The Blue and Gray and Black: New Civil War Museum Evokes Passions
The Washington Post

In some parts of the country, the Civil War is still being fought. And perhaps nowhere are the aftershocks and viewpoints as evident as in Richmond, where a new museum is attempting to tell the history of the war from three angles. That would be: the Union, the African American and the Confederate. The American Civil War Center, which opens today, argues that each of the three had distinct ideas about freedom -- and few would challenge that. Its inaugural 10,000-square-foot exhibition, "In the Cause of Liberty," suggests that in this complicated story there were more lines crossed than the military ones. Each side was passionate. Each found justification for its goals in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Each suffered many casualties.

Mystery of Israel's Secret Uranium Bomb
Robert Fisk -- The Independent (Britain)

Did Israel use a secret new uranium-based weapon in southern Lebanon this summer in the 34-day assault that cost more than 1,300 Lebanese lives, most of them civilians? ... Scientific evidence gathered from at least two bomb craters in Khiam and At-Tiri, the scene of fierce fighting between Hizbollah guerrillas and Israeli troops last July and August, suggests that uranium-based munitions may now also be included in Israel's weapons inventory - and were used against targets in Lebanon... Israel has a poor reputation for telling the truth about its use of weapons in Lebanon. In 1982, it denied using phosphorous munitions on civilian areas - until journalists discovered dying and dead civilians whose wounds caught fire when exposed to air.

A Holocaust Revisionist Critique of the Thinking of Deborah Lipstadt
Paul Grubach

Lipstadt’s ulterior agenda is, I believe, readily apparent. What she is saying is that one must accept the traditional view of the Holocaust doctrine without question, a priori. She wants to prevent the public and mainstream media from giving Holocaust revisionism a fair and public hearing, because once the public does this, this would spell doom for her traditional version of the Holocaust... The work of Deborah Lipstadt contains fallacies, apparently false claims, omissions and flawed judgment calls that are riddled with a hypocritical double standard.

Chasing Borat
Liel Leibovitz - The Jewish Week (New York)

The first time I saw Borat I fell madly in love with him. For a journalist who writes about culture in a major Jewish newspaper, seeing this fictional, mustachioed, deeply offensive, thoroughly anti-Semitic man for the first time on HBO two years ago was more than entertainment. It was a clarion call... Played with fierce doggedness by Israeli-born comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat - supposedly a reporter from Kazakhstan who travels the United States asking his hapless interviewees the most unthinkable of questions - was that mythological beast that all young Jews secretly dream about, a character cool and commanding who puts, if only for a moment, all things Jewish at the cutting edge of popular culture.

Superpower in Decline: America's Middle Class is Globalization's Loser
Gabor Steingart -- Der Spiegel (Germany)

...The United States is still a superpower. But it's a superpower facing competition from beyond its borders as well as internal difficulties. Its future rosier than the present, millions of households are borrowing so much money that they end up endangering the very future they're looking forward to... The feedback effects involved in globalization are especially intense for the US economy -- so much so that large parts of the US workforce are now standing with their backs against the wall. The rise of Asia has only led to a relative decline of the US national economy. At least so far. But for many blue- and white-collar workers, this decline is already absolute because they have less of everything than they used to.

Britain Originally Opposed Iraq War, Says New Book by CIA Official
Newsweek

The CIA won't say so, but the U.K. initially opposed war in Iraq. A new book by Tyler Drumheller, former chief of the CIA's European ops, describes how, the day after 9/11, a "powerful delegation from a very close European ally" visited CIA Director George Tenet at HQ. In his book "On the Brink," Drumheller says the foreign-team leader said "his government stood by us ... and that we could count on it for any and all support." But the foreign rep cautioned, "I hope we can all agree that we should concentrate on Afghanistan and not be tempted to launch any attacks on Iraq." In Drumheller's account, Tenet replied, "Absolutely, we all agree on that."

American CIA Tried to Silence Europe On Torture Flights
The Guardian (Britain)

The CIA tried to persuade Germany to silence European Union protests about the human rights record of one of America's key allies in its clandestine torture flights program, the Guardian can reveal. According to a secret intelligence report, the CIA offered to let Germany have access to one of its citizens, an al-Qaida suspect being held in a Moroccan cell. But the US secret agents demanded that in return, Berlin should cooperate and "avert pressure from EU" over human rights abuses in the north African country... The disclosure is among fresh revelations about how the CIA flew terrorist suspects to locations where they were tortured, and Britain's knowledge of the practice known as "secret rendition".

A 'Powerful' New Book on Israel’s Power in the US
Stephen Lendman -- VHeadline.com

James Petras' powerful new book is titled 'The Power of Israel in the United States.' It's a work of epic writing and essential reading documenting the enormous influence of the Jewish Lobby on US policy in the Middle East. It focuses like a laser to assure that policy conforms with Israel's long-term goal for regional hegemony. The Lobby's influence is broad and deep enough to include officials at the highest levels of government, the business community, academia, the clergy, and the mass media. Petras shows how together they're able to assure the full and unconditional US support for all elements of Israel's agenda going back decades even when that agenda harms our interests...

Bush’s Useful Idiots: The Strange Death of Liberal America
Tony Judt -- London Review of Books

It is one thing for the US unconditionally to underwrite Israel’s behaviour (though in neither country’s interest, as some Israeli commentators at least have remarked). But for the US to imitate Israel wholesale, to import that tiny country’s self-destructive, intemperate response to any hostility or opposition and to make it the leitmotif of American foreign policy: that is simply bizarre. Bush’s Middle Eastern policy now tracks so closely to the Israeli precedent that it is very difficult to see daylight between the two... The United States now has an Israeli-style foreign policy and America’s liberal intellectuals overwhelmingly support it.

Elie Wiesel for President?
Daniel McGowan

Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has suggested Elie Wiesel to replace Moshe Katzav as President of Israel. Katzav is being forced to resign amid charges of rape. Wiesel's qualifications for the job are unimpeachable. He is the icon of what Norman Finkelstein has called "The Holocaust Industry" and as such he has served as a prop to "get the Jewish vote" by every American President since Gerald Ford... In 1948 Wiesel worked as a journalist for the Irgun, a gang of Jewish terrorists who committed the massacre at Deir Yassin, arguably one of the most pivotal events in twentieth century Palestinian history. Yet this "world-renowned humanitarian" refuses to apologize or even acknowledge the murder, mayhem, and ethnic cleansing caused by his employer.

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.

Wiesel and the Catholics
David O’Connell -- Culture Wars

Wiesel delights in desecrating what is for many Catholics the beloved memory of Pope Pius XII, routinely trashing him for his supposed “silence” during World War II. No other Jewish media voice even comes close to Wiesel in terms of the frequency and the vitriol of his insults to the Catholic memory of that Pope... Over the course of his career, Wiesel has told many tall tales about his alleged experiences during World War II. They can be called “true lies,” since they are meant to edify and are told with supposedly good intentions, even though they are not true. In the following pages, I shall examine closely one of these “true lies.” It has to do with his internment at Buchenwald.

Wiesel Words
Christopher Hitchens

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… In a propaganda tour of recent history, he asserts that in 1948, “incited by their leaders, 600,000 Palestinians left the country convinced that, once Israel was vanquished, they would be able to return home.” 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.

