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MAKING HEADWAY: WITH YOUR HELP
To everyone who’s helped recently in handling a serious financial shortfall, Thank You! We’re still struggling -- but with your help we’ve made it through another rough patch.
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Mark Weber
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Is Israel Preparing To Attack Iran?
David Ignatius -- The Washington Post
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has a lot on his mind these days, from cutting the defense budget to managing the drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. But his biggest worry is the growing possibility that Israel will attack Iran over the next few months. Panetta believes there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June — before Iran enters what Israelis described as a “zone of immunity” to commence building a nuclear bomb … The administration appears to favor staying out of the conflict unless Iran hits U.S. assets, which would trigger a strong U.S. response … U.S. officials don’t think that Netanyahu has made a final decision to attack, and they note that top Israeli intelligence officials remain skeptical of the project. But senior Americans doubt that the Israelis are bluffing.
Gen. Dempsey Told Israelis U.S. Won't Join Their War on Iran
Gareth Porter – IPS
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey told Israeli leaders Jan. 20 that the United States would not participate in a war against Iran begun by Israel without prior agreement from Washington, according to accounts from well-placed senior military officers … But the Israeli government remains defiant about maintaining its freedom of action to make war on Iran, and it is counting on the influence of right-wing extremist views in U.S. politics to bring pressure to bear on Obama to fall into line with a possible Israeli attack during the election campaign this fall. Obama still appears reluctant to break publicly and explicitly with Israel over its threat of military aggression against Iran, even in the absence of evidence Iran has decided to build a nuclear weapon.
US, Other Countries, Warn Israel Against Attacking Iran
The Associated Press
Israel's major allies in the West are working hard to talk it out of a unilateral military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, arguing forcefully that an attack ultimately would strengthen, not weaken, the regime in Tehran. The United States is leading the persuasion initiative, even though Washington largely has concluded that outside argument will have little effect on Israeli decision-making. Iran's regime says it wants to extinguish the Jewish state, and the West accuses it of assembling the material and know-how to build a nuclear bomb. Israel fears that Iran is fast approaching a point at which a limited military strike no longer would be enough to head off an Iranian bomb.
The Wannsee Conference: Truth and Myth
Gilad Atzmon
Last week, as Jewish Lobbies continue to invest enormous efforts in dictating and imposing a rigid and unquestionable Holocaust narrative, Israeli Haaretz published a short, succinct and courageous report challenging the validity of the Wannsee Conference as proof of the Nazi ‘final solution’. Just ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day, the Israeli paper reported that Dr. Norbert Kampe (63), director of the "Wannsee Conference" Memorial Centre in Berlin, has challenged some of the most widely-accepted historical ‘facts’ associated with the conference and its meaning … Once again we learn that some Israelis are far ahead of the Western press and academia in their criticism of Jewish ideology in general and the Zionist Holocaust narrative in particular.
International Campaign Finance: How Do Countries Compare?
CNN
The world economy may be bracing for another grim year, but political donors in the United States are breaking out their checkbooks to finance what is expected to be the most expensive presidential election in American history. The Center for Responsive Politics estimates $6 billion will be spent in the U.S. elections by campaigns, political parties and corporations hoping to propel their candidates into the White House and what writer Mark Twain once called the "best Congress money can buy." The projected price tag of the 2012 U.S. election dwarfs that of other nations …
Gingrich Donor Adelson Is Casino Mogul, Israeli Hardliner
The Associated Press
He’s an ardent supporter of Israel. A megabillionaire casino mogul whose Las Vegas Sands Corp. is under federal investigation. And the self-proclaimed “richest Jew in the world.” Sheldon Adelson is also, far and away, the biggest patron of Newt Gingrich’s Republican presidential bid. Adelson and his wife, Miriam, have pumped $10 million into a political action committee backing Gingrich that is run by the former House speaker’s onetime aides. Campaign finance experts say the two $5 million contributions are among the largest known political donations in U.S. history.
Pres. Obama Pledges to Combat 'Holocaust Denial'
JTA
President Barack Obama pledged to combat Holocaust denial in a message marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In his message, Obama said the United States would “pledge to speak truth to those who deny the Holocaust.” “As we celebrate the strength and resilience of survivors, we pledge to stand strong against all those who would commit atrocities, against the resurgence of anti-Semitism, and against hatred in all its forms,” he said. Friday marked the seventh International Holocaust Remembrance Day …
Germany Pledges Support for Israel’s Yad Vashem's Holocaust Center
European Jewish Press
The governments of Israel and Germany will sign Wednesday an agreement whereby Germany will support Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial and Institute, to the sum of one million euro annually, from 2012-2021. The agreement signifies the German government's wish to help facilitate Yad Vashem’s various activities in Israel and globally which further commemoration, documentation and education of the events of the Holocaust.
One-Fifth of Young Germans Have Never Heard of Auschwitz, Survey Reveals
Daily Mail (Britain)
A survey carried out two days before Holocaust Memorial Day shows more than a fifth of young Germans do not know the name of Auschwitz or what happened there. Twenty one per cent of people aged between 18 and 30 quizzed about the most notorious Nazi extermination camp had not heard of it, the survey revealed. And almost half of all those canvassed by the Forsa research institute said they had never visited a concentration camp despite the fact Germany has made all of those on its soil permanent memorials to the dead.
Waltz and All: Far-Right Has Ball in Vienna
The Independent (Britain)
… Phalanxes of white-helmeted Austrian riot police stood equipped with shields and truncheons. "Nazis Piss Off, Nobody Misses You!" read one of the banners held aloft by demonstrators. Ugly scuffles ensued. One man was reported to have been arrested after being caught carrying a kilo of explosives. The event they were so vociferously objecting to was a traditional Vienna student ball known as the "Korporierten-Fest". Started in 1952 as part of Vienna's traditional ball season, the student ball has gained an unsavoury reputation for being a white-tie extravaganza for the elite of Europeans' political far right.
Germans Honor Prussian King, Frederick The Great
The New York Times
The official delegation honoring Frederick the Great’s 300th birthday had just finished laying a laurel wreath and a grand cross of white flowers at his grave here on Tuesday when a 70-year-old retiree quietly slipped in behind them and placed a small potato on the gray slab of stone that marks the monarch’s resting place. “I’m a born Potsdamer and my father was, too, and I guess a little of the old Prussiandom is still in my veins,” said the man, Harry Günther, a retired engineer, standing before the yellow walls of Frederick’s magnificent summer palace, Sanssouci, on a chilly, foggy morning, a light coating of snow on the grass. He praised Frederick’s Prussian virtues, like hard work, honesty and thrift.
Plans To Publish Extracts of Hitler’s Mein Kampf Dropped
BBC News
A British publisher who planned to sell extracts of Adolf Hitler's political manifesto Mein Kampf on the streets of Germany has backed down. The state of Bavaria, which owns the copyright to the book, had threatened legal action if publisher Peter McGee sold pamphlets containing the extracts. Mr McGee sells reproductions of Nazi-era newspapers along with historians' analysis of their content. He will now render Hitler's text illegible when his pamphlets are sold.
Diving For Secrets of The Battle of the Atlantic
Smithsonian Magazine
It’s a World War II campaign largely forgotten, a coastal reign of terror Joe Hoyt and a team of marine archaeologists are determined to bring into sharp focus 70 years later. During the first six months of 1942, German U-boats, often hunting in wolf packs, sank ship after ship just miles off the East Coast of the United States, concentrating their ambushes along North Carolina, where conditions were most favorable. From the beaches, civilians could see the explosions as the submarines sank more Allied tonnage in those months than the entire Japanese Navy would destroy in the Pacific during the entire course of the war.
Hitler Silverware, Stored For Decades, To Go on Display
The New York Times
For 66 years, they lay unseen, first in a vault on the Upper West Side, more recently in a special cabinet. Now the New York Historical Society plans to put them on public display alongside a silver cigar box, a silver ice cream dish and the silver controller handle that Mayor George B. McClellan Jr. used when he drove the first subway train, in 1904: A knife and fork with the initials A and H, for Adolf Hitler. The historical society is including the Hitler flatware, part of a dinner service made in celebration of his 50th birthday in 1939, in an exhibition of 150 of the “most aesthetically and historically compelling pieces” in its collection …
Jewish Lawyer Suspended For False 'Anti-Semitic' Claim
New York Post
A Queens [New York] lawyer has been suspended for six months for falsely accusing a New Jersey state trooper of using anti-Semitic slurs against him, according to a ruling released yesterday. Attorney Elliott Dear said he made up the outrageous allegations in hopes of getting out of a speeding ticket. Court papers say the unidentified trooper pulled over Dear, an orthodox Jew, for going 84 in a 55-mph zone while driving with his wife in 2007. Six days after getting the ticket, Dear sent a letter to the traffic court saying, "This ticket shall be dismissed immediately" since he wasn't speeding and "the officer called me a 'Jew kike' — and this prejudice obviously was the cause for the ticket," the papers say.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews Routinely Spit on Christian Clergy in Jerusalem
Haaretz (Israel)
Ultra-Orthodox young men curse and spit at Christian clergymen in the streets of Jerusalem's Old City as a matter of routine. In most cases the clergymen ignore the attacks, but sometimes they strike back … The Greek Patriarchy's clergymen have been cursed and spat on by ultra-Orthodox men in the street for many years. "They walk past me and spit," says Father Gabriel Bador, 78, a senior priest in the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate. "Mostly I ignore it, but it's difficult … “It happens a lot," says Archbishop Aristarchos, the chief secretary of the patriarchate.
Myths About Lincoln and the Civil War
Mark Weber – Podcast
Abraham Lincoln is honored as “The Great Emancipator,” as a champion of equal rights for all, regardless of race, and as the president who waged war to “free the slaves.” In fact, he sought to make the US an all-white republic that would be “an outlet for free white people everywhere, the world over.” He supported ambitious efforts to resettle or “colonize” blacks in Africa or central America. A common mistake in trying to learn from the past is to evaluate the behavior and motives of people in history on the basis of attitudes and values that prevail in the present.
America Remembers Lincoln: An Unsettled Legacy
BBC News
In 2009 the US not only inaugurated its first black president - it also honoured the president who paved Barack Obama's way to the country's highest post. Events across the nation marked the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth, celebrating a man widely seen as the greatest US president - the secular saint who redeemed America's original sin of slavery … Despite his visceral hatred of slavery, Mr Yacovone says, Lincoln - like the overwhelming majority of his contemporaries - never believed in the equality of races. "He supported enactment of the anti-fugitive slave law, he supported exclusion of black jurors and all basic civil rights," Mr Yacovone says.
Will the US Back Real Democracy in Egypt?
Eric Margolis
… In North America, the Brotherhood has long been wrongly branded an extremist, even terrorist organization by the seriously misinformed. This view is not only wrong, but harmful to US Mideast policy … So far, the Brotherhood has said or done nothing to challenge the United States or Europe except for calling for justice for the Palestinians. But this, of course, was the primary reason why the US kept dictator Hosni Mubarak in power for thirty years: he secretly colluded with and aided Israel, and maintained fierce opposition to US foes Iran and Syria.
Pakistan is Helping Afghan Taliban, Says NATO Report
BBC News
The Taliban in Afghanistan are being directly assisted by Pakistani security services, according to a secret Nato report seen by the BBC. The leaked report, derived from thousands of interrogations, claims the Taliban remain defiant and have wide support among the Afghan people. It alleges that Pakistan knows the locations of senior Taliban leaders. A BBC correspondent says the report is painful reading for international forces and the Afghan government.
Voters Leaving Republican, Democratic Parties in Droves
USA Today
A USA Today analysis of state voter registration statistics shows registered Democrats declined in 25 of the 28 states that register voters by party. Republicans dipped in 21 states, while independents increased in 18 states.The trend is acute in states that are key to next year's presidential race. In the eight swing states that register voters by party, Democrats' registration is down by 800,000 and Republicans' by 350,000. Independents have gained 325,000.The pattern continues a decades-long trend that has seen a diminution in the power of political parties, giving rise to independents as Ross Perot and Ralph Nader and the popularity this year of libertarian Republican Ron Paul.
More Czechs Favor Abolishing Benes Expulsion Decrees
Czech Position (Czech Republic)
A new opinion poll indicates more Czechs are now in favor of abolishing decrees issued by post-war Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš, which provided the legal basis after WWII for the expulsion and confiscation of property of Sudeten Germans who could not prove they did not support the Nazis. More respondents have no clear opinion on the issue. … Respondents were also asked about their attitude towards the expulsions. 42% said they consider the expulsions were fair; 25% said they were unfair but that it’s necessary to draw a line under the past; 7% said they were unfair and an apology is due; and 4% said they were unfair and compensation should be paid or property restituted.
Allied Czechoslovak Leader Benes Calls for 'Liquidation' of Germans
Video (Czech Republic)
Edvard Beneš, President of Czechoslovakia and an important figure of the World War Two Allied coalition, calls on May 16, 1945, for the "liquidation" of Germans and Hungarians in post-war Czechoslovakia. From the Czech documentary "Zabíjení po česku" or "Killings Czech style," 2010. Runtime: 1:27 mins.
Hitler Painting Sold For 32,000 Euros at Slovak Auction
AFP
A 1913 painting by Nazi Germany's dictator Adolf Hitler sold for 32,000 euros ($42,300) in a Slovak internet auction on Sunday, the Darte auction house said. The starting price for the painting titled Maritime Nocturno was set at 10,000 euros, while an expert put its value at 25,000 euros, said Darte, which sold the painting in a closed VIP auction. The mixed-media painting depicts a full moon over a glittering seascape. "The painting has been offered for sale by an unnamed family of a Slovak painter who probably met Hitler personally when he was struggling to become an artist in Vienna during the early 20th century," Darte owner Jaroslav Krajnak said earlier.
Bismarck’s Voice Among Restored Edison Recordings
The New York Times
Tucked away for decades in a cabinet in Thomas Edison’s laboratory, just behind the cot in which the great inventor napped, a trove of wax cylinder phonograph records has been brought back to life after more than a century of silence. The cylinders, from 1889 and 1890, include the only known recording of the voice of the powerful chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Two preserve the voice of Helmuth von Moltke, a venerable German military strategist, reciting lines from Shakespeare and from Goethe’s “Faust” into a phonograph horn.
German Anti-Semitism 'Deep-Rooted' in Society
BBC News
Anti-Jewish feeling is "significantly" entrenched in German society, according to a report by experts appointed by the Bundestag (parliament). They say the internet has played a key role in spreading Holocaust denial, far-right and extreme Islamist views, according to the DPA news agency. They also speak of "a wider acceptance in mainstream society of day-to-day anti-Jewish tirades and actions" l… The report's authors put Germany midway in their assessment of other European countries in relation to the spread of anti-Semitism. They see extremely high levels of anti-Jewish sentiment in parts of Poland, Hungary and Portugal.
Israelis 'Bought Influence' and Outmaneuvered Obama, Says Brzezinski
Jordan Michael Smith – Salon
Zbigniew Brzezinski’s new book, “Strategic Vision,” imagines a world without American power. He envisions profound instability, faltering international cooperation and weak states falling prey to their more dominant neighbors … He thinks the Obama administration “should have stuck to its guns in promoting a fair settlement” in the Middle East. A longtime foe of Israel’s partisans in the United States, he says the Obama team “fumbled by getting outmaneuvered by the Israelis.” Then he gets blunter: “Domestic politics interceded: The Israelis have a lot of influence with Congress, and in some cases they are able to buy influence.”
Money and Media Manipulation of American Politics
Mark Weber – Podcast
Sheldon Adelson, Haim Saban and George Soros are three of the most important players in American political life. They disagree about tactics and methods, but these billionaire Jewish activists -- and others like them -- are united in promoting Zionist-Jewish interests. Behind the pro-Israel slant of US foreign policy and a domestic policy that promotes “diversity” is money power and media control. Well-funded manipulation of the nation’s mass media and cultural and educational life is decisive in determining the basic policies and direction of the US, above all by molding the “accepted” social-ideological premises on which policies and laws are based.
Adelson's Billions And Gingrich: A Match Made In Israel
Huffington Post
When Newt Gingrich told an interviewer last month that the Palestinians were an "invented people," his remark drew almost universal rebuke. Even those who did not find it deeply offensive -- or counterproductive -- assumed that its extreme nature would further harm his chances at the presidency. Except, that is, for Sheldon Adelson. … Over the years, the relationship between Gingrich and Adelson -- which began, as The New York Times recently reported, over business-friendly legislation in the 1990s -- has come to revolve around a single issue: Israel, and specifically Adelson's unique, hardline and hawkish take on the country.
Is Gingrich’s Hard Line on Palestine Paid For By Sheldon Adelson?
Wayne Barrett -- Daily Beast
The linkage between campaign contributions and compromised candidates has grown so familiar that it no longer shocks, and indeed rarely even interests, most of us. But in the super-PAC era, when a single, $5 million, donation can resuscitate a broken Newt Gingrich, the search for a quid pro quo explanation expands with the enlarged dimensions of the donation. In the case of Las Vegas casino king Sheldon Adelson, Gingrich’s Daddy Warbucks, the size of the subsidy can literally shape a candidate’s views on matters of war and peace, and I’m not talking about a battle for gaming rights
The Inner Quest of Newt Gingrich
Gail Sheehy – Vanity Fair (1995)
A probing look at Gingrich’s character and personality. From the cauldron of his childhood -- the father who abandoned him, the manic depressive mother who loved him too much, the stepfather whose anger shaped the family -- Newt Gingrich emerged with a heroic need that became his mission. Talking to his inner circle of family, friends, and associates, and to the Speaker himself, Gail Sheehy learns details of Newt's wars, his women, and his contract with himself. "I think you can write a psychological profile of me,” he relates, “that says I found a way to immerse my insecurities in a cause large enough to justify whatever I wanted it to."
Major Gingrich Backer Is Arch-Zionist Sheldon Adelson
Stephen Sniegoski
Meet the billionaire Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who bought the election surge of Newt Gingrich in South Carolina. Now he hopes the buy the entire U.S. presidential election for Israel and his favorite candidate. Gingrich’s faltering presidential campaign was completely resuscitated by a $5-million donation from Las Vegas casino king and super-Zionist Sheldon Adelson.
Who Is Sheldon Adelson and What Has Newt Promised Him?
Robert Reich
Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino owner, is now the poster boy for what’s terribly wrong with our campaign-finance system. Adelson, you may recall, had, before the South Carolina Republican primary, donated $5 million to the pro-Gingrich Super Pac “Winning Our Future” – giving Newt a pile of money for negative advertising against Mitt Romney in South Carolina. Adelson has done it again. He and his wife Marian have cut another $5 million check for Gingrich to go negative on Romney in Florida … Never before in the history of American politics has a single couple given more money to a single candidate and had a bigger impact – all courtesy of the Supreme Court and its grotesque decisions that speech is money and corporations are people under the First Amendment.
Worsening US Economy Will Spark Violent Unrest, Says Soros
MoneyNews (USA)
As the U.S. economy worsens, protests such as those carried out by the Occupy Wall Street movement will turn ugly, breaking down into waves of violent unrest across the nation, says billionaire financier George Soros … “We are facing an extremely difficult time, comparable in many ways to the 1930s, the Great Depression. We are facing now a general retrenchment in the developed world, which threatens to put us in a decade of more stagnation, or worse," he said. "The best-case scenario is a deflationary environment. The worst-case scenario is a collapse of the financial system."
Communism’s Death Toll, and the Jewish Role in Bolshevism
Mark Weber - Podcast
We’re relentlessly told that we must “never forget” the “Six Million.” But we hear far less about the vastly greater number of victims of Lenin and Stalin, and the grim legacy of Soviet Communism. Some 20 million people perished as victims of the Soviet regime, historians acknowledge. Jews played a decisive role in founding and promoting the egalitarian-universalist ideology of Marxism, in developing the worldwide Marxist political movement, and in brutally imposing Bolshevik rule in Russia. With the notable exception of Lenin, who was one-quarter Jewish, most of the leading Marxists who took control of Russia in 1917-20 were Jews, including Trotsky, Sverdlov, Zinoviev, Kamenev and Radek.
Communism’s Death Toll, and the Jewish Role in Bolshevism
Mark Weber – Video
Stalin is Century's Bloodiest Figure
Eric S. Margolis (1998)
… At least 40 million victims, not including 20 million war dead. Kaganovitch and many senior OGPU officers (later, NKVD) were Jewish. The predominance of Jews among Bolshevik leaders and the frightful crimes and cruelty inflicted by Stalin's Checka on Ukraine, the Baltic states and Poland led the victims of Red Terror to blame the Jewish people for both communism and their suffering. As a direct result, during the subsequent Nazi occupation of Eastern Europe, the region's innocent Jews became the target of ferocious revenge by Ukrainians, Balts and Poles.
Leon Trotsky: A Jewish Revolutionary
Carl Rollyson -- The Wall Street Journal
Leon Trotsky was both an intellectual and a man of action. One of the charismatic leaders of the Russian Revolution — Lenin said there was no better Bolshevik — he created the Red Army through virtually an act of will and led it to victory in the 1918-20 civil war. But he was also a mesmerizing dissenter, sent by Stalin into exile in 1927 and then murdered in Mexico by one of Stalin's agents in 1940. Trotsky was Jewish — born Lev Davidovich Bronstein in 1879 — and it is as such that he is treated in Joshua Rubenstein's brief biography, part of Yale University Press's Jewish Lives series. Trotsky said that his ethnic background had not the slightest influence on his life.
Nearly One in Four Young Americans Fail Army Entrance Exam
The Associated Press
Nearly one-fourth of the students who try to join the U.S. Army fail its entrance exam, painting a grim picture of an education system that produces graduates who can't answer basic math, science and reading questions, according to a new study released Tuesday … The military exam results are also worrisome because the test is given to a limited pool of people: Pentagon data shows that 75 percent of those aged 17 to 24 don't even qualify to take the test because they are physically unfit, have a criminal record or didn't graduate high school.
Herding Americans to War with Iran
Robert Parry
… Any suggestion of give-and-take negotiations with Iran is mocked, while alarmist propaganda, a ratcheting up of sanctions, and provocative actions – like Wednesday’s assassination of yet another Iranian scientist – push Americans closer to what seems like an inevitable bloodletting … Another front in Israel’s cold war against Iran appears to be the propaganda war being fought inside the United States, where the still-influential neoconservatives are deploying their extensive political and media resources to shut off possible routes toward a peaceful settlement, while building support for future military strikes against Iran.
US-Israel Acknowledge: Iran is Not Building Nukes
Ray McGovern
… A consensus seems to be emerging among the intelligence and military agencies of the United States – and Israel – that Iran has NOT made a decision to build a nuclear weapon. In recent days, that judgment has been expressed by high-profile figures in the defense establishments of the two countries – U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak. You might think that you would have heard more about that, wouldn’t you? U.S. and Israel agree that Iran is NOT building a nuclear bomb.
Pressure Israel, Not Iran
Marjorie Cohn
Neocons in Israel and the United States are escalating their rhetoric to prepare us for war with Iran … Under the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran has the legal right to produce nuclear power for peaceful purposes. The United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has found no evidence that Iran is developing a nuclear weapons program. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta recently said on CBS that Iran is not currently trying to build a nuclear weapon. Nevertheless, the United States and Israel are mounting a campaign of aggression against Iran … Iran is not a threat to Israel’s security. Iran has not attacked any country in some 200 years.
Hitler Seascape Painting Set For Auction
Daily Mail (Britain)
A sinister painting by Adolf Hitler is to go under the hammer for the first time since he painted it nearly 100 years ago. The brooding seascape is listed for sale by online auctioneers Darke in Slovakia is expected to sell for more than £10,000. Painted in 1913 while a young Hitler was struggling to make a career as an artist, the 24inch by 19inch canvas shows a dark sea lit up only by a moon about to be shrouded by black clouds. Experts say Hitler often painted night scenes to sell to tourists. The painting has been put up for auction by a Slovak family who inherited it from a relative after the end of World War II. … A second painting by Germany's wartime dictator - dating back to 1915 - was sold by the same auction house last month for £10,200.
Spain's Unrepentant Holocaust Denier: Pedro Varela
El Pais (Spain)
The papers are beginning to pile up inside the jail cell of Pedro Varela Geiss. The bookstore owner who is serving time in a Barcelona prison for promulgating literature denying the Holocaust has received more than 1,000 fan letters. People have also sent him books on rightwing nationalist themes, similar to the ones he used to sell at his Europa bookstore that eventually cost him his freedom. Varela is a deep-to-the-core Nazi who believes the Holocaust was a "myth." A bronze bust of Adolf Hitler is the crowning decoration inside his bookstore. But despite his inflamed beliefs, Varela is a well-groomed gentleman.
In Australia, Jewish Lobby Seeks To Halt DVD Sales of TV Series
The Age (Australia)
A leading Jewish body is seeking to halt promotion and DVD sales of SBS [broadcasting service] series The Promise, a drama set in Israel and the occupied territories that it likened to Nazi propaganda. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry said the British-made drama, inspired by accounts of British soldiers who served in Palestine during the 1940s, was anti-Semitic and in direct violation of the SBS code covering prejudice, racism and discrimination. The four-part series, which screened late last year, depicts a young British woman retracing the footsteps of her grandfather, a soldier in the final years of the British Mandate in Palestine.
Mass Graves Reportedly Found At Treblinka Camp Site
The Huffington Post
A British forensic archaeologist has unearthed fresh evidence to prove the existence of mass graves at the Nazi death camp Treblinka … Sturdy Colls said: "All the history books state that Treblinka was destroyed by the Nazis but the survey has demonstrated that simply isn't the case." She added: "I've identified a number of buried pits using geophysical techniques. These are considerable in size, and very deep, one in particular is 26 by 17 metres." The programme's presenter wrote in the Radio Times that the pits contain the burnt remains of thousands of bodies.
Treblinka
M. Weber and A. Allen (1992)
Treblinka is widely regarded as the second most important German wartime extermination center. Only Auschwitz-Birkenau is supposed to have claimed more lives … In spite of its often inconsistent, contradictory and implausible character, testimony indicating that many Jews lost their lives at Treblinka cannot easily be dismissed. Many Jewish prisoners doubtless perished during their rail journey to the camp site, and were almost certainly buried there. Furthermore, it is plausible and even likely that hundreds and perhaps thousands of Jews who were too weak or ill to continue the eastbound journey from the camp were killed there by officials acting on their own authority.
France Passes 'Genocide Denial' Law, Faces Turkish Reprisals
Reuters
France approved on Monday a bill making it illegal to deny the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago was genocide, sparking angry retaliation from Turkey which threatened a "total rupture" of diplomatic ties. Lawmakers in the upper house (Senate) voted 127 to 86 in favor of the draft law outlawing genocide denial after almost six hours of debate. The lower house had backed it in December, prompting Ankara to cancel all economic, political and military meetings with Paris and recall its ambassador for consultations. The bill had been made more general so that it outlawed the denial of any genocide, partly in the hope of appeasing the Turks. But Ankara condemned the bill's approval and said it would take permanent steps against France, a NATO ally.
New Poll Shows Strong Dissatisfaction with Washington Corruption
Judicial Watch (Washington, DC)
… The poll shows that registered voters consider corruption to be a major problem, support illegal alien law enforcement and believe President Obama has failed to keep his campaign promise to make government more transparent to the American people … The vast majority of registered voters (88%) believe corruption is a significant problem in Washington … The majority of registered voters (53%) want more emphasis on law enforcement when addressing illegal immigration while only a small percentage (9%) want less. Meanwhile, three-out-of-four registered voters (74%) believe local law enforcement officers should help enforce illegal immigration laws, including a majority of Hispanics (57%).
The US Congress: A Graveyard for Democracy and Justice
Ralph Nader
… Will someone call a psychiatrist? This is a Congress that is beyond dysfunctional. It is an obstacle to progress in America, a graveyard for both democracy and justice. No wonder a new Washington Post-ABC news poll found an all-time high of 84 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing. Both Republicans and Democrats say they want to reduce the deficit. But they are avoiding, in varying degrees, doing this in any way that would discomfort the rich and powerful. One would think that, especially in an election year, the following legislative agenda would be very popular with the voters.
Atlanta Jewish Newspaper Calls for Obama Assassination
The Jerusalem Post (Israel)
Israel should send Mossad agents to assassinate President Barack Obama because of his anti-Israel policies, the owner of a US Jewish newspaper wrote in an article that drew widespread condemnation on Friday. Andrew Adler, the publisher of The Atlanta Jewish Times, wrote a column that appeared in his newspaper on January 13 in which he argued killing the president might be justified because he posed a threat to the Jewish state. “Order a hit on a president in order to preserve Israel’s existence,” Adler wrote.
Hitler's 'Wolf Lair' HQ To Become Major Tourist Attraction
Daily Mail (Britain)
Adolf Hitler's secret 'Wolf Lair' set deep in the heart of a forest in north-eastern Poland is to be turned into a major tourist attraction. Forestry workers are looking for an investor to help make the Nazi leader's ruined fortress more accessible to holidaymakers. The camouflaged complex in the woodlands of what was once German East Prussia was one of Hitler's key military headquarters during World War II. It is famed as the site of a dramatic assassination attempt on the dictator by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg in 1944.
‘Israel to Give Obama 12 Hours' Notice on Attacking Iran’
Aruz Sheva – Israel National News (Israel)
Israeli officials told visiting USS Chief Joint of Staffs Martin Dempsey that it would give President Barack Obama no more than twelve hours’ notice if and when it attacks Iran, The London Times reported Sunday. The Netanyahu government also will not coordinate with the United States an attack on the Islamic Republic, according to the report, the latest in a number of supposed scenarios concerning cooperation or lack of it between Jerusalem and Washington. It is left to speculation whether the rumors are based on facts or are leaked by officials to mask the possibility of secret military coordination.
