Ukraine Parliament Says Stalin-Era Starvation Was Genocide
BBC News

Ukraine's parliament has voted in favour of declaring a Soviet-era famine an act of genocide against its people. Historians say Soviet leader Joseph Stalin created the famine, confiscating the harvest of Ukrainian peasants to force them to join collective farms. The bill was proposed by President Viktor Yushchenko, who wants the UN to also recognise the famine as genocide. Up to ten million people died during the 1932-1933 famine.

New IHR Newsletter Issued
Institute for Historical Review

The new IHR newsletter can be downloaded in pdf format. This information-packed, eight-page IHR Update issue includes a review of the Irving, Zundel and Rudolf cases, with background information on Europe’s notorious “Holocaust denial” laws, along with reports on the IHR’s work and impact in recent months, and more. The “hard copy” printed version of this newsletter, dated December, is being distributed by regular mail to friends and supporters of the IHR.

Bush Will Attack Iran, Say Some Analysts
Agence France Presse

President George W. Bush could choose military action over diplomacy and bomb Iran's nuclear facilities next year, political analysts in Washington agree. "I think he is going to do it," John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, a military issues think tank, told AFP. "They are going to bomb WMD facilities next summer," he added, referring to nuclear facilities Iran says are for peaceful uses and Washington insists are really intended to make nuclear bombs, or weapons of mass destruction (WMD). "It would be a limited military action to destroy their WMD capabilities" added the analyst, believing a US military invasion of Iran is not on the table.

The leader of Britain's Liberal Democrat party is considering recommendations to discipline and perhaps expel Baroness Jenny Tonge from the party's membership in the House of Lords following comments she made last week on the power of the "pro-Israel lobby." Speaking at Edinburgh University at a meeting attended by representatives of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tonge defended comments she made at September's party conference that "The pro-Israeli lobby has got its grips on the western world, its financial grips. I think they've probably got a grip on our party."

Ancient Calculator Was 1,000 Years Ahead of Its Time
Reuters

An ancient astronomical calculator made at the end of the 2nd century BC was amazingly accurate and more complex than any instrument for the next 1,000 years, scientists said on Wednesday. The Antikythera Mechanism is the earliest known device to contain an intricate set of gear wheels. It was retrieved from a shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera in 1901 but until now what it was used for has been a mystery. Although the remains are fragmented in 82 brass pieces, scientists from Britain, Greece and the United States have reconstructed a model of it using high-resolution X-ray tomography. They believe their findings could force a rethinking of the technological potential of the ancient Greeks.

I've seen the intense debate in Israel about Israeli government policies, with the majority of Israelis habitually favoring the withdrawal from occupied territories in exchange for peace. But that debate does not even exist in the United States. A member of Congress would not dream of coming out in favor of Israel's withdrawal from occupied territories or condemn Israel's treatment of Palestinian people. And very few of the news media in this country would ever bring out an intense analysis of the issues involved in the Middle East as they are brought out fervently in Israel and throughout Europe. There's no doubt that there is a strong aversion to criticizing Israel in this country.  

Israeli 'Domination' of Palestinians is 'Atrocious,' Says Carter
Ron Brynaert

Former Democratic President Jimmy Carter called Israeli "domination" over Palestinians "atrocious" during an interview Monday on ABC's Good Morning America. Appearing on the morning talk show to promote his new book, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, Carter dismissed criticism by some Democrats that his book comes down too harshly on America's key ally in the Middle East… Carter said that there was "no doubt now that a minority of Israelis are perpetuating apartheid on the people in Palestine, the Palestinian people."

Iran, which disputes that Jews were slaughtered by the Nazis, is to hold a conference next month to allow historians to clarify "hidden angles" of the Holocaust, the foreign ministry has revealed. The December 11 and 12 international gathering aims to "create opportunities ... for a suitable scientific research so the hidden and unhidden angles of this most important political issue of the 20th century become more transparent," said a statement on the Iranian foreign ministry's website. Iran's fiercely anti-Israeli regime is supportive of so-called Holocaust revisionists, who maintain that the systematic slaughter by the Nazis of mainland Europe's Jews and other groups during World War II was either invented or exaggerated. 

Churchill Borrowed Famous Lines from H. G. Wells
The Independent (Britain)

Winston Churchill was a closet science fiction fan who borrowed the lines for one of his most famous speeches from H.G. Wells, says new research. Dr Richard Toye, a history lecturer at Cambridge University, has discovered that the phrase "the gathering storm" -- used by Churchill to describe the rise of Nazi Germany -- had been written by Wells decades earlier in The War of the Worlds, which depicts an attack on Britain by Martians. Dr Toye also identified similarities between a speech Churchill made 100 years ago and Wells's book A Modern Utopia, published in 1905. Tellingly, just two days before Churchill delivered the speech in Glasgow on October 9, 1906, he wrote to Wells to enthuse about the book, admitting: "I owe you a great debt."

The Rise and Fall of the Neo-Cons
Jim Lobe and Michael Flynn

This essay examines the rise and decline of the neo-conservatives and their post-Cold War agenda. We conclude that although the neo-conservatives and their allied aggressive nationalists, such as Vice President Dick Cheney, retain sufficient weight to hamper efforts to push through major reversals in US foreign policy, the increasing isolation of this political faction coupled with recent political events in the United States point to the potential emergence of a more cautious, realist-inspired agenda during the final two years of the Bush presidency.

