by Stephen M. Walt for Foreign Policy There is an amazing story in Ha’aretz today on the “pro-Israel” litmus test that determines who is permitted to serve in the United States government. Here’s the sort of lede you’re not likely to read in the New York Times or Washington Post: Every appointee to the American government must endure a thorough background check by the American Jewish community. In the case
By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu for IsraelNN via Information Clearing House An unprecedented number of American generals, along with 1,400 U.S. army soldiers, are participating with top IDF brass in the high-level Juniper Cobra military exercise that one U.S. Navy commander said is aimed at “specific threats.” Public affairs officials interrupted the naval commander in order to divert the conversation from the scenario of Israel attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities and defending
The United Nations General Assembly voted yesterday overwhelmingly in favour of endorsing the Goldstone Report. In total, 114 states voted to adopt the report and 18 objected. It is interesting to look at the list of countries who actually voted against it. We can split them into the following groups: A) Core members of the USraelian Empire: Israel, the United States, Canada B) Core members of NATO and the Echelon
Predictably, a group of pro-Zionist countries has staged a walkout yesterday at the UN during Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s speech. Here are the words which triggered this walkout: How can one imagine that the inhuman policies in Palestine may continue; to force the entire population of a country out of their homeland for more than 60 years by resorting to force and coercion; to attack them with all types of arms
The big news this morning is that it appears that the Obama administration has scrapped the plans for the deployment of a ABM system in Europe. Finally. This is somewhat of a surprise, although the Russians were heavily hinting that this might happen already a week ago, but this is also something we should have expected. The first thing to keep in mind here is that this anti-ballistic system made
By Chris Hedges for Truthdig The American empire has not altered under Barack Obama. It kills as brutally and indiscriminately in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan as it did under George W. Bush. It steals from the U.S. treasury to enrich the corporate elite as rapaciously. It will not give us universal health care, abolish the Bush secrecy laws, end torture or “extraordinary rendition,” restore habeas corpus or halt the warrantless
June was a busy month for two of Washington’s real ‘Axis of Evil’. Venezuela’s Chavez completed his nationalisation of oil and Iran’s Ahmedinejad stemmed a Western-backed colour revolution, leaving both bad boys in place, muses Eric Walberg What drives US foreign policy? Is it primarily the domestic economy, as it logically should be, or, as many argue, the powerful Israel lobby, or as other argue, the need to secure energy
While the “big story” right now is the situation in Iran, check out this other “big story” which is not getting nearly as much attention: The American Empire Is Bankrupt by Chris Hedges De-Dollarization: Dismantling America’s Financial-Military Empire by Michael Hudson (thanks to C. for bringing these two articles to my attention!)
Lately, the USraelian Empire has been in the panic mode. On June 7th, an election will take place in Lebanon. Unsurprisingly, Hezbollah should do very well. And why not? Hezbollah single handedly beat the Israelis, it prevented a coup by the Lebanese “Three Stooges” (Hariri, Jumblatt and Siniora) and it has re-built the areas destroyed by the Israelis in a record time. Obama’s puppeteers understand this and this is why
By Haitham Sabbah for Palestine Think Tank Same old story, new president: U.S. President Barack Obama will not cut the billions of dollars in military aid promised to Israel, a senior U.S. administration official said Wednesday. The $30 billion in aid promised to Israel over the next decade will not be harmed by the world financial crisis, the official told Israel Radio. He spoke on condition of anonymity. The U.S.
Leftist Victory in El Salvador Closes an Historic Cycle By Marc Cooper for the Huffington Post The apparent victory of leftist candidate Maurico Funes in Sunday’s presidential election in El Salvador finally closes out the Cold War in Central America and raises some serious questions about the long term goals of U.S. foreign policy. With Funes’ election, history has come full cycle. Both El Salvador and neighboring Nicaragua will now
POLITICS-US: Freeman Withdrawal Marks Victory for Israel Lobby By Daniel Luban and Jim Lobe for IPS news WASHINGTON, Mar 10 (IPS) – Amb. Chas Freeman withdrew from consideration for a top intelligence post in the Obama administration on Tuesday, following a vitriolic battle that pitted Republican lawmakers and pro-Israel hardliners opposed to his appointment against liberals and members of the intelligence and diplomatic communities who had come to his defence.
by Mohamed Khodr for Palestine Think Tank From America’s “Jewish Triangle” to Iraqi’s “Sunni Triangle: Government Job Notice: No Gentiles Need Apply “The Modern Age is the Jewish Age, and the twentieth century, in particular, is the Jewish Century.” –Yuri Slezkine, Professor of History at University of California, Berkeley, “The Jewish Century”; Princeton University Press (Russian Jewish immigrant to the U.S.) No, America, there is no Zionist Conspiracy running our
From the website http://www.war080808.com/: “War 08.08.08. The Art of Betrayal” – is one of the first documentary Internet-films. This is the most outspoken film about the war, that started on the day of opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing, the film about the war, in which tens of Russian peacemaker perished as well as hundreds of peaceful Ossetians; it is the film about the war that turned out to
Press TV reports: The US military has threatened to halt vital services in Iraq if Baghdad refuses to sign a controversial US security pact with Washington. In addition to halting all military actions, US forces would cease activities that support Iraq’s economy, educational sector and other areas- ‘everything’ – Tariq al-Hashemi, Iraq’sVice President told the US newspaper McClatchy. According to al-Hashemi, many Iraqi politicians view the move as ‘political blackmail’.
Ha’aretz: U.S. confirms strike on Syria that killed eight A U.S. military official confirmed late Sunday an American helicopter attack in an area along Syria’s border with Iraq, which left 8 people dead and three people wounded. Syria condemned the attack, which it called “serious aggression.” The raid indicated the desert frontier between the two countries remains a key battleground, more than five years into the Iraq war. The U.S.
This sounds too crazy to be true but then, we are talking about an Empire going crazy so who knows? Anyway, here are some of the reports. But, caveat emptor. Al JazeeraBBC NewsPress TVAFP
Press TV reports: The US has granted citizenship to 16 leading members of the blacklisted Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), an Iraqi security official says. The official told Fars news agency that the MKO members who were given US citizenship were directly engaged in acts of terror against Iranians and the Iraqi people. According to the security official, the terrorists, who had earlier exited Camp Ashraf, were reportedly transferred to a
Press TV reports: The West seeks to protect Israel from nuclear inspections after a major initiative to place Tel Aviv’s nuclear activities on the IAEA agenda. Western nations are reportedly trying to foil the bid in a politically charged vote called no-action motion. A no-action motion may be tabled if a member state believes the subject-matter of a proposed resolution falls outside the competence of a UN body. If successful,
Check out this BBC report: Nato forces in eastern Afghanistan say their helicopters have been fired upon by a Pakistani military checkpoint. The Western alliance said its aircraft had not crossed into Pakistani airspace when they came under fire over Khost province, news agency AP reports. The incident comes amid growing tension over a number of recent incidents at the Pakistan-Afghan border. Earlier this week, Pakistani troops fired warning shots
