Saturday 6 August 2011

Breaking News: “Bin Laden” Heroes Probably Murderered to Keep Them Quiet

Some Possibly Killed in Abbottabad Helicopter Crash Months Before

By Gordon Duff, Senior Editor

Today 31 NATO troops, 20 of them Navy Seals from the Osama bin Laden operation died in what is reported as a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. The chances of this story being true is almost nil. The chances of this being a staged coverup is over 80%. We believe these people were murdered to silence them. This is why.

We have solid information on two areas:
  1. Osama bin Laden died in 2001 as an active CIA employee and his body was recovered in Afghanistan and taken to “the sand box.” We were told it was frozen. We have so much verification from this, CIA, US military and top officials. I have a direct confirmation from Bin Laden’s CIA handler who I grilled mercilessly on this.
  2. The Abbottabad operation involved numerous American deaths, witnessed, bodies all over, a helicopter crash. These bodies were recovered by land vehicle from Islamabad and there was NO “successful” bin Laden operation of any kind. There was and has been a CIA safe house in Abbotabad where terror suspects were stored for years.
This gave the US several areas of severe vulnerability. Generally, Navy Seals are the best people in the world at keeping their mouths shut, these are real team players, as the term “Seal Team” belies.
We at VT were informed that the bin Laden operation was staged at this time, a theatrical farce, to cover the exit of Secretary Gates, the move by former CIA Director Leon Panetta into the DOD as Secretary of Defense and to stem any heroic claims by new CIA Director Petraeus of killing the long dead Osama bin Laden, the long frozen CIA operative.

Petraeus is a possible presidential contender and had to be denied this “gift from heaven,” a fast track to the oval office for sure.

Again, I remind you, I went over specific meetings with bin Laden with his handlers, getting every last detail. Watching what has gone on, the continuing need to vilify a long dead top CIA operative to provide residual cover for the Bush administration….

The reason? Bush and his cronies are all facing charges of war crimes, not just in minor jurisdictions by heading for the ICC, putting them on the dock with Gaddafi ( a far less harmful character).
As for the timing of this incident? This we will work on. What we can easily surmise is that some of the dead have been dead since their bodies were taken away from the helicopter crash site in Abbotabad.

Who would order such a thing? We are going to have to wait but we are going to find out. However, we expected this, the timing is exactly as predicted.

HOW VT TRIED TO SAVE THEM

When the phony Abbotbad operation came out, I immediately understood what happened. I also saw much potential good from it other than the tragedy of the dead Americans from the crash. I wrote of this and see their deaths as more heroic than many recognize.

They died to erase for all time remnants of the Bush era fairly tale of badguy and evildoer Osama bin Laden. Not long afterward, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, another able public servant announced the near defeat of Al Qaeda, another Bush fairly tale.

Al Qaeda has never existed, there are no magic worldwide terror conspiracies other than those run by governments. There are several of those and I have written extensively on these. Google will help you with this if you are curious.

When VT saw why the government staged this, we saw we could accomplish two things:
  1. We could simply report the truth for those willing to believe it, something we believe is the right thing to do.
  2. We could also support the United States in a very real way, knowing Pakistan would weather this crisis, timed, in some ways, as a face saving move in response to the embarrassing Raymond Davis affair. I believed if the truth came out, clear enough for insiders, intel and miliary for sure, to understand that we knew and other insiders knew, there would be no reason to “clean house” afterward, to stage a coverup and get rid of any involved.
I had felt that we had provided cover for the Seal Team, we hadn’t trashed them, we acknowledged the dead at Abbotabad where no one else bothered, this is our job as fellow members of America’s military forces (current and former).

More importantly, we got out word, I certainly did enough radio and TV on this, enough that, for anyone who care, the “truth was out there.”

This is all we could do but I hoped it would stem a need for covering tracks. After all, anyone leaking real information on the operation would only seem like they had gotten it from me and I put it out there in such a manner that I allowed room to be “debunked.”

I do this to protect myself but I really was thinking of them. These are great guys, Seals are among the best people on earth. The Seal and Special Forces communities are, of the military groups in the US, some of the finest people I know.

They also help cover my “behind,” which I appreciate.

This is just too obvious, too brazen. I can’t imagine it started at the White House or even cabinet level but maybe I am deluding myself. Bin Laden was all about the election.

After the bond collapse and credit disaster yesterday, anything threatening President Obama’s reelection is seen, by some, as a threat to America’s financial survival. This debt crisis is a bigger threat to the US than a Japanese invasion in 1942 would have been.

You may not see it that way and you certainly cant get out your hunting rifle to fix it. (Don’t be a sap, kill a Jap!)

Someone had gotten to someone. Best guess and this is a guess, an expose by the mainstream media, perhaps Murdoch, another guess, conjecture I admit, regarding the farce at Abbottabad, information possibly gotten through spying, bribery and blackmail, threatened to take down Obama.

With Murdoch’s good friend and “monkeyboy,” Netanyahu ‘on the ropes,” with crowds marching in Israel’s streets demanding his ouster, we have more timing to factor in.

The bin Laden killing, the third rate drama of capturing an unarmed frozen dead guy and throwing him into the ocean had probably become an albatross around certain high ranking necks.

Norway was no accident, it was a warning too. It has been containerized, just as the Murdoch espionage issue is now “poor Rupert and the pie thrower.”

These Americans are casualties in a game, one like 9/11, sacrificial pawns, like Britain’s 7/7, all lies, all theatre, all evil.

This is not for public consumption. There are those who know exactly who I am talking to.
There are many of us here who still keep our mouths shut about so many things. There are too many who don’t even care, most of us at VT do. Yes, I am aware I can be jailed, I am aware my passport can be pulled, I already see the damned surveillance.

Amateurs.

We aren’t anti-American. I am simply sick of seeing solutions that go one direction, stealing everything that isn’t nailed down. I am also sick of the fact that Washington can’t visit the “head’ without Israel’s permission.

This today, this is too much, it is unforgivable. We are not going to allow this to stand. We have a long standing history of “cleaning house” after operations of this kind. Usually its dead senators in plane crashes, heart attacks, car wrecks, like the Minot Barksdale or 9/11 incidents. I could name a dozen more. Does the name Wheeler meaning anything to you?