Asia Set to Withstand Looming US Economic Recession
The Economist (Britain)

A sharp slowdown in the American economy could be offset by the growing and largely unrecognised power of Asia's consumers... According to conventional wisdom, American consumers have single-handedly kept the world economy chugging along, whereas cautious Europeans and Asians have preferred to save. Yet the importance of America's role in global growth is often exaggerated... The real driver of the world economy has been Asia, which has accounted for over half of the world's growth since 2001.

Time to Go! Inside the Worst Congress Ever
Matt Taibbi -- Rolling Stone

These past six years were more than just the most shameful, corrupt and incompetent period in the history of the American legislative branch. These were the years when the US parliament became a historical punch line, a political obscenity on par with the court of Nero or Caligula -- a stable of thieves and perverts who committed crimes rolling out of bed in the morning and did their very best to turn the mighty American empire into a debt-laden, despotic backwater, a Burkina Faso with cable.

World War II Bombs Still a Danger in Germany
Der Spiegel (Germany)

More than 60 years since the end of World War II, construction workers still frequently unearth unexploded bombs and it is not uncommon for whole city districts to be cordoned off and even evacuated while bomb disposal experts defuse them… Allied pilots rained nearly 2 million tons of explosives on Germany during the war. Landmines, hand grenades, mortar bombs and anti-tank devices from the fighting on German soil at the end of the war are also found, and authorities say it will take decades before the country is cleared of duds. Between 400 and 600 bombs are discovered a year in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia alone, where the heavily industrialized Ruhr region was a major target for Allied fighter pilots.

Planet’s Resources Are Being Stripped at Unprecedented Rate
Reuters

Humans are stripping nature at an unprecedented rate and will need two planets' worth of natural resources every year by 2050 on current trends, the WWF conservation group said on Tuesday. Populations of many species, from fish to mammals, had fallen by about a third from 1970 to 2003 largely because of human threats such as pollution, clearing of forests and overfishing, the group also said in a two-yearly report. "For more than 20 years we have exceeded the earth's ability to support a consumptive lifestyle that is unsustainable and we cannot afford to continue down this path," WWF Director-General James Leape said, launching the WWF's 2006 Living Planet Report.

Is the Euro Displacing the Dollar?
Daniel Gross -- Slate

The dollar's decline against the euro shows no sign of ending. Clearly, currency traders have made a long-term judgment about the relative value of the currencies of the Old and New Worlds. That sounds bad enough. But now there are signs that we're losing some of the most devoted fans of the greenback: drug dealers, Russian oligarchs, and black-market traffickers of all kinds... The United States benefits greatly from the fact that the dollar is the world's reserve currency. Many of the $100 bills circulating throughout the globe are essentially loans that we never have to pay back.

They Lied About the Reasons for Going to War
Jacob G. Hornberger

The circumstantial evidence with respect to the invasion of Iraq leads inexorably to but one conclusion: President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and other U.S. officials lied about their reasons for invading Iraq. Those lies have profound consequences not only for the Iraqi people, who have borne the brunt of the invasion and subsequent occupation of their country, but also for the American people, including U.S. soldiers who have killed and maimed people whose government never attacked the United States or even threatened to do so.

We Have Turned Iraq Into the Most Hellish Place on Earth
Simon Jenkins -- The Guardian (Britain)

This country has been turned by two of the most powerful and civilised nations on Earth into the most hellish place on Earth. Armies claiming to bring democracy and prosperity have brought bloodshed and a misery worse than under the most ruthless modern dictator. This must be the stupidest paradox in modern history. Neither America nor Britain has the guts to rule Iraq properly, yet they lack the guts to leave.

Israel Admits Using Phosphorous Bombs in Lebanon
Haaretz (Israel)

Israel has acknowledged for the first time that it attacked Hezbollah targets during the second Lebanon war with phosphorus shells. White phosphorus causes very painful and often lethal chemical burns to those hit by it, and until recently Israel maintained that it only uses such bombs to mark targets or territory. The announcement that the Israel Defense Forces had used phosphorus bombs in the war in Lebanon was made by Minister Jacob Edery, in charge of government-Knesset relations.

Europe Faces a Grim Future, New Study Finds
EU Business

The European Union will become older, poorer and increasingly vulnerable to wide-scale immigration from its neighbours, according to a new European Defence Agency report. The agency also highlights the problems of increasing unemployment and desertification in its 32-page "long-term vision" for European defence needs which will be presented to EU defence ministers meeting in Finland on Tuesday. The document, described by one diplomat as "pretty bleak", is the result of a year's work identifying the main trends for EU member nations and their defence needs. The overall picture is of an aging, less prosperous Europe surrounded by regions -- Africa, Middle East, Russia -- "which may be struggling to cope with the consequences of globalisation".

Sorry About That: When Canada Defeated the US in War
George Graham

When it comes to Canadian military matters, most non-Canadians are surprised to learn that Canada even has a military. Yet our military history is a long and honorable one, even if most of us are unaware of it. For example, more than 150 years before the Tet Offensive, Canada handed the United States its first significant military defeat -- in the War of 1812 (1812–1815), the brazen attempt to militarily annex Canada. The Americans believed that, since Canada was only lightly defended, its fall would be swift. (Sound familiar?) In 1813 Americans attacked and burned York, a town with fewer than 2,000 residents. The Americans, who outnumbered the defenders by 3:1, suffered more than twice as many casualties as the Canadians and British.

Bush's Absolute Power Grab
Carla Binion

On October 17, George W. Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006. This new law gives Bush power similar to that of Stalin or Hitler, and grants agencies within the executive branch powers similar to those of the KGB or Gestapo. Bush justifies this act by claiming he needs it to fight the "war on terror," but a number of critics, including former counterterrorism officials, have said the administration has greatly exaggerated the threat and used illogical methods to combat terrorism. (Examples are listed below.) Except for MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, few television news reporters have bothered to mention that the Military Commissions Act has changed the U.S. justice system and our approach to human rights.

Swiss Minister Calls for Repeal of 'Holocaust Denial' Law
European Jewish Press

Switzerland’s justice minister has called on the Swiss government to reverse a law which makes historical revisionism illegal. Minister Christoph Blocher is on a campaign to change the law, according to the Neue Zuercher Zeitung (NZZ) newspaper – even if it will impinge upon the sensitivities of minority groups, including the country’s Jewish communities. Blocher claims that freedom of expression is more important than protecting the sensibilities of minority groups, NZZ wrote... He believes that Swiss law needs to be a beacon for other nations.

European Courts More Willing to Regard Iraq War as Criminal
George Monbiot -- The Guardian (Britain)

The defendants had tried to argue in court that the entire war against Iraq was a crime of aggression... In summing up, the judge told the jurors that using weapons "with an adverse effect on civilian populations which is disproportionate to the need to achieve the military objective" is a war crime… While these non-verdicts are as far as the defence of lawful excuse for impeding the Iraq war has progressed in the UK, in Ireland and Germany the courts have made decisions -- scarcely reported over here -- whose implications are momentous.

