Israel
Offered to Sell Nuclear Weapons to South Africa, Newly Revealed Documents Show
The Guardian (Britain)
Secret South African documents reveal that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime, providing the first
official documentary evidence of the state's possession of nuclear weapons. The "top secret" minutes of meetings between senior
officials from the two countries in 1975 show that South Africa's defence minister, PW Botha, asked for the warheads and Shimon
Peres, then Israel's defence minister and now its president, responded by offering them "in three sizes". .. The revelations will
be an embarrassment ... They will also undermine Israel's attempts to suggest that, if it has nuclear weapons, it is a "responsible"
power that would not misuse them, whereas countries such as Iran cannot be trusted.
Memos
and Minutes That Confirm Israel's Nuclear Stockpile
The Guardian (Britain)
Documents reveal how then-defence minister Shimon Perez tried to sell South Africa's apartheid government the bomb.
Katyn and the
'Good War'
Patrick J. Buchanan
... Before, during and after the Nuremberg trials that would convict the Nazis of "crimes against humanity," one of the greatest
crimes against humanity in history was being committed. Fifteen million Germans - old men, women, children - were driven like
cattle out of ancestral homes in Prussia, Pomerania, Brandenburg, Silesia and the Sudetenland ... On Sept. 3, 1939, Britain and
France declared war on Germany to restore the integrity and independence of Poland. For this great goal they converted a
German-Polish clash that lasted three weeks into a world war lasting six years. And was Poland saved? No. Poland was crucified.
The Dark Side of the 'Good
War'
Michael Bess -- Los Angeles Times
World War II is widely considered one of the most morally unambiguous military conflicts in history -- the quintessential "Good
War," as journalist Studs Terkel once described it... At the same time, 60 years of research and reflection have gradually brought
to light numerous aspects of this conflict that do not fit a straightforward pattern of black-and- white moral clarity... Hamburg,
Dresden, Tokyo -- entire cities, tens of thousands of noncombatant civilians at a time, incinerated or blasted to bits under a
steady torrent of British and American bombs. The large-scale killing of children, women and old people had now become routine
facets of Allied warfare.
The Swastika is a
'Historic Legacy,' Says Court in Lithuania
JTA
A Lithuanian court has ruled that a swastika is a part of the country's historic legacy and not a Nazi symbol. The ruling on
Wednesday capped a three-month case involving four men who displayed swastikas at Klaipeda's national independence parade. "It is
not a Nazi attribute, but a valuable symbol of the Baltic culture, an ancient sign of our ancestors, which had been stolen from
them and treacherously used by other peoples," one of the defense witnesses said, according to RT, Russia's English news channel.
Efraim Zuroff, the Simon Wiesenthal Center's chief Nazi hunter and Israel director, called the decision "outrageous" and likely to
lead to a tremendous increase in the use of Nazi symbols by Lithuania's ultra-nationalists.
Russia Rebukes Strasbourg Court for
Helping to `Revise World War II Results'
RIA Novosti (Russia)
Russia on Monday accused the European Court of Human Rights of going along with people who seek to rehabilitate Nazis by upholding
Latvia's appeal in the case of a Soviet World War II veteran. Vasily Kononov, 87, who led a group of resistance fighters against
Nazi Germany in the Baltic state during World War II, was jailed by Latvia in 1998 after he was convicted of ordering the killing
of nine villagers in 1944. He admitted to the killings, but said the dead were Nazi collaborators who were caught in crossfire ...
"The Grand Chamber of the Court in fact has fallen in line with those who strive to revise the results of World War II and
rehabilitate the Nazis and their collaborators," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
China's President
Calls for `Correct' View of History, and `New International Order'
Xinhua (China)
Chinese President Hu Jintao on Saturday called for a correct view of history, saying the Soviet Union and China's contributions to
victory in the world's anti-fascist war are "ironclad." ... "China and Russia bear the responsibility of promoting the world
multipolarization and the democratization of international politics for the establishment of a more equitable and reasonable new
international political order," Hu said.
China's Cut-Throat
Railway Revolution
Der Spiegel (Germany)
China is spending mountains of money to expand its country's high-speed railway network and manufacture the world's fastest trains
... By 2020, its new rail network is set to increase in size from around 6,500 kilometers (4,000 miles) to 18,000 kilometers (11,000
miles). A web of high-speed train lines will connect the most important cities -- from north to south and east to west. In a later
phase, planners even want to expand on a global scale, toward Southeast Asia and the West, even as far as London. And, of course,
they want to use Chinese high-speed train technology in the process.
Documenting Destruction: Photos Show Impact of Allied Air War Against Germany
Der Spiegel (Germany)
A "gallery" of 32 photos that graphically document a devastated and defeated nation. / In May 1945, US pilots embarked on hundreds of reconnaissance flights, aboard the same bombers which had razed much of Germany to the ground. Instead of launching bombs, however, they shot photographs, creating a hard-hitting portrait of their trail of destruction.
