India’s Next Test: Spreading Prosperity
The Christian Science Monitor

Much has been written about the incredible strides India has taken since 1991, when it opened up its markets to foreign investors and slashed regulations. With 6 percent to 8 percent growth rates over the past decade, India has become a hot spot for investors, a dynamo in the outsourcing and high-tech industries, and a competitor for headlines with that other emerging economic power, China. … Yet, while India has changed dramatically … a growing number of foreign diplomats, Indian academics, and businesses warn that the booming growth will fizzle unless India acts soon to spread the benefits to a wider population and boost investment in roads and airports, electricity and water, and basic education.

Feeling 'Manipulated' at the AIPAC Conference
Alice Ollstein – The Jewish Journal (Los Angeles)

… I returned from the [American Israel Public Affairs Committee] conference, however, feeling manipulated, disturbed and disgusted with a great deal of what I witnessed there… I especially squirmed at the parallels AIPAC drew between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hitler. To the tune of more dramatic classical music, the six enormous screens flashed back and forth between Hitler giving anti-Jew speeches and Ahmadinejad giving anti-Israel speeches. The famous post-Holocaust mantra “Never Again” popped up several times. Everything was geared toward persuading the audience that another Holocaust is evident ... unless we get them first.

Illiberal Europe : The Troubling 'Holocaust Denial' Laws
Gerard Alexander -- American Enterprise Institute

So genocide-denial laws can now be used to sanction professional historians whose research leads them to findings that these laws classify as unacceptable. And the anti-Nazi slope has proven more slippery than that. Denial laws have been supplemented by new laws that are even more prone to sanctioning reasonable people. … So the real danger posed by Europe’s speech laws is not so much guilty verdicts as an insidious chilling of political debate, as people censor themselves in order to avoid legal charges and the stigma and expense they bring. … Some denials and incitements are more equal than others in Europe. For all the trials on charges of Holocaust denial, it is not clear that anyone has been charged with denial or minimization of crimes committed by Communist regimes.

A New German Perspective on World War I
BBC News

Two German participants in events commemorating the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme tell the BBC News website why it is so important that they take part. "The war is not only [a part of] British and French heritage -- it is ours, too." Mario and his fellow Germans have also been invited to the main ceremony at Thiepval on Saturday 1 July. .. He believes that a few years ago a joint ceremony such as this was unthinkable. There has been little interest in remembering the Great War in Germany -- 20th century history at school is dominated by the Holocaust.  … Now, he says, more and more German people are researching their family history and finding out about both world wars outside of the official education system.

Purim and a Legacy of Hostility Toward Non-Jews
Ruth Meisels – Haaretz (Israel)

For as long as I can remember, I never liked the [Jewish] holiday of Purim, with its story of the massacre of the gentiles and its message of revenge and rejoicing at the downfall of others. … To eliminate any doubt, the author of the Book of Esther emphasizes that this was not a case of self-defense, and that "no man could withstand them; for the fear of them fell upon all people"  … Horowitz broadens the historical discussion, moving from violence against Christian symbols to physical violence against Christians themselves. The most serious charge discussed at length here is that Jews participated in the massacre of tens of thousands of Christian captives in Jerusalem in the year 614 C.E., after the Persian conquest of the city.

The New American Cold War
Stephen F. Cohen – The Nation

Contrary to established opinion, the gravest threats to America’s national security are still in Russia. They derive from an unprecedented development that most US policy-makers have recklessly disregarded, as evidenced by the undeclared cold war Washington has waged, under both parties, against post-Communist Russia during the past 15 years.… All of the dangerous fallacies underlying US policy are expressions of unbridled triumphalism. The decision to treat post-Soviet Russia as a vanquished nation … squandered a historic opportunity for a real partnership and established the bipartisan premise that Moscow's "direction" at home and abroad should be determined by the United States.

Is Iran Next?
Mohammed Hakki – Al Ahram (Egypt)

Now that US armed forces have near completed the destruction of Iraq for the sake of Israel, they are readying the last phase of the Israeli plan by preparing to either "partition Iraq into three separate entities", or allow civil war to do the job for them. Going back through Israeli strategic thinking for the last 20 years, partitioning Iraq stands out as one of the main targets. … It is fascinating to watch how the US administration and the US media is now moving into Stage II of destroying the Middle East and remoulding it in a fashion that suits Israeli plans. Part of this, of course, is manufacturing the "crisis of Iran". 

Bush Claims He Can Ignore Laws He Signs
Associated Press

The White House on Tuesday defended President Bush's prolific use of statements that tend to limit the impact of bills he signs into law, saying they help him uphold the Constitution and defend the nation's security. …Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter opened hearings on Bush's use of bill signing statements saying he reserves the right to revise, interpret or disregard a measure on national security and constitutional grounds. Such statements have accompanied some 750 statutes passed by Congress — including a ban on the torture of detainees and the renewal of the Patriot Act.

Bush’s public-relations problems back home are nothing compared to his unpopularity here in Europe. Ahead of Bush’s whirlwind visit to Vienna [Austria] and Hungary, recent surveys show disdain for Bush and Americans in general are at all-time highs. A survey released last week by the Pew Research Center found that, with the exception of Great Britain, a majority of Europeans polled have a mostly unfavorable view of the United States. Yet it’s more than just simple dislike. A Harris Interactive/Financial Times survey released Monday found that 36 percent of Europeans view the United States as the world’s greatest threat to “global stability.” By comparison, 30 percent of those polled named Iran as the biggest threat, while 18 percent named China.

