidential documents, corroborated by outraged former and current U.S. officials, David Rose reveals how President Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Deputy National-Security Adviser Elliott Abrams backed an armed force under Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan, touching off a bloody civil war in Gaza and leaving Hamas stronger than ever.......Continue

Pro Torture, Zionist Professor Demonizing Islam and Arabic Culture?

Worshippers of Death

By Alan M Dershowitz

We must stop them before they export their sick and dangerous culture of death to our shores. Continue

Exclusive: I Was Kidnapped by the CIA

By Peter Bergen

Inside the CIA's extraordinary rendition program ­and the bungled abduction of would-be terrorists . Continue

Kidnap and Torture American Style

Video - Channel 4 - UK

Kidnap and Torture American Style follows the stories of terror suspects. Some of them are British residents, who have been snatched from streets and airports throughout the world before being flown to the Middle-East and Africa. In countries such as Syria and Egypt, they undergo agonising ordeals before being incarcerated, without ever facing an open trial. Continue

'Restraint' is deceitful, and 'forbearance' is vain :

After the IDF already had killed about 50 Palestinians, at least half of them unarmed, and including quite a number of women and children, Jerusalem continued to claim, "At present there will be no major ground operation." It's incredible: The IDF penetrates the heart of a crowded refugee camp, kills in a terrifyingly wholesale manner, with horrible bloodshed, and Israel continues to disseminate the lie of restraint.Continue

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TRUE Government

The ten steps or stages to the evolution of a true democracy.

1. Freedom of the Person

Slavery, serfdom, and all forms of human bondage must disappear.

2. Freedom of the Mind

Unless a free people are educated -- taught to think intelligently and plan wisely -- freedom usually does more harm than good.

3. The reign of law

Liberty can be enjoyed only when the will and whims of human rulers are replaced by legislative enactments in accordance with accepted fundamental law.

4. Freedom of speech

Representative government is unthinkable without freedom of all forms of expression for human aspirations and opinions.

5. Security of property.

No government can long endure if it fails to provide for the right to enjoy personal property in some form. Man craves the right to use, control, bestow, sell, lease, and bequeath his personal property.

6. The right of petition.

Representative government assumes the right of citizens to be heard. The privilege of petition is inherent in free citizenship.

7. The right to rule.

It is not enough to be heard; the power of petition must progress to the actual management of the government.

8. Universal suffrage.

Representative government presupposes an intelligent, efficient, and universal electorate. The character of such a government will ever be determined by the character and caliber of those who compose it. As civilization progresses, suffrage, while remaining universal for both sexes, will be effectively modified, regrouped, and otherwise differentiated.

9. Control of public servants.

No civil government will be serviceable and effective unless the citizenry possess and use wise techniques of guiding and controlling officeholders and public servants.

10. Intelligent and trained representation.

The survival of democracy is dependent on successful representative government; and that is conditioned upon the practice of electing to public offices only those individuals who are technically trained, intellectually competent, socially loyal, and morally fit. Only by such provisions can government of the people, by the people, and for the people be preserved.