En uiteindelijk worden weer eens enkele kinderen aangehouden in een poging burgers te intimideren.
De nieuwe Palestijnse premier Ismail Haniya heeft verklaard dat de Palestijnen 'were “sick and tired of the West’s racist approach” to the Middle East conflict in an article published in a British newspaper on Friday... Haniya wrote: “Olmert’s unilateralism is a recipe for conflict,” adding that the problem in the Middle East was not with any particular Palestinian group but with the “denial of our basic human rights” by Israel. The United States, European Union and Israel all regard Hamas as a terrorist organisation, given its track record of suicide bombings and its refusal to recognise the Jewish state’s right to exist. “We in Hamas are for peace and want to put an end to bloodshed. We have been observing a unilateral truce for more than a year without reciprocity from the Israeli side,” Haniya wrote. “The message from Hamas and the Palestinian Authority to the world powers is this: talk to us no more about recognising Israel’s ’right to exist’ or ending resistance until you obtain a commitment from the Israelis to withdraw from our land and recognise our rights. We are sick and tired of the West’s racist approach to the conflict, in which the Palestinians are regarded as inferior. Though we are the victims, we offer our hands in peace, but only a peace that is based on justice. If the Israelis continue to attack and kill our people and destroy their homes, impose sanctions, collectively punish us, and imprison men and women for exercising the right to self-defence, er have every right to respond with all available means.” Haniya said that his party was democratically elected and if his government was boycotted by foreign powers, “we will persist -- and our friends have pledged to fill the gap”. “This is a good time for peacemaking -- if the world wants peace.” Lees verder: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2006/March/middleeast_March795.xml§ion=middleeast&col=
Hamas bood een wapenstilstand aan in 1997, maar Israel was niet geinteresseerd. De extremisten in Israel willen geen vrede, maar Palestijns land. Middle East Online bericht: 'Hamas offered Israel 30-year truce in 1997. Ex Israel’s spy chief says in his book truce offer was overtaken by botched assassination attempt against Meshaal. JERUSALEM - Islamist group Hamas offered Israel a 30-year truce in 1997 but it was overtaken by a botched assassination attempt against its now leader, Khaled Meshaal, a former spy chief is reportedly to reveal in upcoming memoirs. Efraim Halevy, who headed Israel's Mossad foreign intelligence service, makes the revelation in his book "Man in the Shadows" which is to come out in Britain on April 4, the Haaretz daily reported. Halevy says the offer was conveyed to a Mossad representative by Jordan's King Hussein who then felt "severely betrayed" when Mossad agents tried to kill Meshaal in Amman by drizzling poison in his ear before the offer had even been conveyed to then premier Benjamin Netanyahu, the daily said. Halevy recounts that it was his idea to offer the release of the since-assassinated Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin to placate the king, whose security forces arrested two of the agents and besieged the rest in the Israeli embassy, one of the paper's star correpondents Zeev Schiff wrote. "Relations with Amman deteriorated so badly that the king mulled demanding at a press conference that Israel turn in the Mossad agents who had fled to the embassy. If Israel did not turn them in, Hussein was seriously considering military action.'Lees verder: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=16136
De Guardian bericht: 'Shiite Ayatollah Ignores Letter From Bush A letter from President Bush to Iraq's supreme Shiite spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, was hand-delivered earlier this week but sits unread and untranslated in the top religious figure's office, a key al-Sistani aide told The Associated Press on Thursday. The aide - who has never allowed use of his name in news reports, citing al-Sistani's refusal to make any public statements himself - said the ayatollah had laid the letter aside and did not ask for a translation because of increasing ``unhappiness'' over what senior Shiite leaders see as American meddling in Iraqi attempts to form their first, permanent post-invasion government. The aide said the person who delivered the Bush letter - he would not identify the messenger by name or nationality - said it carried Bush's thanks to al-Sistani for calling for calm among his followers in preventing the outbreak of civil war after a Shiite shrine was bombed late last month. The messenger also was said to have explained that the letter reinforced the American position that Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari should not be given a second term. Al-Sistani has not publicly taken sides in the dispute, but rather has called for Shiite unity. The United States was known to object to al-Jaafari's second term but has never said so outright and in public. But on Saturday, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad carried a similar letter from Bush to a meeting with Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the largest Shiite political organization, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. The al-Sistani aide said Shiite displeasure with U.S. involvement was so deep that dignitaries in the holy city of Najaf refused to meet Khalilzad on Wednesday during ceremonies commemorating the death of the Prophet Muhammad. The Afghan-born Khalilzad is a Sunni Muslim.' Lees verder: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5722740,00.html