How Bush Rules
David Gordon

How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime, by Sidney Blumenthal... is a cogently argued analysis of Bush’s radical and dangerous policies... As everyone but the Secretary of State knows, the Iraq war has turned out to be a disastrous failure. The downfall of Saddam Hussein has led, not to the democracy foretold by the neoconservatives, but to terror and chaos... The foreign policy professionals in the State Department and the military experts were aghast at Bush’s plans and warned that invasion would lead to a power vacuum. Bush ignored these forebodings of disaster... As far as the "weapons of mass destruction" are concerned, Bush and his cohorts were not the victims of bad intelligence.

Nuclear Strike on Iran is Still on the Agenda
Jorge Hirsch

The Bush administration has radically redefined America's nuclear use policy: U.S. nuclear weapons are no longer regarded as qualitatively different from conventional weapons Many actions of the administration in recent years strongly suggest that an imminent U.S. nuclear use is being planned for, and this was confirmed by Bush’s explicit refusal to rule out a U.S. nuclear strike against Iran... The U.S. has now achieved vast nuclear superiority and is about to demonstrate to the world that its $5 trillion nuclear arsenal is not “unusable.” ... Crossing the nuclear threshold in a war against Iran will trigger a chain reaction that in the coming years could lead to global nuclear war and widespread destruction of life on the planet.

The Ominous Meaning of the Military Commission Act of 2006
Karen Kwiatkowski

Constitutionalists, liberty lovers, and those who recognize the true nature of the leviathan state rightfully despair of the latest law of the land. The Military Commission Act of 2006 is a disaster of epic proportions… This unfortunate law is a tsunami originating in the underground statism and overt imperialism of America in the 20 th century. A critical disturbance has occurred deep below an ocean called "War on Terror," with its imagined fearsome fleet called "Islamofascism." It is a tectonic crash that resonates deeply in the generalized anxiety of Americans who vaguely sense that the future for their children is going to be very different than they hoped.

Facial Expressions are 'Hereditary,' Researchers Confirm
BBC News

The faces we pull when we are happy, sad or angry may be passed from generation to generation, according to researchers. An Israeli team discovered facial expressions among family members bore striking similarities. Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they said their findings suggested expressions may be hereditary. This confirms an idea posed by Charles Darwin in 1872.

Thomas Jefferson and the Sally Hemmings Myth
Mark Weber

Probably the most notorious accusation against Thomas Jefferson is the persistent allegation that he secretly took a mulatto slave named Sally Hemings (or Hemmings) as a mistress, and fathered several children by her... To those who knew Jefferson, his high moral standards and his deep devotion to his dead wife's memory, the entire story was absurd and contemptible. Nevertheless, it soon gained widespread circulation and many believers. Today it is occasionally given credence by black or leftist academics.

The Climbing US National Debt
zFacts

Truman, Ike, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Carter wiped out most of the World War II national debt. Two parts of the federal government are running big surpluses. We are going to hit a 50-year high for debt as a percent of the economy (GDP). The eye-popping $8 trillion gross national debt is owed by the "General Fund." That's the part funded by our income taxes. Half of that goes for the military and to pay interest on the debt. Fortunately two huge parts of the budget, Social Security and Medicare, are running surpluses.

The US National Debt Clock
Ed Hall

The purpose of this FAQ is to answer some of the questions which are asked by people visiting the U.S. National Debt Clock. -- "The budget should be balanced; the treasury should be refilled; public debt should be reduced; and the arrogance of public officials should be controlled,” said Roman statesman Cicero (106-43 B.C.)

Nearly One-Third of Americans Support 'Christian Zionism'
Council for the National Interest

A new poll shows that nearly a third of likely American voters -- 31 percent -- believe in Christian Zionism, as defined as "a belief that Israel must have all of the promised land, including Jerusalem, to facilitate the second coming of the messiah." More than half -- 53 percent -- of American voters do not believe in Christian Zionism, while 16 percent are not sure. The poll was commissioned by the Council for the National Interest Foundation and carried out by Zogby International.

Americans More Anxious About World Affairs, New Poll Shows
Jim Lobe - Inter Press Service

Five years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the U.S. public has become increasingly anxious about world events and the role that their country is playing in them, according to the latest "Confidence in U.S. Foreign Policy" survey released Wednesday by a nonpartisan group, Public Agenda, and Foreign Affairs journal… Nearly 90 percent of respondents said they considered it a threat to U.S. national security when "the rest of the world sees the United States" in a negative light. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said the world currently feels either "somewhat" or "very" negatively toward the country, while nearly four in five said they believe the country is seen as "arrogant."

It’s the Palestinian Problem, Stupid
Charley Reese

To paraphrase the rather rude slogan of Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign, "It's the Palestinian problem, stupid." ...The U.S. loads the Israelis down with weapons, gives them billions of American tax dollars, supports their occupation of Arab lands and protects them from international actions by wielding its veto in the U.N… As long as you are stupid enough to allow a small country to drag us into its unending quarrels, then by all means quit whining about the price we will have to pay.

The Israel-Palestine Conflict: A Brief Historical Overview
If Americans Knew

For 2,000 years there was no such conflict. The land of Palestine was inhabited by Palestinian Arabs. In 1850 these consisted of approximately 400,000 Muslims, 75,000 Christians, and 25,000 Jews. For centuries these groups had lived in harmony: 80 percent Muslim, 15 percent Christian, 5 percent Jewish. But then in the late 1800s a group in Europe decided to colonize this land. Known as "Zionists," this group consisted of an extremist minority of the world Jewish population. They wanted to create a Jewish homeland, and at first considered locations in Africa and South America, before finally settling on Palestine for their colony.

The Rabbinical Kosher Excise Tax

Nine-minute video about the little-known fee that all consumers pay to Jewish groups for certification that a vast array of products they buy are “Kosher.”

Former President Carter Describes Israel as Apartheid System
Forward (New York)

...Former President Jimmy Carter is releasing a book on the Middle East, titled "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid." Judging from an advance review manuscript of the new work, published by Simon & Schuster and set for release November 14, Carter places the bulk of the blame on Israel for its continuing conflict with the Palestinians… Israel's current policy in the territories, Carter writes in the book's summary, is "a system of apartheid, with two peoples occupying the same land but completely separated from each other, with Israelis totally dominant and suppressing violence by depriving Palestinians of their basic human rights."

Don’t Legislate History
Timothy Garton Ash -- The Guardian (Britain)

No one can legislate historical truth. In so far as historical truth can be established at all, it must be found by unfettered historical research, with historians arguing over the evidence and the facts, testing and disputing each other's claims without fear of prosecution or persecution… Far from creating new legally enforced taboos about history, national identity and religion, we should be dismantling those that still remain on our statute books. Those European countries that have them should repeal not only their blasphemy laws but also their laws on Holocaust denial. Otherwise the charge of double standards is impossible to refute.

Half of Americans Think Congress is Corrupt, New Poll Finds
CNN

Half of all Americans believe most members of Congress are corrupt -- a figure that has risen 12 points since the start of the year -- and more than a third think their own representative is crooked, according to a new poll released Thursday by CNN. According to the poll, a majority disapproves of how both parties are handling their jobs in Congress. Just 42 percent approve of how the Democrats are doing in Congress, while 54 percent disapprove. The GOP fares even worse -- only 36 percent approve of their performance in Congress, while 61 percent disapprove.

