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Jun 10, 2011

MOSCOW, VIENNA, (SANA) _ Russia on Thursday renewed rejection of any U.N. Security Council resolution against Syria as the situation in the country is not threatening the global security.

“Russia is against any UN resolution on Syria as the situation in the country is not threatening the global security, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement to journalists.

“The Russian president has repeatedly said Russia opposes any UN Security Council on Syria since the situation in the country does not pose any threat to international peace and security.” Lukashevich added.

He called on the international community to give the Syria government enough time to complete the task and concrete steps taken regarding the announced reforms.

The Russian Official said discussing a draft resolution against Syria by the Security Council could become a factor to increase the internal tension in the country and that would be reflected on the situation in the region as a whole.

He expressed his country’s deep concern over the news about the proliferation of some armed groups at the Syrian regions, saying this will escalate the violence and prevent solving the problems through peaceful means.

” Any Security Council resolution criticizing Syria means indirect support to the perpetrations of the armed groups and this contradicts the role of the UN Security Council,” Lukashevich said.

He criticized the extremist calls of the Syrian opposition abroad for refusing the participation in the national dialogue announced by the Syrian leadership.

In the same context, Reuters, quoted diplomats attended the closed-door session of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna today as saying that Russia announced intention to vote against the transfer of the Syrian nuclear issue to the UN Security Council.

According to Reuters, the diplomats also expected China to vote against a draft resolution in this regard will be presented before the IAEA Board of Governors.

China: Syria is important country in the Middle East

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei underlined that Syria is an important country in the Middle East, saying “China hopes security and stability are back in Syria as soon as possible.”

“The international community has to play a constructive role to help the parties concerned inside Syria reach a solution through political dialogue,” Lei said during a press conference held Thursday.

In a previous statement, Chinese Foreign Ministry called on the foreign powers not to intervene in the Syrian internal affairs, hoping the international community plays a constructive role in this regard.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi also underlined that his country supports reforms carried out by President Bashar al-Assad.

Jun 09, 2011

ROME, (SANA) – The Italian La Rinascita Newspaper on Thursday said that Western media is allied with those who depend on social networks as a source for their information about what is going on in Syria as if it were absolute facts.

The article entitled “Syria and the Continuation of Western Media Farce” by Matteo Bernabei highlighted media’s duty of being sure of the facts and proofs it depends on before broadcasting them.

The Daily illustrated, for example, the falseness of the news items on arresting a Syrian internet Blogger called ‘Amina Arraf’, who, in fact, does not exist, saying that the photos published referring to her belong actually to a British citizen called, Jelena Lecic, who confirmed that in a press conference.

In another analysis, the Newspaper said that Western media do not refer to the fact that armed groups do open fire on protesters and security persons, ignoring the existence of organized insurgence launched by armed groups which are involved in the killing, arson and sabotage acts.

“The Western media deliberately ignore the overwhelming popular support to President Bashar al-Assad, like for instance, the massive support demonstration in Damascus on March 29th,” the Newspaper added.

La Rinascita questioned the validity of the videos broadcast by media channels, particularly by Aljazeera and CNN, pointing out that these clips do not match their news content in most cases.

Jun 09, 2011

ROME, (SANA) – The Italian La Rinascita Newspaper on Thursday said that Western media is allied with those who depend on social networks as a source for their information about what is going on in Syria as if it were absolute facts.

The article entitled “Syria and the Continuation of Western Media Farce” by Matteo Bernabei highlighted media’s duty of being sure of the facts and proofs it depends on before broadcasting them.

The Daily illustrated, for example, the falseness of the news items on arresting a Syrian internet Blogger called ‘Amina Arraf’, who, in fact, does not exist, saying that the photos published referring to her belong actually to a British citizen called, Jelena Lecic, who confirmed that in a press conference.

In another analysis, the Newspaper said that Western media do not refer to the fact that armed groups do open fire on protesters and security persons, ignoring the existence of organized insurgence launched by armed groups which are involved in the killing, arson and sabotage acts.

“The Western media deliberately ignore the overwhelming popular support to President Bashar al-Assad, like for instance, the massive support demonstration in Damascus on March 29th,” the Newspaper added.

La Rinascita questioned the validity of the videos broadcast by media channels, particularly by Aljazeera and CNN, pointing out that these clips do not match their news content in most cases.

As an old Chinese proverb says, crisis can be used as an opportunity by some.

Tel Aviv, Washington and NATO are taking advantage of the upheavals in the Arab World. Not only are they fighting against the legitimate aspirations of the Arab people, they are manipulating the Arab geo-political landscape as part of their strategy to control Eurasia.

Sectarian Conflicts in Egypt: A Means to Weaken the Egyptian State

Egypt is ruled by a counter-revolutionary military junta. Despite the increasing assertiveness of the Egyptian people, the old regime is still in place. Yet, its foundations are becoming shakier as the Egyptian people become more radical in their demands.

Like in the Mubarak era, the military regime in Cairo is also allowing sectarianism to spread in Egypt in an effort to create divisions within Egyptian society. In early-2011 when Egyptians stormed government buildings they discovered secret papers that showed that the regime was behind the attacks on Egypt’s Christian community.