A Withering Critique of Theodore Roosevelt
Thomas E. Woods Jr. -- The American Conservative 

Jim Powell’s new book, Bully Boy: The Truth About Theodore Roosevelt’s Legacy …is truly withering… TR demanded American entry into World War I -- as catastrophic a foreign-policy blunder as any American president has ever made -- long before Woodrow Wilson made his fateful decision. He inserted into American political discourse the standard platitudes about world leadership… Powell’s important book confirms that if the American people are ever to emerge from the propaganda fog that surrounds them, a first step must involve the merciless smashing of the icon of Teddy Roosevelt

'Anti-Jewish' Turkish Film Pulled From US Theaters
Tom Tugend -- Jerusalem Post (Israel)

A Turkish film featuring a venal, bloodstained Jewish doctor has been withdrawn from screening in the United States. In Valley of the Wolves: Iraq, American actor Gary Busey portrays a Jewish doctor in the American army who cuts out the organs of Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison and sells them to wealthy clients in New York, London and Tel Aviv. The film, a blockbuster hit in its native country, had been scheduled to open Friday at two theaters in Los Angeles and one in San Francisco. Attempts to obtain further information from American or Turkish sources were unsuccessful, but a protest filed by the Anti-Defamation League may have played a role in the cancellation.

Zionist Groups Seek to Stifle Jewish Historian Over Anti-Israel Stance
The Times (London)

A leading British historian has sparked a row about free speech in America after an article criticising Israel prompted a backlash from Jewish groups and the cancellation of meetings where he was due to speak. Tony Judt, a liberal Jew and former kibbutznik, was accused of calling for the destruction of Israel after he wrote an article in The New York Review of Books in 2003, and in The Sunday Times, arguing for the creation of a secular bi-national state of Jews and Palestinians. More than 100 leading academics signed a letter in last week’s New York Review of Books protesting at the suppression of Judt’s talks. 

California Professor Assesses New Effort to Suppress His Work
Kevin MacDonald

Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has been interviewing some 40 students, faculty, and administrators at California State University -- Long Beach, where I am a tenured Professor of Psychology, for an upcoming hit job on me and my research… The SPLC is paying me attention because it wants to suppress my academic work… Some years ago I began to study the Jews. This resulted in three scholarly books and a monograph considering Judaism from a modern evolutionary perspective… This guilt trauma is the result of our evolved psychology and a long history of socialization in post-World-War-II America. It’s a big part of the problem, and people like me have simply got to become better at dealing with it.

John Stossel, anchor of the ABC News program 20/20, is a rarity among the ranks of American media personalities. He’s a skeptic when it comes to everything except freedom… Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity is a book based mainly on Stossel’s iconoclastic reporting… The core of the book is about the false beliefs people hold regarding politics. Everywhere he looks – government schooling, regulations, environmental scare-mongering, subsidies, and so forth – Stossel sees that ordinary people have been fed a diet of baloney to cover up the fact that some people use politics to take life, liberty, and property from other people.

America Faces a Future of Managing Imperial Decline
Martin Jacques -- The Guardian (Britain)

This year marks the beginning of the decline of American power in the Middle East, with untold consequences. Here we can see the cost of Bush's adventurism for American imperial power. Here we can see the cost of Bush's adventurism for American imperial power... Just six years into the 21st century, one can say this is not shaping up to be anything like an American century. Rather, the US seems much more likely to be faced with a very different kind of future: how to manage its own imperial decline.

Al-Jazeera and the Truth
Charley Reese

Since American politicians have involved us so deeply in the Middle East, the American public is entitled to see the truth of what's going on over there. The public can't get that from American television, which sanitizes its reports… You don't need an electronic bug in the offices of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee to know that AIPAC and the Bush administration are putting pressure on the distributors to shun al-Jazeera. Denying Americans their First Amendment right to the truth, in regard to Israel , is always Job One with AIPAC. That is necessary because the truth about Israel 's actions toward the Palestinians and other Arab countries puts the lie to all of the Zionist propaganda.

No Open Debate in US on Israel, Says Ex-President Carter
Forward (New York)

…I’ve seen the coverage given to Israel’s activities in Europe and in Israel itself -- a highly contentious debate over [Israel]. There is no such debate in the United States. There’s not any debate in the Congress. There’s not any debate in the White House, at least since George Bush Sr. and I were there, and in the news media of the United States there is very rarely any editorial comment that would criticize some of the practices of Israel which I consider to be deplorable -- and that is the persecution of the Palestinians, and the occupation and confiscation and the colonization of Palestinian land. So there’s no open debate in this country if it involves any criticism of the policies of the Israeli government…

Excerpts from Carter’s New Book 'Peace Not Apartheid'
Jimmy Carter

The overriding problem is that, for more than a quarter century, the actions of some Israeli leaders have been in direct conflict with the official policies of the United States, the international community, and their own negotiated agreements. Israel's continued control and colonization of Palestinian land have been the primary obstacles to a comprehensive peace agreement in the Holy Land. In order to perpetuate the occupation, Israeli forces have deprived their unwilling subjects of basic human rights. No objective person could personally observe existing conditions in the West Bank and dispute these statements.

Front Line Soldiers Made World War I a 'Literate' Conflict
The Times (London)

On Christmas Day 1914, from a trench in northern France, a British soldier who signed himself “Boy” wrote a letter to his mother: “My Dear Mater, This will be the most memorable Christmas I’ve ever spent… just before dinner I had the pleasure of shaking hands with several Germans… it all seems so strange.” Boy was merely doing what so many soldiers of the Great War did as a matter of routine: putting his thoughts and observations into words, and committing them to paper… The written word was not the preserve of an upper-class officer corps, but embraced by men of all ranks.

