Some US Generals 'Will Quit' If Bush Orders Iran Attack
The Times (Britain)

Some of America's most senior military commanders are prepared to resign if the White House orders a military strike against Iran, according to highly-placed defense and intelligence sources. Tension in the Gulf region has raised fears that an attack on Iran is becoming increasingly likely before President George Bush leaves office. The Sunday Times has learnt that up to five generals and admirals are willing to resign rather than approve what they consider would be a reckless attack.

AIPAC Demands 'Action' on Iran
Gary Leupp

In other words, the American Israel Political Affairs Committee is the main political force urging – indeed, demanding – U.S. action... Now, as Israeli calls for a U.S. attack on Iran become more shrill by the day, AIPAC recognizes that the American people profoundly distrust Vice President Cheney and the nest of neocon liars he has sheltered. The Bush-Cheney war machine has been pretty well exposed, and that must worry the warmongers within the group. Israeli Defense Force chief artillery officer Gen. Oded Tira has griped that "President Bush lacks the political power to attack Iran..."

Two Historic Anti-War Speeches
Charles A. Lindbergh

...The agitation for our entry in the war was increasing with alarming rapidity. Hysteria had mounted to the point where anti-parachute corps were being formed to defend American cities against air attacks from Europe... We have by no means escaped the foreign entanglements and favoritisms that [George] Washington warned us against when he passed the guidance of our nation's destiny to the hands of future generations... There are still interests in this country and abroad who will do their utmost to draw us into the war. Against these interests we must be continuously on guard. But American opinion is now definitely and overwhelmingly against our involvement...

British school pupils could soon be learning history from a European Union textbook under a new proposal from Berlin to be tabled next week. Germany is to urge the drawing up of a "European history book", to be taught in all schools to foster a common cultural identity across the EU. The idea, said to have the backing of Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, is to be the flagship education proposal of Berlin's EU presidency. Annette Schavan, the federal education minister, will set out her plans at a meeting of EU education ministers in Heidelberg.

Triple-Exthnics: Jews in the American Porn Industry
Jewish Quarterly

A story little told is that of Jews in Hollywood’s seedier cousin, the adult film industry. Perhaps we’d prefer to pretend that the ‘triple-exthnics’ didn’t exist, but there’s no getting away from the fact that secular Jews have played (and still continue to play) a disproportionate role throughout the adult film industry in America. Jewish involvement in pornography has a long history in the United States , as Jews have helped to transform a fringe subculture into what has become a primary constituent of Americana … Though Jews make up only two percent of the American population, they have been prominent in pornography. 

Honest Broker: Carter’s Book Stirs a Critical Debate
Philip Weiss – The American Conservative

Since the publication last November of Jimmy Carter’s book, Palestine: Peace not Apartheid, his critics have pretty much held the floor … But the fury has masked a quieter trend – nodding support for the president’s views across the country … For the first time since the State of Israel was created in 1948, a prominent American politician has publicly taken up the cause of the Arabs, describing Israel’s practices as oppressive. Such voices are common in Europe and in Israel itself. But they are uncommon here, where staunchly Zionist voices routinely assert that Israeli and American interests are identical, a view uniformly reflected in our politics and policies.

Israel is negotiating with the United States for permission to fly over Iraq as part of a plan to attack Iran 's nuclear facilities, The Daily Telegraph can reveal. To conduct surgical air strikes against Iran 's nuclear programme, Israeli war planes would need to fly across Iraq. But to do so the Israeli military authorities in Tel Aviv need permission from the Pentagon. A senior Israeli defence official said negotiations were now underway between the two countries for the US-led coalition in Iraq to provide an "air corridor" in the event of the Israeli government deciding on unilateral military action to prevent Teheran developing nuclear weapons.

Six On Trial in Germany for Burning Copies
of Ann Frank’s Diary
All Headline News (USA)

Six persons are on trial in Germany for burning copies of The Diary of Ann Frank. One suspect admitted to burning the book during his trial. All six defendants are charged with inciting racial hatred and disparaging the dead … According to prosecutors, Lars Konrad of East Germany threw the novel into a bon fire during a party in June 2006. According to the court, burning the book supports Nazism. Any denial of the Holocaust or acts of racial hatred can cost an offender up to five years in prison. 

Israel’s Surge of Despair
Gregory Levey – Salon

… And this sense of depression is not only permeating the Israeli public. A series of recent interviews with current and former Israeli government officials revealed a level of pessimism across the Israeli government that is unprecedented in recent decades. Several senior officials acknowledged unequivocally that Israel lost the war against Hezbollah, and confirmed that this is a widely held view inside the Israeli government – despite many public pronouncements to the contrary by Israeli leaders … The level of gloom inside the Israeli government is accompanied by a creeping sense of paralysis – one that could be dangerous not just for Israel, but for U.S. interests in the region, and for the Middle East as a whole.

Internet Use Around the World: Top Countries
Internet World Stats

The USA, China, Japan, Germany, India, United Kingdom, Korea (South), France, Italy, and Brazil are the top ten countries with the most internet users. In per capita use, Iceland leads the world, with 86 percent of its population online, followed by Portugal (with 73 percent), Australia (with 70 percent), the US and Denmark (each with 69 percent), Switzerland, Luxembourg, Canada and Hong Kong (each with 68 percent), and Japan and Norway (each with 67 percent).

California Split?: Is the US Too Big for Democracy?
Gar Alperovitz – The New York Times 

Something interesting is happening in California. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger seems to have grasped the essential truth that no nation – not even the United States – can be managed successfully from the center once it reaches a certain scale … California’s governor has also put his finger on a little discussed flaw in America’s constitutional formula. The United States is almost certainly too big to be a meaningful democracy. What does “participatory democracy” mean in a continent? Sooner or later, a profound, probably regional, decentralization of the federal system may be all but inevitable.

Canada Rejects Terror Law
BBC News

Canada's Supreme Court has struck down a controversial system that allowed the government to detain and deport foreign-born terror suspects. The nine judges ruled that the security certificate system – in place since 1978 – violated Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The system allowed a suspect to be held indefinitely or deported on the basis of evidence presented in secret. [Note: On the basis of this system, Ernst Zundel was held for two years in solitary confinement as a threat to Canada’s “national security,” and then, in March 2005, deported to Germany, where he was put on trial for having violated Germany’s “Holocaust denial” law. On Feb. 15 a court in Mannheim sentenced him to five years imprisonment.]

Economists in Denial: Blind to Offshoring’s Adverse Impact
Paul Craig Roberts

The trade and current account deficits are rapidly increasing the burden of debt service on Americans and threatening the dollar's role as reserve currency… Much American economic thinking is grounded in the fact of America 's past success. Many economists take it for granted that as long as the U.S. has free markets, it will continue to be successful. However, much of America 's success is due to World War I and World War II, which bankrupted rivals and destroyed their industrial capacity. It was easy for the United States to dominate world trade after World War II as America was the only country with an intact economy.