Palestine, 1896
Video
Film footage of Palestine in 1896, when the region was part of the Ottoman empire. Palestine had 500,000 people, of whom about five percent were Jewish and ten percent were Christian. With modern-day narration. Runtime: 12:28 mins.
The Vexing 'Jewish Question'
Goldwin Smith (1894)
... Those who maintain that there is nothing in the character, habits, or disposition of the Jew to provoke antipathy have to bring the charge of fanatical prejudice not only against the Russians or against Christendom, but against mankind … Critics of Judaism are accused of bigotry of race, as well as of bigotry of religion. The accusation comes strangely from those who style themselves the Chosen People, make race a religion, and treat all races except their own as Gentiles and unclean … We have given up the fancy that the Jew is accursed. We must cease to believe that he is sacred.
Large Shipment Of Military Vehicles On the Move In California
Video
This video of a long trainload of military vehicles was uploaded to Facebook via mobile by Andrew Tuckman on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, with this description: “I began filming this after a dozen or so train cars went by on a stretch of track south of Santa Cruz California. Where are the military vehicles going? Why are they being shipped? What could this possibly be for? Barack Obama, what are you up to? We want answers.”
Other 'Racist' Newsletters From The Past
James Edwards
The mainstream media, along with countless mainstream “conservatives”, have been attacking Ron Paul for un-PC sentiments expressed in his various newsletters back in the 1980s and 1990s … Now other quotes from that same era have turned up, and the old quotes we’ve all heard about pale in comparison to these new ones that have come to light … It’s an editorial published in the September 6, 1985, edition of National Review, which was the voice of American conservatism in the 1980s. The editorial was published with the full approval of William F. Buckley; it’s very likely he wrote it himself.
Shocking Facts About the US Debt
Economic Collapse Blog
We have all been lied to. For decades, the leaders of both major political parties have promised us that they can fix our current system and that they can get our national debt under control. As the 2012 election approaches, they are making all kinds of wild promises once again. Well you know what? It is all a giant sham. The United States has gotten into so much debt that there will be no coming back from this. The current system is irretrievably broken.
Israeli Agents Reportedly Posed as CIA To Recruit Terrorists
Haaretz (Israel)
Israeli Mossad agents posed as CIA officers in order to recruit members of a Pakistani terror group to carry out assassinations and attacks against the regime in Iran, Foreign Policy revealed on Friday, quoting U.S. intelligence memos. Foreign Policy's Mark Perry reported that the Mossad operation was carried out in 2007-2008, behind the back of the U.S. government, and infuriated then U.S. President George W. Bush. Perry quotes a number of American intelligence officials and claims that the Mossad agents used American dollars and U.S. passports to pose as CIA spies to try to recruit members of Jundallah, a Pakistan-based Sunni extremist organization that has carried out a series of attacks in Iran and assassinations of government officials.
False Flag
Mark Perry – Foreign Policy
Buried deep in the archives of America's intelligence services are a series of memos, written during the last years of President George W. Bush's administration, that describe how Israeli Mossad officers recruited operatives belonging to the terrorist group Jundallah by passing themselves off as American agents. According to two U.S. intelligence officials, the Israelis, flush with American dollars and toting U.S. passports, posed as CIA officers in recruiting Jundallah operatives -- what is commonly referred to as a "false flag" operation … The officials did not know whether the Israeli program to recruit and use Jundallah is ongoing. Nevertheless, they were stunned by the brazenness of the Mossad's efforts. "It's amazing what the Israelis thought they could get away with," the intelligence officer said. "Their recruitment activities were nearly in the open. They apparently didn't give a damn what we thought."
US Aid to Israel: The Costly Toll
If Americans Knew
The US is providing Israel with at leat $7 million each day in miltary aid … “Since the October War in 1973, Washington has provided Israel with a level of support dwarfing the amounts provided to any other state … Total direct U.S. aid to Israel amounts to well over $140 billion (in 2003 dollars). Israel receives about $3 billion in direct foreign assistance each year, which is roughly one-fifth of America's entire foreign aid budget. In per capita terms, the United States gives each Israeli a direct subsidy worth about $500 per year.”
How the US Got On the Wrong Track, and Why Both Conservatives and Liberals Are Wrong
Mark Weber – Audio recording
A major factor in America’s ever more obvious decline, says Weber in this insightful, informed and vigorously presented talk, is that the guiding ideologies and operative historical narratives of both conservatives and liberals are fundamentally defective. The often-repeated boast of American “exceptionalism,” he says, is not just ignorant and arrogant, it’s dangerous. Address given at an IHR meeting, Dec. 10, 2011. Runtime: 44:06 mins.
Money and Media Manipulation of American Politics
Mark Weber – Podcast
Behind the pro-Israel slant of US foreign policy and a domestic policy that promotes “diversity” is money power and media control. Three of the most important players in American political life are George Soros, Haim Saban and Sheldon Adelson. They disagree about tactics and methods, but these super-wealthy Jewish activists -- and many others like them -- are united in promoting the interests of Israel and the organized Jewish community. Well-funded manipulation of the nation’s mass media, and cultural and educational life, is decisive in determining the basic policies and direction of American life, above all by molding the “accepted” social-ideological premises on which policies and laws are based.
Uproar Over First German Post-War Edition of 'Mein Kampf'
AFP
Historians have cheered news that Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" will be reprinted in Germany for the first time since the Nazi dictator's fall in 1945, just as Holocaust survivors hit out at the move. British publisher Peter McGee said he would put out excerpts from the anti-Semitic manifesto, which laid out the Fuehrer's vision long before he took power in 1933, alongside commentary putting the work in historical context Academics said the time had come for some of the taboos surrounding the book in Germany to fall.
German State Questions 'Mein Kampf' Publication Plan
The Associated Press
A state government in Germany is looking at legal measures to prevent a British publisher's plans to reproduce excerpts from Adolf Hitler's infamous memoir "Mein Kampf" in Germany. The Finance Ministry of the German state of Bavaria said Tuesday that publisher Peter McGee's plans to reproduce three 16-page segments of "Mein Kampf" with critical commentary, starting next week, may violate the copyright on the book, which it holds. The ministry said in a statement that it believes the segments are too long to be considered excerpts not covered by copyright.
Germany Sues Dutch Site Over 'Mein Kampf' Excerpt
Radio Netherlands
A state government in Germany intends launching legal proceedings against a Dutch website for publication of an excerpt from Adolf Hitler’s infamous book, Mein Kampf. The Finance Ministry of Bavaria holds the copyright on the book and says website Nieuws-wo2.tk is in violation of copyright laws. The historical news website said it put up the fragment to support a colleague publisher in Germany, Peter McGee. The Bavarian state has also informed McGee that it will be taking measures to stop him publishing three segments of Mein Kampf with critical commentary from historians. McGee said he intended to put out weekly excerpts with a circulation of around 100,000.
German State Wins Battle to Get Hitler Book
Today's Zaman (Turkey)
… After becoming a best-seller in Turkey earlier this year [2007], with publishers saying more than 100,000 copies [of Mein Kampf] have been sold, Bavaria took action to intervene. In letters to publishers, Bavarian officials argued that the book’s copyright belonged to the German federal state everywhere except in the United States and Britain. Some eight publishing houses responded to the Bavarian letter, providing legal promises that they would stop publishing and selling the book. But six others refused to comply with Bavarian demands, prompting the German federal state to file a lawsuit against them.
Iraq. Began With Big Lies. Ending With Big Lies.
William Blum
… More than half the population either dead, wounded, traumatized, in prison, internally displaced, or in foreign exile ... The air, soil, water, blood, and genes drenched with depleted uranium ... the most awful birth defects ... unexploded cluster bombs lying anywhere in wait for children to pick them up ... a river of blood running alongside the Euphrates and Tigris ... through a country that may never be put back together again. "It is a common refrain among war-weary Iraqis that things were better before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003," reported the Washington Post on May 5, 2007.
Russia Warns That Iran Strike Could Trigger 'Chain Reaction'
The Independent (Britain)
Russia strongly criticised Western belligerence towards Syria and Iran yesterday, saying that a military assault on the Iranian regime could cause a "chain reaction" that would destabilise the entire world. The country's Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, also said during his annual televised press conference that Russia would use its veto at the UN Security Council to block any resolution calling for military force to be used against Syria. Mr Lavrov said that Russia is "seriously worried" that military action against Iran may be under consideration, and vowed that Moscow would do all it could to prevent it. "The consequences will be extremely grave," he said. "It's not going to be an easy walk. It will trigger a chain reaction and I don't know where it will stop."
In Signal to Israel and Iran, Obama Delays War Exercise
Gareth Porter and Jim Lobe – IPS
The postponement of a massive joint U.S.-Israeli military exercise appears to be the culmination of a series of events that has impelled the Barack Obama administration to put more distance between the United States and aggressive Israeli policies toward Iran. The exercise, called "Austere Challenge '12" and originally scheduled for April, was to have been a simulation of a joint U.S.-Israeli effort to identify, track and intercept incoming missiles by integrating sophisticated U.S. radar systems with the Israeli Arrow, Patriot and Iron Dome anti-missile defence systems.
Ten 100-Year Predictions That Came True
BBC News
In 1900, an American civil engineer called John Eldritch Watkins made a number of predictions about what the world would be like in
2000. How did he do? … At the start of the 20th Century, John Eldritch Watkins wrote piece published on page eight of an American
women's magazine, Ladies' Home Journal, entitled: "What may happen in the next hundred years". He began the article with the words:
"These prophecies will seem strange, almost impossible", explaining that he had consulted the country's "greatest institutions of
science and learning" for their opinions on 29 topics.
Russian Specialist Lays Bare Stalin’s Plan To Conquer Europe
Joseph Bishop – Institute for Historical Review
… In `Icebreaker’ Suvorov takes a close look at the origins and development of World War II in Europe, and in particular the
background to Hitler’s “Operation Barbarossa” attack against the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 … Above all, this book details the
vast Soviet preparations for an invasion of Europe in the summer of 1941 with the goal of Sovietizing central and western Europe.
Suvorov is not alone in his view. It is also affirmed by a number of non-Russian historians … A central tenet of Soviet ideology was
that the Soviet Union, as the world’s first Marxist state and bulwark of “workers’ power,” would eventually liberate all of humanity
from the yoke of capitalism and fascism.
New Evidence On 'Barbarossa': Why Hitler Attacked Soviet Russia
Daniel Michaels – Institute for Historical Review
… This prolific writer concisely and cogently explains why Hitler was compelled, for both political and military reasons, to launch
his preemptive strike against the Soviet Union when and how he did. "Stalin's Trap" is also his final legacy to future generations …
Many Soviet documents captured by the Germans during the course of the war, as well as German intelligence reports on the Soviet
buildup in 1941, amply justify Hitler's decision to strike. Presented before an impartial tribunal, this evidence surely would have
exonerated the German military and political leadership. Unfortunately, all of these documents were confiscated and kept by the
victorious Allies.
Defense Budgets and Cavemen
Gwynne Dyer
… For the first time in history, NO great power is planning to attack any other great power. War between great powers became
economic nonsense more than a century ago, and sheer suicide after the invention of nuclear weapons. Yet the military establishments
in every major power still have a powerful hold on the popular imagination. In effect, the new US defense strategy says that for the
United States to be safe, everybody else must be weaker. This displays a profound ignorance of human psychology – unless, of course,
it is just a cynical device to convince the American public to spend a lot on “defense”.
Number of Palestinians and Israeli Jews Will Be Equal By 2015
Barak Raved – Harts (Israel)
… The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) released its own report summarizing 2011. According to that report, the number of
Israelis stands at 7.8 million people: 5.9 Jews, 1.6 million Arabs and 325,000 defined as "others." A conclusion of the findings
shows that the number of Jews and Palestinians between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea [ that is, including the West Bank and
Gaza] are almost even. According to the Palestinian Authority's CBS there are about 300,000 more Jews than Palestinians, while
according to the Israeli CBS that number stands at 100,000.
Machinations of the Anti-Defamation League
Paul N. (Pete) McCloskey, Jr. -- Institute for Historical Review
… I was in politics for fifteen years, and I think you should start with the assumption: never trust a politician … When people
finally learn the truth, they turn against those who have been lying to them. And I think that if the movement of which you people
are the cutting edge can retain dispassion in the face of outrages, setbacks and humiliations, the truth can ultimately prevail. You
are doing something worse than criticizing the government of the United States; you're threatening the security of the state of
Israel. And the Jewish community is dedicated to preserve that state, and to destroy those who speak against it. Good luck!
The Influence of Israel and its American Lobby Over US Middle East Policy
Jeffrey Blank fort
The apparent ability of Israel, one of the world’s smallest countries, to shape the Middle East policies of the world’s remaining
superpower has been a source of puzzlement, conjecture, and constant frustration on the part of those fighting for justice for the
Palestinians and for the peoples of the region, as a whole … In the arena of foreign policy, no lobby has proved more powerful than
that of the organized American Jewish community in support of Israel; what is generally referred to as the Israel Lobby and in the
halls of Congress, simply as “the lobby.” Its power is all the more impressive when one realizes the lobby represents no more than a
third of America’s six million Jews.
A Straight Look at the Jewish Lobby
Mark Weber
… Jews wield immense power and influence in the United States. The "Jewish lobby" is a decisive factor in US support for Israel.
Jewish-Zionist interests are not identical to American interests. In fact, they often conflict. As long as the "very powerful"
Jewish lobby remains entrenched, there will be no end to the systematic Jewish distortion of current affairs and history, the
Jewish-Zionist domination of the U.S. political system, Zionist oppression of Palestinians, the bloody conflict between Jews and
non-Jews in the Middle East, and the Israeli threat to peace.
Thousands of US Troops Deploying to Israel
Russia Today
Without much media attention, thousands of American troops are being deployed to Israel, and Iranian officials believe that this is
the latest and most blatant warning that the US will soon be attacking Tehran. Tensions between nations have been high in recent
months and have only worsened in the weeks since early December when Iran hijacked and recovered an American drone aircraft. Many
have speculated that a back-and-forth between the two countries will soon escalate Iran and the US into an all-out war, and that
event might occur sooner than thought. Under the Austere Challenge 12 drill scheduled for an undisclosed time during the next few
weeks, the Israeli military will together with America host the largest-ever joint missile drill by the two countries.
World War II US Plan to Poison Japanese Crops Revealed
The Courier-Mail (Australia)
Poisoning Japanese crops with chemical weapons during World War II was a "worthwhile" and justifiable tactic, according to newly
declassified Australian military documents. … The World War II details emerged on the eve of the 70th anniversary of Japan's attack
of Pearl Harbor, which triggered the US to enter the conflict. The war ended almost four years later with the US dropping atomic
bombs on Japan. It was later revealed the US had contemplated a chemical bombardment on Japanese crops.
American Leaders Planned Poison Gas Attack Against Japan
Mark Weber
A long-suppressed report written in June 1945 by the US Army's Chemical Warfare Service shows that American military leaders made
plans for a massive preemptive poison gas attack to accompany an invasion of Japan. The 30-page document designated "gas attack
zones" on detailed maps of Tokyo and other major Japanese cities. Army planners selected 50 urban and industrial targets in Japan,
with 25 cities, including Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, Kobe and Kyoto, listed as "especially suitable for gas attacks."
Santorum Claims Mexico For US, and West Bank For Israel
Sari Madison – Salon
… Santorum said, among other things, “all the people who live in the West Bank are Israelis, they’re not Palestinians.” … He said it
is no more realistic to expect Israel to give back the West Bank than it is to expect the US to give “Texas and Mexico back,” since
they too were gained through war. That’s not a typo, not a verbal slip. Santorum refers to Mexico as part of the United States three
separate times in the two-minute interview.
`Nazi’ Memorial in Croatia Is `Disgrace,’ Says Zionist Activist
Ephraim Surf - The Jerusalem Post (Israel)
Imagine for a minute that memorial masses were held in two major cities in Germany on the anniversary of the death of Adolf Hitler.
Needless to say, such a ceremony would arouse fury, indignation, and widespread protests not only in Germany, but throughout the
entire world. Last week, the local equivalent of such an event took place in Croatia, but instead of anger and demonstrations, not a
single word of protest was heard from anywhere in the country. I am referring to the December 28 memorial masses conducted in Zagreb
and Split (and perhaps elsewhere as well) to mark the 51st anniversary of the death of Ante Pavelic, the head of state of the
infamous Independent State of Croatia …
Irish Potato Famine Was Genocide, Says Scholar In New Book
Mike Morley and Prof. Francis Boyle
… I’ve attempted to develop for the first time ever the legal case for why the Potato Famine was, in fact and in law, British
genocide against the Irish … The facts are not in dispute: that they starved to death one million Irish and forced another two
million to leave Ireland. The critical point here is the intent by Britain to exterminate Irish … They intended to reduce and
eliminate the number of Irish living in Ireland, either because they were Irish or because they were Catholic, or both.
Guatemalan Victims of STD Experiments Cannot Sue US, Says Washington
The Associated Press
The Obama administration argued Monday that Guatemalans unknowingly exposed to sexually transmitted diseases by U.S. researchers in
the 1940s cannot sue the United States, no matter how shameful and unethical the studies were. In its first response to a lawsuit
filed on behalf of the experiment's subjects, the Justice Department late Monday said sovereign immunity protects federal health
officials from litigation stemming from the study. The experiment conducted in the 1940s exposed Guatemalan prostitutes, prisoners,
mental patients and soldiers with STDs to test the effects of penicillin. The studies were conducted without the test subjects'
consent.
Jewish Alarm Over Level of Intermarriage in Europe
European Jewish Press
The European Centre for Jewish Students (ECJS) has raised alarm about the results of a new inquiry showing a rise of 17% of the rate
of intermarriage among European students. The annual research has been conducted among a representative sample of Jewish communities
and student organizations in Europe ahead of “Shabbat Like a Jew”, an event which will gather several hundreds of students from
across Europe in Athens, Greece … According to ECJS, there are some 200,000 Jews aged 18-30 in Europe, the age at which this group
of young people form relationships. Ives said the goal is to reach as many of them as possible "in order to reinforce their Jewish
identity and continue the chain of the generations of the Jewish nation."
Is Israel Losing the Battle?
Steve Rubin – Ynet News (Israel)
The de-legitimization of Israel is being perpetuated by the Jewish state’s lack of a concrete plan to counter a new generation of
anti-Israeli attitudes amongst both the American Jewish community and on college campuses. With regards to college campuses, this is
not an issue of bigoted anti-Semitism; rather, it is a case of educated and intelligent young adults who have been easily and
convincingly swayed by an overwhelmingly powerful Palestinian narrative. Even more troubling is that these well-educated,
anti-Israel activists are the future of America and its leadership. This is a new generation that is no longer enamored with the
State of Israel …
World Must Interfere in Israel's Internal Affairs
Gideon Levy - Haaretz (Israel)
… Israel may be the last country on earth with the right to be outraged over foreign interference. Since its founding, Israel has
not ceased working around the world to bring Jews here; it has clandestinely carried out underground subversive activity among shady
regimes; it has openly preached abroad for Jews to leave their native lands and immigrate here, or at least send financial support;
and Israel has moved heaven and earth against manifestations of anti-Semitism and supports parallel alternative Jewish and Zionist
educational systems around the world … It has not ceased to meddle in the internal affairs of foreign countries and entities, so of
all countries, it should not be heard to complain about foreign interference.
Israeli Settlement Construction Reportedly Up By 20 Percent
VOA News (Washington, DC)
A new report shows that Israeli has stepped up settlement expansion, despite international pressure. Israeli settlement construction
increased by 20 percent last year compared to 2010, according to the annual report of Israel's Peace Now movement. “2011 was an
excellent year for the settlers,” said Peace Now director Yariv Oppenheimer, who announced the findings at a news conference. He
said Israel approved construction of thousands of Jewish homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, on land the Palestinians seek
for a future state. The construction occurred despite opposition from the international community, which sees the settlements as an
obstacle to peace. Oppenheimer said the settlements are destroying the opportunity for a two-state solution.
In West Bank, Israel's Rule Is That Of The Jungle
Haaretz (Israel) -- Editorial
… Every time the judicial system has ordered the removal of an illegal outpost, including those erected on private Palestinian
lands, a magical solution has been found to breach the court order. Over the years, successive Israeli governments have
retroactively approved dozens of illegal settlements, many of which were established with its blessing and public money … Israel has
over the years expropriated about a million dunams (250,000 acres) by defining them as "state lands," in order to establish Jewish
settlements on them.
Israel Moves To Ban Protestors’ Use of Nazi and Holocaust Symbols
Reuters
Israel's parliament gave initial approval on Wednesday to laws to curb public use of Nazi symbols after ultra-Orthodox protesters
caused outrage by calling police Nazis and wearing concentration camp garb. Four bills swiftly passed one of five rounds of voting
needed to become law, even though a spectrum of critics denounced them as a violation of free speech. The laws call for up to a year
in jail and stiff fines for anyone convicted of visually or verbally misusing symbols such as swastikas, the term Nazi or epithets
related to the killing of six million Jews before and during World War Two. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet approved the
bills before they went to parliament …
Make Congress Vote on War on Iran
Patrick J. Buchanan
… There is another serious matter here. While Obamaites, neocons and Republicans are talking about "all options on the table," the
war option, if we still have a Constitution, cannot be used against a nation that has not attacked us, unless Congress, which alone
has the power to declare war, has authorized military action. When did Congress tell Obama or any president he can bomb Iran as soon
as he concludes Iran is building a nuclear weapon? If, after leaving Iraq, we are going into yet another war of choice, let the
Congress debate and vote on this new war with Iran.
In Hungary, Rising Anti-Jewish Sentiment
Hungary Around the Clock
Anti-Semitism is on the rise in Hungary, as anti-semitic language has become legitimate in public parlance because of the “Jobbik
effect,” a survey by Central European University sociologist András Kovács shows. Some 24% of adults said they find Jews
disagreeable, up from 10-14% gauged during 1993 to 2006.
The 23 Best Countries for Work-Life Balance (US Is No. 23)
Derek Thompson - The Atlantic
With the lowest child-poverty rate among developed nations, Denmark was named the best country for work-life balance in a 2011 report from the OECD. All three Scandinavian countries -- Denmark, Sweden, and Norway -- finished in the top seven in the ranking. So famous for their generous social safety net, which sharply divides liberals and conservatives between envy and consternation, northern Europe dominated the list, taking almost all the top ten spots.
Obama Seeks to Distance U.S. from Israeli Attack
Gareth Porter – IPS
President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are engaged in intense maneuvering over Netanyahu's aim of entangling the United States in an Israeli war against Iran. Netanyahu is exploiting the extraordinary influence his right-wing Likud Party exercises over the Republican Party and the U.S. Congress on matters related to Israel in order to maximise the likelihood that the United States would participate in an attack on Iran. Obama, meanwhile, appears to be hoping that he can avoid being caught up in a regional war started by Israel if he distances the United States from any Israeli attack.
Billionaire Zionist Sheldon Gives $5 million to Pro-Gingrich Group
The Associated Press – Haaretz (Israel)
American billionaire Sheldon Adelson, close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and owner of the Israeli daily Israel Hayom, has given $5 million to an independent group backing Newt Gingrich's presidential bid. A person familiar with the situation said Adelson — founder and majority owner of Las Vegas-based company that owns Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem — made the contribution Friday to Winning Our Future, a pro-Gingrich super PAC. The person said Adelson would spend heavily to assist whichever candidate wins the Republican nomination. Adelson is a longtime supporter of GOP candidates and has been a friend and backer of former House Speaker Gingrich for many years.
A Big Check, And Gingrich Gets a Big Lift
The New York Times
... On Friday, the cavalry suddenly arrived: a $5 million check from Mr. Adelson to Winning Our Future, a super PAC that supports Mr. Gingrich. By Monday morning, the group had reserved more than $3.4 million in advertising time in South Carolina, a huge sum of money in a state where the airwaves come cheap and the Republican presidential primary is just 11 days away.The last-minute injection underscores how last year's landmark Supreme Court ruling on campaign finance has made it possible for a wealthy individual to influence an election. Mr. Adelson's contribution to the super PAC is 1,000 times as much as the $5,000 he could legally donate directly to Mr. Gingrich's campaign this year.
The Brass Ring: A Profile of Sheldon Adelson
Connie Bruck -- The New Yorker (2008)
… He has been a generous donor to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, the dominant lobby of American Jewry regarding U.S. policy toward Israel … That was before he acquired many billions of dollars. (He has assets of twenty-six billion dollars, according to a Forbes list published in March.) … Adelson is also funding, with a $4.5-million grant, a think tank, the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies, at the right-leaning Shalem Center, in Jerusalem … In 2006, Sheldon and Miriam donated twenty-five million dollars to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial, the largest donation from a private donor in its history … According to a guest at a reception in Washington a few years ago, Adelson remarked to President Bush, “You know, I am the richest Jew in the world.”
Critics Claim Victory in MSNBC’s Suspension of Buchanan
WND (Washington, DC)
An activist group whose leaders object to the beliefs of Pat Buchanan, a senior adviser to three American presidents, a candidate for the Republican nomination in 1992 and 1996, and the Reform Party’s presidential candidate in 2000, is announcing victory in its campaign to have the author of multiple best-selling books removed from MSNBC. “ColorOfChange.org welcomes MSNBC’s decision to indefinitely supend (sic) Pat Buchanan,” ColorOfChange.org Executive Director Rashad Robinson posted in an online statement.
Buchanan’s Future at MSNBC Is Murky, Network’s Chief Says
The New York Times
The days of Patrick J. Buchanan as a commentator on the news channel MSNBC may be over. Phil Griffin, the president of the network, said in an interview here on Saturday that Mr. Buchanan might not be allowed to return to the channel because of the arguments in his most recent book, “Suicide of a Superpower,” which have been criticized by some civil rights organizations as racist and anti-Semitic. Mr. Griffin said that Mr. Buchanan, who has not appeared on the network since he began a book tour in October, was still employed by MSNBC, but that his future with the channel was unresolved.
Congress, Obama Codify Indefinite Detention
Sheldon Richman
… Regardless of the absence of the relevant language, both the Bush and Obama administrations claimed these broad powers that make a mockery of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights’ Fifth Amendment in particular. Now these powers have been formally set down on paper … This shouldn’t be surprising: Obama already claims the authority to kill Americans without due process. Obama’s intention to sign the NDAA tells us exactly where he stands on the Bill of Rights. As Human Rights Watch put it: “President Obama will go down in history as the president who enshrined indefinite detention without trial in US law.” The late Chalmers Johnson, the scholar who did so much to chronicle America’s world domination, liked to say that you either abolish the empire or live under it. Is there any doubt he was right?
In Britain, 'Anti-Semitism' Training Planned for Lawmakers
Toronto Star (Canada)
A British parliamentary group will run anti-Semitism seminars for MPs in the wake of a Nazi-themed stag party attended by one and questions about Britain’s Jewish ambassador to Israel by another. “You would think people in public life are much more attuned to these issues,” Danny Stone, director of the Parliamentary Committee Against Anti-Semitism Foundation, told the Star on Friday. “Some people do need help understanding that debate properly.” The voluntary seminars would likely begin next month through the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Anti-Semitism, a government group which Stone’s foundation supports.
President Obama Signs Indefinite Detention Bill Into Law
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law today [Dec. 31]. The statute contains a sweeping worldwide indefinite detention provision … “President Obama's action today is a blight on his legacy because he will forever be known as the president who signed indefinite detention without charge or trial into law,” said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU executive director. “The statute is particularly dangerous because it has no temporal or geographic limitations, and can be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far from any battlefield …”
R.I.P. Bill of Rights 1789-2011
Mike Adams
One of the most extraordinary documents in human history -- the Bill of Rights -- has come to an end under President Barack Obama. Derived from sacred principles of natural law, the Bill of Rights has come to a sudden and catastrophic end with the President's signing of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a law that grants the U.S. military the "legal" right to conduct secret kidnappings of U.S. citizens, followed by indefinite detention, interrogation, torture and even murder. This is all conducted completely outside the protection of law, with no jury, no trial, no legal representation and not even any requirement that the government produce evidence against the accused.
Phantom Defense Cuts
The Orange County Register (California) - Editorial
… But the cuts really aren't there, Christopher Preble told us; he's vice president for defense and foreign-policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute. It's the old trick of "cutting" the baseline budget – as the baseline rises. He said the "cuts" would "put us back to 2010 – hardly a lean year as far as Pentagon spending is concerned." He said that money also has been shifted from the Pentagon's main budget to Overseas Contingency Operations – bureaucratese for wars. "The bottom line is that, from 2011 to 2012, the budget may not have been cut at all, if you include the roughly $10 billion moved into the OCO account. It's virtually flat."
Why Hitler Struck Against Soviet Russia
Mark Weber - Podcast
Important evidence has come to light in recent decades that shatters the official, endlessly repeated view that Hitler, bent on world conquest, launched a treacherous surprise attack against a peaceful Soviet Union. In 1941 Soviet dictator Stalin deployed an enormous strike force on the western Soviet frontier in readiness for a massive attack against Germany that would roll on to overwhelm central and western Europe. Hitler’s ‘Barbarossa” attack, say a growing number of historians in Russia, Germany and other countries, was actually a preventive war to forestall an imminent Soviet strike.