America’s Most Blatant Anti-Jewish Action
Lewis Regenstein -- The Jewish Press (Brooklyn)

On December 17, 1862, in the midst of the Civil War, Union general Ulysses S. Grant issued his infamous "General Order # 11," expelling all Jews "as a class" from his conquered territories within 24 hours. Henry Halleck, the Union general-in-chief, wired Grant in support of his action, saying that neither he nor President Lincoln were opposed "to your expelling traitors and Jew peddlers." A few months earlier, on August 11, General William Tecumseh Sherman had warned in a letter to the adjutant general of the Union Army that "the country will swarm with dishonest Jews" if continued trade in cotton were encouraged.

The Political Victory of Political Correctness
Paul Gottfried

French politician Jean Marie Le Penn is being summoned to a French court to stand trial a second time for remarks made to a reporter from the rightwing newspaper Rivarol in January 2005. In his controversial interview, Le Pen expressed the opinion that the German occupation of France "wasn't particularly inhumane, even if there were some blunders, which were inevitable." The new suit for group defamation and, by implication, for criminally denying the official facts about the Holocaust that were issued by the international Nuremberg Tribunal in 1946, is being brought by an organization with long-standing and transparent connections to the French Left.

Teachers Present Untraditional Thanksgiving Story
Associated Press

Teacher Bill Morgan walks into his third-grade class wearing a black Pilgrim hat made of construction paper and begins snatching up pencils, backpacks and glue sticks from his pupils. He tells them the items now belong to him because he "discovered" them. The reaction is exactly what Morgan expects: The kids get angry and want their things back. Morgan is among elementary school teachers who have ditched the traditional Thanksgiving lesson, in which children dress up like Indians and Pilgrims and act out a romanticized version of their first meetings. He has replaced it with a more realistic look at the complex relationship between Indians and white settlers.

Who Would Have Imagined It?
Paul Craig Roberts

George Orwell warned us, but what American would have expected that in the opening years of the 21st century the United States would become a country in which lies and deception by the president and vice president were the basis for a foreign policy of war and aggression, and in which indefinite detention without charges, torture, and spying on citizens without warrants have displaced the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution? If anyone had predicted that the election of George W. Bush to the presidency would result in an American police state and illegal wars of aggression, he would have been dismissed as a lunatic.

Zionist Settlements Violate Israeli Law, Says New Report
BBC News

More than a third of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank are built on privately owned Palestinian land, an Israeli campaign group has reported. Peace Now says nearly 40 percent of the land the settlements sit on is, according to official data, "effectively stolen" from Palestinian landowners. This, the group says, is a violation of Israel's own laws. Settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law, although Israel rejects this. About 430,000 Jews live in these residential areas in the West Bank and East Jerusalem .

Threat of War With Iran is Grounded
in Israel’s Holocaust Mindset
Scott Ritter

To understand Israel's present stance on Iran, perhaps the best place to begin is at Yad Vashem, Israel's main Holocaust museum and memorial… There is an element of hypocrisy inherent in the Israeli position… The reality of the Holocaust (from an historical perspective) and the concept of the Holocaust (regarding Israel's future) dominate the national security thinking of the Israeli state.

Israel Prime Minister Praises Iraq War
Haaretz (Israel)

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert drew fire from Democratic Party members Monday by publicly praising the war in Iraq. Speaking after his talks with U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House, Olmert said the American operation in Iraq brought stability to the Middle East. Olmert said Israel and other countries in the area should be thankful to the United States and Bush. He said the Iraq war had a dramatic, positive effect on security and stability in the Middle East, as well as having strategic importance from Israel's perspective and that of moderate Arab states. Olmert said he was satisfied with the position Bush took on Iran…

'No Proof' of Iran Nuclear Arms Program,
Says Secret CIA Report
BBC News

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has not found conclusive evidence that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, a US magazine has reported. Veteran investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, writing in The New Yorker, cites a secret CIA report based on intelligence such as satellite images. Correspondents say the alleged document appears to challenge Washington's views regarding Iranian nuclear intentions.

The Next Act: Is the Bush Administration
Likely to Attack Iran?
Seymour Hersh -- The New Yorker

The Bush Administration, if it does take military action against Iran, would have support from Democrats as well as Republicans. Senators Hillary Clinton, of New York, and Evan Bayh, of Indiana, who are potential Democratic Presidential candidates, have warned that Iran cannot be permitted to build a bomb and that -- as Clinton said earlier this year -- “we cannot take any option off the table.” Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, has also endorsed this view. Last May, Olmert was given a rousing reception when he addressed a joint session of Congress…

Future is 'Made in China'
Eric Margolis

While American voters were finally giving President George Bush and his southern-fried Republican Party a richly-deserved, long-overdue drubbing last week, I was off in China observing a nation that, while rigidly authoritarian, is at least governed by capable, intelligent people rather than the bungling politicians and crackpot ideologues that have run America onto the rocks. Here in Beijing for my umpteenth visit since 1975, I’ve seen the future, and it still says “made in China.” This gigantic metropolis of 25 million seemed destined to become the world’s new capital city -- provided China’s economy, still surging at over ten percent per annum, remains strong, and political stability continues.

Israel Admits Targeting Civilian Areas with Cluster Bombs
Haaretz (Israel)

For the first time Monday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) admitted targeting populated areas with cluster munitions. In a statement released by the IDF Spokesman's Office, "the use of cluster munitions against built-up areas was done only against military targets where rocket launches against Israel were identified and after taking steps to warn the civilian population." The statements released by the minister's office contradict Israel Defense Forces' claims -- made both during and after the war -- regarding the use of cluster munitions. One IDF version, which remained unchanged until earlier this week, held that the firing of cluster munitions was done in accordance with international law.