Israel Needs A Preemptive Nuclear Strike Against Iran
Jonathan Ariel -- Israel News Agency

One of the best ways to ensure the world doesn’t get wobbly over Iran, is to make it understand that although Israel prefers to regard the rogue Islamic regime as an international problem, we will, if necessary, do whatever it takes to ensure our survival, including a preemptive nuclear strike. In 1936, when Hitler marched into the Rhineland the allies appeased him, even though they could have been in Berlin in two weeks. … Now we have Iran, a country led by Ahmadinejad, an equally deranged and evil maniac. He is driven by an ideology combining elements of Nazism and Mahdism, with a tad of Maoism as well, a lethal cocktail of three of the most evil ideologies of human political history.

We'll Beat You Again, Afghans Warn British
Declan Walsh in Maiwand – The Guardian (Britain)

Many great armies have rolled through Maiwand. Over the centuries Persians, Moghuls and Russians have traversed the ramshackle hamlet on the sunbaked plains of western Kandahar . But nobody has forgotten the British. "Even a child knows the history," snorted Muhammad Amman, an 85-year old with a combed white beard, recalling a battle 126 years ago. "A king gathered the people to vanquish the British -- a great victory." … Memories of expelling unwanted outsiders are strongest in Maiwand. In 1880 almost 1,000 British and Indian soldiers died at the hands of an Afghan tribal army at the height of the second Anglo-Afghan war. One British officer, recalling the frantic retreat along a "blood-stained" road, described Maiwand as "simply a rat trap".

CIA Warnings About Iraqi WMD 'Fabricator' Were Ignored
The Washington Post

In late January 2003, as Secretary of State Colin Powell prepared to argue the Bush administration's case against Iraq at the United Nations, veteran CIA officer Tyler Drumheller sat down with a classified draft of Powell's speech to look for errors. He found a whopper: a claim about mobile biological labs built by Iraq for germ warfare. Drumheller instantly recognized the source, an Iraqi defector suspected of being mentally unstable and a liar. The CIA officer took his pen, he recounted in an interview, and crossed out the whole paragraph. A few days later, the lines were back in the speech. Powell stood before the UN Security Council on Feb. 5 and said: "We have first-hand descriptions of biological weapons factories on wheels and on rails."

Why We Fight
Eugene Jarecki – BBC Storyville

This award-winning video documentary provides an impressive overview and inside look at the gigantic American military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower solemnly warned against in 1961. Fact-filled, sober, thought-provoking. One hour and 39 minutes in length. Examines the militarization of American society, and some of the historical and economic forces that shape and propel American militarism.

Iran to Host Holocaust Conference Later This Year
Agence France Presse

Iran has said it will still go ahead with its plan to host a conference questioning the Holocaust, with the event now scheduled for later in 2006. The controversial idea emerged after hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described the systematic slaughter of an estimated six million Jews during World War II as a "myth", and the event was initially set for early this year. "It is going to be held in (the month of) Aban," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters Sunday, referring to the Iranian month which starts on October 23.

More US Army Recruits Have Criminal Records
Chicago Sun-Times

As the Army faces pressure to keep up recruiting levels during the Iraq war, it increasingly has allowed in recruits convicted of misdemeanor crimes, according to experts and military records. The Army is screening applicants more closely than ever, requiring a national electronic fingerprint check for every applicant and searching sex offender databases, officials say. Still, the percentage of recruits entering the Army with waivers for misdemeanors and medical problems has more than doubled since 2001, according to records provided by the Army under a Freedom of Information Act request.

Helen Thomas Turns On 'Gullible' Press Pack
The Independent (London)

For almost five decades, White House reporter Helen Thomas has been covering America's leaders with a healthy dose of skepticism and an endless string of pointed questions. Along the way she has ruffled presidential feathers and, since becoming a columnist in 2003, she has made clear her views on some of those incumbents - including George W Bush who she has described as the "worst president in all of American history". Now, 85-year-old Thomas has focused attention on her fellow reporters, accusing them of failing in their duties in the run-up to the Iraq war. "I ask myself every day why the media have become so complacent, complicit and gullible," she writes …

The Neocon Agenda Behind the Iraq War
Stephen Sniegoski

An eight minute video by Kurt Nimmo, with audio from Dr. Sniegoski’s appearance on Karen Kwiatkowski’s RBN radio show. Traces the long-range plans by influential Zionist “neoconservatives” for war in the Middle East, and how, after Nine Eleven, they pressed the Bush administration to invade Iraq for Israeli interests.

'Germany Must Perish'
Theodore Kaufman (1941)

Theodore N. Kaufman, the author of Germany Must Perish, was a Manhattan-born Jewish businessman who was also chairman of a group that called itself the "American Federation for Peace."  … Kaufman's fervent proposal for the systematic sterilization of the entire German population was given respectful attention in the American press, including reviews in a number of newspapers. A review in the weekly Time magazine, March 24, 1941, called Kaufman's plan a "sensational idea." … A plan similar to Kaufman's was issued during the war years by a prominent American anthropologist. In an article headlined "Breed War Strain Out of Germans" in the New York daily newspaper P.M.   