Charging Iran with 'Genocide' Before Nuking It
Gary Leupp 

The administration, still led by neocons clustered around Cheney, has embraced the Israeli rhetoric of paranoiac prophesy. It has decided to attack the Islamic Republic, to end its existence, for the self-defense of Israel and America. To gain support it must sow fear and must demonize Iran, ratcheting up the rhetoric week by week … Notice how the case against Iran articulated in Israel forms the bulk of the Bush administration's brief … Misled by politicians (including AIPAC heroine Hilary Clinton) and poorly served by the mainstream news media, many Americans just might swallow the accusation that Iran is planning genocide, in league with Hizbollah and Hamas.  

America's Health Care Bill to Double in Next Ten Years
Medical News Today

The cost of taking care of America's health is set to double over the next ten years to an annual bill of over 4 trillion dollars according to a new report by federal economics experts. This means that by the year 2016, nearly 20 cents of every dollar earned in the US economy will be spent on health care. The report puts the current spending on America's health at 2.1 trillion dollars per year (based on 2006 estimates). This represents 16 cents in every dollar earned in the US economy.

US Baiting Iran Into First Strike
Deniz Yeter – Truthout

Hillary Mann Leverett, the former National Security Council director for Iranian and Persian Gulf affairs under the Bush administration from 2001 to 2004, has issued a sober warning to the public concerning Bush's intentions with Iran. In a recent interview on CNN, she accused the Bush administration of "trying to push a provocative, accidental conflict" with Iran as a pretext to justify "limited strikes" against the country's crucial nuclear and military infrastructures… Leverett is joined by a growing consensus of current and former US government, intelligence and military Officials who accuse the administration of trying to spark another unnecessary and unfounded war in the Middle East for their own self-interests.

Coming US Challenge: A Less-Literate Workforce
The Christian Science Monitor (Boston)

US workers may be significantly less literate in 2030 than they are today. The reason: Most baby boomers will be retiring and a large wave of less-educated immigrants will be moving into the workforce. This downward shift in reading and math skills suggests a huge challenge for educators and policymakers in the future, according to a new report from the Educational Testing Service (ETS). If they can't reverse the trend, then it could spell trouble for a large swath of the labor force, widen an already large skill gap, and shrink the middle class.

Jewish Historian Withdraws His 'Ritual Homicides' Book
The Chronicle of Higher Education

A new book by an Italo-Israeli scholar of Jewish history that revisits violent controversies involving medieval and Renaissance Christians and Jews has been withdrawn from circulation at the request of the author, who now says that news accounts distort what he actually says. The scholar, Ariel Toaff, is a professor of medieval and Renaissance history at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, in Ramat Gan. His book, Pasque di sangue: Ebrei d'Europa e omicidi rituali (Passovers of Blood: European Jews and Ritual Homicides), drew strong criticism from Jewish community leaders and academic critics when it was published this month, in Italian … 

The Bloody Passovers of Dr.Toaff: 'Ritual Murder' Furor
Israel Shamir

… Dr Toaff is the son of the Rabbi of Rome and a professor in the Jewish University of Bar Ilan, not far from Tel Aviv. He made a name for himself by his deep study of medieval Jewry… While studying his subject he discovered that the medieval Ashkenazi Jewish communities of North Italy practiced a particularly horrible form of human sacrifice. Their wizards and adepts stole and crucified Christian babies, obtained their blood and used it for magical rituals evoking the Spirit of Vengeance against the hated Goyim. In particular, he dwelt on the case of St Simon of Trent. This two-year old child from the Italian town of Trent was kidnapped by a few Ashkenazi Jews from his home on the eve of Passover 1475 AD.

Spy Reveals Soviet Plot to Smear Pius XII as 'Nazi Pope'
The Times (Britain)

The KGB hatched a plot to smear the late Pope Pius XII as an antisemitic Hitler supporter and fostered a controversial play that tarnished the pontiff, according to the highest-ranking Soviet bloc intelligence officer to have defected to the West. Former Lieutenant-General Ion Mihai Pacepa, who headed the Romanian secret service before defecting in 1978, has broken a silence of nearly half a century to reveal that he was involved in the operation code-named Seat12, a Kremlin scheme launched in 1960 to portray Pius XII “as a cold-hearted Nazi sympathiser”. The result, according to Pacepa, was the 1963 play The Deputy, by Rolf Hochhuth …

Moscow’s Assault on the Vatican
Ion Mihai Pacepa – National review Online

… In my other life, when I was at the center of Moscow’s foreign-intelligence wars, I myself was caught up in a deliberate Kremlin effort to smear the Vatican, by portraying Pope Pius XII as a coldhearted Nazi sympathizer. Ultimately, the operation did not cause any lasting damage, but it left a residual bad taste that is hard to rinse away. The story has never before been told … In 1963, General Ivan Agayants, the famous chief of the KGB’s disinformation department, landed in Bucharest to thank us for our help. He told us that “Seat-12” had materialized into a powerful play attacking Pope Pius XII, entitled The Deputy, an oblique reference to the pope as Christ’s representative on earth.

Next Stop: Tehran
Philip Giraldi – The American Conservative 

… As for casus belli, an attack [by the US against Iran] might be preceded by a Gulf of Tonkin type incident in which Iran fires on or otherwise interferes with a U.S. warship. As two carrier groups will basically fill the shallow and narrow waters of the Persian Gulf, the potential for an incident is obviously very high. At least as significant as the military buildup is the intensifying rhetoric surrounding the Iranian threat. President Bush has guaranteed Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that the U.S. will defend Israel against Iran and will not engage Tehran in negotiations. At the 2006 annual meeting of AIPAC, the principal Israeli lobbying group, Vice President Dick Cheney stated in his keynote address, “We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.’’

For Neocons, Attack on Iran Has Been a Six-Year Project
Larisa Alexandrovna

The escalation of US military planning on Iran is only the latest chess move in a six-year push within the Bush Administration to attack that country. While Iran was named a part of President George W. Bush's "axis of evil" in 2002, efforts to ignite a confrontation with Iran date back long before the post-9/11 war on terror … The motivations for an Iran strike were laid out as far back as 1992. In classified defense planning guidance – written for then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney by then-Pentagon staffers I. Lewis "Scooter” Libby, World Bank Chief Paul Wolfowitz, and ambassador-nominee to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad – Cheney's aides called for the United States to assume the position of lone superpower and act preemptively to prevent the emergence of even regional competitors. 