Files Reveal Britain's Secret Biological Weapons Trials in Second World War
The Guardian (Britain)
British scientists experimented with ways of spreading foot-and-mouth disease, and lethal infections such as dysentery, cholera and typhoid in secret biological warfare trials during the Second World War. An extensive list of the contagious agents and plagues that could be turned into weapons of mass destruction is revealed in files from a War Cabinet committee released to the National Archives. The government was known to have produced five million anthrax-filled cakes to infect cattle in Germany during the war, but the latest documents show research was carried out into a far larger variety of diseases, mostly in Porton Down, near Salisbury, and Pirbright in Surrey.
Allies Might Have Lost at D-Day if Hitler Has Used Nerve Gas, Says Expert
ANI (India)
As the D-Day anniversary approaches, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, Frank J. Dinan, has revealed what could have happened if Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler had used the deadly nerve gas Tabun. According to Professor Dinan, had Hitler used Tabun, the Allies could have been forced back into the sea with enormous casualties.
That Bright, Dying Star, The American Wasp
Robert Frank -- The Wall Street Journal
... By ushering in a Protestant-free court, Ms. Kagan is helping to sweep away some of the last vestiges of a group that ruled American politics, wealth and culture for much of the nation's history. "The fact that we're going to zero Protestants in the court may not be as significant as the fact that her appointment perfectly reflects the decline of the Establishment, or the WASP Establishment, in America," said David Campbell, associate professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame. Seen from the distance of time, the changes are stunning. In the 1960s, the vast majority of corporate managers were Protestant, according to E. Digby Baltzell's famous 1964 tome, "The Protestant Establishment."
Kagan Appointment Shows, Jews Are The New WASPs
Philip Weiss
... The Kagan appointment means that we have entered a period in which Jews are equal members, if not actually predominant members, of the American Establishment. Obama's two closest political advisers are Jewish, Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod, and are said to be his foreign-policy braintrust. The economy is supervised to a large degree by Jewish appointees, Larry Summers and Fed Reserve Board chair Ben Bernanke (Time's man of the year last year, a selection overseen by Rick Stengel, the Time magazine editor, who is also Jewish). Recently a Jewish friend in the media said, "We're the new WASPs," referring to the patrician class that used to represent the elite in American society.
Elvis Costello Cancels Concerts in Israel
The Guardian (Britain)
Elvis Costello has cancelled two concerts he was scheduled to play in Israel
in protest at its treatment of Palestinians. Costello, one of the most gifted British songwriters of his generation, was due to play on 30 June and 1 July but says his "conscience" dictated that he pull out of the performances. He joins a list of performers who have decided not to play in Israel, including Gil Scott-Heron and Santana.
Eugenics: Alive and Well in Israel
David Kramer
In two separate stories, my [fellow Jewish] landsmen are making obstetrical recommendations in order to prevent population growth in "undesirable" groups living in Israel. In the first video, there is a story about Israeli authorities heavily promoting birth control to pregnant Ethiopian (i.e., Black, i.e., "schvartze") Jewish refugees. In the second video, Harvard Professor Martin Kramer (NO relation!!!) is pushing to end post-natal subsidies to Palestinian refugees in order to cut down on the future "terrorist" population.
The Most Elderly US Congress Ever
The Daily Caller
In terms of old geezers, this Congress is setting all kinds of records. In February 2009, 83-year-old Rep. John Dingell, Michigan Democrat, became the longest-serving House member in history. In November, 92-year-old Sen. Robert Byrd, West Virginia Democrat, became the longest-serving member of Congress, period. And it's not just those two. This is the oldest Congress measured by its average age since records have been kept.
Graphic Footage of Mass Murder of Germans in Prague
Czech TV
Czech TV public television broadcasts a documentary film entitled "Zab�jen� po cesku," or "Killings Czech style." It features
unique footage of a massacre of more than 40 ethnic Germans in Prague in May 1945, shortly after the end of the war. The authors
say they want to draw attention to the atrocities committed against German civilians in post-war Czechoslovakia, though some
historians believe this particular murder was carried out by Soviet troops.
Mortgage Delinquencies Surge To A Record
The Associated Press
The number of homeowners who missed at least one mortgage payment surged to a record in the first quarter of the year, a sign that the foreclosure crisis is far from over. More than ten percent of homeowners had missed at least one mortgage payment in the January-March period, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday. That number was up from 9.5 percent in the fourth quarter of last year and 9.1 percent a year earlier.
GAO Report Casts New Doubt on US Afghanistan Policy
McClatchy Newspapers
An independent government report raises new questions about the likelihood of success for President Barack Obama's Afghanistan policy, which nearly doubles the number of U.S. troops there before a planned drawdown begins in July 2011. The report, by the Government Accountability Office, found the Taliban remain a resilient fighting force, despite the boost in U.S. troops, and suggested many factors remain in place that will allow the Taliban to survive U.S. efforts to eradicate them. The report noted that Taliban-initiated attacks in Afghanistan rose 75 percent between 2008 and 2009 and that civilian casualties rose 72 percent between last September and March, compared with the comparable period a year earlier.
