Just International

Religious and jurist figures: killing, mutilation are terrorist crimes against country’s security

 

Governorates- Academic, religious and jurist personalities on Wednesday condemned the brutal massacre perpetrated by the armed terrorist gangs in Jisr al-Shoughor against police and security men which claimed the lives of 120 security personnel and policemen.

The jurists considered the acts of killing and mutilation as terrorist crimes, warning of the moral and psychological harm such crimes may cause to the families of the martyrs and people.

“Those heinous crimes must be punished with all means because they are considered as crimes against the state internal security… The state should use all means to protect citizens and maintain the country’s security and stability,” Dr. Issa Makhoul, Professor of the Faculty of Law at Damascus University said in a statement to SANA.

Dr. Adib Akil, Head of Sociology Department at Damascus University said the body mutilation was existed throughout history, adding “mutilation comes from a number of reasons including the malice, hatred of some terrorists to feed sedition and instigation.”

“The purpose of those heinous acts is to harm the state dignity, threat social and national security and destabilize the country where the terrorists started to target the most difficult link, which means members of the army and security personnel,” Dr. Akil said.

In Aleppo, Mufti of the northern Syrian city Mahmoud Akkam underlined that those crimes are inhuman, saying “bloodshed and targeting the properties are prohibited in Islam… our prophet Mohammad prohibited killing the innocents.”

For his part, Professor of the psychological Hygiene at Aleppo University Mohamad Abdullah described the behavior of those who carried out the massacres and acts of mutilation as unsociable behavior or anti-sociable personality.

JISR AL-SHUGHOUR, IDLEB- The Syrian TV broadcast photos of the brutal massacres perpetrated by organized armed terrorist groups against the civilians and the army, police and security forces groups in Jisr al-Shughour in the province of Idleb.

Members of the terrorist groups used government cars and military uniform to commit their crimes of killing, terrifying people and sabotaging

They filmed themselves committing vandalism acts to manipulate the photos and videos and distort the reputation of the army.

The terrorists attacked police and security centers as well as other governmental and private institutions, violated the streets, neighborhoods and houses and used rooftops to sniper and shoot at citizens and security forces.

The criminal groups didn’t stop there. They also set up ambushes for police and security forces, mutilated the bodies of some martyrs and threw the bodies of others into the Orontes River, in addition to putting barriers on the roads and terrifying people.

The groups members also kidnapped a number of the martyrs’ bodies and buried them in the ground to later promote them as if they are mass graves with the help of the channels they are working with in inciting against Syria.

The citizens in Jisr al-Shughour called for the help of the army and security forces to enter the city and protect them and their children against the crimes of those terrorist groups and punish them severely.

The number of the martyrs of police and security members exceeded 120 until Monday evening, who were killed at the hands of the armed terrorist groups in Jisr al-Shughour.

The injured members of the security forces who were attacked on Monday by armed terrorist groups in Jisr al-Shughour narrated the details of the attack.

One of the wounded security members, Murad Qadour, said “At ten o’clock and a half we were subjected to a surprise attack by armed terrorist groups and I was shot in my right foot, then I was hospitalized to Idleb Hospital at seven pm…Later, I was moved to Aleppo Hospital and my health condition is stable now…I stress that I will sacrifice my soul for the sake of my motherland and its leader.”

Another injured security member, Ahmad Ali, said “We moved to support our colleagues in Jisr al-Shughour as they were surrounded by armed terrorists…We passed through a road between the mountains where we were ambushed by armed groups and they opened fire on us.

Ali added “A number of the security members were martyred by the fire of the gunmen who were using various types of weapons such as the snipers, machineguns and rifles,” indicating that a number of the bodies were mutilated.

An injured security member, Hassan Dalou, said “We were ambushed by terrorist groups on the road between the mountains while we were in the way to support our colleagues who were cordoned off by armed terrorist groups in Jisr al-Shoghour and they opened fire on us.

Dalou affirmed that a huge number of the security members were injured and martyred, denying the news broadcast by the channels of instigation and sedition.

He indicated that the citizens of the area know the truth and they know that what the instigation channels broadcast are lies and fabrications as the task of the security forces is to protect the citizens from the armed groups.

Injured security member, Ja’afar Taher Mahmoud, said “The armed groups displaced some of citizens from their houses to booby-trap them and to prepare an ambush,” indicating that he and his colleagues thought that those who were in the houses and farms were peasants and they were surprised as they opened fire on them from four directions.