Jewish Groups Fear Public Backlash Over Iran
Forward (New York)

While Jewish communal leaders focus most of their current lobbying efforts on pressing the United States to take a tough line against Iran and its nuclear program, some are privately voicing fears that they will be accused of driving America into a war with the regime in Tehran … Yet many advocacy efforts, even when not linked to Israel, carry indelibly Jewish fingerprints … In warning of possible scapegoating, insiders point to the experience of the Iraq War. Since the initial invasion in 2003, antiwar groups have charged, with growing vehemence, that the war was promoted by Jewish groups acting in Israel’s interest… Now, however, Jewish groups are indeed playing a lead role in pressing for a hard line on Iran.

US Plans for Attack Against Iran Revealed
BBC News

US contingency plans for air strikes on Iran extend beyond nuclear sites and include most of the country's military infrastructure, the BBC has learned. It is understood that any such attack – if ordered – would target Iranian air bases, naval bases, missile facilities and command-and-control centres. … BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says the trigger for such an attack reportedly includes any confirmation that Iran was developing a nuclear weapon – which it denies. Alternatively, our correspondent adds, a high-casualty attack on US forces in neighbouring Iraq could also trigger a bombing campaign if it were traced directly back to Tehran.

US Now Ready to Attack Iran
Dan Plesch – New Statesman (Britain)

American military operations for a major conventional war with Iran could be implemented any day. They extend far beyond targeting suspect WMD facilities and will enable President Bush to destroy Iran's military, political and economic infrastructure overnight using conventional weapons. British military sources told the New Statesman, on condition of anonymity, that "the US military switched its whole focus to Iran" as soon as Saddam Hussein was kicked out of Baghdad. It continued this strategy, even though it had American infantry bogged down in fighting the insurgency in Iraq. The US army, navy, air force and marines have all prepared battle plans and spent four years building bases and training for "Operation Iranian Freedom". 

Britain to Begin Withdrawal of Troops from Iraq
BBC News

Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to announce a timetable for the withdrawal of UK troops from Iraq. Mr Blair is set to make a statement about the 7,000 British troops serving in Iraq at the Commons.  The BBC's James Landale said 1,500 troops were expected to return home in months, rising to 3,000 by Christmas. Downing Street has not confirmed the reports but Whitehall sources have told the BBC the process could be slowed down if the situation in Iraq worsens.  

US Military Accepts More Recruits with Criminal Records
The Associated Press

The Army and Marine Corps are letting in more recruits with criminal records, including some with felony convictions, reflecting the increased pressure of five years of war and its mounting casualties… The Army granted more than double the number of waivers for felonies and misdemeanors in 2006 than it did in 2003… The military routinely grants waivers to admit recruits who have criminal records, medical problems or low aptitude scores that would otherwise disqualify them from service. Overall the majority are moral waivers, which include some felonies, misdemeanors, and traffic and drug offenses.

It's Time for a New Iraq Strategy
Gen. William E. Odom – The Washington Post 

… We may be doomed to two more years of chasing the mirage of democracy in Iraq and possibly widening the war to Iran. But this is not inevitable … No task is more important to the well-being of the United States. We face great peril in that troubled region, and improving our prospects will be difficult. First of all, it will require, from Congress at least, public acknowledgment that the president's policy is based on illusions, not realities. There never has been any right way to invade and transform Iraq … The assumption that the United States could create a liberal, constitutional democracy in Iraq defies just about everything known by professional students of the topic.

Subhas Chandra Bose and India's Struggle for Independence
Andrew Montgomery – Institute for Historical Review 

When one thinks of the Indian independence movement in the 1930s and early 1940s, two figures most readily come to mind: Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru … Less familiar to Westerners is Subhas Chandra Bose, a man of comparable stature who admired Gandhi but despaired at his aims and methods, and who became a bitter rival of Nehru … While his memory is still held in high esteem in India, in the West Bose is much less revered, largely because of his wartime collaboration with the Axis powers. Both before and during the Second World War, Bose worked tirelessly to secure German and Japanese support in freeing his beloved homeland of foreign rule. 

Robert E. Lee: Traitor or Hero?
Clyde Wilson

This year is Robert E. Lee’s bicentennial – the 200th anniversary of his birth. Nothing better illustrates the swift and vicious descent of Political Correctness upon American history and symbols than the shadow that has, in just the last few years, been thrown over a man regarded (rightly) for well over a century as among the greatest of Americans … How the times have changed – and suddenly. The official doctrine of the MSI (Mainstream Intellectuals) now condemns Lee as a traitor and oath-violator and his cause as little better than Hitler's. This interpretation rests upon either a deliberate or a vastly ignorant misinterpretation of everything important in American history. 

Jimmy Carter and the Swarm
Israel Shamir

Publication of Jimmy Carter's Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid is a great event for America and for all of us. It's not that Carter said anything we did not already know about Palestine. Before Carter, we already knew that the Zionists had established a racist apartheid regime in the Holy Land where Jews have rights, and goyim have duties ... But we did not know that there are prominent Americans who would dare the wrath of organised Jewry and spell it out loud. Why did President Carter do it? Why did he risk his peaceful old age and gently fading glory to endure an attack of Israel's Fifth Column…

A German court on Thursday convicted Ernst Zundel of 14 counts of incitement of racial hatred and sentenced him to five years in prison, the maximum allowed under German law for denying the Holocaust ... In the closing statement at his trial, Zundel continued to deny the killing of six million Jews and said the German court should set up an international commission of experts to examine the Holocaust.

Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians Detailed
in Pappe’s New Book
Stephen Lendman

Ilan Pappe is an Israeli historian and senior lecturer at Haifa University … He proves from official records how the Israeli state came into being with blood on its hands from lands forcibly seized from its Palestinian inhabitants who'd lived on it for hundreds of years previously. Since the 1940s, they were ethnically cleansed and slaughtered without mercy so their homeland would become one for Jews alone … He details how David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, met with leading Zionists and young Jewish military officers on March 10, 1948, to finalize plans to ethnically cleanse Palestine that unfolded in the months that followed …

Italy and Croatia Dispute World War II Killings
BBC News

Italy has cancelled an official visit to Croatia following an angry exchange over the massacre of thousands of Italians during World War II. In 1943-45, up to 10,000 were tortured or killed by Yugoslav communists who occupied the Istrian peninsula, now part of Croatia and Slovenia. On Saturday, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, an ex-communist, described the murders as "ethnic cleansing". Croatian leader Stipe Mesic said his speech had traces of "open racism". This little known chapter of World War II still causes Italians great pain and division. It is known as the Foibe, after the deep mountain chasms into which the victims were thrown. 

