Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Headlines for October 14 - October 20

A Stand For Justice


U.S. Home Seizures Reach Record Amid Foreclosure Review
More than 100,000 U.S. homes were seized by lenders in September, a record number that probably will decline in coming months as major banks halt repossessions and review their foreclosure practices.


Israel takes center stage in Illinois election campaign
Forget the financial crisis; in the Ninth Congressional District of Illinois, it is Israel that has taken center stage in the election campaign. A Jewish candidate has been trying to convince the mostly Jewish voters that his Jewish opponent has not done enough to protect the Jewish interest. Don't read this if you have high blood pressure.


Across the U.S., Long Recovery Looks Like Recession
At the current rate of job creation, the nation would need nine more years to recapture the jobs lost during the recession. And that doesn’t even account for five million or six million jobs needed in that time to keep pace with an expanding population All of that money we pour into the Middle East in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Jordan, Egypt and more, could be better spent here at home.


Iran welcomes nuclear talks offer, seeks dates
Iran welcomed on Friday a proposal to restart talks with six major powers on its nuclear programme next month and called for a date to be agreed for the first such meeting in a year.


Ignored warnings, lax security led to 7 CIA deaths



NATO official: Bin Laden living comfortably in Pakistan
Osama bin Laden is living comfortably in northwest Pakistan, protected by local tribespeople and some members of the country's intelligence service, a NATO official has told CNN. The news undercuts the U.S. government's depiction of the al–Qaida leader as on the run, one terror expert tells The Upshot.




Iran releases American held for 2 years in Tehran



Carter in Syria: Israel Must Fully Lift Gaza Blockade
"The blockade is one of the most serious human rights violations on Earth and it must be lifted fully," said Carter from Syria.

Besides Carter, the Elders delegation includes former Irish president Mary Robinson and former UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. While in Gaza, the group described Israel's blockade as an "illegal collective punishment" and "an impediment to peace."


Applications for jobless benefits rise to 462K



t r u t h o u t Israel Seals Unprecedented Weapons Deals With the US
Preceding the October 7 signing of the Lockheed contract, Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to the United States, told The Washington Post on October 6 that "incentives" were offered to Israel to extend its so-called moratorium on the illegal settlement colonies in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem to keep the Palestinian Authority in direct talks. Oren told the Post that the Obama administration had come up with "a number of suggestions, incentives if you would, to the Israelis that would enable the government to maybe pass a limited extension of two or three months."

It was unclear whether the Lockheed contract was specifically offered as one of the incentives, but Oren added that the purchase agreement was "an event of great strategic and historic significance," and that it would "serve the common interests" of the US and Israel.

In late July 2010, the US House Appropriations Sub-Committee on Defense increased funding for Israeli missile defense programs to its highest level ever - approving $422.7 million for next year's budget - and adding $95.7 million to the original White House funding request for the long-range Arrow interceptor project and the medium-range David's Sling, according to sources quoted by the Jerusalem Post. "The lion's share - $108.8m. - will go to the Arrow 3 system, which the US signed off on after some initial hesitation," the Jerusalem Post reported. The funding also includes $205 million for the short-range missile interceptor program (dubbed "The Iron Dome") initially approved by President Barack Obama last Spring.

This defense spending package is more than double that of last year's. And that's just a fraction of the total aid that American taxpayers shell out to Israel (and its neighbors to keep the peace) each year. Americans would be shocked, and outraged, especially given the fact that more and more Americans are in POVERTY. Our money is funding a people whose economy is actuallly DOING WELL, and the government is committing war crimes ('settlements' in occupied territory) and has been since its inception.


Is the US system rigged for the rich?
The shift of income to the top has occurred in the most prosperous English-speaking nations, such as Australia, Britain, and Canada. But it has been most pronounced in the United States. Thirty years ago, the richest 1 percent of Americans got 9 percent of total national income. By 2007, they had 23 percent. Last year, new census data show, the rich-poor income gap was the widest on record.

Wealth is more unevenly distributed. The top 20 percent of wealth-holders own 84 percent of America's wealth. What's causing it? Who owns you?


America's Poor Where Poverty Is Rising In America
Thanks to the recession, 2009 was one of the worst years for poverty in America in more than half a century. The total number of Americans living in poverty hit 43.6 million, the highest level in 51 years and the national poverty rate rose to 14.3 percent from 13.2 percent, according to data released last month by the Census Bureau. All of that money we pour into the Middle East in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Jordan, Egypt and more, could be better spent here at home.


Israel settlers start fires amid West Bank harvest
Thick black smoke billows from the olive grove under the gaze of Israeli soldiers as Palestinian farmers use branches to try to beat out the fires lit by Jewish settlers.