For their part, a number of Idleb citizens stressed that the members of the army and security forces are their brothers and those who attack them are conspiring against Syria, condemning the massacres perpetrated by the armed terrorist groups in Jisr al-Shoghour as 120 members of the military, security and police forces were martyred

Citizen, Abu Mohammad, said that the terrorist groups mutilated the bodies of the martyrs and buried a huge number of them behind the security detachment as they killed them to say later that they found a mass grave and to convey this news to the biased satellite channels which instigate against Syria.

America Orchestrates Social Network Facebook War: Robert Danin Sets Example (Episode 2)

 

Wednesday 08-06-2011

 

How is fabricated news exploited to propagate incitement and Zionist schemes?

On the 20th of the past March, the Syrian opposition activist, Mamoun Al-Homsi (a former Syrian MP), declared news that “upon the statement of eye witnesses, who were doctors treating those wounded during the clashes in the Amawi Mosque several days earlier, some of the wounded persons had a Lebanese accent and belonged to Hizbullah.” Commenting on this claim, Robert Danin, using the name Robert Dani this time, wrote in an inaccurate, “accented”, and informal Arabic: “Such talk is true. I’ve learned that three weeks ago; 1,500 mercenary fighters of Hizbullah arrived in Syria to support basher Al-Assad.”

Not only did Robert Dani (or Danin) post this “news” on the wall of the page entitled “Freedom for Syria’s People – We Deserve to Live in Dignity”, but also he “did a further virtue” by reporting what the Kuwaiti “Al-Siyasa(the Politics)” Newspaper had written concerning the same topic, in addition to mentioning what other Arabic newspapers, fed by the American-Zionist stream, had written. Such steps represented an attempt to confirm his “information” that he had made up in the beginning of the discussion of this topic.

What’s funny about this is that the group administration (Freedom for Syria – We Deserve to Live in Dignity) was quite interested in Mr. Robert Dani’s news, whereby the group administrator’s comment bore an obvious exclamation “Shit! Now Bashar needs Hizbullah! Why doesn’t he get the army’s help? Is he afraid of a military coup?”

So, Robert Danin’s news has affected the group owners and maybe its members too. This, in fact, shows the significance of the dangerous, provocative role this person is performing amid the groups he shares, not to forget these groups’ concentration on the issue of the current turbulences in Syria.

This “adherer” to the freedom of the Syrian people is frankly an antagonist of the Arabic Nation and its issues. Also, he is one of the propagators of the Zionist points of view as regards the regional issues. And this is, in actually, apparent through his academic writings and the political, security, and intelligence roles he’s performed throughout his carrier record.

So who’s Robert Danin?

Having monitored the position this person has held throughout his life, we can provide the following information about him:

Danin has been a former American consul in Al-Quds (Jerusalem), a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Strategic Planning Affairs of the “Israeli”-Arabic negotiations, a Head of the “Israeli”-Palestinian Department of the American National Security Council, a chief representative of the Quartet of Mideast and North Africa mediators, and a Head of the Foreign Ministry Political Committee of the Middle East Issues.

What catches your interest is that Danin has also been a researcher of the US State Department Intelligence Unit, and he has been a researcher of the Washington Institute for Near East Policies.

As for the most conspicuous diplomatic mission that Danin has undertaken has been the Head of Mission at the Office of Quartet Representative (Tony Blair), the Eni Enrico Mattei Senior Fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Currently he works as a major researcher at the Foreign Relations Council in Washington. Moreover, the “Israeli Haaretz” Newspaper has described him as one of the key personalities of the “Peace Team” in the Middle East.

Among Danin’s “virtues” was the mentioning of his name in a “Wikileaks” cable published by “Haaretz” Newspaper, whereby he reported racial sayings by one of the commanders of the Zionist Labor Party, Isaac Hertzog, against the leader of the Labor Party at that time, Amir Peretz, since the latter is an Eastern Jewish. However, the Hebrew media means reported Danin’s denial regarding this topic, whereby he said he had never heard any talk from Hertzog against the (Moroccan) Jews or any criticism against Amir Peretz.

So far, this has been the published information concerning Robert Danin. Still, tracking him on the internet, particularly on the Social Network Facebook, will unveil that Robert Danin’s (or Dani’s) social network doesn’t show a lot of “friends”. For instance, he’s got only ten friends, two of whom are Americans, whereas the others are “Israelis”; one of these Americans works for the American Military and belongs to “the American military Channel”.

In fact, the access into this Channel is limited for the militants assigned internet tasks.