Recently, so-called Salafist extremists have attacked Egyptian minorities including Christians but also Shiite Muslims. Egyptian activists and leaders in the Coptic and Shia community are pointing their fingers at the military junta in Cairo, “Israel”, and Saudi Arabia.

The Egyptian military junta, Tel Aviv, and the Al-Sauds are all part of an ominous alliance. This grouping is the backbone of the U.S. imperial structure in the Arab World. They are dependent on Washington. They prevail in as much as the U.S. remains dominant in Southwest Asia and North Africa.

The Al-Sauds are now working with Washington in Egypt to establish a supposedly Islamic government. This is being done through political parties that the Al-Sauds have funded and helped organize. The new so-called Salafist movements are primary examples of this. It also appears that the Muslim Brotherhood or at least branches of it have been co-opted.

The Saudi-“Israeli” Alliance and the Politics of Division

The ties of the Al-Sauds to Tel Aviv have in recent years become increasingly visible and pervasive. This secret “Israeli”-Saudi alliance exists within the context of a broader Khaliji-“Israeli” alliance. The alliance with “Israel” is formed through strategic cooperation between the ruling families of Saudi Arabia and the Arab sheikhdoms in the Persian Gulf.

Together “Israel” and the Khaliji ruling families form a frontline for Washington and NATO against Iran and its regional allies. The alliance also acts on behalf of Washington to destabilize the region. The roots of chaos in Southwest Asia and North Africa are this Khaliji-“Israeli” alliance.

In line with the U.S. and the E.U., it is the alliance formed by “Israel” and the Khaliji rulers that has worked to create ethnic divisions between Arabs and Iranians, religious divisions between Muslims and Christians, and confessional divisions between Sunnis and Shiites. It is the “politics of division” or “fitna” that has also served to keep the Khaliji ruling families in power and “Israel” in its place. “Israel” and the Khaliji ruling families would not survive without the regional fitna.

The Al-Sauds and Tel Aviv are the authors of the Hamas-Fatah split and the estrangement of Gaza from the West Bank. They have worked together in the 2006 war against Lebanon with a view to crushing Hizbullah and its political allies. Saudi Arabia and “Israel” have also cooperated in spreading sectarianism and sectarian violence in Lebanon, Iraq, the Gulf, Iran, and now Egypt.

“Israel” and the Khaliji monarchies serve Washington in its objective to ultimately neutralize Iran and its allies, as well as any form of resistance against the U.S. in Southwest Asia and North Africa. This is why the Pentagon has been heavily arming Tel Aviv and the Khaliji sheikhdoms. Washington has also been setting up missile shields aimed at Iran and Syria in “Israel” and the Arab sheikhdoms.

Iranophobia

The alliance between the Khaliji sheikhdoms and “Israel” has been instrumental in creating a wave of Iranophobia in the Arab World. The ultimate objective of Iranophobia is to transform Iran in the eyes of Arab public opinion, into an enemy of the Arab people, thereby distracting attention from the real enemies of the Arab World, namely the neo-colonial powers which occupy and control Arab lands.

Iranophobia is a PsyOp, an instrument of propaganda. The strategic objective is to isolate Iran and reconfigure the geo-political landscape of Southwest Asia and North Africa. Moreover, Iranophobia has been used by the Khaliji ruling families, from the U.A.E. to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, as a pretext for the repression of their own people, who are demanding basic freedoms and democratic rights in the sheikhdoms.

The March 14 Alliance in Lebanon, which is a collection of Khaliji-U.S. clients and “Israeli” allies, has also used Iranophobia and the “politics of division” to try to attack Hizbullah and its political allies in Lebanon The objective is to weaken and undermine Lebanese-Iranian and Lebanese-Syrian ties. The March 14 Alliance, specifically the Hariri-controlled Future Movement, has imported into Lebanon the so-called Salafist fighters of Fatah Al-Islam with the objective of getting them to attack Hizbullah. The Future Movement has also had a role in the “Israeli”-Saudi-U.S. project to destabilize Syria and remove it from the Resistance Bloc.

Liberal sentiments are seductive things.   They help us to avoid rigorous thinking and painful conclusions.   They give us a warm optimism about the state of the world, and a happy belief in our own well-intentioned goodness.   In politics, they are also the first refuge of the hardened scoundrel

Thomas Friedman’s article works on both counts.   First, it presents a complex situation in terms of two spurious opposites: the utter evil of our enemies, and the essential goodness of our selves.    Why can’t our enemies be more like us?   For then they will be redeemed; then their abysmal world will see the true glory of the high and sunlit hills.

Second, the article allows Thomas Friedman to affect liberal credentials he patently doesn’t possess.    Friedman is not a liberal, he is not a progressive, he is not in any sense a worthy spokesman for those he patronises.    On the contrary, he promotes a version of reality that is glib, self-servingly selective, and deceitful.     And he neatly deflects attention from the real rogues of the piece.

It is clear who Friedman would like us to believe are the real rogues – apart, that is, from “bin Laden”.    He hammers the point home again and again.    The real rogues are “the bad guys”, “the rogues’ gallery of dictators”, the “Arab dictators”, the “petro-dictators”, the “Arab leaders”, the “Arab autocrats”, the “Arab regimes”.    And who else?    Certainly not Israel – “whose own behaviour at times fed the Arab sense of humiliation” (but little else).   And certainly not the United States.