Sunic and Weber Probe Major Issues in Broadcast
Voice of Reason Broadcast Network - Audio
In this "Voice of Reason" broadcast of May 11, 2010, European-American scholar Tomislav Sunic and American historian Mark Weber discuss current and historical issues, including: The decades-long hate campaign directed at Europeans and European-Americans; The growing sense of despair in the US and Europe, and the dramatic demographic transformation of the West over the past 60 years; The "legalistic" outlook of many Americans and Europeans, and its relationship to a Jewish worldview that sees society and religion in contractual, "covenant" terms; The campaign by many Americans to "return to the Constitution." Recent IHR developments, and forthcoming IHR events.
The Birth of Israel: A Tale of Lies, Deceit, and Terrorism
William A. Cook
... The plight of the Palestinians that began so ruthlessly in 1947, and is now called the Nakba, was an intentional, calculated campaign to force the Palestinian Arabs out of Palestine, a systematic genocide of a people as defined by the United Nations in its adoption of Genocide Convention, Article II ... Nothing makes more obvious the meaning of the "Zionist Juggernaut" than Catling's TOP SECRET "Memorandum of the Criminal Investigation Department" of July 31, 1947 : "The purpose of this memorandum is to furnish documentary evidence of the extent to which the supreme Jewish national institutions in Palestine and their principal officials have been parties to acts of sedition, violence, incitement and other offences against the laws of Palestine."
Jewish Group Seeks Cancellation of Buchanan's Column
The Hill (Washington, DC)
A group of Jewish Democrats wants a large newspaper syndicate to stop publishing conservative commentator Pat Buchanan's columns. Buchanan found himself in hot water last week after he penned a piece saying that if Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is confirmed, the number of Jews on the Court will be highly disproportionate to the U.S. population. The National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) wrote a letter to Creators Syndicate asking it to take down the column and stop publishing him.
"We ask that you pull down Buchanan's latest column from your website and that you stop publishing his over-the-top, conspiratorial screeds," it reads.
NATO Code Compromise: Russia Acquired Secrets Through Air Crash
Bill Gertz -- The Washington Times
The recent crash of a Polish military transport that killed most of Warsaw's senior civilian and military leaders was not only a human catastrophe for a key U.S. ally. NATO sources said that, in addition to the loss of nearly 100 pro-U.S. Polish leaders, the crash provided Moscow with a windfall of secrets. The crash killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski in western Russia on April 10 and decapitated Poland's military, killing two service chiefs, key military aides and several national security officials, many of whom were carrying computers and pocket memory sticks that contained sensitive NATO data.
Are Liberals Anti-WASP?
Patrick J. Buchanan
... Of the last seven justices nominated by Democrats JFK, LBJ, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, one was black, Marshall; one was Puerto Rican, Sonia Sotomayor. The other five were Jews: Arthur Goldberg, Abe Fortas, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan. If Kagan is confirmed, Jews, who represent less than two percent of the U.S. population, will have 33 percent of the Supreme Court seats. Is this the Democrats' idea of diversity?
Pentagon Doubts Grow on US Plan for Afghan War
Gareth Porter - Inter Press Service
Although Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's plan for wresting the Afghan provinces of Helmand and Kandahar from the Taliban is still in its early stages of implementation, there are already signs that setbacks and obstacles it has encountered have raised serious doubts among top military officials in Washington about whether the plan is going to work ... The same military official is also quoted as pointing out that parts of Helmand that were supposed to have been cleared by the offensive in February and March are in fact still under Taliban control and that Afghan government performance in the wake of the offensive had been disappointing, according to Ignatius.
Expect War For Five-Ten More Years, Says Marine Corps General
Army Times (Virginia)
For the next "five to ten years," the military likely will remain engaged in the same kinds of conflicts it has been fighting since 2001, said Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright. The vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs on Thursday told a conference in Washington that "no one I know thinks we'll be out of" these kinds of conflicts any time soon. "There is nothing out there that tells us we won't be wrapped up in these conflicts for as far as the eye can see," Cartwright said ...
US Troops Executing Prisoners in Afghanistan, Says Seymour Hersh
The Raw Story
The journalist who helped break the story that detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were being tortured by their US jailers told an audience at a journalism conference last month that American soldiers are now executing prisoners in Afghanistan. New Yorker journalist Seymour Hersh also revealed that the Bush Administration had developed advanced plans for a military strike on Iran. At the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Geneva, Hersh criticized President Barack Obama, and alleged that US forces are engaged in "battlefield executions."
Broad Approval For New Arizona Immigration Law
Pew Research Center for the People and the Press
The public broadly supports a new Arizona law aimed at dealing with illegal immigration and the law's provisions giving police increased powers to stop and detain people who are suspected of being in the country illegally. Fully 73% say they approve of requiring people to produce documents verifying their legal status if police ask for them. Two-thirds (67%) approve of allowing police to detain anyone who cannot verify their legal status, while 62% approve of allowing police to question people they think may be in the country illegally. After being asked about the law's provisions, 59% say that, considering everything, they approve of Arizona's new illegal immigration law while 32% disapprove.
Declassified US Report Exposes Fatally Flawed Israel Investigations
Grant Smith
... U.S. presidents have long acquiesced to "strategic ambiguity" -- a policy of neither confirming nor denying that Israel even possesses nuclear weapons. This pretext has allowed the U.S. to deliver the lion's share of its foreign assistance budget to Israel, despite clear legal prohibitions imposed by the Glenn and Symington amendments to the Foreign Assistance Act ... The 62-page General Accounting Office investigation and correspondence confirms the United States refuses to mount credible investigations that would enable warranted prosecutions of the perpetrators.