Don't Blame Hitler Alone For World War II
Eric Margolis
… A fascinating book, `The Chief Culprit’ by Viktor Suvorov (US Naval Institute Press), the pseudonym of a defector from Soviet military intelligence GRU, makes explosive new revelations about Stalin’s role in igniting World War II … I poured through Suvorov’s meticulous military analysis. To me, as a veteran military analyst, his figures appear to confirm that Stalin was just about to attack when Hitler pre-empted him … Had Hitler not attacked first in 1941, Stalin’s thirty-million man army, backed by mammoth industrial production, would have overwhelmed all of Europe in a 1941 surprise blitz. Suvorov’s unstated conclusion: Hitler saved Western Europe from Stalin.
Was Stalin To Blame For World War II?
Tom Segev - Haaretz (Israel)
... A few years ago Shauli read "Icebreaker: Who Started the Second World War" ... From out of the sea of details, a coherent thesis emerges: Stalin dragged Hitler into war to force Europe into chaos and facilitate a communist revolution on the continent. According to Shauli, there is [additional] evidence to back up this theory, including a speech by Stalin himself as well as a report obtained by the U.S. Consulate in Prague ... The document is in his possession, and now the history of World War II may have to be rewritten: It was Stalin's fault.
Santorum, 'Dumbest' Congress Member, Pledges War Against Iran
Alexander Cockburn
A Catholic former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania once rated the dumbest man in the US Congress crested Tuesday night in Iowa’s see-saw battle among candidates for the Republican nomination and ran a virtual tie with Mormon millionaire Mitt Romney … Santorum says that as president he would bomb Iran tomorrow. Romney and Gingrich don’t lag far behind in their ravings against the Islamic Republic. Obama ratchets up sanctions against Iran while supposedly telling Netanyahu that the US will not endorse any attack by Israel on Iran. Only Ron Paul stands out against this deranged chorus. Given a chance, I’ll vote for Paul, even though he hasn’t a prayer of taking over the Oval Office.
'There Is No Palestine,' Says Rick Santorum
The Jewish Week (New York)
… As far as Santorum is concerned, Palestinians don’t exist. “There are no Palestinians,” he told a questioner at a campaign event in Iowa. "All the people who live in the West Bank are Israelis. There are no Palestinians. This is Israeli land," the former Pennsylvania senator said. "The West Bank is part of Israel," which won it as "part of an aggressive attack by Jordan and others" in 1967. Israel doesn't have to give it back any more than the United States has to give New Mexico and Texas to Mexico, which were gotten "through a war," he said.
Kennedy's 1945 Visit to Germany
Mark Weber
In late July and early August 1945, just weeks after the end of the war in Europe, the 28-year-old John F. Kennedy visited war-devastated Germany … These diary entries show the youthful Kennedy's wide-ranging curiosity and eye for telling detail … Kennedy wrote a remarkable commentary in his diary, dated August 1, 1945, about Hitler and his place in history: "After visiting these places, you can easily understand how that within a few years Hitler will emerge from the hatred that surrounds him now as one of the most significant figures who ever lived…”
Joseph Kennedy and the Jews
Edward Renehan, Jr -- History News Network
… Kennedy always remained convinced of what he believed to be the Jews' corrupt, malignant, and profound influence in American culture and politics. "The Democratic [party] policy of the United States is a Jewish production," Kennedy told a British reporter near the end of 1939, adding confidently that Roosevelt would "fall" in 1940.
US As a Global Power: New World Disorder
The Guardian (Britain) – Editorial
… Protectionism not internationalism rules the day. The Middle East has been transformed from a zone of allies to one in which Washington has been reduced to the role of spectator. It is now largely a taker of Middle Eastern policy, not one of its makers … So the paradox is that while US military power retains global reach (it is working on supersonic cruise missiles, and long-range drones) its stewardship as world leader, as a generator of the next big idea, is gradually ending. There may come a time when international institutions are rebuilt to fill this vacuum. But that time is not yet. Until then, a new world disorder would be nearer the mark.
The Atlantic Charter Smokescreen
Charles Lutton - Institute for Historical Review
During both the First and Second World Wars, the nations warring against Germany and her allies portrayed their fight as a "world war for humanity." Despite the opening of hitherto closed government archives and the testimony of political participants, the general public, with rare exceptions, still believes in these wartime propaganda images of "the good guys" versus "the bad guys." … Although the Allies, including Stalin's Russia, continued throughout the war to invoke the principles embodied in the Atlantic Charter, those principles were in practice ignored …
Why Ron Paul Terrifies the GOP
Peter Beinart -- The Daily Beast
… Small government conservatism, the kind to which today's Republicans swear fealty, was born in the 1920s not only in reaction to the progressive movement's efforts to use government to regulate business, but in reaction to World War I, which conservatives rightly saw as a crucial element of the government expansion they feared. To be a small government conservative in the 1920s and 1930s was, for the most part, to vehemently oppose military spending while insisting that the US never, ever get mired in another European war.
A Jewish Fighter Recalls 'Nakba' Horrors
Zochrot (Israel)
Amnon Neumann recalls some of what he saw and experienced of the “Nakba” (the Palestinian “Catastrophe’) as a fighter of the Zionist “Palmach” forces. He describes some of “the horrible things we did” in 1948 because of “Zionist ideology,” including forcible expulsions of Arabs from Palestinian villages where they and their ancestor had lived for centuries, as well as killings and destruction of homes. This testimony was given in June 2010. Neumann speaks in Hebrew, with English subtitles. Runtime: 14:52 mins.
The Worst Case For War With Iran
Stephen M. Walt
There is a simple and time-honored formula for making the case for war, especially preventive war. First, you portray the supposed threat as dire and growing, and then try to convince people that if we don't act now, horrible things will happen down the road … Let's be crystal clear about what Kroenig is advocating here. He is openly calling for preventive war against Iran, even though the United States has no authorization from the U.N. Security Council, it is not clear that Iran is actively developing nuclear weapons, and Iran has not attacked us or any of our allies -- ever. He is therefore openly calling for his country to violate international law.
No Longer The Land of Opportunity
Harold Meyerson – The Washington Post
Romney’s assertions are the centerpiece of his, and his party’s, critique not just of Obama but of American liberalism generally. But they fail to explain how and why the American economy has declined the past few decades — in good part because they betray no awareness that Europe’s social democracies now fit the description of “merit-based opportunity societies” much more than ours does … There are, of course, a multitude of reasons the nations of Northern Europe are outperforming us. But if entitlements and social democracy were anywhere near the impediments to enterprise that Romney claims, Germany would hardly be the most successful economy in the advanced industrial world, with those of Scandinavia close behind.
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Plans Referendum On Treaty With Israel
Haaretz (Israel)
The Muslim Brotherhood, the overwhelming victor in the first round of elections for the Egyptian Parliament, has announced it will not recognize Israel and intends to bring the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty to a referendum. "We will not recognize Israel under any circumstances; we are talking about an occupation entity and a criminal enemy," said Dr. Rashad Bayoumi, the deputy head of the Brotherhood. "There is no condition that obligates the movement to recognize Israel," Bayoumi reportedly told the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper.
Whose Country Is It, Anyway?
Patrick J. Buchanan
… How did America's Christians allow themselves to be dispossessed of a country their fathers had built for them? How did America come to be a nation where not only have all Christian prayers, pageants, holidays and holy days been purged from all government schools and public institutions, but secularism has taken over those schools, while Christians are mocked at Christmas in ways that would be declared hate crimes were it done to other religious faiths or ethnic minorities? … The question for Christians is a simple one: Do they have what it takes to take America back?
New US Law, Signed by Obama, is 'Historic Assault' on Liberty
Jonathan Turley – The Guardian (Britain)
President Barack Obama rang in the New Year by signing the NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act] law with its provision allowing him to indefinitely detain citizens. It was a symbolic moment, to say the least. With Americans distracted with drinking and celebrating, Obama signed one of the greatest rollbacks of civil liberties in the history of our country … Ironically, in addition to breaking his promise not to sign the law, Obama broke his promise on signing statements.
Congress Approves Massive $662 Billion Military Spending Bill
The Associated Press
Congress passed a massive $662 billion defense bill Thursday [Dec. 15] after months of wrangling over how to handle captured terrorist suspects without violating Americans’ constitutional rights. A last-minute compromise produced a truce, but lawmakers said the fight’s not over. The Senate voted 86-13 for the measure and will send it to President Barack Obama for his signature. The bill would authorize money for military personnel, weapons systems, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and national security programs in the Energy Department for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. The legislation is $27 billion less than Obama wanted and $43 billion less than Congress gave the Pentagon this year …
America’s Transition from Republic to Empire
Mark Weber – Podcast
For more than a century, US foreign policy was based on the principle of non-intervention in overseas wars and disputes, and rejection of “entangling alliances.” In 1898 the US -- seizing on a pretext -- declared war against Spain. The US acquired the Philippines and Puerto Rico, and also took Hawaii and established hegemony over Cuba. This was a landmark transition from a republic to an imperial power. Later, in two world wars, the US pushed a globalist foreign policy, justifying military intervention everywhere in the name of “democracy.” Today America’s “exceptionalist” role as a “world policeman” is increasingly resented everywhere as arrogant and hypocritical.
Sheldon Adelson: The Deep Pockets Behind Newt Gingrich
Eli Clifton
The funding behind Newt Gingrich’s American Solutions for Winning the Future, an independent political committee, offers an intriguing clue into the financial deep pockets backing Gingrich’s candidacy … The billionaire casino magnate is a central figure in Newt Gingrich’s political career … In Israel, Adelson’s importance stems from his close friendship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ownership of Israel HaYom, a free daily newspaper which supports Netanyahu’s Likud party. Back in the U.S., Adelson sits on the board of the Republican Jewish Coalition and is outspoken about his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
US Politicians Get Richer As Ordinary Americans Get Poorer
AFP
The wealth gap between members of Congress and ordinary Americans is growing larger, with nearly half of all lawmakers now worth more than $1 million, according to US media reports Tuesday. US lawmakers are increasingly likely to be multimillionaires and are on average nine times richer than the other Americans, according to data made available to the New York Times and Washington Post. The papers reported figures from the Center for Responsive Politics that showed the median net worth of a member of Congress stood at $913,000 and is climbing, compared to $100,000 and falling for the rest of the population … Their wealth stands in stark contrast to the economic fate of most Americans, who have seen their value shrink over the last two decades.
Wealth Gap Grows Between US Lawmakers and American People
New York Daily News
As Americans have gotten poorer, members of Congress have gotten richer. The median net worth of members of the House more than doubled from $280,000 to $725,000 in inflation-adjusted dollars between 1984 and 2009, the Washington Post reported. The median wealth of American families declined slightly over the same period. Nearly half of all members of Congress today are millionaires, according to The New York Times. And the wealth gap is growing faster than before. From 2004 to 2010 alone, the median net worth of members of Congress grew by 15% while the median net worth for all Americans dropped 8%.
How Did Our Friend Iran Become Our Enemy?
Jim Powell -- Forbes
Before the United States goes to war with Iran, as many Americans seem anxious to do, we should first understand how Iran became our implacable enemy. U.S. presidents from Eisenhower to Carter viewed Iran as our friend … The story goes back to the early days of World War II. In 1941, Great Britain and the Soviet Union invaded Iran, because the ruler, Reza Shah, seemed incapable of countering Nazi influence. They forced him to resign. … After the war and the humiliating invasions, an Iranian nationalist movement clamored to eliminate foreign intervention in their country.
Jewish Fundraisers Are Sticking With Obama
Forward (New York)
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Top-level Jewish fundraisers from President Obama’s 2008 campaign are sticking with the president in 2012. Despite reports that President Obama faces a loss of Jewish funders due to his Middle East policy, analysis of a list of elite bundlers from his 2008 race shows no defections among the president’s top Jewish supporters in 2012.
How Israel Empowers Islamist Movements
Uri Avnery
If Islamist movements come to power all over the region, they should express their debt of gratitude to their bete noire, Israel. Without the active or passive help of successive Israeli governments, they may not have been able to realize their dreams. That is true in Gaza, in Beirut, in Cairo and even in Tehran … Israel’s part in the rise of Hizbollah is less direct, but no less effective … Generations of Jews have been brought up on the Talmud, which is mainly a compilation of legal precedents, and their mind has been honed by legalistic arguments. Not for nothing are Jewish lawyers in demand the world over.
Ron Paul Is Anti-Israel, But Not Anti-Semitic, Says Former Aide
Haaretz (Israel)
Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul supports calls for the abolishment of Israel as a Jewish state, and the return of it in its entirety to the Arabs, though he is not an anti-Semite, a former senior aide of the libertarian Texan congressman wrote in a blog on Monday. “He wishes the Israeli state did not exist at all,” Eric Dondero wrote in his blog on the RightWing News website. “His view is that Israel is more trouble than it is worth, specifically to the America taxpayer.” “He sides with the Palestinians, and supports their calls for the abolishment of the Jewish state, and the return of Israel, all of it, to the Arabs,” Dondero added.
Sanctions Against Iran Are 'Acts of War,' Says Ron Paul
ABC News
Unwilling to back down from the growing criticism that his foreign policy would be “dangerous,” Ron Paul told voters in Iowa that western sanctions against Iran are “acts of war” that are likely to lead to an actual war. Paul said that Iran would be justified in responding to sanctions by blocking the Straits of Hormuz, adding that the country blocking the strategically important strait is “so logical” since they have no other recourse.
Christmas in the Trenches: The 1914 Truce
Abby Zimet
The extraordinary story and pictures of the Christmas truce of 1914, wherein "enemy" German and English troops discovered their common humanity for a brief surreal shining moment. Set to John McCutcheon's stirring song.
US Blocks UN Move To Condemn Israeli Settlements
The Associated Press
The United States vetoed a U.N. resolution Friday that would have condemned “illegal” Israeli settlements and demanded an immediate halt to all settlement building, a move certain to anger Arab countries and Palestinian supporters around the world. The 14 other Security Council members voted in favor of the resolution, reflecting the wide support for the Palestinian-backed draft which had over 100 co-sponsors. ... The vote put President Barack Obama in a difficult position, both internationally and domestically. The U.S. veto was strongly opposed by Arab nations and much of the rest of the world, especially at a time of growing street protests in the Mideast, fueled by hopes for democracy.
Israel Plans More Than 1,000 New Housing Units in Occupied Land
Los Angeles Times
Israel's Housing Ministry announced Sunday that it would construct more than 1,000 housing units in the West Bank and Jerusalem area on land it seized during the 1967 Mideast war ... The U.N. and many countries consider such settlement construction illegal and have urged Israel to refrain from building on land that Palestinians hope to one day make part of their state.
Desecrating the Timeless Spirit of Christmas
Mark Weber - Podcast
The Christmas message of peace, good will and respect for others is not just a Christian or even narrowly religious one. These timeless principles are important for nations as well as for individuals. But because American cultural and political life is controlled by a small but powerful minority with its own partisan agenda, US foreign policy has all too often been arrogant, bellicose and oppressive -- with harmful long-term consequences for Americans and humanity.
Christmas Trees 'Provocative,' Says Jewish Mayor of Nazareth Suburb
AFP
The mayor of a Jewish suburb of Nazareth sparked outrage on Wednesday after refusing to allow Christmas trees to be placed in town squares, calling them provocative. Predominantly Jewish Nazareth Illit, or Upper Nazareth, is adjacent to Nazareth, where Christians believe Jesus spent much of his life. It has a sizable Arab Christian minority, as does mostly Muslim Nazareth itself. "The request of the Arabs to put Christmas trees in the squares in the Arab quarter of Nazareth Illit is provocative," Mayor Shimon Gapso told AFP.
Wiesel Words
Christopher Hitchens (2001)
Is there a more contemptible poseur and windbag than Elie Wiesel? I suppose there may be. But not, surely, a poseur and windbag who receives (and takes as his due) such grotesque deference on moral questions. ... This claim is a cheap lie and is known by Wiesel to be a lie. It is furthermore an utterly discredited lie, and one that Israeli officialdom no longer cares to repeat. Israeli and Jewish historians have exposed it time and again: ... And of course the lie is a Big Lie, because Expulsion-Denial lies at the root of the entire problem and helps poison the situation to this day.
Elie Wiesel: A Prominent False Witness
Robert Faurisson
Elie Wiesel passes for one of the most celebrated eyewitnesses to the alleged Holocaust. Yet in his supposedly autobiographical book Night, he makes no mention of gas chambers. He claims instead to have witnessed Jews being burned alive, a story now dismissed by all historians. Wiesel gives credence to the most absurd stories of other "eyewitnesses." He spreads fantastic tales of 10,000 persons sent to their deaths each day in Buchenwald. When Elie Wiesel and his father, as Auschwitz prisoners, had the choice of either leaving with their retreating German "executioners," or remaining behind in the camp to await the Soviet "liberators," the two decided to leave with their German captors.
British Book Seller Apologizes After Promoting Mein Kampf as 'Perfect' Present
The Jewish Chronicle (Britain)
Booksellers Waterstone's has apologised for inappropriately promoting Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf as a "perfect" Christmas present. But the UK's largest bookshop chain has denied it is attempting to bolster sales of the infamously antisemitic work, despite the JC discovering several stores deliberately and prominently displaying the book. Staff at Waterstone's in Huddersfield used a festive point-of-sale sticker to promote the book as "the perfect present" with an accompanying personal recommendation message by a staff member trumpeting the book as "an essential read for anyone".
Release of 'Air Jordan' Shoes Sets Off Nationwide Frenzy
The Associated Press
Scuffles broke out and police were brought in to quell unrest that nearly turned into riots across the United States following the release of Nike's new Air Jordan basketball shoes — a retro model of one of the most popular Air Jordans ever made. The frenzy over Air Jordans has been dangerous in the past. Some people were mugged or even killed for early versions of the shoe, created by Nike Inc. in 1984 ... The mayhem stretched from Washington state to Georgia Friday and was reminiscent of the violence that broke out 20 years ago in many cities as the shoes became popular targets for thieves.
Turkey Retaliates Over French 'Genocide Denial' Bill
BBC News
The Turkish prime minister has announced measures against France after MPs passed a bill criminalising denial of the 1915-16 Armenian "genocide". Ankara is recalling its ambassador and freezing political visits as well as joint military projects, including exercises, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. The bill was passed by the French National Assembly on Thursday and is due to go before the Senate next year. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has publicly opposed it. Under the bill, those publicly denying genocide would face a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros ($58,000). Armenians say up to 1.5 million people were killed by the Ottoman Turks in 1915-16.
Orthodox Jewish Sex Abuse Scandal
New York Post
He looks like a movie star, but many members of Brooklyn’s Jewish community believe he is a monster. Andrew Goodman, 27, who worked for Jewish social-service agencies, is charged with sexually abusing two Orthodox boys for years in Flatbush — one from age 11 to 15, the other from age 13 to 16 ... He’s one of an astounding 85 accused Orthodox child molesters that Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes’ office says it has busted in the past three years in an initiative called Kol Tzedek, Hebrew for “voice of justice.” The cases involve 117 victims — a number that has the community reeling from the extent of the horrors of pedophilia.
The 'Jefferson Bible' Is On Display
Religious News Service
How would you feel about taking a razor blade to a Bible? Thomas Jefferson, apparently, didn't have any qualms about it. In his retirement, the nation's third president carried out a project he had contemplated for years: he literally cut and pasted passages from the four Gospels into one integrated narrative of Jesus' life -- minus the miracles and supernatural events. The result, he said, was "the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man." Judging by the wear and tear on the book, it appears Jefferson read it regularly. Known as "The Jefferson Bible," the 84-page patchwork book is on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
Recovery Before Reform: 'Money Power' Hampers Banking Regulation
Robert Skidelsky
... For 50 years after the Great Depression of the 1930’s, the Money Power was held to account by the countervailing power of government. At the heart of the political check was America’s Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. Glass-Steagall aimed to prevent commercial banks from gambling with their depositors’ money by mandating the institutional separation of retail and investment banking. The result was 65 years of relative financial stability ... After prolonged lobbying by the financial-services industry, US President Bill Clinton repealed Glass-Steagall in 1999. From that point on, commercial and investment banks could merge, and the composite entities were authorized to provide a full range of banking services, including underwriting and other trading activities.
Nearly One in Three Americans Will Be Arrested by Age 23
USA Today
Nearly one in three people will be arrested by the time they are 23, a study published Monday in Pediatrics found. "Arrest is a pretty common experience," says Robert Brame, a criminologist at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte and principal author of the study. The new data show a sharp increase from a previous study that stunned the American public when it was published 44 years ago by criminologist Ron Christensen. That study found 22% of youth would be arrested by age 23. The latest study finds 30.2% of young people will be arrested by age 23.
Brazil Overtakes Britain As World’s Sixth Largest Economy
BBC News
Brazil has overtaken the UK as the world's sixth largest economy, an economic research group has said. The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) said its latest World Economic League Table showed Asian countries moving up and European countries falling back. The CEBR also predicted that the UK economy would overtake France by 2016. It also said the eurozone economy would shrink 0.6 percent in 2012 "if the euro problem is solved", or two percent if it is not.
Top Ten Anti-Semitic Slurs of 2011
The Simon Wiesenthal Center (Los Angeles)
For the last two years, The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish human rights NGO, has compiled a list of the top ten anti-Israel and anti-Semitic slurs. The list continues to reflect the growing global anti-Semitism and de-legitimization of Israel coming from mainstream voices. It does not include statements by terrorist organizations, the lunatic fringe, or the government of Iran.
Germany Seeks to Ban Nationalist NPD Party
The Associated Press
Germany’s top security officials say they are formally launching an investigation to determine whether a far right party should be banned over its anti-democratic convictions. Germany’s Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said Friday he reached agreement with his counterparts from the country’s 16 states to gather material for a trial seeking to ban the NPD party. They say the National Democratic Party is “inhuman, hostile to democracy and anti-Semitic.”
Encircling Iran: US Military Bases in the Middle East
Bruce K. Gagnon
This map tells the whole story. Each star represents a U.S. military base. In the middle, in blue, is Iran. Iran has no military bases outside its borders. Just north of Iran is Georgia that has essentially become a U.S./NATO base. Turkey belongs to NATO. Iran has been checkmated. North of Georgia is Russia. Can there be any wonder why Russia is so alarmed about an attack on Iran? Imagine if we saw a map of the U.S. with Russian or Chinese military bases throughout Canada and Mexico along with their warships just off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The American people would be going ballistic. But when we do it to others, no one even blinks an eye.
British Schools Should End `Nazi’ Studies, Says Former Education Minister
The Telegraph (Britain)
British schools should no longer teach children about the Nazis because it makes them think less favourably of modern Germany, the architect of the National Curriculum has claimed. Lord Baker of Dorking, who spent three years as Margaret Thatcher’s education secretary, said that he would ban the topic and concentrate on British history instead. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he said that schools should concentrate on teaching “the story in our own country” rather than the events of the Second World War, including the Holocaust. Lord Baker, who introduced the National Curriculum in the 1980s, said: “I would ban the study of Nazism from the history curriculum totally.”
Did President Roosevelt Provoke Pearl Harbor?
Patrick J. Buchanan
... Today, 70 years after Pearl Harbor, a remarkable secret history, written from 1943 to 1963, has come to light. It is Hoover’s explanation of what happened before, during and after the world war that may prove yet the death knell of the West. Edited by historian George Nash, “Freedom Betrayed: Herbert Hoover’s History of the Second World War and Its Aftermath” is a searing indictment of FDR and the men around him as politicians who lied prodigiously about their desire to keep America out of war, even as they took one deliberate step after another to take us into war.
The Blunders of Statesmen: Former US President Reassesses World War II
Herbert Hoover
... The fourth abysmal loss of statesmanship was when the British and French guaranteed the independence of Poland and Rumania at the end of March 1939. It was at this point that the European democracies reversed their previous policies of keeping hands off the inevitable war between Hitler and Stalin. It was probably the greatest blunder in the whole history of European-power diplomacy. Britain and France were helpless to save Poland from invasion ... The fifth major blunder in statesmanship was when Roosevelt, in the winter of 1941, threw the United States into undeclared war with Germany and Japan in total violation of promises upon which he had been elected a few weeks before ... Indeed the greatest loss of statesmanship in all American history was the tacit American alliance and support of Communist Russia when Hitler made his attack in June 1941.
A Masterpiece of German Wartime Cinema: 'Opfergang'
Derek Hawthorne -- Counter Currents
... Like all great cinema, this film transcends its time and place. ... When I first saw Opfergang I was so impressed by its opening scenes that I cut it off after about a half hour and then re-watched it from the beginning. Then I watched it again the next night, and the next. And the next ... Composer Borgmann’s musical accompaniment for this scene is as strange and moving as the scene itself. A chorus wails a variation on the film’s dignified and funereal main theme.
'Opfergang': A Portion
Video
From the wartime German film “Opfergang” (“Path of Sacrifice”). The main role here is played by the Swedish-born Kristina Söderbaum. Her husband, Veit Harlan, directed this beautiful production, with impressive performances and a haunting score. Released in 1944, this UFA production is in color. With English subtitles. This portion: 4:35 mins.
Swiss Museum Cancels Competition After Prize-Sponsor Lacoste Rejects Palestinian Artist
Annie Robbins -- Mondo Weiss
Here is a shocking story that tells us how the world is changing before our eyes. A Swiss museum staging a prestigious international art competition selects a Palestinian artist as one of eight finalists. The sponsor of the prize -- the Lacoste clothing company -- then demands that she be excluded. The museum wavers and tries to buy the artist off with a solo exhibition separate from the prize. She refuses. And the museum cancels the whole competition!
Wage Inequality 'Getting Worse' in Leading Economies
BBC News
The divide between the wages of the rich and the poor is growing in nearly all of the world's leading economies, according to think tank the OECD. Researchers examined 22 countries and found that inequality grew in 17 of them between the 1980s and the financial crisis of 2008. Chile, Mexico, Turkey and the United States were the most unequal nations. Inequality rose fastest in the the UK - it peaked in 2000, then fell, but is now rising again. Even traditionally egalitarian countries such as Germany, Denmark and Sweden have experienced a growing wealth gap in recent decades.
Seattle Couple Received Welfare, Lived in $1.2 Million Home
The Associated Press
A Seattle chiropractor and his wife live in a $1.2 million waterfront home and have spent the past eight years flying to Moscow, Paris, Israel, Turkey, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. All the while, federal authorities say, the couple was collecting more than $100,000 in welfare. Now, the U.S. attorney's office is suing David Silverstein and Lyudmila Shimonova, accusing them of filing false claims and demanding that the couple pay back more than $135,000 in federal housing assistance since 2003 ... A report of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle for the 2010 fiscal year listed "Mila and Dr. David Silverstein" as donors.
The Real 'Invented' People
M. J. Rosenberg
It is hard to believe that anyone who defends Israel's legitimacy as a state would buy into former Speaker Newt Gingrich's argument that Palestine is an "invented nation". The singular triumph of the Zionist movement is that it invented a state and a people - Israel and the Israelis - from scratch. The first Hebrew-speaking child in 1900 years, Ittamar Ben-Avi, was not born until 1882. His father, the brilliant linguist Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, created a modern language for him to speak by improvising from the language of the Bible. The founder of the Israeli state was Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) ...
Obama Renews Pledge of 'Unshakable' Commitment to Israel’s Security
Haaretz (Israel)
U.S. President Barack Obama gave the keynote address at the Union for Reform Judaism conference in Maryland on Friday, where he said that his administration has done more than any other to support Israel ... Obama has come under persistent attack from Republicans heading into the 2012 election, who say he hasn't done enough for Israel. However, in Friday's speech, Obama stressed his commitment to Israel and its security. "We stand with Israel as a Jewish and democratic state," he said. "America's commitment and my commitment to the security of Israel is unshakeable."
Gingrich Calls For ‘Joint Operations’ With Israel To Attack Iran’s Nuclear Program
Ben Armbruster -- Think Progress
Last month during the GOP presidential candidate foreign policy debate, Newt Gingrich suggested that he would order a military attack on Iran over its nuclear program. “You have to take whatever steps are necessary to break its capacity to have a nuclear weapon,” he said. Keeping with this militaristic tone — and perpetuating the GOP race for which presidential candidate loves Israel the most -- the former speaker told Wolf Blitzer yesterday on CNN that as president, he would help the Jewish state should it decide to attack Iran.
Prominent 'Holocaust Scholar' Blasts 'Holocaust Abuse' by US, Israeli Politicians
Haaretz (Israel)
Renowned Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt says that American and Israeli politicians who invoke the Holocaust for contemporary political purposes are engaging in “Holocaust abuse”, which is similar to “soft-core denial” of the Holocaust ... Lipstadt also lashed out at the "over-the-top pandering" of Republican presidential candidates, describing their fawning support for Israel as "embarrassing" and "unhealthy." Of last week’s appearance of the top Republican candidates at a Washington forum organized by the Republican Jewish Committee, she said: “It was unbelievable. It made me cringe. I couldn’t watch it.”
Obama Approves Law on Military Detention of US Terrorist 'Suspects' Without Trial
The Guardian (Britain)
Barack Obama has abandoned a commitment to veto a new security law that allows the military to indefinitely detain without trial American terrorism suspects arrested on US soil who could then be shipped to Guantanamo Bay. Human rights groups accused the president of deserting his principles and disregarding the long-established principle that the military is not used in domestic policing ,,, The law, contained in the defence authorisation bill that funds the US military, effectively extends the battlefield in the "war on terror" to the US and applies the established principle that combatants in any war are subject to military detention.
Obama Directs US Government To Promote Gay Rights Worldwide
The Associated Press
The Obama administration is announcing a wide-ranging effort to use US foreign aid to promote rights for gays and lesbians abroad, including combating attempts by foreign governments to criminalize homosexuality ... “The struggle to end discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons is a global challenge, and one that is central to the United States' commitment to promoting human rights," Obama said in a statement. ... Obama's announcement is part of the White House's outreach to gays and lesbians, a core Democratic constituency.
