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Five Years Later, We Can’t Forgive or Forget

by Stephen Zunes This week marks the fifth anniversary of the congressional vote granting President George W. Bush unprecedented war-making authority to invade Iraq at the time and circumstances of his own choosing. Had a majority of either the Republican-controlled House or the Democratic-controlled Senate voted against the resolution or had they passed an alternative resolution conditioning such authority on an authorization from the United Nations Security Council, all the

Land of the Free?

by Richard Silverstein I’ve noticed what may be a new phenomenon in the Israel-Palestine debate as it plays out in the US. I call it pre-emptive censorship. A number of non-Jewish organisations have denied supposedly controversial speakers or organisations the right to speak or perform due to the anticipated reaction of the local Jewish community. It’s one thing for pro-Israel groups to protest, as they did when Columbia University extended

My biggest fear about Ron Paul

I have to admit that I like Ron Paul. A lot. While Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinch are also speaking up against the transformation of the USA into a Neocon empire, the former, while certainly sincere and well-meaning, is too prone to antics and the latter showed an unforgivable lack of courage when he abstained during the vote on the infamous House Resolution 1400. In contrast, Ron Paul has shown

Torture Endorsed, Torture Denied

Marjorie Cohn of Thomas Jefferson School of Law says that the Bush administration’s repeated insistence that it has not endorsed the torture of prisoners rings hollow in light of newly-disclosed US Department of Justice memos supporting the harshest techniques the CIA has ever used… By Marjorie Cohn The April 2004 publication of grotesque photographs of naked Iraqis piled on top of each other, forced to masturbate, and led around on

How the Military Can Stop an Iran Attack

by Jeremy Brecher & Brendan Smith Sometimes history–and necessity–make strange bedfellows. The German general staff transported Lenin to Russia to lead a revolution. Union-buster Ronald Reagan played godfather to the birth of the Polish Solidarity union. Equally strange–but perhaps equally necessary–is the addressee of a new appeal signed by Daniel Ellsberg, Cindy Sheehan, Ann Wright and many other leaders of the American peace movement: “ATTENTION: Joint Chiefs of Staff and

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah`s Full Speech on al-Quds International Day

Secretary General of Hizbullah his eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah delivered a speech during a ceremony organized by Hizbullah on the “International Al-Quds Day” occasion, with large public attendance at the Hall of the Lord of Martyrs in the Beirut`s southern suburbs. The event was attended by clerics, political and partisan Lebanese and Palestinian personalities, headed by the Lebanese president General Emile Lahoud, represented in the person of former Minister Yacoub

The Big Lie: ‘Iran Is a Threat’

by Scott Ritter Iran has never manifested itself as a serious threat to the national security of the United States, or by extension as a security threat to global security. At the height of Iran’s “exportation of the Islamic Revolution” phase, in the mid-1980’s, the Islamic Republic demonstrated a less-than-impressive ability to project its power beyond the immediate borders of Iran, and even then this projection was limited to war-torn

America is Under Attack from Within!

By Timothy V. Gatto I want to preface this article with this; I am really not in the mood to write this. Usually something hits me and I run to the keyboard and offer up what’s on my mind, and it gives me a kind of relief that I got it off my chest and whatever I was angry about isn’t eating my guts alive. This is different. For days

Prominent Americans Ask Military To Refuse To Attack Iran

By Webster Tarpley Supporters of the August 26 Kennebunkport Warning welcome the statement issued by David Swanson entitled ” Leading Americans Ask U.S. Military to Refuse Orders to Attack Iran, (http://www.dontattackiran.org) and signed by a group of well-known personalities. The massive evidence of this danger which existed at the end of August has become still more massive over the past five weeks, and we are glad that these signers have

OPERATION “FIRE SWARM”

by General Fabio Mini Anyone who thought that the green light for the Israeli-American attack against Iran would come from the American Congress, was wrong. Equally wrong were those who thought that a president like Bush, so frustrated by the Iraqi chaos, the Afghan deadlock and the industrial lobbies’ pressures, would wind up making the decision on his own. The attack against Iran will take place thanks to the newly-appointed