But this many?
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River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Anatolia Conference Decide to Get Hama Involved in the Bloody Confrontation?

Nidal Hamadeh
It is not a secret for any observer for the riots in some Syrian areas which occurred during the past week namely in the City of Hama that the Arabian Syrian Army entering this City has been a political strategic measure before it is considered a military security stepping up.
Furthermore, one can never differentiate between the messages Syria has wanted to pass to more than one regional and international party through such a strategic move by the Arab Syrian Army in Hama and those regional and international messages Syria passed about two months ago when it sent divisions of the Syrian Army to the borders with Turkey.
Here the geographic dimension is a mere factor for coverage confirming the linkage between the two files. In fact, the nature of the plot being executed in order to topple down the Syrian regime makes the Hama file complementary for Al-Shughur Bridge file and the Syrian refugee camps in Turkey. The first goal of such linkage is to arrive at executing a military Turkish intervention plan in Syria, which was exclusively released by Al-Manar Website in detail last June.

Now that Syria is practically in confrontation with the second part of the plot, and that it is absolutely aware of the international diplomatic escalation through the Security Council, we find it necessary to uncover the linkage between the two files in the external plot for the purpose of toppling down the regime in Syria.
Syrian opposition conference in Antalia, Turkey
Here we would enumerate what the Syrian protestors in Europe narrated after their return from Anatolia Conference for the Syrian Protestors regarding the responsibility of this conference for the fleeing of Syrian in thousands for safety in Turkey and the riots in Hama which started directly after the conference in Anatolia, Turkey. The protestors described the consequences as a catastrophe that struck the opposition.
The Syrian opposition held the conference in Anatolia, Turkey, under the auspices of Turkey last May 31st amid a wave of Turkish declared threats on the basis of the current events taking place in Syria.

The conference was the result of absolute coordination between Turkey and Qatar, the latter was described by some Syrian opposition figures as the real financer for all the Syrian opposition conferences despite the fact that they were done through Syrian businessmen residing in the U.S.A. and Europe.

The end of the aforementioned conference went through disputes among the Muslim Brothers and the Syrian secular and the leftist parties on the basis of the Turkish inclination observed upon their interference to have the Muslim Brothers outweigh the participants. The dispute was also over how to come out with a unified opposing assortment that would remain under the influence of the Muslim Brothers in Syria and still be careful to decorate the committee-to-be with some secular figures strictly for interest purposes.

However, those disputes did not prevent the participants from endorsing the plan for their movement in Syria, according to main figures in the Syrian opposition who attended the conference but left not only due to the disputes with the Muslim Brothers but also due to their protest against the Turkish and the Qatari roles in dominating the decisions of the Syrian opposition through the Turkish affective and the Qatari promotional roles.
According to opposing Syrian sources, the plan clandestinely endorsed is divided into two parts:

a. Instigating the Syrian villagers adjacent to the Turkish borders to leave for refugee Turkish camps on the Turkish side ready to accommodate them.

b. Getting Hama involved in the protests against the Syrian regime after its very long delayed lagging.
While the part related to the City of Hama, the Syrian opposition sources warns that Hama in its symbolic value due to the troubles in 1981 has made the stakeholders overseeing the project "The Soft Hand to Topple down the Syrian Regime" insist on getting the city in a direct struggle with the regime. It was both Turkey and Qatar along with the Muslim Brothers in Syria who used to say that Hama would create a local and an international problem for the regime in case it joined the turmoil. Also, for this reason, it has to get involved in any possible means so that the rate of international pressures on the Syrian president, Bashar Al-Assad, would be accelerated.

The sources proceed to say that the Muslim Brothers Movement had started to get ready namely in two cities Homs and Hama two years ago. This was done through dormant cells depending on some imams of mosques in addition to laying the ground for an armed confrontation with the regime. Such preparations were also done by smuggling weapons from Lebanon to those two cities particularly because of their adjacency to the Syrian – Lebanese borders. In addition, the familial and commercial relations that connect the people on both sides of the borders have facilitated, in some respect, the continuous smuggling of weaponry till today.
Source: Al-Manar Website
06-08-2011 - 14:07 | 288 View

Jewish Voice for Peace? Really??

By Nahida the Exiled Palestinian




It appears that, yet again, Anti-zionist Jewish organizations are trying to silence Palestine's supporters, to frame the debate, to secure the future of their brethren in occupied Palestine and to steer the course of Liberation of our Homeland

I would invite people to hear a Palestinian voice, here:

A strategy of liberation requires emancipation

* No decent human-being would demand to live on STOLEN land and still claims to have a fiber of morality.

* No decent human-being could claim that the perpetrator should have the same rights as the victim while claiming to be a humanist.

* Palestinians are under no obligation to hold back their march for freedom, to curtail their aims or to smother their rights for the sake of accommodating and not offending their Jewish supporters.

* Palestinians are always grateful and appreciative of the hard work and dedication of all their supporters whomever they are, however, Palestinians have NO obligation to adopt the aims and objectives of the anti-zionist Jewish supporters instead of their own.

* Dismissing the Palestinian voice as radical, reactionary, intolerant, or unreasonable, and requiring instead the Jewish-anti-zionist stamp of approval to have legitimacy to speak for Palestine, is preposterous and contradicts basic concepts of human rights and does not do justice to Palestinians.

* Palestinians have the ultimate right to choose their vision for their future, of a FREE and sovereign Palestine including the type of government, the writing of constitution, the construction and implementation of their legal and juristic system, which stems from and corresponds to their ethics and reflects and protects their culture.

* Palestinians have the ultimate right to make the final decision on who is allowed to stay in liberated Palestine and who is not, using the legal procedure of their own choice.

* The future of the Palestinian struggle and the aim of liberation of Palestine should not be designed to shield the occupier from paying the full price of his crimes; including the punishment of all those who participated in transgression, and the deportation of the illegitimate Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants who colonized Palestine forcefully and were engaged in acts of aggression against Palestinians including serving in the IOF.

* All refugee and their descendents have the unconditional right to come back home, they as the rightful indigenous owners are also entitled to the reinstatement of ALL confiscated (stolen) land and property, compensation for all their losses over the many years of exile and they are also entitled to Palestinian citizenship wherever they are.