US Income Has Fallen Lower Since Recession's End
The Associated Press
In a grim sign of the enduring nature of the economic slump, household income declined more in the two years after the recession ended than it did during the recession itself, new research has found. Between June 2009, when the recession officially ended, and June 2011, inflation-adjusted median household income fell 6.7 percent, to $49,909, according to a study by two former Census Bureau officials. During the recession — from December 2007 to June 2009 — household income fell 3.2 percent. The finding helps explain why Americans' attitudes toward the economy, the country's direction and its political leaders have continued to sour even as the economy has been growing.
Americans' Net Worth Plummets as Corporations Stockpile Cash
The Associated Press
Americans' wealth last summer suffered its biggest quarterly loss in more than two years as stocks, pension funds and home values lost value. At the same time, corporations raised their cash stockpiles to record levels. Household net worth fell four percent to $57.4 trillion in the July-September quarter, according to a Federal Reserve report released Thursday. It was the sharpest drop since the tumultuous period after the September 2008 bankruptcy of investment bank Lehman Brothers. And it was the second straight quarterly fall.
Half of Americans Now Classified as Poor or Low Income
The Associated Press
Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans — nearly one in two -- have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income. The latest census data depict a middle class that's shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government's safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families.
Palestinians Light Christmas Tree in Bethlehem
The Associated Press
Hundreds of Palestinians have gathered in Bethlehem to light a Christmas tree ahead of the holiday festivities in the town where Jesus was born. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad pressed a button lighting up the decorations on the 50-foot tree Thursday, along with the lights illuminating the rest of the square outside the Church of the Nativity. Christmas brings the world's attention every year briefly to this West Bank town south of Jerusalem. Fayyad said Christmas was an opportunity to "celebrate the Palestinian identity of Jesus Christ."
False American Perceptions of Bethlehem
James Zogby
This time of year, hundreds of millions of Christians in the West turn their attention to Bethlehem. But what they think about is not the living, breathing and suffering Palestinian city that is real, but a Bethlehem that exists in their imagination. This gap between American perceptions of Bethlehem and its reality came through quite vividly in two studies issues this week ... When Americans think at all about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they do so through the prism of the Israeli narrative. They either do not see the Palestinian side of the story, or see a Palestine gutted of its human content.
Americans Not Sure Where Bethlehem Is, Survey Shows
Ekklesia (London)
Though their government plays a determinative role in the region, most Americans are not too sure about where Bethlehem is and who lives there... The surveys have put the spotlight on the plight of the town, which has been fast losing its indigenous Christian population since the construction of the Israeli wall plunged Bethlehem into economic crisis... While the Christians of Bethlehem overwhelmingly (78%) blame the exodus of Christians from the town on Israel's blockade, Americans are more likely (45.9%) to blame it on Islamic politics and are reluctant (7.4%) to blame Israel.
The Inevitable War With Iran
Philip Giraldi
... As part of the pro-Israel package, the same presidential hopefuls have made clear their willingness to go to war with Iran on behalf of Israel even if Israel is the initiator of the conflict, while the media and the Republican Party have together conspired to keep any contrary opinions on that issue marginalized and nearly invisible ... Claims of anti-Semitism fit every situation where Israel is even peripherally involved. The slightest suggestion of anti-Semitism is the ultimate weapon, intended to end every debate and to ease the way into yet another Middle Eastern war that the United States does not need to fight, cannot afford, and from which it will likely reap the whirlwind.
Half of US Voters Say Bomb Iran If Sanctions Fail
AFP
Fifty percent of Americans believe military action should be taken to stop Iran's nuclear program if sanctions do not work, a national poll released on Wednesday said. The Quinnipiac University survey also found that more Americans disapprove, by 50 percent to 44 percent, of the job President Barack Obama is doing -- although more people than not approve of the way he has handled foreign policy, including his management of thorny US relations with Tehran. ... The Quinnipiac survey also found that 46 percent of voters believed the United States should support Israel if it attacks Iran, with six percent saying Washington should oppose Israeli action and 44 percent saying the US should stay neutral.
Europe Row Recalls US Constitutional Union Clash
Bruce Ackerman
... Rhode Island was the Britain of its time — this small trading state was unwilling to give up its sovereignty to the federal colossus. It refused to send delegates to the Philadelphia Convention [of 1787], denouncing it as an illegal secessionist assembly, which is precisely what it turned out to be. After a summer of secret sessions, the Philadelphians went public with a document proclaiming that, despite the articles’ requirement of unanimous consent, the new Constitution would spring to life when only nine of the 13 states ratified ... These embarrassing facts have long been forgotten, even by most serious students of the U.S. Constitution. But they put the current crisis in a new light.
Jackie Mason Rips Obama Over Hanukkah Celebration, Jewish Disrespect
Huffington Post
Comedy legend Jackie Mason ripped President Obama on Monday, saying that the White House's Hannukah celebration earlier this month was a photo opportunity and a fraud. ... Mason continued his assault on the President, saying that the event was just a stunt to up his poll numbers with the Jewish community. "A bunch of advisors, most of whom are Jewish anyways -- because he has more Jews in his cabinet than Netanyahu. He's jammed up with Jews all around him -- and they told him, if you wanna get them back, Hanukkah is a good idea," he said.
The Dear Leader’s Death Create Dangers and Hopes
Eric Margolis
... The 24 million desperately poor North Koreans desperately need a revolution. On my recent visit to the Korean Peninsula to shoot a documentary, I was again appalled by the shattering poverty of the North. Its people are small and wizened compared to robust South Koreans. At night, few lights show from North Korea. The North seems a hostile, alien planet ... Caution, diplomacy, and tact are required in dealing with North Korea right now, not the kind of warlike, imperial bombast coming from many US Republican candidates. As the Chinese say: "great dangers; great opportunities." North Korea’s nuclear weapons are not a threat so long as the North is not attacked or invaded. Washington must drop its obsession with this issue and look beyond.
Criminal Code Is Overgrown, Legal Experts Tell Panel
The Wall Street Journal
The federal criminal code has grown so large it ensnares everyday citizens who have no idea they are violating the law, a bipartisan group of
legal experts told a House panel Tuesday. There are about 4,500 criminal statutes, said Edwin Meese, attorney general under President Ronald Reagan and now with the conservative Heritage Foundation. "This is in addition to over 300,000 other regulations that don't appear in the federal code but nevertheless carry essentially criminal penalties including prison," he said. ... The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts figures some 80,000 defendants are sentenced in federal court each year.
Invoking 'Appeasement,' Republican Candidates Blast Obama At Jewish Forum
Andrea Stone
... In speech after speech, five of the six invited GOP candidates invoked the specter of "appeasement," the pre-World War II policy that many historians say emboldened Adolf Hitler to conquer Europe and carry out a full-scale genocide of its Jewish population. U.S. President Barack Obama, the Republicans said, was making a comparable mistake by "appeasing" Iran, "appeasing" Islamist extremists, even "appeasing" other countries who want to take America's place in the world. ... Each called for a harder line against Iran and enemies of the United States or Israel.
Candidates’ Bidding for Jewish Support Shows Entrenched Corruption
Mark Weber - Podcast
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Nothing more vividly underscores the depths to which American political life has fallen than the behavior of leading presidential candidates at a recent meeting of the “Republican Jewish Coalition.” They sought to outdo each other in bidding for support from the single most powerful and influential ethnic-religious group in the US. Such self-serving behavior is not new, but has long been an expression of the corruption of American political life.
Newt Gingrich: Serial Hypocrisy
Ron Paul Presidential Campaign Committee -- Video
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This television ad, produced by the Ron Paul campaign, highlights the hypocrisy and untrustworthiness of Newt Gingrich. Runtime: 2:28 mins.
States of Mind: 'Invented' Palestinians and Israelis
Michael Kinsley
... It doesn’t really matter that Palestinian nationalism is a recent confection. People who want a state should have a state ... Israel also has its terrorist past ... “Jewish terrorists.” The label was considered obvious and beyond controversy. Gingrich said that Palestine had to be invented, and this is true. It is also true of Israel, which didn’t even have a name as it declared its independence in May 1948.
Iraq: Mission Accomplished?
Patrick J. Buchanan
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... What kind of victory did we win if, eight years after we ousted Saddam Hussein and helped install a democratic government, Americans in Iraq should fear for their lives? Did we win the "hearts and minds" of the Iraqi people when they are burning American flags in Fallujah to celebrate our departure? Why was no parade held, so Iraqis could cheer departing Americans for having liberated them from the tyranny of Saddam? What did we accomplish if hatred of America is so widespread our diplomats live in constant peril?
How Maliki and Iran Outsmarted the U.S. on Troop Withdrawal
Gareth Porter
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Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s suggestion that the end of the U.S. troop presence in Iraq is part of a U.S. military success story ignores the fact that the George W. Bush administration and the U.S. military had planned to maintain a semi-permanent military presence in Iraq. The real story behind the U.S. withdrawal is how a clever strategy of deception and diplomacy adopted by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in cooperation with Iran outmaneuvered Bush and the U.S. military leadership and got the United States to sign the U.S.-Iraq withdrawal agreement.
One In Ten Austrian Teens Think Hitler Did 'Good Things,' New Survey Shows
Daily Mail (Britain)
Austrians are shocked by a new survey which shows that one in ten young people think Adolf Hitler was not all bad and that he did some 'good things'. Many are also anti-immigrant and anti-foreigner despite years of multi-cultural teaching in schools. The country's Kurier newspaper called the findings by the Youth Culture Research Institute 'frightening' -- particularly as it is coupled with the general mistrust and dislike of non-Austrians. ... The new survey asked youngsters aged between 16 and 19 what they thought of the dictator. Pollsters were astonished when 11.2 per cent of them said that Hitler 'did many good things for the people'.
Austria Joins the German Reich
Video
This portrayal of the 1938 union ("Anschluss") of Austria with the German Reich, includes contemporary film footage with recent English-language voiceover commentary. Runtime: 4:14 mins. For decades American officials and historians, along with the US media, have portrayed the union of Austria with the Reich as an act of "aggression" or "rape." The truth is exactly the opposite. Rarely in history has a historical event taken place with broader and more joyful popular approval.
Former Head of Goldman Sachs Doesn't Know Where $1.2 Billion Went
CBS News
Jon Corzine [former New Jersey Governor and US Senator, and Goldman Sachs CEO] told a congressional panel Thursday that he can't explain why nearly $1.2 billion disappeared from customer accounts managed by MF Global, the brokerage firm he managed before it went under this year. "I simply do not know where the money is, or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date," he told the House Agriculture Committee, adding that he was "stunned" when he heard of the missing funds.
Obama, Biden Praise Corzine, Major Democratic Party Figure
Republican Party television ad - Video
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Barack Obama and Joe Biden express confidence in Jon Corzine, a top Democratic Party personality, former New Jersey Governor and US Senator, and CEO of Goldman Sachs. Runtime: 1:18 mins.
US-Israeli War of Assassination And Bombings Against Iran Has Begun
The Telegraph (Britain)
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Former US intelligence officials and Iran experts believe last month's explosion at a military base near Tehran was part of a covert effort by the US, Israel and other states to disable Iran's nuclear and missile programs, the Los Angeles Times reported late on Sunday. The huge explosion ripped through the Revolutionary Guard Corps base on November 12, leveling most of the buildings and killing 17 people, including a founder of Iran's ballistic missile program, General Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam. The newspaper said the goal of the covert effort is to derail Iran's quest for a nuclear weapons capability and to stave off an Israeli or US air strike to eliminate or lessen the threat.
Illegal Immigration Is a 'National Calamity,' Says Israeli Leader Netanyahu
Fox News
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the infiltration of migrants into Israel is a "national calamity in all fields -- the economy, state security," Israel Radio reports. Saying that Israel has no obligation to advance illegal immigration into its borders, he explained that "if we do not act to stop the flood, we'll be washed away with it."
In Iraq, Thousands Celebrate US Troop Withdrawal
Reuters
Iraqis burned American flags, brandished banners, and thronged the streets of the western city of Fallujah to celebrate the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the former al-Qaida stronghold and site of some of the Iraq war's fiercest battles. An estimated 3,000 people flooded the mainly Sunni city carrying Iraqi flags, banners with "Fallujah: The City of Resistance" printed on them, and photos of Fallujah residents killed by U.S forces after the 2003 U.S-led invasion. Part of the crowd burned several U.S. flags in their celebrations over the American withdrawal.
Without Accountability, No Lessons Learned: Legacy of Iraq
James Zogby
... One main reason for this sorry state of affairs is our lack of accountability. Because we have not — and it appears will not — “call on the carpet” those who justified torture, fabricated the case for war in Iraq, and sent hundreds of thousands of young men and women into a country we did not know in order to engage in a conflict with no good end in sight, this same cast of characters are still polluting the policy debate. ... Those who abused the public’s trust and who lied us into a war that took so many lives and cost us all so dearly should be called to account for what they have done. To let them “off the hook” is both wrong and dangerous.
Why Do So Many People Angrily Condemn Historical Revisionism?
Robert Higgs
... When people are offended or otherwise greatly displeased by historical analysis, they often employ the term “historical revisionism” as a synonym for falsified, distorted, or doctored accounts that fly in the face of what they, their history teachers, and perhaps even the most respected university historians believe to have been the case. The irony of such use of the term “historical revision,” which makes it practically a swear word, is that revisionism is and always has been an integral part of historical research and writing.
Revisionism for Our Time
Murray N. Rothbard (1966)
... Revisionism teaches us that this entire myth, so prevalent then and even now about Hitler, and about the Japanese, is a tissue of fallacies from beginning to end. Every plank in this nightmare evidence is either completely untrue or not entirely the truth. If people should learn this intellectual fraud about Hitler's Germany, then they will begin to ask questions, and searching questions, about the current World War III version of the same myth. Nothing would stop the current headlong flight to war faster, or more surely cause people to begin to reason about foreign affairs once again, after a long orgy of emotion and cliché.
Newt, Mitt, Bibi and Vladimir
Thomas L. Friedman -- The New York Times
...Newt Gingrich took the Republican competition to grovel for Jewish votes - by outloving Israel - to a new low by suggesting that the Palestinians are an "invented" people and not a real nation entitled to a state. ... That's right. America's role is to just applaud whatever Israel does, serve as its A.T.M. and shut up. We have no interests of our own. And [Romney] this guy's running for president? ... I sure hope that Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, understands that the standing ovation he got in Congress this year was not for his politics. That ovation was bought and paid for by the Israel lobby.
The 'Battle of the Bulge' – 1944
US War Department – Video
American newsreel on the “Battle of the Bulge,” the World War II German counterattack on the western front, which began on Dec. 16, 1944, and the American response. Titled “The Enemy Strikes,” it was produced by the US “Office of War Information” for viewing in movie theaters across the USA. Complete. Runtime: 7:59 mins.
The Ardennes Offensive
Die Deutsche Wochenschau – Video – Part 1
German forces launch the Ardennes offensive (“Battle of the Bulge”), the last major German offensive on the western front. Portion of German weekly newsreel (“Deutsche Wochenschau”) of Jan. 4, 1945. With English subtitles. Runtime: 5:03 mins.
The Ardennes Offensive - 2
Die Deutsche Wochenschau – Video – Part 2
More on the ill-fated German offensive of Dec. 1944. Includes dramatic scenes of aerial combat between American bombers and German fighter planes. Portion of “Deutsche Wochenschau” newsreel of Jan. 11, 1945. With English subtitles. Runtime: 5:08 mins.
Gingrich Fuels More Mideast Conflict, Say Palestinians
Reuters
Palestinian leaders said on Saturday U.S. Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich had invited more conflict in the Middle East by calling the Palestinians an "invented" people who want to destroy Israel. Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official, described his comments in an interview as "despicable." Hanan Ashrawi, another top official, said Gingrich's "very racist comments" showed he was "incapable of holding public office." "This is the lowest point of thinking anyone can reach," Erekat, a close advisor to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, told Reuters.
Research Sheds New Light on Nazi-Era Art
The Art Newspaper (Britain)
Images documenting the Nazi-sponsored [Great German Art Exhibition] Grosse Deutsche Kunstausstellung (GDK) have been made available to the public for the first time in an online catalogue created by Munich’s Central Institute for Art History. More than 100,000 photographs, categorised by artist, genre, theme and, remarkably, buyer, have shed new light on the annual art exhibition, giving an insight into officially approved art of the Third Reich and the collecting taste of its citizens ... But the vast majority of the 40 rooms were filled with landscapes, still-lifes and genre paintings. “Our view that such [politicized] art is fairly uniform cannot be upheld because there is, in fact, no clear-cut image,” says Fuhrmeister.
Desk Used by Hitler Fetches $423,000 at Auction of Nazi Relics
Daily Mail (Britain)
Over 1,000 rare relics from the Third Reich are going under the hammer in one of the biggest ever auctions of Nazi war items. Macabre items including a love letter written to Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's secret accounts book and even the Nazi leader's personal desk are all part of the huge sale in Stamford, Connecticut. Top of the lots was the ceremonial brass desk belonging to Hitler which the Nazi leader used at the signing of the Munich Pact, which preceded the Second World War ... Auctioneers say the two-day sale of Third Reich items reflects a boom in the Nazi relic trade, which has been expanding the more the Second World War fades into history.
In California, Indian Tribes Are Casting Off 'Inauthentic' Members
The New York Times
... Ms. Dondero and her clan have joined thousands of Indians in California who have been kicked out of their tribes in recent years for the crime of not being of the proper bloodline ... “The tribe has historically had the ability to remove people,” said Kevin Bearquiver, the bureau’s deputy director for the Pacific region. “Tolerance is a European thing brought to the country. We never tolerated things. We turned our back on people.”
Inside Romania's Secret CIA Prison
The Associated Press
One of the CIA's most important secrets in the war on terrorism was hiding in plain sight, on a leafy residential street along a busy set of train tracks in Romania's capital. There, tucked in the basement of a government building, the CIA ran a clandestine prison, former U.S. intelligence officials said. For years, the building — codenamed Bright Light — housed some of the CIA's most important terror suspects ... The facility where harsh interrogation tactics were carried out. The Romanian prison was part of a network of so-called black sites that the CIA operated and controlled overseas in Thailand, Lithuania and Poland. All the prisons were closed by May 2006, and the CIA's detention and interrogation program ended in 2009.
Why Iran's Capture of US Drone Will Shake CIA
Frank Gardner -- BBC News
... Speculation is rife that this particular aircraft was flying deep inside Iran to gather intelligence and real-time video footage of Iran's nuclear sites. It was carrying an array of sophisticated sensors that will be of great interest to Iran and other countries ... This affair is both a political embarrassment and an intelligence setback for Washington. ... In the CIA Directorate of Intelligence at Langley, Virginia, eyes will be rolling skywards as analysts work out the long-term damage to US intelligence. Not only must they accept that some of their most successful and useful surveillance technology is now in the hands of the very people they were using it on, they will also have to think very carefully before sending anything else into Iranian airspace.
Archaeologists Make New Stonehenge 'Sun Worship' Find
BBC News
Two previously undiscovered pits have been found at Stonehenge which point to it once being used as a place of sun worship before the stones were erected. The pits are positioned on celestial alignment at the site and may have contained stones, posts or fires to mark the rising and setting of the sun. An international archaeological survey team found the pits as part of the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project. The team is using geophysical imaging techniques to investigate the site.
Republican Candidates Woo Jewish Activists
Los Angeles Times
Republican presidential contenders took a brief respite from canvassing early battleground states Wednesday to come here [Washington, DC] to court Jewish activists and donors, with Newt Gingrich reveling in his newfound status as a front-runner and Rick Perry trying to clarify his stance on aid to Israel. Gingrich was bathed in applause from the crowd at a forum hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition ... Mitt Romney, who was warmly received by the crowd and who enjoys the support of prominent Jewish donors in the Northeast, criticized Obama for adopting a foreign policy of "appeasement" that "betrays a lack of faith in America."
Chosen People: Republican Candidates Fight It Out Over Who’s Good For The Jews
David Weigel - Slate
... The plan, for every candidate, was nearly identical. Find the sharpest adjectives to stab into Barack Obama. Promise the moon to the government of Israel. Agree that Iran was an “existential threat,” and explain — or, actually, just sort of muse about — the struggle it would take to defeat them... [Said Mitt Romney:] “I’ll travel to Israel on my first foreign trip. I will reaffirm as a vital national interest Israel’s existence as a Jewish state. I want the world to know that the bonds between Israel and the United States are unshakable ...”
The Matzorian Candidate: Republican Leaders Address Jewish Forum
Jon Stewart -The Daily Show - Video
Jewish comedian Stewart comments on the craven performance of presidential candidates at the recent “Republican Jewish Coalition” forum. “Jews commemorate the miracle of incredibly religious Christian presidential candidates fighting over who loves Jews more.”
Kennedy, Reagan: Loved for All the Wrong Reasons
Robert Dallek -- Bloomberg
... What gives Kennedy and Reagan such a strong hold on American imaginations is not what they did but what they said and still stand for. Both presidents are remembered as optimists promising better futures. Kennedy had the New Frontier; for Reagan, it was Morning in America. Both remain inspirational voices that in a time of doubt give people hope. And when you put either man alongside Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush, they seem especially appealing. The national embrace of Kennedy and Reagan is at one with the attraction to nostrums. All we need is the right man with the right formula and all will be well again. If only it were that easy.
Exceptionalism More Fantasy Than Ever
Colman McCarthy -- National Catholic Reporter
...American exceptionalism is the belief that the American nation and its people are not only different from all others but are superior. Greatness is in our national gene pool. Our values are higher. We are leaders of the free world. No other nation can match our achievements. Our destiny is to be No. 1. We are the role model for the world ... Exceptionalism is little more than national pride gone wild, a nation overrun by leaders consumed with bragging rights. The mouthings of the Romneys and Albrights lie somewhere between wishful thinking and self-serving myths, with neither having any discernable ties to reality.
Iran’s First 'Great Satan' Was England
Stephen Kinzer -- The New York Times
...Once established in Iran, the British quickly began investing — or looting, as some Iranians would say. British companies bought exclusive rights to establish banks, print currency, explore for minerals, run transit lines and even grow tobacco. In 1913, the British government maneuvered its way to a contract under which all Iranian oil became its property. Six years later it imposed an “agreement” that gave it control of Iran’s army and treasury. These actions set off a wave of anti-British outrage that has barely subsided. Britain’s occupation of Iran during World War II, when it was a critical source of oil and a transit route for supplies to keep Soviet Russia fighting, was harsh. Famine and disease spread as the British requisitioned food for their troops.
Has U.S. Already Launched War Against Iran?
Jim Meyers -- Newsmax
A recent blast that ripped through an Iranian military base has increased suspicions that the United States and its allies are engaged in a covert effort to derail the Islamic Republic’s nuclear weapons program. The explosion and other anti-Iranian actions, coupled with what are seen as retaliatory moves by Iran, have raised the question: Has the war with Iran already begun? “... Many former U.S. intelligence officials and Iran experts believe that the explosion — the most destructive of at least two dozen unexplained blasts in the last two years – was part of a covert effort by the U.S., Israel and others to disable Iran’s nuclear and missile programs,” the Los Angeles Times reported ...
Has A War With Iran Already Begun?
Michael Hirsh -- The Atlantic
Two incidents that occurred on Sunday-Iran's claim of a shoot-down of a U.S. drone, and an explosion outside the British embassy in Bahrain-may have been unrelated. But they appear to add to growing evidence that an escalating covert war by the West is under way against Iran, and that Tehran is retaliating with greater intensity than ever. Asked whether the United States, in cooperation with Israel, was now engaged in a covert war against Iran's nuclear program that may include the Stuxnet virus, the blowing-up of facilities and the assassination or kidnapping of scientists, one recently retired U.S. official privy to up-to-date intelligence would not deny it. "It's safe to say the Israelis are very active," the official said ...
Israeli Attack on Iran Would Be 'Disaster', Warns Brzezinski
The Real News - Video
An Israeli attack against Iran would have very harmful consequences, for America, the world and even Israel, warns former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski. The rest of the world -- including China, Russia and the European countries -- would not support such an attack, he says in this interview. It would be a “geopolitical disaster” for the US, and could well result in the US being “forced out” of the entire Middle East region. Runtime: 6:05 mins.
China Not Obliged To Besiege Iran
Editorial -- Global Times (China)
... Iran is an Islamic country with a democratic model, but its ardent religious passion has received little understanding and respect from the West for some time. Conflicts have been mounting because of the nation's reluctance to take orders from the West, which wants Iran to obey their rules ... China, as well as its mammoth neighbor Russia, should keep on high alert and adopt countermeasures if necessary. China should not shrink before a possible showdown with the West but seek a solution favoring itself. China will adopt concrete measures to show its determination to take its own path. Such a choice is important for China's interests.
CIA 'Secret Prison' in Romania Revealed
BBC News
The CIA operated a secret prison in the Romanian capital Bucharest where terrorism suspects were interrogated, an investigation by the Associated Press and German media has found. Former CIA operatives identified the building where, they said, detainees were held and tortured. The building belongs to a Romanian agency, Orniss, which stores classified information from the EU and Nato. Orniss has denied hosting a CIA prison and the CIA has refused to comment.
Russia Complains of European Court’s World War Two Revisionism
RIA Novosti (Russia)
Russia on Monday accused the European Court of Human Rights of going along with people who seek to rehabilitate Nazis by upholding Latvia's appeal in the case of a Soviet World War II veteran ... “The Grand Chamber of the Court in fact has fallen in line with those who strive to revise the results of World War II and rehabilitate the Nazis and their collaborators," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "We consider the decision of the Grand Chamber... an attempt to put in doubt a range of key political and legal principles, formed on the basis of the results of the World War II and the post-war settlement in Europe," the statement said.
How Hitler Consolidated Power in Germany
Leon Degrelle
“We have the power. Now our gigantic work begins." Those were Hitler's words on the night of January 30, 1933, as cheering crowds surged past him, for five long hours, beneath the windows of the Chancellery in Berlin. His political struggle had lasted 14 years. He himself was 43 ... Half a century later, few people understand the crisis Germany faced at that time ... During the preceding years, a score of "democratic" governments had come and gone, often in utter confusion. Instead of alleviating the people's misery, they had increased it, due to their own instability ...
The Nazi 'Economic Miracle'
Video
Short documentary television report, produced after the war, on the astonishing success of the Hitler’s regime success in banishing mass unemployment, reviving the nation’s economic life, and restoring confidence. Runtime: 4:25 mins.
Wage Inequality 'Getting Worse' in Leading Economies
BBC News
The divide between the wages of the rich and the poor is growing in nearly all of the world's leading economies, according to think tank the OECD. Researchers examined 22 countries and found that inequality grew in 17 of them between the 1980s and the financial crisis of 2008. Chile, Mexico, Turkey and the United States were the most unequal nations. Inequality rose fastest in the the UK - it peaked in 2000, then fell, but is now rising again. Even traditionally egalitarian countries such as Germany, Denmark and Sweden have experienced a growing wealth gap in recent decades.
In Egypt, Islamist Parties Win More Than 60 Percent of Vote
Los Angeles Times
Islamist parties won more than 60 percent of the vote in the first round of Egypt's parliamentary elections, according to official results reported Sunday by state media. The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party won 36.6 percent and the Salafis of the Al Nour party won 24.4 percent of the 9.7 million votes cast. The Brotherhood's dominance was expected, but the strong showing by the Salafis was a surprise, suggesting Egyptians were heavily influenced by the religious message and grass-roots organization of the Islamists.
Zionist Group Condemns Jewish Ambassador For Anti-Semitism Comments
European Jewish Press
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) Tuesday called for the immediate dismissal of US Ambassador to Belgium Howard Gutman after he stated last week that Muslim hatred for Jews stems from the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. ZOA National President Morton A. Klein condemned the ambassador comments made at a conference on anti-Semitism in Brussels and said, "It is unacceptable for a US diplomat appointed by the President to categorize some anti-Semitic acts in Europe as being truly reprehensible, and others as more understandable because they supposedly stem from a hatred of Jews based on the Arab war against Israel and the Jewish people."
Suspect in N.J. Anti-Semitic Vandalism Reportedly is Jewish
JTA (New York)
A New Brunswick, N.J., man who was charged in the vandalism of several Jewish-owned shops in nearby Highland Park reportedly is Jewish. Richard M. Green, 52, was charged with numerous counts of bias intimidation and criminal mischief for allegedly smashing the windows of five Jewish-owned businesses. The vandalism took place at the end of November and Green was arrested Nov. 30. According to the New Jersey Jewish News, Green’s face was familiar to owners of Jewish establishments and institutions.
Ignorance and Arrogance of American Politicians
Mark Weber - Podcast
A striking expression of the corruption of America’s social-political life is the ignorance and arrogance of its prominent politicians. The presidential candidates who addressed a recent “debate” in Washington, DC (with the notable exception of Ron Paul) showed that they lack principle, a coherent worldview, or a reality-based understanding of history. Along with empty “feel good” rhetoric about “American exceptionalism,” they also showed a craven pandering to Jewish-Zionist power. In a healthy and educated society, such individuals would be considered unfit for any position of authority or responsibility.