De Amerikaanse journalist Charles Sullivan schrijft: 'Ignorance by Content and Omission... No thinking person should assume that the corporate media is neutral or objective. They are not; however, they try to give the impression that they are. All for profit institutions have an agenda—the accumulation of private wealth. Credibility is important to them, facts are not. Like their brethren in the defense and oil industries, the corporate media is amassing fortunes by supporting an agenda of war and world domination. In a capitalist society the role of the media is not to inform and to educate—it is to make money by any and all available means. Capitalism does not care how its fortunes are made. Its modus operandi is Machiavellian: ends justify the means. Capitalism is unbridled greed unleashed upon the world for the privatization of wealth. It allows a small group of business owners and investors to get rich by exploiting the under class of all nations. Relatively few Americans are aware of the extent to which the corporate media played in putting George Bush in power, or the pandering of propaganda and outright lies that keep him there. They are unaware that under the guidance of ultra conservative Grover Norquist, a group of eighty of the nation’s wealthiest people gathers in the nation’s capital every week. This gathering, as one might expect, is not innocuous or benign. Its purpose is to create the talking points that will be purveyed each week in the commercial media to further their agenda. In essence, this group defines the news for the week and the manner in which it will be presented for public consumption. Their reach is enormous and their sole motivation is profit and power for the elite. Not only does Norquist’s group literally write the scripts followed by Rush Limbaugh and his robotic drones, it provides the content that defines the evening news and the daily newspapers. Every mainstream televised and audio program should be preceded by a Surgeon General’s Warning: Use of this product may be hazardous to your health! Thus every television and radio network incessantly preaches the same propaganda from the individual pulpits of class privilege. The key talking points are the same whether on Fox, CNN, CBS or ABC; or the nation’s newspapers. Likewise, conservative talk radio receives its marching orders directly from Norquist’s intimate group of billionaires. This is not benign advocacy for a particular point of view—it is blatant propaganda and outright lies packaged and sold as news. Without the aide of the corporate media and Norquist’s billionaires, we would not have invaded Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of innocent people would still be alive. We might even have taken global warming seriously and done something about it before it was too late. Truth and integrity might still mean something. Little by little the minds of the people have been poisoned by propaganda and it is called nourishment. As a result the more noble traits of our culture are incrementally dying. Through the judicious use of lies and distortions the people are deceived into supporting the atrocities of war and conquest that are committed in their name. Historical context reveals the unmistakable patterns that make these behaviors readily visible and renders them understandable to the present moment. The lack of historical perspective leaves one vulnerable to the lies and distortions that have always characterized our government. Of course, this historical context is not taught in our schools for reasons that should be obvious.' Lees verder: http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12588.htm
Op de site van Inforamtion Clearing House kunt u kijken naar een documentaire over vier Amerikaanse veteranen onder de titel: 'We're Sorry. Former US soldiers on the personal cost of war in Iraq. We have a powerful film this evening. We follow a group of former US soldiers who have returned from Iraq deeply affected by the experience. This is a must watch - Newsnight - BBC - Broadcast. US soldiers. We have a powerful film this evening. We follow a group of former US soldiers who have returned from Iraq deeply affected by the experience. As they march across America to protest against the war they reveal their own experiences of the conflict, make some disturbing allegations about military practices in Iraq and reflect on how it feels to come home.
Amy Goodman interviewt Noam Chomsky. ´The New York Times calls him "arguably the most important intellectual alive." The Boston Globe calls him "America's most useful citizen"
Trouw bericht: 'Poolse arbeiders / Hard werken voor zes euro. Poolse arbeiders zijn te goedkoop en worden uitgebuit, zeggen werknemers die hun baan verliezen. Maar tuinders in het Westland zweren bij de Polen. „Ik kan nu de concurrentie weer aan." In het kassengebied werken er naar schatting al 30.000.' Eerder al berichtte Trouw: 'Goedkope Pool verdringt Turk uit kas.' Waar het mij nu om gaat is vooral die tegenstelling die door de journalist wordt geschapen. Alsof we hier te maken hebben met twee gelijkwaardige belangen. Poolse arbeiders zijn te goedkoop, maar tuinders zweren bij Polen. Er is hier helemaal geen sprake van een tegenstelling, waarom dan dat woordje 'maar'? Natuurlijk zweren de werkgevers bij goedkope Poolse arbeiders die kunnen worden uitgebuit, daarom hebben ze ook de 'Turk' uit de kassen verdreven. Zou Trouw niet beseffen dat het kapitalisme gebaseerd is op het principe van een minimum van inspanning voor een maximum aan resultaat? Het is de religie van de winst, daarvoor moet alles wijken en net als de christelijke god staat deze grootheid buiten discussie. Het is natuurlijk een absurde ideologie, die aan haar eigen succes ten onder zal gaan, maar toch. Het probleem voor Nederland is dat niet alleen de tuinders zo denken, maar bijvoorbeeld ook de directie van ABN-Amro die het computerwerk door Indiers laat doen omdat die nu eenmaal veel goedkoper zijn dan goed geschoolde Nederlandse computerspecialisten. Vandaar de ontslagen en inkrimpingen. Een te dure computerdeskundige hier, is overtollig vet en moet weggesneden worden, anders kunnen de winsten niet almaar blijven stijgen. En dat geldt als een zonde in het neoliberale geloof. Zo verdwijnen banen in zowel industrie als nu ook dienstensector naar de Derde Wereld en ontstaat er net als in de Verenigde Staten geleidelijk aan een steeds grotere structurele werkloosheid hier. Wij in het rijke Westen kunnen natuurlijk nooit concurreren met werknemers in de Derde Wereld, die geen goed georganiseerde vakbonden hebben en nauwelijks goed functionerende milieuwetten en genoegen nemen met een veel lager loon. Maar daarover staat niets Trouw. Wat alleen opvalt zijn al die impliciete aannames die achter dit soort artikelen schuil gaan.