How many roles does Robert Danin play on the stage of incidents? And which “bargain” has directed him towards the anti-regime Syrian pages to stir riot against the regime through the Social Network Facebook? Why has he briefed his formal-life name, Robert Danin, into Robert Dani that appears on the Network Facebook? In regard to the ill-willed security roles he’s been performing through his “Facebook life” which bears heaps of provocation, riots incitement, and rumors propagation, it seems probable he’s avoiding imposing the burdens of these roles on his diplomatic life (which isn’t honorable anyway); is it so?

These questions are subject for research and follow-up. Nevertheless, greater questions may be posed concerning the roles the American Intelligence plays as to targeting the forces of resistance and withstanding, as to provoking peoples against these forces, and as to attempting to set these forces up.

In brief, some of our Nation’s people have been driven by personalities as Robert Danin and other sly Americans and Zionist intelligence and security officials. Some of our Nation’s people are lured and driven by the West and are working for the sake of the Western interests – even if this means great division of our countries and deprivation of the power factors we own. Such fact has inflicted injuries upon all of us. Hereupon, we can’t pose the question regarding how those people do so without their realization of the embedded purposes in these Westerners’ moves. If we pose this question, then it will remind us of our past injuries, which is something we wish to avoid.

 

Al-Intiqad

Tuesday 07-06-2011

 

Under the cover of democracy

 

US and its allies assist will be using neoliberal economic policies to make sure new Arab governments stay in line.

  08 June, 2011

In many Arab countries, especially Egypt, the World Bank makes sure that the country’s wealth is in the hands of the governing elite [GALLO/GETTY]

For decades during the Cold War, the rhetoric of US and Western European imperial power was one of promoting democracy around the world. Indeed, as the Soviet model became attractive to many countries in Asia and Africa (not to mention Latin America) ridding themselves of the yoke of West European colonialism, the US system of apartheid, known as Jim Crow Laws or racial segregation, was less than a shining example for people who just liberated themselves from European racial supremacy that was used to justify colonial rule. As is well known, it is this that prompted the United States to begin the road to end its apartheid system, signaled by the famous legal case of “Brown vs the Board of Education” in 1954, which set the stage to desegregate schools in the American South.

But as US action around the world aimed at eliminating the recently won right to self-determination for the peoples of Asia and Africa under the guise of “Western democracy” fighting “totalitarian communism”, which left a trail of millions murdered by the US and its allies (starting with Korea and moving to the Congo, to Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, and from Guatemala to Brazil to Argentina, Uruguay, El Salvador, and Chile, to Southern Africa and the Middle East), the cruel US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan in the last decade have hardly changed this anti-democratic trend. Yet two important victories are always touted by supporters of US foreign policy on the democratic front: namely, the fall of the Soviet Union and the ensuing “democratisation” of Eastern Europe, and the end of Apartheid in South Africa. The US hopes that its policies in both places will guide it to achieve similar ends for those uprisings of the Arab world that it cannot crush.

Profits and impoverishment

The people of the Eastern bloc wanted to maintain all the economic gains of the Communist period while calling for democratisation. The US, however, sold them the illusion of “Western democracy” as a cover for their massive US-imposed impoverishment and the dismantling of the entire structure of social welfare of which they had been beneficiaries for decades. Thus in a few short years, and through what Naomi Klein has dubbed the “Shock Doctrine”, Russia went from a country which had less than 2 million people living under the international poverty level to one with 74 million people languishing in poverty. Poland and Bulgaria followed suit. As billionaires increased and the margin of profit for US corporations skyrocketed in the former Eastern bloc, with the help of illustrious imperial organisations like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, the US, under international pressure, moved steadily to conclude a deal to end political apartheid in South Africa.

If the people of the Eastern bloc had to sacrifice their welfare states and their livelihoods in exchange for the outright pillage of their countries by Mafia-style capitalism, the people of South Africa were sold political “democracy” in exchange for the intensification of economic apartheid and the complete surrender of the country’s economic sovereignty. While the business class became infinitesimally more racially diverse (as its US precedent pretended to do since the 1970s), the impoverished classes remained racially uniform. Today’s South Africa is so saddled by debt and is signatory to so many economic agreements and protocols, that it can neither redistribute the racialised private property of the country (protected by its constitution), anymore that it can provide wage increases under its obligations to the IMF, which insists on wage “restraint”. The massive racialised poverty of the country has only deepened its economic apartheid under the cover of the “end” of political apartheid.

