Amerikaans Terrorisme 3

Paul Craig Roberts was staatssecretaris van het ministerie van Financien in de Reagan regering. Information Clearing House leidt een commentaar van hem als volgt in: 'Americans need desperately to comprehend that if Bush attacks Iran and Syria, as he intends, terrorism will explode, and American civil liberties will disappear into a thirty year war that will bankrupt the United States.' Roberts schrijft: 'Two recent polls, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll and a New York Times/CBS News poll, indicate why Bush is getting away with impeachable offenses. Half of the US population is incapable of acquiring, processing and understanding information. Much of the problem is the media itself, which serves as a disinformation agency for the Bush administration. Fox "News" and right-wing talk radio are the worst, but with propagandistic outlets setting the standard for truth and patriotism, all of the media is affected to some degree. Despite the media's failure, about half the population has managed to discern that the US invasion of Iraq has not made them safer and that the Bush administration's assault on civil liberties is not a necessary component of the war on terror. The problem, thus, lies with the absence of due diligence on the part of the other half of the population… What does it say for democracy that half of the American population is unable to draw a rational conclusion from unambiguous facts?Americans share this disability with the Bush administration. According to news reports, the Bush administration is stunned by the election victory of the radical Islamist Hamas Party, which swept the US-financed Fatah Party from office. Why is the Bush administration astonished? The Bush administration is astonished because it stupidly believes that hundreds of millions of Muslims should be grateful that the US has interfered in their internal affairs for 60 years, setting up colonies and puppet rulers to suppress their aspirations and to achieve, instead, purposes of the US government.Americans need desperately to understand that 95 percent of all Muslim terrorists in the world were created in the past three years by Bush's invasion of Iraq. Americans need desperately to comprehend that if Bush attacks Iran and Syria, as he intends, terrorism will explode, and American civil liberties will disappear into a thirty year war that will bankrupt the United States. The total lack of rationality and competence in the White House and the inability of half of the US population to acquire and understand information are far larger threats to Americans than terrorism.America has become a rogue nation, flying blind, guided only by ignorance and hubris. A terrible catastrophe awaits.' Lees verder: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11696.htm

World Social Forum 2

De World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela. De commerciele massamedia besteden er nauwelijks of geen aandacht aan. Gelukkig zijn er genoeg onafhankelijke nieuwsagentschappen die via internet werken. Bij Truthout kunt u onder andere naar een videoverslag kijken: 't r u t h o u t is at the World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela. Chris Hume and Sari Gelzer are covering both the events of the forum, and taking a look at Chavez's Venezuela. Day 1 of our series of reports is about the anti-war march that kicked off the forum, including interviews with Cindy Sheehan. Stay tuned for more reports in the coming days.' Zie: http://www.truthout.org/multimedia.htm

Etnisch Zuiveren

David en Goliath. Hier ziet u met moderne wapens uitgeruste Israelische soldaten gericht schieten op ongewapende vluchtende Palestijnse schoolkinderen. Het is het resultaat van een uitzichtloos lijkend conflict, dat een halve eeuw geleden begon. Bij etnische zuiveringen in 1948 werden volgens de Israelische historicus Benny Morris naar schatting 700.000 Palestijnen van hun grondgebied verdreven door de Israëlische strijdkrachten. Israel weigert deze oorspronkelijke bewoners terug te laten keren en weigert enige compensatie te bieden voor het geroofde land en de bezittingen die de Palestijnse vluchtelingen achterlieten. Het is daarom ook niet onbegrijpelijk dat Hamas zich in 1988 uitsprak voor een gewapende strijd tegen Israel. In haar handvest staat: ‘the Islamic Resistance Movement erupted in order to play its role in the path of its Lord. In so doing, it joined its hands with those of all Jihad fighters for the purpose of liberating Palestine.’ In de inleiding van het handvest staat dat: ‘Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors.’ Een onafhankelijke waarnemer concludeert hieruit dat beide partijen zullen moeten inleveren, Israel zal de verdrevenen moeten compenseren of erin toestemmen dat ze terugkeren, Hamas zal de vernietiging van de staat Israel uit haar handvest moeten schrappen. Over het eerste weigeren de commerciele massamedia te berichten, over het laatste raken ze niet uitgesproken. Dat tekent de onevenwichtigheid in de berichtgeving zodra het ‘de joodse natie’ betreft. Neutrale verslaggeving, journalistieke onafhankelijkheid, hoor en wederhoor, objectiviteit spelen dan geen enkele rol meer. Wij Westerlingen beschouwen deze wijze van presenteren van dit conflict als doodnormaal, de rest van de wereld niet. Hier is geen sprake van journalistiek maar van politieke propaganda die tot nog meer bloedvergieten leidt.

'Beschaafde' Oorlogen

De bovenste foto toont joodse kinderen op wie medische experimenten werden verricht in een Nazi-concentratiekamp. Op de onderste foto ziet u een slagveld tijdens de Amerikaanse burgeroorlog. Wij mogen ons dan wel uiterst beschaafd vinden en veel beschaafder dan de rest van de wereld, maar dat berust allemaal op eigenwaan. Wat wij in het Westen graag vergeten is dat iets meer dan een halve eeuw geleden de landen van vooral de blanke beschaving elkaar op leven en dood bestreden. De verschrikkingen van Auschwitz en Hiroshima gebeurden slechts zes decennia geleden. En de Verenigde Staten heeft een burgeroorlog gehad met meer dan een miljoen slachtoffers. De Amerikaanse historicus en auteur Gareth Porter schrijft in Tom Dispatch over Irak: '"Maybe they just need to have their civil war." Fueling Sectarian Violence in Iraq. Since last summer, the ad-jingle-style centerpiece of the U.S. mission in Iraq, as defined by George Bush, has been: "As Iraqis stand up, we will stand down." In recent months, that "standing up" of Iraqi security forces to gradually replace American occupation troops has become even more important in administration pronouncements on the war. The objective is now accepted as self-evident wisdom in the mainstream media and among the punditocracy, the only question being whether it can be successfully accomplished. The Democratic Party leadership has not challenged this goal in any way, even as Democrats complain that it is simply not being done fast enough or effectively enough. Given Iraq's well documented descent into sectarian violence in 2005, however, the question that should be asked is not whether the United States can put enough Iraqi troops into the field with enough training; it is whether, in arming and deploying Shiites and Kurds to fight Sunnis, it is actually stoking the fires of sectarian and ethnic civil war.' Lees verder: http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=53095 Of: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012706O.shtml

De Parlementaire Democratie

Tijdens de ineenstorting van het communistisch regime in de Sovjet Unie verbleef ik een maand in Moskou om er voor de Humanistische Omroep een serie tv-documentaires te maken over de omwenteling. Ik sprak er onder andere met een Russische econoom die mij in simpele bewoordingen uitlegde waarom Rusland geen imitatie zou worden van een Westerse parlementaire democratie. Daarvoor verschilde Europa teveel van Rusland. Het land had nooit een middenklasse gekend, een vrije stedelijke burgerij die zich los gemaakt had van de adel en de koning. En juist op deze middengroep steunt de parlementaire democratie. Ook al komt de onderste kaste tegen de bovenste in verzet, dankzij de middenklasse blijft het bestel in evenwicht. Totdat de belangen van de middenklasse drastisch worden geschaad en dan stort het systeem in elkaar. Maar al te graag vergeet men in het Westen dat Hitler democratisch werd gekozen en in 1933 tot kanselier werd benoemd. Dat heet Civil society, de rechtsstaat, en dat was in dat grote rijk een onbekend begrip geweest. Stalin regeerde als een communistische tsaar. Allerlei instituten noodzakelijk om een parlementaire democratie enigszins inhoud te geven, bestonden niet en die kon men ook niet van de ene op de andere dag werkelijk laten functioneren. Bovendien is democratie in de allereerste plaats een bepaalde manier van denken, 'het zit tussen uw oren, die democratie,' zei de econoom tegen mij. 'Bij ons begint en eindigt alles bij de autoriteit.' Iets vergelijkbaars speelt nu in het Midden Oosten. De kinderlijke gedachte dat de parlementaire democratie net als koffie geexporteerd kan worden, levert opmerkelijke resultaten op. Juan Cole schrijft in Salon. Com: 'How do you like your democracy now, Mr. Bush? Hamas' stunning victory underlines the contradictions and hypocrisies in Bush's Mideast policies. The stunning victory of the militant Muslim fundamentalist Hamas Party in the Palestinian elections underlines the central contradictions in the Bush administration's policies toward the Middle East. Bush pushes for elections, confusing them with democracy, but seems blind to the dangers of right-wing populism. At the same time, he continually undermines the moderate and secular forces in the region by acting high-handedly or allowing his clients to do so. As a result, Sunni fundamentalist parties, some with ties to violent cells, have emerged as key players in Iraq, Egypt and Palestine. Democracy depends not just on elections but on a rule of law, on stable institutions, on basic economic security for the population, and on checks and balances that forestall a tyranny of the majority. Elections in the absence of this key societal context can produce authoritarian regimes and abuses as easily as they can produce genuine people power. Bush is on the whole unwilling to invest sufficiently in these key institutions and practices abroad. And by either creating or failing to deal with hated foreign occupations, he has sown the seeds for militant Islamist movements that gain popularity because of their nationalist credentials. In Iraq, which is among the least secure and most economically fraught countries in the world, the Dec. 15 elections brought into Parliament a set of powerful Shiite fundamentalist parties and a new force, the Muslim fundamentalist Iraqi Accord Front, which gained most of the votes of formerly secular-minded Iraqi Sunni Arabs. Some IAF politicians are suspected of strong ties to Iraq's Sunni insurgency. In Egypt, last fall's election increased representation for the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood from 17 to more than 70 seats in Parliament, making that group a key political player for the first time in Egyptian history. Decades ago, the party once assassinated a prime minister and attempted to assassinate President Gamal Abdul Nasser, but now maintains it has turned to moderation. It aims at the imposition of a rigid interpretation of Islamic law on Egyptians, including Egyptian women.' Lees verder: http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/01/27/hamas/ Of: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012706M.shtml