As critical readers, we all presumably know about “nuancing” a news story, and about subliminal bias.   So what do we learn about the United States and its role in the Middle East?    Well, the US is mentioned five times: the first mention is, implicitly, as a victim; then it gets a knuckle-rapping for being a greedy oil-consumer (just like Europe and India and China, so that’s okay); and a couple of times it is mentioned as a butt of Arab anger.    Is that all?    Are we seriously expected to believe that the United States, and its Israeli attack dog, are no more culpable than that?

Yes.    For Friedman, the Arab-Israel conflict is nothing more than a device applied by “Arab autocrats” to keep their people quiet.   As for “bin Laden”: he is not our creature; he is, again, a product of those “Arab autocrats” and their cynical disregard for their own people.   We, perhaps, share a little guilt for being inattentive.    That the US cynically, very deliberately, fostered Osama bin Laden for its own purposes in places like Afghanistan is something Friedman wishes to keep mum about.

However, let it not be said that the United States is merely a greedy onlooker.   After all, when the chips were down, “we did our part”.   We shot “bin Laden”.    That this act itself smacks of unilateral arrogance and contempt for international justice is not even nodded at.    Greedy or not, the United States has its imperial right.    So now the “Arab and Muslim people” must do their part: and kill “bin Ladenism” with “real elections, real constitutions, real political parties, and real progressive politics”.    But what is “real”?

It all depends.   “Real” is what the United States Government, and its apologists (like Friedman), wish to impose upon others, if not upon themselves.   So “real elections” are what put George Bush Junior into the White House – not what brought Hamas to power in Palestine; “real progressive politics” are the kind of elitist stitch-up you get in the US – not what you got in the Sandinistas’ Nicaragua, or in Mossadegh’s Iran, or in Castro’s Cuba, or in Allende’s Chile, or in Saddam’s Iraq.   Above all, “real” is”decent”, peaceful, non-violent, and no threat to either America or Israel.

But, for Friedman, all those “Ahmeds” of the “outback” need to be taught.    And the lessons may sometimes be hard.     In 1998, Friedman recommended “bombing Iraq, over and over again”; in 1999, he recommended that we “blow up a different power station in Iraq every week, so no-one knows when the lights will go off….”    As for the other denizens of the outback: bombing the Gazans is a good way to “educate” them; Israel should use terror, and proxy death squads, to control dissent in neighbouring lands; while the Afghans, thank God, have learned their lesson – and now “pray for another dose of B-52s to liberate them from the Taliban, casualties or not.”

But it’s an old story, and Friedman has a long and worthy pedigree.    For woe betide anyone who dares to challenge this Judeo-Christian Empire of ours with anything stronger than “decent” non-violence.   Take up rifles, and we will bomb the hell out of you – as we have done, with happy regularity, since we “educated” the Kurds and the Dervishes some 90 years ago.   Show true independence, and we will deal with you.     As we dealt with Haiti, the Philippines, Italy, Congo, Iran, Guatemala, Egypt, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Cuba, Grenada, Nicaragua, Chile, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Palestine …    The world is littered with the victims of Western “reality”, of the West’s “real progressive politics” – of a truth that Friedman cannot bear to utter.

Of course, this is the function of writers like Friedman – to reshape events for popular consumption, to mock those in the non-Western “outback”, and to obscure unpalatable truths about people in power.   But the tragedy is not that there are too many Thomas Friedmans.    The real tragedy is that there are intelligent people, “decent” people, who are very happy to believe what men like Friedman have to say.    And it is doubly tragic that there are many modern Muslims, educated enough to know better, who are only capable of interpreting the Muslim world through the eyes of slick Western hacks and Zionist bigots like Thomas Friedman.

11 June, 2011

Countercurrents.org

“It has something to do with something called marijuana. I believe it is a narcotic of some kind.”

So said congressman Rayburn to congressman Snell’s question: “What is this bill about?”

That was way back in the summer of 1937, when congress was being asked to essentially outlaw a drug they knew nothing about, marijuana. But realistically, marijuana had little to do with it. The real issue was non-drug industrial hemp.

Industrialists were like scarab beetles, rolling around this giant ball of profit protection, and they ran right over the domestic hemp industry. Hemp presented way too much competition, too much threat to entrenched and entrenching profits. Took a pretty big ball of dung, but the scarabs rolled it expertly, professionals. Except for several years of heavy production during WWII, under the feds’ “Hemp for Victory” campaign—which told the truth about hemp and helped us win the war…not a single acre of hemp has been legally grown in America since 1937. Seventy-four years and counting. That was one enormous ball of dung. The entire hemp-prohibition infamy could be called a dung deal, especially as related to the common good.

What could have possessed grown men, congressmen even, into making it a crime to grow one of the oldest, and the most valuable crop in history? Essentially the same thing that keeps the common good in government crosshairs today, the hideous mechanics of humanity’s ultimate modern plague: obsession with corporate profits—virtually the opposite of government Of, By and For the people.