Americans Divided About Existence of God
Agence France Presse

Nearly half of Americans are not sure God exists, according to a poll that also found divisions among the public on whether God is male or female or whether God has a human form and has control over events. The survey conducted by Harris Poll found that 42 percent of US adults are not "absolutely certain" there is a God compared to 34 percent who felt that way when asked the same question three years ago… As to whether God controls events on Earth, 29 percent believe that to be the case while 44 percent said God "observes but does not control what happens on Earth".

Great Britain? Most Scots Want Independence
The Times (London)

The majority of Scots favour breaking away from the rest of the United Kingdom and embracing independence, according to a poll on the eve of the 300th anniversary of the Act of Union between Scotland and England. The ICM poll showed support for Scottish independence running at 51 per cent, the first time since 1998, the year before devolution, that support for separation has passed the 50 per cent mark. Only 39 per cent of Scots are for the status quo, and 10 per cent said that they did not know whether they wanted independence, according to the poll of 1,000 voters north of the Border.

The Dark Side of the 'Good War'
Michael Bess -- Los Angeles Times

World War II is wdely considered one of the most morally unambiguous military conflicts in history — the quintessential "Good War," as journalist Studs Terkel once described it… At the same time, 60 years of research and reflection have gradually brought to light numerous aspects of this conflict that do not fit a straightforward pattern of black-and-white moral clarity… Hamburg, Dresden, Tokyo — entire cities, tens of thousands of noncombatant civilians at a time, incinerated or blasted to bits under a steady torrent of British and American bombs. The large-scale killing of children, women and old people had now become routine facets of Allied warfare.

Race Divisions Still Profound, Says US Census Bureau
Associated Press

Decades after the civil rights movement, racial disparities in income, education and home ownership persist and, by some measurements, are growing. White households had incomes that were two-thirds higher than blacks and 40 percent higher than Hispanics last year, according to data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau. White adults were also more likely than black and Hispanic adults to have college degrees and to own their own homes. They were less likely to live in poverty. "Race is so associated with class in the United States that it may not be direct discrimination, but it still matters indirectly," said Dalton Conley, a sociology professor at New York University and the author of "Being Black, Living in the Red."

Stop Treating Israel as Special, Say German Academics
Ynet (Israel)

Germany has paid enough for implementing the Holocaust, and Israel has been given enough special treatment by that country in reparation, say 25 German academics. In a petition published Wednesday in the Frankfurter Rundschau, the academics - described as highly influential professors on the payroll of the German government - said it was time their country embraced the Palestinian Arabs as much as it has embraced the Jews. The ramifications of the Holocaust had resulted in much suffering among the "Palestinians" and Germany was therefore also bound to stand with them and not just with Israel . Failure to do so, the petitioners warned, could lead to unrest among the German people.

The US Economy is Dangerously Vulnerable: 15 Reasons Why
Economy in Crisis

If these trends continue unabated, what future could we possibly have? This wealth of this country was created under far different conditions than those that now exist. We are being misled into believing a false sense of perpetual invulnerable self-sufficiency. We largely fail to acknowledge just how extremely vulnerable we are. Given the scale of the problems outlined below, any single major disruption to our economy could have devastating consequences. 

Prof. MacDonald Responds to SPLC Campaign
Kevin MacDonald

The Southern Poverty Law Center has initiated a campaign against me. The controversy started around September 17, 2006… People tend to think that the SPLC is a reputable organization. However, there have been credible reports of ethical lapses even from critics on the left. Many of these criticisms have to do with fund raising tactics, indiscriminate charges of racism, exaggeration of the power of certain groups, and failure to provide the context of speeches and quotations, thereby leading to false inferences. 

Natives Are Leaving the Netherlands in Mass Emigration
Expatica

In the first nine months of this year, almost 100,000 people left the Netherlands to settle elsewhere, 12,000 more than the same period last year. About half of the emigrants were Dutch natives, the national statistics office CBS said on Friday. If the trend continues, more than 130,000 people will have left the country by the end of this year. For the third successive year, the number of emigrants substantially outnumbers emigrants, the CBS said. The net effect means the Dutch population was reduced in the 2004-06 period by 75,000.

Number of Jewish Lawmakers Worldwide
Reaches Record High
Haaretz (Israel)

Tuesday's U.S. elections brought the number of Jewish parliamentarians worldwide to an all-time high, according to the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians. Following yesterday's results, the number of Jews in the Senate rose from 11 to 13 and in the House of Representatives from 26 to 30. However, the United States is still only in third place worldwide for the number of Jewish legislators, after Israel and Britain. Britain, despite having a Jewish community 20 times smaller than that of the United States, has 59 Jewish members of parliament, including 18 in the House of Commons and 41 in the House of Lords. 

A New Look at Mussolini Anti-Jewish Policies
Alessandro Cassin -- Forward (New York)

Based on newly discovered documents and an abundance of statistical data, the book demonstrates that, contrary to popular belief, Mussolini’s policies toward the Jews were independently conceived and implemented, and not — as some have argued — a late concession to Hitler’s war against the Jews. 