* The aims and aspirations of most Palestinians are not confined to the change of zionist regime or the vacuous declaration of abandonment of zionism by the Jewish-zionist occupiers, but rather to the FULL Liberation of Palestine and the restoration of all their rights.

* It is the privilege of Palestinians to decide who should stay in their homeland and who not.

* After a century of terror, theft and crimes; had the Zionist shown any signs of remorse, respect or willingness to be decent guests, had they embraced with open arms the hospitable people of Palestine rather than destroying them with fire-arms; they might have had a chance to be accepted and forgiven. Not any more, as far as I am concerned. They have lost that opportunity.


As a Palestinian, I see the role of any "Jewish voice for peace" who sincerely desire to contribute to the Liberation of Palestine and justice for Palestinians, and who desire to be identified through their contributions "as Jews", then their role ought to be focused on cleaning their own house before sorting other people's houses; i.e. that is to exclude any major role in influencing, leading or directing the Solidarity and/or Liberation Movement of Palestine.

Through taking a leading role in campaigning to blacklist organizations and publications, label intellectuals and limit the spectrum of debate by censoring topics which they deem "controversial"; by framing the debate they act against intellectual integrity, box Palestinians and their supporters mentally and knowingly or not act as gatekeepers. They force people to self-censorship to avoid been accused of antisemitism; hence preventing them from acquiring, sharing or discussing information freely that would allow them to make their own informed decisions.


Palestinians' grievances against the zionist theft of their land do by no means justify antisemitism accusations, Palestinians and their supporters are no lesser human beings, they are well capable to sieve through information and make their own evaluation, henceforth it is completely unacceptable that some of our anti-zionist Jewish supporters try to dictate to Palestinians:

who they should accept as a supporter and who should they boycott;

what speaker to invite and whose lecture to avoid;

who they should consider progressive and who can be labeled reactionary;

what religion and religious group are above all criticism and what faith is deemed to be "backward looking and inherently unable to deliver progress";

what books should be read, and which articles should be thrown away;

what narrative of events should be adopted as "reasonable" and which should be considered a "conspiracy theory";

what chapter of history should be seen as a "dogmatic unquestionable religion"; and which one should be seen as "hoax" or as a "useless hateful rumors";

what course of action should be taken and which one should be dismissed a "distraction";

Furthermore, when censorship is practiced, when some books become forbidden and certain speakers are silenced, it appears to any self-respecting free-thinker that their brain, their ability to analyze and evaluate are being demeaned and patronized.

Rather than wasting their energy campaigning to ostracize or silence some of the most outspoken allies and honest supporters of Palestine, they should rather direct their efforts towards their OWN communities where the rot is anchored and festering: where supremacist ideologies reign supreme, chauvinistic anti-humanist beliefs flourish, delusional concepts entrenched and fostered, and criminal Mossadic activities thrive, and where mossers are ostracized and sayanim are promoted.
This ought to be our Jewish allies' battlefield.


It is only in this specifically Jewish frame of activity, that separate organizations identified as exclusively Jewish can affect significant change and eventually their claim to speak in the name of their Jewishness be vindicated.

On the contrary, when specifically Jewish organizations or activists ubiquitously claim to be the true representative of Jewish people, or the voice of Judaism, whereas they are but a tiny, minute, insignificant and ineffective minority, and what is more an ostracized and despised minority amidst their larger Jewish communities, then these Jewish organizations by making their false claim of representing Jews or Judaism as they bravely expose Israeli crimes, are projecting nothing less than a smoke screen deflecting from the sinister racist ideology which has produced Zionism in the first place.

Is this the Jewish community? or is it this?

Since it is quite obvious that the Jewish members of organizations who claim to be Anti-Zionist, rarely are -if ever, active members of their local Jewish communities and when they try to reach out, they are generally rejected;

since they pretend that exposing the ideologies and activities of their community is a "distraction";

since they accuse of being "anti-semite" whomever questions the thriving racism and the powerful lobby within the Jewish communities and

since they fail to infiltrate the nefarious Judeo-Zionist network in order to affect real change from within:

therefore the claim that they speak for the Jewish people or Judaism is invalid, and the only reasonable consequence is to dissolve their separate "Jewish only" Anti-Zionist or Pro-Palestinian organizations, in order to become an integral part of the Solidarity Movement.

.

Syria to Hold Free, Transparent Elections by End of 2011

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem declared on Saturday that elections to a new parliament will be held by year's end.

"Syria will hold free and transparent elections that will give birth to a parliament representing the aspirations of the Syrian people," Moallem said in a meeting with foreign ambassadors posted to Damascus. "The general elections will be held before the end of the year," Mallem was quoted by the official SANA news agency as saying.

The foreign minister stressed "the commitment of the Syrian leadership to the continued reform process and implementation of measures announced by President (Bashar al-) Assad."
According to SANA, Moallem underlined Syria's keenness on security, stability and stopping vandalism acts, and leading the country along the path of democracy and progress.
Answering the questions of some ambassadors, Moallem said there will be free and fair elections that lead to a people's assembly representing the Syrian people through political pluralism guaranteed by the political parties' law and the numerous assurances in the elections' law.
Moallem reiterated that national dialogue is the way to solve the current crisis. “In the absence of such dialogue due to the opposition's negative stances, we have no other choice but to go down the path of reforms without leaving it hostage to any hindering factor," he said.
Source: Agencies
06-08-2011 - 17:34 | 62 View
River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Mubarak's ineluctable fate


[ 05/08/2011 - 09:28 PM ]
By Khalid Amayreh in occupied Jerusalem

No tears ought to be shed for ex-President Husni Mubarak, his two sons, and several of his aides and ministers, who were arraigned before a Cairo court on Wednesday on charges of murder, breach of trust, and misappropriation of public funds.