The Electronic Intifada

De terugtrekking van de Israelische strijdkrachten uit Gaza werd gezien als een overwinning van Hamas. Een expansionisische macht neemt nooit vrijwillig afstand van veroverd gebied. Ali Abunimah, een van de oprichters van het altijd goed geinformeerde 'Electronic Intifada' schrijft in een nuchtere analyse van de Palestijnse verkiezingsuitslag: 'Hamas' victory in the Palestinian Authority legislative elections has everyone asking "what next"? The answer, and whether the result should be seen as a good or bad thing, depends very much on who is asking the question.Although a Hamas success was heavily trailed, the scale of the victory has been widely termed a "shock." Several factors explain the dramatic rise of Hamas, including disillusionment and disgust with the corruption, cynicism and lack of strategy of the Fatah faction which has dominated the Palestinian movement for decades and had arrogantly come to view itself as the natural and indisputable leader.The election result is not entirely surprising, however, and has been foreshadowed by recent events. Take for example the city of Qalqilya in the north of the West Bank. Hemmed in by Israeli settlements and now completely surrounded by a concrete wall, the city's fifty thousand residents are prisoners in a Israeli-controlled giant ghetto. For years Qalqilya's city council was controlled by Fatah but after the completion of the wall, voters in last years' municipal elections awarded every single city council seat to Hamas. The Qalqilya effect has now spread across the occcupied territories, with Hamas reportedly winning virtually all of the seats elected on a geographic basis. Thus Hamas' success is as much an expression of the determination of Palestinians to resist Israel's efforts to force their surrender as it is a rejection of Fatah. It reduces the conflict to its most fundamental elements: there is occupation, and there is resistance.' Lees verder: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4425.shtml

Internet wordt Bedreigd

De commerciele massamedia proberen verloren terrein terug te winnen door de onafhankelijke media aan banden te leggen. Ik kreeg net dit email van Media for Democracy en Freepress: 'Dear Media For Democracy Activist: After destroying TV and radio, the mega-media corporations want to become gatekeepers to the Internet. They're scheming to control what content you can view and which services you can use online. Streaming video, Internet phones, podcasting and online games are the future of the Internet. But companies like Verizon, AT&T and Comcast want Congress to let them deliver only their products at super high speeds ... while sticking the rest of us in the slow lane. This predatory scheme would be a dead end for independent voices and Internet innovators: bloggers, producers, and any new channels and services that might compete with the conglomerates. The only way to stop them is to raise hell right now: Tell the CEOs: Hands Off Our Internet From its beginnings, the Internet was built on a cooperative, democratic ideal. The infrastructure’s only job was to move data between users — regardless of where it came from or what it contained. This “network neutrality” fostered a medium that did not exclude anyone, allowed for far-reaching innovations, and created the Internet as we know it. Past experience shows that when large media companies are left to their own devices, the result is content and services that serve nothing but their bank accounts. An open and independent Internet is the antidote to these media gatekeepers. If big media companies are allowed to limit the fastest services to those who can pay their toll, upstart Web services, consumers, bloggers and new media makers alike all would be cut off from the digital revolution. Tell the CEOs: Hands Off Our Internet Media For Democracy and Free Press will deliver a letter to the CEO of your broadband provider and send copies to your members of Congress, urging them to write “network neutrality” into law. Act now. We must defend our Net freedoms before we lose them altogether. Onward, David DeGraw Executive DirectorMediaChannel.org Timothy KarrCampaign DirectorFreePress.net
P.S. Please forward this e-mail right now to everyone you know who uses the Internet >>
P.P.S Check out the new Free Press campaign — Dead End for the Internet? — to learn more about net neutrality and how to ensure that the Web remains an open road. You are receiving this as a Media For Democracy E-Activist.'

De Neo Conservatieven 2

In July, 2003, Karen Kwiatkowski retired as a lieutenant colonel from the U.S. Air Force, having served since 1978. From May, 2002, to February, 2003, Karen Kwiatkowski served in the Pentagon’s Near East and South Asia directorate (NESA). Dr. Kwiatkowski presently teaches at James Madison University, and writes regularly for MilitaryWeek.com. In een interview zegt Kwiatkowski ondermeer het volgende over het extremisme van de neoconservatieve Bush-bende: 'The intellectual fathers of neoconservatism—what shapes their approach internationally—are the Bolsheviks. International revolution, international change—radical change, global revolution. And these same terms, these same ideas—of international change, revolution, transformation—these are the words of Michael Ledeen and some of the other articulators of neoconservatism. And the actual people, and they’re not ashamed to really say this, but guys like Irving Crystal and other intellectuals of the 30s had actually been Bolsheviks. One of the characterizations of neocons today is that they are neo-Jacobins—philosophically, this idea that people are the same, all want the same thing, and should have the same thing. That ‘same thing’ in a modern neoconservative view is this idea of ‘democracy.’ But is it really democracy that they want, or is democracy simply a trojan horse. Certainly for Iraq, George Bush has been left with one story as to why we went in. If they had democracy, they’d take a vote, and we’d be kicked out of there immediately. Certainly we don’t want them to have democracy, because then they’ll make us leave. So it’s unclear that democracy is a goal, but that’s what they talk about: the God of Democracy. So it’s not like Trotskyism in the sense that they’re not advocating global communism but they are advocating universal, radical—and in effect, catastrophic—change. And this is kind of a clear thread for many years.' Lees verder:
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/covering_iraq/archives/interviews/000352.php#more

Amerikaans Terrorisme 2

Meer dan vier jaar geleden geschreven en steeds actueler, deze column van de Amerikaanse journalist Chris Floyd: 'This column stands foursquare with the Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, when he warns that there will be more terrorist attacks against the American people and civilization at large. We know, as does the Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, that this statement is an incontrovertible fact, a matter of scientific certainty. And how can we and the Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, be so sure that there will be more terrorist attacks against the American people and civilization at large? Because these attacks will be instigated at the order of the Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense. This astonishing admission was buried deep in a story which was itself submerged by mounds of gray newsprint and glossy underwear ads in last Sunday's Los Angeles Times. There – in an article by military analyst William Arkin, detailing the vast expansion of the secret armies being massed by the former Nixon bureaucrat now lording it over the Pentagon – came the revelation of Rumsfeld's plan to create "a super-Intelligence Support Activity" that will "bring together CIA and military covert action, information warfare, intelligence, and cover and deception." According to a classified document prepared for Rumsfeld by his Defense Science Board, the new organization – the "Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG)" – will carry out secret missions designed to "stimulate reactions" among terrorist groups, provoking them into committing violent acts which would then expose them to "counterattack" by U.S. forces.' Lees verder: http://collectioncf72.blogspot.com/2005/04/into-dark-pentagon-plan-to-foment.html