Trial of 'Holocaust Denier’ Rudolf Begins in Germany
Reuters

A German accused of denying the Holocaust and using the Internet to spread his views went on trial on Tuesday after being deported from the United States. The 42-year-old chemist, Germar Rudolf, is accused of denying and belittling the wartime extermination of Jews by Germany’s Nazi regime. Holocaust denial is a crime in Germany which can carry a prison sentence of up to 5 years. Rudolf, who was found guilty on similar charges in the mid-1990s, claims the court in Mannheim, western Germany, has no jurisdiction to judge the accuracy of historical events.

Freedom for Irving, Zundel and Rudolf
Mark Weber

Europeans are proud of their record of support for freedom of speech and tolerance of dissident views. But there is a glaring exception to this record. In Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland and several other European countries, as well as in Israel, it is a crime to publicly dispute the official version of Holocaust history. Those who express dissident views about this chapter of history are routinely imprisoned, fined or forced into exile… These “Holocaust denial” laws are the result of a well-organized campaign by powerful Jewish-Zionist groups, including the World Jewish Congress and the Simon Wiesenthal Center -- a campaign that has been supported by compliant non-Jewish politicians.

No Cakewalk in the Park?:
Neocons Pushing for Strike on Iran
Arnaud de Borchgrave -- The Washington Times

The neo-conservatives (neocons) who gave us the "cakewalk" prediction for Iraq before the war are now plugging "a walk in the park" in Iran -- i.e., a U.S. bombing campaign to consign the mullahs' nuclear ambitions to oblivion, or at least to retard the advent of an Iranian bomb for a few years, hoping that in the interim good democrats would rise up and send the clerics and their Revolutionary Guards packing. Two Washington-based representatives of a global Fortune 100 company told their visiting senior executive this week a bombing campaign of Iran's nuclear facilities "is inevitable while Mr. Bush is in the White House." The incredulous CEO thought his Washington eyes and ears were overstating the case. They assured him they were deadly serious.

Norway, Iceland, Australia Are Best Places to Live,
Says UN Report
Reuters

Norway, Iceland, Australia, Ireland and Sweden rank as the best five countries to live in, says a new U.N. report. The United States was ranked in eighth place, after Canada and Japan, in the report that rates not only per-capita income but also educational levels, health care and life expectancy in measuring a nation's well-being.

Austrian MP Under Fire for Remarks on 'Good Side’ of Nazism
Agence France Presse

A newly-elected right-wing member of the Austrian parliament stirred up a political storm earlier this week Wednesday after saying that Nazism had "its good side." Calls for the resignation of Wolfgang Zanger of the Freedom Party (FPOe) and threats of legal action followed his remarks on a television program late Tuesday. "Of course Nazism had its good sides, only we don’t want to see them today," Zanger said, adding that Adolf Hitler had "given hope" to people in depressed Germany.

Presidential IQ: Not as Smart, or as Dumb As We Think
Thomas C. Reeves

John F. Kennedy was actually given an IQ test before entering Choate. His score was 119. There is no evidence to support the claim that his score should have been more than 40 points higher…His academic achievements were modest and respectable, his published writing and speeches were largely done by others (no study of Kennedy is worthwhile that downplays the role of Ted Sorensen), and his celebrated wit was the often the result of clever political planning… Let us not pretend to be able to calculate the intelligence of historical figures with even reasonable certainty. Let us not confuse the policy decisions of presidents in complex historical settings with intelligence. And let us redouble our commitment as scholars to be fair and impartial.

Former Soviet Dissident Bukovsky Warns Against European Union
Brussels Journal (Belgium)

The European Union is rapidly approaching a state similar to ideology-driven totalitarian regimes, a former Soviet dissident and expert witness against the Soviet Communist Party warned last week in Brussels … Vladimir Bukovsky, 63, said the EU was a “monster” that must be destroyed before it developed into the next Soviet Union… “The sooner we finish with the EU the better. The sooner it collapses the less damage it will have done to us and to other countries. But we have to be quick because the Eurocrats are moving very fast. It will be difficult to defeat them,” he said.

Strike on Iran Possible, Says Israel Official
Associated Press

The deputy defense minister suggested Friday that Israel might be forced to launch a military strike against Iran 's disputed nuclear program - the clearest statement yet of such a possibility from a high-ranking official. "I am not advocating an Israeli pre-emptive military action against Iran and I am aware of its possible repercussions," Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh, a former general, said in comments published Friday in The Jerusalem Post. "I consider it a last resort. But even the last resort is sometimes the only resort."

Man makes history; woman is history. The reproduction of the species is feminine: it runs steadily and quietly through all species, animal or human, through all short-lived cultures. It is primary, unchanging, everlasting, maternal, plantlike, and cultureless. If we look back we find that it is synonymous with life itself… Little as we know about the events of the future, one thing is certain: the moving forces of the future will be none other than those of the past -- the will of the stronger, healthy instincts, race, will to property, and power.

Empire Falls: US-Rome Parallels?
Niall Ferguson

They called it "the American Century," but the past hundred years actually saw a shift away from Western dominance. Through the long lens of Edward Gibbon's history, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Rome 331 and America and Europe 2006 appear to have more than a few problems in common... For Gibbon, Rome's decline was the result of military overstretch, inner decadence, religious conversion, and barbarian invasion. To my mind, all of these are operating today to undermine what remains of Western dominance in the world. If the United States suffers mainly from the first and second, the European Union seems even more afflicted by the third and fourth.

The Challenge of Jewish-Zionist Power
Mark Weber

During World War II, Henry Luce, the publisher of Time and Life magazines, coined the term “The American Century” to refer to the twentieth century... In the decades since the end of World War II, the United States has indeed been the world’s foremost military, economic and financial power, and the most important cultural factor... But that was then, and this is now. There are good reasons to believe that both American power and Jewish power have crested. The twentieth century – what has been called “the American Century” and “the Jewish century” – is passing, both literally and figuratively, into history.