Bush Under Growing Pressure to Change Iraq Policy
Jim Lobe -- Inter Press Service

While Bush, true to his self-image as an uncommonly firm leader in the mold of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, is undoubtedly sincere in his determination to press ahead, political circumstances – not to mention the accelerating slide into an appalling civil war in Iraq – are clearly conspiring against him. The signs of eroding support for Bush's "stay-the-course" strategy are virtually everywhere in Washington, where senior Republicans, such as the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, John Warner, are moving into open revolt against what they see as a rapidly deteriorating situation and Bush's bullheadedness in still believing that Iraq will somehow become a model for democratic transformation in the Middle East.

Just Think
Charley Reese

The foremost duty of a citizen, especially in dangerous times, is to think. Without independent thinkers who are also economically independent of the government, democracy doesn't work. Remembering and imagining are not thinking. Emotional reactions or ideological reactions are not thinking. Thinking is the use of reason to determine the truth as best we can. To do that, we have to shuck emotions, desires and wishes and look at the world in its nakedness as it is, not as we wish it were or as someone else has told us it is.

Did the US Create Democracy in Germany?
James L. Payne -- The Independent Review

A close look reveals that, from the standpoint of democratic nation building, the U.S. occupation of Germany is actually a lesson on what not to do... The occupation’s actual policies and activities from 1945 to 1952 did little to further democracy, and many of them caused positive harm… Many Americans suppose that “we put Germany on its feet after the war,” but the truth is more nearly the opposite... The Allies also pursued a policy of dismantling factories, deliberately destroying hundreds of plants and throwing several hundred thousand employees out of work...

Forty Percent of Americans See Israel Lobby as Key Factor in Iraq War
Council for the National Interest

A new poll shows that a significant number of Americans are wary of the power of the Israel lobby, and believe it is behind the invasion of Iraq and the current belligerent tone of the White House and Congress toward Iran. The poll, commissioned by the Council for the National Interest Foundation and carried out by Zogby International, reveals that 39 percent of the American public "agree" or "somewhat agree" that "the work of the Israel lobby on Congress and the Bush administration has been a key factor for going to war in Iraq and now confronting Iran." However, a similar number, 40 percent, “strongly disagreed" or "somewhat disagreed" with this position.

The Great Experiment
Uri Avnery

Is it possible to force a whole people to submit to foreign occupation by starving it? That is, certainly, an interesting question. So interesting, indeed, that the governments of Israel and the United States, in close cooperation with Europe, are now engaged in a rigorous scientific experiment in order to obtain a definitive answer. The laboratory for the experiment is the Gaza Strip, and the guinea pigs are the million and a quarter Palestinians living there.

Swiss Bank Pays Holocaust Survivors for Missing Accounts
Haaretz (Israel)

Martin Stern, a British-Israeli businessman who resides in Jerusalem, was surprised earlier this week to receive an announcement that he had been awarded $5,000. He was even more surprised to discover that the announcement came from the New York court handling claims for dormant Swiss bank accounts from the Holocaust era… The court's surprising generosity does not stop at handing out checks to plaintiffs whose cases were rejected. Claimants whose accounts were located, most of whom have received compensation, are slated to receive additional hundreds of millions of dollars soon.

Fashion Firm Under Investigation for Swastika Design
European Jewish Press

The fashion firm Esprit is under investigation in Germany after accusations that British-made buttons appearing in their new collection have swastika designs. The firm has agreed to pulp over 200,000 autumn collection catalogues after complaints that the leather folding on certain cardigan buttons resembles the Nazi insignia. And Esprit bosses continue to face large fines or even prison sentences if German prosecutors investigating the charges decide that the buttons were intentionally designed… Last month, a court in Stuttgart fined a 32-year-old man more than 7,000 euros (8,700 dollars) for selling anti-Nazi badges that showed a swastika with a line through it. In Germany, all depictions of the Nazi cross are forbidden.

Iraq President Calls for Closer Iran-Syria Relationship
BBC News

Violence in Iraq could end "within months" if Iran and Syria joined efforts to stabilise the country, says Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. He told the BBC the move would "be the beginning of the end of terrorism". The suggestion is said to come from a panel of US experts who are reportedly considering calling for a big change in US policy on Iraq. The panel, led by a former US secretary of state, is also said to think that "staying the course" is untenable. However, Mr Talabani said was not worried by reports that James Baker's panel may recommend an early -- or phased - withdrawal of coalition troops from Iraq.

Letter Document Historic WWI Christmas Truce Football Match Found
ANI (India)

A letter documenting the famous Christmas Day truce of 1914 when guns fell silent along the Western Front, and feuding German and British soldiers engaged in a friendly soccer match in the icy mud of No Man’s Land in France, has been found 92 years after it was written. The letter, written in the British trenches by a British private, details the truce when the Kaiser’s soldiers and British tummies exchanged pleasantries and celebrated Christmas together, and engaged in what was to become famous as the world’s only friendly football mach between enemy soldiers during a war.

Crisis of the U.S. Dollar System
F. William Engdahl -- Global Research

In my view, the world has entered a new, highly dangerous phase since the collapse of the US stock market bubble in 2001. I am speaking about the unsustainable basis of the very Dollar System itself... What is little understood, is how the role of US trade deficits and the Dollar System are connected. The United States has followed a deliberate policy of trade deficits and budget deficits for most of the past two decades, so-called benign neglect, in effect, to lock the rest of the world into dependence on a US money system... The problem is that Washington has allowed this perverse system to get out of all control to the point today it threatens to bring the entire world to the point of collapse.

New Light on the 1956 Hungarian Uprising
The Star (Toronto)

It lasted less than two weeks, from the first euphoric student demonstrations in Budapest on Oct. 23 till its final bloody end on Nov. 4, when it was crushed by Soviet tanks, but the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 left an indelible mark on Cold War politics and continues to resonate today. Thanks to the work of historians rooting through newly released materials, the world's first televised revolution is now seen as a classic case of how the Cold War deformed international relations in ways that are still felt in Iran, Afghanistan and Latin America. In fact, only now, 17 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, is the truth about what happened and why coming into clear focus.

Across Europe, Worries About Islam Spread to Mainstream
The New York Times

Europe appears to be crossing an invisible line regarding its Muslim minorities: more people in the political mainstream are arguing that Islam cannot be reconciled with European values… For years those who raised their voices were mostly on the far right. Now those normally seen as moderates — ordinary people as well as politicians — are asking whether once unquestioned values of tolerance and multiculturalism should have limits.

Iran: The Next War
James Bamford

Even before the bombs fell on Baghdad, a group of senior Pentagon officials were plotting to invade another country. Their covert campaign once again relied on false intelligence and shady allies. But this time, the target was Iran... The Bush administration's National Security Strategy - the official policy document that sets out US strategic priorities - now calls Iran the "single country" that most threatens US interests. The shift in official policy has thrilled former members of the cabal. To them, the war in Lebanon represents the final step in their plan to turn Iran into the next Iraq.