Also in 1937, in its annual report to stockholders, the DuPont company gloated over “radical changes” regarding the federal government’s conversion of taxation authority into a tool for forcing acceptance of “sudden new ideas of industrial and social reorganization”. They went so far as proclaiming that, after massive farm foreclosures of the depression, farmers were inhibiting America’s industrial progress. They should move to industrial cities so farmland could be consolidated into huge agribusinesses controlled by corporations—along with all other means of industrial production. Farming should be primarily for food.

DuPont’s president, Lammont DuPont, even ordained: “Synthetic plastics find application in fabricating a wide variety of articles, many of which in the past were made from natural products. The chemist has aided in conserving natural resources by developing synthetic products to supplement or wholly replace natural products.”

Yes, a world of synthetics…mother lode patents, petroleum alchemy, pollution, extinction, poverty and disease, deforestation, global warming; fascism, globalization, perpetual wars for dwindling resources; corporate centralization of all means of production—even global food supply. Concentration of money, of power, of control—power to the corporations, slavery to the people. Conversion of largely rural, agricultural America into an urban, industrial nation. Landfills brimming with immortal waste leaching death into our living systems…until death do us part.

The reason scarabs were in such a frenzy over hemp in 1937 was clearly revealed by Popular Mechanics magazine—a full six months after! the American hemp industry was effectively dead and buried via trademark corporate chicanery. The February cover story for Popular Mechanics in 1938 was titled, “The New Billion-Dollar Crop”. Imagine how much money a billion dollars was in 1938. The article told the truth, praising the advent of new machinery that would drastically reduce hemp’s labor demands; and praising a crop so valuable that in the early days of America, for farmers with a certain threshold of acreage in production, it was illegal not to grow hemp.

Imagine the chagrin of people involved in our burgeoning hemp industry upon learning that hemp had been banned in America because of “The Killer Weed from Mexico”, by the illegal Marijuana Tax Act. By law, taxes are for raising revenue, not for molding behavior. But obviously—even more so today than ever before…upper echelons of power are above the law. Laws are for “small people”—unless they facilitate, as George Bush the elder said, speaking of certain clandestine federal operations, “The continuous consolidation of money and power into higher, tighter and righter hands.”

And remember DuPont’s “…radical changes regarding the federal government’s conversion of taxation authority into a tool for forcing acceptance of sudden new ideas of industrial and social reorganization”? What about the Constitution…or as George Bush the younger calls it, that “…goddamned piece of paper”?

As for the news, the New York Times reported on August 3, 1937, that “President Roosevelt signed today a bill to curb traffic in the narcotic, marihuana, through heavy taxes on transactions”. A dung deal. Industrial hemp strains of cannabis have zero drug potential, and are NOT “marijuana”, but…never mind. Competition slammed. Profits protected. Hemp threat eliminated.

The negative impact to the common good of America from seventy-four years of hemp prohibition is difficult to fathom. But in America, despite hundreds of years of florid rhetoric to the contrary, the common good is so…common. America is about winners, not commoners. And America is largely about service jobs and financialisation, not production—despite consumer spending being 70% of our Gross Domestic Product. We offshore as much production as possible to take advantage of slave labor markets, lax environmental protections, tax incentives…. And we sink ever deeper into debt as former middle-class citizens, their jobs off-shored, become street people, and millionaires become billionaires, and billionaires shed their skins.

Please forgive my digression, but I have found the term “common good” handy lately. Spokane’s congressional representative is a republican named Cathy McMorris Rodgers. Somehow two of my email addresses got on her mailing list. I fatigued over all the trumpeting of GOP efforts to take from the poor to give to the rich, and repeatedly tried to get off Cathy’s list without success. So I replied to one of her emails by simply asking her to define her position regarding the common good of America. Bingo, I’m off Cathy’s list. Haven’t heard from her in months.

Hemp has taught us many things about how power works in America, and our education continues. Hemp’s usefulness is truly remarkable; food, fuel, fiber, paper, plastics—using modern technology, hemp offers an estimated 25,000 natural products. Hemp needs no petrochemical fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides, and is actually beneficial to the soil. Hemp is nature’s premier powerhouse for converting sunshine and water (and carbon dioxide while breathing out oxygen) into an astonishing range of superior, eco-friendly products. Perhaps one of the worst things about hemp is that, for the bulk of our perception-managed population, it sounds too good to be true. Well, for about the last 12,000 years hemp has proved true—yet for the last seventy-four years in America, growing hemp has been a crime. That’s the real crime.

The U.S. hemp industry is currently ringing up $400 million in annual retail sales—all of it on imported raw materials! The number of good, non-transferable (cannot be “off-shored”) jobs hemp prohibition costs us is shameful. We need solid jobs. We need to create value. Other economic benefits of hemp, along with the environmental benefits, are all but incalculable.