In France, Political Figure on Trial for Holocaust Remarks
Associated Press

A French far-right leader and member of the European Parliament went on trial Tuesday over remarks in which he questioned the existence of Nazi gas chambers. Bruno Gollnisch, the No. 2 in France's National Front party, is accused of "disputing a crime against humanity" in the trial in Lyon in southeast France. A verdict is expected Wednesday. He faces up to one year in prison if convicted... At an October 2004 news conference, Gollnisch questioned whether the Nazis used gas chambers in the Holocaust and suggested that the number of Jews killed during World War II might have been exaggerated. Gollnisch's comments sparked uproar among Jewish and anti-racism groups…

Israel's Scandalous Siege of Gaza
Patrick Seale -- International Herald Tribune

Israel has killed 2,300 Gazans over the past six years, including 300 in the four months since an Israeli soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit, was captured in a cross-border raid by Palestinian fighters on June 25. The wounded can be counted in the tens of thousands. Most of the casualties are civilians, many of them children. The killing continues on a daily basis - by tank and sniper fire, by air and sea bombardment, and by undercover teams in civilian clothes sent into Arab territory to ambush and murder, an Israeli specialty perfected over the past several decades. How long will the "international community" allow the slaughter to continue? The cruel repression of the occupied territories, and of Gaza in particular, is one of the most scandalous in the world today.

Low Intelligence Level is Africa's Curse, Says Lecturer
The Observer (Britain)

The London School of Economics is embroiled in a row over academic freedom after one of its lecturers published a paper alleging that African states were poor and suffered chronic ill-health because their populations were less intelligent than people in richer countries. Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist, is now accused of reviving the politics of eugenics by publishing the research which concludes that low IQ levels, rather than poverty and disease, are the reason why life expectancy is low and infant mortality high. His paper, published in the British Journal of Health Psychology, compares IQ scores with indicators of ill health in 126 countries and claims that nations at the top of the ill health league also have the lowest intelligence ratings.

The US and Britain Did Not Win World War II,
the Russians Did
Norman Davies

Both the British and the American public have long been told that “we won the war” and D-Day, in particular, has been built up as the decisive moment... The attack on the Third Reich was a joint effort. But it was not a joint effort of two equal parts. The lion’s share of victory in Europe can be awarded only to Stalin’s forces and it is a fantasy to believe that he was fighting for justice and democracy... The forces of democracy played their part in the defeat of fascism, but were left controlling less than half the continent. In the greater part of Europe one totalitarian tyranny was replaced by another. More often than not, the rhetoric of “freedom” and “liberation” was misplaced.

Nancy Pelosi: Committed to Israel
Forward (New York)

Officials at Jewish organizations in Washington said this week that the minority leader’s attack on Carter is in line with what they describe as a straight-A record on Israel... On matters concerning the Jewish state Nancy Pelosi is as mainstream as they get, sticking to a pro-Israeli line ever since she entered Congress... AIPAC [the Israel lobby group] includes a laudatory quote from Pelosi on its website. “Leader Pelosi has a perfect record of support for the U.S.-Israel relationship and has demonstrated leadership on a host of our issues,” spokeswoman Jennifer Cannata said…

Author Examines Zionist Power in Interview
Flashpoints -- Pacifica Radio

Audio recording of an effective interview with James Petras, forthright author of the new book, The Power of Israel in the United States. Runtime: 27 minutes

New, Updated Edition
Iraq: A War For Israel
Mark Weber -- IHR

So if the official reasons given for the war were untrue, why did the United States attack? Whatever the secondary reasons for the Iraq war, the crucial factor in President Bush’s decision to attack was to help Israel. With support from Israel and America’s Jewish-Zionist lobby, and prodded by Jewish "neo-conservatives" holding high-level positions in his administration, President Bush — who was already fervently committed to Israel — resolved to invade and subdue one of Israel’s chief regional enemies.

Tragedy, Farce, and Worse: Saddam Hussein is Sentenced
Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

What's forgotten is precisely who or what was supporting Saddam in the 1980s. Iraq invaded Iran in 1980 with US approval. Reagan removed Iraq from its list of known terrorist countries. The US shipped weapons and the Department of Defense provided intelligence to assist Iraq. A 1983 National Security Directive said that the US would do everything possible to prevent Iran from winning. In 1983, Rumsfeld even met with Saddam to assure him of US support. The CIA supported Iraq's mustard gas attacks on Iran. In other words, the government that now says that Saddam has to be killed for his crimes is the very same government that supported him while he was committing those crimes.

National Front Number Two Tried for 'Holocaust Denial'
AFP

The deputy leader of France’s extreme-right National Front (FN) party, Bruno Gollnisch, went on trial Tuesday for "disputing crimes against humanity" over comments he made two years ago on the Holocaust. Gollnisch, 56, who is a member of the European parliament, faces a possible year in jail if he is found guilty after two days of hearings. In October 2004 Gollnisch said at a press conference that he did not "question the deportations (nor) the hundreds of thousands, the millions of dead... As for the way they died, there has to be debate." He went on: "I do not deny the existence of deadly gas chambers. But I am not a specialist on this, and I think we should leave historians to discuss it. And this discussion should be free."

