Iran 264

En opnieuw gebruikt het Westen Israel om Iran te bedreigen. De huurlingenstaat mag zijn buren blijven bedreigen met geweld.

Will Israel Attack? Mixed Messages from Washington Could Lead to Catastrophe in Iran

By Roane Carey, Tomdispatch.com. 

Anything short of a categorical, even vociferous U.S. refusal of an Israeli attack could have horrific consequences.

JERUSALEM -- Israel has been steadily ratcheting up pressure on the United States concerning the grave threat allegedly posed by Iran, which seems poised to master the nuclear fuel cycle, and thus the capacity to produce nuclear weapons. The new Israeli prime minister, Likud Party hawk Benjamin Netanyahu, has warned President Barack Obama that if Washington does not quickly find a way to shut down Iran's nuclear program, Israel will.

Some analysts argue that this is manufactured hysteria, not so much a reflection of genuine Israeli fears as a purposeful diversion from other looming difficulties. The Netanyahu government is filled with hardliners adamantly opposed to withdrawal from, or even a temporary freeze on, settlements in the occupied territories, not to mention to any acceptance of Palestinian statehood. On his first day as foreign minister, extremist demagogue Avigdor Lieberman, with characteristic bluster, announced that Israel was no longer bound by the 2007 Annapolis agreements brokered by Washington, which called for accelerated negotiations toward a two-state settlement.

Such talk threatens to lead the Israelis directly into a clash with the Obama administration. In what can only be taken as a rebuttal of the Netanyahu government's recent pronouncements, in his speech to the Turkish Parliament Obama pointedly reasserted Washington's commitment to a two-state settlement and to the Annapolis understandings. So what better way for Netanyahu to avoid an ugly clash with a popular American president than to conveniently shift the discussion to an existential threat from Iran -- especially if he can successfully present it as a threat not just to Israel but to the West in general?Lees verder: http://www.alternet.org/audits/136295/will_israel_attack_mixed_messages_from_washington_could_lead_to_catastrophe_in_iran/ 

Het Neoliberale Geloof 430

Bank Profits Mask Peril Still Lurking
Citi Makes Money, but Defaults Still Climbing
Saturday, April 18, 2009

Citigroup announced a surprisingly strong first-quarter profit yesterday,
the latest bank to report a sharp improvement from the disastrous final
months of 2008.

The earnings bloom, however, is probably a false spring, according to bank
executives and financial analysts. Banks rise and fall with the economy. As
prosperity recedes, more people and companies are defaulting on loans. The
nation and its banks still face grave challenges, they said.

"We don't see the light at the end of the tunnel," Edward "Ned" Kelly,
Citigroup's chief financial officer, said in an interview, referring to the
state of the economy. His company, the most troubled of the large banks,
reported that defaults increased during the first quarter on nearly every
kind of consumer loan.

J.P. Morgan Chase also announced strong earnings this week. The company's
chief executive, Jamie Dimon, also did not see in those results evidence of
recovery.

Asked about loan losses in a call with analysts, he said: "Eventually they
will peak, but they've been going up consistently. We've shown you here
that they're going to go up even more. They're going to continue going up
in all the home lending areas, mortgage and home equity and credit cards."

Large banks have profited despite their problems because of accounting
maneuvers and earnings from investment banking.

The banking industry's bleak tone contrasts with recent expressions of
cautious optimism by President Obama and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S.
Bernanke. The president said last week that he saw "glimmers of hope across
the economy," such as signs that spending on homes and consumer goods might
stop falling.

Bank executives are more downbeat, according to some analysts, because
banks are suffering more during this recession than other sectors as a
whole. This is unusual. It is a well-established industry rule of thumb,
for example, that the proportion of credit card loans in default roughly
equals that of Americans without jobs. But the collapse of the housing
bubble has destroyed vast amounts of wealth, pushing people to default on
other kinds of loans, including credit cards.

Lees verder: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/17/AR2009041700969.html 

Obama 99

Chavez Gives Obama A History Book

MARK S. SMITH | April 18, 2009 03:12 PM EST

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad — President Barack Obama offered a spirit of
cooperation to America's hemispheric neighbors at a summit Saturday,
listening to their complaints about past U.S. interference in the region
and even reaching out to Venezuela's fiery leftist leader.

While he worked to ease friction between the U.S. and leaders at the Summit
of the Americas, Obama cautioned them to resist a temptation to blame all
their problems on their behemoth neighbor to the North.

"I have a lot to learn and I very much look forward to listening and
figuring out how we can work together more effectively," Obama said.