The idea of a “jobless recovery” is ludicrous, the term itself an oxymoron. Parasitic Wall Street casino killing off the middle class is also killing off America. Globalization is shoving us back toward feudalism. Dark-ages redux. Privatization is poisonous…and the way things are going, how long do you think it will be until some corporation privatizes the atmosphere, and we have to pay to breathe? Hemp is a powerful antidote to globalization and privatization. No other plant can actually empower entire regional economies…the antithesis of globalization. Farmers could regain the status they deserve, growing the world’s most useful crop and selling it to local markets that sell it to local processors that sell their products to locally-owned businesses that sell to local citizens that work in the hemp industry—all with the aid of public banking. All the wealth stays where it belongs—with the people that create it. This could all be happening across America right now, putting hundreds of thousands of people to work creating wealth. But…the same movers and shakers standing most in the way of America returning to hemp slither in the same den as other parasitic snakes that ripped off the whole world with complex toxic debt bombs rated as AAA investment-grade securities while at the same time profiting on bets that the toxins would foul the entire global economy—THEN when their toxic bombs burst, slithered to Congress dripping crocodile tears and begging for (and getting) $23.7 trillion! (1) of taxpayer blood via threats of global financial meltdown, and threats of martial law in America. The whole sordid nightmare represents the greatest upward transfer of wealth in history. Troubled Asset Relief Program…doesn’t paying federal taxes make you proud to be American?

So much for the “shining city upon the hill”. Too bad we commoners lack the spirit to fight for hemp and get back some shine….

Of course democrats and republicans are simply two sides of the same corporate-toady coin, despite apparent differences especially regarding the common good. In 2005, republican representative from Texas Ron Paul was chief sponsor of the “Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2005”. The bill would have allowed farmers to grow industrial hemp—non-drug varieties of cannabis, differentiating between cannabis strains and setting limits on the amount of psychoactive THC allowed. Now, for the environment, the economy, the common good—for everything that deserves a future, that sounded too good to be true.

The bill died in committee.

Ron Paul tried again in 2007, 2009, and on May 12, introduced the “Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2011”. This time Ron Paul has twenty-two co-sponsors—and that’s where differences appear in the way democrats and republicans regard the common good; twenty of the co-sponsors are democrat, two of them republican. It’s the most co-sponsors Ron Paul has attracted so far. Sounds like hope? At this rate, perhaps in a few more decades such bills might even make it out of committee.

Chances even seem good for a democratic senator to introduce for the first time a companion bill in the Senate. But odds are overwhelming that the “Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2011” will die in the usual place: The Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.

You might wonder why in hell an agricultural bill is going first to a committee on crime, terrorism, and homeland security. Well…sorry folks, this is America, and the bill is actually an entrenched-profits issue, common good against the ruling elite. We should all know by now what function hope has in America, but collective amnesia is epidemic. So….

Never mind.

And the ultimate clincher that scarabs might never be able to obliterate with their mighty balls, stark revealment of marijuana interdiction being an attack on hemp…it’s getting closer. Hemp was prohibited by prohibiting marijuana…but it is conceivable—even almost certain that eventually, marijuana will be legalized, but not hemp. The purported reason for banning hemp will disappear, but not the ban on hemp. Such is how power works in America. And amnesia.

The environmental benefits, the economic benefits, the major surge of job creation, the luxury of superior natural products—forget them and the countless other benefits to the common good of America; the impact to entrenched profits would be too great for the elite to ever allow hemp to be grown in America again. As long as the status quo is maintained, hemp will never have a chance.

We obviously need drastic changes to the status quo, but us commoners have a profound problem called apathy. Relentless perception management of mainstream corporate media (CorpoMedia) feeds the apathy, and amnesia. How are mainstream Americans ever supposed to learn the truth? How is the fact that we outnumber our primary oppressors nearly a million to one ever supposed to be seen clearly, and focused on as a platform for doing something…anything to correct problems such as hemp prohibition, and American imperialism being so vastly more important than us common Americans?

Hope is an elusive thing, unpredictable—just like us…we hope?

(1) http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aY0tX8UysIaM

Rand Clifford’s novels Castling, Timing, Priest Lake Cathedral, and Voices of Vires are published by StarChief Press http://starchiefpress.com/ , and will be available soon as e-books.

11 June, 2011

Countercurrents.org

Many people around the world might have credulously or perhaps naively fallen in the trap of believing the tempting claims of the U.S. statesmen and politicians who say that their country is a “beacon of freedom” and a “pioneer of democracy.”

It’s a bitter reality that many of us have been defeated and overwhelmed by the propaganda of the U.S. mainstream media who incessantly attempt to make their audiences believe that democracy and freedom are originally American values and cannot be found anywhere else in the world, that all of the world nations need the United States to achieve these values and that the United States must resort to every instrument to export these home-made values to the rest of the world, including frequent military expeditions.

But what’s the reality on the ground? Who really knows about what’s taking place behind the scenes? How much difference is there between the United States which is trimmed and made neat to be put before the eyes of the international community and the United States which mercilessly and inexcusably deprives its own people of getting informed about the latest developments in the world? Isn’t it ironic that the same United States whose leaders always boast of democracy, freedom and equal opportunities set off media outlets to direct black propaganda against countries such as Iran while preventing its people from having access to the content of such media?

If you’re familiar with the conventional double standards and hypocrisy of the American type, you might have heard about the US Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948, popularly known as the Smith-Mundt Act.

This discriminatory and indefensible act which was first signed into law by President Harry S. Truman on January 27, 1948 after getting approval by the 80th Congress is, in a nutshell, a regulation which allows the United States to establish and initiate media outlets which are aimed at non-American audiences in order to further the diplomatic and political objectives and interests of the U.S. overseas; however, these media outlets, including radio and TV stations, are unavailable to the U.S. citizens, and to put it more succinctly, it’s forbidden for them to have access to these media channels.