Irak 20

Information Clearing House heeft een verhelderend achtergrondartikel over Irak overgenomen van de kritische analist en auteur Manuel Valenzuela: 'The story of Iraq and its people since 1991 is one of immense tragedy, of a fate cruel and evil that has befallen innocent human beings whose only crime has been living inside what was once the ancient land of Mesopotamia. It is ironic that the land that first gave rise to human civilization has been made to suffer tremendous hardship in the last fifteen years, severely decimated and destroyed, its wounds hemorrhaging from incessant human cruelty. The heart of the Fertile Crescent has become a barren wasteland, its waters, the Tigris and Euphrates, those veins of sustenance for our ancient forefathers, transformed into rivers of waste and pollution and decaying death, their fertility now mutated into toxicity. Its cities and peoples, descendants of a civilization thousands of years old, rich in both culture and history, have been made to suffer the severe consequences of sitting atop modern humanity’s most coveted natural resource, a black gold sought by nations and corporations of the rich and powerful north, a devil’s excrement that fuels economies and human greed, feeding apathy and wickedness, corruption and colonialism, and, as always, expanding comfort and excessiveness in the lands of the pillagers. To those nations whose unlucky possession of oil has brought nothing but exploitation and misery, like Iraq, the black gold fever created has yielded a curse upon both peoples and lands, for in their strategic location exists the energy needed to feed today’s wealthiest and most powerful nations. These countries will stop at nothing in order to possess, and control, the drops and gallons and barrels and pipelines and valves and oil wells saturated with ever dwindling supplies of oil, becoming blind to the corrosive effects their exploitation has on both native people and land, in the process ripping apart ground, polluting environment, poisoning air, intoxicating water, corrupting leadership and condemning the citizenry to the sins of human nature possessed by greed, addicted to money and infatuated by power.' Lees verder:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11680.htm En: http://valenzuelasveritas.blogspot.com/

Internationaal Opererende Bankrovers

John Perkins is een voormalige hooggeplaatste bankemployee. In de bestseller 'Confessions of an Economic Hit Man' beschrijft hij de gangsterpraktijken in de internationale bankwereld: 'how as a highly paid professional, he helped the U.S. cheat poor countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars by lending them more money than they could possibly repay and then take over their economies.' Op de website van Information Clearing House kunt u kijken en luisteren naar een lezing van Perkins waarin hij uiteenzet hoe: 'Since world war two we've managed to create history's first truly global empire. This has been done by the corporatocracy, which are a few men and women who run our major corporations and in doing so also run the U.S. government and many other governments around the world.' From 1971 to 1981 John Perkins worked as a chief economist for Chas. T. Main, a Massachusetts-based international strategic consulting firm. During this time Mr. Perkins said his job was to trick developing countries into taking enormous loans from the World Bank in order to construct or repair their domestic infrastructure. These loans were given with the understanding that these countries would then use those loans to pay U.S. corporations to complete these constructing and engineering projects. The author writes that when these developing countries were eventually unable to pay off these sizable debts, the United States, World Bank, or IMF would step in and control the country's security arrangements and budgetary structure.' Zie: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11681.htm

President Halveert zijn Inkomen

Terwijl de Nederlandse premier en volksvertegenwoordigers in deze bezuinigingstijd hun inkomen zullen zien stijgen, heeft de nieuwe president van Bolivia, Evo Morales, besloten zijn eigen salaris te halveren, aldus de BBC World Service. Dat betekent dat het inkomen van alle topambtenaren en politici herzien moet worden, aangezien de Boliviaanse wet bepaalt dat niemand die voor de staat werkt meer dan de president mag verdienen. Morales heeft zijn ikomen teruggebracht met 57 procent en krijgt nu een berdag ter waarde van ongeveer 1900 dollar per maand. Het geld dat vrijkomt gaat naar onderwijs en volksgezondheid.

Hamas

Gezien het nepotisme en de corruptie onder de Fatah leiders en de continue uitbreiding van de Israelische nederzettingen is het niet verwonderlijk dat de Palestijnen voor Hamas hebben gekozen, overigens een beweging die in het begin 'gesteund' werd door Israel. De Amerikaanse onderzoeksjournalist Robert Dreyfuss zei daarover in de uitzending van Democracy Now tegen de journaliste Amy Goodman: 'starting in 1967, the Israelis began to encourage or allow the Islamists in the Gaza and West Bank areas, among the Palestinian exiled population, to flourish. The statistics are really quite staggering. In Gaza, for instance, between 1967 and 1987, when Hamas was founded, the number of mosques tripled in Gaza from 200 to 600. And a lot of that came with money flowing from outside Gaza, from wealthy conservative Islamists in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. But, of course, none of this could have happened without the Israelis casting an approving eye upon it. And during these years, during that 20-year span, the Hamas organization was a bitter opponent of Palestinian nationalism, clashed repeatedly with the P.L.O. and with Fatah, of course, refused to participate in the P.L.O. umbrella. And just as during the ‘50s and ‘60s, the Muslim Brotherhood fought against the Nasserists, the Baath Party, the communists and the rest of the Arab left, in the 1970s and ‘80s, the Muslim Brotherhood fought against the Palestinian national movement. Now that's not even a surprise, you know. In 1970, when the king of Jordan launched his massive counter-offensive against the Palestinians there in that event called Black September, the Muslim Brotherhood was a strong supporter of the king and actually backed his effort, which resulted in thousands of Palestinians killed in a virtual civil war in Jordan. So there's plenty of evidence that the Israeli intelligence services, especially Shin Bet and the military occupation authorities, encouraged the growth of the Muslim Brotherhood and the founding of Hamas. There are many examples and incidents of that.' Zie: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/26/151252 Misschien stopt de terreur van de Israelische staat waardoor de contraterreur van Hamas ophoudt. Maar als Israel doorgaat met het stelen van Palestijns land en weigert zich uit de Westoever terug te trekken dan zal het conflict doorgaan tot beide partijen niet meer kunnen.

GroenLinks

Er zijn verkiezingen in aantocht, de bedelbrieven stromen weer binnen, ditmaal van GroenLinks, verstopt in de VPRO-gids. Femke Halsema schrijft ons: 'Geachte meneer, mevrouw, Deze brief stuur ik u om twee redenen. Ten eerste wil ik graag uw mening weten over een aantal zaken, die GroenLinks belangrijk vindt. En ten tweede heeft GroenLinks steun nodig van haar kiezers. Daarom vraag ik u om een eenmalige bijdrage.' Nee dus mevrouw Halsema en wel omdat u alleen vlak voor verkiezingen wil weten wat wij kiezers vinden en bovendien gaat het niet om ons, maar om geld voor uw club. De wijze waarop u het democratisch systeem tot dit armzalige niveau terugbrengt, stemt wanhopig. Daarom krijgt u niet mijn stem en ook niet een deel van mijn geld.

Impeach Bush 3

'More Americans favor impeaching Bush, poll says. Today's topic: Domestic spying. The word "impeachment" is popping up increasingly these days and not just off the lips of liberal activists spouting predictable bumper-sticker slogans. After the unfounded claims about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and recent news of domestic spying without warrants, mainstream politicians and ordinary voters are talking openly about the possibility that President Bush could be impeached. So is at least one powerful senator, Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. So far, it's just talk. With Republicans controlling Congress, and memories still fresh of the bitter fight and national distraction inflamed by former President Clinton's 1998 impeachment, even the launching of an official inquiry is a very long shot. But a poll released last week by Zogby International showed 52 percent of American adults thought Congress should consider impeaching Bush if he wiretapped U.S. citizens without court approval, including 59 percent of independents and 23 percent of Republicans. (The survey had a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.) Given those numbers, impeachment could become an issue in this fall's congressional elections, and dramatically raise the stakes. If Democrats win control of the House of Representatives, a leading proponent of starting an official impeachment inquiry, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., would become chairman of the House committee that could pursue it.' Lees verder: http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/13705324.htm Of: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012606O.shtml

Criminelen Onderling

De ene crimineel beschuldigt nu de andere criminelen. En niet zonder reden. De Washington Times bericht: 'Saddam to sue Bush and Blair. Defence lawyers for Saddam Hussein Wednesday distributed copies of a lawsuit against President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair for destroying Iraq. The suit accuses Bush and Blair of committing war crimes by using weapons of mass destruction and internationally-banned weapons including enriched uranium and phosphoric and cluster bombs against unarmed Iraqi civilians, notably in Baghdad, Fallujah, Ramadi, al-Kaem and Anbar. The Amman-based legal team had said Sunday that the ousted president intended to start legal action against the two leaders of the Iraq war in the International Criminal Court in the Hague, but the text of the suit was made available Wednesday. The suit also accuses the U.S. president and British prime minister of torturing Iraqi prisoners, destroying Iraq's cultural heritage with the aim of eliminating an ancient civilization, and inciting internal strife. Bush and Blair were also accused of polluting Iraq's air, waters and environment. The lawsuit demanded that Bush and Blair appear before court to answer the charges filed against them and requested the harshest punishment in line with Dutch legislation and the rules of international and humanitarian laws. It also requested compensation for all material and moral damage inflicted on the Iraqi people.' Zie: http://washingtontimes.com/upi/20060125-111155-3468r.htm

De Aarde Leeft!