Obama said he was ready to accept Cuban President Raul Castro's proposal of
talks on issues once off-limits for Cuba, including the scores of political
prisoners held by the communist government. While praising America's
initial effort to thaw relations with Havana, the leaders pushed the U.S.
to go further and lift the 47-year-old U.S. trade embargo against the
communist nation.

To Latin American nations reeling from a sudden plunge in exports, Obama
promised a new hemispheric growth fund, an initiative to increase Caribbean
security and a new regional partnership to develop alternative energy
sources and fight global warming.

As the first full day of meetings began on the two-island nation of
Trinidad and Tobago, Obama exchanged handshakes and pats on the back with
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who once likened President George W. Bush to the
devil. In front of photographers, Chavez gave Obama a copy of "The Open
Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent," a
book by Eduardo Galeano, which chronicles U.S. and European economic and
political interference in the region.

When a reporter asked Obama what he thought of the book, the president
replied: "I thought it was one of Chavez' books. I was going to give him
one of mine." White House advisers said they didn't know if Obama would
read it or not.

Lees verder: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/18/chavez-gives-obama-a-book_n_188582.html 

China

Revolt stirs among China’s nuclear ghosts
Up to 190,000 may have died as a result of China’s weapons tests: now
ailing survivors want compensation
China Explodes 1st H Bomb 17th June 1967.
Michael Sheridan

The nuclear test grounds in the wastes of the Gobi desert have fallen
silent but veterans of those lonely places are speaking out for the first
time about the terrible price exacted by China’s zealous pursuit of the
atomic bomb.

They talk of picking up radioactive debris with their bare hands, of
sluicing down bombers that had flown through mushroom clouds, of soldiers
dying before their time of strange and rare diseases, and children born
with mysterious cancers.

These were the men and women of Unit 8023, a special detachment charged
with conducting atomic tests at Lop Nur in Xinjiang province, a place of
utter desolation and – until now – complete secrecy.

“I was a member of Unit 8023 for 23 years,” said one old soldier in an
interview. “My job was to go into the blast zone to retrieve test objects
and monitoring equipment after the explosion.

“When my daughter was born she was diagnosed with a huge tumour on her
spinal cord. The doctors blame nuclear fallout. She’s had two major
operations and has lived a life of indescribable hardship. And all we get
from the government is 130 yuan [£13] a month.”

Hardship and risk counted for little when China was determined to join the
nuclear club at any cost.

Soldiers galloped on horseback towards mushroom clouds, with only gas masks
for protection.

Scientists jumped for joy, waving their little red books of Maoist thought,
while atomic debris boiled in the sky.

Engineers even replicated a full-scale Beijing subway station beneath the
sands of the Gobi to test who might survive a Sino-Soviet armageddon.

New research suggests the Chinese nuclear tests from 1964 to 1996 claimed
more lives than those of any other nation. Professor Jun Takada, a Japanese
physicist, has calculated that up to 1.48m people were exposed to fallout
and 190,000 of them may have died from diseases linked to radiation.

“Nuclear sands” - a mixture of dust and fission products - were blown
by prevailing winds from Lop Nur towards towns and villages along the
ancient Silk Road from China to the West.
Lees verder http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6122338.ece

De Israelische Terreur 835

BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights

As UN Blocks Palestine-Related Side Events at Durban Review Conference
Palestinian Civil Society Launches “Israel Review Conference” in Geneva on the Eve of Durban Review

 For Immediate Release

No. (E/03/09)

18 April 2009

---

 

Representing over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations, the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) launches its Israel Review Conference under the title: “United Against Apartheid, Colonialism and Racism: Justice and Dignity for the Palestinian People.” The conference takes place in Geneva between the 17th and 18th of April 2009 on the eve of the United Nation’s Durban Review Conference.  At the conference, internationally renowned legal experts, researchers, academics, and activists from five continents will discuss legal strategies to hold Israel accountable for its illegal policies and practices of racial discrimination. Participants at the conference are also scheduled to discuss strategies for linking global struggles against racism, and concrete steps to challenge Israeli apartheid within the framework of the rapidly growing global movement calling for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with international law. “The Israel Review Conference has received added importance in recent weeks since the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) banned side events examining the Israeli regime at the official Durban Review Conference” explains Rania Madi, one of the Israel Review Conference organizers based in Geneva. “Despite the fact that Israel’s racism against Palestinians has been one of the most highlighted issues in the lead-up to the Durban Review, the BNC’s Israel Review Conference has become the only place where this issue will actually be discussed”  “The only justification for preventing side-events discussing racism faced by Palestinians is that UN officials want to avoid offending Israeli sensibilities and those of its allies, such as the US and Canada,” states the Director of the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, a member-organization of the BNC. “This is especially troubling because Palestinians were  identified as victims of racism at the original Durban Conference in 2001, and the effects of Israel’s racist regime against Palestinian have only worsened since then” says BADIL director.  Despite the OHCHR’s complete ban on any mention of Palestine and Palestinians at the Conference and at side-events, those parties who are boycotting the Conference have maintained their boycott. BADIL director commented that “it would seem that by trying to appease Israel and its allies, the UN diluted its message against racism without the added benefit of the presence of those parties.”  -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Press Contacts: Rania Madi (+41) 79-605-3905 [French, Arabic, English] For more information on the conference visit http://israelreview.bdsmovement.net