Manifest Destiny: A New Direction for America
William Pfaff – The New York Review of Books

This is where the problem lies … It is something like a national heresy to suggest that the United States does not have a unique moral status and role to play in the history of nations, and therefore in the affairs of the contemporary world. In fact it does not … The Bush administration and its sympathizers thus see themselves supporting the dominant force in history's development. If history's natural trajectory is toward democracy, US policy is simply to accelerate the inevitable … The Washington political class remains largely convinced that the United States supplies the essential structure of international security …

Stop the Cannon Fodder
Charley Reese

… Individual soldiers who survive combat often come home to realize that all of the horrific and heroic actions they took don't mean anything. Vietnam, for example, is ruled by a communist government. Nobody but a historian even remembers what World War I was all about, much less the 10 million young men who died fighting it. World War II and Korea are likewise fading from public memory… The young people dying in Iraq are not dying to protect their country. As usual, they were lied to. They're dying for corporate profits, in which they do not share; they are dying because of some academic's harebrained belief that we can turn Iraq into a liberal democratic state; they are dying because of political opportunists in Washington.

Ancient Coin Depicts an Unattractive Cleopatra
BBC News

Antony and Cleopatra, one of history's most romantic couples, were not the great beauties that Hollywood would have us believe, academics have said. A study of a 2,000-year-old silver coin found the Egyptian queen, famously portrayed by Elizabeth Taylor, had a pointed chin, thin lips and sharp nose. Her Roman lover, played by Richard Burton, had bulging eyes, thick neck and a hook nose. The tiny coin was studied by experts at Newcastle University. The size of a modern 5p piece, the artefact from 32 BC was in a collection belonging to the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle.

Target Iran: US Continues Preparations for Attack
The Guardian (Britain)

US preparations for an air strike against Iran are at an advanced stage, in spite of repeated public denials by the Bush administration, according to informed sources in Washington. The present military build-up in the Gulf would allow the US to mount an attack by the spring. But the sources said that if there was an attack, it was more likely next year, just before Mr Bush leaves office … The sources said Mr Bush had not yet made a decision. The Bush administration insists the military build-up is not offensive but aimed at containing Iran and forcing it to make diplomatic concessions. The aim is to persuade Tehran to curb its suspect nuclear weapons program and abandon ambitions for regional expansion.

On the Path to War with Iran
Norman Robbins – The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio)

Seventy-five percent of Americans want negotiations instead of war with Iran, but the Bush administration is charging ahead. Once again, military preparations are being paired with misinformation, and peaceful options are being dismissed. This time, Americans must inform themselves and take action before it is too late. ...Bush could find some pretext to launch and then announce a naval-air attack, regardless of congressional concern. Some insiders say that plans are in place and that the administration believes it has prior authorization. Again, when Iran strikes back, Congress is not likely to deny the president military support. Prevention is urgent. 

Top US General Doubts Bush Administration Claims
About Iran
BBC News

The most senior US military officer has said there is no proof the Iranian government has directly armed Shia groups fighting in Iraq. Gen Peter Pace, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, appeared to contradict claims made by US officers in Iraq. The US presented evidence this week it said proved the "highest levels" of Iran's government were supplying arms used by Shia militants in Iraq. Gen Pace said all it proved was "things made in Iran" are being used in Iraq.

European Union Divided Over Bid to Ban 'Holocaust Denial'
European Jewish Press – Agence France Presse

European Union countries remained divided Thursday over a German initiative to make Holocaust denial and incitement to racial hatred a crime ... The divisions are above all cultural ones aligning mainly Britain, Ireland and Scandinavian countries, who staunchly defend freedom of expression protected under their laws, against countries which already punish such crimes... Britain, Denmark and Hungary also voiced concern that criminalizing use of symbols like the swastika could curb freedom of expression. Slovakia, Lithuania and other eastern European members also have called for communist symbols such as the hammer and sickle to be included in the plan, but EU diplomats said no decision on that request has yet been made.

Noted Arab Citizens Call on Israel to Shed Jewish Identity
The New York Times

A group of prominent Israeli Arabs has called on Israel to stop defining itself as a Jewish state and become a "consensual democracy for both Arabs and Jews," prompting consternation and debate across the country. Their contention is part of "The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel," a report published in December under the auspices of the Committee of Arab Mayors in Israel, which represents the country's 1.3 million Arab citizens, about a fifth of the population. Some 40 well-known academics and activists took part. They call on the state to recognize Israeli Arab citizens as an indigenous group with collective rights, saying Israel inherently discriminates against non-Jewish citizens.

Ernst Zundel: A Life of Struggle
Revisionists.com

Ernst Zundel, a German-born publisher, author and civil rights activist, is a towering figure in the worldwide Holocaust revisionist movement. For more than four years he has been held behind bars, first in Canada and now in Germany, solely for the peaceful expression of non-conformist views. He is the most prominent political prisoner in the western world today.

Target Tehran: Washington Prepares For Confrontation
Patrick Cockburn – The Independent (Britain)

The United States is moving closer to war with Iran by accusing the "highest levels" of the Iranian government of supplying sophisticated roadside bombs that have killed 170 US troops and wounded 620. The allegations against Iran are similar in tone and credibility to those made four years ago by the US government about Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction in order to justify the invasion of 2003 … The evidence against Iran is even more insubstantial than the faked or mistaken evidence for Iraqi WMDs disseminated by the US and Britain in 2002 and 2003.

Was Israel Tracking the Hijackers Before the 9/11 Attacks?
Christopher Ketcham – Democracy Now

Now, the upshot of all this available evidence is this: the Israeli government likely was conducting some kind of spy operation on US soil in the run-up to the September 11th attacks. The purpose of the operation was to identify and track Muslim extremists, possibly including members of al-Qaeda.

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

A new poll commissioned by the Council for the National Interest Foundation 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, which was 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." 

Defense Seeks Acquittal of 'Denier' Zundel at German Trial
The Associated Press

Defense lawyers on Friday urged a German court to acquit Ernst Zundel, a far-right activist who was deported from Canada, of incitement charges stemming from persistent denial of the Holocaust … Prosecutors accuse Zundel, a 66-year-old German deported from Canada in 2005, of years of anti-Semitic activities, including denying the Holocaust - a crime in Germany - in documents and on the Internet … They have urged the court to convict Zundel of 14 counts of incitement and sentence him to five years in prison … A verdict in the trial is likely next Thursday [Feb. 15].

Abraham Lincoln and the Issue of Race
Robert Morgan – Institute for Historical Review

Many Americans think of Abraham Lincoln, above all, as the president who freed the slaves. Immortalized as the "Great Emancipator," he is widely regarded as a champion of black freedom who supported social equality of the races, and who fought the American Civil War to free the slaves. While it is true that Lincoln regarded slavery as an evil and harmful institution, it also true, as this paper will show, that he shared the conviction of most Americans of his time, and of many prominent statesmen before and after him, that blacks could not be assimilated into white society. He rejected the notion of social equality of the races, and held to the view that blacks should be resettled abroad. 