The legislation which was introduced in the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs at the request of State Department, authorizes the U.S. State Department to communicate to audiences outside of the borders of the United States through broadcasting, face to face contacts, exchanges, online activities, the publishing of books, magazines, and other media of communication and engagement. Funding for these activities comes from other legislation passed by the U.S. Congress called appropriations.

According to this law, the materials which are produced to be broadcast through certain American media outlets cannot and should not be disseminated and publicized domestically and can be only available to the members of Congress and academicians. With the concerted efforts of several U.S. Congressmen, the Act was amended to read: “no program material prepared by the United States Information Agency shall be distributed within the United States.”

However, it’s interesting to note that at the time of working on the compilation of the Smith-Mundt Act, fierce controversies had arisen among the congressmen, including a quarrel over how to “remove the stigma of propaganda” from this law, because even the U.S. lawmakers had come to the conclusion that it was an all-out replica of the propaganda machinery of the former Soviet Union and Nazi regime.

Seven radio and TV stations are covered by the Act, two of which are exclusively dedicated to Iran: Radio Farda and Voice of America. It means that the American citizens cannot watch the TV programs which VOA airs and listen to what the Radio Farda broadcasts. This clearly shows that the U.S. statesmen and politicians have predetermined and programmed plans for the nation of Iran and it’s on their agenda to sow the seeds of discord between different groups of Iranian nation by airing programs in which nothing can be traced but mere propaganda, falsification and fabrication.

A quick look at the performance of media outlets such as VOA and Radio Farda helps us comprehend that making the Iranian nation worried about the current situation of the country, spreading falsehood and untruth about the course of events and developments in the country and advertising the large-scale policies of the White House and the Israeli regime with regards to Iran are the main objectives of these state-run media which are sumptuously funded and excessively supported by the U.S. government.

According to the statistics released by Washington Post, the U.S. Congress has allocated an annual budget of $7 million to Radio Farda and by using this profuse amount of money, this soft war machine unremittingly produces and disseminates falsehood and mendacious propaganda against the nation of Iran.

Maybe, it may be necessary for the people of the United States to know where they taxes go and how their government spends on its unrelenting wars with the countries which don’t want to fall under the umbrella of U.S. hegemony.

The American people are deprived of listening to the propaganda of Radio Farda and VOA; however, it is vital for them to know that their government does not really represent a “beacon of freedom” nor does it have the features of a “pioneer of democracy” but is more of a propaganda machine programmed to wage wars and win profits.

Kourosh Ziabari is an Iranian journalist

11 June, 2011

Countercurrents.org

Gaza: A “Hamas commander” drove a beat-up gray van in northern Gaza and theatrically spoke on his walkie-talkie as I sat in the passenger seat. The van was almost barren, save for the most basic equipment propelling it to move forward over the bumpy roads of an overcrowded refugee camp.

Iyad was not here to show me any militant training camp, or even to assess the damage that had befallen the impoverished Gaza Strip during Israel’s devastating war, Operation Cast Lead, which killed and wounded thousands in 2008-09. Scars of the damage sustained during the three-week onslaught are still visible throughout the Strip. Iyad was here to show me his latest personal project: a playground for refugee children.

At first glance, the “playground” did not seem impressive at all. All I noticed was a small plot of dirt jammed between two unsightly concrete buildings.

“So, what do you think?” asked Iyad, with a proud smile. His attempt at growing a full beard was not entirely successful, giving him a younger, albeit disheveled appearance.

“It’s impressive,” I replied, still trying to understand the nature of the accomplishment.

I learned later that the achievement was creating space out of the debris. At one time prior to December 2008, when an Israeli missile decided to drop in, a family had lived in this spot. The house had collapsed, and its residents became mere posters of mourned Palestinian faces adorning the walls of other houses in the neighborhood.

Iyad and few of “Shabab Al-Masjid” — youth of the mosque — cleared almost everything, using only their bare hands and other primitive means. The siege had made it nearly impossible to access modern technology to clear the uncountable tons of concrete scattered in and around Gaza as a result of the war. Cement remains a precious commodity in an area that needs building material above most other resources. People here somehow remain positive.

“And here will be a soccer field,” continued Iyad, who seemed to have no budget whatsoever, except the will of the “shabab”.

Predictably, Iyad’s residence is located in a refugee camp. What seemed to be a large crack around much of the house was in fact a mark left by an Israeli missile, which blew up most of the house. Iyad’s entire family — his brothers, their wives and about two dozen children — were watching TV in a room that miraculously managed to stay still as the house imploded. The neighbors rushed looking for dead and survivors, only to find everyone alive and well.

Iyad smiled in wonder.

When the unmanned drone began circling above his head, Iyad knew that the Israelis had located him. So he began running.

“I didn’t want them to know where I lived, so I began running without a clear sense of direction,” said Iyad, who reiterated that he always prepared himself for such a moment. “I am not scared of death. Life and death is in God’s hand, not some Israeli pilot, but I worried about my family.”

Then, Iyad’s house came down.

Since then, the house has been rebuilt, although in a haphazard way. New additions to the house stand above the deep cracks. There are no guarantees that the foundation is safe, or if the house is even inhabitable at all. Oblivious to war, death, unarmed drones and shaky foundations, the children are full of life.