Secret 1969 White House Memo on `Dangers' of Israel Nuclear Weapons
Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - pdf document
In this secret internal memo of July 19, 1969, National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger explains to President Richard Nixon the "dangers" of Israel's nuclear weapons program. Kissinger notes that Israel had broken its pledge to the US not to "introduce" nuclear weapons in the region. He also notes that if the US tries to force Israel to live up to its commitment by withholding delivery of US warplanes, "enormous political pressure will be mounted on us." This memo, declassified in 2007 after being "sanitized," lays out US policy regarding the Zionist state's nuclear arsenal: "While we might ideally like to halt actual Israeli possession, what we really want at a minimum may be just to keep Israeli possession from becoming an established international fact."
Southern Public Schools Are First to Become Majority-Minority
The New York Times
The South has become the first region in the country where more than half of public school students are poor and more than half are members of minorities, according to a new report ... The numbers also herald the future of the country as a whole, as minority students are expected to exceed 50 percent of public school enrollment by 2020 and the share of students poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunches is on the rise in every state.
Probing the 1948 Deir Yassin Slaughter of Palestinians
The Independent (Britain)
... The place is Deir Yassin. An Arab village cleared out in 1948 by Jewish forces in a brutal battle just weeks before Israel was formed, Deir Yassin has come to symbolise perhaps more than anywhere else the Palestinian sense of dispossession. Sixty-two years on, what really happened at Deir Yassin on April 9 remains obscured by lies, exaggerations and contradictions. Now Ha'aretz, a liberal Israeli newspaper, is seeking to crack open the mystery by petitioning Israel's High Court of Justice to release written and photographic evidence buried deep in military archives.
U.S. Posts 19th Straight Monthly Budget Deficit
Reuters
The United States posted an $82.69 billion deficit in April, nearly four times the $20.91 billion shortfall registered in April 2009 and the largest on record for that month, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday. It was more than twice the $40 billion deficit that Wall Street economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast and was striking since April marks the filing deadline for individual income taxes that are the main source of government revenue. The government has now posted 19 consecutive monthly budget deficits, the longest string of shortfalls on record.
Jews Welcomed the Soviet Takeover of Eastern Poland in 1939
Mark Paul - Electronic Museum
... Throngs of Jews, often dressed in their best attire for the occasion, avidly greeting the Soviet invaders of Poland in September 1939. Jewish accounts about such pro-Soviet outbursts are legion, as are Polish accounts ... "The Red Army entered ... early on the morning of Tuesday, 19 September 1939, to an enthusiastic welcome by Vilna's Jewish residents, in sharp contrast to the Polish population's reserve and even hostility." " ... The Jewish population [of Slonim] received the Soviet Army on its entry into the city with bread and wine, with a shower of flowers that were thrown at the soldiers, with drums and dances. ... The gentiles whispered and said: `Now the Jewish government has come'."
More Britons Consider Emigrating
Reuters
Almost three-quarters of Britons have considered emigrating this year, with Australia as the most popular destination, according to a new survey ... About one in ten of the 1,029 people surveyed said that a change in the pace of life was the main reason they wanted to emigrate. The survey also found that Canada was the next most popular destination after Australia, followed by the United States, New Zealand, Spain, France and Thailand.
Minding the Gap: Judaism Between Law and Ethics
Ariella Atzmon
... Jewish monotheism is distinct not only from the Pagan world but also from Christianity. As a tribal cult, regarding themselves as chosen, Jews differentiated themselves from the gentiles whom they held in contempt. Christianity as a universal religion enables ethical contemplation without the interference of supremacist postures. Judaic Law is thus an impoverished system of justice ... Whilst grieving the forgotten wisdom of the Talmud, Jewish scholars disguise its formal judicial nature. Jewish Law is not founded in a moral or an ethical conception of man; but rather as a set of regulations which grew out of social conditions and cultic motives obsolete and no longer understood.
A New Look at The `Jewish Question' in Britain
Harold Bloom -- The New York Times
Anthony Julius has written a strong, somber book on an appalling subject: the long squalor of Jew-hatred in a supposedly enlightened, humane, liberal society ... After many massacres, the expulsion of 1290 effectually ended the Jewish presence in England until they were readmitted [nearly four centuries later] under Oliver Cromwell [1656]. The best chapter in "Trials of the Diaspora" concerns the cavalcade of anti-Semitism in English literature, with its monuments in Chaucer's "Prioress's Tale," Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice" and Dickens's "Oliver Twist."
With Kagan's Confirmation, No Protestant Christian on US Supreme Court
The Boston Globe
President Obama's nomination of Elena Kagan to the US Supreme Court represents a turning point in American religious history: If Kagan is confirmed, the high court will not have a single Protestant member. Just over half of all Americans are Protestant, while less than one-quarter are Catholic and just 1.7 percent are Jewish, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life's US Religious Landscape Survey. But, if Kagan is confirmed to the bench, the nation's highest court -- dominated by Protestants for most of its history -- will be made up of six Catholics and three Jews. "This whole project of a Protestant America is really going under, and it's going under quickly," said Stephen Prothero, a professor of religion at Boston University ...