Unmasking AIPAC

“It Doesn’t Get Any Worse Than That, Ray” By William Cook Ray Suarez (PBS News Hour Reporter, October 2, 2007): “You’re saying that the national legislature of this country, rather than doing the will of the citizens of the United States, passed that Iran resolution, sanctioning the Republican Guard, because of the American-Israeli Political Action Committee?” Mike Gravel (Democratic Presidential Candidate): “Wait a second. They’ll (sic) be some information coming

Iraq official says “big fat no” to attack on Iran

By Andrew Gray Iraq’s national security adviser said on Friday he strongly opposed any military attack on Iran and, in contrast to the Bush administration’s policy, said the option should not even be considered. “Attacking Iran? I say a big fat no. It’s a fatal mistake,” Mowaffak al-Rubaie said. “It should never be an option at all.” The United States accuses Iran of using its nuclear program to develop atomic

Banning Desmond Tutu

By Matt Snyders Put off by his controversial words on Israel, the University of St. Thomas snubs a Nobel Laureate Back in April, when University of St. Thomas staffer Mike Klein informed his colleagues in the Justice and Peace Studies program that he’d succeeded in booking Archbishop Desmond Tutu for a campus appearance, the faculty buzzed in anticipation. For a program dedicated to fostering social change and nonviolence, there were

A shameful silence

by Priyamvada Gopal We have become accustomed to theatrical displays of intolerance: death threats against writers, bonfires of novels, plays shut down, vandals defacing paintings. The danger, however, is that this obscures the more insidious forms that the suppression of dissent can take. Announcing that the proposed boycott of links with Israeli universities would be illegal, the University and College Union asserted that debates related to the topic under its

An interview with Marwan Barghouthi

This interview was originally published in Yedioth Ahronoth in Hebrew; it has been translated by Diana Buttu of The Institute for Middle East Understanding. The moment that Abbas officially announces his resignation, even if I am in prison, I will put forward my candidacy for President (of the Palestinian Authority) and I will win. This is what Marwan Barghouthi said from his cell – number 28, section 3 – during

Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council: “US should attack Iran only if it wished to receive Israel on a wheelchair“

LONDON, — Iran will help the US stabilize Iraq if Washington sets out a timetable for withdrawing its troops, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator says.Ali Larijani told Britain’s Financial Times newspaper that if the Americans “have a clear definition of a timetable we’ll help them materialize it“, Alalam.ir reported.Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, added that US failures in Iraq should deter the Bush government from considering any

Iran’s Left Camp Voices Strong Support for IRGC

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- We all support the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), former Iranian Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi said, underlining solidarity of Iran’s left and right camps against the US efforts to label the IRGC as a terrorist group. Speaking to reporters here on Wednesday, the secretary general of the leftist E’temad Melli (National Trust) Party underlined Iranians’ national solidarity in the face of enemy threats despite the existing

Congress approves $1.2 billion worth of US-funded Israeli arms purchases, including 50 huge GBU-28 guided bunker busters

DEBKAfile reports (caveat emptor!): DEBKAfile’s military sources report the package, discussed by US Pentagon and Israel defense ministry officials, aims at replenishing the seriously depleted Israel Air Force stocks of missiles, bombs and fuel to their level prior to the 2006 Lebanon war, ready for any potential war contingency. Some of these items will be delivered shortly; others over a five-year period. They include thousands of missiles, tens of thousands

Dissenting at your own risk – Jewish Voices for Peace

By CECILIE SURASKY (Special to the Star-Telegram) Last year, I agreed to speak to a Jewish youth group about my organization, Jewish Voice for Peace, and our opposition to Israel’s occupation. My talk was to follow one from a member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which calls itself “America’s pro-Israel Lobby.” A week before, a shaken program leader said the AIPAC staffer had threatened to get the entire

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