The Republicans' Farcical Candidates: Liars, Demagogues and Ignoramuses
Marc Pitzke -- Der Spiegel (Germany)
... These eight so-called, would-be candidates are eagerly ruining not only their own reputations and that of their party, the party of Lincoln lore. Worse: They're ruining the reputation of the United States. They lie. They cheat. They exaggerate. They bluster. They say one idiotic, ignorant, outrageous thing after another. They've shown such stark lack of knowledge -- political, economic, geographic, historical -- that they make George W. Bush look like Einstein and even cause their fellow Republicans to cringe. ... All these dopes have to offer are ramblings that insult the intelligence of all Americans.
Republicans and Israel: Too Much Love Can Kill You
Chemi Shalev -- Haaretz (Israel)
... The contenders for the Republican presidential nomination -- with the glaring exception of the neo-isolationist Ron Paul -- are on record as saying that if America attacks Iran, it will be, first and foremost, in order to “save Israel," as Texas Governor Rick Perry framed it ... As the flurry of anti-Israeli tweets following last week’s CNN debate showed, many Americans were taken aback at what could easily be portrayed as the subornation of American foreign policy to Israeli interests, and the predominance of the Israel-Iran issue over such “minor” foreign policy issues as China, the Arab Spring or the Eurozone debt crisis, which weren’t even mentioned.
Gingrich's Version of American Exceptionalism Could Insult Our Allies
Jill Lawrence -- The Atlantic
... Conservatives nevertheless are on a tear to save American exceptionalism, or at least their view of it, from the likes of Obama. And Gingrich has been in the forefront. In June he published a book called "A Nation Like No Other: Why American Exceptionalism Matters." He and his wife, Callista, produced and co-star in a 2011 documentary called "A City Upon a Hill: The Spirit of American Exceptionalism." A trailer for the film describes exceptionalism as the idea that America is "more open, more vigorous, more optimistic than other nations." ... Gingrich's assertion that America is No. 1 in caring about those we send to war was just one of countless eyebrow-raising statements he's made in his decades-long political career.
Declassified Memo Hinted of 1941 Hawaii Attack
US News
Three days before the Dec. 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt was warned in a memo from naval intelligence that Tokyo's military and spy network was focused on Hawaii, a new and eerie reminder of FDR's failure to act on a basket load of tips that war was near. In the newly revealed 20-page memo from FDR's declassified FBI file, the Office of Naval Intelligence on December 4 warned, "In anticipation of open conflict with this country, Japan is vigorously utilizing every available agency to secure military, naval and commercial information, paying particular attention to the West Coast, the Panama Canal and the Territory of Hawaii."
Pearl Harbor: The Story of the Secret War
Book by George Morgenstern, Available from IHR
This classic work remains unsurpassed as the best one-volume treatment of the background to the Day of Infamy. Indispensable introduction to the question of who bears the blame for the Pearl Harbor surprise, and, more important, for America's entry, through the "back door," into World War II. In his introduction to this attractive IHR edition, Dr. James Martin writes: "Morgenstern's book is ... still the best about the December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor attack, despite a formidable volume of subsequent writing by many others on the subject."
Pearl Harbor: Fifty Years of Controversy
Charles Lutton -- Institute for Historical Review
... Over the past half-century, Pearl Harbor revisionism has come of age. From the first writings of John T. Flynn, to George Morgenstern's masterful study, to the work encouraged by Harry Elmer Barnes, the testimony of participants in the events, and the latest findings of "second-generation" historians who are not satisfied merely to retell the standard accounts, this endeavor to uncover the truth has not been marked by paranoid "conspiracy theories" or reactionary "Roosevelt baiting." What revisionists have accomplished is a sober re-appraisal of the origins of the Pacific War, and the making of a strong case for remembering December 7, 1941 as President Roosevelt's "Day of Infamy."
Obama Reassures Jewish Group of His Support for Israel
The Associated Press
President Barack Obama is reassuring Jewish supporters that his administration is committed to the security of Israel. He says: "We don't compromise when it comes to Israel's security." Obama was speaking to a group of campaign contributors at the Upper East Side home of Jack Rosen, a prominent businessman and chairman of the American Jewish Congress ... Obama said no ally is more important than the state of Israel.
President Obama Sees Popularity Boost in Israel
The Christian Science Monitor
If President Obama is looking for some relief from mediocre favorability numbers, he could take solace in a place where he might not have expected to find it -- Israel. In a new poll of Jewish and Arab Israelis, Mr. Obama earns a favorable rating of 54 percent from Israeli Jews – up an impressive 13 percent compared to last year. By contrast, Obama’s job approval rating at home is stuck in the low 40’s, according to Real Clear Politics, while just over half of Americans disapprove of the job the president is doing.
Ron Paul Not Invited To Republican Jewish Coalition Presidential Candidates Forum
Huffington Post
The Republican Jewish Coalition declined to invite Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) to its presidential candidates forum next Wednesday in Washington, citing his "misguided and extreme views." RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks said Paul was not invited because the organization rejects his views. "He's just so far outside of the mainstream of the Republican party and this organization," he told Washington Jewish Week … Paul supported an amendment that would have ended all U.S. aid to Israel, along with Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan. The U.S. sends about $3 billion per year to Israel in military aid alone.
US Congresswoman Seeks Ban on Ads of German Company Over Wartime Role
McClatchy Newspapers
A congresswoman from Florida is pressuring National Public Radio stations, the cable television network CNBC and others to stop airing sponsorships and advertising by a giant German insurer that collaborated with the Nazis. U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who is pushing legislation that would allow Holocaust survivors to sue Allianz AG, has launched a letter-writing campaign aimed at blocking the insurer from advertising with any U.S. media until it pays off all Holocaust survivors’ life insurance claims. During World War II, Allianz insured concentration camp facilities and sent money to the Nazis instead of rightful Jewish beneficiaries.
National Library of Wales 'Risked Reputation' By Accepting Large Donation From Nazi Collaborator
Wales Online (Britain)
The Welsh government has accused the National Library of Wales of putting its reputation “at risk” after accepting a 300,000 pound donation from a known Nazi collaborator. Louis Feutren was a leading member of Breton groups who worked with the Nazis after their invasion of France during the Second World War. After he died in 2010, he bequeathed a collection of papers and tapes to the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, along with a financial donation worth 300,000 pounds.
Neocons Preoccupied With Islamic Conspiracy Theories
Philip Giraldi
The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement, for all its flaws, is a genuine expression of the growing recognition in the United States that the government no longer serves the interests of the people ... So the unanimity on the part of many pundits and politicians in condemning the Occupy Wall Street movement can be explained in terms of their other interests. Damaging President Obama is a high priority, but Occupiers’ explicit or implicit criticism of U.S. foreign policy also challenges the Israel-centric view of American national security, and the demands that foreign aid be eliminated or cut pose a rather more direct challenge, as Israel is a major recipient of such assistance.
The Past Marches On
George Morgenstern (1953)
Add to these the operations of an organized propaganda capable, apparently, of doping Americans into belief in any myth, and there is formidable reason why public opinion should be so stupefied and stultified that the nation can be led from war to war in pursuit of ever retreating goals. Yet, despite the general numbness, Americans, surveying the results of half a century of intermeddling, dimly perceive that all is not well.
The Dark Side of the 'Good War'
Michael Bess -- Los Angeles Times
World War II is widely considered one of the most morally unambiguous military conflicts in history — the quintessential "Good War," as journalist Studs Terkel once described it... At the same time, 60 years of research and reflection have gradually brought to light numerous aspects of this conflict that do not fit a straightforward pattern of black-and- white moral clarity... Hamburg, Dresden, Tokyo — entire cities, tens of thousands of noncombatant civilians at a time, incinerated or blasted to bits under a steady torrent of British and American bombs. The large-scale killing of children, women and old people had now become routine facets of Allied warfare.
Pakistan Has Had Enough
Simon Tisdall -- The Guardian (Britain)
... This latest outrage is another fateful signpost on the road to a potential security and geostrategic disaster that may ultimately make Afghanistan look like a sideshow. ... Since 2001, when the Bush administration bluntly told Islamabad it must take sides, be either "for us or agin us" in the newly declared "war on terror", Pakistan has struggled under a plethora of imperious American demands, démarches and impositions that are at once politically indefensible and contrary to the perceived national interest. The last year has been another humiliating one at the hands of the country's principal ally. ... The belief that weak, impoverished, divided Pakistan has no alternative but to slavishly obey its master's voice could turn out to be one of the seminal strategic miscalculations of the 21st century.
In Israel, Women’s Rights Come Under Siege
Ruth Marcus -- The Washington Post
Women are forced to board public buses from the back and stay there. Billboards with images of women are defaced. Public streets are cordoned off during religious holidays so that women cannot enter ... In recent years, and particularly in Jerusalem, an ultra-religious minority has sought to impose growing constraints on the less observant majority. As the numbers of these ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, have multiplied, so have their political influence — religious parties form a key part of the governing coalition — and the scope of their demands.
Mass Grave Discovery Reopens Controversy Over 1945 Killings of Germans
Czech Position (Czech Republic)
The discovery of human remains in a mass grave near the village of Dobronín in western Moravia in August 2010 led to the launch of a historical criminal investigation — and sparked an emotional and divisive national debate about reprisals against Sudeten Germans at the end of World War II in then-Czechoslovakia. Police now have the results of DNA tests on the remains of the 13 males between the age of 30 and 60 — allegedly the victims of a violent death — and samples from their potential descendents.
Anti-Semitism in Australia Has Increased, Jewish Group Says
Haaretz (Israel)
Study director Jeremy Jones says Internet forums allow for proliferation of anti-Jew behavior, denies link between incidents of anti-Semitism to actions of Israel or behavior of Jews. / Anti-Semitic violence in Australia has increased by 31% over the past year, a recent study that was presented Monday in Melbourne showed. "This year, ten times a week, every week, Jewish Australians were attacked or threatened,” said Jeremy Jones, the Director of Community Affairs for the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, who prepared the study ... Jones stipulated that the behavior of anti-Semites is not influenced by the actions of Jews, nor of Israel.
How Hitler Tackled Unemployment and Revived Germany’s Economy
Mark Weber
To deal with the massive unemployment and economic paralysis of the Great Depression, both the US and German governments launched innovative and ambitious programs. Although President Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” measures helped only marginally, the Third Reich’s much more focused and comprehensive policies proved remarkably effective. Within three years unemployment was banished and Germany’s economy was flourishing. And while Roosevelt’s record in dealing with the Depression is pretty well known, the remarkable story of how Hitler tackled the crisis is not widely understood or appreciated.
Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks $13 Billion
Bloomberg
The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. Now, the rest of the world can see what it was missing. The Fed didn’t tell anyone which banks were in trouble so deep they required a combined $1.2 trillion on Dec. 5, 2008, their single neediest day. Bankers didn’t mention that they took tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans at the same time they were assuring investors their firms were healthy. And no one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its January issue.
The Past Marches On
George Morgenstern (1953)
Add to these the operations of an organized propaganda capable, apparently, of doping Americans into belief in any myth, and there is formidable reason why public opinion should be so stupefied and stultified that the nation can be led from war to war in pursuit of ever retreating goals. Yet, despite the general numbness, Americans, surveying the results of half a century of intermeddling, dimly perceive that all is not well.
The Dark Side of the 'Good War'
Michael Bess -- Los Angeles Times
World War II is widely considered one of the most morally unambiguous military conflicts in history — the quintessential "Good War," as journalist Studs Terkel once described it... At the same time, 60 years of research and reflection have gradually brought to light numerous aspects of this conflict that do not fit a straightforward pattern of black-and- white moral clarity... Hamburg, Dresden, Tokyo — entire cities, tens of thousands of noncombatant civilians at a time, incinerated or blasted to bits under a steady torrent of British and American bombs. The large-scale killing of children, women and old people had now become routine facets of Allied warfare.
New WikiLeaks 'Spy Files' Show Global Surveillance Industry
AFP
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has launched the website's new project - the publication of hundreds of files detailing a global industry that gives governments tools to spy on their citizens. They reveal the activities of about 160 companies in 25 countries that develop technologies to allow the tracking and monitoring of individuals by their mobile phones, email accounts and internet browsing histories. "Today we release over 287 files documenting the reality of the international mass surveillance industry - an industry which now sells equipment to dictators and democracies alike in order to intercept entire populations," Mr Assange said today.
Requiem For The 'Arab Spring'?
Stephen M. Walt
... In short, anybody who thought that the events that swept through the Arab world in 2011 were going to produce stable and orderly outcomes quickly was living in a dream world. To say this is not to oppose what has happened, or to believe that the old orders could or should have continued. Rather, it is to recognize that radical reform -- even revolution -- is a long, difficult, and uncertain process, and that the ride is likely to be a bumpy one for years to come. History also warns that outside powers have at best limited influence over the outcomes of a genuine revolutionary process.
Israel’s Grand Hypocrisy
Jonathan Cook
As protests raged again across the Middle East, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, offered his assessment of the Arab Spring last week. It was, he said, an “Islamic, anti-western, anti-liberal, anti-Israeli, undemocratic wave”, adding that Israel’s Arab neighbours were “moving not forwards, but backwards”. It takes some chutzpah – or, at least, epic self-delusion – for Israel’s prime minister to be lecturing the Arab world on liberalism and democracy at this moment. In recent weeks, a spate of anti-democratic measures have won support from Netanyahu’s rightwing government, justified by a new security doctrine: see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil of Israel.
Islamists Say They Have Mandate in Egypt Voting
The New York Times
Islamists claimed a decisive victory on Wednesday as early election results put them on track to win a dominant majority in Egypt’s first Parliament since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, the most significant step yet in the religious movement’s rise since the start of the Arab Spring. The party formed by the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s mainstream Islamist group, appeared to have taken about 40 percent of the vote, as expected … Analysts in the state-run news media said early returns indicated that Salafi groups could take as much as a quarter of the vote, giving the two groups of Islamists combined control of nearly 65 percent of the parliamentary seats.
Vienna Has Best Quality of Life, Mercer Survey Shows
Bloomberg
Vienna has the best quality of life among more than 220 cities around the world, according to a report published by Mercer. Baghdad has the worst as well as being the most dangerous place to live. European cities dominate the rankings, with only two cities outside Europe, Auckland and Vancouver, in the top ten, said Mercer, the consulting unit of Marsh & McLennan Cos. European cities, headed by Luxembourg, also take the top seven places for personal safety. ... The top-ranked mainland U.S. city for quality of living is San Francisco in joint 30th place with Adelaide and Paris, eight places ahead of London. Singapore, which is ranked 25th, is the best-placed Asian city for quality of living and safety.
The Spanish Inquisition and the Jewish Question
Brian Chalmers -- The Journal of Historical Review
It is nearly impossible to dig into any chapter of Jewish history without uncovering lessons for our own age. Spain during the 15th and 16th centuries is a particularly striking example. Even today, our view of this period, and particularly of the Spanish Inquisition, colors our attitudes regarding relations between Jews and non-Jews. The Inquisition is considered one of Jewish history's darkest chapters -- and one of Christian history's most shameful.
Should Animals Be Stunned Before Slaughter?
BBC News
The slaughter of conscious animals was widely abandoned in the 20th Century and is now practised mainly in the Jewish and Muslim communities. Consumers increasingly expect animals to be stunned before death - but would banning other slaughter methods be an unacceptable violation of religious rights? / … Later this month, a bill that would effectively ban the slaughter of unstunned animals goes to the upper house of the Dutch parliament. Sponsored by the Party for the Animals, it has already been approved in the lower house, where it was backed by the anti-Islamic Freedom Party and opposed only by the Christian parties, which took a stand in defence of religious freedom.
War Clouds Form Over Iran
Wayne Madsen
... Israel has de facto control over the foreign affairs committees of Congress, so any White House notification of the need to contact Iranian officials would be instantly transmitted to Binyamin Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem and Israel would then circumvent any U.S.-Iranian contact. AIPAC, with its resolution, is further making the United States a vassal of the Jewish state .. President Obama is under tremendous pressure from the Israel Lobby during an election year to support an Israeli military strike on Iran, action that will inevitably lead the United States military in the Gulf region into war against Iran on behalf of the Tel Aviv/west Jerusalem regime.
Prof. Butz, 'Holocaust Denier', Still Teaches at Northwestern University
New Voices - Jewish Student Press Service (New York)
Students don't have too many nice things to say about Arthur R. Butz. He is a professor of electrical engineering at Northwestern University, and according to his students, he is boring, his handwriting is too small to make out on the board and he leaves all the real teaching to the teaching assistants. While their words about Butz are harsh, students tend to keep their silence when it comes to a darker part of his work, one that extends far outside the realm of electrical engineering. Butz is a prominent Holocaust denier, but many students walk into his classes without knowing it.
David Duke Arrested in Germany
WWL TV (New Orleans)
David Duke, the former Louisiana lawmaker, white supremacist and Klu Klux Klan leader, has been arrested in Cologne, Germany, according to multiple news reports. Duke confirmed his arrest on his own website, but he wouldn’t elaborate on the circumstances surrounding the arrest. “I won’t go into many details of my arrest at this moment as a court case is yet to be fought, but I was imprisoned by a gross twisting of travel laws in a blatant attempt by the government to prevent a private and peaceful gathering of about a 100 German citizens eager to hear my message of heritage and freedom,” said Duke on his website.
The Roads To War And Economic Collapse
Paul Craig Roberts
... Obama had convinced the electorate that he would end the wars, stop the violation of law by the US government, end the regime of illegal torture, close the torture prison of Guantanamo, and attend to the real needs of the American people rather than stuff the pockets of the military/security complex with taxpayers’ money. Once in office, Obama renewed and extended the Bush/ Cheney/ neoconservative wars. He validated the Bush regime’s assaults on the US Constitution. He left Wall Street in charge of US economic policy, he absolved the Bush regime of its crimes, and he assigned to the American people the financial cost necessary to preserve the economic welfare of the mega-rich.
New Nixon Tapes Reveal Details of Meeting With Anti-War Activists
PBS Newshour
It's hard to imagine an American president in this intensely security-conscious age leaving the White House in the middle of the night to meet protesters on their turf. It happened in May 1970. President Richard Nixon was under intense criticism for widening the Vietnam War to Cambodia. Four Kent State University students had been killed by National Guardsmen just days before. Thousands of young protesters quickly mobilized and headed to Washington, D.C. Around 4:00 a.m. on May 9, Mr. Nixon abruptly decided to surprise a group gathered at the Lincoln Memorial. The Nixon Presidential Library and Museum has released a series of recordings, including dictation from President Nixon to his chief staff, H.R. Haldeman, describing his version of that night's events.
The Boys Who Cry 'Holocaust’
Gary Kamiya - Salon
... In American politics, you can get away with even the most cracked warmongering, as long as you claim to be “pro-Israel.” And the ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card for anything having to do with Israel is the Holocaust ... The Holocaust mind-set has led Israel into self-destructive policies. And its promiscuous invocation has helped ensure that Israel maintains a stranglehold over America’s Mideast policy. That stranglehold has always been harmful to America, but it is now actually dangerous.
A Day in November
Uri Avnery
... On Nov. 29, 1947, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted, by 33 votes against 13 (with 10 abstentions), the Palestine Partition Plan. This event has become a subject of endless debates, misinterpretations, and outright falsifications. It may be worthwhile to peel away the myths and see it as it was. ... We know now that [Zionist leader] Ben-Gurion did not dream of accepting the partition plan borders, and even less the Arab population within them. The famous army “Plan Dalet” early in the war was a strategic necessity, but it was also a solution to the two problems: it added to Israel another 22% of the country and it drove the Arab population out.
Iceland Recognizes Palestinian State
The Associated Press
Iceland has become the first western European country to recognize Palestine as an independent state. The Icelandic parliament said in a statement on its website that it had passed a motion with 38 of 63 votes in favor of a resolution to recognize Palestine "as an independent and sovereign state" based on borders predating the six-day war of 1967. "Iceland is the first country in western Europe to take this step," Ossur Skarphedinsson, the minister for foreign affairs, told RUV, the Icelandic national broadcasting service. He said the vote had given him the authority to make a formal declaration on the government's behalf, but before doing so he would discuss the move with other Nordic countries.
Iran and the IAEA
Seymour M. Hersh -- The New Yorker
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... It remains apparent that a nuclear-armed Iran is still not imminent nor is it inevitable.” Greg Thielmann, a former State Department and Senate Intelligence Committee analyst who was one of the authors of the A.C.A. assessment, told me, “There is troubling evidence suggesting that studies are still going on, but there is nothing that indicates that Iran is really building a bomb.” He added, “Those who want to drum up support for a bombing attack on Iran sort of aggressively misrepresented the report.” ... The new report, therefore, leaves us where we’ve been since 2002, when George Bush declared Iran to be a member of the Axis of Evil — with lots of belligerent talk but no definitive evidence of a nuclear-weapons program.
Former Communist Leaders In Cambodia On Trial For Genocide
BBC News
Top Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea has defended his actions at a UN-backed court in Cambodia, on the second day of his genocide trial. A prosecutor said he and his two co-defendants had "murdered, tortured and terrorised" their own people. But Nuon Chea, Pol Pot's deputy, said he had worked to "serve the interests of the nation" by protecting it from colonialism and invaders. The trial opened on Monday in Phnom Penh. Nuon Chea, who was also known as Brother Number Two, is being tried alongside Khieu Samphan, the Maoist regime's former head of state, and Ieng Sary, its former foreign minister. Up to two million Cambodians died of starvation, overwork and execution during the four years of Khmer Rouge rule. The regime wanted to create an ideal communist society ...
Russia for Russians?
Russia Beyond the Headlines - Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Russia)
“Give Russia back to the Russians,” “Stop Feeding the Caucasus,” “Freedom, Nation, Order” – these were the slogans chanted by approximately 7,000 nationalists at a rally called the Russian March, which took place on the bleak outskirts of Moscow on Nov. 4, the day Russia officially celebrates National Unity Day ... Sociologist Lev Gudkov, director of the Levada Center polling agency, believes that as many as 60 percent of Russians support the nationalist slogan, "Russia for the Russians,” while about 50 percent of Moscow residents support limiting the flow of migrants from the Caucasus and Central Asia to the city ... Another reason for the increase in nationalism, according to Nikolai Petrov of the Carnegie Moscow Center, stems from Russia's search for a national identity.
European 'Far-Right’ On The Rise Online
France 24 (France)
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Inspired by the tens of thousands that have 'liked' far-right political groups such as France’s National Front party online, a new study published Monday examined who exactly are the supporters of Europe’s increasingly popular nationalist factions ... What they discovered was a growing support for hardline nationalist politics across Europe – particularly among men and the under 30s. Disillusioned with their own governments and the European Union, many of the survey’s respondents listed immigration, the perceived erosion of national culture and values, and Islamic extremism as their chief reasons for sympathising with far-right populist movements. More important still, the study also points out that the number of people supporting far-right political groups online often outweighs actual party membership.
Hezbollah, Iran Uncover CIA Informants
Reuters
In an apparently serious setback for U.S. intelligence against a key adversary, Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi'ite militia, has succeeded in identifying and arresting informants within its ranks who were working for the CIA, current and former U.S. officials said. Separately, counterintelligence officers in Iran also succeeded in uncovering the identities of at least a handful of alleged CIA informants, the officials said ... Hezbollah, founded with Iranian help during Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, has grown from a militia that fought Israeli forces in south Lebanon into the most powerful political and military force in the country. Hezbollah and its allies dominate the Lebanese government formed in June.
The Constitution: How Important Is It?
Mark Weber -- Podcast
Many Americans believe that the country’s problems can be solved by “restoring” the “constitutional republic” and by “returning” to the letter and spirit of the US Constitution. But no constitution, even the most brilliantly written one, can save a society from corruption, ignorance, disorder, and poverty. What is crucial in determining the level of prosperity, education, orderliness and culture in a society is the character, quality and values of its people, and especially its leaders. For many years now the US Supreme Court, reflecting the interests, agenda and ideology of those who hold power, has “interpreted” the Constitution to validate the programs and policies it likes -- in blatant violation of the document’s original spirit and plain meaning.
Prepare for Riots in Euro Collapse, British Officials Warn
The Telegraph (Britain)
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British embassies in the eurozone have been told to draw up plans to help British expats through the collapse of the single currency, amid new fears for Italy and Spain. ... As the Italian government struggled to borrow and Spain considered seeking an international bail-out, British ministers privately warned that the break-up of the euro, once almost unthinkable, is now increasingly plausible. Diplomats are preparing to help Britons abroad through a banking collapse and even riots arising from the debt crisis. The Treasury confirmed earlier this month that contingency planning for a collapse is now under way. A senior minister has now revealed the extent of the Government’s concern, saying that Britain is now planning on the basis that a euro collapse is now just a matter of time.
US Is Like an Immoral `Drunk’ Eager for War, Says Ex US Senator Gravel
Russia Today
The US is like a drunkard who charges to war with anyone who might pose a threat, ex- presidential candidate Mike Gravel says. “I like the US. But at the same time I think my country is an imperial country that is going downhill, and our leadership does not even acknowledge the problem,” confesses Gravel. “Phony triumphalism has turned into a device to make Americans live in fear of a terrorist attack, yet you are a thousand times more likely to catch cancer than ever be hurt by that,” he points out. “All I can say about what the US is doing – it‘s immoral,” Gravel says ... “In Afghanistan, in Iraq and in Vietnam at the era, all American soldiers died in vain,” Gravel claims, recalling the millions of war victims in Vietnam, which is now developing along its own path, regardless.
Foiling Espionage in Berlin Radio's Arabic Service
Yûnus Bahrî - Institute for Historical Review
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Among the Lufthansa passengers arriving in Berlin on April 5, 1939, was a cheerful, outgoing, dark-haired man in his late 30s. Though evidently a foreigner, he had a good command of the German language and confidently found his way through the crowds at the airport and into the bustling capital of the Third Reich. Yûnus Bahrî, Iraqi journalist and independence activist, had visited Berlin several times before ... He was now embarked on quite a different mission: to launch and run Radio Berlin's first-ever Arabic language service.
Ex-Inspector Rejects IAEA Iran Bomb Test Chamber Claim
Gareth Porter -- Inter Press Service
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A former inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repudiated its major new claim that Iran built an explosives chamber to test components of a nuclear weapon and carry out a simulated nuclear explosion. The IAEA claim that a foreign scientist - identified in news reports as Vyacheslav Danilenko - had been involved in building the alleged containment chamber has now been denied firmly by Danilenko himself in an interview with Radio Free Europe … Former IAEA inspector Robert Kelley has denounced the agency's claims about such a containment chamber as "highly misleading".
Civil War Still Divides Americans
CNN
It has been 150 years since the Civil War began with the first shots at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, and in some respects views of the Confederacy and the role that slavery played in the events of 1861 still divide the public, according to a new national poll. In the CNN/ Opinion Research Corporation Poll released Tuesday, roughly one in four Americans said they sympathize more with the Confederacy than the Union, a figure that rises to nearly four in ten among white Southerners.
Controversial 'Anti-Semitic' Billboard in New York Taken Down
The Sideshow
A billboard for Wodka vodka in New York City has been taken down and destroyed after complaints that the advertisement’s message is anti-Semitic. The New York Times reported that the billboard featured a long-haired dog wearing a yarmulke and another dog wearing a Santa hat with the words, "Christmas quality, Hanukkah pricing," alongside the photo. The backlash against the billboard was nearly instantaneous. Ron Meier, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, called it "crude and offensive." "To use the Jewish holiday in dealing with issues of money is clearly insensitive and inappropriate," Meier told the paper.
Israel’s Other Occupation
Gershom Gorenberg -- The New York Times
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... For several years, extremist West Bank settlers have conducted a campaign of low-level violence against their Palestinian neighbors — destroying property, vandalizing mosques and occasionally injuring people. Such “price tag” attacks, intended to intimidate Palestinians and make Israeli leaders pay a price for enforcing the law against settlers, have become part of the routine of conflict in occupied territory. Now that conflict is coming home ... The ethnic conflict in the West Bank is metastasizing into Israel, threatening its democracy and unraveling its society.
The Era of American Dominance is Coming to a Close
Andrew Bacevich
... All that said, the present moment is arguably one in which the international order is, in fact, undergoing a fundamental transformation. The “postwar world” brought into existence as a consequence of World War II is coming to an end. A major redistribution of global power is underway. Arrangements that once conferred immense prerogatives upon the United States, hugely benefiting the American people, are coming undone. In Washington, meanwhile, a hidebound governing class pretends that none of this is happening, stubbornly insisting that it’s still 1945 with the so-called American Century destined to continue for several centuries more (reflecting, of course, God’s express intentions).
The Injustice of the Nuremberg Trials
Mark Weber - Podcast
The Nuremberg Tribunal of 1945-46 — the most spectacular judicial enterprise in history — was meant to prove that the defeated German regime had been one of unique and monstrous deceit, rapaciousness and evil. But in fact the Tribunal dispensed not justice, but injustice. The four Allied powers that organized and ran it were themselves guilty of some of the very same crimes they accused the German defendants of having committed. The Tribunal was an illegal enterprise that operated on the basis of “ex post facto” law created after the fact expressly for the occasion, and which the Allies applied only to the defeated. The hangings of German leaders ordered by the Tribunal were little more than murders glossed over with a veneer of makeshift, hypocritical pseudo-legality.
Was the First Thanksgiving a Religious Celebration?
USA Today
.. .For the Pilgrims and Puritans, "thanksgiving" days were spontaneous and sober affairs. When friends arrived from overseas, European Protestants defeated Catholics in battle, or a bumper crop was reaped, the Pilgrims dedicated a day to thanking divine Providence. They would have considered it presumptuous to schedule a thanksgiving day in advance … The Pilgrims' days of thanksgiving were usually spent in church, singing psalms, listening to sermons and praying. Work and playful pastimes were forbidden. When God provided, the Pilgrims were serious about gratitude … Some historians believe the 1621 celebration that's sometimes dubbed the "First Thanksgiving," was not actually a "thanksgiving" day at all. In fact, some historians even call it a "secular event."