German Nationalist Lawyer To Serve 9-Month Sentence for 'Incitement'
The Associated Press

A far-right German lawyer sentenced last year to nine months confinement for handing out anti-Semitic propaganda must report to prison later this month, after attempts to challenge the conviction failed, a prosecutor said Friday. In January 2005, a Berlin state court found Horst Mahler, a former lawyer and strategist for the far-right National Democratic Party, guilty of incitement. The charge was linked to his handing out pamphlets in 2002 at the party's headquarters in Berlin that described hatred for Jews as an "unmistakable sign of solid mental health." Mahler appealed the conviction, but the nation's highest administrative court upheld it in August.

Heading for the Tall Grass: Breathtaking Neocon Mendacity
Steven LaTulippe

On September 20, 2004, I wrote a column [in which] I predicted the war in Iraq would end in failure and, when the failure became undeniable, the neo-conservatives would begin searching for a "fall guy" to take the blame... Over the past several months, things in Iraq have, indeed, descended into a full-scale melt-down. And, true to this prediction, the neocons have emerged from their lairs to discuss the war in a breathtakingly mendacious and utterly unbelievable article in this month’s edition of Vanity Fair magazine.

Winning Cartoons in Iran’s Holocaust Cartoon Contest
Irancartoon.com

The 16 cartoons judged best in the International Holocaust Cartoon Contest in Tehran, Iran.

Bush and Blair: The Iraq Fantasy
Patrick Cockburn -- The Independent (Britain)

“When does the incompetence end and the crime begin?" asked an appalled German Chancellor in the First World War when the German army commander said he intended to resume his bloody and doomed assaults on the French fortress city of Verdun. The same could be said of the disastrous policies of George Bush and Tony Blair in Iraq. At least 3,000 Iraqis and 100 American soldiers are dying every month. The failure of the US and Britain at every level in Iraq is obvious to all. But the White House and Downing Street have lived in a state of permanent denial... The picture of what is happening in Iraq put out by Messrs Bush and Blair no longer touches reality at any point.

'Neocons Hijacked My Party,' Says Former Secretary Al Haig
CNN

...This is a conflict [in Iraq] that's essentially political. It's not just purely military. It's political and religious and ideological. And it was driven by the so-called neocons that hijacked my party, the Republican Party, before this administration... I'm talking about Wolfowitz. I'm talking about Richard Perle. I'm talking about some newly-made ones. I'm talking about the former editor of the Wall Street Journal. These people are very, very deeply embedded in Yale and certain intellectual circles...

Dispute Over Orthodox Jews' 'Eruv' in Southern California
Los Angeles Times

An Orthodox synagogue with the ambitious desire to enclose much of Santa Monica, Venice and Marina del Rey within a religious boundary known as an eruv has come up against a barrier... The Pacific Jewish Center in Venice wants to string fishing line between lampposts and sign poles for several miles through the coastal communities, creating a symbolic unbroken boundary. Orthodox Jews within the boundary can consider themselves to be "at home" on the Sabbath. That eases restrictions of the holy day and allows people to carry food, push strollers and bring their house keys with them when they go out. Such lines have been up for years in religious neighborhoods throughout the world.

Click to Hear Mark Weber Interviewed by Jim Condit
Institute for Historical Review

During a Sunday evening broadcast, Mark Weber provided an update on the prison and legal ordeals of David Irving, Ernst Zundel and Germar Rudolf -- currently the three most prominent victims of Europe’s “Holocaust denial” laws. Weber, historian and director of the IHR, appeared on the live broadcast as a guest of Jim Condit, Jr., on Sunday, November 5, from 10:25 to 11:00 p.m., EST. The update was broadcast in the Cincinnati (Ohio) area on WKRC AM radio at 550 kHz, and was also heard worldwide through the station’s website: http://www.55krc.com/main.html

Throw The Rascals Out
Eric Margolis

Both Republicans and Democrats are steeped in Washington’s endemic corruption and influence peddling due to the constant need to raise campaign funds by kow-towing to special interests. Members of both parties voted like clapping seals for the Iraq War. But Republicans took the lead in promoting and sustaining that totally unnecessary conflict, now estimated to likely cost upwards of $1 trillion before it is lost... It’s hard to think of another administration in modern history that has done more grave damage to US interests and reputation abroad, or so grievously undermined the system of Constitutional government at home. None of America’s foreign enemies have ever inflicted so much damage.

Post-Modernism and the Death of the Western World
Steven La Tulippe

For those who haven’t seen it, Sex and the City tells the story of four thirty-something single women living in New York City. They live a life that, while all too common today, is perhaps unprecedented in human history (especially for women). They are completely deracinated and homogenized, having no discernable family, either nuclear or extended. They have no religious convictions... Since the West has adopted this model, it has only two choices: It can throw off the yoke of post-modernism and reestablish an organic culture that is capable of reproducing itself, or it will be colonized and overrun by other, more prolific cultures.

Oswald Spengler: Criticism and Tribute
Revilo P. Oliver

We were now, therefore, in a phase of civilizational life in which constitutional forms are supplanted by the prestige of individuals... That means that we face an age of world wars and what is worse, civil wars and proscriptions, and that around 2060 the West (if not destroyed by its alien enemies) will be united under the personal rule of a Caesar or Augustus. That is not a pleasant prospect... Spengler, above all, has forced us to inquire into the nature of civilization and to ask ourselves by what means -- if any -- we can repair and preserve the long and narrow dikes that alone protect us from the vast and turbulent ocean of eternal barbarism. For that, we must always honor him.

The Planet's Most Despised Nation
Chas W. Freeman, Jr.