Food Stamp Tally Nears 40 Million, Sets Record
Reuters
Nearly 40 million Americans received food stamps -- the latest in an ever-higher string of record enrollment that dates from December 2008 and the U.S. recession, according to a government update. Food stamps are the primary federal anti-hunger program, helping poor people buy food. .. The Agriculture Department said 39.68 million people, or one in eight Americans, were enrolled for food stamps during February, an increase of 260,000 from January. USDA updated its figures on Wednesday.
School Lunches a `National Security Threat,' Say Retired Military Officers
The Associated Press
School lunches have been called many things, but a group of retired military officers is giving them a new label: national security threat ... School lunches have helped make the nation's young people so fat that fewer of them can meet the military's physical fitness standards, and recruitment is in jeopardy. A new report being released Tuesday says more than nine million young adults, or 27 percent of all Americans ages 17 to 24, are too overweight to join the military. Now, the officers are advocating for passage of a wide-ranging nutrition bill that aims to make the nation's school lunches healthier.
Strategic Implications of American Millennialism
Major Brian L. Stuckert - US Army - School of Advanced Military Studies
... The inevitability of millennial peace through redemptive violence and an exceptional role for America have been and continue to be powerful themes running throughout the security and foreign policies of the U.S ... As demonstrated by American history, millennialism has predisposed us toward stark absolutes, overly simplified dichotomies and a preference for revolutionary or cataclysmic change as opposed to gradual processes. In other words, American strategists tend to rely too much on broad generalizations, often incorrectly cast in terms of 'good' and 'evil,' and seek the fastest resolution to any conflict rather than the most thoughtful or patient one.
A New Openness to
Discussing Allied War Crimes in World War II
Der Spiegel (Germany)
... Allied soldiers committed war crimes in Normandy to a much greater extent than was previously realized. Beevor extensively
quotes reports and memoirs of those who took part in the invasion, many of whom state that American, British and Canadian troops
killed German POWs and wounded soldiers ... Near one village, Audouville-la-Hubert, they massacred 30 captured Wehrmacht soldiers in
a single killing spree ... It would seem that no shadows were to be cast on the war that gave the Americans, in particular, the
moral right to have a say in shaping Europe's postwar future as well as creating the practical conditions for it to do so.
The Soviet Union Came Close to Defeat in 1941, Marshal Zhukov Acknowledged
The Telegraph (Britain)
An interview in which a Soviet commander admitted how close Moscow came to defeat by Germany during the Second World War has been
broadcast in Russia for the first time. The Soviet Union nearly lost the war in 1941 and suffered from poor planning, according to
Marshal Georgy Zhukov in the frank television interview that has been banned since it was recorded in 1966. Zhukov, the most
decorated general in the history of both Russia and the Soviet Union, admitted that Soviet generals were not confident that they
could hold the German forces at the Mozhaisk defence line outside Moscow.
The Revenger's
Tragedy: Denial and Reality of British WWII Bombing
Leo McKinstry -- New Statesman (Britain)
The British government has long denied that wartime air raids on German cities were intended to kill as many civilians as
possible. In fact, the raids, led by Arthur Harris, were motivated largely by a desire to hit back and destroy indiscriminately /
... "The aim of [Britain's] Bomber Command should be unambiguously and publicly stated," he [Harris] wrote in 1943. "That aim is the
destruction of German cities, the killing of German workers and the disruption of civilised life throughout Germany." He wanted
the government to declare its commitment to "the creation of a refugee problem on an unprecedented scale", and he expressed his
contempt of the official eagerness "to downplay the obliteration of German cities and their inhabitants".
The Bogus Mythology of World War II
Eric Margolis
... History is the propaganda of the victors. Few photographs of the gulag have survived, evidence was destroyed, and witnesses have
died. Churchill and Roosevelt could not admit they were allied to the greatest mass killer since Genghis Khan, and complicit in
his crimes. Or reveal that Communist agents of influence had shaped White House policy. The feeble-minded Roosevelt even hailed
Stalin as "Uncle Joe." ... Those who considered the Jewish Holocaust a unique historical crime were not eager to bring attention to
Stalin's genocide lest it diminish or dilute their own people's suffering.
A Timetable For War
Philip Giraldi
... The principal advocates of war in the United States are not in the White House. They continue to belong to the Israeli lobby as
given voice through its acolytes in Congress and the media ... That is precisely the reason why I think a new war in the Middle East
is inevitable and will take place this year, probably by August.
Blackberry Predicted a Century Ago by Nikola Tesla
The Telegraph (Britain)
The Blackberry was first predicted more than a century ago, by Nikola Tesla, the electrical engineer, it has been claimed. Tesla,
a pioneering American physicist, made the prediction about the portable messaging service in the Popular Mechanics magazine in
1909. Tesla, whose name lives on at Tesla Motors, the electric car manufacturer, saw wireless energy as the only way to make
electricity thrive. He wrote in the magazine that, one day it would be possible to transmit wireless messages all over the world.