By Zeus!: Greek Pagans Revive Worship of Ancient Gods
The Guardian (Britain)

… Last year, Peppa's group, Ellinais, succeeded in gaining legal recognition as a cultural association in a country where all non-Christian religions, bar Islam and Judaism, are prohibited. As a result of the ruling, which devotees say paves the way for the Greek gods to be worshipped openly, the organisation hopes to win government approval for a temple in Athens where pagan baptisms, marriages and funerals could be performed … Those who claim to "defend the genuine traditions, religion and ethos" of pre-Christians say there are at least 2,000 hard-core followers and, nationwide, more than 100,000 sympathisers. Nationalist extremists, attracted by the creed's emphasis on Hellenic glories, are helping to boost the revival.

New Book Details 'Apartheid' Medical Experimentation
Newsweek - MSNBC

Harriet Washington's new book, "Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans From Colonial Times to the Present," reveals that the 40-year Tuskegee study – which allowed black men with syphilis to die untreated so their cadavers could be used for research – was neither the first nor the last time that unwitting black subjects were exploited by medical researchers in the United States… Perhaps the most egregious case Washington documents involved a study conducted in New York from 1988 to 2001, in which a city agency tested potentially dangerous AIDS drugs on African-American foster children with HIV, often without permission of their parents. The children were 6 months of age and younger.

Carter’s Book is Work of a True Patriot
Paul Findley -- Chicago Tribune

At the age of 82, Jimmy Carter entered the lion's den. With the publication of his latest book, " Palestine: Peace not Apartheid," he did what a patriot would do: rally Americans to vigorous debate of a critical issue that affects our future. He deserves a hero's praise. Instead, he has been attacked and defamed … I also experienced firsthand what Carter now faces. Toward the end of my 22-year tenure in Congress, I spoke in favor of Palestinian rights and was critical of Israeli policies of Palestinian land confiscation and Jewish-only settlements on Palestinian lands. These actions were counter to American policy and values.

Liberating America From Israel
Paul Findley

Nine-Eleven would not have occurred if the U.S. government had refused to help Israel humiliate and destroy Palestinian society. Few express this conclusion publicly, but many believe it is the truth. I believe the catastrophe could have been prevented if any U.S. president during the past 35 years had had the courage and wisdom to suspend all U.S. aid until Israel withdrew from the Arab land seized in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The U.S. lobby for Israel is powerful and intimidating, but any determined president – even President Bush this very day – could prevail and win overwhelming public support for the suspension of aid by laying these facts before the American people …

Israeli Historian Confirms 'Blood Libel' Claims
The Jerusalem Post (Israel)

An Israeli historian of Italian origin has revived "blood libel" in an historical study set to hit Italian bookstores on Thursday. Ariel Toaff, son of Rabbi Elio Toaff, claims that there is some historic truth in the accusation that for centuries provided incentives for pogroms against Jews throughout Europe. Toaff's tome, Bloody Passovers: The Jews of Europe and Ritual Murders, received high praise from another Italian Jewish historian, Sergio Luzzatto, in an article in the Corriere della Serra daily entitled "Those Bloody Passovers." Luzzatto describes Toaff's work as a "magnificent book of history...”

Bush Is Hiding the Ball on Iran
Robert Parry -- Consortium News

George W. Bush is again guiding the nation toward a preemptive war – this time with Iran – without allowing anything like a full debate of the underlying facts, probable consequences of the conflict or peaceful alternatives ... My own military and intelligence sources have painted a similar picture of an expected American air campaign against Iran, which may involve the Israelis as the initiators of the attack to make the U.S. attack appear more defensive and to nail down more Democratic and media support. 

Immigration Policy: Is The Other Boot About To Drop?
Kevin MacDonald 

… Virtually all of the really critical issues affecting the United States and its role in the world are actually excluded from discussion in the elite media or in the political arena … The classic case: US policy in the Middle East . Despite the obvious fact that US support for Israel has crucial implications for war and peace, the vast majority of Americans are oblivious to what is really going on in this region … The two issues of Israel and immigration relaxation (in the U.S.) have in common a deep and straightforward Jewish commitment to particular policies. My contention is that both policies have been construed by Jewish leaders as being helpful to the security and political influence of their community.

Iran: The War Begins
John Pilger -- The New Statesman (Britain)

The United States is planning what will be a catastrophic attack on Iran. For the Bush cabal, the attack will be a way of "buying time" for its disaster in Iraq... In concert with Israel and Washington’s Zionist and fundamentalist Christian lobbies, the Bushites say their "strategy" is to end Iran’s nuclear threat. In fact, Iran possesses not a single nuclear weapon nor has it ever threatened to build one… Unlike Israel and the United States, Iran has abided by the rules of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty... Influential Democrats, such as the new leader of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, and the would-be presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, have disported themselves before the Israeli lobby.

'Israel's Cause is Our Cause'
Hillary Rodham Clinton 

… That is why we stand with Israel because it is a beacon of democracy in the region; that is why we stand with Israel because its very existence is a defiant affront to anti-Semitism; that is why we stand with Israel because in defeating terror because Israel’s cause is our cause. And that is why we stand with Israel because of our shared values and our shared belief in the dignity of men and women and the right to live without fear or oppression. And what we must do is to think rationally and strategically about how our values, our beliefs can be translated into effective action. It is not enough for us to say the right things; we’ve got to be smart and tough enough to do the right things that will protect American and Israeli interests now and forever. 

Iraq War a Calamity, Says Ex-Security Adviser Brzezinski
The Associated Press

Zbigniew Brzezinski, former U.S. national security adviser, told Congress the war in Iraq is a calamity and likely to lead to "a head-on conflict with Iran and with much of the world of Islam at large." Testifying before the Senate foreign relations committee Thursday, Brzezinski skewered U.S. administration policy as driven by "imperial hubris" and a disaster on historic, strategic and moral grounds… He set out as a plausible scenario for military collision: Iraq failing to meet benchmarks set by the administration, followed by accusations Iran is responsible for the failure, then a terrorist act or some provocation blamed on Iran, culminating in so-called defensive U.S. military action against Iran.