In the Middle East, the Oslo agreements, signed around the same time that US-style democracy was being imposed on Eastern Europe and South Africa, were even worse. The Palestinian Authority moved (under US and Israeli instructions) to demobilise Palestinian civil society, which was enormously strengthened during the first intifada. Western-funded non-governmental organisations appeared on the scene in force. The NGOs co-opted the intelligentsia, the technocracy, and most of all erstwhile activists into the service of a Western agenda that rendered these foreign NGOs the new local “civil society”, while Western governments financed the corrupt Palestinian Authority that continued to collabourate with the Israeli occupation. Poverty reigned supreme in much of the West Bank and all of Gaza and continues to destroy the lives of Palestinians there. Iraq, meanwhile, was being also transformed from its reduction to the stone age by US bombs into a US-imposed mafia-style “democracy” while the entire welfare benefits that existed under Saddam were withdrawn. Iraqi oil was handed over to American corporations in the ongoing American pillage and destruction of that country.

Other Arab countries, especially Egypt, were being flooded with Western-funded NGOs as the IMF and the World Bank were ensuring that local wealth is firmly in the hands of international capital and a small, local, subservient business class that supports the local dictatorships. A large number of women and labour activists, human rights and political activists, minority rights and peasants rights activists were no longer to be found defending the poor and the oppressed among whom they lived, but were now found on the payroll of these Western-funded NGOs, masquerading as civil society. While this demobilisation of Arab civil society ultimately failed to forestall popular Egyptian and Tunisian rage against two of the most corrupt regimes of post-independence Asia and Africa (or even Latin America), the US and its Saudi and Qatari allies are devising a new economic package to “support” the recent uprisings, especially Egypt’s larger and much more important economy.

Strengthening the rich

We got wind of US magnanimity early on. Indeed on the first day of the ouster of Mubarak, whom the Obama administration supported till his very last day in office (and beyond), the New York Times reported that “the White House and the State Department were already discussing setting aside new funds to bolster the rise of secular political parties.”A few days later, on 17 February, 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared “I’m pleased to announce today that we will be reprogramming $150 million for Egypt to put ourselves in a position to support our transition there and assist with their economic recovery,” she told reporters. “These funds will give us flexibility to respond to Egyptian needs moving forward.” A month later on March 16, Clinton declared on behalf of the US government that “we also think there are economic reforms that are necessary to help the Egyptian people have good jobs, to find employment, to realise their own dreams. And so on both of those tracks – the political reform and the economic reform – we want to be helpful.”

Indeed preparations ” to be helpful” were completed by the Obama administration and its European and Saudi-Qatari allies by May 19, the date Obama delivered his speech. He declared:

First, we’ve asked the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to present a plan at next week’s G8 summit for what needs to be done to stabilise and modernise the economies of Tunisia and Egypt. Together, we must help them recover from the disruptions of their democratic upheaval, and support the governments that will be elected later this year. And we are urging other countries to help Egypt and Tunisia meet its near-term financial needs.

If this was not enough, Obama offered a laughable gimmick to ease the $35 billion debts of Mubarak’s Egypt on the Egyptian people by “relieving”post-Mubarak Egypt “of up to $1 billion in debt and work with our Egyptian partners to invest these resources to foster growth and entrepreneurship.”But relief of $1 billion must be countered with help to indebt Egypt further. So Obama, in the same breath and without irony, declares, “we will help Egypt regain access to markets by guaranteeing $1 billion in borrowing that is needed to finance infrastructure and job creation…we’re working with Congress to create Enterprise Funds to invest in Tunisia and Egypt.”

As the impoverishment of Eastern Europe created massive wealth for new local elites and their US and Western European corporate masters, Obama asserts that America’s financial assistance “will be modeled on funds that supported the transitions in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a US government finance institution, will soon launch a $2 billion facility to support private investment across the region. And we will work with the allies to refocus the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development so that it provides the same support for democratic transitions and economic modernisation in the Middle East and North Africa as it has in Europe.” But this is not all, the United States will also “launch a comprehensive Trade and Investment Partnership Initiative in the Middle East and North Africa.” Recognising that Saudi and American avarice was such that all oil profits have found themselves pumping the European and American economies since the 1970s to the detriment of the region itself which languished under IMF-imposed structural adjustment policies (cuts in subsidies and wage decreases for the poor, increase of subsidies for the rich, restricting the rights of the working class, ending protectionism and selling the country off to international capital, raising food prices), causing the ongoing upheavals, Obama now wants a portion of the oil profits to be reinvested within the Arab world. He explained that

We will work with the EU to facilitate more trade within the region, build on existing agreements to promote integration with US and European markets, and open the door for those countries who adopt high standards of reform and trade liberalisation to construct a regional trade arrangement. And just as EU membership served as an incentive for reform in Europe, so should the vision of a modern and prosperous economy create a powerful force for reform in the Middle East and North Africa.