Judt at War: Two New York Talks by Israel Critic Cancelled
New York Observer

The 58-year-old Mr. Judt, a British-Jewish professor of European history at New York University and director of the Remarque Institute, had just come off a busy week perhaps particular to accented intellectuals who speak controversially about Israel: Just days before, Mr. Judt found two of his New York speaking engagements, one at the Polish Consulate, the other at Manhattan College, suddenly canceled. The ensuing chaos - a combination of conflicting news reports, pitched rhetoric and the specter of censorship raised in heated semi-public e-mail discussions -- forced the spotlight back on Mr. Judt, an already divisive figure in the Jewish community, as well as in New York's chatty intellectual hothouse.

Major Jewish Backers of Britain’s Conservative Party Identified
Jewish Chronicle (Britain)

Prominent members of the Jewish community are playing a major role in financing David Cameron’s bid for power, a JC investigation can reveal. The biggest Jewish donor to the [Conservative] party [in Britain] while Mr Cameron has been leader is gaming magnate Lord Steinberg, who has donated £530,000, plus a loan of £250,000. Hedge-fund owner Stanley Fink has donated £103,000... Beyond the donors, a small but influential group of Jewish Conservative officials and politicians were also key players in Mr Cameron’s campaign for the leadership.

White House Mocked Evangelicals, Aide Says
The Guardian (Britain)

A former senior presidential aide has accused the Bush administration of using evangelical Christians to win votes but then privately ridiculing them once in office. The allegations by David Kuo, the former deputy director of the White House office of faith-based initiatives, come at a devastating time, when the administration is counting on born-again Christians to vote in sufficient numbers to save the Republicans' hold on Congress in the November elections. In a book entitled Tempting Faith: an Inside Story of Political Seduction, Mr Kuo portrays the Bush White House's commitment to evangelical causes as little more than a cynical facade designed to win votes.

Pro-Israel Group Tops List of Congressional Travel Sponsors
San Francisco Chronicle

… The American Israel Education Foundation, which has emerged as the new top sponsor despite its close ties to the most powerful pro-Israel lobbying group in Washington. The foundation spent $583,131, sponsoring 62 trips to Israel for lawmakers, their relatives and staff from July 2005 to July 2006. Unlike the extravagant golfing trips that marked the Abramoff scandal, the foundation sends congressional members to Israel with an intense itinerary packed with tours and meetings with top-ranking officials and academics.

Israel's Plan For A Military Strike on Iran
Jonathan Cook

The Middle East, and possibly the world, stands on the brink of a terrible conflagration as Israel and the United States prepare to deal with Iran's alleged ambition to acquire nuclear weapons. Israel, it becomes clearer by the day, wants to use its air force to deliver a knock-out blow against Tehran. It is not known whether it will use conventional weapons or a nuclear warhead in such a strike. At this potentially cataclysmic moment in global politics, it is good to see that one of the world's leading broadcasters, the BBC, decided this week that it should air a documentary entitled "Will Israel bomb Iran?". It is the question on everyone's lips and doubtless, with the imprimatur of the BBC, the program will sell around the world.

Thou Shalt Not Reelect
Joseph Sobran

The voters are really angry. They are angry at both parties, at the president, and at Congress. They are sick and tired of the status quo... They're mad as hell and they're not going to stand for it anymore. They are demanding change in Washington. And in a democracy like our own, the voters are sovereign. So, this November, the voters, in their awful fury, are going to rise up and send the incumbents back to Washington. That's what they always do. This is how a vibrant democracy works… The obvious solution is for nonvoters to start voting, or for a few voters to get smart. The rule should be simply this: Never vote for an incumbent. Always vote for the challenger, even if he looks worse than the incumbent.

If In Doubt, Vote Against the Incumbent
Charley Reese

My fondest hope for this political season is that every Republican senator and representative up for re-election is defeated. It's not that the Democrats are any great prize, but they are marginally more intellectually honest than the Republicans. Most Democrats are leftists and socialists, and most of their rhetoric reflects that, as do the issues they support. Most Republicans, however, are big fat hypocrites who campaign as conservatives when in fact, judged by their actions and their votes, they are no more conservative than Pol Pot or Karl Marx… As for foreign affairs, most of them don't have a clue as to what's going on outside their own country club and favorite fancy restaurants. They are mental and moral midgets.

Christians Discriminated Against by Israel
Donald Neff

Jewish infringements on Christian rights became so bad by 1990 that on Dec. 20 the leaders of Christian churches in Jerusalem took the extraordinary decision to restrict Christmas celebrations to protest “the continuing sad state of affairs in our land,” including encroachment by Israel on traditional Christian institutions... Anti-Christian prejudice helps account for the fact that the number of Christian Palestinians in all of former Palestine had dwindled to only 50,000 in 1995. They no longer were a major presence in either Jerusalem or Ramallah, and they were fast losing their majority status in Bethlehem...

US Troops to Stay in Iraq Until 2010, Says Army Chief
Associated Press

The U.S. Army has plans to keep the current level of soldiers in Iraq through 2010, the top Army officer said Wednesday, a later date than Bush administration or Pentagon officials have mentioned thus far. The Army chief of staff, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, cautioned against reading too much into the planning, saying troops levels could be adjusted to actual conditions in Iraq.

Israel Using New Weapon on Palestinians, Italian Probe Finds
Haaretz (Israel)

An investigative report to be aired on Italian television Wednesday raises the possibility that Israel has used an experimental weapon in the Gaza Strip in recent months, causing especially serious physical injuries, such as amputated limbs and severe burns. The weapon is similar to one developed by the U.S. military, known as DIME, which causes a powerful and lethal blast, but only within a relatively small radius. The Italian report is based on the eyewitness accounts of medical doctors in the Strip, as well as tests carried out in an Italian laboratory. The investigative team is the same one that exposed, several months ago, the use by U.S. forces in Iraq of phosphorous bombs, against Iraqi rebels in Faluja.

Lost Wars and a Lost Economy
Paul Craig Roberts

President Bush and his neocon flaks have simultaneously lost two wars and America’s economic future. Last Friday’s payroll jobs report was a continuation of Bush’s dismal record. Only 59,000 net new private sector jobs were created during September. That is about 90,000 less than would be needed to stay even with population growth… Jobs offshoring and work visas for foreigners are dismantling the ladders of upward mobility that made America an opportunity society for American citizens. In the 21st century, real income growth has been limited to a few at the top, while median family income stagnates or declines.

US Trade Deficit Surges in August
BBC News

The US trade deficit widened by more than expected during August, raising concerns about the state of the world's largest economy. The deficit was $69.9 billion in August, up from July's $68 billion level, the US Commerce Department said. The deficit is on course to set a new record, totalling $784.2 billion at the end of August, 9.4 percent higher than a year ago.

Turkey Condemns French Vote on Armenian Genocide 'Denial'
BBC News

Turkey has condemned a French parliamentary vote which would make it a crime to deny that Armenians suffered "genocide" at the hands of the Turks. Turkey called it a "serious blow" to relations and has threatened sanctions. The vote was also criticised by the European Union. The bill, tabled by the opposition but opposed by the French government, needs approval from the Senate and president. Armenia says Ottoman Turks killed 1.5 million people systematically in 1915 -- a claim strongly denied by Turkey.