De pro-Israel lobby in de Verenigde Staten heeft furieus gereageerd op een wetenschappelijke publicatie over de disporportionele invloed die deze lobby heeft op de Amerikaanse buitenlandse politiek. En zoals gebruikelijk wordt ook nu weer het aloude argument 'anti-semitisme' van stal gehaald om kritische analytici te criminaliseren en de feiten te negeren. De Guardian bericht: 'US professors accused of being liars and bigots over essay on pro-Israeli lobby Julian Borger in Washington. An article by two prominent American professors arguing that the pro-Israel lobby exerts a dominant and damaging influence on US foreign policy has triggered a furious row, pitting allegations of anti-semitism against claims of intellectual intimidation. Stephen Walt, the academic dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and John Mearsheimer, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, published two versions of the essay, the Israel Lobby, in the London Review of Books and on a Harvard website. The pro-Israel lobby and its sway over American policy has always been a controversial issue, but the professors' bluntly worded polemic created a firestorm, drawing condemnation from left and right of the political spectrum. Professor Walt's fellow Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz - criticised in the article as an "apologist" for Israel - denounced the authors as "liars" and "bigots" in the university newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, and compared their arguments to neo-Nazi literature. "Accusations of powerful Jews behind the scenes are part of the most dangerous traditions of modern anti-semitism," wrote two fellow academics, Jeffrey Herf and Andrei Markovits, in a letter to the London Review of Books. Critics also pointed out that the article had been praised by David Duke, a notorious American white supremacist. Prof Mearsheimer said the storm of protest proved one of its arguments - that the strength of the pro-Israel lobby stifled debate on US foreign policy. "We argued in the piece that the lobby goes to great lengths to silence criticism of Israeli policy as well as the US-Israeli relationship, and that its most effective weapon is the charge of anti-semitism," Prof Mearsheimer told The Guardian. "Thus, we expected to be called anti-semites, even though both of us are philo-semites and strongly support the existence of Israel." He added: "Huge numbers of people know this story to be true but are afraid to say it because they would punished by pro-Israeli forces."' Lee verder: http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1743767,00.html Zou het anti-semitisch zijn om te schrijven dat de arme kinderen in de Verenigde Staten de armste kinderen zijn van alle geindustrialiseerde naties op die van Israel en Ierland na? Dit zijn gedocumenteerde feiten, maar toch, zou dit anti- semitisch zijn of anti-Amerikaans? Of anti-Iers? Of alles tegelijk? Het zijn verwarrende tijden.
De Guardian bericht: '"If You Start Looking at Them as Humans, Then How Are You Gonna Kill Them?" They are a publicity nightmare for the US military: an ever-growing number of veterans of the Iraq conflict who are campaigning against the war. To mark the third anniversary of the invasion this month, a group of them marched on Katrina-ravaged New Orleans. Inigo Gilmore and Teresa Smith joined them. At a press conference in a cavernous Alabama warehouse, banners and posters are rolled out: "Abandon Iraq, not the Gulf coast!" A tall, white soldier steps forward in desert fatigues. "I was in Iraq when Katrina happened and I watched US citizens being washed ashore in New Orleans," he says. "War is oppression: we could be setting up hospitals right here. America is war-addicted. America is neglecting its poor."
De Washington Post bericht: 'GAO: Customs Failed ''Dirty Bomb'' Test. Congressional investigators testing U.S. port security smuggled enough radioactive material into the United States last year to make two radiological "dirty" bombs, officials told a Senate panel yesterday.