The hands of the former dictator are thoroughly stained with the blood of hundreds of innocent Egyptians. As President, Mubarak ordered co-defendant, ex-interior minister Habeeb el-A'adly to crush peaceful protesters by whatever means necessary. The eventual outcome of these murderous instructions was hundreds of innocent people getting killed, maimed and mutilated.
There are those who would want to see mercy take priority over justice. But Mubarak, who never behaved mercifully toward ordinary Egyptians, let alone his political opponents, doesn’t deserve mercy.
Indeed, according mercy to the unmerciful is an abuse of mercy just as forgiving criminals and murderers constitutes a breach of justice.
In the final analysis, the victims, their relatives and friends have an absolutely inherent right to see that justice is done.
In the absence of justice, societies fall prey to corruption and decay and even life itself becomes futile.
Hence, the prosecution of Mubarak and his gang should be viewed as a historical and auspicious landmark separating two eras, an era of despotism, tyranny, lawlessness and corruption, which ought to be consigned to history for good and not allowed to raise its head again, and an era of justice, responsible governance where the rule of the law is above all considerations.
This is not a matter of vindictiveness and vengeance. It is simply a matter of fairness and justice.
I don't know the nature of the punishment that will be meted out to Mubarak at the end of his trial. However, if he is found guilty of giving instructions to people like Habeeb Aadly to shoot and murder peaceful demonstrators, then Mubarak must meet his ineluctable fate. After all, Mubarak's life is not more precious than those of his numerous victims.
Mubarak's misdeeds go far beyond instructing security officials to murder innocent, peaceful protesters. For 30 years, he presided over a corrupt police-state apparatus which effectively metamorphosed a country of eighty million from an independent and vigorous state into a virtual Israeli-American colony.
Mubarak crushed human rights and civil liberties, using the notorious Mabahes Amnel dawla (the state security apparatus), a sort of Egyptian Savak. His regime practiced torture, imprisoned political opponents and outlawed legitimate political activities.
And in order that he might remain at the helm of power, and even bequeath it to his son or sons after him, Mubarak placed Egypt at Israel 's beck and call. He did every thing, including brazen collusion with the Zionist regime, to prove and demonstrate his loyalty to the Nazi-like entity.
His disgraceful position during the genocidal Israeli onslaught against the Gaza Strip in 2008-09 will continue to be a stigma of shame for many many years to come.
It is true that the Nazis of our time, the murderous Zionists, bear direct responsibility for the Nazi-like death and terror wreaked on the innocent people of Gaza for three infernal weeks. But it is also true that the genocidal campaign wouldn't have occurred, let alone continued for that long, had it not been for the Mubarak regime's scandalous collusion, connivance and collaboration with the Zionists.
Mubarak didn’t stop at this. He sought to build a concrete-and -steel wall along the Gaza borders to see to it that blockaded and besieged Gazans would starve to death. He wanted to choke Gazans to death in order to obtain a certificate of good conduct from Israel and the Jewish-control American Congress.
Hence, one doesn't go too far by stating that Mubarak and his regime stand guilty for allowing the Judeo-Nazis in Tel Aviv to shed rivers of Palestinian blood under the rubric of fighting Hamas, a democratically elected political party whose only crime, from the Mubarak regime's perspective, was its ideological affinity wit the Muslim Brotherhood, Mubarak's ultimate anathema and comfortable mantra for falsifying elections, suppressing opposition and resisting democratic reforms.
Mubarak, the petty dictator, had the mindset of a little pharaoh. He thought he was omnipotent and eternal. He never thought he would have to stand trial for his crimes against the Egyptian people. And he seemed to never have thought about the hereafter, when he will have to answer the Almighty for every thing he did.
Now that he is standing trial, he should serve as an example for other Arab dictators who still think that they are the Almighty's shadow on earth. This is why these thugs do what they are doing, slaughtering their own people just because these people want to be free like the rest of mankind.
There is no doubt that other Arab tyrants are extremely anxious watching their former boss in the dock. They dread that day they might be forced to answer for their own crimes against humanity and against their own people.
There is no doubt that the Egyptian people are the ultimate winners from this historical and landmark event. Egypt won’t be the same ever after this episode.
The same thing can be said of Arab masses from Bahrain to Morocco who won't allow them to be intimidated by petty dictators and tyrants playing gods over people's fates and destinies.
But there are certainly those who do shed tears for Mubarak. They mostly exist in Israel and the United States .

The New Friends
After all, they've lost their man, or more correctly, their stooge and agent.
Mubarak, as his Zionist friend Benyamin Benalizer testified a few days ago, was more than just a friend of Israel . He was actually one of its closest allies. That says it all.
I think traitors ought to meet a traitor's fate, and that is death. We must never be apologetic about this.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Self-Hatred vs. Self-Love- An Interview with Eric Walberg by Gilad Atzmon

http://mycatbirdseat.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Eric_Walberg.jpgTwo weeks ago I published a review of Eric Walberg’s invaluable new book Postmodern Imperialism: Geopolitics and the Great Games. I was left with a few questions which Eric was kind enough to address.

Gilad Atzmon: Hello Eric; thanks for finding the time to talk. I would like to begin if I may, with a few short questions: firstly, what is self-hatred?

Eric Walberg: Buddhism is based on the annihilation of the self. Islam – on the total submission of self. It’s at the heart of Christian beliefs too. (I don’t know about Judaism.) Self-hatred has respectable roots.

GA: I totally agree with you. However, I wonder, are you a self-hater? I ask because in your writing, you seem to be deeply familiar with that kind of intellectual adventure.

EW: In some way, I like Woody Allen’s riposte “I may be self-hating but not because I’m a Jew.” 
The self is constantly prompting us to do terrible things, so a bit of self-criticism is not such a bad trait.

GA: Considering the increasing power of Jewish lobbies, what do you think should be the role of the Jewish self-hater?

EW: I just saw “Sea Shepherd” about Paul Watson, an alpha male type, big ego, self-loving who channels his energy into a good cause. I’m not the heroic type, but channel my energy too. I like to think I complement people like Watson Just as the Zionists can so successfully change colours depending on their needs or shifting political winds, it is important that anti-Zionists mobilise all types – left, right, big egos, little egos, musicians, tin-ears, jocks, couch potatoes, etc

GA: If 'anti Semites' are those people that the Jews hate, and 'anti-Semitism' is a bunch of ideas that Jews cannot cope with, what should be the role of the Jewish 'self hater' in that regard?

EW: To fill in the gaps in the movement. To help unite people, not around their own egos, but around the movements and leaders who have the best chance of moving the campaign forward. I see this graphically in Egypt now, where suddenly there are 50 political parties and yet only one (united) counter-revolutionary force.