Russia is Rapidly Becoming More 'Diverse'
Kim Murphy -- Los Angeles Times

… The overall proportion of ethnic Russians has slipped only slightly, shrinking from 83% of the population to 79.8% over the last decade. Demographic trends suggest that the decrease is likely to continue. Although most experts are skeptical, a former U.S. government expert on Russian nationalities recently predicted that Russia would have a Muslim majority within 30 years. In addition to its own Muslim population, Russia is home to an estimated 10 million illegal immigrant workers from the largely Muslim former Soviet republics in Central Asia and the Caucasus. The city of Moscow has swelled to 10.4 million people, and one-fifth of them are Muslims. The Russian capital has the largest Muslim population of any city in Europe.

The Mystery of America
Gideon Levy -- Haaretz (Israel)

No government in Israel, and surely not the most recent ones, which are terrified of the American administration, would stand up to a firm American demand to bring the occupation to an end. But there has never been an American president who wanted to put an end to the occupation. Does America not understand that without ending the occupation there will be no peace? Peace in the region would deliver a greater blow to world terrorism than any war America has pursued, in Iraq or Afghanistan. Does America not understand this? Can all this be attributed to the omnipotent Jewish lobby, which causes Israel more harm than good?

The Age of Terror: Double Standards of Morality
Robert Fisk

...In the 65-year period between 1941 and 2006, the US has been at war in some form or another for all but 14 of them. And people around the world have got tired of this. They got tired of America's insatiable need for an enemy - and suspicious of all the talk of democracy, freedom and morality in which every war was cast. They stopped buying the US narrative… The entire [Middle East] region is sinking deeper into bloodshed and all the time, over and over again, Bush and Blair tell us it is all getting much better, that we can all be heartened by the spread of non-existent democracies, that the dawn is rising on Condi's "new" Middle East. Are they really hoping that they can distort the mirror of the world's reality with their words?

Bush’s Signing Statement Dictatorship
James Bovard

President Bush has once again decreed that his personal pen is the highest law of the land. In a statement issued on October 4, 2006, he announced that he would ignore many provisions of the Homeland Security appropriations act he signed earlier in the day. His action vivifies that the rule of law now means little more than the enforcement of the secret thoughts of the commander in chief.

Iraq 'Excess' Death Toll is 655,000, New Study Estimates
The Washington Post

A team of American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimates that 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred. The estimate, produced by interviewing residents during a random sampling of households throughout the country, is far higher than ones produced by other groups, including Iraq's government... While acknowledging that the estimate is large, the researchers believe it is sound for numerous reasons. The recent survey got the same estimate for immediate post-invasion deaths as the early survey, which gives the researchers confidence in the methods. The great majority of deaths were also substantiated by death certificates.

Israeli Doctors Arrested Over Human Experimentation
Haaretz (Israel)

Four senior doctors at Kaplan Hospital in Rehovot and Hartzfeld Geriatric Hospital in Gedera suspected of illegally experimenting on humans were arrested Monday. The national fraud squad has opened an investigation into the affair. The four are suspected of abuse, aggravated assault, causing death through negligence, fraud, forgery, breach of statutory duty, and disruption of legal proceedings… According to a report issued by the investigations department of the Health Ministry and exposed by Haaretz, the hospitals in Gedera and Rehovot conducted illegal and unethical testing on thousands of elderly patients for years.

Swiss Minister Wants Revision of 'Anti-Racism' Law
Swiss Info

Swiss Justice Minister Christoph Blocher says he is intent on revising Switzerland's anti-racism law, confirming comments he made in Turkey earlier this week… What bothered him in the legislation was the "tense relationship" between freedom of speech and anti-racism legislation. Freedom of expression was essential to democracy, affirmed the minister. "I want people to be able to express themselves in Switzerland, even if their opinion doesn't appeal to everyone," he added. Blocher had remarked that part of the anti-racism law - adopted in 1994 and including sections aimed at preventing revisionist views about the Holocaust - gave him a "headache".

Colin Powell Identified Pro-War 'JINSA Crowd,' Says New Biography
Los Angeles Times (Review)

According to the author [Karen DeYoung], the then-secretary went out of his way to identify the pro-war neoconservatives as affiliates of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, a think-tank with decidedly hard-line views on Israel's security. "Powell referred to Rumsfeld's team as the 'JINSA crowd.'" Later in "Soldier," readers are told that the neoconservatives in the Defense Department — nearly all of them Jews — supported war against Iraq as the first step to replacing Arab despots with democratic governments that would sever their ties to the Palestinians, thereby enhancing Israel's security.

Ethnic Diversity 'Breeds Mistrust'
The Australian

Ethnic diversity seriously undermines the trust and social bonds within a community, according to important new research that casts a gloomy shadow over optimistic theories about the benefits of the social melting pot in immigrant societies such as Australia. The worrying findings about the effects of ethnic diversity were developed by Robert Putnam, a Harvard University political scientist whose previous research on community dynamics has been highly influential among policymakers in the US… His extensive research found that the more diverse a community, the less likely were its inhabitants to trust anyone, from their next-door neighbour to their local government.

Jewish Groups Block New York Talk by Historian
The Washington Post

Two major American Jewish organizations helped block a prominent New York University historian from speaking at the Polish consulate in New York last week, saying the academic was too critical of Israel and American Jewry. The historian, Tony Judt, is Jewish and directs New York University's Remarque Institute, which promotes the study of Europe. Judt was scheduled to talk Oct. 4 to a nonprofit organization that rents space from the consulate. Judt's subject was the Israel lobby in the United States, and he planned to argue that this lobby has often stifled honest debate.

French Embassy Cancels New York Book Event Over Author's Israel Views
Reuters

The French Embassy on Monday canceled a New York party for a book about Vichy France's collaboration with Nazi Germany because of the author's postscript that says Israel has oppressed Palestinians. The Cultural Services of the French Embassy's office in New York had planned to hold a party on Tuesday to fete the September publication of author Carmen Callil's "Bad Faith" about Louis Darquier de Pellepoix, the Vichy government official who organized the deportation of French Jews to Auschwitz. Callil told Reuters on Monday that the party was canceled after complaints from "fundamentalist Jews."

Courtroom Uproar in Zundel Trial Proceedings
Ingrid Rimland -- Zundelsite

...This [October 4] hearing was one of the most significant and dramatic events as yet that played in the courtroom in Mannheim… Specifically, in reference to expert witnesses, the Zundel defense team had requested that both the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as well as Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, be permitted to testify as to the harmful consequences of keeping the world in the dark by pretending the Holocaust was what it purported to be - a "fact of history" - now contested by this obstreperous Swabian in Mannheim.

Japan Shrine to Review Controversial Display on WWII
BBC News

Japan's controversial Yasukuni shrine is to review a controversial display that says the US provoked Japan into entering World War II, Japanese media reports. The US government complained about the exhibit, which claims that a US economic embargo forced Japan into war. The Yasukuni shrine, seen by critics as a symbol of Japan's past militarism, has soured ties with its neighbours.