Tesla, who [was born in Europe and] spent most of his adult life in America before his death in New York in 1943, imagined such a
hand-held device would be simple to use and that, one day, everyone in the world would communicate to friends using it. This, he
added, would usher in a new era of technology.
U.S. Nuclear Option on Iran Linked to
Israeli Attack Threat
Gareth Porter - Inter Press Service
The Barack Obama administration's declaration in its Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) that it is reserving the right to use nuclear
weapons against Iran represents a new element in a strategy of persuading Tehran that an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites
is a serious possibility if Iran does not bow to the demand that it cease uranium enrichment. Although administration officials
have carefully refrained from drawing any direct connection between the new nuclear option and the Israeli threat, the NPR
broadens the range of contingencies in which nuclear weapons might play a role so as to include an Iranian military response to an
Israeli attack. A war involving Iran that begins with an Israeli attack is the only plausible scenario that would fit the category
of contingencies in the document.
False Virtue: The Politics of
Lying About History
Thomas J. DiLorenzo
... A major theme of [Warren's] The Legacy of the Civil War is that the war left the North (which is to say, the U.S.
government) with "a treasury of virtue." This is the "psychological heritage" left to the North, and it is an insidious heritage,
wrote [Pulitzer-Prize winning poet and novelist] Robert Penn Warren. "The Northerner, with his Treasury of Virtue, feels redeemed
by history." ... Warren called this "moral narcissism." It is "a poor basis for national policy," he wrote, but is the
"justification" for "our crusades of 1917-1918 and 1941-1945 and our diplomacy of righteousness, with the slogan of unconditional
surrender and universal spiritual rehabilitation for others."
Engaging Speakers Highlight Successful IHR
Meeting
Institute for Historical Review
Life and death in World War Two Poland and Germany and the battle for Internet free speech were the topics tackled by three
stimulating speakers at the packed IHR meeting on Saturday evening, April 17, 2010. Paul Fromm, Canadian free speech activist,
reviewed major assaults against on-line freedom of expression, and recent legal victories against groups that seek to impose
"politically correct" censorship on the Internet. Dana Alvi spoke graphically of privation, suffering and death in Poland during
World War Two. She recounted numerous moving personal anecdotes, including grim memories from the bloody Warsaw Rising of 1944.
And Gretel Hines spoke vividly about day-to-day life in the Third Reich.
A Look at Costs of Afghan War to US
Taxpayers
Reuters
... Obama has asked for $33 billion more to help fund 30,000 extra U.S. soldiers being sent to Afghanistan this year. He wants
another $4.5 billion for beefed-up foreign aid and civilian operations in Iraq and Afghanistan this year; about $2 billion of this
amount is dedicated to Afghanistan ... Congress has approved $345 billion so far for the war in Afghanistan, where the United States
invaded to fight al Qaeda and topple the Taliban after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. This figure is from the nonpartisan
Congressional Budget Office, which says that about $22 billion has gone for Afghan-war-related activities in other countries.
About twice as much money -- $708 billion -- has gone to the war in Iraq so far, CBO says.
A US
Supreme Court Without Protestant Christians?
CNN
... Roughly half of all Americans identify themselves as Protestant today. But since John Paul Stevens announced his retirement last
month, legal and religious scholars have begun entertaining the unprecedented prospect of a Supreme Court without a single
Protestant justice. Besides Stevens, who is Protestant, the current Supreme Court counts six Catholics and two Jews ... Of the three
candidates who are reported to lead Obama's short list, two -- Solicitor General Elena Kagan and federal appeals judge Merrick
Garland -- are Jewish, while one, federal appeals judge Diane Wood, is a Protestant.
The Future of
Palestine
John J. Mearsheimer
... .From the start, Zionism envisioned an Israeli state that controlled all of Mandatory Palestine. There was no place for a
Palestinian state in the original Zionist vision of Israel ... No American president can put meaningful pressure on Israel to force
it to change its policies toward the Palestinians. The main reason is the Israel lobby, a remarkably powerful interest group that
has a profound influence on U.S. Middle East policy ... In short President Obama is no match for the lobby ... In sum, there are great
dangers ahead for the Palestinians, who will continue to suffer terribly at the hands of the Israelis for some years to come. But
it does look like the Palestinians will eventually get their own state, mainly because Israel seems bent on self-destruction.
Nuking the
Mullahs
Philip Giraldi
... Israel is fast becoming a pariah nation, like South Africa before the final collapse of apartheid, because no one any longer
accepts the legitimacy of its settlement growth and occupation policies ... If the US refuses to cooperate in bombing Iran
conventionally, Israel might well accept the view that the Iranian nuclear program can only be destroyed by using other nuclear
weapons. Tel Aviv, controlling its own nuclear arsenal and the means to deliver the bombs on target, would be able to stage such
an attack unilaterally. An increasingly isolated Israel headed by reactionary and irrational politicians who are influenced by
their own sense of racial superiority just might decide that the gamble is worth it. It would be a very bad decision for Israel,
Iran, and for the United States.
More Hype About Iran?