Een toespraak in Sydney van Robert Fisk. 'Journalist Robert Fisk has spent over 30 years in the Middle East. He's covered the Lebanese civil war, the Iranian Revolution, Iran-Iraq wars, the Gulf Wars, Afghanistan and the current conflict in Iraq. He says he's met Osama Bin Laden three times. Fisk is more determined than ever to prosecute a case against the injustices of the west against the Arab and Muslim world. Agree with him or not, his presentations are suffused with passionate belief in change for the better. This talk was recorded recently in Sydney, as part of the Sydney Ideas 2006 public lecture series organised by the University of Sydney. Hier kunt u ernaar luisteren: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bigidea/stories/s1597318.htm
Truthout heeft een bericht uit de New York Times overgenomen, voorafgegaan door een 'Editor's Note: One stated objective that Mr. Bush has repeatedly pointed to, in justifying the continued US occupation of Iraq, is helping Iraq to become a "Democracy." Today Mr. Bush asked the man who - US authorities say - was duly elected by the Iraqi people as their prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, to resign. To date, 2,315 US soldiers and Marines and an estimated fifty to one hundred thousand Iraqis have died as a result of the Bush administration's decision to invade and occupy Iraq. Shiites Say US Is Pressuring Iraqi Leader to Step Aside. The New York Times. Senior Shiite politicians said today that the American ambassador has told Shiite officials to inform the Iraqi prime minister that President Bush does not want him to remain the country's leader in the next government. It is the first time the Americans have directly intervened in the furious debate over the country's top job, the politicians said, and it is inflaming tensions between the Americans and some Shiite leaders. The ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, told the head of the main Shiite political bloc at a meeting last Saturday to pass a "personal message from President Bush" on to the prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who the Shiites insist should stay in his post for four more years, said Redha Jowad Taki, a Shiite politician and member of Parliament who was at the meeting. Ambassador Khalilzad said that President Bush "doesn't want, doesn't support, doesn't accept" Mr. Jaafari to be the next prime minister, according to Mr. Taki, a senior aide to Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Shiite bloc. It was the first "clear and direct message" from the Americans on the issue of the candidate for prime minister, Mr. Taki said. An American Embassy spokeswoman confirmed that Mr. Khalilzad and Mr. Hakim had met, but declined to comment directly on what they had spoken about. The Americans have harshly criticized the Jaafari government in recent months for supporting Shiite militias that have been fomenting sectarian violence and pushing Iraq closer to full-scale civil war. Ambassador Khalilzad has sharpened his attacks in the last week, saying the militias are now killing more people than the Sunni-led insurgency. There is growing concern among American officials that Mr. Jaafari is incapable of reining in the private armies, especially since Moktada al-Sadr, the anti-American cleric who leads the most volatile of the militias, is Mr. Jaafari's strongest backer.' U kunt er hier naar luisteren:
Hoewel Europese politici - en zeker de Nederlandse politici - altijd de mond vol hebben over het respecteren van mensenrechten heeft de Europese Unie Israel toch een speciale status verleent, waardoor 'de joodse natie' probleemloos al zijn producten hier kwijt kan. Maar al jarenlang verzoekt de Palestijnse samenleving met klem om Israel te boycotten zolang het land het internationaal recht schendt. 'Palestinian Civil Society Calls for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights. One year after the historic Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which found Israel’s Wall built on occupied Palestinian territory to be illegal, Israel continues its construction of the colonial Wall with total disregard to the Court’s decision. Thirty eight years into Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian West Bank (including East Jerusalem), Gaza Strip and the Syrian Golan Heights, Israel continues to expand Jewish colonies. It has unilaterally annexed occupied East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights and is now de facto annexing large parts of the West Bank by means of the Wall. Israel is also preparing - in the shadow of its planned redeployment from the Gaza Strip - to build and expand colonies in the West Bank. Fifty seven years after the state of Israel was built mainly on land ethnically cleansed of its Palestinian owners, a majority of Palestinians are refugees, most of whom are stateless. Moreover, Israel's entrenched system of racial discrimination against its own Arab-Palestinian citizens remains intact. In light of Israel’s persistent violations of international law, and
Een studie van de Verenigde Naties benadrukt nog eens de illegaliteit van de Israelische Apartheids Muur: 'United Nations Study: Palestinian land has been divided into separate 'ghettos' enclosed by Wall. A report compiled by the United Nation Office for the Coordination of the Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) revealed a new social and economic reality that has emerged in the last year for Palestinians in the West Bank: that they have been imprisoned in separate enclaves, or 'ghettos', surrounded by the Wall and unable to move. Says the report summary, "It is important to note that had the Barrier in the West Bank been constructed on the Green Line, this report would be unnecessary. Concerned that Palestinian livelihoods and access to essential services would be harmed by the construction of the West Bank Barrier, the international donor community – through the Humanitarian Emergency Policy Group (HEPG) - requested regular updates on the humanitarian impact of the Barrier. The HEPG comprises the European Commission and the EU President, the World Bank, USAID, Norway and UNSCO."