World Environmental Disaster Looms, Say Leading Scientists
The Independent (Britain)

Planet Earth stands on the cusp of disaster and people should no longer take it for granted that their children and grandchildren will survive in the environmentally degraded world of the 21st century. This is not the doom-laden talk of green activists but the considered opinion of 1,300 leading scientists from 95 countries who will today [in March 2005] publish a detailed assessment of the state of the world at the start of the new millennium. The report does not make jolly reading. The academics found that two-thirds of the delicately-balanced ecosystems they studied have suffered badly at the hands of man over the past 50 years.

Lincoln Weeps: Washington, DC, is an 'Occupied' City
Bill Moyers

...This is an occupied city, a company town, and government is a subservient subsidiary of richly endowed patrons. Once upon a time the House of Representatives was known as "the people's house." No more. It belongs to K Street now. That's the address of the lobbyists who swarm all over Capitol Hill. There are 65 lobbyists for every member of Congress. They spend $200 million per month wining, dining and seducing federal officials. Per month! ... If we leave it to the powers that be to clean up the mess that greed and chicanery have given us, we will wake up one day with a real Frankenstein of a system - a monster worse than the one created by Abramoff, DeLay and their cronies.

Misreading the Tea Leaves: US Missteps on Foreign Policy
Stephen M. Walt

Just when you think that US foreign policy couldn't possibly get worse, the Bush administration manages to take it down another notch... What did the administration get so wrong? First, officials misunderstood how other states see US primacy. Convinced that American power was a force for good, Bush thought other states would welcome US leadership as long as he acted decisively... A second mistake was blaming anti-Americanism on "what we are" rather than "what we do." Bush says our enemies "hate our freedom" and believes that anti-Americanism arises from "hostility to core US values." ... Americans had better get used to a failed foreign policy, at least until 2008.

Fed Chairman Warns of Looming Social Security and Medicare Crisis
The Miami Herald

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke called Wednesday for urgent reform of Social Security and Medicare, warning that failure to do so soon could lead to dire economic consequences for future generations. Speaking to the Economic Club of Washington, Bernanke said that projected funding shortfalls for Social Security and Medicare threaten "large and unavoidable" fiscal consequences. Absent action soon, he warned, the nation could be forced to raise taxes sharply, trim retiree benefits, cut deeply into other government programs and run up the national debt -- or some combination of all these problems.

Iran’s Proud But Discreet Jews
BBC News

Although Iran and Israel are bitter enemies, few know that Iran is home to the largest number of Jews anywhere in the Middle East outside Israel. About 25,000 Jews live in Iran and most are determined to remain no matter what the pressures - as proud of their Iranian culture as of their Jewish roots.It is dawn in the Yusufabad synagogue in Tehran and Iranian Jews bring out the Torah and read the ancient text before making their way to work. It is not a sight you would expect in a revolutionary Islamic state, but there are synagogues dotted all over Iran where Jews discreetly practise their religion.

Congress's Shameful Retreat From American Values
Garrison Keillor -- The Chicago Tribune

Last week, we suspended human rights in America, and what goes around comes around. Ixnay habeas corpus. The U.S. Senate, in all its splendor and majesty, decided that an "enemy combatant" is any non-citizen whom the president says is an enemy combatant... It's good that Barry Goldwater is dead because this would have killed him. Go back to the Senate of 1964 -- Goldwater, Dirksen, Russell, McCarthy, Javits, Morse, Fulbright -- and you won't find more than 10 votes for it. None of the men and women who voted for this bill has any right to speak in public about the rule of law anymore, or to take a high moral view of the Third Reich, or to wax poetic about the American Ideal.

Long-Suppressed Stories of Britons in the 'Blitz'
The Guardian (Britain)

The slackers, the looters, the promiscuous and the just plain terrified men and women of the Blitz are finally being heard, more than 60 years after the last bombs fell. The voices often edited out of the patriotic official version of Britain's finest hour resurface in a new history of the Blitz and the Battle of Britain, based on thousands of hours of recordings of survivors, held in the archives of the Imperial War Museum... "Churchill was telling us how brave we all were and that we would never surrender,” recalls Marie Price, a civilian in Liverpool. “I tell you something - the people of Liverpool would have surrendered overnight if they could have. It's all right for people in authority, down in their steel-lined dugouts, but we were there and it was just too awful."

America Has Gone Too Far, Says Historian Paul Kennedy
Al Ahram (Egypt)

US Army generals would definitely say that America is overstretched. We are overstretched in two dimensions: military overextension across the globe, especially in Iraq, and financial overstretch because of budget and trade deficits. My argument is that economic power goes hand in hand with military power. If your economy is becoming less competitive, in the long-term your military position will become less easy to sustain... Eighteenth-century England was not a democracy. Only 10 per cent of men voted for parliament. It was a parliamentarian and representational system but it was not a democracy. On the other hand, it had secure commercial law.

Controversy Over 'Hitler' Sites in Vienna
European Jewish Press

Vienna’s city council has ordered a survey of all buildings dating back to the Nazi period, ranging from those that Hitler ordered built to the homeless hostel where he once lived as a struggling artist. It will then use the survey to select those it deems worthy of receiving protected status. There are reportedly hundreds of such buildings in the Austrian capital... Critics, though, fear that Austria may be looking to cash in on the sort of Hitler tourism that has already become a big hit in neighbouring Germany. Millions of people fascinated by the Nazi regime and World War II visit Germany every year to see buildings and sites associated with him and the Third Reich.

Off Limits? Talk by Israel Critic Cancelled
The Jewish Week (New York)

New York University historian Tony Judt sought to claim new ammunition this week for his charge that pro-Israel groups use their influence to stifle debate about their activities. Less than three hours before he was due to give a talk about the Israel lobby at the Polish Consulate Tuesday night, Poland’s consul general abruptly canceled the event after being contacted by Jewish and non-Jewish organizations. But the question of whether Jewish groups — in particular, the Anti-Defamation League — pressured Consul General Krzysztof Kasprzyk remained in sharp dispute... The episode took its place on a growing list of hotly disputed allegations that pro-Israel advocates use their influence to stifle debate, or harm the careers of individuals who step out of bounds.

Scholars Land Book Deal for Attack on 'Israel Lobby'
Forward (New York)

John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, the authors of a controversial paper criticizing the role of the “Israel Lobby” in American foreign policy, are at work on a book-length version of their findings to be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The two first published their paper in the March 23 edition of the London Review of Books. A longer version was posted on the Web site of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, where Walt is a professor of international affairs. Mearsheimer is a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. The paper argues that America’s “unwavering support for Israel… has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardized not only US security but that of much of the rest of the world.”

America is Living Beyond its Means
Larry Elliott -- The Guardian (Britain)

...The US is living beyond its means, hoping that nobody cashes the checks it has been merrily writing as the current account has gone deeper into the red. That's the advantage of being a reserve currency, even though, as Persaud notes, there is no rule which says that you have to run current account deficits simply because you are a reserve currency... In my lifetime, the dollar will start to lose its reserve currency status, not to the euro but to the [Chinese] renminbi or the rupee. This would clearly have massive economic and geopolitical consequences.