Obama along with France and Britain moved quickly. At the end of May, leaders of the Group of 8 wealthiest industrialised nations pledged to send billions of dollars in aid to Egypt and Tunisia. France’s Sarkozy declared that “he hoped the total aid package would eventually reach $40 billion, including $10 billion from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait”. Meanwhile, Qatar has been talking to oil-rich Gulf partners about a new plan to create a Middle East Development Bank to support Arab states in transitions to democracy. Its plan has been inspired, according to newspaper reports, by the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development “that helped to rebuild the economies and societies of eastern bloc countries at the end of the cold war.” The projected Middle Eastern development bank reportedly envisages tens of billions of dollars of yearly lending for political transitions. Qatar is seeking the support of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates for the initiative. Indeed the Saudis had already made a $4 billion grant to the Egyptians and the IMF just announced a $3 billion loan to the country. Yet, Youssef Boutros-Ghali, Mubarak’s finance minister, who had been lauded by none other than the IMF as a most efficient finance minister, and who was named in 2008 by the IMF itself as chairman of its International Monetary and Financial Committee, has fled the country and was just sentenced to 30 years in prison by an Egyptian court on corruption charges. A week before the fall of Mubarak last February and before his flight from the country, Boutros-Ghali resigned his IMF position. But the IMF is not deterred. Its “help” to Egypt will continue unhindered by such trivial matters. Moreover, as part of the effort to crush the popular demonstrations and the demands for democratisation in Jordan, Saudi Arabia also granted $400 million “to support Jordan’s economy and ease its budget deficit”. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (recently dubbed the Gulf Counter-revolutionary Club) had also extended, a few weeks earlier, an invitation for the only two surviving monarchies outside the Gulf, Jordan and Morocco, to join as members.

Neutralising the poor

But if the US deal in Eastern Europe was to impoverish the majority of people under the cover of democracy so that US businesses can pillage their economies, and if its deal in South Africa was about safeguarding and maintaining the same level of racialised pillage of the country by South Africa’s whites and the international business partners also under the cover of democracy, what is the form of political-economic exchange being transacted in the Arab world?

Clearly in countries where the US-Saudi counterrevolutions have triumphed, the aim is to maintain the same level of imperial pillage led by the US while pacifying the mobilised population and strengthening local elites (Bahrain, Oman, and Jordan are the primary examples here) or rescue the retinue of collapsing dictatorships (whether allies of the US or not) to lead regime transition and resume their partnership with the US politically and economically (Libya, Yemen, and even Syria are primary examples). But what about Egypt and Tunisia where a substantial number of the entourage of the overthrown regimes are also targeted by the uprisings for their corruption and complicity in the violence unleashed by the anciens regimes? It is there where the US-Saudi axis wants to focus its efforts.

Business elites who miraculously escaped formal charges in Egypt, and they are legion, have expressed much concern about demonstrations and strikes disrupting the economy (and their profits). Billionaire Naguib Sawiris, who fancies himself a supporter, if not a leader, of the uprising, and whose father and brothers were also transformed into billionaires in a few short years after they partnered with USAID during Sadat’s “infitah”or “open door” policy, and especially following the US invasion of the region in 1990/91, along with many other “honest” businessmen and women are ready to carry the torch for the US in “democratic” Egypt as they had done faithfully under Mubarak. Sawiris founded a new political party and now refuses to join the ongoing Friday demonstrations, which, he claims, are weakening the economy. He recently declared that “it was wrong to accuse all of the country’s businessmen of wrongdoing,”insisting that “many are honorable people who helped create jobs for Egyptians”. The US and Obama have also been celebrating young business executives like the naive Stockholm Syndrome sufferer Wael Ghonim (Stockholm Syndrome is the only acceptable excuse for Ghonim’s spending the majority of his famous TV interview crying and defending, rather than condemning, his secret police interrogators). Ghonim was touring the US speaking to international bankers as well as to World Bank economists, as a “leader” of the Egyptian uprising at the behest of the Google corporation itself.

But most Egyptians and Tunisians, unlike East Europeans under Communist rule, are poor already. As the main form of apartheid that rules Egyptians and Tunisians, unlike their South African black and poor counterparts under political Apartheid, is an economic and class apartheid, what then would granting US-style democracy to them be in exchange for?