The Blunders of Statesmen: Former US President Reassesses World War II
Herbert Hoover
… The fourth abysmal loss of statesmanship was when the British and French guaranteed the independence of Poland and Rumania at the end of March 1939. It was at this point that the European democracies reversed their previous policies of keeping hands off the inevitable war between Hitler and Stalin. It was probably the greatest blunder in the whole history of European-power diplomacy. Britain and France were helpless to save Poland from invasion … The fifth major blunder in statesmanship was when Roosevelt, in the winter of 1941, threw the United States into undeclared war with Germany and Japan in total violation of promises upon which he had been elected a few weeks before … Indeed the greatest loss of statesmanship in all American history was the tacit American alliance and support of Communist Russia when Hitler made his attack in June 1941.
Imminent Iran Nuclear Threat? A Timeline of Warnings Since 1979
The Christian Science Monitor
Breathless predictions that the Islamic Republic will soon be at the brink of nuclear capability, or – worse – acquire an actual nuclear bomb, are not new. For more than quarter of a century Western officials have claimed repeatedly that Iran is close to joining the nuclear club. Such a result is always declared "unacceptable" and a possible reason for military action, with "all options on the table" to prevent upsetting the Mideast strategic balance dominated by the US and Israel. And yet, those predictions have time and again come and gone … 1992: Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres tells French TV that Iran was set to have nuclear warheads by 1999.
A Thoughtful Look at the German-Soviet Clash: Could Hitler Have Won?
Reviewed by Joseph Bishop -- Institute for Historical Review
How close did Hitler come to winning World War II? What was the real turning point in the war, and why? In this pathbreaking [1991] revisionist study [Hitler’s Panzers East], Professor Stolfi provides some startling answers to these questions. If Hitler had played his cards just a bit differently, contends the author -- a professor of Modern European History at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California -- he could have won the war. German forces came very close to defeating the Soviet Union in 1941. Because Britain alone posed no mortal threat to German power, the defeat of Soviet Russia would effectively have ended the war, resulting in German hegemony over all of Europe. The result would have been a drastic change in the course of world history.
Romney and Obama Battle It Out For Israel Lobby Support
Philip Weiss
In Saturday night's Republican debate, Mitt Romney gave a defiant statement about Iran: he will stop it from getting nukes by any means, Obama won't. Yesterday Obama sought to parry Romney, saying that he is taking no option off the table. Are we witnessing a primary between Romney and Obama right now, for the support of the Israel lobby? I think so … Obama and Romney are squaring off in an Israel lobby primary, to try and gain Jewish financial support, anticipating the big race ahead. The neoconservatives and J Street are arguing over who can deliver that support. Politics never stays in the same place, but somehow I fear that hawkish voices will dominate my community once again.
The Influence of Israel and its American Lobby Over US Middle East Policy
Jeffrey Blankfort
The apparent ability of Israel, one of the world’s smallest countries, to shape the Middle East policies of the world’s remaining superpower has been a source of puzzlement, conjecture, and constant frustration on the part of those fighting for justice for the Palestinians and for the peoples of the region, as a whole…. In the arena of foreign policy, no lobby has proved more powerful than that of the organized American Jewish community in support of Israel; what is generally referred to as the Israel Lobby and in the halls of Congress, simply as “the lobby.” Its power is all the more impressive when one realizes the lobby represents no more than a third of America’s six million Jews.
Henry Kissinger Called Jews `Self-Serving’ and `Bastards’
The Associated Press
American Jewish groups lobbying the Nixon White House on behalf of their Soviet brethren got under Henry Kissinger's skin in demanding intense pressure on Moscow to the point that he denounced them to a White House colleague as self-serving "bastards," newly released documents indicate. … According to transcripts released by the State Department, Kissinger, who was Haig's deputy, said to Garment: "Is there a more self-serving group of people than the Jewish community?" Kissinger is Jewish. Garment, also Jewish, replied: "None in the world." At this point, Kissinger was quoted as saying "What the hell do they think they are accomplishing?" Kissinger went on: "You can't even tell bastards anything in confidence because they'll leak it."
Modern Greece's Real Problem? Ancient Greece.
George Zarkadakis -- The Washington Post
Greece is the cradle of democracy, but, as the world saw this past week, a financial crisis is no time to put important questions to the people. Prime Minister George Papandreou's proposed referendum on the country's loan deal with the European Union, called off quickly after intense international opposition, illustrated that perfectly. Plato and Aristotle would have approved of dropping the referendum. They didn't like democracy of the direct kind. Neither trusted the people that much … The Greek financial crisis is a crisis of identity as much as anything else. Unless the people redefine themselves, this could become the perfect catastrophe: a country designed as a romantic theme park two centuries ago, propped up with loans ever since, and unable to adjust to the crude realities of 21st-century globalization.
Is the Window Closing on Israel?
Patrick J. Buchanan
… But today Israel is more isolated than she has ever been, and the prospects are bleak that she can break out of this isolation. Hamas rules Gaza. Hezbollah rules Lebanon. The Turks have turned hostile. The Palestinian Authority has given up on Barack Obama and is demanding a state from the Security Council and U.N. General Assembly. Israel's partner in Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, is gone … By 2050, Palestinians west of the Jordan will outnumber Israelis two to one. Syria, Jordan and Egypt, which had 40 million people at the time of the Six-Day War, will have 170 million. Militarily, Israel remains dominant, but neither time nor demography seems to be on her side. And Arab acceptance seems more distant than ever.
Washington Loses on 'Own-Goal’ Hat Trick
Philip Giraldi
... The domination of Washington by a postage stamp–sized country in the Middle East never ceases to astonish. No matter what Tel Aviv does, Washington will always side with Israel. And there should be no question but that blind support of Israel has severely damaged other national interests in the Middle East region and has trashed the international reputation of the United States of America ... This seemingly endless parade of those in public life prostrating themselves before Israel cannot end until we the people demand that it should be so. May that come soon.
US Congress Pressure on European Companies For More Money to Nazi Survivors
The Hill (Washington, DC)
Members of the House on Wednesday put new pressure on European companies to compensate relatives of Holocaust victims who were denied insurance payments, and whose family members were transported on French trains to concentration camps where they were killed. The House Foreign Affairs Committee held a Wednesday hearing on two bills aimed at forcing these companies to compensate survivors.
Holocaust Survivors Seek Additional $20 Billion From Insurance Companies
The Associated Press
Thousands of aging Holocaust survivors in the U.S. want Congress to clear a path for them to sue European insurance companies they contend illegally confiscated Jewish life insurance policies during the Nazi era, and have refused to pay an estimated $20 billion still owed … Peter Ammon, Germany's ambassador to the U.S., wrote Ros-Lehtinen that his government has paid billions of dollars to Holocaust survivors and other victims of the Third Reich. He noted that the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims paid some $305 million, with another $200 million going into humanitarian programs for survivors.
Jewish Holocaust Survivors Want More Money From French Railway
AFP
Aged Holocaust survivors made impassioned pleas to the US Congress Wednesday to allow them to sue France's state-owned SNCF railway over its role in World War II deportations to Nazi death camps. "We are asking for the right to personally, rightfully claim what is ours," said Renee Firestone who was born in the former Czechoslovakia and spent 13 months in Auschwitz before liberation and emigrating to the United States. Firestone, speaking to the House Foreign Affairs committee, was among elderly survivors demanding fast action on a chance to seek reparations in US courts before they die, in the first congressional hearing to focus on SNCF's wartime role.
European Leaders Warn Israel Against Strike on Iran
The Christian Science Monitor
A week after world leaders urged Israel to tone down its heated rhetoric on Iran, European leaders are again urging caution as Iran begins to react to the international community's stern words and threats, led by Israel. ... Yesterday, European Union foreign ministers ruled out a military option for Iran. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said that a strike on Iran would "drag the world into an 'uncontrollable spiral'," Agence France-Presse reports. The ministers opted to consider further sanctions instead, but a decision will not be reached until their next meeting, in December. Berlin's representative, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, also refused to broach the possibility of a military operation, according to Reuters.
Forgotten Lessons of The First World War
Peter Preston -- The Guardian (Britain)
... The conflict that we thoughtlessly call the great war, the one that was really the Great Carnage: nearly 900,000 young Britons killed in the trenches, nearly 1.4 million French and over two million Germans lying close by, shot, bayoneted, blown to smithereens ... Why did it start? Nationalism, greed, envy, misunderstanding, blind hostility? No one quite knows ... We might have learnt from failed wars on terror, on drugs ... but we haven't. We still dispatch young men and women to their deaths by the thousand. Pragmatist, not pacifist, we brush away the lessons of 1914-18. At the going down of the sun, we will remember? Perhaps. Yet then night falls: and, all too easily, we forget.
Himmler's Communion Certificate And Hitler Postcard Set For Sale
Daily Mail (Britain)
... This rare printed communion certificate shows that Himmler was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1911. The certificate, which features a reproduction of an old master painting showing Christ at the Last Supper, is due to go to auction on Thursday. It will be sold alongside a number of other fascinating items which belonged to an American woman whose father, Lieutenant Richard J Wills, was tasked with remodelling Himmler's home in the Alps into a senior officers' club after the Second World War. One of the rarest items which will be sold at Mullock's auction house in Shropshire is a postcard from Hitler wishing Himmler's mother a happy 75th birthday.
Far Right On Rise In Europe, Says Report
The Guardian (Britain)
The far right is on the rise across Europe as a new generation of young, web-based supporters embrace hardline nationalist and anti-immigrant groups, a study has revealed ahead of a meeting of politicians and academics in Brussels to examine the phenomenon ... The study reveals a continent-wide spread of hardline nationalist sentiment among the young, mainly men. Deeply cynical about their own governments and the EU, their generalised fear about the future is focused on cultural identity, with immigration – particularly a perceived spread of Islamic influence – a concern.
Thousands of Russian Nationalists March in Moscow
The Associated Press
Thousands of far-right nationalists and neo-Nazis marched through Moscow on Friday calling on ethnic Russians to “take back” their country, as resentment grows over dark-complexioned Muslim migrants from Russia’s Caucasus and the money the Kremlin sends to the restive region. Some 5,000 people, mostly young men wearing medical masks and balaclavas, marched through a working-class neighborhood of gloomy apartment buildings on the outskirts of the capital. They chanted "Russia for Russians" and "Migrants today, occupiers tomorrow," along with anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic slurs and obscenities.
Zionist Bad Press Is All You Need
Gilad Atzmon
It looks like the Zionists and their AZZ (anti-Zionist Zionists) allies are losing the battle. The more desperate they are to stop ‘The Wandering Who’ and myself, the more they manage to do the complete opposite. The book is now a best seller and its message has gone viral. So far every attempt to smear the book and myself has backfired. It started in mid-September with veteran Israeli concentration camp-guard Geoffrey Goldberg insisting that professor John Mearsheimer should admit that he was endorsing a ‘Hitler apologist’ and an ‘anti-Semitic’ book.
State Department's 'Anti-Semitism Fighter’ Focuses on 'Holocaust Denial’
Sun-Times (Chicago)
... The late rabbi's daughter, Hannah Rosenthal, is the State Department's Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, a post created by Congress in 2004. "There is nowhere I have been where everything is fine," said Rosenthal, in Chicago on Thursday to deliver a speech to the Middle East Media Research Institute … Of 193 countries Rosenthal's office monitors, the last study showed increases in anti-Semitic incidents in 75 nations, to a "disturbing degree" in 38 of them. Of the troubling trends, Rosenthal is paying particular attention to growing Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic textbooks, particularly in Saudi Arabia. Holocaust denial comes in many contexts: from clerics, heads of states, so-called academics, textbooks and websites.
Rare Film Glimpse of London in 1904
The Telegraph (Britain)
A historian has discovered film footage of Edwardian London that includes fascinating snapshots of people going about their everyday lives. The film was shot in 1904 as a 'travelogue' for Australians curious about life in what was "one of the most exciting cities anywhere", according to Professor Ian Christie. He discovered the 12 minute reel while trawling through archives in Canberra. Prof Christie said: "It's a rather clever mixture of what we would expect to see - such as the Embankment, Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square -- but it also has these wonderful close ups of individuals.
Hitler’s Final Address To the Nation
Video
Adolf Hitler made his final address to the nation in a radio broadcast on Jan. 30, 1945, the twelfth anniversary of the National Socialist seizure of power. Here are the concluding sentences of that historic address, with English-language subtitles. In this talk, delivered three months before his death, he concludes with determined confidence that, in spite of setbacks, Germany and Europe will ultimately prevail against the grave threat from the East. This video clip, which is from a 1997 BBC documentary “The Nazis: A Warning From History,” has been seen by more than two million viewers.
Dutch Professor Faked Data For Years
The Associated Press
A prominent Dutch social psychologist who once claimed to have shown that the very act of thinking about eating meat makes people behave more selfishly has been found to have faked data throughout much of his career. In one of the worst cases of scientific fraud on record in the Netherlands, a review committee made up of some of the country's top scientists has found that University of Tilburg Prof. Diederik Stapel systematically falsified data to achieve the results he wanted ... Stapel co-authored a paper published in Science magazine that said white people are more prone to discriminate against black people when they encounter them in a messy environment, such as one containing litter, abandoned bicycles and broken sidewalks.
Texas History Education Standards Receive Dismal Reviews In New Report
Huffington Post
A recent report says Texas K-12 standards in history are inadequate, ineffective and “fail to meet the state’s college readiness standards” … The report notes that the Fordham Institute gave the state's history standards a grade of "D," calling it a "politicized distortion of history," that is "both unwieldy and troubling" while "offering misrepresentations at every turn." These misrepresentations, Erekson writes, include excluding Native Americans from the standards curriculum until recently and citing states' rights as a cause of the Civil War when Texas did not cite it in their historical "Declaration of Causes."
Armenian Groups Go After Condoleezza Rice as 'Genocide Denier'
The Atlantic
Many ethnic Armenians who read ex-US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's recently published memoirs are spitting fire over her descriptions of her battles with the US-based Diaspora Armenian lobby. Both in 1991 as a presidential aide (to then US President George Bush) and in 2007 as secretary of state (under then President George W. Bush), Rice worked to defeat the congressional push for recognizing the World-War I-era slaughter of ethnic Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide … Warming to his task, Sassounian charged that Rice had behaved as "a spineless official of a banana republic" by allegedly caving in to Turkish interests.
The Demise of 'Old America'
Jack Hunter -- The American Conservative
... Our globalist mindset and perpetual wars hasten an inevitable imperial downfall. White Americans will soon be a minority in a country that has been predominantly European since its founding. Buchanan makes his points by breaking down the numbers, sketching momentous political and philosophical trends, and giving a historical context to his overall narrative. He presents the case that what many have considered the greatest nation in the history of the world is now marching hastily toward its end ... The cultural, political, economic, and spiritual disintegration described in Suicide of a Superpower was brought on as much by vaunted conservatives as by any conscious liberal agenda. Our political and cultural establishment helped usher in this demise, this national suicide.
U.S. Quietly Supplies Israel With Bunker-Busting Bombs
The New York Times
The Obama administration has quietly supplied Israel with bombs capable of destroying buried targets, like terrorists’ arms caches or perhaps sites in Iran suspected of being part of that nation’s nuclear weapons program, American officials said Friday [Sept. 23]. The administration’s transfer of bunker-busting bombs, first reported in an online article by Newsweek, began in 2009. American officials who confirmed the shipments spoke on the condition of anonymity, because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly ... The issue is so sensitive that Israeli military officials asked the United States not to release documentation of the arms transfers, even if requested under the Freedom of Information Act, according to American officials.
Ideas Matter: Johnson and Polignano Address IHR Meeting
Counter-Currents Publishing
Greg Johnson and Mike Polignano of Counter-Currents, along with Mark Weber of the Institute for Historical Review, gave talks at the IHR offices in Orange County, California. The general theme of the evening was “Ideas Matter,” and each talk focused on the necessity of fundamental metapolitical thought and the opportunities for changing our dominant political paradigm offered by the ongoing breakdown of the American system … More than 25 people gathered: men, women, and children, from a wide range of backgrounds and professions, ranging in age from infancy to a young lady in her 80s. There was spirited discussion well into the night.
Retired US Army Officer Issues Apology For World War II Treatment of German PoWs
Talonbooks
A retired US Army officer has apologized for the mass deaths of German prisoners in US army camps after World War Two. Following extensive private investigations in the US and Germany, Merrit P. Drucker has sent an e-mail to Lt. Col. Max Klaar, head of the German veterans’ association (Der Verband deutscher Soldaten) regretting the lethal conditions in the US camps where some 750,000 Germans died while they were denied available food and shelter. Drucker has also formed a committee to pursue further investigations and make amends by way of apologies to the families of the dead, and veterans’ institutions.
Israeli Strike Against Iran Is Not Likely
The Christian Science Monitor
... So, are we nearing some kind of military showdown, with Israel in the lead? Probably not. Israel's fear of a nuclear Iran is deeply felt, and shouldn't be ignored. But an operation to take out Iran's nuclear program – widely dispersed, in a country far from Israeli air space – would be fraught with risks, and is precisely something Iran's military planners have been preparing for since at least 1981, when Israel took out Iraq's nuclear program in one surprise strike. Israel could certainly delay Iran's nuclear program, but is unlikely to destroy it. ... Warnings of an imminent Israeli attack on Iran have, for years, come and gone with the seasons.
Nuclear Pots Call Iranian Kettle Black
Eric Margolis
... In 1992, Netanyahu claimed Iran would have nuclear weapons in 3-5 years. Shimon Peres, now Israel’s president, insisted Iran would have nukes by 1999. In 1995, the New York Times claimed Iran was only five years from nuclear weapons. In 1998, US Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld claimed Iran was fielding a nuclear-armed ICBM that could hit the United States. And so it has gone, a steady drumbeat of false claims ... What’s so crazy about all this is that Israel has a very large arsenal of nuclear and bio-warfare weapons while Iran remains under UN nuclear inspection. The big nuclear powers – the US, Russia, China, Britain, France – are in violation of the 1995 UN nuclear non-proliferation treaty that mandated eliminating all nuclear weapons within five years.
'Mark Weber Report’ Podcasts
Voice of Reason Network
Audio recordings of broadcasts of the weekly “Mark Weber Report.” Analysis and commentary of current affairs and historical issues by the director of the Institute for Historical Review. Titles of broadcasts include “How Hitler Tackled Unemployment and Revived Germany’s Economy,” “Jews and Wall Street,” “Why the Israel-Palestine Issue Is Important for Americans.” “Why America’s Decline Will Accelerate,” “Why the Obsession With Nazism?,” “Deceit for War: Roosevelt, Johnson, Obama,” “American Exceptionalism: How Unique is the US?,” “Netanyahu in Washington: Spectacle Reaffirms Jewish-Zionist Grip on US Political Life,” “Goebbels and Propaganda,” “Remembering the Fallen: Lies and Deceit in America’s Wars.”
Return of the War Party?
Patrick J. Buchanan
Is a vote for the Republican Party in 2012 a vote for war? Is a vote for Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich a vote for yet another unfunded war of choice, this time with a nation, Iran, three times as large and populous as Iraq? … And where is the hard evidence Iran is acquiring nukes? The U.S. intelligence community declared in December 2007, with "high confidence," that Iran was no longer seeking nuclear weapons. It has never rescinded that declaration. And there is no conclusive evidence in that media-hyped report last week from the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran is for certain building nuclear weapons. Indeed, that report was exposed as the work of incompetents within hours.
Nazi-Symboled Vase Laid on Hitler’s Parents Grave
Austrian Times (Austria)
An unidentified visitor to a cemetery in Leonding, Austria, has placed a vase on the grave of Hitler’s parents, engraved with the word "unforgettable" and the letters "SS". According to the state office for protection, the visitor posed as a Viennese artist and "Hitler’s grandson". An increasing number of German skinheads have held vigils around this grave. On Hitler’s 120th birthday, a large wreath was placed on the grave and on all saints day it was also lavishly decorated … For 74 year-old Hedwig Haberfellner who visited the grave of her husband in the cemetery yesterday, the most important thing is "that the graves look tidy". The parent’s grave in Leonding is visited by large numbers of tourists every year.
Now Iran: Here We Go Again
Gwynne Dyer
... Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. The same intelligence agencies are producing the same sort of reports about Iran that we heard eight years ago about Iraq’s nuclear ambitions, and interpreting the information in the same highly prejudiced way ... The evidence does not show that Iran is actually building a nuclear weapon now, or has any present intention of doing so. And having the knowledge and equipment that would let you do so fast in an emergency is entirely legal under IAEA rules.
In Greece, 'Holocaust Denier’ Set For Government Role
Ynet News (Israel)
Jewish organizations in Germany have expressed their shock over plans in Greece to involve the extreme right wing party LAOS, led by Georgios Karatzaferis, in Greece's provisional government. Greek media reported Thursday that Karatzaferis played a central role in the steps that led to the establishment of a government that would try to navigate Greece out of its debt crisis by implementing a European financial plan. The reports also said he was set to be part of the new government. Reports claim that in the last few years, Karatzaferis made a long line of anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli statements.
From Another Era: 'Swastika’ Hockey Teams
Bleacher Report
This is no joke. This is a photo dated from 1916 of a women's hockey team. Long before Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime came along, the Swastika was actually a symbol of power and good luck. The symbol actually appeared on several other hockey uniforms, including Fernie Swastikas Hockey Team and the Windsor Swastikas Light Outfits.
Religion Declining in Nine Nations, Study Shows
BBC News
A study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers. The study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation. ... The team took census data stretching back as far as a century from countries in which the census queried religious affiliation: Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland ... In all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction.
Islam Overtaking Catholicism in France
Hudson New York
Islamic mosques are being built more often in France than Roman Catholic churches, and there now are more practising Muslims in the country than practising Catholics. Nearly 150 new mosques currently are under construction in France, home to the biggest Muslim community in Europe. The mosque-building projects are at various stages of completion ... By contrast, the Roman Catholic Church in France has built only 20 new churches during the past decade, and has formally closed more than 60 churches, many of which are destined to become mosques.
Church of England Faces Being Wiped Out, Report Warns
The Telegraph (Britain)
The Church of England faces being wiped out as a significant national force without an "urgent" campaign to recruit more believers, a report warns. In the last 40 years the number of adult churchgoers has fallen by half while the number of children regularly worshipping in public declined by 80 per cent, the study says … According to official figures, the number of worshippers attending church each week fell by 30,000 between 2007 and 2009, to 1.13 million.
The Weight of Tradition: Why Judaism is Not Like Other Religions
Mark Weber
...Judaism is not just “another religion.” It’s unique among the world’s major religions. The core values and ethos of Judaism are markedly unlike those of Christianity, Islam, and the other great faiths … A core message of the Hebrew scriptures is that Jews are a divinely “chosen” people -- a unique community distinct from the rest of humanity … The seemingly intractable Middle East conflict is more than just a problem of Zionism or politics, or a dispute over land. Israel’s often arrogant policies, and especially its inhumane treatment of non-Jews, have roots in centuries-old attitudes that are laid out in ancient Jewish religious writings.
The Myth of American Exceptionalism
Stephen M. Walt -- Foreign Policy
… Most statements of "American exceptionalism" presume that America's values, political system, and history are unique and worthy of universal admiration. They also imply that the United States is both destined and entitled to play a distinct and positive role on the world stage. The only thing wrong with this self-congratulatory portrait of America's global role is that it is mostly a myth … America's past success is due as much to good luck as to any uniquely American virtues. The new nation was lucky that the continent was lavishly endowed with natural resources and traversed by navigable rivers … Though Americans watching “Saving Private Ryan” or “Patton” may conclude that the United States played the central role in vanquishing Nazi Germany, most of the fighting was in Eastern Europe and the main burden of defeating Hitler's war machine was borne by the Soviet Union.
Washington’s Enemy ‘Doesn’t Exist,’ Says Ex-CIA Agent
RT (Russia)
… Historian Michael Scheuer, an author of "Through Our Enemies’ Eyes", who worked for the agency for over 20 years till 2004 and at one time was the chief of the CIA’s ‘Bin Laden unit’, says America’s greatest enemy – radical Islam – never existed: neither when Bin Laden was alive, nor now. Actually, “it is America’s relationship with Israel that is causing this war [on Islam]”, and until Americans accept this, “we are not going to defeat this enemy,” the author says. Michael Scheuer believes it is the Israeli lobby in America that is dragging the US into wars. “In Israel itself as a country, it is not a problem. The real problem is the leaders of the Jewish American community in the US, who influence and corrupt our Congress to support Israel when we have no interest there,” he states.
Israel May Launch Strike on Iran as Soon as Next Month
Daily Mail (Britain)
Israel will launch military action to prevent Iran developing a nuclear weapon as soon as Christmas, intelligence chiefs have warned. … Sources say the understanding at the top of the British Government is that Israel will attempt to strike against the nuclear sites ‘sooner rather than later’ – with logistical support from the U.S. A senior Foreign Office figure has revealed that ministers have been told to expect Israeli military action, adding: ‘We’re expecting something as early as Christmas, or very early in the new year.’ Officials believe President Barack Obama would have to support the Israelis or risk losing vital Jewish-American support in the next presidential election.
Behind the Iran Crisis: The Israel Lobby's Campaign for War
Mark Weber (2007)
... The world is anxiously following the so-called crisis over Iran, or as Israel-firsters prefer to call it “The Iranian Threat.” This crisis is artificial. It is every bit as phony as the one manufactured to provide a pretext for war against Iraq ... A war against Iran would serve only Israeli and Zionist interests. For everyone else, war against Iran would be a catastrophe. ... Once again we are told that another country that Israel regards as an adversary is a grave threat to peace. Once again our politicians and a compliant media present a barrage of sensational and frightening propaganda claims – claims remarkably similar to those we heard in 2002 and 2003, and from the same Israel-friendly crowd.
Many Russians Welcomed Germans in World War II, Newly Released Documents Show
Daily Mail (Britain)
An extraordinary secret archive has revealed for the first time how thousands of Soviet citizens collaborated with Nazi invaders during World War II. The cache of documents, some retrieved from the files of the KGB, shows how many viewed the Germans as Christian liberators – and their own masters as godless Communists. This view was reinforced when the soldiers of the Third Reich opened up 470 churches in north-western Russia alone and reinstated priests driven from their pulpits by Stalin. In turn, the clergy co-operated closely with S.S. death squads in betraying Communist officials, Jews and partisan resistance groups. Perhaps most astonishingly, the Germans even shipped numerous mayors, journalists, policeman and teachers back to the Reich to show them the ‘German way of life.’
Volunteers Join Anti-Soviet `Russian Liberation Army’
German newsreel - Video -- 1945
Former Soviet General Andrei Vlasov takes command of new units of volunteers of the German-sponsored, anti-Stalinist “Russian Liberation Army.” Portion of German weekly newsreel, “Deutsche Wochenschau,” March 16, 1945. With English subtitles.
Russian General Vlasov Addresses Anti-Soviet Conference in Prague
Newsreel - Video - 1944
Russian General Andrei Vlasov addresses the founding conference of the anti-Stalinist “Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia,” in Prague, Nov. 14, 1944. He reads, in Russian, the historic proclamation of the German-supported Committee. With English subtitles. Vlasov, a high-level Soviet commander who was taken prisoner, also headed the German-supported “Russian Liberation Army.” At the end of the war US authorities turned him over to the Soviets, who hanged him in Moscow.
You Know That Your City Has Become A Hellhole When ...
The Economic Collapse
All across America there are cities and towns that were once prosperous and beautiful that are being transformed into absolute hellholes. The scars left by the long-term economic decline of the United States are getting deeper and more gruesome. The tax base in many areas of the nation has been absolutely devastated as millions of jobs have left this country. Hundreds of cities are drowning in debt and are desperately trying to survive. … The cold, hard truth is that most of our cities are that broke and things are going to get even worse in the years ahead. … Any politician that tells you that he or she can solve our economic problems without fundamentally addressing our horrific trade imbalance is lying to you. That means that there are a whole lot of liars in both political parties.
The Mess in the Middle East
Amb. Chas Freeman, Jr.
… Israel has nonetheless also demonstrated that its hold on domestic U.S. politics remains unbroken. This past year, it was able to compel our president to swear allegiance to expansive Zionism and to repudiate policies endorsed by his own and previous administrations as well as the international community. By contemptuously overriding the views and interests of the United States in this way, Israel and its American claque debased and discredited American international prestige and regional credibility … No one takes what we say about Israeli or Palestinian behavior seriously anymore. We are now trying to scuttle our own longstanding approach to the achievement of Palestinian self-determination … The American-led “peace process” is over. We blew it.
China Mocks U.S. Political Model
Patrice Hill -- The Washington Times
Chinese political and business leaders are increasingly triumphant after two decades of rapid economic growth that lifted unprecedented millions of people out of poverty and turned the nation into an economic superpower, saying their success proves its political and economic system is superior to the Western model. In extensive talks with a series of Chinese leaders, an oft-cited point of criticism is the gridlock and “dysfunction” they see in Washington. They say fawning by U.S. political leaders seeking re-election has created an “entitlement culture” where the public has grown dependent on government largesse.
Israel’s Netanyahu Is Widely Regarded as Untrustworthy
The Jewish Week (New York)
It's no secret that many foreign leaders find Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu difficult to get along with, even untrustworthy. The latest is the president of France, Nicholas Sarkozy … German Chancellor Angela Merkel has gotten so exasperated with Netanyahu that she recently phoned to chew him out and then leaked the story. Haaretz last month quoted German officials telling their Israeli counterparts that Merkel "does not believe a word (Netanyahu) says." … “In the meeting with President Clinton, Netanyahu was nearly insufferable, lecturing and telling us how to deal with the Arabs." Ross recounts that afterwards a frustrated President Clinton remarked, "He thinks he is the superpower and we are here to do whatever he requires." Ross added, "No one on our side disagreed with that assessment."