Three Former US Generals Warn Against Iran Strike
The Associated Press

Three former high-ranking U.S. military officers have called for Britain to help defuse the crisis over Iran's nuclear program, saying military action against Tehran would be a disaster for the region. In a letter to the Sunday Times newspaper, the three former officers urged President Bush to open talks, "without preconditions," with the Iranian government in a bid to find a diplomatic solution. The signatories were retired Lt. Gen. Robert G. Gard, a senior military fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation in Washington, D.C.; retired Marine Gen. Joseph P. Hoar, former head of U.S. Central Command; and Vice Adm. Jack Shanahan, former director of the Center for Defense Information.

Carter Accuses Wiesenthal Center of 'Slander'
Over New Book
Fox News

Jimmy Carter has accused an international Jewish human rights group of "falsehood and slander" for launching a petition that resulted in thousands of signatures being sent to the former president in protest of his controversial book about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."I don't believe Simon Wiesenthal would have resorted to falsehood and slander to raise funds," Carter wrote last month in a handwritten letter to the head of the human rights center that bears the name of the late Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter. 

Since its founding in 1977, the Simon Wiesenthal Center has grown to become one of the most important and influential Jewish organizations in the world... Although it calls itself “an international Jewish human rights organization dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust fostering tolerance and understanding,” the Center in reality is a propaganda agency whose agenda is to further Jewish-Zionist interests… The Wiesenthal Center has a long record of reckless propaganda for war. Long before the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003, it had been pressing for an American attack against the Middle East nation, backing its effort with alarmist “Big Lie” claims about the supposed danger posed by the Baghdad regime.

Jewish Settler in Hebron Affronts British Film Crew
LiveLeak – Video

Startling video taken by a British film crew in occupied Palestine records obscene abuse by a Zionist “settler.” Run time: 1:42 minutes. This is a sample of the way that Jewish “settlers” deal with the native Palestinians, whose ordeal and dispossession is made possible by the United States.

Americans No Longer Tallest
International Herald-Tribune

In yet another blow to its global ego, the United States must now face the fact that it no longer grows the world’s tallest people … In a recent New Yorker article by Burkhard Bilger, "Why Europeans are getting taller – and Americans aren't." He found that after World War II the Dutch were, on average, four inches, or 10 centimeters, shorter than the average American … The United States stopped growing in height around 1955, says Bilger, while the Dutch, the Germans and other Europeans were quietly putting on two centimeters per decade. Now even the Japanese have caught up with the Americans. The Northern Europeans, led by the Dutch, are now some three inches taller than average Americans.

Iran Challenges Europe To Hand Over Holocaust 'Proof'
Agence France Presse

An Iranian government-sponsored body set up to probe the veracity of the Holocaust has challenged Europe to hand over documents about the mass slaughter of Jews in World War II. Mohammad Ali Ramin, the head of the "World Holocaust Foundation" created after Iran's controversial Holocaust conference last year, said Austria, Germany and Poland in particular should supply documents. "They should hand over the proof for the dossier on the organized massacre of Jews in Europe during World War II to the independent international fact-finding committee affiliated to this foundation," the IRNA state news agency quoted him as saying Tuesday. 

From the Folks Who Brought You Iraq
Craig Unger -- Vanity Fair

…Once again, neocon ideologues have been flogging questionable intelligence about W.M.D. Once again, dubious Middle East exile groups are making the rounds in Washington – this time urging regime change in Syria and Iran. Once again, heroic new exile leaders are promising freedom. Meanwhile, a series of recent moves by the military have lent credence to widespread reports that the U.S. is secretly preparing for a massive air attack against Iran … The neoconservatives have had Iran in their sights for more than a decade.

Iran: A Familiar Game Plan
Eric Margolis – Toronto Sun

… The heaviest concentration of U.S. naval strike forces since the 2003 war against Iraq is concentrating off Iran. In a disturbing replay of that conflict, CIA drones and U.S. Air Force recon aircraft – along with U.S. and British Special Forces – are overflying Iran and probing its nuclear and military installations … The Bush administration and close ally Israel have sharply intensified their war of words against Iran, claiming, implausibly, it poses a nuclear threat to the entire world. Politicians in Israel are in dangerous emotional overdrive and making open threats to attack Iran. They claim Iran is a new Nazi Germany and Israel faces a second Holocaust – in spite of its powerful triad of nuclear forces that can survive any surprise attack.

The Real Failed States: US and Israel
Paul Craig Roberts

Israel survives on life support from the US. A state that cannot exist without outside support is a failed state. What about the United States? The US is an even greater failure. Its existence is not dependent on life support from outside. The US has failed in another way. Not only has the state failed, but the society as well … Under the Nuremberg standard, unprovoked aggression is a war crime. The US established this standard. Bush has violated it with impunity … Academics differentiate between failed states and rogue states. The US and Israel meet both criteria. The US and Israel lead the world in aggressive military actions and in killings of civilian populations. 

A senior nuclear physicist involved in Iran 's nuclear program who died under mysterious circumstances two weeks ago was killed by the Mossad, according to a report released in a U.S. website this weekend. The website – Stratfor.com – features intelligence and security analysis by former U.S. intelligence agents. Professor Ardashir Hosseinpour, a world authority on electromagnetism, was until recently working on uranium enrichment at the facility in Isfahan, one of the central processing sites in Iran's nuclear program. The physicist died January 18, but news of his death only emerged six days later in two Iranian media outlets. A report released this weekend in Stratfor.com stated that the Mossad was behind Hosseinpour's death.

Silencing Critics Not Way to Middle East Peace
Joel Beinin – San Francisco Chronicle

Last Sunday in San Francisco, the Anti-Defamation League sponsored "Finding Our Voice," a conference designed to help Jews recognize and confront the "new anti-Semitism." For me, it was ironic. Ten days before, my own voice was silenced by fellow Jews … Why discredit, defame and silence those with opposing viewpoints? I believe it is because the Zionist lobby knows it cannot win based on facts. An honest discussion can only lead to one conclusion: The status quo in which Israel declares it alone has rights and intends to impose its will on the weaker Palestinians, stripping them permanently of their land, resources and rights, cannot lead to a lasting peace.

A Legacy of Anti-Terrorist Failure in Lebanon:
Looking Back at 1982
James Bovard

The Bush administration is fond of favoring tough measures against terrorists. With the Bush team cheer-leading all the way, Israel reinvaded Lebanon in July in response to Hezbollah’s seizure of two Israeli soldiers. Israel and Hezbollah had been exchanging bombs and missiles for months – actually, years – prior to Israel’s launching a bombing campaign that soon expanded to include much of Lebanon. Unfortunately, neither the Israeli government nor its friends in the U.S. government appear to have learned anything from the prior [1982] Israeli invasion and occupation of Lebanon. As with the last time, there is a danger that U.S. military forces will be sent to Lebanon to try to assuage the chaos.