Stephen M. Walt
Back when I started writing this blog, I warned that the idea of preventive war against Iran wasn't going to go away just because
Barack Obama was president. ... One of the more remarkable features about the endless drumbeat of alarm about Iran is that it pays
virtually no attention to Iran's actual capabilities, and rests on all sorts of worst case assumptions about Iranian behavior ...
Indeed, Iran is significantly weaker than Israel, which has roughly the same total of regular plus reserve military personnel and
vastly superior training. Israel also has more numerous and modern armored and air capabilities and a sizeable nuclear weapons
stockpile of its own.
Arizona Legislature Votes to
Ban Ethnic-Studies Programs
Yahoo News
Just a week after signing the country's toughest immigration bill into law, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer now must decide whether to
endorse another bill passed by her state legislature -- one that outlaws ethnic-studies programs in public schools. The bill
forbids Arizona schools from using any curriculum that promotes "the overthrow of the United States government" or "resentment
toward a race or class of people." It also disallows any curriculum that's "designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic
group" or that seeks to "advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals." Arizona's superintendent
for public instruction, Tom Horne, has said he's backing the measure because ethnic-studies programs encourage "ethnic
chauvinism."
Six Largest US Banks Total 63 Percent
of GDP
The New Republic
... As a result of the crisis and various government rescue efforts, the largest six banks in our economy now have total assets in
excess of 63 percent of GDP (based on the latest available data). This is a significant increase from even 2006, when the same
banks' assets were around 55 percent of GDP, and a complete transformation compared with the situation in the United States just
15 years ago, when the six largest banks had combined assets of only around 17 percent of GDP. If the status quo persists, we are
set up for another round of the boom-bailout-bust cycle that the head of financial stability at the Bank of England now terms a
"doom loop."
Mexico's Illegals Laws Tougher
Than Arizona's
The Washington Times
... Under the Mexican law, illegal immigration is a felony, punishable by up to two years in prison. Immigrants who are deported and
attempt to re-enter can be imprisoned for 10 years. Visa violators can be sentenced to six-year terms. Mexicans who help illegal
immigrants are considered criminals. The law also says Mexico can deport foreigners who are deemed detrimental to "economic or
national interests," violate Mexican law, are not "physically or mentally healthy" or lack the "necessary funds for their
sustenance" and for their dependents.
In the Name of Zionism
Uri Avnery (Israel)
... The leaders of the "Zionist State" depend to a large extent upon the Diaspora and use it for their own purposes. The
Exile-Jewish AIPAC ensures the subjection of the US Congress to the will of the Israeli government. The "Anti-Defamation League"
(which should more properly be called the "Defamation League") is terrorizing the American media in order to prevent any criticism
of Israeli policy. In the past, the United Jewish Appeal was essential for the economic wellbeing of Israel ... If one speaks in
Israel of "Zionism", one means "not Arab". A "Zionist" state means a state in which non-Jewish citizens cannot be full partners.
Eighty percent of Israel's citizens (the Jews) are telling the other twenty percent (the Arabs): the state belongs to us, not to
you. ...
England is the `Least Patriotic'
Country in Europe, New Survey Shows
The Telegraph (Britain)
... Political correctness and a fear of appearing racist were said to be the main factors in the apparent lack of patriotism in
England, along with the increasing influence of the European Union ... Twenty percent blamed a broken society for their lack of
patriotism, while half said they had been patriotic in the past. ... One in four English adults said 'political correctness' had
left them feeling ashamed to be English, while forty per cent said they felt England had completely lost its national identity.
Just ten per cent said they would happily fly the national flag on their house or in their garden, compared to more than a third
of Dutch people, with more than a quarter saying they feared being called racist if they did so.
US
Holocaust Museum Yearly Budget -- More Than $50 Million
Sara J. Bloomfield - US Holocaust Memorial Museum
... The Museum's budget request for [fiscal year] FY 2011 is $50,520,500. The proposed budget increase over FY 2010 is $1.4 million
for pay raises and inflation. The request level will provide for the continuation of current Museum operations. The Museum was
built to do more than just teach the Holocaust - it was built to inspire people, including our leaders, to act on the lessons
learned from the Holocaust. As a living memorial to the Holocaust, the Museum seeks to inspire leaders and citizens worldwide to
confront hate, prevent genocide and promote human dignity.
Major US Jewish Organizations Defend Israel's Humiliation of America
James Petras
When Israel announced a major new Jews-only building project of 1600 homes in occupied East Jerusalem, it was not only "spitting
in the face" of visiting Vice President Biden, it was demonstrating its power to humiliate America and Americans. Netanyahu was
sending a message to world: Israel backed by its billionaire-financed Presidents of the 51 Major American Jewish Organizations,
leads the US by the nose ... At the center of power in America, there is an influential group of power-brokers willing to exploit
and humiliate the American people in the service of a foreign power. In the past, patriots would have called them 'traitors'.