Three of the boys in Iyad’s household carry the same name. It was the name of Iyad’s brother who was killed by an Israeli sniper as he protested the occupation during the First Palestinian Uprising (Intifada) of 1987. It was this very event that changed Iyad’s life forever. In a moment, the little boy had become a man, as expected of any “brother of a martyr”.

Iyad’s niece — a cute girl in a checkered dress — was asked to perform her nashid, a song she had learned in the street. She did so with untold enthusiasm. The song referenced paradise and martyrs and “right of return,” and of children facing missiles with bare chests. The crowed clapped, and the girl huddled by my side bashfully. Perhaps she had not expected such a passionate response from her audience. She was five years old.

Iyad, who is now studying at a local Gaza university, already speaks of a Master’s degree and a teaching career. He also remains consumed by his playground and the challenges awaiting him and the “youth of the mosque” once the uneven ground is completely flattened.

His nieces and nephews sing for the martyrs, but they are also keen to do their homework. They discuss end-of-year exams with dread and excitement. All the boys are fans of Barcelona, and devotees of a man named Lionel Messi.

“When I grow up, I wanted to study physical education,” said one of the boys, a teenager of about 14. ‘I will specialize in soccer, just like Messi’s major at the University of Barcelona,’ he added excitedly.

I laughed, and so did everyone else.

– Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com

11 June, 2011

WSWS.org

Amid continuing protests, mounting state repression and escalating pressure from the US and the European powers, there are growing signs that Syria is sliding toward civil war. Already, with thousands of refugees flowing from northwestern Syria into Turkey and threats of Israeli intervention, the crisis of the Baathist regime is having an increasingly destabilizing impact on the entire Middle East.

The United States and its European allies are cynically seeking to exploit the popular uprising against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad to either break Damascus from its alliance with Iran or move toward a policy of regime-change. Even as Washington, London and Paris rain down bombs on Tripoli and other Libyan towns, killing and wounding thousands of civilians and soldiers, they sanctimoniously denounce Assad for killing his own people.

On Friday, Syrian state television announced that a military action had been launched against the rebellious town of Jisr al-Shughour in the northwest of the country 12 miles from the Turkish border. Up to 5,000 troops and dozens of tanks reportedly massed on the outskirts of the town, normally occupied by 50,000 inhabitants but now largely abandoned in advance of the expected assault. Some news sources said Syrian security forces were arresting some 3,000 men who had remained in the town.

Last Monday, the government claimed that armed men had killed 120 security personnel in the town the previous day and promised to retaliate. Many reports, however, indicate that there was shooting between forces loyal to Assad and a substantial number of police and soldiers who refused to fire on protesters and mutinied.

The Sunni town, located in an area with Christian and Alawite Muslim villages, has a history of opposition to the Baathist regime, which is dominated by members of the minority Alawite sect, including the Assad family. Some reports say that Sunni police began the rebellion by refusing to obey orders to fire into crowds of protesters from their Alawite officers.

In 1980, Bashar al-Assad’s father, Hefez al-Assad, sent troops into Jisr al-Slughour to put down an uprising led by the Muslim Brotherhood.

In advance of the government crackdown, a growing number of residents of Jisr al-Slughour and the surrounding region have sought refuge across the border in Turkey. Turkish media reported Friday that nearly 4,000 people had entered Turkey. The Turkish government on Thursday authorized the construction of two refugee camps that could hold up to 10,000 people. There are reports that Ankara fears the flow of refugees could turn into a flood of as many as 1 million Syrians.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday he would continue to allow Syrian refugees to enter Turkey and, in a marked shift from his previously close alliance with Assad, denounced the regime for “savagery” and suggested he might support a United Nations resolution condemning its actions.

More ominously, Turkish officials have refused to deny a report by the veteran journalist Robert Fisk published May 30 in the British daily the Independent that the Turkish military has drawn up plans to send several battalions of Turkish troops into Syria to carve out a “safe area” for Syrian refugees inside Syria itself. The plan is reportedly aimed at preventing a flood of Syrian Kurds into Turkey’s Kurdish region in the southeast of the country.

The assault on Jisr al-Shughour coincided with widespread anti-regime protests following Friday prayers, which were once again met with violent repression. At least 28 people were shot dead at rallies across the country.

The most deadly crackdown occurred in Maarat al-Numan, a village near Jisr al-Shughour that lies 33 miles south of Syria’s second city Aleppo on the highway to Damascus. Syrian helicopter gunships reportedly fired machine guns to disperse large anti-government protests, in the first reported use of air power against three-month-old uprising.

The Associated Press reported that Assad’s forces also fired tanks shells into the town after thousands of protesters overwhelmed security officers and burned the courthouse and police station.

Four people were reportedly killed by security forces in the Qabun district of the capital Damascus, while two more were slain in the Bosra al-Harir neighborhood of southern Daraa province, where the unrest began. Another five demonstrators were reported to have been shot dead in the coastal resort of Latakia and eleven killed in Idlib province.

Small demonstrations in Aleppo were reported for the first time since the unrest began.

In a sign of possible disarray, security forces pulled out of the central city of Hama overnight Thursday, allowing tens of thousands of protesters to overwhelm its downtown Assi Square. Last Friday, troops killed 67 protesters in Hama in one of the bloodiest incidents of the uprising.