Nu het goede nieuws: 'Life beyond biology and organic chemistry - Mechanical waves in the earth’s crust shows ‘Earth is alive’ and communicates like all other living beings India Daily Technology Team. Scientists are finding that the earth is alive and is communicating like
other living beings. The concept that life has to be associated with biology and organic chemistry is becoming an obsolete idea. The earth shows, according to contemporary geophysicists, remarkable signs of life. Like all living beings it communicates through waves and responds
to wave structure of communication.' Lees verder: http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/6569.asp Global Circle Net voegt hieraan toe: 'rupert sheldrake has it right. here`s the implications : since all wave (vibrational) events are interconnected---the earth is receptive to intelligent signals... SHE receives as well as she "sends"---giving and taking. is`nt this what the ancient mystery-schools taught ? -slandered as "paganism" by the judeo--"christian" dogma---- enforced by the sword and banning the "old" goddess-wisdom from the collective consciousness---religion has become soul-less and science has become devoid of the respect and understanding of nature. hegelianism. this current ---dominating---cosmology is not only responsible for the
ecological mayhem dished out on the planet----and its logical consequences (earthquakes---hurricanes----flood and climate disasters) but for the destructive out-of-balance consciousness of mankind---that has broken the holy bond between itself and its "home"----mother earth. chinese cosmology has a thousands of years "old" view on it ----the flow of all-pervading CHI ("orgon"--"prana" etc)-and the warning signs of yin-yang distortion--- nature is an open book for chinese wisdom.'

Klimaatverandering 15

Terwijl alom in de Nederlandse commerciele massamedia het provinciaals gezeur over het al dan niet Nederlands spreken op straat doorzevert, bericht Alternet: 'The authors of the world's most overlooked environmental study held a press briefing last week in Washington to discuss what life on the planet will be like in 2050. Their upbeat conclusion: fundamental changes, in practice and policy, can protect us from the worst consequences of overpopulation and climate change. Good news -- if anybody pays attention. While it may not be a verifiable fact that the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) is the world's most underappreciated eco-study, it's definitely the most unevenly appreciated one. When the huge report first emerged last spring after four years, $24 million and the efforts of more than 1,300 scientists in 95 countries, it made headlines elsewhere. In December it was awarded a Zayed Prize, something like an environmentalist Nobel. Here in the United States, though, the media barely registered its existence. What a dirty shame. The U.N.-backed Millennium Assessment is the most thorough survey of global ecosystems ever undertaken. It's also the first report of its kind to link ecosystem health to human well-being, and in so doing strikes the rich, rich vein of human self-interest. Showing people what's in it for them is a great way to get something done. At the press conference last Thursday, Walt Reid, who directed the study and now teaches at Stanford, restated the report's radical conclusions and issued a stern warning. The report's basic premise is that healthy ecosystems provide humans with a range of "services" -- things like food, clean water, clean air, buffers from natural disasters and even spiritual renewal. To the extent that these "ecosystem services" are degraded, so is the quality of human life. And without serious behavior modification, we're headed for a bad run, Reid said. "We've badly mismanaged our ecosystems," he said. "As long as we regard ecosystem services as free and limitless, we will continue to use them in a way that does not make sense."' Lees verder: http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/31222/ Of: http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/012506EB.shtml

De Israelische Apartheid

Ook joods Israelis strijden tegen de Israelische Apartheid. Van Angela Godfrey-Goldstein van The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) in Jeruzalem ( zie: http://www.icahd.org/eng/) ontving ik informatie over 'MachsomWatch, an Israeli women’s organization, monitors one of the gravest aspects of the Occupation – the restriction of free movement by Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. ‘The hope of us all.’
Huge billboards have sprung up at the entrance to the new checkpoints, proclaiming ‘the hope of us all’. Paraphrasing an Israeli song - the Occupation, like despair, is becoming far more convenient …the sight of the billboards evokes horror and evil associations; they tower over the new checkpoints, as if orchestrating people’s entrance into them – ‘the hope of us all’ indeed – a contemptuous, contemptible message. Humiliations, physical injuries, delays, penalties, closures, walls, cantonization, house demolitions, hacked down olive-trees, hazing, impromptu checkpoints, shots, handcuffing, denial of passage to get medical care, intimidation… a partial list that’s encapsulated in a single word – occupation – and translated into solid terms in the field. Blacklisted by the Shabak (General Security Services or GSS) Official reports state that close to 200,000 citizens of the Occupied Territories have been ‘blacklisted by the Shabak’ (or ‘denied passage’ = prohibited from leaving the territories). The policy of denial means withholding access to medical treatment, preventing options for earning a living, severing family ties, refusing access to studies, and ruling out freedom of worship. Au Shabak comme au Shabak – no one is obliged to provide an answer and of course no one does. The blacklisted themselves have no idea why they were awarded the honorific title. Did you know that –
· If the IDF maliciously or negligently injures a relative of yours, you automatically become a ‘potential’ (risk) and enter the Shabak’s blacklist.
· If you refuse to collaborate with the Shabak by incriminating your relatives or friends, it blacklists you.
· If you are caught as an ‘illegal’ in Israel, trying to support your family – again, you’ll be blacklisted.
· Every male aged 16 to 30 is ‘denied passage.’
· And if you’re a man of over 30 but unmarried or married without children, you remain "denied."' De site van Machsom Watch is: http://www.machsomwatch.org/eng/homePageEng.asp?link=homePage&lang=eng

Martelen 17

Gisteren ontving ik het volgende email van Amnesty International: 'The Council of Europe's interim report, published today, made clear that the response from some European countries has not been sufficient. The governments of both the UK and Romania, for example, have cited their confidence in assurances offered by the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. AI believes that such assurances cannot be regarded as adequate protection against abuse. AI reiterates its call to the UK Government to launch an immediate, thorough and independent investigation into evidence that its territory has been used to assist in unlawfully transporting detainees to countries where they risk torture. The Polish authorities must make the findings of their enquiry into the alleged existence of secret CIA detention centres available to the Council of Europe. The authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina must provide more information about how six Bosnians came to be abducted by American agents on Bosnian soil and taken to Guantánamo Bay. The report also casts doubt on the Italian Government's denial that it was informed about the operation in which at least 25 foreign agents abducted an Egyptian citizen in the middle of Milan. The Italian authorities clearly have more explaining to do. As Dick Marty points out in the report, "the fact that detention and interrogation centres have been relocated to other countries is proof that the authorities are fully aware that the methods used are incompatible with the American legal system." Amnesty International strongly endorses his call that Europe must "clearly and unambiguously declare that it refuses outright to tolerate such doings in its territory, or anywhere else."' Lees verder: http://www.amnesty.nl/

World Social Forum

Vandaag opende de World Social Forum 2006 in Caracas Venezuela. Omdat de Nederlandse massamedia, de commerciele media dus, er nagenoeg geen aandacht aan besteden geef ik hier maar een verwijzing naar het onafhankelijke Amerikaanse Truthout waar u wel het nieuws over het forum kunt vinden: http://www.truthout.org/worldsocialforum2006.shtml Waarom bijvoorbeeld het NOS-Journaal geen aandacht hieraan besteedde is een raadsel. Aan tijdgebrek kan het niet hebben gelegen, want aan het item over de gladheid van vanochtend kwam maar geen eind. Kennelijk vond het de redactie dit relevanter voor de Journaalkijkers dan een verslag over een belangrijke bijeenkomst van mensen uit de gehele wereld die onderdeel zijn van de 'alternative globalization movement to coordinate world campaigns, share and refine organizing strategies, and inform each other about movements from around the world and their issues. It tends to meet in January when its "great capitalist rival", the World Economic Forum is meeting in Davos, Switzerland.'