Talk
by Supposed Auschwitz Camp Survivor Cancelled Amid Fraud Accusations
Wausau Daily Herald (Wisconsin)
A public presentation in Wausau by a man who claimed to have survived Auschwitz has been canceled as family members have come
forward disputing the veracity of his story. Gunther Skaletz was scheduled to speak publicly Tuesday evening at Wausau East High
School, hosted by a Wausau group A Walk in Their Shoes. In a statement Monday morning, the group said it could not verify or
confirm allegations that Skaletz was lying, but that it was canceling the event due to a "cloud of controversy." Skaletz, who
lives in Manitowoc and is a frequent speaker for schools, churches and other Wisconsin organizations, claimed in his book that he
was sent to and later released from the Nazi death camp Auschwitz ...
Eruption on
the Nile: Oppression and Discontent in Egypt
Eric Margolis
... Washington's powerful Israel Lobby dominates Congress and thus US food aid to Egypt. Sadat and Mubarak gave Israel decisive
influence over Egypt's policies in exchange for food aid and billions of dollars, a fact that enrages Egypt's Islamists and
nationalists ... While Washington fulminates against Iran and China over human rights, it says nothing about client Egypt, where all
elections are rigged, regime opponents brutally tortured, and political opposition liquidated. Washington could quickly impose
real democracy to Egypt, where it pulls all the strings, if it wanted.
Historian Stephen Ambrose Accused of Faking
Eisenhower Interviews
Yahoo News
Was one of America's most revered popular historians fabricating his own material? That's the explosive charge now levied at
Stephen Ambrose, author of numerous bestselling military and presidential histories. The author of "D-Day" and "Band of Brothers"
died in 2002, but several authorities have recently questioned the writer's accounts of his research for "Supreme Commander," a
massive two-volume biography of Dwight D. Eisenhower. At a minimum, Ambrose's critics say, he had vastly exaggerated the amount of
time he spent interviewing the former president; and at worst, they suggest, he simply made up long stretches of the book.
Defense Spending Is Much Greater than You
Think
Robert Higgs -- The Independent Institute
... For fiscal 2010, which is still in progress, the president's budget estimates that the Pentagon's spending will run more than
$50 billion above the previous year's total. Any supplemental appropriations made before September 30 will push the total for
fiscal 2010 even farther above the trillion-dollar mark ... The government is currently spending at a rate well in excess of $1
trillion per year for all defense-related purposes. Owing to the financial debacle and the ongoing recession, millions are out of
work, millions are losing their homes, and private earnings remain well below their previous peak, but in the military-industrial
complex, the gravy train speeds along the track faster and faster.
`Dear Uncle Adolf': Documentary on Fan Mail to Hitler
The Telegraph (Britain)
Fan letters written to Adolf Hitler during the Second World War were the subject of a new documentary in Germany last night. /
'Dear Uncle Adolf' was the first documentary detailing the tens of thousands of surviving fan letters Hitler received while in
power which were seized by the Soviets when they conquered Berlin in 1945. For years these love notes, advice letters, gifts and
health-tips lay undiscovered in Russian archives. Discovered in 2007, they formed the basis of a German book called 'Letters to
Hitler'. Last night the Svengali-like grip that the Austrian-born Hitler exerted over Germany was unveiled as actors read out the
letters that would fill a truck. They were letters that often accompanied gifts ...
Lies and
Wars
William Pfaff
... Injustice and lies in the Middle East were responsible for unnecessary new wars in the new century, in which the United States
took the lead ... Once more the threat is a polemical invention, intended to frighten American, Israeli (and European) voters, and
prompt a preemptive attack on Iran. The reason Mr. Gates reports his uncertainties to the president is that he too recognizes that
the conflict with Iran is constructed from fictions - which, as with the lies about Iraq, may turn into another war, whose
consequences are sure to be worse for all concerned than the fiasco and tragedy of America's invasion of Iraq.
In Britain, 1930s Books Revived to Teach Traditional History
The Telegraph (Britain)
... Currently, pupils study topics such as the Nazis, Soviet Russia, slavery or the Victorians, often taught in isolation and
repeated in different years. According to the publishers, the 1930s books are needed to address a "crisis" in the teaching of the
traditional narrative of British history. "For more than half a century most intelligent youngsters in Britain have grown up to
live in the half-darkness of historical ignorance," said Tom Stacey ... He said that traditional history had "all but vanished" in
schools, replaced by a diet of "projects on slavery, Victorian slums, the labour movement or, again and again, the Second World
War".
Women in the US Now Match Men in
Advanced Degrees
The Associated Press
Women are now just as likely as men to have completed college and to hold an advanced degree, part of an accelerating trend of
educational gains that have shielded women from recent job losses. Yet they continue to lag behind men in pay. Among adults 25 and
older, 29 percent of women in the U.S. have at least a bachelor's degree, compared with 30 percent of men, according to 2009
census figures released Tuesday. Measured by raw numbers, women already surpass men in undergraduate degrees by roughly 1.2
million. Women also have drawn even with men in holding advanced degrees. Women represented roughly half of those in the U.S. with
a master's degree or higher ...
Amnesty Bill Provisions
Lou Dobbs - CNN
Lou Dobbs reviews remarkable provisions of an immigration "reform" bill under consideration by Congress in 2007, which was backed
by President George W. Bush, and Senator McCain. Runtime: 3:32 mins.
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