Meanwhile, the Western powers stepped up their pressure on the Assad regime on two fronts. France and Britain, supported by Germany and Portugal, continued to push for a resolution in the United Nations Security Council condemning Syria for its repressive measures. The resolution, drafted by Paris and London, calls for the Syrian regime to carry out political reforms and release political prisoners, but stops short of calling for either military action or additional sanctions.

It does, however, demand “humanitarian” access to Syrians threatened by violence, a provision sufficiently broad and vague to serve as a pretext for future intervention.

With the support of Washington, the French and British are evidently seeking to obtain passage of a resolution that could be used as a wedge for further and more direct action. They face public opposition from two veto-wielding members of the Security Council, Russia and China. In addition, Brazil, South Africa and India have expressed reservations.

Meanwhile, another UN agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has weighed in against Syria. On Thursday, the IAEA governing board voted to report Syria to the Security Council over the country’s alleged attempt to build a secret nuclear reactor in its eastern desert.

The 35-nation board approved a Western-backed resolution accusing Syria of violating its nuclear treaty obligations by building the Dair Alzour reactor, which was destroyed by Israeli warplanes in September 20007. Rejecting years of denials by Syria, the IAEA concluded in a report last month that the site was “very likely” a partially constructed nuclear reactor intended for making plutonium bombs.

The resolution opens the way for UN sanctions or other punitive measures. The 17 to 6 vote reflected widespread opposition within the board of governors. The six “no” votes included those of Russia and China. Eleven countries abstained, while another was not in attendance.

While the US has to date stopped short of demanding Assad’s resignation, it has in recent days edged closer to that position. In line with recent statements by President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a seminar in Brussels, “Whether Assad still has the legitimacy to govern his own country, I think is a question everyone needs to consider.”

11 June, 2011

The Palestine Telgraph

Gaza, (Pal Telegraph) – The Israeli siege continues to disturb different facets of the living conditions for the entire population of 1.7 million living in the Gaza Strip. With news that Egypt opened the Rafah border permanently, pressure on Gazans increased. The crossing didn’t open properly and Israel still control all commercial crossings. In addition, there are severe security measures that still hinder the process of travelling for thousands of Palestinians. Limited access of food, commodities and medications are still in effect. Further confounding the problems is the fact that Palestinian national unity has not achieved the factual results expected by the besieged people. Official Israeli sources, spokespersons and media outlets are seizing on all what they can to say that there is no siege in Gaza. Whilst, only the population of Gaza suffer the repercussions of the external and internal political problems.

Health sector paralyzed

According to Gaza’s health bodies and utilities, severe shortages are hitting the sector due to the continued closure. The shortages have led to a reduction in services, including surgeries. A number of patients are on the waiting list for urgent medical operations. According to Gaza’s health ministry, the medical storage will soon be depleted, which further endangers the lives of the innocent population.

Around 187 sort of medications are missed, as well as 190 types of medical requirement. In total, 50% of Gaza’s health and medical storage have evaporated. This shortage is endangering many patients especially those of cancer, Kidney diseases, heart, eyes, nerves and psychological diseases.

This problem has been taking place for years now, since the start of the Siege some 4 years ago. Medical convoys and shipments of medications brought by International NGOs have temporarily solved the problem in the past. .

International Investigation

According to the Lancet Magazine, the Norwegian Government sent two doctors on a health mission to Gaza in April 2011 to examine Gaza’s chronic shortage of medicines. The same magazine reported of a similar mission sent in 2009, after the war, and concluded similar results to the recent one.

The report says, ” The Gaza Strip still has a persistent drug shortage, despite some recent Israeli and Egyptian talks about easing the strict blockade that has left this crowded enclave isolated since July, 2007. A political rift between the Hamas-run Government of Gaza and Fatah officials in the West Bank hinders communication and coordination between the Palestinian health ministries—adding to the hardships already faced by patients in Gaza.”

It also added that Norwegian physicians Tone Hegna and Åse Vikanes followed the delivery of 200 pallets of medical supplies from Ramallah to Gaza in early February 2011. They confirmed that many drugs and basic disposables remain in short supply, and that a bad situation is made worse by inadequate storage, transport and incineration facilities.

People close to death

The health crisis in the Strip has increased the suffering of people, with some nearing death.

Anwar Nahid, 18, suffers from early diabetes. Her illness is rare at her age. The prescribed medications are missed such as insulin injections. The absence of the medications is affecting her severely, and blurred her vision.

“I’m sick with this disease for 5 years now. My father is jobless and I have 8 siblings. In many occasions, I find it hard to find the medicines I need. If I do, it is expensive and hard to obtain. My doctors are asking me to go for a specific food for diet purposes. But, I can’t afford to bring fruits and some vegetables as the prices are really high. I hope my father works again and I get my medications.” Said young Anwar.

Her mother added that Anwar has fainted many times and the doctors said she has entered a dangerous level. Anwar was injured in a car accident and her illness make her treatment harder, as diabetes slow the healing process. Doctors warn her of a potential stroke because of the effect of the diabetes on her blood.

Sameh A. Habeeb is editor of The Palestine Telgraph

Copyright © 2011 PT News