Big Brother 9

Autoriteiten haten een vrije uitwisseling van gedachten. Ze kennen maar 1 werkelijkheid, namelijk de officiele versie van de werkelijkheid die ze zelf hebben verzonnen. En dus proberen autoriteiten overal ter wereld greep te krijgen op internet. Zowel de Chinese auoriteiten als de Amerikaanse proberen greep te krijgen op bijvoorbeeld Google. De Amerikaanse columnist Robert Scheer schrijft: 'In case someone in the Justice Department is reading this, let me hasten to explain why I just clicked on the Victoria’s Secret online catalog photo featuring a certain “Very Sexy Lace & Mesh Garter Belt.” AOL made me do it. Yes, the very same AOL that, like Yahoo and MSN, but not Google, has readily agreed to let you government snoops scrutinize the search words and results from its online search engine data archives. If AOL is going to let the government know where I’ve been, it should admit it entrapped me! (Honestly, officer, I heard that perky voice say “You’ve got mail,” and then this ad popped up, and there was this lady in her undergarments, and anyway it was just research.) OK, so for the time being, Bush administration officials claim they won’t try to connect my name, or yours, with the massive raw data they are demanding from the companies with the most popular search engines. Apparently they are seeking evidence to prove that online porn is very popular and easily accessible as part of a last-ditch lawsuit to implement the 1998 Child Online Protection Act, blocked by the courts. I’m not sure that proving the popularity of pornography is going to make the case for censoring it, but the point here today is my extreme discomfort with the Justice Department’s cozy relationship with online giants like Microsoft and AOL, which already know way, way too much about how we as individuals use the Internet. Why should I trust the Justice Department any more than I trust the NSA, which bugs phone calls and scans e-mails without warrants, or Homeland Security, which looks for terrorists by scrutinizing bookstore purchases and library checkouts?' Lees verder: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/google_spying_pornography_20060124

Gore Vidal

Op zijn tachtigste is hij nog even helder en vlijmscherp als altijd: Gore Vidal, de Amerikaanse romanschrijver, essayist, toneelschijver, kritisch denker. In Truthdig schrijft hij dat de Verenigde Staten onder Bush alle karakteristieken vertoont van de vroege middeleeuwen die volgden op de val van het Romeinse Rijk: de triomf van geloof over rede, het atrofieren van het onderwijs en kritisch denken en het samenvallen van de staat, folter en religie. Hij begint zo: 'While contemplating the ill-starred presidency of G.W. Bush, I looked about for some sort of divine analogy. As usual, when in need of enlightenment, I fell upon the Holy Bible, authorized King James version of 1611; turning by chance to the Book of Jonah, I read that Jonah, who, like Bush, chats with God, had suffered a falling out with the Almighty and thus became a jinx dogged by luck so bad that a cruise liner, thanks to his presence aboard, was about to sink in a storm at sea. Once the crew had determined that Jonah, a passenger, was the jinx, they threw him overboard and—Lo!—the storm abated. The three days and nights he subsequently spent in the belly of a nauseous whale must have seemed like a serious jinx to the digestion-challenged whale who extruded him much as the decent opinion of mankind has done to Bush. Originally, God wanted Jonah to give hell to Nineveh, whose people, God noted disdainfully, “cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand,” so like the people of Baghdad who cannot fathom what democracy has to do with their destruction by the Cheney-Bush cabal. But the analogy becomes eerily precise when it comes to the hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico at a time when a president is not only incompetent but plainly jinxed by whatever faith he cringes before. Witness the ongoing screw-up of prescription drugs. Who knows what other disasters are in store for us thanks to the curse he is under? As the sailors fed the original Jonah to a whale, thus lifting the storm that was about to drown them, perhaps we the people can persuade President Jonah to retire to his other Eden in Crawford, Texas, taking his jinx with him. We deserve a rest. Plainly, so does he. Look at Nixon’s radiant features after his resignation! One can see former President Jonah in his sumptuous library happily catering to faith-based fans with animated scriptures rooted in “The Simpsons.”' Lees verder: http://www.truthdig.com/dig/item/20060124_president_jonah/

Kinderen

Dit zijn de ogen van een Irakees kind, slachtoffer van, ja van wat eigenlijk? In elk geval slachtoffer van een politiek die de Westerse hegemonie moet waarborgen. Tien jaar geleden zag ik dit soort ogen in het grote en moderne kinderziekenhuis in Bagdad, waar peuters lagen te sterven aan de gevolgen van verarmd uranium, dat massaal door de Verenigde Staten en het Verenigd Koninkrijk in Irak was gebruikt. Ik berichtte daarover op de VPRO-Radio. (zie ook:
http://home.planet.nl/~houck006/democratisering.html) Op collega Rudi van Meurs na (http://www.polderpers.nl/) was er niemand in Nederland die mij er vragen over stelde of verontwaardiging over toonde. Deze oorlogsmisdaden werden voor kennisgeving aangenomen en men ging over tot de orde van de dag. Geen politicus, geen geestelijke, geen mensenrechtenactivist, geen moeder liet iets van zich horen. Later vroeg ik mezelf af hoe ik die mensen had moeten bereiken. De Independent bericht: 'The sanitised images of war broadcast on television are a "lethal weapon" masking atrocities which demonstrate that conflict can "never be justified," an Independent debate was told last night. "War is not about victory or defeat. It is about the total failure of human spirit," Robert Fisk, The Independent's Middle East correspondent, told the debate. "When you see the things I see, you would never support war ever again." The increasingly chaotic conflict in Iraq is utterly unjustifiable and a by-product of the same Western thirst for "control, control, control" of the Middle East's assets and resources that has been evident for centuries, added Fisk. "We've always gone to the Middle East to 'liberate' people, taking with us our guns and our swords, our horses and our helicopters," he said. Fisk, whose new book The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East has been published by Fourth Estate, said there could be no lasting settlement in Iraq for as long as the occupiers remained there. He presented a powerful case for presenting in the media the full horror of war - images such as the blood that poured over the top of his shoes in a Baghdad hospital, and the bones he saw where should have been feet on the legs of a child - a horrific sight which was edited out in newspaper images of the child.' Lees verder: http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article340618.ece

Robert Fisk 4

Vlak voor en na het einde van de Golfoorlog vonden er twee grootscheepse oorlogsmisdaden plaats, het verpulveren en levend verbranden van het vluchtende Iraakse leger op de Highway of Death door Amerikaanse gevechtsvliegtuigen (zie: http://deoxy.org/wc/warcrime.htm) en het onder de ogen van de Amerikanen vermoorden van tienduizenden shiieten door de strijdkrachten van Saddam. De Amerikaanse hoogleraar antropologie Augustus Richard Norton schrijft in The Nation in een bespreking van Robert Fisk's nieuwe boek: 'In March 1991 Shiites in southern Iraq were being slaughtered en masse. President George H.W. Bush had called upon the Iraqis to topple Saddam Hussein after the US-led coalition defeated the Iraqi army in Kuwait. The Shiites heeded the call with vigor and savagery, as did their Kurdish countrymen in the north, but now the reconsolidated Baathist regime was striking back, killing tens of thousands. Using helicopter gunships that Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf rashly permitted them to operate under the terms of the previous month's cease-fire agreement, as well as ground forces, Saddam's forces pulverized the rebellion. Many of the mass graves that have been recently unearthed are from this period. While this was going on the Americans stood by and watched, often literally. One of the more disgraceful moral lapses in US history, this moment of "betrayal" fundamentally recast Shiite identity in Iraq. Advocates of the latest invasion--who were caught off-guard by the lukewarm reception Iraqi Shiites accorded their would-be liberators in 2003--seem to have slept through that part of the movie. US officials up and down the line did little to mitigate, much less end, the suffering of the Shiites, perhaps in deference to the wishes of their ally Saudi Arabia, for whom the prospect of a Shiite-dominated Iraq is no more inviting now than it was then. Only Iran offered substantial help, which would later yield dividends in credibility for Tehran and for groups it supported, as the elections in Iraq have revealed. There was at least one American hero in 1991, Staff Sergeant Nolde of the First Armored Division. Robert Fisk, who never learned Nolde's first name, met him at a crossroad in Safwan, the southern Iraqi border town where Nolde's platoon sat while refugees desperately tried to flee to Kuwait. Ordered by a US official to turn them back to the killing fields in southern Iraq, where they were almost certain to die, Nolde responded: "I'm sorry, sir. But if you're going to give me an order to stop these people, I can't do that. They are coming here begging, old women crying, sick children, boys begging for food. We're already giving them most of our rations. But I have to tell you, sir, that if you give me an order to stop them, I just won't do that." You could see the embassy man wince. Alas, US foreign policy is not set by the likes of Nolde, which helps to explain why the United States is widely derided and unloved, not just in the Middle East. This makes it all the more important to come to grips with the double standards and hypocrisies that have come to connote American foreign policy to many people around the globe.' Lees verder: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060206/norton