Americans began our independence with an act of public diplomacy, an appeal for international support, based upon a "decent regard to the opinion of mankind." ...In a mere five years, we transformed ourselves from 9/11's object of almost universal sympathy and support into the planet's most despised nation, with its most hateful policies... In many formerly friendly countries in Europe and Latin America, those with a favorable opinion of us are in the low double digits. Polls show that China is almost everywhere more admired than the United States... The two [American political] parties vie to see which can be more sycophantic toward whoever’s in charge in Israel, and to be most supportive of whatever Israel and its American lobby wish us to do.

Danger of American 'Stalingrad' Looms
William S. Lind

An attack on Iran will not be an invasion with ground troops. We don’t have enough of those left to invade Ruritania. It will be a "package" of air and missile strikes, by U.S. forces or Israel. If Israel does it, there is a possibility of nuclear weapons being employed. But Israel would prefer the U.S. to do the dirty work... If the U.S. were to lose the army it has in Iraq, to Iraqi militias, Iranian regular forces, or a combination of both (the most likely event), the world would change. It would be our Adrianople, our Rocroi, our Stalingrad. American power and prestige would never recover.

Who is Afraid of an Iranian Bomb?
Uri Avnery

In spite of the efforts of Ahmadinejad to convince us that he is mad, I am not so sure. I believe that the Iranian leadership, and especially the religious-political leadership, is composed of very sane people. Since assuming power, they have trodden with caution and competence. They have not started any war... Anyway, there is no reason for apocalyptic nightmares. Even a nuclear bomb in Tehran's hands is not the end of the world, and not even the end of Israel. A new situation will arise, and we must live with it.

Moroccan Wins Iran’s Holocaust Cartoon Contest
Reuters

A Moroccan won first prize on Wednesday in Iran's International Holocaust Cartoons Contest, which had sparked outrage in Israel, the West and among Jewish groups. Iran's best-selling newspaper, Hamshahri, launched a competition in February to find the best cartoon about the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews were [allegedly] killed by the Nazis. The contest was a retaliation for last year's publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad in Danish and other European newspapers that angered Muslims worldwide.

'Only 50 Years Left' for Ocean Fish, New Study Finds
BBC News

There will be virtually nothing left to fish from the seas by the middle of the century if current trends continue, according to a major scientific study. Stocks have collapsed in nearly one-third of sea fisheries, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Writing in the journal Science, the international team of researchers says fishery decline is closely tied to a broader loss of marine biodiversity. But a greater use of protected areas could safeguard existing stocks. "The way we use the oceans is that we hope and assume there will always be another species to exploit after we've completely gone through the last one," said research leader Boris Worm, from Dalhousie University in Canada.

The Rape of Europe
The Brussels Journal (Belgium)

The German author Henryk M. Broder recently told the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant that young Europeans who love freedom, better emigrate. Europe as we know it will no longer exist 20 years from now. Whilst sitting on a terrace in Berlin, Broder pointed to the other customers and the passers-by and said melancholically: “We are watching the world of yesterday.” Europe is turning Muslim... The number of Muslims in contemporary Europe is estimated to be 50 million. It is expected to double in twenty years. By 2025, one third of all European children will be born to Muslim families. Today Mohammed is already the most popular name for new-born boys in Brussels, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and other major European cities.

The NAFTA Superhighway
Rep. Ron Paul

By now many Texans have heard about the proposed “NAFTA Superhighway,” which is also referred to as the trans-Texas corridor. What you may not know is the extent to which plans for such a superhighway are moving forward without congressional oversight or media attention. This superhighway would connect Mexico, the United States, and Canada, cutting a wide swath through the middle of Texas and up through Kansas City. Offshoots would connect the main artery to the west coast, Florida, and northeast. Proponents envision a ten-lane colossus the width of several football fields, with freight and rail lines, fiber-optic cable lines, and oil and natural gas pipelines running alongside.

Breaking the Silence: The Growing 'Israel Lobby' Debate
Scott McConnell -- The American Conservative

...The cat is now out of the bag, and despite the lobby's best effort to suppress it, there will be a more freewheeling debate about whether America's Mideast policy should be so completely Israel-centric. The subject has simply become too important to ignore... With the Mideast now on the front burner, as even Bush administration officials acknowledge, America will have no allies whatsoever in the war against terrorists unless progress is made towards a fair settlement of the Palestine question; it is shameful to remain silent. Walt and Mearsheimer have opened the door, and others of great eminence have joined them. The Iraq War highlights the price of continued indifference or silence, and the price can only grow steeper.

The Israeli Lobby Debate at Cooper Union
Scribe Media -- London Review of Books (Video)

A video of the much-discussed debate on September 28 at the Cooper Union in New York City. Debate topic: “The Israel Lobby: Does it have too much influence on US foreign policy?” Panellists: Shlomo Ben-Ami, Martin Indyk, Tony Judt, Rashid Khalidi, John Mearsheimer, Dennis Ross. These participants include Israeli, Palestinian, and American academics and political figures. More than 900 persons attended the event, which was video-recorded by ScribeMedia on behalf of the London Review of Books.

Israel Tells Vatican to Halt Beatification of Pius XII
The Times (London)

Israel has urged the Vatican to halt procedures putting Pius XII, the controversial wartime Pope, on the path to sainthood. Oded Ben-Hur, the Israeli Ambassador to the Holy See, said: “I am asking the Vatican to block the beatification process for Pius XII.” Pius XII, formerly the papal nuncio to Germany and later Pius XI’s Secretary of State as Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, is accused of turning a blind eye to the Holocaust and remaining silent about Nazi anti-Semitism.