In Israel's kwaliteitskrant Haaretz schrijft de kritische journalist Gideon Levy over het racisme van zijn joodse landgenoten. 'One racist nation. Contrary to appearances, the elections this week are important, because they will expose the true face of Israeli society and its hidden ambitions. More than 100 elected candidates will be sent to the Knesset on the basis of one ticket - the racism ticket. If we used to think that every two Israelis have three opinions, now it will be evident that nearly every Israeli has one opinion - racism. Elections 2006 will make this much clearer than ever before. An absolute majority of the MKs in the 17th Knesset will hold a position based on a lie: that Israel does not have a partner for peace. An absolute majority of MKs in the next Knesset do not believe in peace, nor do they even want it - just like their voters - and worse than that, don't regard Palestinians as equal human beings. Racism has never had so many open supporters. It's the real hit of this election campaign. One does not have to be Avigdor Lieberman to be a racist. The "peace" proposed by Ehud Olmert is no less racist. Lieberman wants to distance them from our borders, Olmert and his ilk want to distance them from out consciousness. Nobody is speaking about peace with them, nobody really wants it. Only one ambition unites everyone - to get rid of them, one way or another. Transfer or wall, "disengagement" or "convergence" - the point is that they should get out of our sight. The only game in town, the 'unilateral arrangement," is not only based on the lie that there is no partner, is not only based exclusively on our "needs" because of a sense of superiority, but also leads to a dangerous pattern of behavior that totally ignores the existence of the other nation.' Lees verder: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/698426.html
In de angelsaksische wereld is het milieu een steeds belangrijker onderwerp in de media, maar niet in Nederland. Volgens een aantal van mijn collega's is de reden het feit dat de politici er weinig aandacht aan besteden. Milieu is voor hen geen prioriteit meer. De Independent bericht: 'Your world. Your say: The great global warming debate. Yesterday we asked The Independent's readers to make their contribution to the all-party inquiry on climate change. Your response has been nothing short of extraordinary. Here we publish our first selection of your letters and emails. The scientist James Lovelock has a view of our climatically challenging future in which each country becomes a fortress and acts and adapts in their own interests locally as best they can, and somehow or other saves " civilisation" for a few survivors. Mr Challen's line of thinking is a more worthy legacy of civilisation to carry into the future. We must be bold! If Britain is the fifth largest economy in the world then it must partner (genuinely, in every conceivable way - a marriage) with the fifth poorest and set up an attempt to put in place contraction and convergence. Britain's spend of CO2 comes down whilst, let us say, Rwanda's comes up until we meet at a point (closer to their starting spend than ours) that gives us a chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change. This means a Rwandan's life becomes more materially and energy positive whilst a Britain's goes the other way. It does not mean a pay-off to them to keep their levels low whilst ours continue to rise. We become one. We share sacrifice to end poverty and excess at the same time. Putting our money, unilaterally if necessary at first, where our mouths are has many advantages: * It is the most powerful argument we can deploy for encouraging contraction and convergence globally. It also gives us a chance to get our hands dirty and understand how to make it work' Lees verder:
Dat de Verenigde Staten nog altijd de leidende cultuur van het Westen is blijkt wel uit het hoge niveau van de discussie onder intellectuelen en het diepgravende gewetensonderzoek. De Nederlandse intellectuelen met hun slaapverwekkende zelfgenoegzaamheid zouden er een voorbeeld aan kunnen nemen. De Amerikaanse auteur Sam Smith schrijft: 'THE QUIET STORM. BLOWIN' IN THE WIND OF CULTURAL DECAY. Thomas Jefferson saw it coming. He warned, "From the conclusion of this war we shall be going down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves, but in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore, which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of this war, will remain on us long, will be made heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion."