It's olive harvest time in the occupied West Bank.

The firebombers swooped down from Havat Gilad, a wildcat Jewish settlement unauthorised even by the Israeli government.

Every American should read this. These are the Israeli equivalent of Hamas, just as capable of murder and other crimes but with one main difference: the Israeli government supports them, and so does ours (and the US taxpayer dollars never stop flowing).


The Iran Report by Philip Girald
How about a White House-issued statement calling itself an NIE that says something like this: "Even though we have no hard evidence that Iran has a nuclear arms program we have decided that since Tehran has not been completely forthcoming on some aspects of its nuclear energy program it might be intending to develop a weapon. The White House is under constant pressure from Israel and its supporters in congress and the media to do something about the threat from Iran, so we have asked the CIA to prepare a document that will enable us to bomb Iran if we decide it is politically expedient to do so. Or alternatively not to bomb Iran if we decide not to do so because, in our judgment, the voters cannot stomach another war. The decision on what to do about Iran will be based on what happens in midterm elections next month and on a White House assessment of what has to be done to insure the re-election of President Obama. That might require a new war or maybe not, but rest assured that it will have nothing to do with the genuine threat that Iran might actually pose and nothing to do with any balance of power in the world or vital American national interests. It will all come down to appeasing the Israel Lobby and managing the election cycle. Thank you." Right on, Phil. Sad.


Musharraf's 'fish, duck and wine' lunch with Israeli MPs in London
Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is stated to have shared a lunch with a couple of members of Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, at a Chinese restaurant in Kensington area of central London a few days ago.


U.S. lawmakers: Lebanon's embrace of Ahmadinejad may affect military aid
In August, two key Democrats, Representatives Nita Lowey and Howard Berman, announced they were holding up $100 million that had been approved for Lebanon's army but not yet spent. At the time, lawmakers said they were blocking U.S. funding due to a deadly border clash between Lebanon and Israel.


Israeli Policies are Manifestly Evil: Philip Giraldi
Most intelligence officers believe that Israel, which was conducting a massive and illegal spy operation inside the U.S. aimed at Arabs living here, knew at least parts of the 9/11 conspiracy. It did not share that information and it is also clear that leading Israeli politicians welcomed the attacks because they made Washington a totally committed ally in full agreement with the Israeli view of Islamic terrorism.


Ahmadinejad, near Israel border, says Zionists mortal



turkey Iran sanctions affecting banking decisions
Turkey said Wednesday that U.S. and EU sanctions have led to hesitation by Turkish banks on doing business with Iran. But Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan told reporters in Washington that he expects overall Turkish trade with Iran to increase.

Read more: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2010/10/20/1678148/turkey-iran-sanctions-affecting.html#ixzz13VZqdsTM


At Lebanon border, Ahmadinejad predicts Israel demise

"The whole world knows that the Zionists are going to disappear," he said Thursday to thunderous applause before a frenzied crowd in Hezbollah's bastion of Bint Jbeil, some four kilometres (two miles) from the Israeli border.

"The occupying Zionists today have no choice but to accept reality and go back to their countries of origin," he added.




Pro-Israel groups deny role in Cyprus bill
A report last week in Congressional Quarterly said the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbied for the nonbinding resolution passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on Sept. 28 by voice vote.....The Congressional Quarterly story cast what it said was pro-Israel support for the resolution as part of deteriorating Israel-Turkey relations in the wake of the 2009 Gaza war and Israel's deadly May 31 raid on a Turkish-flagged aid flotilla attempting to breach Israel's blockade of Gaza.


4 men are convicted in NY synagogue-bombing plot
The FBI assigned Hussain in 2008 to infiltrate a mosque in Newburgh, about an hour north of New York. After meeting Cromitie, he told him he was a representative of a Pakistani terror organization that was eager to finance a holy war on U.S. soil.




Foreign Policy Does Not Flow From the Will of the People
To the extent that a consensus on Israel exists on the right, it is something that has been fashioned by conservative political and intellectual leaders over decades, and it is something that has been reinforced through a steady diet of slanted or incomplete news coverage, government propaganda, and the constantly repeated claim that Israel is a reliable ally.......One side has effectively dominated the public discussion of the issue for decades, not because they happen to be telling the public what it already wants to hear, but because they have been trying to shape public opinion for decades


New York Candidates Court Hasidic Vote
While the true strength of the famous ultra-Orthodox voting blocs is up for debate, the Hasidic lifestyle, which calls for large families and private yeshiva education, leads its adherents to rely on significant infusions of government financial support. Relationships between community leaders and political leaders are based largely on the ability of the former to deliver bloc votes to the latter, and are seen as essential to keeping the aid flowing in the opposite direction.