The Power of Nightmares

Een jaar geleden zond de BBC een driedelige documentaire-serie uit onder de titel 'The Power of Nightmares,' over de wijze waarop moderne politici hun bevolking mobiliseren door het manipuleren van angst. Absoluut fascinerende televisieprogramma's die u zou moeten zien om goed geinformeerd te kunnen zijn. Ze zijn via internet voor niets te downloaden via de volgende links: Deel 1: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=461187809452836609&q=power+of+nightmares
Deel 2: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2940187978111229279
Deel 3: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2324388902129396093&q=power+of+nightmares Nog wat aanvullende informatie: 'In the past our politicians offered us dreams of a better world. Now they promise to protect us from nightmares. The most frightening of these is the threat of an international terror network. But just as the dreams were not true, neither are these nightmares. In a new series, the Power of Nightmares explores how the idea that we are threatened by a hidden and organised terrorist network is an illusion. It is a myth that has spread unquestioned through politics, the security services and the international media. At the heart of the story are two groups: the American neo-conservatives and the radical Islamists. Both were idealists who were born out of the failure of the liberal dream to build a better world. These two groups have changed the world but not in the way either intended. Those with the darkest fears became the most powerful Together they created today's nightmare vision of an organised terror network. A fantasy that politicians then found restored their power and authority in a disillusioned age. Those with the darkest fears became the most powerful." Sends Chills Down my Back*** A Must See !!!' Zie ook: http://stanvanhoucke.blogspot.com/2005/11/power-of-nightmares.html

De Oorlogsstaat 5

Oorlog kost veel geld. Maar hoeveel precies weet bjna niemand. Daar doen de de mocratische politici bijzonder geheimzinnig over. Voor Het Amerikaanse Counter Punch rekende Winslow T. Wheeler uit welk bedrag de Verenigde Staten in 2006 aan 'defensie' uitgeeft. Wheeler is the Director of the Straus Military Reform Project at the Center for Defense Information. He spent 31 years working for US Senators from both parties and the Government Accountability Office. He contributed an essay on the defense budget to CounterPunch's new book: Dime's Worth of Difference. Wheeler's new book, "The Wastrels of Defense: How Congress Sabotages U.S. Security," is published by the Naval Institute Press. Hij schrijft: 'On Dec. 21, 2005, Congress passed a defense appropriations bill, which according to the press releases of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, and many news articles subsequently written, funded "defense spending" for the United States for the current fiscal year, 2006. The impression made by the press releases and the news articles was that the $453 billion advertised in the bill, H.R. 2863, constitutes America's defense budget for 2006.[1] That would be quite incorrect. In fact, the total amount to be spent for the Department of Defense in 2006 is $13 billion to $63 billion more, the latter figure assuming full funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. If you also count, non-DOD "national defense" costs, add another $21 billion, and, if you count defense related security costs, such as homeland security, the congressional press release numbers are more than $200 billion wrong. Having observed, and in past years participated in, the obscuration of just how much the United States actually spends for defense, this author believes it would assist the debate over the defense budget in this country by identifying its actual size. The "defense spending" bill enacted in December had the title, "Making appropriations to the Department of Defense for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2006 and for other purposes." It was a little heavy on those "other purposes" [2] and it did not comprise all the money the Defense Department received and will receive for 2006.' Lees verder: http://www.counterpunch.org/wheeler01192006.html

Amerikaans Terrorisme

Het Amerikaanse Information Clearing House analyseert Amerikaanse oorlogsmisdaden: 'The US air strikes carried out on the 13th of January 2006, on the remote Pakistani village of Damadola was a clear act of terrorism. Out of the 18 civilians killed, 10 were women and children. It seems US terrorism inside Pakistan is becoming routine, earlier on the 7th of January 2006 at least eight civilians were killed by the US helicopters attack. To be precise, such acts are state-terrorism or primary-terrorism as opposed to the usual: secondary-terrorism of individuals or groups! The bombings were indiscriminate and without warning, like the routine bombings of the defenceless Iraqi cities or the Palestinian villages and towns. Subsequently, the US tried to mitigate the severity of the crime, by claiming that they were targeting al-Qaeda members. Even if the alleged al-Qaeda members were present, that does not automatically give the US right to bomb houses inside a foreign territory, with total disregard for the innocent civilians. Unless, the US is above the law or inflicting collateral damages with impunity is an automatic entitlement for the leader of the free world! The air strike was a clear violation of the sovereignty of Pakistan, according to international law it was an act of war. So where is the UN now? Where is the Morgan Freeman look-alike UN-Muppet, Kofi Annan?' Lees verder: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11627.htm

Iran 8

Israelische en Amerikaanse propagandisten beweren dat als Iran nucleaire wapens heeft, ze die zullen doorspelen aan terroristen. Information Clearing House komt met nuchtere feiten: 'The fact is that Iran wants nuclear power. It wants to join a growing list of countries that already enjoy the benefits of nuclear power. Which countries currently have nuclear power plants operating within their borders? The list might surprise you. Argentina, Armenia, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Japan, South Korea, Lithuania, Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and the United States. According to the Uranium Information Centre[1] there are a total of 441 operable reactors in these countries. Countries that are exploring or actively seeking nuclear power capabilities include Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Turkey, and Vietnam. The countries that are known to have stockpiles of nuclear weapons are Russia, the United States, France, China, Great Britain, Pakistan, and India. Israel is considered a de facto nuclear power by most observers, although it has long maintained that it will neither confirm nor deny whether it has nuclear weapons. North Korea is suspected to have joined the list of nuclear powers in 2005. South Africa once had nuclear weapons but has since reportedly destroyed the weapons, but not the capacity to manufacture them again if necessary. Given the fact that nuclear power plants are currently operating in 31 countries with 7 more countries in pursuit of atomic energy, is it possible that the United States of America is honestly threatened by Iran seeking nuclear power capabilities? And given the fact that there are currently approximately 31,000 nuclear warheads deployed or in reserve in the stockpiles of eight countries: China, France, India, Israel, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, is it plausibly that Iran, even if it had 20 nuclear warheads, wouldn’t be pulverized if it ever attempted to launch a nuclear weapon against the United States or any of our allies? Nuclear or not, Iran will never be a nuclear threat to the United States. It is a mathematical improbability. According to Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, of these 31,000 nuclear warheads, about 13,000 are deployed and 4,600 of these are on high alert, i.e. ready to be launched within minutes notice. The combined explosive yield of these weapons is approximately 5,000 megatons, which is about 200,000 times the explosive yield of the bomb used on Hiroshima.[2] None of these nukes are in Tehran’s control. With this perspective intact, is it possible that the United States of America is really threatened by Iran’s nuclear ambitions? It does not seem possible, yet the propaganda machine is churning out battle cries daily that do not match reality. That’s what propaganda is, words masquerading as news that defy and deny reality.' Lees verder: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11616.htm

De Oorlogsstaat 4

De oorlog houdt nooit meer op. De frontlinie loopt overal, tot in de eigen huiskamer. Het kostte de Amerikaanse auteur Kurt Vonnegut bijna een kwarteeuw om het wereldberoemde 'Slaughterhouse-Five' te schrijven, een dunne roman over zijn ervaringen als krijgsgevangene tijdens het bombardement van Dresden. De oorlog tekende zijn leven en dat van miljoenen anderen. Alleen dwazen schilderen de oorlog af als iets heroisch. Alleen een man met een kinderlijke geest als George W. Bush speelt oorlogje, als piloot verkleedt. De Independent bericht: 'By his own admission Douglas Barber, a former army reservist, was struggling. For two years since returning from the chaos and violence of Iraq, the 35-year-old had battled with his memories and his demons, the things he had seen and the fear he had experienced. Recently, it seemed he had turned a corner, securing medical help and counselling. But last week, at his home in south-eastern Alabama, the National Guardsman e-mailed some friends and then changed the message on his answering machine. His new message told callers: "If you're looking for Doug, I'm checking out of this world. I'll see you on the other side." Mr Barber dialled the police, stepped on to the porch with his shotgun and - after a brief stand-off with officers - shot himself in the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The death of Mr Barber is one of numerous instances of Iraqi veterans who have taken their own lives since the US-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein in spring 2003. Concern is such that the Pentagon has recently instigated new procedures for monitoring the mental health of returning troops. But his story would not have been told but for a group of determined activists and a British journalism student who was among the handful of people the reservist e-mailed just minutes before he killed himself.' Lees verder: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article340826.ece

De Oorlogsstaat 3

Oorlog levert ook veel geld op, niet voor de gewone burger natuurlijk, maar voor de grote concerns die miljarden aan de oorlogvoering verdienen, anders zouden er geen oorlogen zijn. Zo simpel is het. Om zoveel mogelijk winst te maken zijn die concern zonder enige scrupules. De Washington Post bericht: 'Workers Allege Halliburton Knew Their Water Was Foul. Troops and civilians at a U.S. military base in Iraq were exposed to contaminated water last year, and employees for the responsible contractor, Halliburton Co., could not get their company to inform camp residents, according to interviews and internal company documents. Halliburton, the company formerly headed by Vice President Cheney, disputes the allegations about water problems at Camp Junction City, in Ramadi, even though they were made by its own employees and documented in company e-mails. "We exposed a base camp population (military and civilian) to a water source that was not treated," said a July 15, 2005, memo written by William Granger, the official for Halliburton's KBR subsidiary who was in charge of water quality in Iraq and Kuwait."The level of contamination was roughly 2x the normal contamination of untreated water from the Euphrates River," Granger wrote in one of several documents. The Associated Press obtained the documents from Senate Democrats who are holding a public inquiry into the allegations today.' Lees verder:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/22/AR2006012200853.html Of:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012406O.shtml Zie verder de site van Halliburton Watch over de corruptie en smerigheden van 's werelds grootste olie-dienstverleningsconcern en hoeveel het aan de oorlog in het Midden Oosten verdient.
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/