The answer is simple. There is an increasing understanding among US policy makers that the US should ride the democratic wave in the region in those countries where it cannot crush it, and that in doing so, it should create political conditions that would maintain the continued imperial pillage of their economies at the same rate as before and not threaten them. Saudi money followed by American money and IMF and World Bank plans and funds are all geared to supporting the business elites and the foreign-funded NGOs to bring down the newly mobilised civil society by using the same neoliberal language of structural adjustment pushed by the IMF since the late 1970s. Indeed, Obama and his business associates are now claiming that it is the imposition of more neoliberal economic policies that is the main revolutionary demand of the people in Egypt and Tunisia, if not the entire Arab world, and which the West is lovingly heeding. That it is these same imperial policies, which were imposed on Poland by the IMF (and produced Solidarnosc in 1980), and ultimately led to the fall of the Soviet Union, as they marched onwards to impoverish the entire globe, with special attention to Africa, the Arab World, and Latin America, is glossed over as socialist whining. In this sense, the US will ensure that the same imperial economic policies imposed by international capital and adopted by Mubarak and Ben Ali will not only be maintained, but will be intensified under the cover of democracy.

Moves to limit economic protests and labour strikes are ongoing in Egypt and Tunisia. Once elections are held to bring about a new class of servants of the new order, we will hear that all economic demands should be considered “counterrevolutionary”and should be prosecuted for attempting to “weaken” if not “destroy” the new “democracy”. If, as is becoming more apparent, the US strikes alliances with local Islamist parties, we might even hear that economic protests and opposition to neoliberal imperial economic policies are “against Islam.” The US-imposed “democracy” to come, assuming even a semblance of it will be instituted, is precisely engineered to keep the poor down and to delegitimise all their economic demands. The exchange that the US hopes to achieve by imposing some form of liberal political order on Egypt and Tunisia is indeed more, not less, imperial pillage of their economies and of the livelihoods of their poor classes, who are the large majority of the population. The ultimate US aim then is to hijack the successful uprisings against the existing regimes under the cover of democracy for the benefit of the very same local and international business elites in power under Mubarak and Ben Ali. How successful the US and its local allies will be will depend on the Egyptian and Tunisian peoples.

Joseph Massad is Associate Professor for Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University in New York.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

 

Global Economic Crisis Deepening

 

 

09 June, 2011

Countercurrents.org

In the 1960s, economist Arthur Okum began calculated America’s Misery Index by adding the unemployment and inflation rates for a sense of public pain or lack of it in good times.

In May, it hit a record high exceeding 25, surpassing the earlier June 1980 21.98 top, based on how both measures were then calculated, not today’s methodology, manipulated to hide painful truths.

At issue is:

— over 22% unemployment, including discouraged workers and the so-called “birth-death model” estimate of net non-reported jobs from new businesses minus losses from ones no longer operating; during hard times, painful truths are hidden by creating non-existent jobs out of whole cloth instead of subtracting them to reflect fewer, not additional new businesses;

— double digit inflation, including soaring food, energy, healthcare, college tuition, and other costs omitted or understated in core figures;

— rising poverty, more than one in seven affected according to way understated Census Bureau figures, using threshold measures developed 40 years earlier

— record numbers on food stamps;

— record measures of food insecurity – Feeding America.org reporting one in six American facing hunger;

— predicted record 2011 numbers of home foreclosures, estimated at 1.2 million after one million lost last year;

— record homelessness numbers up to 3.5 million on any given night, needing refuge wherever they can find it or face life on city streets; and

— other measures of worsening conditions during a Main Street depression, affecting Europe, Japan and elsewhere like America.

Economic recovery? Explain how to millions unemployed or underemployed, foreclosed homeowners, bankrupt business owners, impoverished legions, and many others food insecure at a time US and European leaders enforce austerity when massive social stimulus is needed.

Across Europe, large deficits and public debt crises are spreading, an Economist April 29 article highlighting “a moment….when events spiral out of control. As panic sets in, bond yields lurch sickeningly upwards and fear spreads to shares and currencies.”

It happened in September 2008, a decade earlier when Russia defaulted, and similar past events. “When the unthinkable becomes the inevitable,” contagion and panic follow like a tsunami sweeping away everything in its path.

Numerous European countries are deeply troubled, notably Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain, entrapped in debt, locked in a Eurozone straightjacket. Perhaps heading for default, they’ve inflicted painful austerity on working households, rallying them en masse in protest.

On May 30, financial expert and investor safety advocate Martin Weiss said:

“Never before have I seen so many threats to your safety and wealth converging in one time and place,” citing:

— deteriorating bank safety, evident from increasing failures and other systemic risk measures;

— a deepening housing market depression with no end in sight;

— a worsening European sovereign debt crisis; and

— most worrisome, the contagion spreading to America.

According to Weiss:

“If you thought the debt crisis of 2008-2009 was a harrowing experience, wait till you see what’s coming next.” Last time, corporations were affected. Sovereign states are getting hammered now, including America.