De Israelische Terreur 834

UN Protects Israel from racism charges 

Nora Barrows-Friedman, The Electronic Intifada, 17 April 2009 

BETHLEHEM, occupied West Bank (IPS) - As the wreckage from Israel's recent siege on Gaza continues to smolder, international civil society organizations are assembling this week in Switzerland to address Israel's crimes of military occupation and racism.

But any discussion on Israel's actions in Palestine will be excluded from the formal framework at the Durban Anti-Racism Review Conference in Geneva Monday. Israel-Palestine has been deliberately eliminated from the official program, structured by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN OHCHR). Civil society groups believe that the United States, countries within the European Union and Israel pressured the UN to omit a review of Israel's racial discrimination against Palestinians.

Hundreds of delegations from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and human rights organizations will converge in Geneva for the Durban Review Conference on Racism. The conference is a follow-up to the 2001 World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) in Durban, South Africa, that outlined an international legal and political concept to deal with global issues of race and human rights.

Immediately following that conference, the WCAR NGO forum recommended an international campaign of isolation towards Israel's institutionalized "brand of apartheid and other racist crimes against humanity."

The Durban Review Conference website states that the 2009 Geneva symposium is designed to "review progress and assess the implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA)." Adopted by general consensus at the 2001 WCAR in Durban, "the DDPA is a comprehensive, action-oriented document that proposes concrete measures to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. It is holistic in its vision, addresses a wide range of issues, and contains far-reaching recommendations and practical measures."

In order to assess and review any progress made since the 2001 WCAR in Durban, Palestinian human rights organizations planned several side events that were to take place within the schedule of the conference.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10470.shtml

Irak 269

In Iraq, a Storm Gathers Strength

By Dahr Jamail, TruthOut.org. Posted April 8, 2009.

Iraq is teetering on the brink of returning to the bloodletting of 2006 and mid-2007.

One week after Iraqi government forces arrested an Awakening Group (commonly referred to as Sons of Iraq, al-Sahwa) leader, Adil al-Mashhadani, head of a patrol unit in central Baghdad's Fadhil neighborhood in Baghdad, sparking gun battles that raged for hours between U.S.-backed Iraqi forces and U.S.-allied Sunni militiamen that killed three people, militiamen have once again been detained, widening concerns that sectarian violence may once more engulf Baghdad. There are 50,000 Sahwa fighters in Baghdad alone.

While the Sahwa leader, who had been detained with 32 of his fighters, was eventually released by the Iraqi government, tensions grew in the wake of his detention as threats made by both sides increased. Thus far, only 11 of the 32 others have been released.

Just days after the aforementioned detention, Iraqi forces arrested two more Sahwa guards in the al-Dora neighborhood of Baghdad, which is controlled by their forces. In an article for Truthout last week, I voiced my concerns of these government attacks against Sahwa forces spreading. I am surprised at the rapidity at which this is occurring now, as this trend, if it continues, appears almost certain to spark a dramatic flare of sectarian violence in the capital city.

The Sahwa fighters, who once numbered 100,000 across Iraq according to the U.S. military, were backed and paid by U.S. forces until the Shiite-led Iraqi government took over the program last October, a process that was completed this week. Payment to Sahwa leaders by the U.S. military, however, has shifted from overt payments to payment in the form of "construction contracts" to key leaders.

That the treatment of the Sahwa forces by the Iraqi government is largely seen as a barometer for the process of reconciliation does not bode well for these recent events. Most of the Sahwa fighters are former resistance fighters, who feared they would be arrested for their previous attacks against the Iraqi government. For example, Mashhadani was arrested, according to Iraqi government officials, for running a bomb-making factory among other reasons.

Lees verder: http://www.alternet.org/audits/135593/in_iraq%2C_a_storm_gathers_strength/