In Israel, Talk of Striking Iran Sparks Debate
Los Angeles Times
… What many suspect began as an attempt by Israel to intimidate Iran and motivate the West to do more to crack down on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program has instead inadvertently exposed public ambivalence, government division and a surprising politicization over one of Israel's most pressing security threats … Israeli strikes against nuclear facilities in Iraq in 1981 and Syria in 2007 were carried out without warning … To some, the public debate is a sign that Israel is not actually preparing for an imminent attack. If plans were underway, Israel's military censors — who have broad powers to block news coverage that could endanger national security — would have killed the stories, many say.
Former Mossad Chief Seeks to Avert Israeli Attack
Der Spiegel (Germany)
Reports of alleged Israeli preparations for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities are coming from an unlikely source: Meir Dagan, a war hero and former head of Israeli's foreign intelligence agency. The man is hoping to prevent what he believes could be a true catastrophe, but his actions have deeply angered the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu … Such occurrences give rise to a number of questions: Can this be a coincidence? Is Israel preparing an attack, or is this saber-rattling just psychological warfare? Or, rather, is this meant to put pressure on the world -- and on Europe and the United States, in particular -- while delivering the message that if they don't act, Israel will? …
US Defense Secretary Panetta Warns Against Iran Strike
BBC News
The US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said a military strike against Iran could have "unintended consequences". He said it would only delay Iran's nuclear efforts by three years at most. Correspondents say the comments appear to play down speculation that a military strike might be used to cripple Tehran's nuclear program … “You've got to be careful of unintended consequences here," Mr Panetta told reporters in Washington, when asked about his concerns about a military strike. He acknowledged military action might fail to deter Iran "from what they want to do". "But more importantly, it could have a serious impact in the region, and it could have a serious impact on US forces in the region," he said.
Pat Buchanan Under Fire For Controversial New Book
Michael Calderone - Huffington Post
Pat Buchanan, the longtime conservative pundit, has been making the TV rounds in recent weeks promoting his latest book, “Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?.” … Buchanan has still managed to spark another race-based controversy that's embroiling the network. Buchanan argues in "Suicide of a Superpower" that "ethnonationalism" is tearing the United States apart and that the "European and Christian core of our country is shrinking." In his dire introduction, he warns that the "nation is disintegrating, ethnically, culturally, morally, politically." And he strikes the same themes during his TV and radio appearances promoting the book. The Anti-Defamation League, which has criticized Buchanan in the past for appearing on a show boasting white nationalist views, also took him to task for his latest appearance along with his book's subject matter.
Why We Should Care If Whites Become A Minority
Patrick J. Buchanan
… Why should we care if white Americans become a minority? America, interviewers remind me, assimilated the immigrants of a century ago -- Italians, Poles, Jews, Slavs -- and we can do the same with peoples from the Third World. And perhaps they are right. Perhaps the year 2050 will see an America as united as the America of Dwight Eisenhower and JFK. Yet there are reasons to worry. First, the great American Melting Pot has been rejected by our elites as cultural genocide, in favor of a multiculturalism that is failing in Europe. Second, what we are attempting has no precedent in human history.
Douglas Reed
Revisionists.com
Douglas Reed was a noted journalist, author and playwright who for years served on the editorial staff of the London Times, but whose considerable influence waned greatly after he wrote frankly about Jewish-Zionist power. In Somewhere South of Suez (1950), for example, he wrote: “... During all that period and to the present time, it was not possible freely to report or discuss a third vital matter: Zionist Nationalism. In this case the freedom of the press has become a fallacy during the past two decades ... In daily usage, no American or British newspaper, apparently, now dares to print a line of news or comment unfavorable to the Zionist ambition... “
New Lies By Dershowitz
Gilad Atzmon
Rabid Zionist Alan Dershowitz is devastated by the success of “The Wandering Who.” He just cannot accept that professors and academics endorse the book “as ‘brilliant,’ ‘fascinating,’ ‘absorbing,’ and ‘moving’,” In his latest articles he again misses an opportunity to debate the book, its message and its meaning. He prefers instead to indulge in the only things for which he possesses any talent at all - lying and bullying. But why, I wonder, does Dershowitz insist on reducing a potentially ethical, intellectual and ideological debate to just one more Zionist exercise in mud-slinging? I can think of only two possible answers; First, Dershowitz lacks the necessary intellect to engage in a debate and second, that Zionism and Israel cannot be defended - ethically, morally or intellectually.
Volkswagen AG Donating $1 Million Dollars to Zionist ADL
JTA
Automotive giant Volkswagen AG said it will donate $1 million to the Anti-Defamation League. The money will go toward ADL workshops addressing issues at schools and in the workforce, including diversity training, programs aimed at cyber bullying and maintaining respectful working conditions, and anti-bigotry efforts. "ADL's initiatives and programs align with Volkswagen AG's commitment to diversity in our workforce and in countries all around the globe,” Volkswagen board member Christian Klingler said in a statement Tuesday.
Israel’s Netanyahu Is A `Liar,’ Says French Premier Sarkozy
Reuters
French President Nicolas Sarkozy branded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “a liar” in a private conversation with US President Barack Obama that was accidentally broadcast to journalists during last week's G20 summit in Cannes. “I cannot bear Netanyahu, he's a liar,” Sarkozy told Obama, unaware that the microphones in their meeting room had been switched on, enabling reporters in a separate location to listen in to a simultaneous translation. “You're fed up with him, but I have to deal with him even more often than you,” Obama replied, according to the French interpreter.
War With Iran?: `Hold Me Back’
Uri Avnery
… All this seems to indicate that the whole hullabaloo is a ploy. Perhaps to frighten and deter the Iranians. Perhaps to push the Americans into more extreme actions. Perhaps coordinated with the Americans in advance … Let’s be serious for a moment. Israel will not attack Iran. Period. Some may think that I am going out on a limb. Shouldn’t I add at least “probably” or “almost certainly”? No, I won’t. I shall repeat categorically: Israel Will NOT Attack Iran … The US is Israel’s only dependable supporter in the world (besides, perhaps, Fiji, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau.) To destroy this relationship means cutting our lifeline. To do that, you have to be more than just a little crazy. You have to be raving mad.
Armageddon Ahead
Gilad Atzmon
It does not take a genius to gather that the Israeli aggression towards Iran would endanger every living species on this planet. Devastatingly enough, our Western governments do nothing to stop the Jewish State. That should not take us by surprise: our politicians are largely funded and vetted by Israeli lobbies that openly support attack on Iran. .. The Jewish State and its lobbies are the greatest threat to world peace. If we want to save ourselves, there is no other way of doing so than looking closely into Jewish, Israeli and Zionist culture, identity and ideology. There is no other way of doing so than scrutinising Israel’s unique and relentless attitude towards lobbying. The issues we are dealing with here are not solely political they are actually deeply philosophical, psychological and sociological -- and it is also about life and death.
Obama’s UN Speech: Sacrificing Palestine for Zionist Campaign Funds
James Petras
… There is a wealth of documentary evidence showing that Obama deliberately and forcefully sacrificed US international standing, in order to satisfy the major American Jewish organizations who were demanding nothing less than total and unconditional backing for Netanyahu’s phony position of “peace negotiations” and colonization from Obama … From the angle of satisfying the US Zionist power configuration (ZPC) and securing a massive flow of re-election financing, Obama’s UN speech was a smashing success. Obama’s re-election campaign from April to the end of September has received tens of millions of dollars from wealthy pro-Israeli Jewish fund raisers and contributors, as well as endorsements from rightwing US Jewish and Israeli politicians.
Middle East Pop Quiz
Charley Reese
It's time for another pop quiz on America's favorite region of the world -- the Middle East. Let's get started with the subject of nuclear weapons. Which country in the Middle East actually possesses nuclear weapons? Israel ... Which country in the Middle East occupies land belonging to other people? Israel, which occupies a piece of Lebanon, a larger piece of Syria, East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza ... Which country in the Middle East has the most powerful lobby in the U.S.? Israel. Which country in the Middle East are most American politicians, journalists and academics afraid to criticize? Israel.
Mid-East Policy and Immigration Policy: The Jewish Role
Kevin McDonald
… The vast majority of Americans live under the comfortable illusion that theirs is a free country … Virtually all of the really critical issues affecting the United States and its role in the world are actually excluded from discussion in the elite media or in the political arena. The classic case: US policy in the Middle East. Despite the obvious fact that US support for Israel has crucial implications for war and peace, the vast majority of Americans are oblivious to what is really going on in this region … As in the case of policy in the Middle East, it is no secret that Jewish organizations were at the forefront of the immigration policy shift implemented by the 1965 Act.
Literary Reading in US in Sharp Decline
National Endowment for the Arts (2004)
Literary reading is in dramatic decline with fewer than half of American adults now reading literature, according to a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) survey … Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America reports drops in all groups studied, with the steepest rate of decline - 28 percent - occurring in the youngest age groups. The study also documents an overall decline of 10 percentage points in literary readers from 1982 to 2002, representing a loss of 20 million potential readers. The rate of decline is increasing and, according to the survey, has nearly tripled in the last decade.
California Math, Reading Test Scores Come Up Short
San Francisco Chronicle
In the race for educational excellence, California hovered near the back of the pack yet again with only Mississippi and the District of Columbia languishing further behind, according to 2011 math and reading scores released Tuesday. In the race for educational excellence, California hovered near the back of the pack yet again with only Mississippi and the District of Columbia languishing further behind, according to 2011 math and reading scores released Tuesday. For what it's worth, several states lagged alongside California, including New Mexico, Louisiana, Alabama, West Virginia and Tennessee.
Are Evangelical Christians Warmongers?
Chuck Baldwin
… The biggest cheerleaders for the unprovoked, unconstitutional, pre-emptive attack and invasion of Iraq were evangelical Christians. Ditto for the war in Afghanistan, the bombing of Libya, the attacks in Yemen, etc. Who is calling for the bombing of Iran? Evangelical Christians … I never thought I would hear myself say what I’m about to say, but the truth is, the term “Christian” today means anything but Christ-like. To many people today, “Christian” refers to some warmongering, mean-spirited, throw-anyone-to-the-wolves-who-crosses-them person, who then has the audacity to look down their nose in contempt against anyone who disagrees with them for even the smallest reason.
Free Black Slaveowners in South Carolina
Ingolf Vogeler -- University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Domestic slavery was quite common in West Africa, although the Europeans organized the trade to a much greater magnitude and value. Free black slaveowners resided in states as north as New York and as far south as Florida, extending westward into Kentucky, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Missouri. According to the federal census of 1830, free blacks owned more than 10,000 slaves in Louisiana, Maryland, South Carolina, and Virginia. The majority of black slaveowners lived in Louisiana and planted sugar cane.
Buchenwald: Legend and Reality
Mark Weber
Buchenwald is widely regarded as one of wartime Germany's most notorious "death camps." In fact, though, this carefully cultivated image bears little resemblance to reality … The camp deserves another, more objective look.
Europeans Regard Israel as Biggest Threat to World Peace
The Observer - The Guardian (Britain) - 2003
Israel has been described as the top threat to world peace, ahead of North Korea, Afghanistan and Iran, by an unpublished European Commission poll of 7,500 Europeans, sparking an international row. The survey, conducted in October, of 500 people from each of the EU's member nations included a list of 15 countries with the question, 'tell me if in your opinion it presents or not a threat to peace in the world'. Israel was reportedly picked by 59 per cent of those interviewed.
North Carolina’s Eugenics Program Remembered
McClatchy Newspapers
… Between 1929 and 1974, the state - through the North Carolina Eugenics Board - authorized the sterilizations of some 7,600 North Carolinians who were classified as mentally ill, epileptic or "feebleminded." Now, key state officials are leading an effort to compensate people who were sterilized, under the idea that many of the operations were medically unnecessary and morally wrong. … Kuralt saw sterilization as part of a progressive vision of family planning. Some women, especially in the days before the birth control pill, came to the county begging to be sterilized. But the county also promoted the operations for people who were poor, disabled, or in trouble. Most of that happened in the '50s and early '60s.
Israel Raises Fears of Military Action Against Iran With Missile Test
The Telegraph (Britain)
Israel tested a long-range ballistic missile capable of a carrying a nuclear warhead yesterday amid growing speculation that Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing to authorise military action against Iran. The test came just hours after the Israeli prime minister was reported to have stepped up pressure on his cabinet to back military strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities … Giving further grist to claims that military action is being seriously contemplated, it also emerged that Israel's air force simulated a long-range attack at a Nato base in Sardinia last week. The exercise, which was not initially disclosed in Israel, included an air-to-air refuelling component.
Mussolini’s Tomb Draws Tens of Thousands of Admirers
The New York Times
... They came in busloads, from Turin to Palermo, on a pilgrimage of sorts. "Like Christians going to St. Peter's, except that here some wear a fez," said Gianni, a man from Turin, of the black felt hat in the shape of a truncated cone that became part of the uniform of the Fascist black shirts worn here by a handful of meticulously groomed young men … Mussolini’s tomb gets between 80,000 and 100,000 visitors a year, with peaks during the three commemorations, which in recent years have been presided over by Father Tam. On Sunday, during a rosary recital interspersed with commentary, he warned of the imminent Islamic invasion of Europe, accelerated by the events in North Africa this year and abetted by a liberalist political class in Europe and an “Americanized youth” open to heresies like gay marriage.
Poorest Poor In US Hits New Record
The Associated Press
The ranks of America's poorest poor have climbed to a record high — one in 15 people — spread widely across metropolitan areas as the housing bust pushed many inner-city poor into suburbs and other outlying places and shriveled jobs and income … About 20.5 million Americans, or 6.7% of the U.S. population, make up the poorest poor, defined as those at 50% or less of the official poverty level. Those living in deep poverty represent nearly half of the 46.2 million people scraping by below the poverty line. In 2010, the poorest poor meant an income of $5,570 or less for an individual and $11,157 for a family of four.
Some 15 Percent of U.S. Uses Food Stamps
The Wall Street Journal
Nearly 15% of the U.S. population relied on food stamps in August, as the number of recipients hit 45.8 million. Food stamp rolls have risen 8.1% in the past year, the Department of Agriculture reported, though the pace of growth has slowed from the depths of the recession … Mississippi reported the largest share of its population relying on food stamps, more than 21%. One in five residents in New Mexico, Tennessee, Oregon and Louisiana also were food stamp recipients.
Israel’s Isolation Is Laid Bare by UNESCO Vote
Haroon Siddiqui -- The Star (Canada)
… Its increasing isolation is not usually because of anti-Semitism, as often claimed. The Palestinians have taken the route of international recognition because they have got nowhere with Israel in ending the occupation that is now in its 44th year. Far from being “unilateral” — as alleged by Israel, Canada, the U.S. and others — the Palestinians are placing their confidence in the world’s most prominent multilateral institutions. In so doing, they are opening avenues other than being at the mercy of Israel, backed by Canada and others, whose leverage over the international community is eroding by the day.
Germany Threatens to Halt Submarine Sale Over Israeli Settlement Policy
JTA
The German government has threatened to halt delivery of a Dolphin submarine to Israel in protest of its settlements policy, a German newspaper has confirmed. In a report published Sunday, German officials confirmed to Der Spiegel magazine that the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel is making the threat to protest the recent Israeli government-approved construction of 1,100 apartments in the Gilo neighborhood of eastern Jerusalem. Israel already has three Dolphin-class submarines, which are nuclear capable, with two more under construction … The submarine subsidies were a response to Israeli demands for Holocaust reparations from Germany.
Britain Steps Up Plans for Attack on Iran Amid Fresh Nuclear Fears
The Guardian (Britain)
Britain's armed forces are stepping up their contingency planning for potential military action against Iran amid mounting concern about Tehran's nuclear enrichment programme, the Guardian has learned. The Ministry of Defence believes the US may decide to fast-forward plans for targeted missile strikes at some key Iranian facilities. British officials say that if Washington presses ahead it will seek, and receive, UK military help for any mission, despite some deep reservations within the coalition government.
New Book on John F. Kennedy Pulls Back Curtain on 'Ask Not' Speech, Nixon Debates And More
Howard Fineman
A presidential call to service that inspired generations of Main Street Americans originated, ironically, in the privileged world of a New England prep school. "Ask not what your country can do for you," President John F. Kennedy famously declared in his inaugural address of 1961. "Ask what you can do for your country." In his new book, "Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero," talk show host and author Chris Matthews presents new evidence that Kennedy had heard that language in chapel exhortations delivered by the headmaster of the Choate School in Connecticut when he was a student there in the 1930s.
What Is It That Conservatives Wish to Conserve?
Patrick J. Buchanan
… Converting a people to new ways of thinking about fundamental truths is beyond the realm of politics and requires a John Wesley or a St. Paul. The social, political and moral revolutions of the 1960s have changed America irretrievably. And they have put down roots and converted a vast slice of the nation. In order to love one's country, said Edmund Burke, one's country ought to be lovely. Is it still? Reid Buckley, brother of Bill, replies, "I am obliged to make a public declaration that I cannot love my country. ... We are Vile." And so what is the conservative's role in an America many believe has not only lost its way but seems to be losing its mind? What is it now that conservatives must conserve?
Iraq Rejects US Request to Maintain Bases After Troop Withdrawal
The Guardian (Britain)
The US suffered a major diplomatic and military rebuff on Friday [Oct. 18] when
Iraq finally rejected its pleas to maintain bases in the country beyond this year. Barack Obama announced at a White House press conference that all American troops will leave Iraq by the end of December, a decision forced by the final collapse of lengthy talks between the US and the Iraqi government on the issue. The Iraqi decision is a boost to Iran, which has close ties with many members of the Iraqi government and which had been battling against the establishment of permanent American bases.
How Tyranny Came to America
Joseph Sobran
… I call the present system “Post–Constitutional America.” As I sometimes put it, the U.S. Constitution poses no serious threat to our form of government … This, in outline, is the constitutional history of the United States. You won’t find it in the textbooks, which are required to be optimistic, to present degeneration as development, and to treat the successive pronouncements of the Supreme Court as so many oracular revelations of constitutional meaning. … What it comes to is that we don’t really have an operative Constitution anymore. The federal government defines its own powers day by day. It’s limited not by the list of its powers in the Constitution, but by whatever it can get away with politically.
UNESCO Palestine Decision Sets Off U.S.-U.N. Confrontation
Los Angeles Times
A decision by the United Nations' cultural organization to admit Palestine as a member state set off a confrontation between the U.S. and the U.N., threatening to strip Washington of influence in several key international agencies while cutting off a major source of contributions to the world body … U.S. officials warned that American interests could be damaged if Washington is forced by similar future votes to cut off funding for other international agencies essential to U.S. business and security interests. One such body, the U.N. World Intellectual Property Organization, helps U.S. high-tech, entertainment and other industries protect their property rights, including patents, around the world.
German Youth Suffering `Holocaust Fatigue’
One Jerusalem (Israel)
A report issued by a German Foreign Ministry delegation that deals with teaching the lessons of the Holocaust to German school children said that many children in the country are becoming weary of this subject, even to the point that they may be suffering from what is now being called “Holocaust fatigue”. The report was given by Dr. Benedikt Haller, a Foreign ministry official who is involved in relations with Jewish organizations in respect to issues involving the Holocaust and anti-Semitism … This new idea of literally “bombarding” German children with literature dealing with this subject has now worked in reverse of what it was intended to do.
The Holocaust and the Myth of the Past as History
Howard F. Stein
For the Jews, the term "Holocaust" does not simply denote a single catastrophic era in history, but is a grim metaphor for the meaning of Jewish history. The "Holocaust" lies at the heart of the Jewish experience of time itself. One is either anxiously awaiting persecution, experiencing persecution, recovering from it, or living in a period that is a temporary reprieve from it. … Thus the "reality" of the Holocaust is inextricably part of the myth in which it is woven -- and for which myth it serves as further confirmatory evidence for the timeless Jewish theme that the world is in conspiracy to annihilate them, one way or another, at least eventually.
In Croatia, Former Minister Arrested For Post-World War II Crimes
The Associated Press
Croatia’s former interior minister was arrested Wednesday over accusations that he ordered mass killings of anti-communists soon after the end of World War II, police said. Josip Boljkovac, 89, and two other former ranking Croatian officials have been under investigation for the alleged murders in 1945 and 1946 of soldiers and sympathizers of Croatia’s Ustasha Nazi puppet regime that ruled during the war. Boljkovac, who fought as a member of the Yugoslav communist guerrillas against the occupying German and Italian troops, was a senior officer of the secret service which is accused of going on a revenge shooting spree of the anti-communists after the war ended.
Israel Prime Minister Seeks Cabinet Support for Attack on Iran
Haaretz (Israel)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are trying to muster a majority in the cabinet in favor of military action against Iran, a senior Israeli official has said. According to the official, there is a "small advantage" in the cabinet for the opponents of such an attack. Netanyahu and Barak recently persuaded Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who previously objected to attacking Iran, to support such a move.
Israeli Settlements Condemned By Western Powers
BBC News
The US has joined criticism of Israel's decision to accelerate settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem after Palestinians joined UN cultural agency, Unesco. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the US was "deeply disappointed". Earlier, the European Union said it was "deeply concerned" by the announcement. The UK, France and Germany said it would hinder efforts for peace. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said it was a "basic right of our people". Mr Carney told a White House briefing that Israel's decision did not advance the goal of bridging differences between Israelis and the Palestinians. EU policy chief Catherine Ashton urged Israel to reverse the decision and called on both sides to return to the negotiating table. "Israeli settlement activity is illegal under international law including in East Jerusalem and an obstacle to peace. We have stated this many times before," she said.
US Income Disparity, Economic Anxiety Grow
AFP
Income for the richest Americans has grown 15 times faster than for the poor since 1979, a government study showed, as a poll out Wednesday highlighted deep anxiety over uneven wealth distribution a year ahead of US elections. The income disparity, and concentration of more than 80 percent of US income wealth in the top 20 percent of earners, highlights the volatility in the race for the White House as President Barack Obama's Republican challengers push plans to reduce taxes for the wealthy as a way to prime the sluggish economy. From 1979 to 2007, the wealthiest one percent of Americans more than doubled their share of the nation's income, from nearly eight percent to 17 percent, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said in a report ...
Why Inequality in America is Even Worse Than You Thought
Justin Elliott -- Salon.com
There has been no shortage of headlines this week about the growing income and wealth inequality in the United States à But less attention has been paid to the fact that not only are the numbers bad in America, they're particularly bad when compared to other developed nations. A new report by the Bertelsmann Foundation drives this point home. The German think tank used a set of policy analyses to create a Social Justice Index of 31 developed nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The United States came in a dismal 27th in the rankings. Here, for example, is a graph of one of the metrics, child poverty, in which the U.S. ranked fourth-to-last
Abuse of Painkillers Reaches 'Epidemic' Levels in US
BBC News
Abuse of prescription painkiller have reached "epidemic" levels in the US, a government report says. Overdoses of pain relievers cause more deaths than heroin and cocaine combined, the report has found. It says sales and prescriptions of the drugs rose sharply in recent years and this was linked to the rise in overdoses. Narcotic painkillers are prescribed to relieve chronic pain but the drugs can be "highly addictive", the report says. The report, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said fatalities caused by narcotic pain relievers have more than tripled in the last 10 years - equivalent to 40 deaths a day. Last year, a national survey on drug use and health showed that one in 20 Americans over the age of 12 said they had used painkillers for non-medical reasons.
The Conquest of the West
Patrick J. Buchanan
... What is the future of the West? China will retrieve all the lands lost to Russia in the 19th century and slices of Russia that China never owned. Mexicans and Hispanics will dominate from the Floridas to the American Southwest the lands Spain and Mexico lost to the United States in the 19th century. Africans, whose lands were colonized and exploited by Europeans, and Muslims and Arabs, whose ancestors were turned back at Poitiers and Vienna, will succeed in the final conquest of Europe. Demography is destiny.
US Military Steps Up Role in Africa Conflicts
The Associated Press
While putting few U.S. troops at risk, the United States is playing a growing role in AfricaÃs military battles, using special forces advisers, drones and tens of millions of dollars in military aid to combat a growing and multifaceted security threat.
Into Darkest Africa
Eric Margolis
... The US will send 100 special hunter-killer troops to Uganda, an undemocratic US ally. This new US force will also operate in Congo (ex-Zaire), Central African Republic, Kenya, and South Sudan ñ whose independence from Sudan was recently engineered by Washington. ... At the same time, Washington is bankrolling a Kenyan invasion of southern Somalia, and France is providing naval support and arms ... Doesn't Washington have enough on its hands without sending troops to Uganda and Somalia, or South Sudan? The US is moving into southern Africa for two main reasons. First, to secure South Sudan's important oil deposits and possible energy finds in Uganda. Second, to block the spread of further Chinese economic influence in the region. ...
Historical Myth Justifies Israel's Golan Heights Occupation
Institute for Historical Review
For decades Israel has cited vital security concerns to justify its seizure of the Golan Heights. Israelis have claimed that from 1948 to June 1967, Syrian military forces repeatedly used the Heights to shell Jewish settlements and installations below. These artillery bombardments, in the widely accepted Israeli and American view, justified Israel's conquest of the Heights in 1967, and its occupation ever since. Actually, Israel's seizure and occupation of this territory is based on a historical lie. This was frankly acknowledged by Israel General and cabinet minister Moshe Dayan in an interview given in 1976, but which was not made public until April 1997. Dayan, who died in 1981, was a key organizer of Israel's victory in the June 1967 Israel-Arab war.
Why They Attack Us
Samuel Francis (Sept. 2001)
... In all the buckets of media gabble about the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, not once have I heard any journalist ask any expert the simple question, "Why did the terrorists attack us?" ... The blunt and quite ugly truth is that the United States has been at war for years and that it started the war in the name of "spreading democracy," "building nations," "waging peace," "stopping aggression," "enforcing human rights," and all the other pious lies that warmongers always invoke to mask the truth, and that it continued the war simply to save a crook from political ruin. What is new is merely that this week, for the first time, the war we started came home and all of a sudden, Americans don't seem to care for it so much.
World Economy on Verge of New Jobs Recession, Warns ILO
BBC News
The global economy is on the verge of a new and deeper jobs recession that may ignite social unrest, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has warned. It will take at least five years for employment in advanced economies to return to pre-crisis levels, it said. The ILO also noted that in 45 of the 118 countries it examined, the risk of social unrest was rising.
UN Agency Recognizes Palestine As Full Member; US Cuts Funding
McClatchy Newspapers
UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency, accepted Palestine as a full member on Monday, angering the United States, which announced that it would cut off funding to the international body. The 107-14 vote, with 52 abstentions, was the first tangible result of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' application in September for U.N. membership with borders that include the West Bank and Gaza Strip ... Democrats and Republicans in Washington also criticized the decision. U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., the chair of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, called the vote "reckless," "anti-Israel" and "anti-peace."
US Cuts UNESCO Funds Over Vote for Palestinian Seat
BBC News
The United States is cancelling funding for the UN cultural body Unesco after it voted to grant full membership to the Palestinians. The motion was passed by a substantial majority, despite strong opposition from the United States and Israel. A US state department spokeswoman said a payment of some $60 million due next month would not be made ... Widespread applause greeted the result of Monday's vote in the chamber -- of 173 countries taking part, 107 were in favour, 14 voted against and 52 abstained. Arab states were instrumental in getting the vote passed despite intense opposition from the US. In an emotional session, China, Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa voted in favour of Palestinian membership, while the US, Canada and Germany voted against and the UK abstained.
Is America Disintegrating?
Patrick J. Buchanan
... In `Suicide of a Superpower,' I argue that the America we grew up in is disintegrating, breaking apart along the fault lines of politics, race, ethnicity, culture and faith; that the centrifugal forces in society have now become the dominant forces ... We are not now and will not then be "descended from common ancestors." We will consist of all the races, cultures, tribes and creeds of Earth -- a multiracial, multicultural, multiethnic, multilingual stew of a nation that has never before existed, or survived. The parallels that come to mind are the Habsburg Empire that flew apart after World War I, and the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia that disintegrated after the Cold War.
Invasion of the Idiocrats
Meghan Daum - Los Angeles Times
You may not have seen "Idiocracy," the 2006 sci-fi comedy set in an utterly dysfunctional nation 500 years in the future, but chances are you've heard it mentioned lately. References to the film seem to be everywhere, and not just in op-eds penned by cranky columnists ... Judging by popular culture in 2011, it's hard not to wonder if 500 years was a too optimistic prediction, since "Jersey Shore" just might make "Ow, My Balls" look like "Masterpiece Theater." But mainstream entertainment has been the domain of idiocrats for a long time. A bummer of more recent vintage is the way our political system has followed suit.
Idiocracy
Video
A portion of the film "Idiocracy," which portrays a future USA of astonishingly stupid people -- the result of generations of dysgenic breeding.
Iraq War Is Over: A Defeat for Neocons
Jonathan Steele -- The Guardian (Britain)
The Iraq war is over. Buried by the news from Libya, Barack Obama announced late on Friday that all US troops will leave Iraq by December 31 ... The final troop withdrawal marks a complete defeat for Bush's Iraq project. The neocons' grand plan to use the 2003 invasion to turn the country into a secure pro-western democracy and a garrison for US bases that could put pressure on Syria and Iran lies in tatters. Their hopes of making Iraq a democratic model for the Middle East have been tipped on their head. The instability and bloodshed which the US unleashed in Iraq were the example that Arabs sought to avoid, not emulate. This year's autonomous surge for democracy in Egypt and Tunisia has done far more to galvanise the region and undermine its dictatorships than anything the US did in Iraq.