Social Isolation Growing in US, Study Says
The Washington Post

Americans are far more socially isolated today than they were two decades ago, and a sharply growing number of people say they have no one in whom they can confide, according to a comprehensive new evaluation of the decline of social ties in the United States . A quarter of Americans say they have no one with whom they can discuss personal troubles, more than double the number who were similarly isolated in 1985. Overall, the number of people Americans have in their closest circle of confidants has dropped from around three to about two. The comprehensive new study paints a sobering picture of an increasingly fragmented America …

In 2003, US Spurned Iran's Offer of Dialogue
The Washington Post

Just after the lightning takeover of Baghdad by US forces three years ago, an unusual two-page document spewed out of a fax machine at the Near East bureau of the State Department. It was a proposal from Iran for a broad dialogue with the United States, and the fax suggested everything was on the table -- including full cooperation on nuclear programs, acceptance of Israel and the termination of Iranian support for Palestinian militant groups. But top Bush administration officials, convinced the Iranian government was on the verge of collapse, belittled the initiative. Instead, they formally complained to the Swiss ambassador who had sent the fax with a cover letter certifying it as a genuine proposal supported by key power centers in Iran …

Open Borders Threaten Jewish Clout
Stephen Steinlight -- Forward (New York)

 … Massive immigration will obliterate Jewish power by shrinking our percentage of the population -- to a fraction of one percent in 20 years. Jews possess political clout despite tiny numbers because we are concentrated in large electoral vote states, have legendary voting rates, donate significantly to both parties and dominant culture. We will retain residual influence due to campaign contributions, membership in institutional establishments and the endurance of our alliances, but the Latino vote will eventually overwhelm us. Moreover, Jewish-Latino political interests clash. … With Israel facing an existential threat from Iran, Israeli-Palestinian relations having reached bottom and global Islamism targeting Jews, hastening disempowerment is indefensible.

The World’s Most Polite Cities, and the Most Rude
The Times (London)

Reader’s Digest magazine sent reporters into the principal city of each of the 35 countries in which it publishes to conduct a survey of local politeness. Three tests were employed: dropping papers in a busy street to see if anyone would help; checking how often shop assistants said “thank you”; and counting how often someone held a door open. London and Paris came a disappointing joint 15th, beaten by such cities as Berlin, Warsaw, Madrid and Prague. New York came top in the survey, with a score of 80 per cent, compared with 57 per cent for London and Paris. The rudest city in the world, according to the survey, is Bombay, which is even ruder than Bucharest, judged the rudest city in Europe.

Europeans See US As Main Threat to Stability
The Financial Times

Europeans remain deeply suspicious of US foreign policy in spite of President George W. Bush's concerted attempts since the start of his second term to improve transatlantic relations. In a Harris opinion poll, 36 per cent of respondents identify the US as the greatest threat to global stability. The poll, conducted in association with the Financial Times, questioned a representative sample of 5,000 people in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain on a range of issues. Thirty per cent of respondents named Iran as the greatest threat to global stability, with 18 per cent selecting China.

Europe, World Ever More Critical of Israel
Max Hastings – The Guardian ( Britain )

The world, far from becoming more willing to acquiesce in Israel's expansion, is becoming less so. The generation of European non-Jews for whom the Holocaust is a seminal memory is dying. With them perishes much vicarious guilt. Younger Europeans, not to mention the rest of the world, are more skeptical about Israel's territorial claims. They are less susceptible to moral arguments about redress for past horrors, which have underpinned Israeli actions for almost 60 years. We may hope that it will never become respectable to be anti-semitic. However, Israel is discovering that it can no longer frighten non-Jews out of opposing its policies merely by accusing them of anti-semitism.

Power Grab
Elizabeth Drew -- The New York Review of Books

During the presidency of George W. Bush, the White House has made an unprecedented reach for power. It has systematically attempted to defy, control, or threaten the institutions that could challenge it: Congress, the courts, and the press. It has attempted to upset the balance of power among the three branches of government provided for in the Constitution; but its most aggressive and consistent assaults have been against the legislative branch: Bush has time and again said that he feels free to carry out a law as he sees fit, not as Congress wrote it. Through secrecy and contemptuous treatment of Congress, the Bush White House has made the executive branch less accountable than at any time in modern American history. 

Ike Was Right About War Machine
Andy Rooney – 60 Minutes

I'm not really clear how much a billion dollars is but the United States — our United States — is spending $5.6 billion a month fighting this war in Iraq that we never should have gotten into. We still have 139,000 soldiers in Iraq today. More than 2,000 Americans have died there. For what? … No other Country spends the kind of money we spend on our military. Last year Japan spent $42 billion. Italy spent $28 billion, Russia spent only $19 billion. The United States spent $455 billion.

Textbooks as Ideological Weapons
Gary North

If you wanted to write a book on what ideas shaped the thinking of the mass of Americans after 1850, the first place to begin would be textbooks used in public schools. … Frances Fitzgerald's book, America Revisited, surveys twentieth-century public school high school textbooks in history and the social sciences. I know of no other similar attempt. Her book shows how the ideological wheels came off after 1965, when the New Left and new everything else began to undermine the accepted truths and platitudes of the public school textbooks.