On May 16, the Global Europe Anticipation Bulletin (GEAB) headlined, “Global systemic crisis: Confirmation of a Major Alert for the second half of 2011 – Explosive fusion of world geopolitical dislocation and the global economic financial crisis,” saying:

As it predicted in February 2008, GEAB again believes conditions now suggest a later in the year “explosive fusion….(a worldwide) geopolitical dislocation on the one hand and (a) global economic and financial crisis on the other.”

Combined they show major economic trauma coming, extinguishing economic recovery hopes, notably in debt entrapped America, “represent(ing) the end of an era (in which the) dollar was the currency of the United States and the rest of the world’s problem.”

Ahead, it’s becoming “the main threat weighing on the rest of the world” and America. Summer 2011 “will confirm that the Federal Reserve has lost its bet: the US economy has, in fact, never left the ‘Very Great Depression which it entered in 2008 despite” massive money creation.

As a result, interest rates will rise. Government deficits will explode. Economic decline will intensify. Equity valuations will decline. The dollar will behave erratically “before suddenly losing 30% of its value” as earlier predicted.

At the same time, “Euroland,” BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and “commodity producers will rapidly strengthen their cooperation while launching a final attempt to salvage” the remnants of Bretton Woods and a US/UK dominated world.

“(I)t’s unrealistic to imagine (Obama) who has shown no major international stature so far, proving himself” statesmanlike enough to take risks ahead of the 2012 election cycle.

Under his leadership, America “is completely in dreamland. Whilst the country has reached unsustainable levels of debt, (its leaders) have made this topic an election issue.”

Moreover, America today is seen as the “sick man of the world in which any sign of weakness or serious inconsistency can trigger uncontrolled panic.”

In addition, the combination of “(c)razy central bankers, world leaders without a roadmap, economies at risk, inflation rising, currencies in trouble, frenzied commodities, uncontrolled Western debt, (high unemployment), (and) stressed societies” leaves little doubt about looming trouble ahead as early as second half 2011.

A Final Comment

In late May, Gerald Celente highlighted “the most trend-significant story” getting little or no coverage in Western media reports. The combination of weather, economic, and geopolitical events portend “far-reaching and disastrous” socioeconomic consequences.

“Farming, shipping, seafood, food supplies and petroleum refining will be among the foreseeable casualties, accompanied by massive population displacement. But the ensuing chain reaction (inflation, shortages, unemployment, etc.) will claim many other victims,” so far unquantifiable.

Middle East and European protests “signaled a major turning point, (an unstoppable) “Off With Their Heads” mega-trend, America’s media don’t notice or explain.

Celente calls the European bailouts failures, creating higher unemployment, more debt, draconian austerity, and “a wholesale sell-off of valuable public resources,” asset-stripping national wealth to enrich bankers, producing painful consequences.

As a result, “(e)conomic conditions will continue to deteriorate for most European nations. The worse they get, the louder and more heated the protests….” Repressive crackdowns will follow, producing greater protests this summer into 2012 and beyond as conditions worsen.

However, a potential wild card deserves watching – one or more terror strikes likely derailing angry protesters temporarily, uniting them behind national security issues, the way 9/11 worked.

More worrisome is a possible major false flag, even a nuclear one targeting a US and/or Western European city. If so, all bets are off short term, but sooner or later unmet needs will take precedence, perhaps when hungry people blame Washington for their misery and react angrily for help. It bears watching and may happen sooner than expected.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/

Internet Censorship Bill Introduced In US Senate



08 June, 2011

Countercurrents.org

S. 968: Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011 (PROTECT IP) was introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy (D. VT) and nine other senators on May 12. It is a smoke screen to introduce new censorship provisions that violate First Amendment freedoms, without which all others are at risk in USA. Reported to committee on May 26, it was placed on the Senate calendar for a floor vote yet to occur.

If enacted, PROTECT IP will give federal authorities “unprecedented power to attack the Internet’s domain name system (DNS),” by: forcing ISPs and search engines to redirect or reject user attempts to reach certain cites; and vaguely call DNS servers “server(s) or other mechanism(s) used to provide the Internet protocol addresses associated with a domain name.” This definition endangers other technologies, including operating systems, email and web clients, routers, and others able to provide IP addresses when given domain names like traditional DNS servers.

Calling PROTECT IP “COICA Redux,” EFF’s Abigail Phillips explained differences between both measures, expressing grave concerns about the new one, saying:

It includes “a private right of action for intellectual property owners (as well as government to) seek injunctions against websites (allegedly) ‘dedicated to infringing activities’ in addition to court orders against third parties providing services to those sites.”