GA: This is a very good point you make here. Does the self-hater have a special role within the post-political era in which we live?

EW: I would call our era “postmodern” (yes, I’m shamelessly plugging my book here), meaning “the imperial system characterized by one superpower with no real enemy”. It is important that people understand that there still are “modern” states (which have their own political/ military policies, potentially imperial or anti-imperial) but that most states are “postmodern” (subservient to the US in foreign and even domestic policy). We must acknowledge that reality – our governments no longer represent the popular will (they never did very often, but can’t by definition now). We have entered a revolutionary period again, which a country like Egypt shows in spades. To throw off US-Israeli hegemony and the domestic neoliberalism that complements this requires subsuming our egos behind a movement that represents the popular will. No more “me” generation. “We must all become self-deniers now.”

GA: Isn’t it the self-hater who becomes conscious, in our current state of affairs of these postmodern conditions, by forming a critical and ethically oriented discourse that transcends itself beyond politics, or indeed, beyond any available discipline?

EW: Well put. What's needed now is more than just ballot-box politics. It is exciting in Egypt to see how people have rediscovered their dignity, are delving into the heroic past of Nasserite socialism and anti-imperialism, now without the Islamist opposition (at least that’s how I see it at present). The Muslim Brotherhood can only be a credible force in the long run if its joins forces with the socialists to wrest back some of the ill-gotten gains of the super-rich. This is precisely what must happen throughout the neoliberal world.

GA: I must stop you here. When you say “credible” what do you refer to? Should the Muslim Brotherhood seek credibility? And whose credibility should they seek? As far as I can see they are credible enough amongst Egyptians, Arab people and beyond. I tend to believe that Islam rather than any 19th century Eurocentric ideology is the way forward for Arabs and other nations in the region.

EW: I agree in principle that there is no inherent need to adopt western policies, but the Arab world must nonetheless first extricate itself from its neocolonial status. Once you have capitalism, banks and lots of MBAs eager to try out their management techniques, and many more dispossessed, rootless would-be workers, you have to deal with this reality. Perhaps I’m old-fashioned, but I still see the Marxian critique of capital as the way forward. There was no capitalism in the seventh century. What I discovered in writing my book is that Marx ended up coming to much the same conclusion as Mohamed. Only Marx did so by providing the critique of capital. I think the MBAs in the Middle East can do with a dose of Marx before trying to build a non-exploitative society in line with the Quran.

GA: I am really happy with the above interpretation of Marx being, somehow, 'footnotes' to Mohamed. Yet, at this stage then, I wonder if someone could explain to me then, why Marxists -- and Jewish Marxists in particular -- are so threatened by Islam and Muslims. I guess that one answer is that they fail to fully understand and grasp their mentor. Another answer is that perhaps progressiveness is in itself just another form and manifestation of 'chosen-ness' i.e. self-love.

Anyhow, let’s move on now. Considering the unfolding realisation that Norway's mass killer was possibly inspired by Jewish Zionist ideologists such as those of Daniel Pipes and Melanie Philips etc, what do you think should be the role of the 'self-hater' in exposing all these inter-connections and links?

EW: Basically, pointing out unpleasant truths, such as the emperor’s nakedness (rather than one’s own fine apparel). There was a nice piece by Arnaut at Israel Shamir's site today. He makes the telling point that 'peaceful' Norway was bombing Serbia (Breivik mentions this as motivation) and is now bombing Libya. What do Norway's leaders expect? Their sins (supporting Israeli-US empire) are coming back to haunt them. Project violence and you incite it against yourself.

GA: This is a good point indeed, to a certain extent we are consumed by blindness; we fail to see our own faults. I guess that self-love is a form of such an inherent blindness. Eric, what is self-loving?

EW: I prefer talking about self-acceptance. Self-acceptance means recognizing that “We all are sinners.” To quote the fundamentalist Christians, “You can love the sinner but not embrace the sin.”

GA: This is an astute interpretation of self-loving, but in fact I would argue that those who uphold such a view of themselves are far from being self-lovers. Self-loving refers to a unique form of excessive self approval.

EW: It sounds like a trick question. You can’t annihilate the self and love it at the same time. I’ll stick with my formulation. I don’t trust anyone who is isn’t at peace with himself or that is too egotistical.

G: This is reasonable observation, I similarly argue that ‘Jewish self haters’ do actually love themselves hating themselves; so, in practice, they are also ‘self lovers’ after all.

EW: Getting back to the sin business, after all these years, I see the wisdom in (strict, uncompromising) religion as a way of life necessary to promote social stability and harmony. You can be a Voltaire and merely see a set of religious beliefs as necessary to society, regardless of whether or not there is a God. That’s what good secular socialism/ Marxism is all about (as opposed to the bad kind). Mohamed and Marx came to largely the same conclusions (about usury, exploitation and compassion) from seemingly apposite directions.

GA: Interesting indeed, I would add Jesus to the list. However, I tend to distinguish between Marx and ‘Marxism’ (ideology/praxis); I have no problem with the former. The later though, within the Western discourse at least, is a pretty problematic power structure with very little regard for ethical issues, humanity and humanism. To a certain extent, it is a form of supremacy that adopts the Judaic binary template; it replaces the notion of Kosher with ‘progressiveness’. Both Jews and Marxists define what chosen-ness is all about and then locate themselves comfortably amongst the chosen. This disturbing mode of behaviour explains why many western Marxists fail to grasp the power of Islam as the leading anti-imperial force.

EW: You are right about Marxism vs. Marx. Perhaps Marx operated according to some Jewish memes, despite his rejection of Judaism. You no doubt know that Marx ended up saying about what was being touted as his doctrine, “If that’s Marxism, I’m not a Marxist.” But it’s the same with Jesus vs. Christianity or Mohamed and the Quran vs. Islamism. Still, we have to put the ideas into practice. I think you’ve been burned by too many armchair Marxists. I know (and respect) people that genuinely put Marx’s ideas into practice whether or not they call themselves Marxists, just as I know and respect people who put the ideas of Jesus or Mohamed into practice, whether or not they call themselves Christians or Muslims.