America’s Disgraceful Textbooks
The Washington Times

Social studies textbooks used in elementary and secondary schools are mostly a disgrace that, in the name of political correctness and multiculturalism, fail to give students an honest account of American history, say academic historians and education advocates. “Secondary and college students, and indeed most of the rest of us, have only a feeble grasp of politics and a vague awareness of history, especially the political history of the United States and the world," says Paul Gagnon, emeritus professor of history … Most textbooks, produced by a handful of giant commercial publishers, are exposing generations of children to cultural and history amnesia that threatens the very basis of American free institutions and liberties …

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... “

India’s Growing Influence and Stature
CNN – Time magazine

In ways big and small, Indians are changing the world, and may become even more influential in the decades ahead. That's because India -- the second most populous nation in the world, and projected to be by 2015 the most populous -- is itself being transformed. In the tradition of writers citing Asia's "tiger" economies and the Chinese "dragon," now comes the elephant. India 's economy is growing more than eight percent a year, and the country is modernizing so fast that old friends are bewildered by the changes that occur between visits… In most measures of modernization, China is way ahead. Last year per capita income in India was $3,300; in China it was $6,800.  

America’s Future Looks Dumber
Steve Sailer

The 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress scores are now out for eighth grade Science, and the cutting edge state of California, home of Silicon Valley and Cal Tech but also of millions of illegal aliens, ranks second worst out of the 44 states measured, ahead of only Mississippi. In California, only 18 percent of eighth graders scored at the Proficient or Advanced levels, versus 27% nationwide. Hawaii, was third worst, and then came Alabama, New Mexico, Nevada, Louisiana, Arizona, Florida, and Texas. The highest scoring state was North Dakota (with 43 percent scoring Proficient or Advanced).

Episcopal Church Condemns Bible as 'Anti-Jewish'
VirtueOnline 

The 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church has passed a resolution essentially condemning the Bible as an "anti-Jewish" document. Not only does the resolution aim to address perceptions of anti-Jewish prejudice in the Bible and Episcopal liturgy, but it suggests that such prejudice is actually "expressed in ... Christian Scriptures and liturgical texts." Originated in the Committee on Prayer Book, Liturgy and Music, Resolution C001 directs the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music to "collect and develop materials to assist members of the Church to address anti-Jewish prejudice expressed in and stirred by portions of Christian scriptures and liturgical texts…”

Britons of 250,000 Years Ago More Sophisticated Than Thought
BBC News

The Britons of 250,000 years ago were a good deal more sophisticated than they are sometimes given credit for, new archaeological evidence suggests. It comes in the form of giant flint handaxes that have been unearthed at a site at Cuxton in Kent. The tools display exquisite, almost flamboyant, workmanship not associated with this period until now. The biggest of the tools - the second largest of its type found in Britain - is beautifully preserved and sharply pointed.

Even Americans who detest war and recognize that nearly every war is the product of mendacious, power-hungry political leaders generally make an exception for World War II, the so-called Good War. They believe that the Americans fought for an entirely good and proper cause, that they fought only after having been attacked without provocation, that their enemies were vile monsters, and that their victory made the world a better and more hopeful place for all mankind. In short, they believe in a myth. Perhaps they do so in part because so many of those who composed the so-called Greatest Generation had engaged personally in the war and needed a way to understand their involvement and to forgive themselves for what they had done or witnessed their comrades

One War is Enough
Edgar J. Jones – Atlantic Monthly (1946)

We Americans have the dangerous tendency in our international thinking to take a holier-than-thou attitude toward other nations. We consider ourselves to be more noble and decent than other peoples, and consequently in a better position to decide what is right and wrong in the world. What kind of war do civilians suppose we fought, anyway? [In World War II] We shot prisoners in cold blood, wiped out hospitals, strafed lifeboats, killed or mistreated enemy civilians, finished off the enemy wounded, tossed the dying into a hole with the dead, and in the Pacific boiled the flesh off enemy skulls to make table ornaments for sweethearts, or carved their bones into letter openers. 

Third Reich Germany Sent Arms to Palestinians in 1939
Yaakov Lappin -- Ynet News

Historical documents in Britain’s National Archives in London show that Nazi Germany attempted to ship arms to Palestinian forces in the 1930s. A British Foreign Office report from 1939 reports of “news of a consignment of arms from Germany, sent via Turkey and addressed to Ibn Saud (king of Saudi Arabia), but really intended for the Palestine insurgents.”  …German records show that the Nazis viewed the establishment of a Jewish state with great concern. A 1937 report from German General Consulate in Palestine said: “The formation of a Jewish state… is not in Germany’s interest because a (Jewish) Palestinian state would create additional national power bases for international Jewry…” 

Zionism and the Third Reich
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. … In January 1939, Hitler's new Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, warned in another circular bulletin that "Germany must regard the formation of a Jewish state as dangerous" because it "would bring an international increase in power to world Jewry."

The Power of the Israel Lobby
Kathleen and Bill Christison -- Counterpunch

John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, the University of Chicago and Harvard political scientists who published in March of this years a lengthy, well documented study on the pro-Israel lobby and its influence on U.S. Middle East policy in March, have already accomplished what they intended. They have successfully called attention to the often pernicious influence of the lobby on policymaking. But, unfortunately, the study has aroused more criticism than debate ­ not only the kind of criticism one would anticipate from the usual suspects among the very lobby groups Mearsheimer and Walt described, but also from a group on the left that might have been expected to support the study's conclusions. The criticism has been partly silly, often malicious, and almost entirely off-point.