Its language also adds new third-party provider categories, including “interactive computer services” and “servers of sponsored links,” requiring they no longer serve targeted sites.

Moreover, “new language no longer requires explicit action on the part of domain name registries and registrars,” but still covers unauthorized domain name system server operators.

In addition, the measure requires government or private plaintiffs to identify infringing persons or entities before action is taken against a domain name. Nonetheless, doing so falls far short of protecting speech with plenty of wiggle room to violate it.

As a result, Phillips called PROTECT IP “no improvement on COICA.” Moreover, in many ways it’s worse, and may produce defensive countermeasures, including establishing alternative servers with total Internet access, creating possible new security vulnerabilities.

Currently, Senator Ron Wyden (D. OR) placed a hold on S. 968, providing concerned Internet users time to email, call, and/or write their congressional representatives, expressing opposition to this repressive act, essential to stop.

PROTECT IP A Continuation Of COICA

In fact it was Senator Patrick Leahy himself on september 20, 2010 introduced S. 3804: Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) was introduced by . Its purpose was to destroy Internet freedom one domain at a time, by requiring their registrars/registries, ISPs, DNS (domain name system) providers, and others to block users from reaching certain websites.

If passed, COICA would have let Washington suppress free speech and block access to non-infringing material, inflicting enormous constitutional damage by requiring all Internet communication providers (including ISPs, Facebook, Twitter, Skype, and others) to rebuild their systems, giving Washington backdoor access to everyone’s Internet’s communications.

On November 18, 2010, COICA was reported to committee, then stalled without coming to the Senate floor for a vote.

Final ACTA Text Ready

An October 2007 global measure, overriding national sovereignty, also threatens Net Neutrality, consumer privacy, and civil liberties. Called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), secret negotiations seek to subvert them, ostensibly to protect copyrighted intellectual property, including films, photos, and songs. ACTA remains a work in progress, but developments going forward bear watching, especially if a global agreement is reached.

On May 27, the Foundation for Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) said the European Commission published a “final” ACTA text with few changes from its last known version. Since introduced, Western media, especially America’s, have reported virtually nothing about this destructive measure, those backing it wish to enact with little or no public disclosure, let alone input over something this important.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/

The Case For Palestine’s UN Membership

 

08 June, 2011

Countercurrents.org

On November 15, 1988 the Palestine National Council (P.N.C.) meeting in Algiers proclaimed the Palestinian Declaration of Independence that created the independent state of Palestine. Today the State of Palestine is bilaterally recognized de jure by about 130 states. Palestine has de facto diplomatic recognition from most states of Europe. It was only massive political pressure applied by the U.S. government that prevented European states from according de jure diplomatic recognition to Palestine.

Palestine is a member state of the League of Arab States and of the Organization of Islamic Conference (O.I.C). When the International Court of Justice in The Hague—the World Court of the United Nations System—conducted its legal proceedings on Israel’s apartheid wall on the West Bank, it invited the State of Palestine to participate in the proceedings. In other words, the International Court of Justice recognized the State of Palestine.

Palestine has Observer State Status with the United Nations Organization, and basically all the rights of a U.N. Member State except the right to vote. Effectively, Palestine has de facto U.N. Membership. The only thing keeping Palestine from de jure U.N. Membership is the implicit threat of a veto at the U.N. Security Council by the United States, which is clearly illegal because it would violate a solemn and binding pledge given by the United States not to veto States applying for U.N. Membership. Someday, Palestine shall become a full-fledged U.N. Member State.

The votes are there already in the U.N. General Assembly to admit Palestine pursuant to the terms of its Uniting for Peace Resolution (1950). It is the U.N. General Assembly that admits a Member State, not the Security Council. Obama’s veto at the Security Council can be circumvented by the General Assembly acting under the Uniting for Peace Resolution to admit Palestine as a U.N Member State in September.

Professor Francis A. Boyle served as Legal Advisor to the Palestine Liberation Organization and Yasser Arafat on the 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence, as well as to the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Negotiations from 1991 to 1993, where he drafted the Palestinian counter-offer to the now defunct Oslo Agreement. His books include “ Palestine, Palestinians and International Law” (2003), and “ The Palestinian Right of Return under International Law” (2010).

Russia Rejects Any U.N. Security Council Resolution Against Syria

 

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.

 

Italian La Rinascita: Western Media Coverage to Events in Syria is Farc

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.

 

 

 

 

 

Italian La Rinascita: Western Media Coverage to Events in Syria is Farc

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.

 

 

 

 

 

The Secret Wars of the Saudi-“Israeli” Alliance- By Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya

 

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.