De Oorlogsstaat 2

Zoals bekend kost oorlogvoering niet alleen veel menselevens maar ook veel geld. Dat geld moet ergens vandaan komen. In 1950 kwam 25 procent van de federale inkomsten uit belastingen op ondernemingswinsten, een halve eeuw later was dit nog slechts 10.1 procent. Dus moet er volgens de neoliberale ideologie worden bezuinigd op gezondheidszorg, volkshuisvesting, onderwijs, sociale uitkeringen, bejaardenzorg enzovoorts. Meer dan veertig miljoen Amerikanen zijn momenteel te arm om een ziektekostenverzekering te kunnen betalen. De Washington Post bericht: 'House and Senate GOP negotiators, meeting behind closed doors last month to complete a major budget-cutting bill, agreed on a change to Senate-passed Medicare legislation that would save the health insurance industry $22 billion over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The Senate version would have targeted private HMOs participating in Medicare by changing the formula that governs their reimbursement, lowering payments $26 billion over the next decade. But after lobbying by the health insurance industry, the final version made a critical change that had the effect of eliminating all but $4 billion of the projected savings, according to CBO and other health policy experts. That change was made in mid-December during private negotiations involving House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and the staffs of those committees as well as the House Energy and Commerce Committee. House and Senate Democrats were excluded from the meeting. The Senate gave final approval to the budget-cutting measure on Dec. 21, but the House must give it final consideration early next month. The change in the Medicare provision underscores a practice that growing numbers of lawmakers from both parties want addressed. More than ever, Republican congressional lawmakers and leaders are making vital decisions, involving far-reaching policies and billions of dollars, without the public - or even congressional Democrats - present.' http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/23/AR2006012301700.html?sub=AR Of:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012406N.shtml

De Oorlogsstaat

De Amerikaanse National Security State wordt nog verder uitgebreid. De VS heeft geen militair-industrieel complex, maar is er een. Het is een oorlogsstaat geworden waarbij alles en iedereen permanent gemobiliseerd is. De Washington Post bericht: 'Plan Seeks More Elite Forces to Fortify Military. A top-level Pentagon review of defense strategy calls for bolstering the U.S. military with thousands more elite troops skilled in fighting terrorists and insurgents and partnering with foreign forces -- as part of a decades-long plan to expand efforts to thwart terrorists worldwide, according to U.S. officials and military analysts familiar with the review. The increase would bring the ranks of Special Operations Forces -- which include covert Delta Force operatives, Rangers, Navy SEALs and Army Special Forces -- to their highest levels since the Vietnam War while adding billions to the budget of the 52,000-strong U.S. Special Operations Command, based in Tampa, over the next five years, said the officials and analysts, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the final document has not been released. One of the largest gains would be in Army Special Forces, or Green Berets, soldiers trained in languages and navigating foreign cultures who work with indigenous forces and operate in 12-man "A-teams." Special Forces would expand by one-third -- from 15 to 20 active-duty battalions -- creating about 90 more A-teams to deploy to regions considered vulnerable to terrorist or extremist influences, the officials and analysts said. Currently, the bulk of Special Forces teams are rotating into Iraq and Afghanistan.' Lees verder:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/23/AR2006012301852.html Of:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012406L.shtml

Martelen 16

De BBC World Service bericht: 'Europe ''knew about'' CIA flights. Dick Marty says his investigation into the claims is continuing European governments were almost certainly aware of the CIA's secret prisoner flights via European airspace or airports, a key report has said. The preliminary report comes from Swiss MP Dick Marty, for the human rights watchdog the Council of Europe. The US admits picking up terrorism suspects but denies sending them to Arab nations to face torture. Mr Marty said he could not be certain that the CIA used secret prisons in Europe to interrogate terror suspects. The BBC's Tim Franks at the Council of Europe says the Swiss senator's report does not appear to reveal hard new facts. ''Great deal of evidence.''' Lees verder: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4641810.stm En nu afwachten welke consequenties deze steun zal hebben voor de Europese politici die hieraan meewerkten. Per slot van rekening hebben wij de mond vol van mensenrechten, beschaving etc. En dat weet de rest van de wereld ook.

Max van Weezel

Dit is de journalist Max van Weezel. Max was vroeger communist. Wat hij nu is weet niemand, naar alle waarschijnlijkheid hijzelf ook niet. In elk geval is hij zeker geen communist meer. Van Weezel is nog wel pro-Israel. Dat brengt hem als journalist in moeilijkheden, zo bleek in juni 2002, toen Amira Hass, de joods-Israëlische correspondente op de Westbank van de Israelische kwaliteitskrant Haaretz, in de Amsterdamse Balie sprak. De bijeenkomst vond plaats onder voorzitterschap van Max van Weezel, die in Nederland wordt gezien als de deskundige bij uitstek op het gebied van de Israelische politiek. Amira Hass, wier werk door de Israëlische auteur David Grossman is geprezen als ‘een van de zeldzame tekenen van gezond verstand, moed en menselijke waardigheid,’ leeft al jarenlang tussen de Palestijnen in bezet gebied. Dit in tegenstelling tot de Nederlandse correspondenten. De meesten van hen spreken geen Arabisch en gaan zelden of nooit naar de bezette gebieden, met als excuus dat ze zich daar als joodse journalisten niet welkom voelen. Nadat Amira Hass ruim een uur lang voor een volle zaal over de Israëlische terreur tegen de Palestijnse burgerbevolking had verteld, stelde Van Weezel de vraag: ‘Waarom hebben wij in Holland niet enkele van de ontwikkelingen gezien waarover Amira Hass schreef en zag in Gaza en Ramallah? Waarom hebben wij daar nooit over gediscussieerd?’ Een luid gejoel steeg op. Een jonge vrouw in het publiek reageerde met de opmerking: ‘Spreek voor je zelf. Je moest je schamen dat je dit vraagt. Als je het had willen zien dan had je het makkelijk kunnen zien. Veel buitenlandse journalisten hebben daarover geschreven, veel mensen hier zijn in Israël geweest en zagen zelf wat daar gebeurde. Als journalist zou je hebben moeten spreken met de mensen die daarheen gingen en terug kwamen, en verhalen te vertellen hadden,’ daarbij verwijzend naar onder andere joodse Nederlanders in de zaal die spontaan applaudisseerden. Het was de spijker op de kop. Veel Nederlandse journalisten zijn zodra het Arabieren betreft bevooroordeeld, inclusief Van Weezel, de voormalige adjunct hoofdredacteur van Vrij Nederland. Het was hetzelfde Vrij Nederland dat in 2000 een Israëlische aanslag op een Tanziem-leider omschreef als ‘een knappe surgical action,’ zonder te vermelden dat daarbij twee onschuldige voorbijgangers, huisvrouwen van middelbare leeftijd, gedood werden. Kennelijk een te verwaarlozen detail, 'collateral damage.’ Max dus. Als er een Guinness Book of Records voor het introduceren van absurde begrippen zou bestaan dan zou ik onmiddellijk Van Weezel voordragen. Afgelopen zondag sprak hij als presentator van het Radio I Journaal over 'Niet Marokkaanse Nederlanders.' Het moest even inzinken voordat ik de omvang van deze absurditeit volledig kon bevatten. Maar nu begrijp ik het: ik ben sinds afgelopen zondag een 'niet Marokkaanse Nederlander.' Herhaalt u luid en duidelijk dit begrip voor uzelf eens honderd keer, proef die woorden op uw tong en ontdek dat het nog lekker bekt ook. 'Niet Marokkaanse Nederlander.' De onvermijdelijk vraag is nu of een fatsoenlijke burger zich bij een 'Niet Marokkaanse Nederlander' veilig kan voelen? En bij een 'Marokkaanse Nederlander,' wat dat dan ook wezen mag? En bij een 'Niet Nederlandse Nederlander,' zoals ik me begin te voelen? Bij welke categorie voelt u zich het veiligst? Een tijdje geleden verklaarde Max van Weezel: 'De belangrijkste levensles die ik heb geleerd gaat over vertrouwen in mensen. Dat kreeg je vroeger mee van je ouders als je net na de Tweede Wereldoorlog werd geboren en joods was. Als ik iemand leer kennen vraag ik me af of ik in tijden van nood bij hem of haar zou durven onderduiken, zou ik me bij deze persoon veilig en geborgen voelen?' Dat benoemen van iedereen, dat eeuwige kwalificeren. Zou Max er als journalist nooit moe van worden, ik bedoel van die levenslessen die hij als kind kreeg?