Israel Lobby Denial: The Bankruptcy of the Mainstream Left
Stephen J. Sniegoski

The antiwar Left would prefer that old-style American imperialism and the quest for oil had caused the Iraq War. They are the preferred enemies of the Left. They are the traditional villains. And they are safe villains. Mentioning Israel as a culprit would cause problems: it would lose support for the Left among activist Jews, and it would lead to hostility from the Israel lobby and mainstream Jewish groups. By way of contrast, no one ever got in trouble berating oil magnates or Arab sheiks … Also important is the fact that Jews, categorically, are considered to be victims; and it is hard for the Left to criticize an officially recognized victimized group. In terms of left-wing psychology the ideal is to strike a radical, nonconformist pose without really alienating the powerful …

Remarkable Ancient Paintings Found in Italy
Reuters

Italy has unveiled a new archaeological site that some experts say houses the oldest paintings in the history of Western civilization. Italy's culture minister took reporters to an unremarkable field outside Rome under which they were shown a room carved into the hillside, decorated with colorful frescoes which archaeologists said were 2,700 years old. "It's a prince's tomb that is unique, and I would say is at the origins of Western art," said Minister Francesco Rutelli, standing on what, until two weeks ago when the site was found, was just a field of barley. Archaeologists were amazed at what they found once the earth was removed -- a large, square room, with niches that would once have stored cremated remains, remnants of a bright red painted ceiling and colored frescoes of birds and roaring lions.

Iran President Calls for Impartial Review of Holocaust Claims
The Jerusalem Post

"I think we have sufficiently talked about this matter and these Holocaust events need to be further investigated by independent and impartial parties," [Iranian President] Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at a news conference following a meeting with China's president. "An event that has influenced so many diplomatic and political equations of the world needs to investigated and researched by impartial and independent groups," he said. … Ahmadinejad has come in for sharp criticism in Europe for repeatedly casting doubt on the Holocaust and calling for Israel to be destroyed or shifted to Europe.

US Immigration System Corrupt, Broken, Says Former Official
Kenneth R. Timmerman – NewsMax.com

The US immigration system is so broken that it can't be fixed, a former top security official at the Department of Homeland Security's Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) told NewsMax in an exclusive interview. "Internal corruption at CIS is so pervasive that hostile foreign governments have penetrated the agency," said Michael J. Maxwell, who was forced to resign as chief of the CIS Office of Security and Investigation earlier this year. "Terrorists and organized crime are gaming the immigration system with impunity. Taken together, these three elements form the perfect storm," Maxwell said. "You can't separate immigration from national security, and that's what keeps me up at night," he added.

Learning From Nine-Eleven
Mark Weber (2001)

Our political leaders and the American mass media promote the preposterous fiction that the September 11 attacks are entirely unprovoked and unrelated to United States actions. … Over the long run, the attacks will encourage public awareness of our government's imperial role in the world, including a sobering reassessment of this country's perverse "special relationship" with the Jewish ethnostate. Along with that, rage will grow against those who have subordinated American interests, and basic justice and humanity, to Jewish-Zionist ambitions.

China-Japan Showdown is Coming
Taipei Times (Taiwan)

There are growing concerns that China might be readying itself for a confrontation with Japan. A recent Pentagon report on China's growing military power suggests the US is worried that Beijing is gearing up not only to threaten Taiwan but also to confront other US allies in the region, Japan being the most prominent among them. There are also fears in some circles that China would eventually aim to displace the US as the region's dominant power. China 's growing military power is a worry, but it is not the only factor threatening US pre-eminence in the region. Through trade and politics, China has already emerged as a counter-point to the US . Asia-Pacific countries are lining up to ingratiate themselves with Beijing. It will be hard to find a country in the region willing to take a stand against China on any issue sensitive to Beijing.

Misguided Theology Makes Bad Foreign Policy
Doug Bandow

Iraq is an unalloyed disaster. War with Iran would be even worse. Lebanon's Cedar Revolution has empowered groups hostile to America. Where is the new democratic dawn in the Mideast that the administration promised? It certainly isn't represented in the Israeli-Palestinian "peace process." The West Bank is still occupied and Gaza is nearing civil war. Whether peace is possible if the two peoples separate is unknowable. The only worse option is for Israel to maintain a system of militarized apartheid-like rule over millions of Palestinians. Yet some of President George W. Bush's domestic supporters oppose the slightest Israeli concession to the Palestinians.

President Urges Patience on War, But It’s LBJ in 1965
Greg Mitchell – Editor and Publisher

As the press continues to debate what President Bush says, doesn't say or should say about the deteriorating situation in Iraq, I'll take this opportunity to simply roll out, as food for thought, the words of another president caught up in a difficult conflict not nearly in its final throes. Here is a speech delivered by Lyndon B. Johnson on April 7, 1965, one year after the Gulf of Tonkin incident sparked the beginning of our true commitment of men and resources to Vietnam. "We must fight if we are to live in a world where every country can shape its own destiny," he said. "We will not be defeated. We will not grow tired. We will not withdraw, either openly or under the cloak of a meaningless agreement."

Moldova Remembers Soviet-Era Deportations
Associated Press, from Chisinau, Modova

On June 13, 1941, the Soviet Union, which had occupied the former Romanian province a year earlier, loaded 22,600 Moldovans on cargo trains bound for Siberia , where the deportees were used for forced labor. "Loaded in cattle cars, in inhumane conditions, most of the deportees were sent to the cold lands of Siberia and never returned home," said Valentina Sturza, a former deportee who heads the Association of Former Political Prisoners. Participants held a traditional Orthodox religious service and lit candles for the victims of the deportations. Two other waves of deportations were carried out in 1949 and 1951, with another 40,000 Moldovans sent to Siberia and what is now Kazakhstan . 