New Book Details Mass Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians
ZNet

In this new book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Israeli historian Ilan Pappe uses recently declassified archival sources to investigate the fate suffered by the indigenous population of 1940s Palestine at the hands of the Zionist political and military leadership, whose actions led to the mass deportation of over a million Palestinians from their cities and villages, over 400 villages wiped from the map, and hundreds of civilians dead... Pappe argues persuasively that the continued denial of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 and the consequent dispossession of a million native Palestinians from their homeland represents a gross injustice that requires redress.

Prof. Faurisson Convicted, Again, of 'Holocaust Denial'
European Jewish Press

Retired literature professor Robert Faurisson has been convicted of Holocaust denial by a Paris court on Tuesday over remarks he made on Iranian television. Faurisson, 77, well known for his revisionist views, was given a three month suspended prison term and also fined 7,500 euros. Speaking on the Sahar 1 Iranian satellite channel in February 2005, Faurisson said “there was never” a single execution gas chamber under the Germans... So all those millions of tourists who visit Auschwitz are seeing a lie, a falsification.” Faurisson was found guilty of “complicity in contesting the existence of a crime against humanity.” This is the fifth time that Faurisson has been condemned for the same offence.

China Secretly Fires Lasers to Disable US Satellites
The Daily Telegraph (London)

China has secretly fired powerful laser weapons designed to disable American spy satellites by "blinding" their sensitive surveillance devices, it was reported yesterday. The hitherto unreported attacks have been kept secret by the Bush administration for fear that it would damage attempts to co-opt China in diplomatic offensives against North Korea and Iran. Sources told the military affairs publication Defense News that there had been a fierce internal battle within Washington over whether to make the attacks public. In the end, the Pentagon's annual assessment of the growing Chinese military build-up barely mentioned the threat.

The Cooper Union 'Israel Lobby' Debate: A Sign of Progress
Michael J. Smith -- Counterpunch

The occasion was a "debate," hosted by the London Review of Books, on the question, "The Israel Lobby: Does it have too much influence on US foreign policy?" ... Twenty years ago, such a discussion, in this venue, would have been unthinkable; any attempt to raise the topic at all would have been shouted down by a coalition of JDL thugs from Brooklyn, and tough little old ex-Communist ladies from the Upper West Side. Twenty years ago, you would not have seen Establishment figures like John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt saying such things... So the times they are a-changin'. But we still have a ways to go.

The Israel Lobby
John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt – London Review of Books

For the past several decades the centerpiece of US Middle Eastern policy has been its relationship with Israel. The combination of unwavering support for Israel and the related effort to spread 'democracy' throughout the region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardized not only US security but that of much of the rest of the world. This situation has no equal in American political history. Why has the US been willing to set aside its own security and that of many of its allies in order to advance the interests of another state? The thrust of US policy in the region derives almost entirely from domestic politics, and especially the activities of the 'Israel Lobby'.

US Congress Approves Israel Military 'Joint' Projects
The Jerusalem Post (Israel)

The US Congress has approved an increase of $460 million in funding for joint Israeli-American defense programs, including $20 million for the development of a short-range ballistic missile defense system which will provide protection from Katyusha rockets. The funding, approved as part of the defense appropriations bill, is double the amount the administration initially requested for joint projects. It is not part of the foreign aid package which Israel receives annually... The increased funding by Congress is seen as a major achievement for Israel and was support by pro-Israel activists in Washington.

Edict That Expelled England’s Jews Was Never Repealed
European Jewish Press

Israeli historian Ori Katzir said last week that the Edict of Expulsion exiling Jews from England was never officially rescinded. In July 1290, Edward I issued writs to the sheriffs of English counties ordering them to enforce his decree that all Jews should leave England before the All Saints' Day festival in November that year. Parliament was so pleased at the decision that they decided to gift him tithes from taxes they received and items of their personal possessions to the king. This edict of expulsion became the model for many similar expulsions that followed across Europe.

Remembering Ukraine’s Unknown Holocaust
Eric Margolis

In 1932, Soviet leader Josef Stalin unleashed genocide in Ukraine. Stalin determined to force Ukraine's millions of independent farmers -- called 'kulaks' -- into collectivized Soviet agriculture, and to crush Ukraine's growing spirit of nationalism. Ukraine's nightmare had begun in 1932. Faced by resistance to collectivization, Stalin unleashed terror upon Ukraine. Moscow dispatched 25,000 fanatical young party militants to force 10 million Ukrainian peasants into collective farms. Secret police units of OGPU began selective executions of recalcitrant farmers. When Stalin's red guards failed to make a dent in this immense number, OGPU was ordered to begin mass executions.

The 'Jewish Soap' Fable
Institute for Historical Review

One of the most lurid and slanderous Holocaust claims is the story that the Germans manufactured soap from the bodies of their victims. Although a similar charge during the First World War was exposed as a hoax almost immediately afterwards, it was nevertheless revived and widely believed during the Second. More important, this accusation was "proved" at the main Nuremberg trial of 1945-1946, and has been authoritatively endorsed by numerous historians in the decades since. In recent years, though, as part of a broad retreat from the most obviously untenable aspects of the "orthodox" extermination story, Holocaust historians have grudgingly conceded that the human soap tale is a wartime propaganda lie.

Liberating Ourselves
Paul W. Schroeder -- The American Conservative

The Bush administration originally sold the Iraq War to the public, Congress, and the world with two propaganda packages appealing respectively to fear and hope… Everyone remembers the absurd predictions, false promises, and outright lies these packages contained. Today both have been totally discredited by events... The main intellectual defect in current American foreign policy is the lack of any sense of history... America’s leaders and their advisers, including some so-called historians and political scientists, not only are ignorant of history and insensitive to it, they despise and repudiate it. Their favorite epithet for opponents is to accuse them of having a pre-9/11 mentality, of believing that history before September 2001 still tells us something.

New Revelations About American Communist Historian Aptheker
Christopher Phelps

...Now we have knowledge of a far more painful contradiction in the life of Herbert Aptheker than his simultaneous defense of black freedom and Soviet authoritarianism, one long buried in silence. Intimate Politics (Seal Press), the stunning new memoir by Bettina Aptheker, will prompt a re-examination of her father... Incest is only the most painful of a series of hard truths about Herbert Aptheker that we confront in Intimate Politics… We learn that his celebrations of black resistance were attempts "to compensate for his deep shame about the way, he believed, the Jews had acted during the Holocaust." We are told that to cope with Stalin, the war, the party, and his family, he "lived much of the time in a fantasy world of his own making."

New Evidence Points to Pre-War Polish 'Holocaust'
European Jewish Press

Jewish organisations in Poland have moved to counter claims that Poles ran their own pre-war "Holocaust" after publication of controversial extracts from a 1930’s Jewish daily. The Polish daily "Zycie Warszawy" published during the week of September 24 the first extracts in Polish of a book compiling press articles from pre-war daily "Haynt," which reports how Poles tormented Jews, burying them alive, burning them and throwing them out of moving trains in a "mini-Holocaust" that began long before the Nazi Holocaust. The governments of independent Poland (1918-1939) were "far and away worse" in their persecution of the Jews than either Poland’s Tsarist or German occupiers, author Chaim Finkelstein wrote in the forward to the compilation.