Corruptie in Washington 7

'Follow the Money,' is de bekende opsporingsmethode van de politie om criminelen te vangen. Dat geldt ook voor het opsporen van corrupte politici. De Washington Post bericht: 'Photos of Bush With Abramoff Are Withheld. White House Calls Pictures Irrelevant to Ethics Inquiry. Several White House officials have been briefed about pictures of President Bush and Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff taken since 2001 but will not release them on grounds that they are not relevant to the ongoing money-for-favors investigation, aides said yesterday.
"Trying to say there's more to it than the president taking a picture in a photo line is just absurd," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters. Bush, he said, does not recall meeting Abramoff and did not do any favors for the disgraced lobbyist. Abramoff, who recently pleaded guilty in the growing bribery and corruption scandal, was with Bush about a dozen times when pictures were taken by the official White House photographer or other participants over the past five years, according to a source familiar with Abramoff's legal situation. Abramoff, this source said, displayed at least five of them on his office desk and has told people the president talked about his children's names as well as personal details about their schooling during one encounter. The source said Abramoff has more than half a dozen photos with Bush, including one of the two men shaking hands, but has no intention of releasing them. The existence of the Bush-Abramoff photos was first reported by Washingtonian magazine, which reviewed five photos but was not permitted to publish them.' Lees verder:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/23/AR2006012300333.html?referrer=email&referrer=email

Een Indiaanse President

Vijf eeuw nadat de Spaanse veroveraars het Inca-rijk plunderden en vernietigden is voor het eerst een Indiaan president van Bolivia geworden. De BBC World Service sprak terecht over een 'inheemse' president, daarmee aangevend dat alle andere heersers sinds de komst van de blanken niet inheems waren, maar nakomelingen van de Europese veroveraars of op zijn minste nakomelingen met gemengd bloed. Een van de veroveraars van het Inca rijk, Mancio Sierra schreef in 1589 aan de Spaanse koning: 'His Catholic Majesty must know that we found these countries in such a condition that there were no thieves, no vicious men, no idlers... We have transformed these natives, who had so much wisdom and committed so few crimes... There was then no evil thing, but today there is no good.' De Britse auteur Ronald Wright beschrijft in zijn boek 'Stolen Continents' hoe sindsdien een racistisch systeem de Indianen er eeuwenlang onderhield. Daar lijkt nu een eind aan te komen. De Washington Post bericht: 'For Bolivian Majority, a New Promise. Nation's First Indian President Vows to Chart Course Independent of U.S. The streets of this colonial city erupted in song and fireworks Sunday to celebrate the inauguration of Evo Morales, Bolivia's first Indian president, who promised to begin reversing centuries of social injustice, shield the country from U.S. influence and reclaim natural resources that he says have been exploited by international capitalism. Morales, 46, broke into tears before addressing Bolivia's Congress and the presidents of many neighboring South American countries, a gathering that illustrated the region's ongoing political shift toward socialism. The former coca grower likened his historic rise to power in Bolivia, where people of Indian descent make up more than 60 percent of the population, to the end of apartheid in South Africa.' Lees verder: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/22/AR2006012200417.html Of:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012306O.shtml#1 Intussen zal de Verenigde Staten al het mogelijke doen om het beleid van Evo Morales te dwarsbomen en saboteren, zoals onder Ronald Reagan Washington met succes een terreurcampagne in Midden Amerika in gang zette om elke vernieuwing die ten goede kwam aan de bevolking te vernietigen. Zie: http://www.doublestandards.org/chomsky3.html Of:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/07/1927239 Meer over Zuid-Amerika. Over Colombia heeft de vredesactiviste Heleen ter Ellen drie radioprogramma's gemaakt met veel achtergrondinformatie, onder de titel: 'La otra cara de Colombia,' te beluisteren via: http://www.radio.kifkif.be/archieflist.php 21 november 2005 was de eerste uitzending.

Irak 19

De Amerikaanse onderzoeksjournalist Robert Dreyfuss schrijft in het onafhankelijke 'Tom Paine' over de totale chaos in Irak: 'Civil War-Elect... The Iraqi body politic is shattered, with little hope now of avoiding an all-out civil war. That's the only conclusion that can be reached by looking at the results of the Dec. 15 elections in Iraq, whose official returns were announced on Friday. Those results gave the Shiite religious bloc 128 seats out of 275. Their junior partners, the two Kurdish warlord parties, got 53. The religious Sunnis got 44, the secular Sunni parties got 11, and Iyad Allawi's non-ethnic, secular alliance got 25. So the coalition of Shiite fundamentalists and Kurdish warlords controls 173 seats, at least, just a few votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed to form a government. Let's look at the bad news, item by item. First, the Arab League's peace initiative for Iraq is dead. It was, I've written, perhaps the last best hope for holding Iraq together and avoiding an ethnic-sectarian war. The effort began last fall, when Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan organized an initiative to hold talks between Iraq's Shiite-Kurdish government, the Sunni-led opposition, and the resistance. Scheduled for Cairo last November, the first meeting failed when the two fundamentalist Shiite parties, Al Dawa and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said that they would not talk to the insurgents, whom they describe as "terrorists." (That word, in fact, is increasingly used by SCIRI and Al Dawa to refer to all Sunnis in Iraq, not just to Abu Musab Al Zarqawi's Al Qaeda or even to the Baathist-military resistance.) In December, I wrote for TomPaine.com that the Arab League effort would collapse if the SCIRI-Dawa forces, augmented by the fanatical Mahdi Army of Muqtada Sadr, won big in the elections. They did, winning nearly half of the seats in the new parliament. So, no surprise: on Saturday, Iraq's foreign minister, a Kurd, announced that the scheduled Arab League follow up meeting in February, which had been dubbed a National Accord Conference, would not be held.' Lees verder: http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20060123/civil_warelect.php Of: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012306E.shtml

Al Qaida

Het onafhankelijke Amerikaanse Media Channel publiceert de volledige tekst van de laatste bin Laden tape. Een fragment daaruit: 'If you (Americans) are sincere in your desire for peace and security, we have answered you. And if Bush decides to carry on with his lies and oppression, then it would be useful for you to read the book "Rogue State," which states in its introduction: "If I were president, I would stop the attacks on the United States: First I would give an apology to all the widows and orphans and those who were tortured. Then I would announce that American interference in the nations of the world has ended once and for all." Finally, I say that war will go either in our favor or yours. If it is the former, it means your loss and your shame forever, and it is headed in this course. If it is the latter, read history! We are people who do not stand for injustice and we will seek revenge all our lives. The nights and days will not pass without us taking vengeance like on Sept. 11, God permitting. Your minds will be troubled and your lives embittered. As for us, we have nothing to lose. A swimmer in the ocean does not fear the rain. You have occupied our lands, offended our honor and dignity and let out our blood and stolen our money and destroyed our houses and played with our security and we will give you the same treatment.' Lees verder: http://mediachannel.org/blog/node/2970 De rekening is opgemaakt na een eeuw Westers kolonialisme in het Midden Oosten. Of we dat nu leuk vinden of niet, we zullen er serieus rekening mee moeten houden en een serieuze dialoog moeten beginnen met onze tegenstanders.

Klimaatverandering 14

Common Dreams heeft het volgende artikel uit de Independent overgenomen: 'Warmer Seas Will Wipe Out Plankton, Source of Ocean Life. The microscopic plants that underpin all life in the oceans are likely to be destroyed by global warming, a study has found. Scientists have discovered a way that the vital plankton of the oceans can be starved of nutrients as a result of the seas getting warmer. They believe the findings have catastrophic implications for the entire marine habitat, which ultimately relies on plankton at the base of the food chain. The study is also potentially devastating because it has thrown up a new "positive feedback" mechanism that could result in more carbon dioxide ending up in the atmosphere to cause a runaway greenhouse effect. Scientists led by Jef Huisman of the University of Amsterdam have calculated that global warming, which is causing the temperature of the sea surface to rise, will also interfere with the vital upward movement of nutrients from the deep sea. These nutrients, containing nitrogen, phosphorus and iron, are vital food for phytoplankton. If the supply is interrupted the plants die off, which prevents them from absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. "Global warming of the surface layers of the oceans reduces the upward transport of nutrients into the surface layers. This generates chaos among the plankton," the professor said.' Lees verder:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0119-01.htm