The End of the American Era
Stephen M. Walt
... Taken together, these events herald a sharp decline in America's ability to shape the global order. And the recent series of economic setbacks will place even more significant limits on America's ability to maintain an ambitious international role ... The biggest challenge the United States faces today is not a looming great-power rival; it is the triple whammy of accumulated debt, eroding infrastructure and a sluggish economy. The only way to have the world's most capable military forces both now and into the future is to have the world's most advanced economy, and that means having better schools, the best universities, a scientific establishment that is second to none, and a national infrastructure that enhances productivity and dazzles those who visit from abroad.
Panetta to Netanyahu: 'Israel May Not Survive'
Franklin Lamb
Three weeks after being named by President Obama in January 2009 as the 19th Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and during his first day on the job on February 12, 2009, Leon Panetta, now US Secretary of Defense, signed off on a March 2009 "eyes only" CIA Report that had just been completed by his new agency. As reported at the time, the CIA Report predicted the demise of Israel within 20 years, if present political trends in the region continued ... During frank and sometimes heated exchanges, Panetta told the Israelis that time is running out for a two state solution, which means time is running out for Zionist Israel and that similar to apartheid South Africa, following the Reagan years, the days of American propping up of Israel are coming to a close.
The Son Of Africa Claims A Continent's Crown Jewels
John Pilger
On October 14, President Barack Obama announced he was sending United States special forces troops to Uganda to join the civil war there. In the next few months, US combat troops will be sent to South Sudan, Congo and Central African Republic. They will only "engage" for "self-defence", says Obama, satirically ... As WikiLeaks cables and the US National Strategy for Counter-terrorism reveal, American plans for Africa are part of a global design in which 60,000 special forces, including death squads, already operate in 75 countries, soon to be 120. As Dick Cheney pointed out in his 1990s "defence strategy" plan, America simply wishes to rule the world.
England Rioters `Poorer, Younger, Less Educated'
BBC News
The most comprehensive statistics published so far on people charged over the August riots in England show that they were poorer, younger and of lower educational achievement than average. Some 90% of those brought before the courts were male, and only 5% were over the age of 40. The government figures show a quarter were juveniles - aged 10-17 - and a similar proportion were aged 18-20. Of those arrested, 13% were identified as gang members ... In terms of ethnicity, 40% of those arrested were white, 39% black, 11% of mixed background, 8% Asian and 2% were classified as "other". 'Pattern held' Ethnic background ranged geographically from 77% white in Manchester to 32% white in London, and from 47% black in London to 11% black in Hertfordshire.
New Study Shows Anti-Jewish Sentiment Among Argentines
The Jerusalem Post (Israel)
Most Argentineans believe members of the country's Jewish community are primarily interested in making money and are more loyal to Israel than their country of birth, according to a study published last week ... According to the findings, 82 percent of those surveyed believe Jews are preoccupied with making money; 49% said they "talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust," and 68% believe they "have too much power in the business world."
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'Mark Weber Report' Podcasts
Audio recordings of broadcasts of the weekly "Mark Weber Report." Information, analysis and commentary on current affairs and historical issues by the IHR director through the “Voice of Reason” network.
How Hitler Tackled Unemployment and Revived Germany’s Economy
By Mark Weber
To deal with the massive unemployment and economic paralysis of the Great Depression, both the US and German governments launched innovative and ambitious programs. Although President Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” measures helped only marginally, the Third Reich’s much more focused and comprehensive policies proved remarkably effective. Within three years unemployment was banished and Germany’s economy was flourishing. And while Roosevelt’s record in dealing with the Depression is pretty well known, the remarkable story of how Hitler tackled the crisis is not widely understood or appreciated.
Was Reagan Too 'Anti-Israel' For Today's Republicans?
By Mark Weber
Leading Republicans say that President Obama is not a real friend of Israel, and that his policies are harming the Jewish state. They criticize Obama for his view that Israel should halt Jewish settlement expansion in occupied Palestinian territory, and that the pre-1967 borders should be the basis of peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. But on these key points, Obama's Middle East policy is similar to that of President Ronald Reagan, whom most Republicans regard as their party's greatest leader in living memory.
Charles Lindbergh: A Courageous American's Prophetic Voice
By Mark Weber
... During his lifetime he made a mark not only as a pioneering global aviator, but also as a prize-winning author, environmentalist and anti-war activist. Given the scarcity of truly heroic Americans during the past century, he towers as a man of exemplary accomplishment and courage. He deserves to be remembered today not only as an authentic American hero, but also because much of what he wrote and said is relevant in our own age. Indeed, some of his remarks have proven to be prophetic.
How 'The Sound of Music' Distorts History
By Mark Weber
"The Sound of Music" is perhaps the most popular American musical picture ever produced. But whatever its merits as entertainment,
the film's presentation of history is deceitful. In particular, its portrayal of the 1938 union or Anschluss of Austria with the
German Reich is a gross distortion of historical reality.
Defying Threats, Irving and Weber Address California Meeting
In spite of efforts by local bigots to disrupt the event, best-selling British author David Irving and American historian Mark
Weber addressed a meeting in Orange County, California, on April 23, 2011. They gave talks on two of wartime Germany's most
prominent leaders: Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels.
Goebbels and World War II Propaganda
By Mark Weber
Joseph Goebbels, Third Reich Germany's chief publicist and spokesman, is widely portrayed as a master of lies and deceitful
propaganda. But this familiar image, which is particularly entrenched in the United States, is itself a propaganda falsehood.
America In Decline: A Society In Denial
By Mark Weber
... America today is a society in denial. The country's political, cultural and intellectual leadership -- both liberal and conservative -- denies social reality and ignores the historical record, and therefore inevitably betrays the interests of the people, leading America down a path that means ever greater anxiety and ever more rapid decline ... The crying need in our nation today is candor, courage and truthfulness -- not childish slogans, simplistic nostrums, or wishful thinking about a mythologized past or a utopian future -- presented by media personalities who are little more than entertainers.
Fraudulent Nazi Quotations
By Mark Weber
Fraudulent quotations attributed to Hitler and other Third Reich leaders have been widely circulated for years. Such quotes are
often used by polemicists -- of both the left and the right -- to discredit their ideological adversaries by showing that Nazis
held similar views. Here's a look at a few of the many remarks falsely attributed to Hitler and other top Nazis.
Fromm and Weber Speak at Meeting on America's Past and Today's Crisis
At one of the most spirited and successful IHR meetings in many months, Paul Fromm and Mark Weber delivered informed, well-received talks about social-political decline in America and Canada, and the factors behind this trend ... Canada is undergoing rapid and profound ethnic-cultural transformation, Fromm said. Parallel to what's also happening in the US, non-whites are replacing Canada's traditional, European-origin population ... In his address, Mark Weber spoke about how America has changed drastically over the past 60 years, as reflected in the country's high school history textbooks.
How A Major Web Filtering Company Smears the IHR
And Unfairly Censors Its Website
Websense company, a major US supplier of web content filtering software, says that the Institute for Historical Review promotes "racism and hate," and blocks access to the IHR website, on the basis of an unfair standard that deceives the public and its own customers. In a letter to the IHR, Websense Senior Legal Counsel Eric Proul makes clear that the company has no objective basis for its claim that the IHR promotes "racism and hate."
Lessons of Nine Eleven
By Mark Weber
... The perpetrators of the Nine Eleven attacks meant to harm the United States. But the response to those attacks by President George W. Bush and other American political leaders has proven to be even more harmful. The U.S. response has weakened this country's security, undermined its economy, degraded its standing and credibility, and violated the principles it claims to uphold ... The calamity of September 11 was a consequence, above all, of the Jewish-Zionist grip on American political life and the U.S. media. Enduring security will therefore remain elusive as long as U.S. policy, especially in the Middle East, is set by a small but very influential minority with its own agenda and strong ethno-religious ties to a key protagonist in the region.
A Successful Holiday Get-Together
This year's Christmas-Holiday meeting brought together 30 friends and supporters of the IHR, many of them younger men and women, for an enjoyable evening of fellowship and interesting talks at the Institute's offices. Attendees contributed more than $500 in donations, and one donated a color printer. Director Mark Weber expressed appreciation for the generous help of local supporters during the past year, including volunteer work and financial backing.
Energetic Spirit Marks IHR Meeting in San Diego
Lively discussions, an energetic spirit, and a timely, well-received address marked the IHR meeting in San Diego on Saturday evening, Nov. 13, 2010. This gathering at a large hotel -- the first IHR meeting outside of Orange County in more than a year -- was an opportunity to reach out to new people, including an encouraging number of younger people, and to renew and strengthen ties with local supporters. Both attendees and organizers were impressed with the intensity of the discussions, both during the lively Q and A session and in the many one-on-one conservations.
Progress in Fighting Internet Censorship: An Update
The IHR's recently launched campaign against internet censorship is making headway. In letters, by telephone, and in face-to-face meetings, the Institute has been contacting businesses and other institutions that block access to the IHR website to explain why this practice is unfair, defamatory and harmful, and to call on them to stop it.
America in Crisis is Theme of Spirited IHR Meeting
America's social, economic and political malaise, a spreading sense of national gloom, and prospects for the future were the issues tackled by Canadian free speech activist Paul Fromm and IHR director Mark Weber at the IHR meeting on October 2, 2010. Attendees included students, teenagers, first time visitors, and long-time friends of the Institute.
Informed Talks on Wartime Axis Europe Policy Highlight IHR Meeting
Two informed lectures on plans for the postwar era by leaders in Germany and other Axis nations during World War II, and their vision of a prosperous and secure European community, highlighted the IHR meeting on July 31, 2010. Adrian Davies, an English attorney and lecturer, and Mark Weber, historian and director of the IHR, presented views on how Europe might have developed if the Soviet Union had been vanquished, and British leaders had made peace with Germany. An Axis-dominated Pax Europa, Weber suggested, would have been economically prosperous, socially progressive, politically stable, and technologically advanced.
Our Job in a Time of Crisis
Institute for Historical Review - Video
Mark Weber explains why the work of the IHR in countering the forces of historical deceit, bigotry and cultural distortion is vitally important. An awareness of factual history is essential to an understanding of ourselves and the great issues of our age, says the IHR director in this five-minute audio presentation. Unless and until the interests that have gripped our nation are clearly identified and discredited, he says, there will be no change in basic policies or direction.
Engaging Speakers Highlight Successful IHR Meeting
Life and death in World War Two Poland and Germany and the battle for Internet free speech were the topics tackled by three stimulating speakers at the packed IHR meeting on Saturday evening, April 17, 2010. Paul Fromm, Canadian free speech activist, reviewed major assaults against on-line freedom of expression, and recent legal victories against groups that seek to impose "politically correct" censorship on the Internet. Dana Alvi spoke graphically of privation, suffering and death in Poland during World War Two. She recounted numerous moving personal anecdotes, including grim memories from the bloody Warsaw Rising of 1944. And Gretel Hines spoke vividly about day-to-day life in the Third Reich.
The Dangerous Course of US Foreign Policy
Video based on interview with Mark Weber by Daniel Davis, host of the "Beyond 50" radio show. The United States, says Weber, has
changed from a republic focused on its own prosperity and well-being to a globally intrusive military power. This worldwide
military presence reflects an entrenched American view that the US is a social-political model for all nations, and therefore has
a right, based on perceived moral superiority, to intervene everywhere. He traces the evolution of this outlook from the fateful
Spanish-American War of 1898, and the false pretexts and promises used since then to justify wars. Going to war to fight "evil" or
"terrorism," says Weber, is a recipe for endless strife and conflict.
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Dr. Sunic Addresses Successful IHR Meeting
European-American author and scholar Tomislav Sunic was the featured speaker at the IHR meeting on Saturday evening, March 6, 2010. His two presentations, along with informative talks by Ernst Zundel's US attorney, IHR director Mark Weber, and others, as well as food, drinks and lively fellowship, made this a memorable occasion.
Informative Talks Highlight Spirited IHR Meeting
Stimulating and informative talks helped make the most recent IHR "open house" get-together another memorable event. Among the two dozen local friends and supporters who met at the Institute's offices were students, businessmen, a physician, two attorneys, a community organizer, a family counselor, and several recent IHR volunteers.
The Roosevelt Legacy and The Kent Case
By Tyler Kent
... In 1940, an obscure cypher clerk at the American Embassy in London came across documents which, in his judgment and that of many reputable historians
subsequently, proved conclusively that Roosevelt both directly and through his agents was engaged in activities designed to foment a war and eventually to
compel American participation in it. I was that cypher clerk ... The new basic law of nations requires only one clause, very simply: "It pays to be on the
winning side."
President Roosevelt's Secret Campaign To Incite War in Europe
By Mark Weber
This essay focuses on Roosevelt's secret campaign to provoke war in Europe prior to the outbreak of hostilities in September 1939. It deals particularly with
his efforts to pressure Britain, France and Poland into war against Germany in 1938 and 1939. Franklin Roosevelt not only criminally involved America in a
war that had already engulfed Europe, he bears a grave responsibility for the outbreak of the most destructive war of all time. This paper relies heavily on
a little-known collection of secret Polish documents that fell into German hands when Warsaw was captured in September 1939. These revealing docuâ ments also
confirm the crucial role of Jewish power and inâ fluence on US foreign policy during these years.
Churchill and U.S. Entry Into World War II
By David Irving
... If I'm known for anything as a historian, apart from being a pain in the neck, it's because I uncover things. And uncovering things does not necessarily
mean you go into the archives and see something and say: "Look at this, this is something quite extraordinary." If you go into the archives long enough, ten
or twenty years, you become what I would call a "gap-ologist" ... Now what a scandalous statement that is! Here's the one country, Germany, trying to prevent a
war and the other country -- Roosevelt, neutral -- trying to fan the flames of anti-German feeling to fuel the war. Yet it is the Germans who are called the
criminals, and the Americans who do the prosecuting.
The IHR Open House: A Memorable Event
Food, drinks, spirited conversation and an informative talk helped make the first-ever IHR Open House an enjoyable and memorable event.
Wartime Code-Breaking and
an `Unknown Holocaust': Irving, Weber Address Upbeat IHR Meeting
At an upbeat IHR meeting on Saturday evening, July 25, 2009, best-selling British author David Irving and American
historian Mark Weber tackled important aspects of twentieth-century history in two informed and well delivered talks.
Attendees commented on the gathering's buoyant and purposeful spirit, and several remarked that this was
the most successful IHR meeting in years.
Progress Report: An Important Move and a Successful Meeting
August 2009
This has been a busy and productive summer for the IHR. In July operations were moved to a less expensive and more professional office-warehouse property ... A high point of the summer was the IHR meeting on July 25, which was a rousing success. In fact, a number of attendees expressed the view that this was the most spirited and upbeat IHR event in years.
An `Unknown Holocaust' and the
Hijacking of History
By Mark Weber
... We hear a lot about terrible crimes committed by Germans during World War II, but we hear very little about crimes
committed against Germans. Germany's defeat in May 1945, and the end of World War II in Europe, did not bring an end to
death and suffering for the vanquished German people. Instead the victorious Allies ushered in a horrible new era of
destruction, looting, starvation, rape, "ethnic cleansing," and mass killing .
In 'Eisenhower's Death Camps': A U.S. Prison Guard Remembers
By Martin Brech
... In Andernach about 50,000 [German] prisoners of all ages were held in an open field surrounded by barbed wire. The women were kept in a separate enclosure that I did not see until later. The men I guarded had no shelter and no blankets. Many had no coats. They slept in the mud, wet and cold, with inadequate slit trenches for excrement ... I encountered a captain on a hill above the Rhine shooting down at a group of German civilian women with his .45 caliber pistol. When I asked, "Why?," he mumbled, "Target practice," and fired until his pistol was empty.
The Weight of Tradition: Why Judaism is
Not Like Other Religions
By Mark Weber
... Judaism is not just "another religion." It's unique among the world's major religions. The core values and ethos of
Judaism are markedly unlike those of Christianity, Islam, and the other great faiths ... A core message of the Hebrew
scriptures is that Jews are a divinely "chosen" people -- a unique community distinct from the rest of humanity ... The
seemingly intractable Middle East conflict is more than just a problem of Zionism or politics, or a dispute over land.
Israel's often arrogant policies, and especially its inhumane treatment of non-Jews, have roots in centuries-old
attitudes that are laid out in ancient Jewish religious writings.
Straight Talk About Zionism
By Mark Weber
à A Zionist Jew, by definition, owes his primary loyalty to the Jewish community and to Israel. Zionism is not compatible with patriotism to any country or entity other than Israel and the world Jewish community à Zionist Jews and their non-Jewish supporters embrace a blatant double standard. Jewish-Zionist organizations, along with their non-Jewish allies, support one social-political ideology for Israel and the world Jewish community, and a completely different one for the United States and other non-Jewish countries. They insist that ethnic nationalism is evil and bad for non-Jews, while at the same time they vigorously support ethnic nationalism -- that is, Zionism -- for Jews.
The `Good Warà Myth of World War II, and Why ItÃs Dangerous
By Mark Weber
How accurate is this hallowed portrayal of AmericaÃs role in World War II? As we shall see, it does not hold up under close examination à The three Allied leaders accomplished what they accused the Axis leaders of Germany, Italy and Japan of conspiring to achieve: world domination à Presidential deception to justify war did not start with George W. Bush. Americans who express admiration for the US role in World War II, and for Franklin RooseveltÃs presidential leadership, have little moral right to complain when presidents follow his example and lead the country into war by breaking the law, subverting the Constitution, and lying to the people.
What Christians DonÃt Know About Israel
By Grace Halsell
American Jews sympathetic to Israel dominate key positions in all areas of our government where decisions are made regarding the Middle East. This being the case, is there any hope of ever changing U.S. policy? Ã The answer to achieving an even-handed Middle East policy might lie elsewhere -- among those who support Israel but don't really know why. This group is the vast majority of Americans. They are well-meaning, fair-minded Christians who feel bonded to Israel - and Zionism - often from atavistic feelings, in some cases dating from childhood.
A Straight Look at the Jewish Lobby
By Mark Weber
à Jews wield immense power and influence in the United States. The "Jewish lobby" is a decisive factor in US support for Israel. Jewish-Zionist interests are not identical to American interests. In fact, they often conflict. As long as the "very powerful" Jewish lobby remains entrenched, there will be no end to the systematic Jewish distortion of current affairs and history, the Jewish-Zionist domination of the U.S. political system, Zionist oppression of Palestinians, the bloody conflict between Jews and non-Jews in the Middle East, and the Israeli threat to peace.
The Jewish Role in the Bolshevik Revolution and Russia's Early Soviet Regime
By Mark Weber
Jews played a highly disproportionate and probably decisive role in the infant Bolshevik regime, effectively dominating the Soviet government during its early years ... With the notable exception of Lenin, most of the leading Communists who took control of Russia in 1917-20 were Jews ... The US ambassador in Russia warned in a dispatch to Washington: "The Bolshevik leaders here, most of whom are Jews and 90 percent of whom are returned exiles, care little for Russia or any other country but are internationalists and they are trying to start a worldwide social revolution."
Abraham Lincoln and the Issue of Race
By Robert Morgan
Many Americans think of Abraham Lincoln, above all, as the president who freed the slaves. Immortalized as the "Great Emancipator," he is widely regarded as a champion of black freedom who supported social equality of the races, and who fought the American Civil War to free the slaves. While it is true that Lincoln regarded slavery as an evil and harmful institution, it also true, as this paper will show, that he shared the conviction of most Americans of his time, and of many prominent statesmen before and after him, that blacks could not be assimilated into white society. He rejected the notion of social equality of the races, and held to the view that blacks should be resettled abroad.
What is Holocaust Denial?
By Barbara Kulaszka
In recent years, considerable attention has been devoted to the supposed danger of "Holocaust denial." Politicians, newspapers and television warn about the growing influence of those who reject the Holocaust story that some six million European Jews were systematically exterminated during the Second World War, most of them in gas chambers. In several countries, including Israel, France, Germany and Austria, "Holocaust denial" is against the law, and "deniers" have been punished with stiff fines and prison sentences. Ã Often overlooked in this controversy is the crucial question: Just what constitutes "Holocaust denial"?
ObamaÃs Promised Foreign Policy `Changeà Will Be Mostly Cosmetic
By Mark Weber - Dec. 2008
à The appointments that Obama has made to positions in the new administration, along with his public statements of recent months, show that he is unlikely to make major changes in U.S. foreign policy. The promised ìchangeî will be mostly cosmetic. His foreign policy will be familiar, but conducted more prudently and with more appealing style. During the election campaign, Obama never called into question the basic premise of U.S. military interventionism around the world. His pledge to increase U.S. military forces in Afghanistan shows that he supports the misguided ìwar on terror,î and accepts an American role as a global policeman.
Holocaust Remembrance:
What's Behind the Campaign?
By Mark Weber
Israel at 60: A Grim Balance Sheet
By Mark Weber
à Contrary to claims made by American and Israeli political leaders, US support for Israel has never been in AmericaÃs authentic national interest, nor has it been based on a commitment to democracy and freedom à In spite of its impressive military arsenal, and virtually unlimited support from the United States, IsraelÃs long-term prospects are not good à Although Israel is a formidable military power, it is an aberrant, crisis-prone state, artificially kept alive with outside support, and based on an unworkable ideology.
The Challenge of Jewish-Zionist Power
By Mark Weber
Regardless of the particular causes or principles that most move us, that are closest to our hearts, no issue is of greater urgency than breaking the Jewish-Zionist grip on American political, social and cultural life à Now we are engaged in a great global struggle -- in which two distinct and irreconcilable sides confront each other. A struggle that pits a self-assured and diabolical power that feels ordained to rule over others, on one side, and all other nations and societies -- indeed, humanity itself -- on the other.
The Elusive `Six Million'
By Mark Weber
à The Six Million figure is hammered into the public consciousness, not only in newspapers, magazines, motion pictures, and television, but also routinely in our schools à An information sheet issued by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council describes the grand Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, as a "living memorial to the six million Jews and millions of other victims of Nazi fanaticism who perished in the Holocaust." Just what is the basis for this familiar figure?
 Was Hiroshima Necessary?
By Mark Weber
America's leaders understood Japan's desperate position: the Japanese were willing to end the war on any terms, as long as the Emperor was not molested. If the US leadership had not insisted on unconditional surrender -- that is, if they had made clear a willingness to permit the Emperor to remain in place -- the Japanese very likely would have surrendered immediately, thus saving many thousands of lives ... General Curtis LeMay, who had pioneered precision bombing of Germany and Japan (and who later headed the Strategic Air Command and served as Air Force chief of staff), put it most succinctly: "The atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war."
A Productive Summer and a More Effective IHR
Sept. 2008
Bishop Williamson and `Holocaust DenialÃ: Why the Uproar?
By Mark Weber
The furor over the ìHolocaust denialî remarks of Bishop Richard Williamson is not a controversy about historical truth, the role of history in society, anti-Semitism or ìhate.î This affair is really about power -- about those who really wield it in our culture, as well as about how and why that power is used.
Weber Addresses Peace Conference in Baltimore
Mark Weber addressed a conference to promote peace and cross-cultural understanding on August 16, 2008, in suburban Baltimore. In a crisply delivered and well-received address, the IHR director spoke about the motives behind the US invasion of Iraq, the harmful consequences of America's "blank check" support for Israel, the Jewish-Zionist grip on US foreign policy, the danger of new wars, and the prospects for an effective peace movement. The event was organized by an Islamic association, Jamaat Al-Muslimeen. Among the other speakers were: Ramsey Clark, former US Attorney General; Charles E. Carlson, director of "We Hold These Truths," a Christian organization for peace and justice; and, Dr. Kaukab Siddique, MC and publisher of "New Trend Magazine."
A Zionist Smear: The ADL Attacks an Islamic Peace Conference
By Mark Weber
In the Struggle for Peace and Justice
By Mark Weber
... By supporting Israel and its policies, the United States betrays not only its own national interests, but the principles it claims to embody and defend. The only country in the world that has a nuclear weapons arsenal, that occupies territory of its neighbors, and which is in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions - is Israel. In fact, if the United States were to hold Israel to the same standards that it has applied to Iraq, Serbia, and other countries, American bombers and missiles would be blasting Tel Aviv, and American troops would seize Israel's leaders and punish them for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Zionism and the Third Reich
By Mark Weber
A little-known chapter of history is the wide-ranging collaboration between Zionism and Hitler's Third Reich. During the 1930s, Jewish Zionists and German National Socialists shared similar views on how to deal with the "Jewish Question." They agreed that Jews and Germans were distinctly different nationalities, and that Jews did not belong in Germany.
Irving Describes His Austria Imprisonment at IHR Meeting
In an engaging talk at a memorable IHR meeting, June 14, 2008, David Irving described his harrowing arrest in Austria, his sensational trial in Vienna, and his 13 months of imprisonment. The British historian also spoke about wartime Germany's harsh treatment of Jews, presenting a view of "the Holocaust" similar to the one he laid out more than 30 years ago in the first edition of Hitler's War. Mark Weber took aim at the American national mythology about World War II. He spoke about the two new books by Patrick J. Buchanan and Nicholson Baker, praising them as important antidotes to the familiar, much propagandized portrayal of the war.
First-Rate Talks Mark Successful IHR Meeting
First-rate talks by three seasoned speakers marked a memorable IHR meeting on May 24, 2008, in southern California. Paul Fromm reported with insight and humor on the battle for on-line free speech in Canada. Mark Weber, in a closely reasoned and well-referenced lecture, dismantled the myth of World War II as a "good war" clash between virtue and evil. Mark Green explained why the dread label of "anti-Semitism" is inaccurate and bogus.
Weber Speaks on the Israel Lobby at University of Oregon
In spite of protests, media smears and a delay caused by a flight cancellation, Mark Weber addressed a spirited meeting at the University of Oregon in Eugene. The Pacifica Forum, a campus public affairs discussion group, had invited the IHR director, and organized the meeting. Weber's appearance generated wide media attention, and prompted a protest demonstration. In his address, entitled "The Israel Lobby: How Powerful is It?," Weber said that awareness of the role and impact of the Israel lobby is growing everywhere.
The Israel Lobby: How Powerful Is It?
By Mark Weber
The Walt-Mearsheimer book [The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy] is much more than a penetrating analysis or persuasive critique of a particular lobby. It is implicitly a damning indictment of the American social-political system ... The focus of the ... book is, appropriately, the role of what the authors call the Israel lobby in determining US policy in the Middle East ... The impact and influence of this lobby or power is much greater, more insidious, and more dangerous, than that of any mere "lobby." Far beyond determining US policy in the Middle East, it has a profound impact on every aspect of American social, political and cultural life.
New Book On Mass Killings and Brutal Mistreatment of Germans
at the End of World War II
By Mark Weber
 The Destruction of Ethnic Germans and German Prisoners of War in Postwar Yugoslavia
By Tomislav Sunic
  Holocaust Remembrance: Behind the Campaign
(WMV, 28mb)
 IHR Update newsletter for Summer 2007
(PDF, 7.6M)
Iraq: A War for Israel
By Mark Weber
So if the official reasons given for the war were untrue, why did the United States attack? Whatever the secondary reasons for the Iraq war, the crucial factor in President Bush's decision to attack was to help Israel. With support from Israel and America's Jewish-Zionist lobby, and prodded by Jewish "neo-conservatives" holding high-level positions in his administration, President Bush -- who was already fervently committed to Israel -- resolved to invade and subdue one of Israel's chief regional enemies.
'Operation Barbarossa' and the
Russian Historians’ Dispute
By Daniel Michaels
New Evidence on Hitler's 1941
Attack Against the Soviet Union
By Daniel Michaels
 Learning from the
Nine Eleven Attacks (2001)
By Mark Weber
`For Fear of the JewsÃ
By Joseph Sobran
The news that I would be addressing the Institute of Historical Review came to some people as, well, news. It was mentioned in the Jewish newspaper Forward and on the Zionist Wall Street Journal OnLine. The editors of two conservative magazines called and wrote me to express their concern that I might damage my reputation, such as it is, by speaking to "Holocaust deniers." Ã In short, the Holocaust has become a device for exempting Jews from normal human obligations. It has authorized them to bully and blackmail, to extort and oppress. This is all quite irrational, because even if six million Jews were murdered during World War II, the survivors are not entitled to commit the slightest injustice.
Behind the Iran Crisis:
The Israel Lobby's Campaign
for War
By Mark Weber
Familiar Lies for a New War:
Fighting for Truth in an Age of Deceit
By Mark Weber
Sunic, Weber and Smith Address Spirited IHR Meeting
March 24, 2007
 IHR Update Newsletter for December 2006
(PDF, 470k)
Weber, Fromm Tackle Current Issues at IHR Meeting in Arlington
July 2006
Holocaust Remembrance Strengthens Jewish-Zionist Power
By Mark Weber
 IHR Update Newsletter for November 2005
(PDF, 1.6M)
The Simon Wiesenthal Center:
A Bastion of Jewish-Zionist Power
By Mark Weber
Stormy IHR Rally Against Wiesenthal Center Defies Zionist Thugs
July 29, 2005
Weber Addresses Spirited IHR Meeting in New York
July 16, 2005
US 'Democratization' Initiative in the Middle East is Insincere: An Interview with Mark Weber
July 3, 2005
Irving, Weber Speak on Hitler's Place in History
April 17, 2005
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