China Overtakes Japan on R&D
The Financial Times

China has overtaken Japan to become the second biggest spender on research and development behind the US, a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development revealed. The country is expected to invest $136 billion in research and development this year after growing by more than 20 percent in the past year, ahead of the $130 billion from Japan but still well behind the $330bn the US will invest, the OECD said. The report is the latest indication of the dramatic rise in research spending in China, which is beginning to cause concerns among western
governments.

Israel to Buy Thousands of US 'Smart Bomb' Missiles
The Jerusalem Post (Israel)

In one of the largest weapons deals since the war in Lebanon, the Israel Air Force intends to purchase thousands of Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) missiles from the United States for an estimated $100 million, The Jerusalem Post has learned. During the war this past summer, the IAF used JDAM missiles extensively and even received emergency shipments from the US … The JDAM is a low-cost guidance kit produced by Boeing Co. that converts free-fall bombs into guided "smart" weapons … The kits were then added to Mk-84, 2,000-pound warheads, turning simple iron bombs into precision, satellite-guided weapons.

Bush's Brave New World War: Free of Holocaust Denial
Gilad Atzmon 

… The notion of the destruction of 'European Jewry' unites some major political powers. It unites the European parliamentary left together with the conservative liberals as well as America’s most radical expansionist forces. They all need the Holocaust for different reasons. In Europe the Holocaust is there to dismantle the emerging far right. In the Germanic States the Holocaust is the core of the post-war symbolic order. For the Anglo-Americans the Holocaust is there to push away any real ethical engagement with Dresden, Hiroshima, Vietnam, Palestine and Iraq. Most importantly, the new Holocaust denial resolution provides the Americans with the pretext for the next Genocide.

Inflation: The Hidden Cost of War
Rep. Ron Paul

The Pentagon recently reported that it now spends roughly $8.4 billion per month waging the war in Iraq, while the additional cost of our engagement in Afghanistan brings the monthly total to a staggering $10 billion. Since 2001, Congress has spent more than $500 billion on specific appropriations for Iraq. This sum is not reflected in official budget and deficit figures. Congress has funded the war by passing a series of so-called “supplemental” spending bills, which are passed outside of the normal appropriations process and thus deemed off-budget. This is fundamentally dishonest: if we’re going to have a war, let’s face the costs – both human and economic – squarely. 

Hegemony and Appeasement: Setting Up Iran as Next US-Israeli Target
Edward S. Herman and David Peterson – ZNet

Still digesting their recent and ongoing aggressions in the Middle East, the Bush and Israeli regimes now threaten to attack Iran. As these warrior states cast their long shadow across the region, they find themselves aided and abetted by the Security Council, the other major powers, parties of the opposition, and the media. The ease with which a supposedly independent media in a supposedly democratic society like the United States can demonize enemies and convert third- and fourth-rate official targets into major threats is almost beyond belief. And the collective amnesia of the establishment media enables them to do the same thing over and over again…

Roman Descendents Found in China?
The Telegraph (Britain)

Residents of a remote Chinese village are hoping that DNA tests will prove one of history's most unlikely legends – that they are descended from Roman legionaries lost in antiquity. Scientists have taken blood samples from 93 people living in and around Liqian, a settlement in north-western China on the fringes of the Gobi desert, more than 200 miles from the nearest city. They are seeking an explanation for the unusual number of local people with western characteristics – green eyes, big noses, and even blonde hair – mixed with traditional Chinese features.

The Central Question
Charley Reese

The central question of our time is, can the American people gain enough factual information to determine the truth about the issues that face them? Sadly, I'm inclined to think not… It goes back to the golden rule: Those who have the gold rule… It's also a fact that government routinely lies, and so do many corporations. That mysterious commitment to the public good, which once joined Americans from many different classes and positions, seems to have dissolved. Integrity, which simply means being true regardless of consequences to one's own beliefs, seems to have no market value in America today.

The Age of Perpetual Conflict
Gabriel Kolko

Nearly all wars in the twentieth century have both surprised and disillusioned all leaders, whatever their nationality. Given the political, social, and human elements involved in every conflict, and the near certainty that these mercurial ingredients will interact to produce unanticipated consequences, leaders who calculate the outcome of wars as essentially predictable military events are invariably doomed to disappointment. The theory and the reality of warfare conflict immensely, for the results of wars can never be known in advance.

Can Anyone Steer This Economy?:
Globalization is Out of Control
Business Week

… No matter which party you belong to, or which Big Idea or school of economic policy you subscribe to, one thing is clear: Globalization has overwhelmed Washington's ability to control the economy … Beyond that, the idea of a national economic policy may be fundamentally out of date in a world of global markets. Washington is no longer the center of the economic universe. That's a basic fact that Democrats and Republicans alike will need to get their heads around.

Bush is Not Above the Law
James Bamford -- The New York Times

Last August, a federal judge found that the president of the United States broke the law, committed a serious felony and violated the Constitution. Had the president been an ordinary citizen – someone charged with bank robbery or income tax evasion – the wheels of justice would have immediately begun to turn. The F.B.I. would have conducted an investigation, a United States attorney’s office would have impaneled a grand jury and charges would have been brought. But under the Bush Justice Department, no F.B.I. agents were ever dispatched to padlock White House files or knock on doors and no federal prosecutors ever opened a case.

Napoleanic Mass Graves Found
City Paper (Estonia)

A mass grave in Vilnius sheds light on a catastrophic military campaign [1812] that changed the course of Europe … Like Germany’s Wehrmacht that attacked Russia around the same time of year in 1941, Napoleon’s troops were being sucked into a trap they didn’t see coming and from which most would never escape … With temperatures in Vilnius sinking to -30 C – colder than inside a contemporary kitchen freezer – half the troops died in days, their bodies littering the cobblestone streets. Corpses soon equaled or even surpassed the city’s 30,000 native population. Makeshift hospitals were visions of hell … During Napoleon’s 15-year reign, a million French soldiers had died under his command -- nearly half of them during the disastrous Russian campaign alone.

The Crime of the Century
Paul Craig Roberts

President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq is the greatest crime of the 21st century. Armed with a powerful moral case against Bush, whose lies are responsible for a war that has caused thousands of U.S. casualties and killed vast numbers of Iraqi civilians, Democratic leaders are damning Bush's war because it did not succeed! … Everyone can see the U.S. buildup of massive air and naval attack forces on Iran 's borders. Fox "News," the Bush regime's main disinformation agency, is busy preparing its viewers for the U.S. attack by whipping up fear and hysteria over Iran … The Israel Lobby is working around the clock for a U.S. strike on Iran. On Jan. 30 Bush again threatened that he will respond firmly if Tehran escalates its involvement in Iraq .