Europeans See US as Threat to Peace
BBC News

People in European and Muslim countries see US policy in Iraq as a bigger threat to world peace than Iran's nuclear program, a survey has shown. The survey by the Pew Research Group also found support for US President George W Bush and his "war on terror" had dropped dramatically worldwide. Goodwill created by US aid for nations hit by the 2004 tsunami had also faded since last year, the survey found. … The latest survey shows the worldwide reputation of the US continues to suffer over its prosecution of the "war on terror" … Some 60 percent of people in the UK, which is the US biggest ally, felt the Iraq war had made the world less secure, while some 30% said it had made the world safer.

Promises and Betrayals:  Britain and the Struggle for the Holy Land
Content Productions – Video

An intriguing, informed look at the origins of the Arab-Jewish conflict in the Middle East . 53 min. Producer/Director: Arense Kvaale for Content Productions. Traces the rise of political Zionism, showing something of the power of international Jewry. Highlights the cynical, duplicitous role of Britain during World War I, which betrayed its “democratic” principles, and promises made to the Arabs.

Israelis Fear Spread Of War Crimes Cases
Jewish Week (New York)

Laws passed in wake of Nuremberg trials now being pressed in Europe against Israeli generals.… With cases similar to Almog’s already brought against Israeli officials in Belgium, Israeli diplomats and legal experts fear that the procedures in England might herald an onslaught of lawsuits against Israeli officers in courts the world over. Ironically, the laws in question were first put into place in the wake of the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals to ensure such crimes could not be perpetrated without prosecution. ... Neither is the problem confined to Britain. Other European nations, such as France, Spain, Sweden and Denmark, have similar laws, all guided by the principle known as universal justice. 

Menachem Begin Plotted in 1952 to Kill the German Chancellor
Amiram Barkat -- Haaretz (Israel)

Former prime minister Menachem Begin played a central role in a failed attempt to assassinate then-West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, with the objective of sabotaging the reparations agreement in the works with Israel, according to the journal of Eliezer Sudit, one of the men who carried out the attempted hit. Sudit's journal, which was published in a limited number of copies only, came into the possession of the Israel correspondent for the German daily, the Frankfurter Allgemeine. Excerpts from the diary passed on to Haaretz reveal that Begin knew of the plans to assassinate Adenauer, and even initiated meetings to promote the operation.

'Barbarians' Threaten Europe, Warns British Expert
The Sunday Times (Britain)

One of Britain’s most senior military strategists has warned that western civilization faces a threat on a par with the barbarian invasions that destroyed the Roman empire. In an apocalyptic vision of security dangers, Rear Admiral Chris Parry said future migrations would be comparable to the Goths and Vandals while north African "barbary" pirates could be attacking yachts and beaches in the Mediterranean within ten years.  Europe, including Britain, could be undermined by large immigrant groups with little allegiance to their host countries — a "reverse colonization" as Parry described it. These groups would stay connected to their homelands by the internet and cheap flights. The idea of assimilation was becoming redundant, he said.

Wisconsin Memorial Hall Presents Alternate View of World War II
The Week (Delavan, Wisconsin)

Atop the Honorary Hall, which is built into a hillside, is a gigantic black marble monument, "dedicated to those German and other European heroes who fell in World War II, as well as to all victims of (German) Allied persecution and genocide. May God ever be with them," as it's engraved in the center. … "After the war we lost our home too," Ted (Theo) Junker, who was born in 1913, lamented. "After the war I had one pair of shoes and those were for Sunday, so I went barefoot. We lost everything." … The Institute for Historical Review (IHR), the experts Junker cites, does claim to have done extensive research at the camp sites.    

The Last Days of the American Republic
Chalmers Johnson – C-Span 

Video and transcript of 59 minute C-Span interview with the author of Blowback and other books.  “… I don’t see the way out any longer. … I don’t think the political system will save us. The military could conceivably take over… We are in terrible trouble and it’s extremely hard to figure out how we’re going to get out. … If you know what’s going on in the world and you watch the evening network news, you know that the direct opposite is what’s being reported. .. Its what’s being omitted, what’s simply not regarded as newsworthy …  The largest element in our budget of discretionary spending goes for national security. We are spending today more on national defense, so-called, really on war, than all the other nations on earth combined….”

America's New 'Robot' Military
Stephen Graham – New Statesman (Britain)

War is about to change, in terrifying ways. America's next wars, the ones the Pentagon is now planning, will be nothing like the conflicts that have gone before them. In just a few years, US forces will be able to deal out death, not at the squeeze of a trigger or even the push of a button, but with no human intervention whatsoever. Many fighting soldiers -- those GIs in tin hats who are dying two a day in Iraq -- will be replaced by machines backed up by surveillance technology so penetrating and pervasive that it is referred to as "military omniscience".

Terrorism is a Tactic
Charley Reese

Terrorism is a tactic, not an entity, and it is a tactic used by people who have a political grievance. Therefore, if you want to eliminate terrorism, you have to address the political problems that gave it birth. President Bush has made no effort to do this. He has aggravated the situation and made it worse. He's created a virtual factory for terrorists. I am a firm believer that what you sow you reap, and it is a bad business to sow hatred, but unfortunately it seems that our president has been seduced by the great power he commands. He thinks the military and the intelligence community can solve the problem of terrorism.