De Guardian bericht: 'Imperial overreach is accelerating the global decline of America The disastrous foreign policies of the US have left it more isolated than ever, and China is standing by to take over. ''Our power, then, has the grave liability of rendering our theories about the world immune from failure. But by becoming deaf to easily discerned warning signs, we may ignore long-term costs that result from our actions and dismiss reverses that should lead to a re-examination of our goals and means." These are the words of Henry Hyde, chairman of the House international relations committee and a Republican congressman, in a recent speech. Hyde argues that such is the overweening power of the US that it may not hear or recognise the signals when its policy goes badly wrong, a thinly veiled reference to Iraq. He then takes issue with the idea that the US can export democracy around the world as deeply misguided and potentially dangerous. He argues: "A broad and energetic promotion of democracy in other countries that will not enjoy our long-term and guiding presence may equate not to peace and stability but to revolution ... There is no evidence that we or anyone can guide from afar revolutions we have set in motion. We can more easily destabilise friends and others and give life to chaos and to avowed enemies than ensure outcomes in service of our interests and security." It is clear that the US occupation of Iraq has been a disaster from almost every angle one can think of, most of all for the Iraqi people, not least for American foreign policy. The unpicking of the imperial logic that led to it has already commenced: Hyde's speech is an example, and so is Francis Fukuyama's new book After the Neocons, a merciless critique of Bush's foreign policy and the school of thought that lay behind it. The war was a delayed product of the end of the cold war and the triumphalist mentality that imbued the neocons and eventually seduced the US. But triumphalism is a dangerous brew, more suited to intoxication than hard-headed analysis. And so it has proved. The US still has to reap the whirlwind for its stunning feat of imperial overreach.' Lees verder:
Het Amerikaanse tijdschrift Time bericht: 'Be Worried. Be Very Worried: Polar Ice Caps Are Melting Faster Than Ever ... More and More Land Is Being Devastated By Drought ... Rising Waters Are Drowning Low-Lying Communities ... By Any Measure, Earth Is At ... The Tipping Point By Jeffrey Kluger Time
Sunday 26 March 2006
The climate is crashing, and global warming is to blame. Why the crisis hit so soon - and what we can do about it. No one can say exactly what it looks like when a planet takes ill, but it probably looks a lot like Earth. Never mind what you've heard about global warming as a slow-motion emergency that would take decades to play out. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the crisis is upon us. It certainly looked that way last week as the atmospheric bomb that was Cyclone Larry - a Category 5 storm with wind bursts that reached 180 m.p.h. - exploded through northeastern Australia. It certainly looked that way last year as curtains of fire and dust turned the skies of Indonesia orange, thanks to drought-fueled blazes sweeping the island nation. It certainly looks that way as sections of ice the size of small states calve from the disintegrating Arctic and Antarctic. And it certainly looks that way as the sodden wreckage of New Orleans continues to molder, while the waters of the Atlantic gather themselves for a new hurricane season just two months away. Disasters have always been with us and surely always will be. But when they hit this hard and come this fast - when the emergency becomes commonplace - something has gone grievously wrong. That something is global warming. The image of Earth as organism - famously dubbed Gaia by environmentalist James Lovelock - has probably been overworked, but that's not to say the planet can't behave like a living thing, and these days, it's a living thing fighting a fever. From heat waves to storms to floods to fires to massive glacial melts, the global climate seems to be crashing around us. Scientists have been calling this shot for decades. This is precisely what they have been warning would happen if we continued pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, trapping the heat that flows in from the sun and raising global temperatures. Environmentalists and lawmakers spent years shouting at one another about whether the grim forecasts were true, but in the past five years or so, the serious debate has quietly ended. Global warming, even most skeptics have concluded, is the real deal, and human activity has been causing it. If there was any consolation, it was that the glacial pace of nature would give us decades or even centuries to sort out the problem. But glaciers, it turns out, can move with surprising speed, and so can nature. What few people reckoned on was that global climate systems are booby-trapped with tipping points and feedback loops, thresholds past which the slow creep of environmental decay gives way to sudden and self-perpetuating collapse. Pump enough CO2 into the sky, and that last part per million of greenhouse gas behaves like the 212th degree Fahrenheit that turns a pot of hot water into a plume of billowing steam. Melt enough Greenland ice, and you reach the point at which you're not simply dripping meltwater into the sea but dumping whole glaciers. By one recent measure, several Greenland ice sheets have doubled their rate of slide, and just last week the journal Science published a study suggesting that by the end of the century, the world could be locked in to an eventual rise in sea levels of as much as 20 ft. Nature, it seems, has finally got a bellyful of us. "Things are happening a lot faster than anyone predicted," says Bill Chameides, chief scientist for the advocacy group Environmental Defense and a former professor of atmospheric chemistry. "The last 12 months have been alarming." Adds Ruth Curry of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts: "The ripple through the scientific community is palpable."' Lees verder: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1176980,00.html Of:http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/032706EA.shtml Een paar maanden geleden schreef ik een artikel over ons autisme, ons onvermogen om een dreigend gevaar te herkennen. Ik verwees daarbij naar de klimaatverandering. Twee tijdschriften weigerden dit artikel te publiceren. De Humanist en Vrij Nederland. Omdat hetgeen ik schreeef steeds actueler wordt heb ik het hier gelinkt onder teksten/de vogels: http://webdisk.planet.nl/houck006/default.aspx Luister ook naar interview met James Lovelock: http://stanvanhoucke.blogspot.com/2006/03/james-lovelock.html
Het moet iets met mijn uitstraling te maken hebben want zodra ik mijn hoofd op straat vertoon komen bedelaars altijd onmiddellijk naar mij toe gerend om geld te vragen en nooit naar degene naast me. En op internet trekt ik allerlei types aan die iets van me willen. De laatste tijd ben ik weer het doelwit van een bende Westafrikaanse zwendelaars die me dit soort emails sturen: 'REPLY VERY URGENT
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I got your contact through a desperate and personal search on the web for someone I could really trust as I have prayed over it and I wish to express my interest to handle this matter with you as I believe that you are reliable in handling these type of international transaction.