Israel 'Likely' Broke US Arms Deal Terms
BBC News

Israel probably violated the terms of its arms deals with Washington by using US-made cluster bombs in Lebanon last year, a US government report says. The state department looked into Israel 's use of cluster bombs in civilian areas of southern Lebanon during its conflict with Hezbollah. US-made weapons are sold to the Israeli military with restriction on their use. Cluster bombs can scatter hundreds of small bomblets over a wide area, and their use has been widely criticised. The International Committee of the Red Cross called for a ban on the use of cluster bombs in populated areas, because of the indiscriminate civilian deaths they caused.

History’s Tangled Threads: Enduring
'Underground Railroad' Myths
Fergus M. Bordewich -- The New York Times

Few aspects of the American past have inspired more colorful mythology than the Underground Railroad … So it’s not surprising that the intriguing (if only recently invented) tale of escape maps encoded in antebellum quilts — enshrined in a metastasizing library of children’s books and teachers’ lesson plans and perhaps even in a Central Park memorial to Frederick Douglass — should also seize the popular imagination … The “freedom quilt” myth is just the newest acquisition in a congeries of bogus, often bizarre, legends attached to the Underground Railroad. Despite a lack of documentation, tales of actual tunnels through which fugitives supposedly fled persist in communities from the Canadian border to the Mason-Dixon Line .

Proposed European Union Law Would Ban 'Genocide Denial'
The Daily Telegraph (Britain)

People who question the official history of recent conflicts in Africa and the Balkans could be jailed for up to three years for "genocide denial", under proposed EU legislation. Germany, current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, will table new legislation to outlaw "racism and xenophobia" this spring. Included in the draft EU directive are plans to outlaw Holocaust denial, creating an offence that does not exist in British law. But the proposals, seen by The Daily Telegraph, go much further and would criminalise those who question the extent of war crimes that have taken place in the past 20 years. The legislation will trigger a major row across Europe over free speech and academic freedom.

Germany Backs Down on Wider Ban on Swastikas and 'Denial'
European Jewish Press

Germany said on Monday it would not seek a European Union ban on swastikas as part of its drive to have a common European law penalising Holocaust denial and the incitement of racial hatred … The German justice ministry said in a statement it "will not seek to prohibit the use of specific symbols such as swastikas" when setting out plans for an EU-wide anti-racism law. It would also not try to push all EU states to say it is a crime to deny that 6 million Jews were exterminated during WWII, guaranteeing "the member states the necessary leeway for maintaining their established constitutional traditions."

Letters Reflect Growing Public Rejection of 'Holocaust Denial' Laws
Deutsche Welle (Germany)

Germany's efforts to criminalize Holocaust denial in the European Union are increasingly coming up against resistance. See what readers had to say on the matter ... “Passing laws that illegalize Holocaust denial is a victory against freedom of speech” … “To put a man at Mr. Zundel's advanced age in jail is criminal to say the least. I thought people were allowed to think. Mr. Zundel chooses to think differently. It isn't a crime. How many people will Germany put in jail for thinking or writing books? Shame!”

Imperial Presidency
Eric Margolis -- Toronto Sun

Presidential State of the Union addresses often strike me as embarrassing spectacles of imperial pomp and crass jingoism unworthy of the great American republic… Watching senators and congressmen jump to their feet at every presidential cliche and applaud like clapping seals cheapens what should be a dignified event … The essence of America's political system that has been a beacon to the world for two centuries is the remarkable system of checks and balances conceived by its founding fathers to prevent the emergence of an autocrat, despot, or monarch. It is precisely Congress's duty to stop a president and vice-president who have lost touch with reality, violated the constitution, and are taking America over a cliff. 

Empire vs. Democracy: Why Nemesis is at Our Door
Chalmers Johnson

...We are now saddled with a rigged economy based on record-setting trade and fiscal deficits, the most secretive and intrusive government in our country's memory, and the pursuit of "preventive" war as a basis for foreign policy. Don't forget as well the potential epidemic of nuclear proliferation as other nations attempt to adjust to and defend themselves against Bush's preventive wars... We are on the brink of losing our democracy for the sake of keeping our empire. Once a nation starts down that path, the dynamics that apply to all empires come into play – isolation, overstretch, the uniting of local and global forces opposed to imperialism, and in the end bankruptcy.

Iran Clock is Clicking
Robert Parry -- Consortium News

While congressional Democrats test how far they should go in challenging George W. Bush's war powers, the time may be running out to stop Bush from ordering a major escalation of the Middle East conflict by attacking Iran. Military and intelligence sources continue to tell me that preparations are advancing for a war with Iran starting possibly as early as mid-to-late February. The sources offer some differences of opinion over whether Bush might cite a provocation from Iran or whether Israel will take the lead in launching air strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities. But there is growing alarm among military and intelligence experts that Bush already has decided to attack and simply is waiting for a second aircraft carrier strike force to arrive in the region...

US Plans Strike Against Iran, British Paper Reports
The Jerusalem Post (Israel)

The US was drawing up plans to attack sites where Iran is believed to be enriching uranium before President George W. Bush's candidacy comes to an end, the UK-based Times reported on Wednesday. According to the Times, the Bush government has been inviting defense consultants and Middle East experts to the White House and Pentagon for tactical advice. The Pentagon was reported to be considering ways for the US to destroy nuclear facilities such as Iran's main centrifuge plant at Natanz, despite the fact that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney hoped that diplomatic efforts to restrain Iran would succeed.

Berlin Holocaust Memorial Desecrated
The Times (Britain)

The German authorities were preparing for criticism from the Jewish community after it was revealed that a Holocaust memorial in Berlin was being used as a public lavatory by tourists and by neo-Nazi sympathisers. The disclosure, in a Berlin newspaper, will trigger a new debate about how the Holocaust should be remembered in Germany. One argument against building the monument – that consists of 2,700 concrete slabs resembling Jewish gravestones – was that it would become a target of anti-Semitic vandals. The managers of the memorial, which attracts 3.5 million visitors a year, have tried to play down the scandal.

Muslims May 'Take Over' Europe, Says Jewish Scholar
The Jerusalem Post (Israel)

Islam could soon be the dominant force in a Europe which, in the name of political correctness, has abdicated the battle for cultural and religious control, Prof. Bernard Lewis, the world-renowned Middle Eastern and Islamic scholar, said on Sunday. The Muslims "seem to be about to take over Europe," … Instead of fighting the threat, he elaborated, Europeans had given up. "Europeans are losing their own loyalties and their own self-confidence," he said. "They have no respect for their own culture." Europeans had "surrendered" on every issue with regard to Islam in a mood of "self-abasement," "political correctness" and "multi-culturalism," said Lewis, who was born in London to middle-class Jewish parents but has long lived in the United States.