GA: I totally agree with the above, however, I do not like the notion of ‘Islamism’. I actually contend that it is a Zio-centric term set at the hub of the Western discourse in order to transform Israeli wars into a universalized call.

As far as I am concerned, Jewish chosen-ness could be explored as a different form of self-love. Would you agree?

EW: Perhaps in its benign manifestation, though I think from the start it has been a tribal/ racial thing, and looks like a dinosaur in our “postmodern” world. It’s a shame that Zionism has so discredited the concept of being a Jew. It will take years and a major cleansing operation to salvage anything beyond a preference for line dancing and gefiltefish.

GA: I actually think that the problem goes far beyond Zionism. For the sake of the matter, I am actually critical of any form of Jewish secular political setting for being racially exclusive. In fact, Early Zionism was initially an anti-Jewish movement. It was a unique moment of critical reflection, self-awareness and even collective self-hatred. It was an attempt to identify the causes behind Jewish cultural abnormalities. Zionism failed for many reasons such as being inherently plunderous. It was set to be celebrated on the expense of others (Palestinians). It is actually the triumph of Jewish ideology within the Zionist and Israeli reality that unveils the problematic nature of Jewish self-love, Jewish culture and collectivism. Zionism and Israel are there to remind us all what happens when tribalism goes wrong.

But Israel, Zionism and Jewish politics are not alone. Is not the Western discourse driven by enlightenment fetish, multiculturalism, and fake tolerance, a form of self-loving?

EW: This is part of the bad socialism/ Marxism. You don’t tolerate spoiled food. Relativism and faux tolerance of the other does not promote social harmony. We need a renewed moral base to our lives which at this point requires overthrowing the neoliberal order. In some ways, Islamophobes have a point, as only Muslims have maintained their moral and ethical roots. Secular Judaism and Christianity either need to self-destruct and rebuild, or disillusioned people from those traditions can embrace Islam. Breivik and his neocon friends know this deep down. But just as Communism was not an external threat neither is Islam. They both are only threats because they stood/ stand as a beacon of hope for the disillusioned.

GA: I actually do not agree with a few notions you raise here. I would argue that there is no such a thing as ‘secular Judaism’, what we really mean is ‘secular Jews’ which is an ethno-centric and racially supremacist form of affiliation. Also there is no such a thing as ‘secular Christianity’. Unlike Jews, Christians and Muslims who drop God adopt other forms of identification. However, I totally agree with your insight regarding Islam and Communism. I argue that we tend to project our vengeance on others. We did it with Communism and now we do it with Islam. I call it the war against terror within.
In your must-read new book Postmodern Imperialism you identify the role of Jewish ideology and Zionist politics at the centre of our current world affairs (Great Game III). Would you go as far as reiterating this idea locating Jewish self-love at the hub of contemporary Western thought?

EW: In the sense that “we are all Jews now”, i.e., all worshippers of Mammon, promoters of the ego/ self, yes. The obsession with money and glamour, the worship of the superrich, is a kind of projection of your self onto the dream version of reality as presented by the mass media. But there are many people who inherently find this distasteful, whether or not they can articulate why. Once the critique of Israel and “Judeo-Christian” cultural hegemony gains a foothold in mainstream thought (this really has to follow if BDS keeps growing and Israel is finally recognized for what it is), I think it’s possible to strengthen the strains in Western thought that reject this false self-love. Greens, socialists, real (paleo) conservatives, Christians, not to mention ex-Israelis and diaspora Jews who have a love of their moral and ethical selves and have the courage of their convictions… There’s good grounds for hope.

GA: Eric thanks for your time. I guess that the war for justice continues.
Gilad Atzmon's latest book is The Wandering Who.
is now available on Amazon.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Hamas official to Fatah: Stop security agencies ahead of Sunday meeting


[ 06/08/2011 - 01:04 PM ] 
GAZA, (PIC)-- Ismail al-Ashqar, who represents Hamas on the Palestinian Legislative Council, has called on Fatah to pressure the security agencies into ending their persecution of elements from Hamas in the West Bank as the two parties gear for a long awaited reconciliation talks in Cairo.
‘’It’s clear that there is a stream within the Fatah movement that has been harmed by reconciliation, and that this stream is uninterested in following through with reconciliation,’’ Ashqar said in comments ahead of the meeting due for Sunday.
‘’That is why whenever calls coincide with applying the reconciliation issue, the security services in the West Bank launch a campaign of wide-scale arrests against the people and supporters of Hamas in the West Bank, as happened last night in Al-Khalil,’’ he said.
Dozens of Hamas supporters in Al-Khalil reported receiving summonses on Thursday and Friday. Some eight civilians have recently been taken in the arrest sweep.
Meanwhile, the Switzerland-based Rights for All organization has recently condemned the practices of the West Bank security agencies, with focus on the restrictions made on press freedoms.
This came after reporter Magdalene Hassouna has been summoned to be interviewed by the security forces over stories she covered in the West Bank.
Rights for All chairman Anwar Gharbi said in a statement that the repeated summonses were aimed at silencing her and ‘’limiting her personal freedoms’’ as the orders came just days after Hassouna covered a sit-in against political imprisonment in Nablus.
Nablus security forces arrested two of the reporter’s brothers after she publicly declared on her Facebook page her refusal to respond to the repeated summonses.
Gharbi further threatened to ask the UN Human Rights Council to take ‘’significant measures’’ against the Palestinian Authority should Hassouna continue to be harassed.


Dozens handed summonses, six arrested amid persecution of Hamas in West Bank

[ 06/08/2011 - 09:59 AM ]

AL- KHALIL, (PIC)-- Dozens have been handed summonses and at least eight have been arrested as the Palestinian Authority’s security agencies continue to target Hamas supporters in the West Bank.

Dozens of Hamas supporters in the southern West Bank governorate of Al-Khalil have reported being handed summonses on Friday and Thursday. Most of those targeted were university students and former prisoners in the Israeli and PA prisons.

The West Bank security agencies nabbed two men in Al-Shyoukh, and a large number of armed elements from the agency violently raided the Al-Khalil city residence of a local there without report of arrest, sources close to the family have reported.

Four more men who have yet to be identified were also seen apprehended in Al-Khalil city while dispersing after congregational prayers.