Though we have not met before but I believe one has to risk confiding in someone to succeed sometimes in life but however is not mandatory or in any manner compel you to Honor against your will.
I am Suna Burah Omamm, the only child to the former Sierra-Leone Minister of Mines and Energy who was killed during the Sierra-Leone war by the rebels.
I am now residing in Brunei as refuge and my father before his untimely death left behind a box containing physical cash of US$9 Million (Nine million US dollars) Which he safely deposited in a security vault during his regime in the office and now I need a foreigner who will stand as my guardian and benefactor to this fund by acting as my father foreign partner so that I can retrieve the money from the security company and transfer it to the persons foreign bank account for safe keeping and proper investment to secure my future.
I am a highly school college with little knowledge of business which is why I am in need of a partner whom will assist me to get this fund released for investments in his or her country while I proceed with my education.
Dearest, I am in a sincere desire of your humble assistance on this regard and If you know you are capable of handling such a huge amount of money respond to me and I will compensate you by giving you 25% of the total fund and additional 5% for any expenses which you might incur as a result of this transaction including all sundry expenses and also note that you must keep this transaction top secret as my life is at stake if any one hears of this transaction.
Please consider this and get back to me as soon as possible to enable me give you the full information's that will be needed but please if my proposal do not suit your interest please confirm to me as to enable me solicit for another person and give me your your private phone number as well.
Thank you so much and God bless you abundantly.
Yours sincerely,
Suna Burah Omamm
TEL:008821655599282
U moet voor de grap ook deze eens lezen van die andere enige dochter van de minister van Mijnbouw en Energie: http://servlets.com/archive/servlet/ReadMsg?msgId=558113&listName=jsp-interest
Vice President Dick Cheney addresses the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) 2006 Annual Policy Conference in Washington, Tuesday, March 7, 2006. During his remarks the vice president commented on the unwavering allied relationship between the US and Israel in the global war on terror and discussed the development of democracy and need for security throughout the Middle East.
Democracy Now bericht: 'Bush Signs Statements to Bypass Torture Ban, Oversight Rules in Patriot Act. When President Bush signed a law banning torture he quietly signed a statement saying he could bypass it. Earlier this month, Bush signed the USA Patriot Act but signed a statement that said he did not consider oversight rules binding. We speak with the Boston Globe reporter who broke the story. The USA Patriot Act was re-authorized this month after a lengthy bi-partisan effort to include new provisions safeguarding Congressional oversight. The new provisions mandated President Bush to brief Congress about how the FBI was using expanded authorities to search and monitor suspects. But shortly after he signed the bill into effect, Bush quietly issued what is known as a signing statement in which he lays out his interpretation of the law. In this document Bush declared he did not consider himself bound by the oversight provisions. Bush wrote he could withhold the information if he decided that disclosing it would harm foreign relations, national security or his duties as President.