Florida Law Banning Revisionist History Ignores Reality
Jonathan Zimmerman -- Los Angeles Times

Just when you thought it was safe to study American history again … the revisionists are back! You know, those relativists who distort or simply fabricate the past to make it fit their present-day biases. For instance, shortly after the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, President Bush attacked "revisionist historians" who questioned his justifications for using force against Saddam Hussein. He did it again on Veterans Day in 2005. "It is deeply irresponsible," he declared, "to rewrite the history of how the war began." And just last week, in an unprecedented move, the president's brother approved a law barring revisionist history in Florida public schools. … Ironically, the Florida law is itself revisionist history.  

Ancient Caucasians Discovered in China
Benjamin Robertson -- Al-Jazeera

In a find that could turn conventional history on its head, scientists using genetic testing have discovered that Caucasians lived in western China's Tarim Basin a thousand years before East Asians arrived. Unearthed lying on her side as though in sleep, a single tuft of red hair falling across her head and ragged moccasins on her feet, the Beauty of Loulan is considered to be one of the best preserved mummies ever found. Roughly 3800-years-old and discovered in the sands of Xinjiang province in western China, her emaciated features betray a facial bone structure that is surprisingly similar to Caucasian-looking women.

A New 'Holocaust Denial' Law in The Netherlands?
The Jerusalem Post

… Leon Meijer was shocked not only by the comment, but by the discovery that the Netherlands has no laws clearly outlawing Holocaust denial. Now … he has drafted legislation which would do just that.  Under his proposal, individuals who deny or glorify genocide with the intent to hurt others could be fined or sentenced to up to a year in jail. The law would be added to current legislation prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of race and religion. … France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Lithuania and Poland all have made Holocaust denial illegal, according to the Anti-Defamation League.  

The Guilt of Our Leaders
Georgie Anne Geyer

Here in Europe, and particularly in a courteous and stately country like Scotland, Europeans hardly mention the war to Americans. It is as though the average European simply accepts that the Americans they used to so admire have "gone bad," and that's that. … Everything that has happened and everything that is happening in Iraq was inevitable from the beginning. And so the true guilt lies with our leaders, who capriciously sent American boys and girls and men and women to the one country in the world most ready to reject and revile them. They sent them, purposelessly, to kill people the soldiers had not even secondhand knowledge of -- and the worst hatred in a war comes when fighting against people you do not know.

Israel is the Problem, Not Iraq, Says US Brigadier General
James J. David (US Army Brigadier General, retired)

Question: Which country alone in the Middle East has nuclear weapons? Answer: Israel. Q: Which country in the Middle East refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and bars international inspections? Answer: Israel. Q: Which country in the Middle East seized the sovereign territory of other nations by military force and continues to occupy it in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions? Answer: Israel. Q: Which country in the Middle East routinely violates the international borders of another sovereign state with warplanes and artillery and naval gunfire? Answer: Israel. 

Support the Work of the IHR
Institute for Historical Review

A donation to the Institute for Historical Review is a cost-effective weapon in the struggle for truth, freedom and peace. In spite of its modest size and budget, the IHR has a tremendous impact, reaching many hundreds of thousands around the world. To maintain the Institute’s effectiveness on the forefront of this great global struggle, support from friends is crucial. To make a secure online credit card donation, click on our website’s “Support Us” page, and then click on the “DONATE” icon. 

The War They Wanted, The Lies They Needed
Craig Unger – Vanity Fair

For more than two years it has been widely reported that the US invaded Iraq because of intelligence failures. But in fact it is far more likely that the Iraq war started because of an extraordinary intelligence success -- specifically, an astoundingly effective campaign of disinformation, or black propaganda, which led the White House, the Pentagon, Britain's MI6 intelligence service, and thousands of outlets in the American media to promote the falsehood that Saddam Hussein's nuclear-weapons program posed a grave risk to the United States…

The Fantasy of Bush's 'War Against Terrorism'
Gwynne Dyer

Some things are so obvious that you feel almost embarrassed to repeat them – but if you don't say them, the propagandists win. So, then: Terrorism is a political technique, not an ideology, and any group willing to use violence in pursuit of its political goals may resort to it. ... There is no shadowy but powerful network waging a terrorist war against the West: the whole thing is a fantasy. There are isolated small groups of extremists who blow things up once in a while, and there are websites and other media through which they can exchange ideas and techniques, but there is no headquarters, no chain of command, no organization that can be defeated, dismantled and destroyed.

Weber, Fromm To Speak in Northern Virginia, July 8
Institute for Historical Review

At a special IHR meeting on July 8 in northern Virginia, Mark Weber will put the Iran showdown in perspective, and explain what it means for our future. The IHR director will speak on “Familiar Lies for a New War: A System in Crisis.” Paul Fromm, director of the Canadian Association for Free Expression will also speak. He’ll report from the front lines in the global fight for free speech, with an update on the headline-making trial in Germany of Ernst Zundel, and the imprisonment of historian David Irving in Austria. 

Most American Schools Deficient in Teaching World History
The News Journal  (Delaware)

A national education think tank has given Delaware a "D" in world history, but despite the low grade, the First State fared no worse than most others. Most states aren't doing nearly enough to give students a grounding in world history, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute said in a report released Tuesday that grades states on their world history standards. The standards outline what students are expected to know in the subject. Delaware's "D" placed it 24th of 48 states ranked. Two-thirds of states were given a "D" or "F," while only eight states got an "A."  … The report criticized Delaware's world-history standards for lack of detail and limited scope.