“They don’t want to be on the outside,” New York Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf said of the New York Hasidic leadership. “They’ll pick the winner. Why? Because they don’t want to be denied aid.”.......“Education, and how government can alleviate the financial burden on a typical Jewish family sending five or six children to yeshivas, is probably the issue of paramount importance to the community,”





Read that a few times.


It's the Occupation, Stupid - By Robert A. Pape
Israelis have their own narrative about terrorism, which holds that Arab fanatics seek to destroy the Jewish state because of what it is, not what it does. But since Israel withdrew its army from Lebanon in May 2000, there has not been a single Lebanese suicide attack. Similarly, since Israel withdrew from Gaza and large parts of the West Bank, Palestinian suicide attacks are down over 90 percent.




'Ahmadinejad visit proves Lebanon has joined axis of extreme nations'
Israel's stance, which has been clearly expressed over recent days, is that Ahmadinejad's visit proves that Lebanon is becoming more extreme, on its way to becoming an Iranian outpost. "Lebanon has joined the axis of extreme nations which object to the peace process and support terror," said a senior Israeli official involved in preparations for the two-day visit.


Crumbling America Has a $2.2 Trillion Repair Bill



Iran confirms its planes were being refused fuel in Europe



U.S. readies $2B security aid for Pakistan



Pakistan warns on Tehran nukes
In some of Pakistan's strongest statements on Iran's controversial nuclear program, Shah Mahmood Qureshi said yesterday that he wanted to avoid "another major crisis in the region".


UK can no longer mount military operations like Iraq invasion, government decides
The government has decided that Britain will no longer be able to mount military operations on the scale of the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the deployment in Afghanistan's Helmand province, it emerged today as David Cameron unveiled the details of the strategic defence and security review.


MEMO: Health Insurance, Banking, Oil Industries Met With Koch, Chamber, Glenn Beck To Plot 2010 Election
corporations fund groups like the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute — both had representatives at the Koch meeting — to further their lobbying agenda. The American Enterprise Institute even changed its name from the New Deal-era American Enterprise Association to try to dispel the notion that they were nothing more than a glorified business trade association. Those are neocon groups.


Going After Iran (Again) by Philip Giraldi
Quite a lot to digest. One does not have to be an apologist for Iran to note that the editorial is a whole lot of innuendo wrapped in speculation. In reality, Iran has not attacked any neighbor or triggered any war either directly or by proxy while it has been Israel that has been doing all the attacking.


How Iran brokered a secret deal to put its ally in power in Iraq



US, Israel agree Iran prime threat to Mideast
"While today's strategic dialogue covered many subjects, it is clear that Iran is among the greatest challenges we face today in the Middle East," said the statement, which was released by the State Department in the names of Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon. Israel=the tail that wags the American dog.


How propaganda is disseminated: WikiLeaks Edition



Major FAIR Exposé of PBS: Taking the 'Public' Out of Public TV
both funding and ownership of these shows is increasingly corporate, further eroding the distinction between "public" and corporate television. There is precious little "public" left in "public television."


Obama's Sinking Jewish Numbers--Is It Israel?
It does not mean that Jewish voters do not care about Israel, said David Harris, president and CEO of the National Jewish Democratic Coalition, but rather that Jewish voters feel comfortable with the level of support for Israel demonstrated by most candidates, Democrats and Republicans.

In other words, they know they're going to get an Israel-kowtower in Congress, so they don't have to worry.


Israel Is a Campaign Issue, but How Big?
“Jewish voters need to be comfortable that their candidates support Israel, and once they are sure of that, they move on to other issues,”




The "Cyberwar" Is Over and the National Security Agency Has Won



Occupation and Withdrawal
The central fact is that overwhelmingly suicide-terrorist attacks are not driven by religion as much as they are by a clear strategic objective: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland [bold mine-DL]. From Lebanon to Sri Lanka to Chechnya to Kashmir to the West Bank, every major suicide-terrorist campaign—over 95 percent of all the incidents—has had as its central objective to compel a democratic state to withdraw.


Ahmadinejad in Lebanon: A Mideast Doctrine in Ruins
The Bush Administration may have hoped that its own invasion of Iraq and Israel's attacks on Lebanon in 2006 and Gaza in late 2008 would strike decisive blows against Iran and its allies and turn the regional dynamic in favor of the U.S. But in all three places, Iran's influence was actually strengthened


Federal Agents Urged to 'Friend' People on Social Networks, Memo Reveals



Chavez vows to back Iran 'under any circumstances,' hopes to bolster trade ties






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