De Volkskrant-correspondent in Israel bericht vandaag: 'Israël wil van de Palestijnen af... Aan het voorstel van Olmert om alle kolonisten op de Westelijke Jordaanoever samen te brengen in drie grote clusters van nederzettingen en Israël te verschansen achter de muur zitten scherpe kanten. Maar toch, zo heeft de campagne geleerd, bestaat er te veel steun voor om tot hevig debat te leiden. De socialistische Arbeidspartij, de seculiere Meretz en de conservatieve Yisrael Beitenu voelen ook voor zo’n gedeeltelijke terugtrekking – met ieder zijn eigen op- en aanmerkingen. Het plan weerspiegelt het veelgehoorde verlangen de Palestijnen linksom of rechtsom uit het leven te bannen.' Lees verder: http://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/article261305.ece Dat is dus de nieuwe formulering: Israel wil van de Palestijnen af, linksom of rechtsom moeten ze uit het joodse leven verbannen worden. Het is een wonderlijke voorstelling van zaken, want als er 1 groep is die van de andere groep afwil, is het wel de Palestijnen die al meer dan een halve eeuw de Israelische terreur over zich heen krijgen, van etnische zuiveringen in 1948 en 1967 tot het dagelijkse geweld van een bezetting en de permanente uitbreiding van joodse nederzettingen op Palestijns land. De Volkskrant-correspondent had kunnen schrijven dat de joods-Israelis na al die jaren van geweld zijn gaan beseffen dat ze niet meer land kunnen stelen zonder in conflict te komen met hun geldschieters, de Amerikanen en de Europeanen. Bovendien heeft de terreur van de bezetting de terreur van Hamas opgeroepen en daar lijdt de Israelische bevolking onder. De joods-Israelis realiseren zich nu dat ze de Palestijnen niet langer meer met geweld kunnen onderdrukken. Daarnaast is gelukt wat rechtse extremisten als Sharon en Olmert altijd al wilden, te weten het vernietigen van de Palestijnse Autoriteit. Niet voor niets heeft Israel Hamas politiek en financieel gesteund. David Shipler, de voormalige correspondent van de New York Times schreef dat 'the Israeli military governer of the Gaza Strip, Brigadier General Yitzhak Segev, once told me how he had financed the Islamic movement as a counterweight to the PLO and the Communists. "The Israeli Government gave me a budget and the military government gives to the mosques," he said. In 1980, when fundamentalist protestors set fire to the office of the Red Crescent Society in Gaza, headed by Dr. Haider Abdel-Shafi, a Communist and PLO supporter, the Israeli Army did nothing.' Meer over de hulp die Hamas van Israel kreeg kunt u lezen in 'Devils Game' van de voortreffelijke Amerikaanse onderzoeksjournalist Robert Dreyfuss. De waarheid is dus veel gecompliceerder dan de simpele voorstelling van zaken van de Volkskrant correspondent. Maar misschien kan die waarheid net als de waarheid over Israels grenzen pas over 58 jaar worden gegeven. Het blijft aanmodderen met de commerciele massamedia.
Dat de Verenigde Staten lak heeft aan het internationaal recht is bekend, dat wordt keer op keer gedocumenteerd bewezen. De New York Times bericht: 'Bush Was Set on Path to War, Memo by British Adviser Says. London - In the weeks before the United States-led invasion of Iraq, as the United States and Britain pressed for a second United Nations resolution condemning Iraq, President Bush's public ultimatum to Saddam Hussein was blunt: Disarm or face war. But behind closed doors, the president was certain that war was inevitable. During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, he made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, said a confidential memo about the meeting written by Mr. Blair's top foreign policy adviser and reviewed by The New York Times. "Our diplomatic strategy had to be arranged around the military planning," David Manning, Mr. Blair's chief foreign policy adviser at the time, wrote in the memo that summarized the discussion between Mr. Bush, Mr. Blair and six of their top aides. "The start date for the military campaign was now penciled in for 10 March," Mr. Manning wrote, paraphrasing the president. "This was when the bombing would begin." The timetable came at an important diplomatic moment. Five days after the Bush-Blair meeting, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was scheduled to appear before the United Nations to present the American evidence that Iraq posed a threat to world security by hiding unconventional weapons. Although the United States and Britain aggressively sought a second United Nations resolution against Iraq - which they failed to obtain - the president said repeatedly that he did not believe he needed it for an invasion. Stamped "extremely sensitive," the five-page memorandum, which was circulated among a handful of Mr. Blair's most senior aides, had not been made public. Several highlights were first published in January in the book "Lawless World," which was written by a British lawyer and international law professor, Philippe Sands.' In early February, Channel 4 in London first broadcast several excerpts from the memo.' Lees verder: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/27/international/europe/27memo.html?hp&ex=1143522000&en=1a8220fd45b2aca0&ei=5094&partner=homepage Of: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032706Z.shtml
Via Information Clearing House kunt u kijken naar 'Michael Winterbottom: The Road To Guantánamo. Channel 4's new drama from multi award-winning film director Michael Winterbottom. This docudrama attempts to show the sadism and stupidity of the US and British soldiers. The guards behave with the same cruelty you expect to see from SS officers in lurid second world war movies. It takes a moment or two to realize that these events reflect the reality of those held in Americas notorious gulag. The Road to Guantanamo - Channel 4 - UKChannel 4's new drama from multi award-winning film director Michael Winterbottom – The Road to Guantanamo – created huge international impact and won the prestigious Silver Bear for Direction for Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross in competition at The 56th Berlin International Film Festival. The Road To Guantánamo opens with archive footage of George W Bush, flanked by a stern-faced Tony Blair, declaring his certain knowledge that all the detainees held in Guantánamo are "bad people". Everything that follows is designed to turn these words inside out, as three young British Muslims tell the story of how they came to be in US custody at Guantánamo for over two years, and discuss the Kafkaesque horrors that awaited them there, until finally they were released without charge or apology.' Zie: 