In Nablus, arrested were the two brothers of reporter Magdalene Hassouna after their home was raided.

Our correspondent there says the arrest came to pressure Hassouna into turning herself into security agencies after she had publicly refused to respond to prior summonses on her Facebook page.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

The SOLIDERE marina & arms transfer to Syrian 'elements'!

Al Akhbar


تهريب سلاح إلى سوريا: قاضٍ وضابط... ومارينا


River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Zaman: 'Turkish-Syrian trade not affected' ... Financial Times: 'Trade dries up!'

Via FLC

"Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) figures for the first half of this year indicate that Turkish exports to Syria were roughly equal to those of the January-June period of 2010. Exports to Syria were $824 million in the first six months of 2011, a slight increase over the $807 million in 2010 during the same period. The turmoil in Syria has also not resulted in a decline in the number of Syrian tourists coming to Turkey, with their numbers in fact increasing. According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the number of Syrian tourists increased by 18.8 percent in the January-April period of this year compared to the same period of 2010..."
The Financial Times begs to differ. Intox?
"...However, ... estimates that trade at Hatay’s formal crossing points with Syria has fallen 80 per cent, and says informal trade of small goods in private cars, worth about $600m a year, has stopped altogether...
Although nearly all of the problems cited are to do with instability in Syria, which affects all countries who trade with it, some fear that a recent diplomatic volte-face by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, in which he described his former ally’s crackdown on protesters as “savagery”, is affecting the cross-border business climate...
Unlike the Islamist leadership in Ankara, many businessmen in Hatay, where there is a relatively high concentration of minority groups, express support for Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president. One woman who sells trinkets and memorabilia outside a hotel in Antakya says that she sells many more rugs depicting Mr Assad than she does ones of Mr Erdogan.
According to Christopher Phillips of the Economist Intelligence Unit, while significant divestments from Syria are extremely unlikely, there are signs that Turkish businesses are delaying new investment and expansion projects in Syria because of the unrest.
In the long run, however, Mr Phillips believes Turkey’s trade and business relationship with Syria is driven by economic imperatives that are likely to prove more powerful than politics.
“It’s widely expected that whatever happens in the next six months, Turkish economic interests will continue in Syria,” he says."
 
River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Having destroyed Iraq, time to 'reform' Iran, Syria, Hezbollah & the Palestinians ...

Via FLC

"It’s now widely accepted – and lamented – that US President Barack Obama failed dismally in attempting to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Defeated by Israel’s hard-line Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, and by Israel’s friends in the United States – lobbyists, lawmakers and neo-conservatives – the president simply threw in the towel.
What is less well understood is that Obama was also defeated in another major area of foreign policy – relations with Iran. When he came to office he vowed to ‘engage’ with the Islamic Republic, but this admirable objective was soon supplanted by a policy of threats, sanctions and intimidation aimed at isolating Iran, subverting its economy and overthrowing its regime.
Israel and its friends led the campaign against Iran, demonizing it as a threat to all mankind, and forcing the United States to follow suit. Israel has repeatedly, and very publicly, threatened to strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities, and has done its best to drag the United States into war against it, in much the same way as pro-Israeli neo-conservatives at the Pentagon were alleged to have manipulated intelligence to push the United States into war against Iraq in 2003, with catastrophic consequences.
Why did they do it? Because they feared that, having survived the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq might just possibly pose a threat to Israel. It had to be destroyed...
The neo-cons’ strategic fantasy wasn’t just to use American power to smash Iraq. Once Saddam had been dealt with, they are said to have wanted to use the US military again and again to ‘reform’ Syria, Hizbollah, Iran, the Palestinians and even Egypt and Saudi Arabia... (continue, here)"
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NATO plans campaign in Syria, tightens noose around Iran - Rogozin


NATO is planning a military campaign against Syria to help overthrow the regime of President Bashar al-Assad with a long-reaching goal of preparing a beachhead for an attack on Iran, Russia's envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said.

The UN Security Council condemned on Wednesday ongoing violence in Syria and urged the country's authorities to stop using force against peaceful protesters, while saying the current situation in the country has not yet called for NATO interference.

"[This statement] means that the planning [of the military campaign] is well underway. It could be a logical conclusion of those military and propaganda operations, which have been carried out by certain Western countries against North Africa," Rogozin said in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper published on Friday.

The Russian diplomat pointed out at the fact that the alliance is aiming to interfere only with the regimes "whose views do not coincide with those of the West."

Rogozin agreed with the opinion expressed by some experts that Syria and later Yemen could be NATO's last steps on the way to launch an attack on Iran.

"The noose around Iran is tightening. Military planning against Iran is underway. And we are certainly concerned about an escalation of a large-scale war in this huge region," Rogozin said.

Having learned the Libyan lesson, Russia "will continue to oppose a forcible resolution of the situation in Syria," he said, adding that the consequences of a large-scale conflict in North Africa would be devastating for the whole world.


Moscow warns against interference in Syrian conflict

Posted: August 5, 2011 by crescentandcross

<![CDATA[//><!]]>
--> The Russian Foreign Ministry has warned against outside interference in the Syrian conflict, saying the country’s citizens should solve their problems themselves.
“The settlement in this country should be carried out by the Syrians themselves without outside interference and should be based on an all-Syria dialogue, which is the only way to resolve the conflict,” the ministry said in a statement.

Moscow’s stance was voiced after French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said earlier on Thursday that the UN Security Council may take a tougher stance on Syria if the ruling regime fails to halt its deadly crackdown on protesters.

Juppe’s comments came as Syrian troops and tanks continued their assault on the city of Hama, a center of opposition protest, and just hours after the Security Council adopted a statement condemning the “widespread violations of human rights and the use of force against civilians by the Syrian authorities.”

Speaking to reporters in Paris, Juppe hailed the international body’s condemnation as a “turning point” but warned that the Council may “go further in its decisions” if nothing has changed in a week’s time, when it will meet to “reexamine the situation.”

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the Security Council statement represented “the clear message of the international community” to President Bashar al-Assad.