More Britons Reject Alliance with America
The Times (London)

The British public has become increasingly cool towards American policy and critical of its role in the world after the sustained violence in Iraq . A Populus opinion poll in The Times indicates that fewer than half the public believe that America is a force for good in the world, and nearly two thirds believe that Britain’s future lies more with Europe than with the US. There is also evidence of a longer-term shift in views about the US. However, while President Bush and his Administration remain unpopular in Britain, Americans as a people remain popular.

David Irving: Profile and Update
Institute for Historical Review

A biographical sketch of the prominent historian, with update on his arrest and imprisonment in Austria

David Irving, the controversial British historian, is the author of numerous books on military history and World War II, including several international bestsellers.  On November 11, 2005, he was arrested during a visit in Austria for the “thought crime” – committed in 1989 (!) - of having referred to “mythical” gas chambers at Auschwitz. Denied bail, he was held in jail until his trial on February 20, 2006, when a court in Vienna sentenced him to three years in prison for having “denied the Holocaust.” 

US Financial Aid to Israel: Figures, Facts and Impact
The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs 

Americans have read that "Israel receives $3 billion in annual US foreign aid." That's true. But it's still a lie. The problem is that in fiscal 1997 alone, Israel received from a variety of other US federal budgets at least $525.8 million above and beyond its $3 billion from the foreign aid budget, and yet another $2 billion in federal loan guarantees. So the complete total of US grants and loan guarantees to Israel for fiscal 1997 was $5,525,800,000. One can truthfully blame the mainstream media for never digging out these figures for themselves, because none ever have. But the mainstream media certainly are not alone. 

America's Fading Glow
John Brown -- TomPaine.com

Today's American soft power -- our ability to influence others overseas through who we are and what we do -- is shrinking, as poll after poll shows. This loss of soft power reduces America's ability to shape global developments in ways favorable to the national interest. … There are several reasons for the decline of America's soft power. The most immediate is President George W. Bush's aggressive foreign policy. Since our internationally condemned attack on Iraq, our country is seen as the illegitimate sheriff that shoots first and asks questions later. Contrast this to the worldwide sympathy for the US immediately after 9/11, when we were considered the attacked, not the attacker. 

World’s 'Oldest Astronomy Computer' Deciphered
Agence France Presse

The size of a shoebox, a mysterious bronze device scooped out of a Roman-era shipwreck at the dawn of the 20th century has baffled scientists for years. Now a British researcher has stunningly established it as the world's oldest surviving astronomy computer. A team of Greek and British scientists probing the secrets of the Antikythera Mechanism has managed to decipher ancient Greek inscriptions unseen for over 2,000 years, members of the project say. … Scooped out of a Roman shipwreck located in 1900 by sponge divers near the southern Greek island of Antikythera, and kept at the Athens National Archaeological Museum, the Mechanism contains over 30 bronze wheels and dials, and is covered in astronomical inscriptions.

Misrepresenting the Iran President’s Words
Jonathan Steele - The Guardian (Britain)

Ask anyone in Washington, London or Tel Aviv if they can cite any phrase uttered by [Iran President] Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the chances are high they will say he wants Israel "wiped off the map". …The remarks are not out of context. They are wrong, pure and simple. Ahmadinejad never said them. Farsi speakers have pointed out that he was mistranslated. The Iranian president was quoting an ancient statement by Iran 's first Islamist leader, the late Ayatollah Khomeini, that "this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time" just as the Shah's regime in Iran had vanished. He was not making a military threat. He was calling for an end to the occupation of Jerusalem at some point in the future. … But the propaganda damage was done …

The Holocaust: Let’s Hear Both Sides
Mark Weber – Institute for Historical Review

Everyone has heard that the Nazi regime systematically killed some six million Jews in Europe during World War II, most of them in gas chambers. We’re told this repeatedly on television, in motion pictures, in books, and in newspaper and magazine articles ... But not everyone accepts the familiar Holocaust story. … These “revisionist” writers do not “deny the Holocaust.” They acknowledge the catastrophe suffered by Europe’s Jews during World War II. … At the same time, revisionist scholars cite impressive but often ignored evidence to support their view that there was no German program to exterminate Europe's Jews, that numerous claims of mass killings in “gas chambers” are false, and that the figure of six million Jewish wartime dead is an exaggeration.

China Climbs World Economic Table
BBC News

China has moved up the world economic rankings after reporting that its gross domestic product (GDP) is much larger than had earlier been thought. According to a state report, China's economy was 16.8 percent larger in 2004 than initially calculated. That puts China into sixth place in terms of economic size, ahead of Italy and close behind the UK and France. If current growth continues, China could squeeze into fourth position by the end of 2005, economists believe. … China also is catching up on Asia's biggest economy, Japan, and there are likely to be political concerns as it becomes a more important and dominant force in the region, analysts say.

Christianity and the War
Laurence M. Vance

…The war in Iraq is an unconstitutional, unnecessary, immoral, senseless, unjust, and unscriptural undertaking. … Waging this war is against every Christian "just war" principle that has ever been formulated. A just war must have a just cause, be in proportion to the gravity of the situation, have obtainable objectives, be preceded by a public declaration, be declared only by legitimate authority, and only be undertaken as a last resort. If there was ever a war that violated every one of these principles it is this war.

Jews Protest 'Aryan' Statues in Berlin
The Times (London)

Football fans trooping into the Olympic St