Residents and rights campaigners say at least 140 people have been killed in the unrest in Hama. More than 1,600 civilians are believed to have been killed since protests began in March.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people rallied in several Syrian cities late on Wednesday.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Geagea is not proud of Lebanon's stance in the UN Security Council


Lebanese Forces executive body head, Samir Geagea, confirmed in a talk with the Voice of Lebanon radio station on Thursday that "Lebanese did not feel proud of Lebanon's stance in the UN Security Council as Lebanon disassociated itself from voting on the decision of condemning Syria", considering that " the government's stance was ethical morally, but wasn't right politically, especially that 14 countries out of 15 voted for the decision which makes of Lebanon the atypical side."

"Doesn't that stance exclude Lebanon from the international group?" Geagea wondered, noting that this step "turned Lebanon into a small celestial body revolving in the Syrian regime's orbit" deeming "atrocious" the cabinet's move.

As for the relation between Lebanon and Syria, Geagea said that the Security Council's decision is not considered as an interference in the Syrian internal affairs but rather an international attempt to put terms to aggressions against humanity. .

Regarding the detainees who were liberated from the Syrian prisons, Geagea said that the Lebanese Forces party presented its law-draft in 2008, a year before the Change and Reform bloc, highlighting the fact that the healthy competition between Christian poles is very
positive.

On another note, Geagea mentioned the national dialogue topic, assuring that President Sleiman is doing his best to unify antagonists in Lebanon, assuring that even if his party supports dialogue, the experience of the past four years remains not so promising.

Eventually, Geagea couched support to all the efforts deployed by the Maronite patriarch Bechara Boutros Rahi in a bid to reactivate inter-Christian dialogue.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

'The Hama Affair’ or how 10,000 protestors multiply overnight to be 500,000 in the AFP’s news reports

Global Research, August 2, 2011

Global Research Editor's Note
The following article focusses on the Protest movement in Syria in mid-July. it does not cover recent events. It nonetheless suggests that mainstream media sources are systematically manipulating the relevant numbers
'The Hama Affair’ or how 10,000 protestors multiply overnight to be 500,000 in the AFP’s news reports

Hama - 500,000 protestors (AFP news reports) [1]
Photos-illustration-2 2546
© photo Pierre PICCININ- HAMA (July 15th, 2011)
This July, I travelled to Syria, with the purpose of establishing an understanding of the causes of the political protest movement.
I was able to travel freely throughout the country, from Daraa, Damascus, Homs, Hama, Maraat-an-Numan, Jisr-al-Shigur, on the Turkish border, even Deir-ez-Sor, all places where the media had signalled outbursts of violence...
I was able to witness the different internal struggles, some which were violent and had completely different objectives to the peaceful protest movement. The Muslim Brotherhood, for example, seeks to bring about an Islamic republic, which in turn terrifies both the Christians and Muslims.
Yet, outside the scope of my research, I was surprised that the image of Syria, portrayed by the Western media, a country undergoing full scale revolution, did not correspond whatsoever to the reality of the situation.
Indeed, the large-scale protest movements seem to have run out of steam, many of the protests only number a few hundred at most, usually focussed around mosques, bearing the mark of Islamist influence.
Therefore, it is only in the city of Hama, cultural stronghold of the Muslim brotherhood, under a state of siege, that full scale protests are to be found.
Centre of a violent revolt, in 1982, which was crushed by Hafez al-Assad, father of the incumbent President, Hama is today surrounded by heavy armour. This said, the government have chosen against a bloodbath, for fear of repercussions from the international community.
Photos-illustration-2 2549
© photo Pierre PICCININ- HAMA (July 15th, 2011)
On Friday 15th July, I entered Hama. Very quickly I found myself surrounded by the youths in control. Upon presenting my Belgian passport the situation calmed down: ‘Belgicaa! Belgicaa!’; as the only foreign observer on the ground, they escorted me through the protestors.

The highlight of which was reaching the top of a skyrise, from which I took a series of snaps, revealing the extent of the debacle.
On Asidi square, to the bottom of the large El-Alamein Avenue, prayer finished, to the sound of thousands of people appearing from all across the city, uniting under a shout of defiance ‘Allah Akbar!’
That same night on 15th July, I received news feeds from the AFP announcing a million protestors all over Syria, of which 500,000 in Hama alone.
In Hama however, they could not have been more than 10,000.

Hama and Deir ez-Zor - 1,200,000 protestors (Le Monde) [2]

This ‘information’ was even more absurd due to the fact that the city of Hama counts 600,000 inhabitants.
Of course, there will always be a margin for error and numbers do vary with sources, estimations are never quite so straightforward.
Yet, in this case, it was not a simple estimation: this was blatant disinformation, propaganda at its finest. 500,000 protestors can shake the very foundations of a regime, 10,000 however are of lesser consequence.
Furthermore, all the ‘information’ regarding the Syrian situation has been twisted similarly for months now.
So what sources does the AFP cite?
The same which crop up systematically throughout the media and has now become a monopoly in its own right, regarding the Syrian protests: the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
Behind this superficial veneer of respectability and professionalism, hides a political organisation based in London, its president none other than Rami Abdel Raman, a man who has consistently sided against the Baath regime, who is loosely linked to the Muslim brotherhood.
Therefore, for a numerous months now, the Western media have diffused an edited reality, corrected by a unique source of which nobody has deemed it necessary, it seems, to question.
This portrayal of a Syria in full scale revolution and of a Baath party on the brink do not correspond in any way whatsoever to the reality of the situation; that the government hold control and what is left of the protests have in effect splintered and become considerably marginalised.
However, the consequences of this latest case of disinformation regarding Syria are far and outreaching: the lessons of Timisoara, the Gulf War or events in Yugoslavia haven’t been learned. Still, European media continue to be lured into basing reports on loosely assembled news feeds and risk depicting a virtual reality for their readers/viewers.
Yet, when the media fail their duty of assembling genuine information, it is democracy itself which is in danger.

This article was originally published on our French language website www.mondialisation.ca
Notes
[1] Syrie : un million de manifestants contre le régime, 28 morts (Agence France-Presse, 15 juillet 2011).
[2] Syrie : 1,2 million de manifestants à Hama et Deir Ezzor, Le Monde, 22 juillet 2011.
Useful link(s) : Centre de Recherche sur la Mondialisation - Le Grand Soir - Tercera Información.


River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian