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Mussolini Regarded Hitler as a `Sentimentalist,' Diary Claims
The Telegraph (Britain)
Benito Mussolini regarded Adolf Hitler as a teary-eyed "sentimentalist" but was jealous of the Nazi dictator's power and fame, diaries written by the Italian leader's mistress reveal. Claretta Petacci's journals, which will be published this week, describe a meeting he had with the German leader in 1938 after British prime minister Neville Chamberlain agreed to Germany's annexation of the Sudetenland. The diaries also show Mussolini was irritated by being regarded as a junior partner to Hitler, maintaining that his fascism and anti-Semitism dated back to the 1920s, before Hitler rose to prominence.
Pro-Israel Lobby Group Bankrolling Tories, British TV Documentary Shows
The Guardian (Britain)
Pro-Israeli organisations in Britain look set to see their influence increase if the Conservatives win the next election, a film scrutinising the activities of a powerful but little-known lobby warns today. At least half of the shadow cabinet are members of the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI), according to a Dispatches programme being screened on Channel 4. The programme-makers describe the CFI as "beyond doubt the most well- connected and probably the best funded of all Westminster lobbying groups". Inside Britain's Israel Lobby claims that donations to the Conservative party "from all CFI members and their businesses add up to well over ten million pounds over the last eight years".
Inside Britain's Israel Lobby
Dispatches - Channel 4 (Britain) -- Video
Britain's Channel 4 television program "Dispatches" investigates one of the most powerful and influential political lobbies in Britain, which is working in support of the interests of the State of Israel. Runtime: 48:20 mins.
Israel Brushes Off Obama Criticism Over Jerusalem
The Associated Press
Israel broke ground on a new housing complex for Jews in east Jerusalem on Wednesday, brushing off President Barack Obama's criticism that construction in the disputed part of the holy city undermines efforts to relaunch Mideast peace talks. The groundbreaking came a day after Israel defied American, European and Palestinian demands to stop settlement activity by announcing it will press forward with construction of 900 apartments in another Jewish area in east Jerusalem. Speaking to Fox News in Beijing on Wednesday, Obama criticized the plan to build hundreds of homes in Jerusalem's Gilo neighborhood, saying such moves make it harder to achieve peace in the region and embitter the Palestinians in a way he said could be dangerous.
Is Israel Too Strong for Obama?
The Economist (Britain)
Five months after Barack Obama went to Cairo and persuaded most of the Arab world, in a ringing declaration of even-handedness, that he would face down Israel in his quest for a Palestinian state, American policy seems to have run into the sand. The American president's mediating hand is weaker, his charisma damagingly faded. From the Palestinian and Arab point of view, his administration -- after grandly setting out to force the Jewish state to stop the building of Jewish settlements on Palestinian land as an early token of good faith, intended to bring Israelis and Palestinians back to negotiation -- has meekly capitulated to Israel.
Italian Professor Defiant Despite Criticism for `Holocaust Denial'
United Press International
A professor at a Roman university who argues there is no proof the Nazis killed Jews in gas chambers said Thursday he is a victim of "Zionist groups." Antonio Caracciolo, a researcher on philosophy of law at Sapienza University, said he has a right to freedom of speech .. .. When the newspaper La Repubblica published excerpts from Caracciolo's blog, Gianni Alemanno, the mayor of Rome, and leaders in the Jewish community called for him to be suspended or dismissed. ''No one seriously believes any more that 6,000,000 Jews died,'' Caracciolo said in one post. After the calls for his job, Caracciolo blamed "Zionist groups" and said Jews are "exploiting the guilt they think the whole world owes them."
Sarah Palin Urges Israel Settlement Expansion
The Christian Science Monitor
.. .. Her latest bombshell: to effectively call for an end to 40 years of official government policy on Israel in an interview with ABC's Barbara Walters .. .. "I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon, because that population of Israel is, is going to grow .. .. And I don't think that the Obama administration has any right to tell Israel that the Jewish settlements cannot expand." .. .. The West Bank and East Jerusalem are considered to be illegally occupied by the UN and most world governments. Direct support for settlements would be a stunning departure for the US. The administrations of Presidents Nixon, Johnson, Ford, Carter, and Clinton all considered the annexation of land seized in 1967 illegal.
Women Are Overtaking Men in the U.S.
David Knowles - Sphere
The United States may have officially entered the age of woman. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this fall, for the first time in U.S. history, women have surpassed men and now make up more than 50 percent of the nation's workforce. In 1967, by comparison, they accounted for just one-third of all workers .. .. Double the number of single women are now purchasing homes in America than there are single men .. .. "Women really have become the dominant gender," said Guy Garcia, author of "The Decline of Men." "Women are becoming better educated than men, earning more than men, and, generally speaking, not needing men at all. Meanwhile, as a group, men are losing their way."
Answering Victors' Lies About German War Guilt
Jürgen Rieger
.. .. Unlike the Western leaders, Hitler had realistically evaluated the dangers posed by the Bolshevik Soviet Union. He realized that Germany would be unable resist the Soviet Union without an alliance with Poland. For this reason he signed a non-aggression treaty with Poland in 1934 .. .. Since the British guarantee of March 31, 1939, gave Poland carte blanche in its dealings with Germany, Poland intensified its persecutions of the German minority. Abductions became common, speaking German in public was proscribed, German associations and newspapers were suppressed, the German consul in Krakow was murdered, etc.
Species' Extinction Threat Grows
BBC News
More than a third of species assessed in a major international biodiversity study are threatened with extinction, scientists have warned. Out of the 47,677 species in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, 17,291 were deemed to be at serious risk. These included 21% of mammals, 30% of amphibians, 70% of plants and 35% of invertebrates. Conservationists warned that not enough was being done to tackle the main threats, such as habitat loss. "The scientific evidence of a serious extinction crisis is mounting," warned Jane Smart, director of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Biodiversity Conservation Group.
Does a Nazi Deserve a Place Among Philosophers?
The New York Times
For decades the German philosopher Martin Heidegger has been the subject of passionate debate. His critique of Western thought and technology has penetrated deeply into architecture, psychology and literary theory and inspired some of the most influential intellectual movements of the 20th century. Yet he was also a fervent Nazi. Now a soon-to-be published book in English has revived the long-running debate about whether the man can be separated from his philosophy. Drawing on new evidence, the author, Emmanuel Faye, argues fascist and racist ideas are so woven into the fabric of Heidegger's theories that they no longer deserve to be called philosophy.
Remember the IHR Your Will
Institute for Historical Review
Please consider a bequest to the IHR in your will. Your thoughtfulness now will help to keep the Institute fighting for truth and freedom for years to come. Leaving money to the IHR in this way is not complicated. Over the years the IHR has benefited from numerous bequests by men and women who have remembered the Institute in their wills.
Jewish Settlers Cut Down More Palestinian Olive Trees
Ynet News (Israel)
Palestinian farmers from the West Bank village of Burin, located near the settlement of Yitzhar, discovered Thursday morning that dozens of their olive trees were cut down. Akram Amram of Burin told Ynet that at around 5:30 am he had discovered 97 uprooted olive trees on his land. "I am not embarrassed to admit that when I discovered the massacre which took place on my land, I cried," he said .. .. According to Amram, settlers were responsible for the damage. "We didn't see them because they must have infiltrated the area in the night, but no one else could have done this," he said.
French Comedian's London Show Axed for Anti-Jewish Content
The Jewish Chronicle (Britain)
A theatre has cancelled a planned performance by an anti-Zionist French stand-up comedian after he was fined by a court for making anti-Semitic jokes. Dieudonné M'bala M'bala had been due to appear in a one-man show about domestic violence at the Leicester Square Theatre, central London, in March next year. But theatre director Martin Witts called off the show on Wednesday after learning of the increasing controversy surrounding Dieudonné, which has seen him described as "the French Jim Davidson".The Holocaust Educational Trust had earlier attacked the theatre for accepting the booking.
Fifty-Two Percent Say America's Best Days Are in the Past, Survey Shows
Rasmussen Reports
Fifty-two percent of voters feel that America's best days are in the past, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. This marks the highest level of voter pessimism in two years and is up 13 points from a year ago when Barack Obama was elected president ... Fifty percent of Democrats believe America's best days are in the future compared to just 22% of Republicans and 28% of unaffiliated voters. A majority of GOP and unaffiliated voters feel America's glory days are behind us ...Thirty-four percent of voters now say the United States is heading in the right direction.
Hackers Break Into David Irving's Website and Post Private E-mails
Wired
A group identifying themselves as "anti-fascist hackers" broke into the web site and AOL e-mail account of controversial British historian and accused Holocaust-denier David Irving and obtained his private communications as well as attendee lists for his current U.S. speaking tour. The hackers posted Irving's e-mail correspondence online, as well as the user name and password for his web site account and AOL e-mail account, which shared the same password. The hackers also posted the e-mail addresses and other personal information -- such as names and shipping addresses -- of people who made donations through his web sites, purchased his books or bought tickets for his appearances.
Reluctant Partners: Global Crisis Makes US More Dependent on China
Der Spiegel (Germany)
When US President Barack Obama visits China this weekend, he will encounter a rival that sees the financial crisis as more of an opportunity than a threat. America, on the other hand, has been fundamentally weakened by the global crunch -- and is more dependent on the goodwill of the rising superpower than ever ... China is bursting with self-confidence. The new world power sees itself as a winner in the financial crisis, with its economy growing by an impressive nine percent in the third quarter, while the economies of the West struggle to recover from a deep recession. And while the Americans are focused on their own problems, China is expanding its influence, both in Asia and among resource-rich African countries.
A Line in the Sand
Uri Avnery (Israel)
Mahmoud Abbas is fed up. The day before yesterday he withdrew his candidacy for the coming presidential election in the Palestinian Authority. I understand him. He feels betrayed. And the traitor is Barack Obama. A year ago, when Obama was elected, he aroused high hopes ... As high as the hopes were then, so deep is the disappointment now. Nothing of all these has come about. Worse: the Obama administration has shown by its actions and omissions that it is not really different from the administration of George W. Bush. From the first moment it was clear that the decisive test would come in the battle of the settlements.
Director Reignites Hitler Film Controversy
Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
When intimate colour film of Adolf Hitler cuddling a pet dog and smiling as a baby reached out to play with his moustache was shown for the first time at the Cannes Film Festival 36 years ago, a scuffle broke out in the audience and the screening had to be abandoned. The documentary, Swastika, by the Australian director Philippe Mora, contained never-before seen footage of Hitler entertaining friends, family and his inner circle - including Hermann Goering and Joseph Goebbels. Much of it was shot by his lover Eva Braun at Hitler's mountain home in Obersalzberg, Bavaria.
Many Young Britons Are Ignorant of Twentieth Century History
The Mirror (Britain)
A shocking one in six pupils think Auschwitz was a Second World War amusement park - while others think Adolf Hitler coached Germany's football team. Disturbingly, 12 percent believe McDonald's Golden Arches are a symbol for Remembrance Day, and 40 percent asked were unaware that it falls on November 11. The astonishing results also show one in 20 thought the Holocaust, in which Hitler ordered the slaughter of millions of Jews at camps such as Auschwitz, was the end-of-war celebration. And more than one in 20 thought the Nazi leader was a football manager.
Israel's Right To Exist?
Alan Hart
The truth of the time [1948] was that the Zionist state, which came into being mainly as a consequence of pre-planned ethnic cleansing, had no right to exist and, more to the point, could have no right to exist UNLESS ... Unless it was recognised and legitimized by those who were dispossessed of their land and their rights during the creation of the Zionist state. In international law only the Palestinians could give Israel the legitimacy it craved. And that legitimacy was the only thing the Zionists could not and cannot take from the Palestinians by force. No wonder Prime Minister Netanyahu is more than a little concerned on this account. Israel's leaders have always known the truth summarised above. It's time for the rest of the world to know it.
Israel Is Not a Tolerant Society, Says U.S. State Department Report
Haaretz (Israel)
Israel dismally fails the requirements of a tolerant pluralistic society, according to a new report from the U.S. State Department. Despite boasting religious freedom and protection of all holy sites, Israel falls short in tolerance toward minorities, equal treatment of ethnic groups, openness toward various streams within society, and respect for holy and other sites .. .. Israel discriminates against groups including Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, Reform Jews, Christians, women and Bedouin .. .. The report notes that more than 300,000 immigrants who are not considered Jewish under rabbinical law are not allowed to marry and divorce in Israel, or be buried in Jewish cemeteries.
Losing Ground: Hispanic Children Fall Behind Their Peers Quickly
National Review Online
A forthcoming study on Hispanic children's cognitive skills underlines the challenges the country faces in aspiring to close the achievement gap between these children and their white and Asian counterparts. Hispanic "children fall behind their peers in mental development by the time they reach grade school, and the gap tends to widen as they get older," reports the New York Times. "The drop-off in the cognitive scores of Hispanic toddlers, especially those from Mexican backgrounds, was steeper than for other [low-income] groups and could not be explained by economic status alone.. .."
Jews Can Kill Gentiles Who Threaten Israel, Says West Bank Rabbi
Haaretz (Israel)
Just weeks after the arrest of alleged Jewish terrorist, Yaakov Teitel, a West Bank rabbi on Monday released a book giving Jews permission to kill Gentiles who threaten Israel. Rabbi Yitzhak Shapiro, who heads the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in the Yitzhar settlement, wrote in his book "The King's Torah" that even babies and children can be killed if they pose a threat to the nation. Shapiro based the majority of his teachings on passages quoted from the Bible, to which he adds his opinions and beliefs .. .. "If we kill a Gentile who has sinned or has violated one of the seven commandments - because we care about the commandments - there is nothing wrong with the murder."
Hollow Victory: Afghanistan and Vietnam
John Mearsheimer -- Foreign Policy
.. .. The real tragedy of Vietnam is not that the United States lost, but that it became involved in the first place. It pains me to say this, as someone who served in the American military from 1965 to 1975, but the anti-war movement was right: It did not matter to U.S. security whether North Vietnam conquered the south and unified that country under communist rule. More than 58,000 American soldiers and more than two million Vietnamese died in an unnecessary and foolish war. A similar logic applies today with regard to Afghanistan.
In Munich, Authorities Seek to Silence Israeli Historian Ilan Pappe
Ynet News (Israel)
Anti-Zionist historian Prof. Ilan Pappe, one of the most important "New Historians", was scheduled to speak last weekend at the Pedagogical Institute of Munich. But a letter received from the "Israeli-German Association of Munich", claiming that Pappe's lecture would turn into "an anti-Israeli propaganda show," led the Munich Municipality to reconsider the event. The municipality eventually did not let Pappe use the room, claiming its decision was prompted by fears of violent clashes breaking out in the area. The Munich police insisted that there was no danger of fear for the security of those attending the lecture.
Palestinians Breach Israeli Wall to Mark Berlin Wall Anniversary
BBC News
Palestinians and foreign peace activists have broken apart a section of the West Bank barrier. They used ropes and at least one truck to pull down some of the concrete blocks forming the Israeli-built wall. The activists carried out the protest to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The barrier, which separates Israel from the West Bank, is a mixture of fences, barbed wire, ditches and concrete slabs up to eight meter (26 feet) high. Israeli armed police, who are reported to have arrived shortly afterwards, are believed to have used tear gas to force the activists to stop ... In 2004, the International Court of Justice in The Hague issued an advisory ruling that the barrier was illegal and should be removed.
America, Stop Sucking Up to Israel
Gideon Levy -- Haaretz (Israel)
.. .. As long as Israel feels the United States is in its pocket, and that America's automatic veto will save it from condemnations and sanctions, that it will receive massive aid unconditionally, and that it can continue waging punitive, lethal campaigns without a word from Washington, killing, destroying and imprisoning without the world's policeman making a sound, it will continue in its ways .. .. Israel of 2009 is a spoiled country, arrogant and condescending, convinced that it deserves everything and that it has the power to make a fool of America and the world. The United States has engendered this situation, which endangers the entire Mideast and Israel itself.
Israeli Officials Could Face War
Crimes Arrest if Visiting Britain
The Guardian (Britain)
Ehud Olmert, Israel's prime minister during the Gaza war, would probably face arrest on war crimes charges if he visited
Britain, according to a UK lawyer who is working to expand the application of "universal jurisdiction" for offences
involving serious human rights abuses committed anywhere in the world. Neither Olmert nor Tzipi Livni, the foreign
minister during the Cast Lead offensive, and a member of Israel's war cabinet, would enjoy immunity from prosecution for
alleged breaches of the Geneva conventions, predicted Daniel Machover, who is involved in intensifying legal work after
the controversial Goldstone report on the three-week conflict.
Recent Broadcast Interviews With Mark
Weber
Institute for Historical Review
Some recent radio interviews with the IHR director, covering a range of topical and historical issues. In these probing,
thought-provoking broadcasts, Mark Weber and the hosts examine the Zionist push for war, the harmful impact of
Globalization, historical revisionism, "the Holocaust," the looming danger of war with Iran, the Obama administration's
record, Jewish-Zionist power, and much more.
There's No
Such Thing as Free Speech in Politics: The Business of Political Speech-Writing
The Times (Britain)
.. .The payments are more than a wrinkle in Downing Street's expenses. They reflect the rapid commercialisation of the
speechwriting craft -- and its absorbtion into a PR industry worth £26 billion in Britain and the US alone -- in an age
when a single speech can make or break a political career and a single word in a chief executive's address can sink a
blue-chip stock. The top writers form a select clique dependent above all on word-of-mouth recommendations, but the
proof of their power is written across recent history. Barack Obama saved his presidential candidacy with a single
speech on race in Philadelphia.
Black US AIDS Rates Rival Some
African Countries
CNN
The AIDS epidemic among African-Americans in some parts of the United States is as severe as in parts of Africa,
according to a report out Tuesday. "Left Behind - Black America: A Neglected Priority in the Global AIDS" is intended to
raise awareness and remind the public that the "AIDS epidemic is not over in America, especially not in Black America,"
says the report, published by the Black AIDS Institute, an HIV/AIDS think tank focused exclusively on African-Americans.
"AIDS in America today is a black disease," says Phill Wilson, founder and CEO of the institute .. .. Although black
people represent only about one in eight Americans, one in every two people living with HIV in the United States is
black, the report notes.
The Evil
Empire
Paul Craig Roberts
The US government is now so totally under the thumbs of organized interest groups that "our" government can no longer
respond to the concerns of the American people who elect the president and the members of the House and Senate. Voters
will vent their frustrations over their impotence on the president, which implies a future of one-term presidents. Soon
our presidents will be as ineffective as Roman emperors in the final days of that empire .. .. The US House of
Representatives has just voted to show the entire world that the US House of Representatives is nothing but the servile,
venal, puppet of the Israel Lobby.
Labour Party Wanted Mass Immigration to Make Britain More `Multicultural,'
Says Former Adviser
The Telegraph (Britain)
Labour threw open Britain's borders to mass immigration to help socially engineer a "truly multicultural" country, a
former Government adviser has revealed. / The huge increases in migrants over the last decade were partly due to a
politically motivated attempt by ministers to radically change the country and "rub the Right's nose in diversity",
according to Andrew Neather, a former adviser to Tony Blair, Jack Straw and David Blunkett. He said Labour's relaxation
of controls was a deliberate plan to "open up the UK to mass migration" but that ministers were nervous and reluctant to
discuss such a move publicly for fear it would alienate its "core working class vote".
U.S. Can't Trace
Foreign Visitors on Expired Visas
The New York Times
Eight years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and despite repeated mandates from Congress, the United States still
has no reliable system for verifying that foreign visitors have left the country .. .. Last year alone, 2.9 million
foreign visitors on temporary visas like Mr. Smadi's checked in to the country but never officially checked out,
immigration officials said. While officials say they have no way to confirm it, they suspect that several hundred
thousand of them overstayed their visas. Over all, the officials said, about 40 percent of the estimated 11 million
illegal immigrants in the United States came on legal visas and overstayed.
Most U.S. Youths Unfit for
Military Service, Data Shows
Army Times
U.S. military-age youth are increasingly unfit to serve -- mostly because they're in such lousy shape. According to the
latest Pentagon figures, a full 35 percent, or more than one-third, of the roughly 31.2 million Americans aged 17 to 24
are unqualified for military service because of physical and medical issues. And, said Curt Gilroy, the Pentagon's
director of accessions, "the major component of this is obesity. We have an obesity crisis in the country. There's no
question about it." .. .. The group, Mission: Readiness, will release a report that draws on Pentagon data showing that
75 percent of the nation's 17- to 24-year-olds are ineligible for service for a variety of reasons.
Two More
German Warships for Israel
Focus (Germany)
Israel is ordering two more German war ships, paid for by Germany, reports the daily newspaper "Hannoversche Allgemeine
Zeitung." The US is providing the ships' weapons systems. These are not the only military items for Israel that Germany
has been financing. Between 1999 and 2000, Germany delivered three submarines to Israel. Two additional U-boots, now
under construction, are scheduled for delivery in 2012. Germany is paying one-third of the cost of these new submarines.
More German
Submarines For Israel
Defense Industry Daily
In November 2005, reports surfaced that Germany would sell Israel two AIP-equipped SSK Dolphin Class submarines. In
2006, the deal was finalized at a total of $1.27 billion, with the German government picking up one-third of the cost.
The new boats were built at the Howaldtswerke-Deutche Werft AG (HDW) shipyard, in the Baltic Sea coastal city of Kiel.
Now, reports indicate that both submarines have been delivered early .. .. Germany had already donated two Dolphin
submarines to the Israeli navy after the Gulf War in the early 1990s. The first-of-class INS (Israeli Naval Ship)
Dolphin was commissioned in 1999, while INS Leviathan was commissioned in 2000.
House Shames Itself on Goldstone
Report
The Progressive
Shame on the House of Representatives, and on the Democratic leadership of the House, for pushing through a resolution
once again blindly taking the side of Israeli aggression. I'm referring to the vote on Tuesday [Nov. 3], by a lopsided
344-to-36 margin, to condemn the Goldstone report on Gaza. That report, by South African jurist Richard Goldstone for
the UN, showed that both Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes in the lead-up to and during Israel's invasion of
Gaza almost a year ago. It noted that Israel deliberately attacked civilian targets, and did not take sufficient action
to minimize civilian loss of life.
After the
Wall: A Debate Over Democracy's Reach
The Wall Street Journal
To many observers, the fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989, symbolized the triumph of liberal democracy and free
markets over their last serious ideological rival. Two decades and one financial crisis later, a new debate is growing
over whether that assessment was premature. Some Western thinkers now argue that democracy is in a new competition with
unexpectedly robust authoritarian regimes over which form of government can better deliver prosperity, security and
national strength .. .. Indeed, by switching from Communist economics to capitalism -- albeit a state-controlled kind
that Adam Smith wouldn't recognize -- China and Russia have adopted "a far more efficient brand of authoritarianism"
than they had during the Cold War, says Prof. Gat.
Russia's Leaders See China as Template
for Ruling
The New York Times
.. .. The Russians also seem almost ashamed that their economy is highly dependent on oil, gas and other natural
resources, as if Russia were a third world nation, while China excels at manufacturing products sought by the world ..
.. Today, both countries govern with a potent centralized authority, overseeing economies with a mix of private and
state industries, although the Russians have long seemed less disciplined in doing so. Corruption is worse in Russia
than China, according to global indexes, and foreign companies generally consider Russia's investment climate less
hospitable as well, in part because of less respect for property rights. Russia has also been unable to match China in
modernizing roads, airports, power plants and other infrastructure.
History Books Rewritten 20 Years After Fall of Berlin Wall
The Telegraph (Britain)
"For young people, the Communist era is as exotic as ancient Greece," said Anna Dzierzgowska, a history teacher in
Warsaw .. .. In Latvia, what was once called "the voluntary incorporation" of countries in the former Soviet bloc, is
now qualified as a Soviet "occupation". The deportation of tens of thousands of Latvians to Soviet camps in 1941 and
1949, once unheard of, is also now part of the school curriculum .. .. Another subject that was a taboo during Communism
finds its place in modern textbooks in the Czech Republic: the expulsion of three million Sudeten Germans from then
Czechoslovakia after the end of World War II, as a consequence of growing hostility against all Germans following the
Nazi occupation.
Hitler's `Favorite'
Pianist
The Telegraph (Britain)
Elly Ney (1882-1968), it is said, was a "fanatical supporter" of Hitler. She voluntarily joined the Nazi party in 1937,
participated in 'cultural education camps', became an honorary member of the League of German Girls, and wrote adoring
letters to "mein Führer". According to the pianist Edward Kilenyi, who was a captain in the US Army at the time, she
would read extracts of Hitler's writings and soldiers' letters from the concert stage; and in Salzburg, where she taught
during the war, she used to honour Beethoven's bust with a Nazi salute.
US Used `False
Pretext' to Invade Iraq in 2003, ElBaradei Says
DPA (Germany)
Outgoing UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei criticized the United States on Monday for using a 'false pretext'
to invade Iraq, costing 'the lives of possibly hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.' US President George W Bush
ordered US troops into Iraq in March 2003 to overthrow dictator Saddam Hussein, citing evidence of the existence of
weapons of mass destruction in that country. No such weapons were found after the invasion.
West Bank
Land Belongs to Jews, Says Israeli Army Judge
The Guardian (Britain)
... In an unusually frank interview, which offers insights into the melding of religion, politics and law that underpins
land seizures in the occupied territories, Agassi has laid out his belief that Israel has a biblical claim to territory
beyond its borders and that he, even as an immigrant, has a right to live on it when those born there do not. "When we
[Israelis] say that this is a political conflict, then we lose the battle," he told the Guardian, adding that it should
be remembered that the ancient land of Israel is "given to us by the Bible, not by some United Nations".
Russia's President Condemns Stalin
The Telegraph (Britain)
Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev has publicly condemned Josef Stalin's bloody rule even as some in Russia are seeking
to rehabilitate his image. Using his video blog on the Kremlin website to wade into a debate that still divides Russia
more than half a century after Stalin's death, Mr Medvedev said it was wrong to be an apologist for someone who had
destroyed their own people and sent millions of innocents to die in the gulag or be shot. "Even now you can hear people
say that what happened to the many victims was justified by certain higher government aims," said a sombre-faced Mr
Medvedev.
Israel Denies Water to
Palestinians, Says Human Rights Group
BBC News
Israel is denying Palestinians access to even the basic minimum of clean, safe water, Amnesty International says. In a
report, the human rights group says Israeli water restrictions discriminate against Palestinians in the occupied West
Bank. It says that in Gaza, Israel's blockade has pushed the already ailing water and sewage system to "crisis point".
Israel says the report is flawed and the Palestinians get more water than was agreed under the 1990s peace deal. In the
112-page report, Amnesty says that on average Palestinian daily water consumption reaches 70 litres a day, compared with
300 litres for the Israelis.
Former
Hitler Aide's Memoir Set for Publication
The Telegraph (Britain)
Fritz Darges died at the weekend aged 96 with instructions for his manuscript about his time spent at the side of the
Führer to be published once he was gone. Darges was the last surviving member of Hitler's inner circle and was present
for all major conferences, social engagements and policy announcements for four years of the war ... Darges died on
Saturday still believing in the man who engineered the Jewish Holocaust as "the greatest who ever lived." His memoirs
will be published now in accordance with his will ... "I first met the Führer at the Nuremberg party rally in 1934," he
said in an interview given to a German newspaper shortly before his death at his home in Celle. "He had a sympathetic
look, he was warm-hearted... I must say I found him a genius."
US Jobless Rate Rises to Over
Ten Percent
BBC News
The unemployment rate in the US rose to 10.2 percent in October, which was its highest rate since April 1983, according
to figures from the US Labor Department. It rose from September's figure of 9.8 percent. The economy lost 190,000 jobs
in the month. Since the recession began in December 2007, the number of unemployed has risen by 8.2 million, while the
jobless rate has risen from 4.9%. President Barack Obama described the rise in unemployment as "sobering".
Nearly Half of US Children Will Get Food Stamps, Study Shows
The Associated Press
Nearly half of all U.S. children and 90 percent of black youngsters will be on food stamps at some point during childhood, and fallout from the current
recession could push those numbers even higher, researchers say. The estimate comes from an analysis of 30 years of national data, and it bolsters other
recent evidence on the pervasiveness of youngsters at economic risk. It suggests that almost everyone knows a family who has received food stamps, or will in
the future, said lead author Mark Rank, a sociologist at Washington University in St. Louis.
The Day London Played Host to
a Nazi Funeral
Daily Mail (Britain)
It looks like a scene from Britain's worst wartime nightmare. German soldiers parade down The Mall in sight of Buckingham Palace, hailed by arms raised in
Nazi salutes. The flag on the coffin bears a swastika. The respectful silence is broken only by the stamp of military boots. Were it not for the Grenadier
Guardsmen, the extraordinary top photograph might have been taken after Hitler's plans to dominate Britain and Europe came to fruition in London. But this
was 1936, three years before the start of the Second World War, and the event was the funeral of the German ambassador, Leopold von Hoesch.
Fort Hood Shootings: How Often Do Soldiers Kill Soldiers?
The Christian Science Monitor
The shootings at the Army's Fort Hood in Texas Thursday were an "isolated incident," according to military officials. But there have been other attacks by
military personnel in recent years - some in the United States, some in the war zone in Iraq - and they happened over a period of sustained combat and
multiple deployments when increasing numbers of soldiers are experiencing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and committing suicide. ... Attacks on fellow
soldiers - particularly officers - was dubbed "fragging" in Vietnam. Between 1969 and 1971, the Army reported 600 fragging incidents that killed 82 Americans
and injured 651 ...
China Marks `National Day' With Massive Celebration in
Beijing
ABC News (Australia) -- Video
China marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic with a massive celebration that includes an awesome presentation of military might
and the world's largest fireworks display. Australian television news reports Runtime: 5:25 mins.
Italian Court Sentences 23 American CIA Agents
Over Rendition Flight
The Times (Britain)
An Italian court sentenced 23 former CIA agents to up to eight years in prison today for their role in the abduction of an Egyptian terrorist suspect in the
first trial over "extraordinary renditions". The Americans were all tried in absentia, but the verdicts were nevertheless hailed by human rights campaigners
as an important victory that could open the way to further prosecutions. Two lower-ranking agents of the Italian military agency SISMI were sentenced to
three years each. None of the convicted CIA agents is in Italy, and successive Italian governments have refused to ask for their extradition. Robert Seldon
Lady, the former CIA station chief in Milan, was given an eight-year sentence while 22 other agents received five years each.
Convicted CIA Spy Says `We Broke the Law'
ABC News (USA)
One of the 23 Americans convicted today by an Italian court says the United States "broke the law" in the CIA kidnapping of a Muslim cleric Abu Omar in Milan
in 2003. "And we are paying for the mistakes right now, whoever authorized and approved this," said former CIA officer Sabrina deSousa in an interview to be
broadcast tonight on ABC's World News with Charles Gibson. DeSousa says the U.S. "abandoned and betrayed" her and the others who were put on trial for the
kidnapping. She was sentenced in absentia to five years in prison.
German Court Fines Bishop for `Holocaust Denial'
Remarks
Deutsche Welle (Germany)
A German court has imposed a fine on an ultra-conservative British bishop for denying that Jews died in Nazi gas chambers. If Richard Williamson challenges
the order, he could face a trial in Germany. A court in the Bavarian city of Regensburg imposed the 12,000-euro ($17,00) fine, Williamson's lawyer Matthias
Lossmann said on Tuesday. The bishop has until November 9 to react to the court order. Williamson told Swedish television in an interview late last year that
he believed no more than 300,000 Jews were killed in the Holocaust and that none died in gas chambers.
Italian Professor Faces Legal Action for `Holocaust
Denial' Comments
AKI (Italy)
The Holocaust-denying views of an Italian academic at the University of Rome 'La Sapienza,' Antonio Caracciolo, has sparked calls for him to resign. The
59-year-old philosophy of law researcher's blogs have described the World War II Nazi Holocaust - or extermination of six million Jews - as "a legend" and
claim the gas chambers "are one of many 'truths' which need to be verified." The head of Rome's Jewish community, Riccardo Pacifici, said it will take legal
action against the academic ... "We are confident the university won't be the only institution to act and that the whole of civil society will react." In 2007,
Italy's previous center-left government, headed by Romano Prodi, passed a law making Holocaust-denial a crime.
Why Liberals Kill
Thaddeus Russell
The left may be pressuring President Obama to exit Afghanistan. But their heroes -- from FDR to JFK -- promoted U.S.
involvement in more wars than all modern GOP presidents combined. Should President Barack Obama continue his escalation
of the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, it will be the liberal thing to do ... Though opponents of the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan cheered loudly when Obama spoke reverentially in his campaign speeches of Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow
Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John F. Kennedy, those heroes of the president promoted and oversaw U.S.
involvement in wars that killed, by great magnitudes, more Americans and foreign civilians than all the modern
Republican military operations combined.
U.S. Using Goldstone Report to
Punish Netanyahu
Aluf Benn -- Haaretz (Israel)
... The calls to boycott Israel are getting louder. Turkey is shirking off its strategic alliance with Israel and is
presenting IDF soldiers as horrible murderers of children. Hamas is gradually winning recognition as a legitimate
player, as it continues to amass a stock of rockets without hindrance. Meanwhile Israel's leaders are busy defending the
country against the United Nations' Goldstone report (that accuses Israel and Hamas of perpetrating war crimes), and
some even have to worry now about being the object of arrest warrants in Europe.
Americans Fail the Test of Civic
Literacy
Intercollegiate Studies Institute
... Of the 2,508 Americans taking ISI's civic literacy test, 71% fail. Nationwide, the average score on the test is only
49%. The vast majority cannot recognize the language of Lincoln's famous speech. The test contains 33 questions designed
to measure knowledge of America's founding principles, political history, international relations, and market economy.
While the questions vary in difficulty, most test basic knowledge. ... The results reveal that Americans are alarmingly
uninformed about our Constitution, the basic functions of our government, the key texts of our national history, and
economic principles: Less than half can name all three branches of the government.
Ten Myths
About The Middle Ages
Listverse
The Middle Ages spanned roughly from the 5th century to the 16th century - a total of 1,100 years. During the time
following the Middle Ages (which is often referred to as the Enlightenment), the previous millennium was criticized and
condemned - just as we now condemn the actions of some during the Victorian Period (sexual prudishness for example).
Many of the writers of the newly invented Protestant movement harshly attacked the Middle Ages because of its
Catholicity. Unfortunately many of the myths and misconceptions that sprung up at the time are still believed today.
This list aims to set things straight.
Staggering
Need, Striking Neglect: Millions Squandered in US Capital
The Washington Post
In a city ravaged by the highest rate of AIDS cases in the nation, the [Washington] D.C. Health Department paid millions
to nonprofit groups that delivered substandard services or failed to account for any work at all, even as sick people
searched for care or died waiting ... All told, the Health Department's HIV/AIDS Administration awarded more than $25
million from 2004 to 2008 to nonprofit agencies marked by questionable spending, a lack of clients, or lapses in
record-keeping and care, a ten-month Washington Post investigation found. Many of the groups have since closed or are no
longer providing AIDS services.
Web Discourages American
Jews' Love for Israel, Says Historian
Haaretz (Israel)
Israeli news websites in English contribute in part to the waning love between American Jews and Israel, a prominent
U.S. historian asserted this week, adding that Anglos in Israel can help counter the trend. Since the advent of the
Internet and exposure to more critical coverage of Israel, the once-utopian view of Israel Americans held has eroded,
according to Jonathan Sarna, who teaches American Jewish history at Brandeis University and is currently on sabbatical
in Jerusalem.
Churchill Wanted to `Drench'
Germany With Poison Gas
Mark Weber
In a secret wartime memorandum, Winston Churchill told his advisers that he wanted to "drench" Germany with poison gas.
Churchill's July 1944 memo to his chief of staff Gen. Hastings Ismay was reproduced in the August-September 1985 issue
of American Heritage magazine ... Churchill's directive bluntly stated: "I want a cold-blooded calculation made as to how
it would pay to use poison gas ... One really must not be bound within silly conventions of the mind whether they be
those that ruled in the last war or those in reverse which rule in this."
Flames From
Afghanistan Ignite Pakistan
Eric Margolis
... Like the proverbial bull in the china shop, the Obama administration and U.S. Congress chose this explosive time to
try to impose yet another layer of American control over Pakistan as Nobel Peace Prize winner Obama appears about to
send thousands more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. Tragically, U.S. policy in the Muslim world continues to be driven by
imperial arrogance, profound ignorance, and special interest groups ... Washington seems unaware of the fury its crude,
counter-productive policies have whipped up in Pakistan. The Obama administration keeps listening to Washington-based
neoconservatives, military hawks, and "experts" who tell it just what it wants to hear, not the facts.
Can Any
Counterinsurgency in the Afghan Countryside Succeed?
Gilles Dorronsoro -- Los Angeles Times
... History is not encouraging. In two centuries, the Pashtuns have never once tolerated a permanent presence of armed
foreigners. Defending families and villages is a cultural duty of local men, and the presence of outsiders is generally
perceived as a threat, especially when they are non-Muslim. Historical memories are long in this part of the world. Some
Afghans still say prayers for mujahedin who fought against the British -- in the 19th century. Because the Afghan
culture highly values politeness, Westerners rarely understand how unpopular they are in the region.
War is Peace. Ignorance is
Strength
John Pilger
... Within weeks of his inauguration, Obama started a new war in Pakistan, causing more than a million people to flee
their homes. In threatening Iran - which his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said she was prepared to "obliterate"
- Obama lied that the Iranians were covering up a "secret nuclear facility", knowing that it had already been reported
to the International Atomic Energy Authority. In colluding with the only nuclear-armed power in the Middle East, he
bribed the Palestinian Authority to suppress a UN judgment that Israel had committed crimes against humanity in its
assault on Gaza - crimes made possible with US weapons whose shipment Obama secretly approved before his inauguration.
Writers Who Make Up Stories About the Holocaust
The Independent (Britain)
Researching a book about literary hoaxes led me to investigate a sub-section of the misery-memoir genre which often left
me reeling in amazement: the Holocaust hoaxers. Special privilege must be given to those increasingly few
witness-writers who survived the Second World War in Europe, but they have certain duties too. It is their right to
write how and when they want (perhaps many decades later, if they are ready) and, as with Elie Wiesel, with their own
definitions of truth and fiction. It was he who said that "Some stories are true that never happened." ... All these
hoaxers had difficult childhoods but, feeling that their truth was shamefully small, they sought the grand signifier of
the Holocaust to attract the compassion that they desired.
An Ordinary
Israel: A State of `Perpetual Exceptionalism'
Roger Cohen -- The New York Times
... More than 60 years after the creation of the modern state, Israel has no established borders, no constitution, no
peace. Born from exceptional horror, the Holocaust, it has found normality elusive. The anxiety of the diaspora Jews has
ceded not to tranquility but to another anxiety ... Israel does not see itself as normal. Rather it lives in a perpetual
state of exceptionalism. I understand this: Israel is a small country whose neighbors are enemies or cold bystanders.
But I worry when Israel makes a fetish of its exceptional status. It needs to deal with the world as it is, however
discomfiting, not the world of yesterday ..."Never again" is a necessary but altogether inadequate way of dealing with the
modern world.
Israel's Dangerously Battered
Image
Patrick Seale
... Few outside Israel itself -- and outside the shrinking ranks of its diehard supporters in the United States and Europe
-- would today be prepared to defend its arrogant militarists, its fanatical land-grabbing settlers, its racist
politicians. Astonishingly, there is no sign that Israel's political leaders have understood the magnitude of the
problem or are doing anything serious to address it. On the contrary, they are busy digging deeper into a hole of their
own making. Turkey's sudden cancellation this week of a major air force exercise with Israel was a salutary wake-up
call.
White House Official's Praise for Mao is `Pathetic,' Says China
Expert
CNS News
White House Communications Director Anita Dunn told high school students in May 2009 that one of her favorite political philosophers was Mao Zedong, the
Communist dictator responsible for the death of millions of people, and she explained why his philosophy was important for achieving personal and political
goals. When questioned last week after a video of her speech surfaced, however, Dunn said she was using "irony" in reference to Mao. A leading expert on
China told CNSNews.com that Dunn's remarks were "pathetic," given the human rights atrocities committed under Mao's reign.
The Late Great Helmsman
Bill Bonner
... During his career, Mao Tse-Tung was responsible for more deaths - murder, starvation, torture... the usual ways of dying, plus a few novelties added by Mao
and his thugs - than any other man in history. Seventy million is the sum given by Chang and Halliday. Even the entire Mongol reign of Genghis Khan and his
whole line - who conquered three civilizations... Muslim, Chinese, and Hindu...and threatened to conquer Christendom too ... didn't match Mao in killing
people.
Federal Deficit Hits All Time High $1.42 trillion
The Associated Press
The federal budget deficit has surged to an all-time high of $1.42 trillion as the recession caused tax revenues to plunge while the government was spending
massive amounts to stabilize the financial system and jump-start the economy. The imbalance for the budget year ended Sept. 30, more than tripled last year's
record. The Obama administration projects deficits will total $9.1 trillion over the next decade unless corrective action is taken. As a portion of the
economy, the budget deficit stood at 10 percent, the highest since World War II, according to government data released Friday.
The Scientist Who Mistook
Himself for a Spy
The New York Times
A lawyer for the Justice Department said in court on Tuesday that Stewart Nozette, a scientist who worked for the United States government for decades before
being arrested on Monday on espionage charges, had been willing to sell some of America's "most guarded secrets" to a man he believed to be an Israeli
intelligence officer ... According to the transcript of Mr. Nozette's conversation with the undercover officer posing as a Mossad recruiter, the scientist
said: "I thought I was working for you already. I mean that's what I always thought, [the foreign company] was just a front."
The Israel Espionage Probe: Does it Matter?
Mark Weber (2004)
The still unfolding story of Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin and his alleged spying for Israel has attracted wide media attention and generated
considerable discussion. Details of the FBI's investigation of his activities are still coming to light. But regardless of the outcome, one thing is certain:
there will be no fundamental change in US policy regarding Israel and the Middle East. Support for the Zionist state in both the White House and the Congress
is so fervent that Israel hardly needs bureaucrats such as Franklin to track the inner workings of the US government. Whether the president is a Democrat or
a Republican, American policy is so tightly in the grip of politicians and government officials who are ardently dedicated to Israel and its interests that
the Franklin case will make no difference.
Israel Pulls Textbooks That Mention `Ethnic Cleansing' of
Palestinians
AFP
Israel's Education Ministry has recalled all copies of a history textbook because of a passage alleging "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians during the 1948
war, a newspaper reported on Monday. Israel's Haaretz newspaper said the secondary school textbook was removed from shelves because it sought to present both
Israeli and Arab perspectives on the departure of some 750,000 Palestinians during the fighting that erupted after the creation of the Jewish state. The
Palestinians have always said they were violently expelled by Jewish forces while Israel has maintained they were ordered to flee by invading Arab states or
alarmed by inflammatory Arab radio reports.
Nazi Olympics Exhibit Opens in Vancouver
CBC News (Canada)
A controversial exhibit has opened in Vancouver, depicting the Canadian team at one of the most controversial Olympics ever -- the 1936 Summer Games in
Berlin, staged by the German Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler ... A display case features the sash worn by Canadian athletes during the opening and closing
ceremonies, adorned with a black swastika ... Two other photographs stirred up controversy at the time, and still could today. One features Canadian athletes
clamouring for Hitler's autograph; another shows members of Canada's team apparently giving a straight-armed Nazi salute.
Bishop Williamson Rejects `Holocaust Denial'
Punishment
Israel National News
British Roman Catholic Bishop Richard Williamson said on Sunday that he rejected the idea that he should be subject to punishment in Germany for denying the
Holocaust on Swedish television, adding that he tried to prevent the interview from being broadcast there, according to a report by the German weekly Der
Spiegel. Bishop Williamson's German lawyer confirmed that the bishop had applied to a Nuremberg state court to issue an injunction, but said it was rejected
in February. The interview was conducted near the Bavarian city of Regensburg, shortly before the bishop's excommunication was lifted by Pope Benedict XVI.
Russian Authorities Seize Stalin-Era Research
BBC News
A Russian academic investigating the fate of ethnic Germans deported by Stalin during World War II has had his research seized by security services. History
professor Mikhail Suprun was briefly arrested in the far north of Russia last month, but the incident has only now come to light. Prof Suprun told the BBC he
has been ordered not to comment on the case. Thousands of ethnic Germans were sent to remote areas far from the war front after Hitler attacked the USSR in
1941. Although they had lived in southern Russia for generations - mostly along the River Volga - Soviet leader Joseph Stalin did not trust them.
Iranian Nuclear
Threat Hyped, Says IAEA Chief ElBaradei
The Jerusalem Post (Israel)
Mohamed ElBaradei, outgoing chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, maintains that the danger posed by Iran's
nuclear program is being exaggerated, and that the only way to resolve issues with Teheran is through talks.
Negotiations should also eventually lead to the Middle East being a nuclear-free zone, he believes, thus ending the
"imbalance" resulting from the fact that Israel is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty ... The
greatest danger in the region, according to ElBaradei, comes from the possibility of an Israeli air strike on Iran's
nuclear facilities. "Bombing Iran is not the solution. An Israeli attack would turn the entire region into a fireball,"
he said.
British Diplomat Says Afghan War is
`Futile'
The Times (Britain)
The war in Afghanistan is "madcap" and "futile" and serves "no conceivable national interest", says Sir Christopher
Meyer, who as Britain's ambassador to Washington had a ringside seat on the dispatch of troops there. The fighting is "a
waste of blood and treasure" because there is no coherent purpose behind it, he argues scornfully in a new book. Meyer,
who was Tony Blair's man in America from 1997 to 2003, writes that: "After nearly eight years in Afghanistan . . . there
is still no clarity about why we are there..."...
High Jobless Rates Could Be The New Normal
The Associated Press
Even with an economic revival, many U.S. jobs lost during the recession may be gone forever and a weak employment market
could linger for years. That could add up to a "new normal" of higher joblessness and lower standards of living for many
Americans, some economists are suggesting. The words "it's different this time" are always suspect. But economists and
policy makers say the job-creating dynamics of previous recoveries can't be counted on now. Here's why...
Revised Formula Puts One in Six Americans in Poverty
The Associated Press
The level of poverty in America is even worse than first believed. A revised formula for calculating medical costs and
geographic variations show that approximately 47.4 million Americans last year lived in poverty, seven million more than
the government's official figure. The disparity occurs because of differing formulas the Census Bureau and the National
Academy of Science use for calculating the poverty rate. The NAS formula shows the poverty rate to be at 15.8 percent,
or nearly 1 in 6 Americans, according to calculations released this week.
Under Jewish Pressure, David Irving's Amex Account is Cancelled
New York Daily News
Brooklyn assemblyman Dov Hikind has hit Holocaust denier David Irving where it really hurts - in the wallet. When Hikind
discovered that Irving was accepting American Express payments for tickets to his ongoing book tour, the lawmaker
drafted a letter urging the company to "rescind Mr. Irving's merchant agreement." A dozen elected officials signed it.
American Express complied. "David Irving is no longer a merchant on the American Express network," company spokeswoman
Christine Elliott said Tuesday. Hikind, whose parents survived Nazi concentration camps, applauded American Express for
"doing the right thing."
German
Prosecutors Seek to Fine Bishop for `Denial' Remarks
The Associated Press
German prosecutors are seeking to have a fine imposed on an ultraconservative British bishop for denying the Holocaust
in a television interview, a court official said Thursday. Prosecutors in the Bavarian city of Regensburg applied for an
order of punishment against Richard Williamson, accusing him of incitement, said Johann Ploed, the president of the
city's district court.
Billboard in Thailand with
Hitler Image is Covered Up
BBC News
Museum officials in Thailand have covered a billboard depicting Adolf Hitler saluting after complaints from the German
and Israeli embassies. The advertisement, which reads in Thai, "Hitler is not dead," was set up on a main road out of
Bangkok two weeks ago. The billboard was covered up after the museum received "a lot" of complaints, director Somporn
Naksuetrong said. The series of highway advertisements featuring famous dead people promote Louis Tussaud's Waxworks in
Pattaya.
Scientist Held as Israeli Spy in
FBI Sting
The Times (Britain)
An American astrophysicist with top-level nuclear security clearances appeared in court yesterday after being arrested
in an FBI sting and charged with trying to sell secrets to Israel. Stewart Nozette, who helped to discover water on the
Moon and spent six years at a top-secret defence technology agency, was lured into a trap by federal agents. They posed
as Israeli intelligence operatives who met him at a Washington hotel and agreed to pay him cash for classified papers.
"I don't get recruited by Mossad every day," Mr Nozette allegedly said, according to wiretaps. "I knew this day would
come. I just had a feeling."
Afghanistan - The Proxy War
Andrew J. Bacevich -- Boston Globe
No serious person thinks that Afghanistan - remote, impoverished, barely qualifying as a nation-state - seriously matters to the United States. Yet with the
war in its ninth year, the passions raised by the debate over how to proceed there are serious indeed. Afghanistan elicits such passions because people
understand that in rendering his decision on Afghanistan, President Obama will declare himself on several much larger issues. In this sense, Afghanistan is a
classic proxy war, with the main protagonists here in the United States.
Eight Years of Big Lies on Afghanistan
James Bovard
It seems like only yesterday that President George W. Bush was bragging about having brought "freedom and democracy" to 25 million Afghans, a key theme in
his second inaugural address. For eight years, the American people have been fed one big lie after another regarding Afghanistan. Now, when the Pentagon is
saber-rattling to vastly increase the number of U.S. troops sent there, a refresher course on the Biggest Lies is in order ... There is no reason to expect the
U.S. government to ever become trustworthy on Afghanistan. At best, Washington will rotate its lies, the same way it rotates the National Guard units sent to
the Afghan badlands.
One Nation, Under Illusion
Neal Gabler -- Boston Globe
The hoariest and most oft-repeated cliche in American politics may be that America is the greatest country in the world. Every politician, Democrat and
Republican, seems duty bound to pander to this idea of American exceptionalism, and woe unto him who hints otherwise ... Yes, we have a relatively high median
income, but our standard of living as measured by the Human Development Index of the United Nations ranks us only 15th in the world, behind, among others,
Norway, France, Canada, and Australia. Are they better than we are?
The Silent Catastrophe
Jared Taylor - Taki Magazine
.. .. One great, avoidable evil we face is the declining quality of
the American work force.
The Census Bureau tells us that if immigration continues at its current rate of nearly two million people a year, whites will become a minority of the
under-18 child population in just 14 years -- in 2023 -- and will become a minority of the working population just 16 years later .. .. Demographers are
beginning to warn that as well-educated, white baby boomers retire and are replaced by poorly educated blacks and Hispanics, the productivity gains of the
last several hundred years will be reversed, and the United States could go into a tailspin .. .. The Educational Testing Service (ETS), based in New Jersey,
predicts that all states will see a drop in reading and math ability.
Columbus's Writings Prove He Was Spanish, New Study Claims
The Telegraph (Britain)
Italy, France, Portugal and even Scotland are among those who have claimed Christopher Columbus as their own over the years, citing a range of spurious
links. But American researchers say the mystery over the explorer's true origins has finally been solved after a thorough investigation of his writings. A
study of the language used in the official records and letters of the Great Navigator apparently proves he hailed from the Kingdom of Aragon in northeastern
Spain and his mother tongue was Catalan.
Dead Chickens, Amends, and an Outcry
The New York Times
Last week before Rosh Hashana, Rabbi Shea Hecht of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, said he was bombarded with hundreds of e-mail messages, phone calls, faxes and
letters within a short time, one of them threatening. In general, the messages protested the tradition of kaparot -- sometimes spelled kapparot or kapparos
-- in which Orthodox Jews take live chickens, swing them over their heads as a means of symbolically transferring sins to the chickens, and then slaughter
them on the eve of Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement.
The Boer War
Remembered
Mark Weber
The Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 was more than the first major military clash of the 20th century. Pitting as it did the
might of the globe-girdling British Empire, backed by international finance, against a small pioneering nation of
independent-minded farmers, ranchers and merchants in southern Africa who lived by the Bible and the rifle, its legacy
continues to resonate today. The Boers' recourse to irregular warfare, and Britain's response in herding a hundred
thousand women and children into concentration camps foreshadowed the horrors of guerilla warfare and mass detention of
innocents that have become emblematic of the 20th century.
Mussolini's
Legacy in Modern Rome
Los Angeles Times
... Il Duce left ugly black marks on the modern history of Italy. But he was, nonetheless, a visionary builder who sought
to imbue Italians with a sense of patriotism by reconfiguring their ancient imperial capital ... At the same time,
Mussolini was constructing harbors, railways, aqueducts, roads, schools, stadiums, hospitals and post offices, often in
a cutting-edge, modernist style that makes many visitors cringe. Buildings such as Rome's Fascist-era Termini train
station "stand out like monsters people strenuously try to ignore," said Terry Kirk, author of "The Architecture of
Modern Italy." Kirk and other art historians have begun to reassess the aesthetic meaning and value of Il Duce's
monsters.
Rattling the Cage:
Our Exclusive Right to Self-Defense
Larry Derfner -- The Jerusalem Post (Israel)
... But I'd like to ask: Do the Palestinians also have the right to self-defense? We probably wouldn't admit it out loud,
but in our heads we would say - again, in one voice -- "No!" This is the Israeli notion of a fair deal: We're entitled
to do whatever the hell we want to the Palestinians because, by definition, whatever we do to them is self-defense.
They, however, are not entitled to lift a finger against us because, by definition, whatever they do to us is terrorism.
That's the way it's always been ... Why? Because we're better than them. Because we're a democracy and they're a bunch of
Islamo-fascists. Because ours is a culture of life and theirs is a culture of death. Because they're out to destroy us
and all we are saying is give peace a chance.
Why Stocks Are Surging As
Jobs Disappear
US News & World Report
... So are job losses good for the stock market? Actually, yes. At least for awhile. Stocks are rising because many
companies are earning more money than analysts have expected. But earnings aren't up because companies are selling more
stuff; most companies are still selling less stuff and grappling with falling revenue. Instead, earnings are rising
because companies have cut their costs more than revenues have fallen. And "costs" are often the same as "jobs."
Foreclosures: Worst Three Months Of All Time
CNN
Despite concerted government-led and lender-supported efforts to prevent foreclosures, the number of filings hit a
record high in the third quarter, according to a report issued Thursday. "They were the worst three months of all time,"
said Rick Sharga, spokesman for RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed homes.
During that time, 937,840 homes received a foreclosure letter -- whether a default notice, auction notice or bank
repossession, the RealtyTrac report said. That means one in every 136 U.S. homes were in foreclosure, which is a five
percent increase from the second quarter and a 23 percent jump over the third quarter of 2008.
New Crisis Developing in
Palestine
Kathleen and Bill Christison
We have visited Palestine multiple times, most particularly eight times since 2003, and have been able to witness close
up the vast changes that Zionism is constantly bringing to the land and to the people, none for the better. Palestinians
are undergoing ever increasing levels of persecution and mistreatment from a rightwing Israeli regime that is being
enabled and emboldened by the Obama administration's abject failure to exert any real pressure.
Growing Rifts, Abbas's Crisis Dim Hope for Talks
The Washington Post
A political crisis for the Palestinian Authority and growing doubts about American mediation have deeply undercut
chances that Israeli-Palestinian peace talks will resume in the near future, according to officials and analysts on both
sides. After nine months of shuttle diplomacy by U.S. special envoy George J. Mitchell, the gap between Israeli and
Palestinian leaders appears to have grown, and it now includes not only a dispute over Israeli settlement construction
in the West Bank, but also renewed tension over Jerusalem, disagreement over the framework for the talks and controversy
over a U.N. report on alleged war crimes during Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip last winter.
Israeli Organ Trafficking and Theft: From Moldova to Palestine
Alison Weir -- The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
... The fact is, however, that Israeli organ harvesting -- sometimes with Israeli governmental funding and the
participation of high Israeli officials, prominent Israeli physicians, and Israeli ministries -- has been documented for
many years. Among the victims have been Palestinians ... In her Forum 13 lecture Scheper-Hughes discussed the two
motivations of Israeli traffickers. One was greed, she said. The other was somewhat chilling: "Revenge, restitution --
reparation for the Holocaust." She described speaking with Israeli brokers who told her "it's kind of 'an eye for an eye
and a tooth for a tooth. We're going to get every single kidney and liver and heart that we can. The world owes it to
us.'" Scheper-Hughes says that she "even heard doctors saying that."
Afghanistan: A War of Lies
Eric Margolis
Truth is war's first casualty. The Afghan War's biggest untruth is, `we've got to fight terrorists over there so we
don't have to fight them at home.' Politicians and generals keep using this canard to justify a war they can't
otherwise explain or justify. Many North Americans still buy this lie because they believe the 9/11 attacks came
directly from the Afghanistan-based al-Qaida and Taliban movements. Not true. The 9/11 attacks were planned in Germany
and Spain, and conducted mainly by US-based Saudis to punish America for supporting Israel's repression of the
Palestinians. Taliban, a militant religious, anti-Communist movement of Pashtun tribesmen, was totally surprised by
9/11.
The Affirmative Action Nobel
Patrick J. Buchanan
All my life, said Voltaire, I have had but one prayer: "O Lord, make my enemies look ridiculous. And God granted it." In
awarding the Nobel Prize for Peace to Barack Obama, the Nobel committee has just made itself look ridiculous. ... These
Norwegian groupies, acting out of "adolescent adulation," writes the Financial Times, have exposed themselves as "an
annex to the left wing of the U.S. Democratic Party" with a "deeply misguided act" that will "embarrass (Obama's) allies
and egg on his detractors." The committee did something else. They ensured that their Nobel Peace Prize will never be
taken as seriously again as once it was.
Warmonger Wins Peace
Prize
Paul Craig Roberts
... The Nobel Committee has awarded the 2009 Peace Prize to President Obama, the person who started a new war in Pakistan,
upped the war in Afghanistan, and continues to threaten Iran with attack unless Iran does what the US government demands
and relinquishes its rights as a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty ... Apparently, the Nobel committee is
suffering from the delusion that, being a minority, Obama is going to put a stop to Western hegemony over darker-skinned
peoples.
Israel
Detains Hundreds Without Charge, Say Human Rights Groups
CNN
Salwa Salah was 16 years old when she was arrested by Israeli forces and jailed for seven months ... Salah was held under
administrative detention - detention without charge or trial. It is legal under international law which permits its use
only in exceptional cases to protect the security of a state. But human rights groups say Israel abuses this right. A
report released Wednesday by human rights groups B'Tselem and HaMoked has called on Israel to release the detainees or
charge them. They say there are currently 335 Palestinians being held under administrative detention, three of them
women, one a minor.
Is Columbus Day
Sailing Off The Calendar?
The Wall Street Journal
Arrivederci, Columbus Day. The tradition of honoring Christopher Columbus for sailing the ocean blue in 1492 is facing
rougher seas than the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria. Philadelphia's annual Columbus Day parade was canceled. Brown
University this year renamed the holiday "Fall Weekend" following a campaign by a Native American student group opposed
to celebrating an explorer who helped enslave some of the people he "discovered." And while the Italian adventurer is
generally thought to have arrived in the New World on Oct. 12, 517 years ago on Monday, his holiday is getting bounced
all over the calendar.
Mussolini Was Recruited by
British Intelligence, Documents Show
The Guardian (Britain)
History remembers Benito Mussolini as a founder member of the original Axis of Evil, the Italian dictator who ruled his
country with fear and forged a disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany. But a previously unknown area of Il Duce's CV has
come to light: his brief career as a British agent. Archived documents have revealed that Mussolini got his start in
politics in 1917 with the help of a 100 pounds weekly wage from MI5. For the British intelligence agency, it must have
seemed like a good investment. Mussolini, then a 34-year-old journalist, was not just willing to ensure Italy continued
to fight alongside the allies in the first world war by publishing propaganda in his paper.
War and Peace
Alexander Cockburn
I suppose we should not begrudge Barack Obama his Nobel Peace Prize, though it represents a radical break in tradition, since he's only had slightly less than nine months to discharge his imperial duties ... Woodrow Wilson, the liberal imperialist with whom Obama bears some marked affinities, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919, having brought America into the carnage of the First World War. The peace laureate president who preceded him was Teddy Roosevelt, who got the prize in 1906 as reward for sponsorship of the Spanish-American war and ardent bloodletting in the Philippines.
Israel's Premier Vows Never to Let Israelis Be Tried for War Crimes
Haaretz (Israel) and News Agencies
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that he would never allow any of the Israel's leaders or soldiers to be put on trial for war crimes. Netanyahu opened his fiery speech at the inauguration of the Knesset's winter session by blasting the Goldstone Commission's report sponsored by the United Nations, that accused Israel of committing war crimes during its war against militants in the Gaza Strip last year. Israel has the right to defend itself, Netanyahu declared, and would not acquiesce to a situation where wartime leaders or troops who participated in the operation stand trial.
At Least 139 of Forbes 400 Richest Americans Are Jewish
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
I've spent the past couple of days buried in Google, going through Forbes' recently released list of the country's 400 richest citizens and trying to figure out who is Jewish ... Some quick stats: We are reasonably certain that 139 of the richest 400 Americans are Jewish, including 20 of the richest 50. Those top 20 control some $211.8 billion in personal wealth.
At What Cost the Israel Lobby?
Jeff Gates
More than 46 years ago, President John F. Kennedy sought to preclude a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. In June 1963, he wrote the last in a series of insistent letters to Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Those letters sought what Israel now demands of Iran: international inspections of its nuclear facilities. The key difference: Kennedy knew for certain that Israel, while portraying itself a friend and ally, repeatedly lied to Kennedy about its nuclear weapons development at the Dimona reactor in the Negev Desert ... Due to its "special relationship" with the U.S., Tel Aviv remains a non-signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Its Dimona facility has never been subjected to the inspections it now seeks for Iran.
Students Punished for Throwing `Holocaust Party'
TVNZ (New Zealand)
Lincoln University near Christchurch has reprimanded 15 students who dressed as Nazis and concentration camp inmates for a party, with penalties including visiting a Holocaust Museum and paying a $200 fine. The university disciplinary committee met on Friday to consider the conduct of the students, who pleaded guilty to the charge of bringing discredit on the university. The committee ruled the students had to: Visit the Holocaust Museum in Wellington and possibly the German Embassy at their own expense; Pay a fine of $200; Submit a 2000 word essay on a topic determined by the chair of the committee; Two students who wore the most offensive T-shirts also had to complete 150 hours of community service for the university.
Expanding Holocaust Denial and Legislation Against It
Michael Whine -- Institute for Global Jewish Affairs (Israel)
Over half the states of Europe now criminalize Holocaust denial. They accept the premise that deniers are extremists who use denial, among other means, to rehabilitate Nazism. Their legal rationale in doing so is usually that denial negates the historical facts established at Nuremburg in 1945 rather than that it constitutes offensive or threatening speech ... A recent poll of the OSCE's fifty-six member states reported that thirty-nine (71 percent) have now established a Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) or commemorate Holocaust victims.
A War of Absurdity
Robert Scheer
... It's time to declare victory and begin to get out rather than descend deeper into an intractable civil war that we neither comprehend nor in the end will care much about. Terrorists of various stripes will still exist as they have throughout history, but the ones we are most concerned about have proved mighty capable of relocating to less hostile environments, including sunny San Diego and southern Florida, where the 9/11 hijackers had no trouble fitting in ... It is a prescription, as the Russians and others before them learned, for war without end.
US Deficit Hits Record $1.4 Trillion
BBC News
The US budget deficit hit a record $1.4 trillion in the year to September 30, US Congress estimates say. Analysts had predicted a $1.6 trillion deficit but
revised the estimate, which comes after the end of the US financial year. The deficit was equal to 9.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) -- more than
treble the 2008 level and the highest since the end of World War II. The surging deficit was put down to increased government spending and a big drop in tax
revenues.
Those
Tricky Iranians Are Now Threatening To Cooperate
Eric Margolis
The confusion over Iran's nuclear program mounts as accusations and denials intensify ... The US, Britain, France and Israel have been even less forthcoming
about their nuclear secrets. Israel and India reject all outside requests for information. Iran's test of some useless short ranged missiles, and an
inaccurate 2,000-km medium-ranged Shahab-3, provoked more hysteria. In a choice example of media scaremongering, one leading North American newspaper printed
a picture of a 1960's vintage SAM-2 antiaircraft missile being launched, with a caption warning of the "grave threat" Iran posed to "international peace and
security." Welcome to Iraq déjà vu, and another manufactured crisis.
The Third Temple's Holy of Holies: Israel's Nuclear
Weapons
Warner D. Farr -- USAF Counterproliferation Center (Sept. 1999)
This paper is a history of the Israeli nuclear weapons program drawn from a review of unclassified sources ... Their nuclear ambiguity has served their
purposes well but Israel is entering a different phase of visibility even as their nuclear capability is entering a new phase. This new visibility may not be
in America's interest. Many are predicting the Israeli nuclear arsenal will become less useful "out of the basement" and possibly spur a regional arms race.
If so, Israel has a five-ten year lead time at present before mutual assured destruction, Middle East style, will set in.
The US Was First to Give Iran Nuclear Equipment
The Christian Science Monitor
For all the recent uproar over Iran's nuclear program, little attention has been paid to the fact that the country which first provided Tehran with nuclear
equipment was the United States. In 1967, under the "Atoms for Peace" program launched by President Eisenhower, the US sold the Shah of Iran's government a
five-megawatt, light-water type research reactor. This small dome-shaped structure, located in the Tehran suburbs, was the foundation of Iran's nuclear
program. It remains at the center of the controversy over Iranian intentions, even today.
The Forgotten `Saxon' World
of Transylvania
The Guardian (Britain)
Between the collapse of the Ceausescu regime in December 1989 and the spring of 1990, half a million indigenous so-called "Saxons" fled Romania for West
Germany. It was the most astonishing, and little reported, ethnic migration in modern Europe. In the seven towns and 250 villages of Saxon Land in southern
Transylvania, no less than 90% of the German-speaking population packed its bags and committed eight centuries of history to memory.
One in Four is Muslim, Study Says
BBC News
A report from an American think-tank has estimated 1.57 billion Muslims populate the world - with 60% in Asia. The report, by the Pew Forum on Religion and
Public Life, took three years to compile, with census data from 232 countries and territories. It showed that 20% of Muslims lived in the Middle East and
North Africa. The data also showed that there were more Muslims in Germany than in Lebanon, and more in Russia than in Jordan and Libya together ... Europe is
home to 38 million Muslims - around 5% of its population with European Muslims making up slightly more than 2% of the world's Muslim population.
Israeli Doctors Experimented on Children
The Guardian (Britain) - 2005
A leading Israeli doctor and medical ethicist has called for the prosecution of doctors responsible for thousands of unauthorised and often illegal
experiments on small children and geriatric and psychiatric patients in Israeli hospitals. An investigation by the government watchdog, the state
comptroller, has revealed that researchers in ten public hospitals administered drugs, carried out unauthorised genetic testing or undertook painful surgery
on patients unable to give informed consent or without obtaining health ministry approval.
Secret
1969 White House Memo on `Dangers' of Israel Nuclear Weapons
Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - pdf document
In this secret internal memo of July 19, 1969, National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger explains to President Richard
Nixon the "dangers" of Israel's nuclear weapons program. Kissinger notes that Israel had broken its pledge to the US not
to "introduce" nuclear weapons in the region. He also notes that if the US tries to force Israel to live up to its
commitment by withholding delivery of US warplanes, "enormous political pressure will be mounted on us." This memo,
declassified in 2007 after being "sanitized," lays out US policy regarding the Zionist state's nuclear arsenal: "While
we might ideally like to halt actual Israeli possession, what we really want at a minimum may be just to keep Israeli
possession from becoming an established international fact."
Obama
Agrees To Keep Israel's Nukes Secret
The Washington Times
President Obama has reaffirmed a four-decade-old secret understanding that has allowed Israel to keep a nuclear arsenal
without opening it to international inspections, three officials familiar with the understanding said. The officials,
who spoke on the condition that they not be named because they were discussing private conversations, said Mr. Obama
pledged to maintain the agreement when he first hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in
May. Under the understanding, the U.S. has not pressured Israel to disclose its nuclear weapons or to sign the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which could require Israel to give up its estimated several hundred nuclear bombs.
Will
California Become America's First Failed State?
The Guardian (Britain)
... The state that was once held up as the epitome of the boundless opportunities of America has collapsed. From its
politics to its economy to its environment and way of life, California is like a patient on life support. At the start
of summer the state government was so deeply in debt that it began to issue IOUs instead of wages. Its unemployment rate
has soared to more than 12%, the highest figure in 70 years. Desperate to pay off a crippling budget deficit, California
is slashing spending in education and healthcare, laying off vast numbers of workers and forcing others to take unpaid
leave. In a state made up of sprawling suburbs the collapse of the housing bubble has impoverished millions and kicked
tens of thousands of families out of their homes.
Bitter Fruits of Mideast Wars
Patrick J. Buchanan
... As one steps back and looks at a decade of U.S. intervention and war in the Middle East, what has it all availed us?
Iraq cost 4,000 U.S. dead, 30,000 wounded and a trillion dollars. It divided our country, alienated the Arab world, and
left scores of thousands of Iraqi dead, and hundreds of thousands wounded, widowed and orphaned. The Shia who now run
the country are moving away from us, and closer to Iran, as we depart. In Afghanistan, after eight years, we face a
longer and bloodier war or, says McChrystal, "mission failure." With Iran, we are heading up a sanctions escalator
toward yet another war. And ten years of involvement has not brought the Palestinian conflict a centimeter closer to
resolution.
The Roman
Polanski Case: Once Again It's Hollywood vs. America
Kevin MacDonald
... Hollywood is not like the rest of us, and the fault lines are apparent in reaction to Polanski's recent jailing in
Switzerland while awaiting extradition proceedings. A Los Angeles Times article discusses the gap between the attitudes
toward Polanski among Hollywood's elite and the rest of the country ... The Jewish intellectual movements that came to
dominance in the US after WWII abandoned their Marxist roots in favor of promoting radical individualism among non-Jews.
They did this not because of their allegiance to the ideals of the Enlightenment, but as a useful tool for ending
anti-Semitism and preventing mass movements of the right.
The Roman Military Defeat in
Germany That Shaped Europe
BBC News
Three days of blood-soaked butchery in the unfamiliar forests of Germany culminated in one of the Roman Empire's darkest
moments, and may have helped shape the Europe of today. As many as 30,000 Roman soldiers, along with countless slaves
and families, died at the hands of people they regarded as barbarians, who were led by a man they regarded as a friend.
Did the Varian Disaster, which took place exactly 2,000 years ago and stunned the Roman Empire into a temporary
paralysis, mark a turning point in its all-conquering mindset?
Writers
Call For Probe of Canada's Human Rights Commission
CBC News (Canada)
Two writers appeared before the justice committee on Monday, repeating their call for a repeal of a controversial
section of the Human Rights Act, and asking for a probe into the Canadian Human Rights Commission. Ezra Levant and Mark
Steyn are also calling for the elimination of section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, which allows the commission
to investigate allegations of hate speech.
Israel is Most Destabilizing Factor in Mideast, Says IAEA Chief
Israel Today (Israel)
The outgoing head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohammed ElBaradei, declared during a press conference in Iran on Monday that Israel's alleged nuclear arms program is the most dangerous threat to regional stability. ElBaradei emphatically reiterated that his agency has no concrete proof that Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons, and insisted that Tehran was being very cooperative, and that all misunderstandings would be resolved via diplomacy ... ElBaradei was adamant that Israel's secrecy regarding its nuclear capabilities is the most destabilizing factor in the Middle East.
Will Israel Ensure that History Repeats Itself?
Jeff Gates
The lead-up to the first U.S.-Iran talks in three decades saw a replay of the same modus operandi that induced the U.S. and its allies to invade Iraq in March 2003. Then as now, the invasion of Iran is consistent with a regime change agenda for Greater Israel described in a 1996 strategy document prepared by Jewish-Americans for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. As with Iraq, the threat of weapons of mass destruction is again marketed as a causa belli. As with Iraq, the claim is disputed by weapons inspectors and intelligence analysts.
Most American Jews Want US Attack Against Iran, New Poll Shows
Haaretz (Israel)
One day ahead of talks in Geneva between Iran and six major powers - the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany - on Tehran's controversial nuclear program, a national poll finds that 56 percent of American Jews support a U.S. military strike against Iran. The annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion, commissioned by the American Jewish Committee, revealed a 14 percent rise in the number of U.S. Jews in support of such a military strike, whose aim would be to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
GOP Senators: US, Not Israel, Should Attack Iran 'If Necessary'
Raw Story
Two senior Republican senators say the United States, and not Israel, should attack Iran if military action becomes "necessary." They also say a simple strike at the country's nuclear capability wouldn't be enough -- the US would have to launch an "all-or-nothing" war against Iran with the aim of crippling the country's military capabilities. "I think an Israeli attack on Iran is a nightmare for the world, because it will rally the Arab world around Iran and they're not aligned now. It's too much pressure to put on Israel," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Fox News' Chris Wallace.
China Flexes Military Strength on Anniversary of Communist Takeover
The Associated Press
Tanks and other heavy weaponry rumbled across Beijing behind goose-stepping troops as China celebrated 60 years of communist rule Thursday with its biggest-ever military review -- a symbol of its rapidly expanding global might ... The biggest difference was the weaponry, more than had been shown before and most of which was domestically produced: dozens of fighter jets and hundreds of tanks, artillery and trucks carrying long-range, nuclear-capable missiles.
High Level Israeli Official Cancels Visit to Britain Over Arrest Fears
Haaretz (Israel)
Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon recently canceled a planned trip to Britain for fear of being arrested there ... Ya'alon was asked to attend the dinner by the British branch of the Jewish National Fund, which is helping the Hillmans raise money for the project, and said he would if the Foreign Ministry's legal department okayed it. As chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces in 2002-5, Ya'alon is one of several current and former senior officers whom pro-Palestinian groups have sought to put on trial over the assassination of senior Hamas terrorist Salah Shehadeh in July 2002. The attack also killed 14 civilians.
What Is Iran
Up To?
Stephen Walt
... If we want to stop an Iranian bomb (as opposed to halting its nuclear enrichment activities), we are going to have to
convince Iran that it doesn't need a nuclear deterrent to be safe. That won't be easy to do, given that Iran has three
nuclear neighbors (Pakistan, India, and Israel), and a very bad relationship with the United States, which has given
millions of dollars to Iranian opposition groups and formally committed itself to regime change on several past
occasions. Persuading Tehran that they don't need a deterrent requires taking the threat of force, regime change, and
the like off the table, instead of ratcheting the threat level up.
The Iran Attack Plan
The Wall Street Journal
... Anyone who meets regularly with senior Israeli officials, officers and experts knows that Israel is considering
military options, but considering them carefully and with an understanding that they pose serious problems and risks ...
Moreover, Israel does not have enough forces to carry out a series of restrikes if Iran persisted in creating and
rebuilding new facilities, and Arab states could not repeatedly stand by and let Israel penetrate their air space.
Israel might also have to deal with a Russia that would be far more willing to sell Iran advanced fighters and
surface-to-air missiles if Israel attacked the Russian-built reactor at Bushehr.
Another War in the Works: America Is Led and Informed By Liars
Paul Craig Roberts
... The IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] has monitored Iran's nuclear energy program and has announced repeatedly
that it has found no diversion of nuclear material to a weapons program. All 16 US intelligence agencies have affirmed
and reaffirmed that Iran abandoned interest in nuclear weapons years ago ... There you have it. The president of the
United States and his European puppets are doing what they do best -- lying through their teeth. The US "mainstream
media" repeats the lies as if they were facts. The US "media" is again making itself an accomplice to wars based on
fabrications.
Exorcising America's
Diplomatic Demons
Robert Scheer -- Truthdig
... According to the demonology that has long driven U.S. foreign policy, no country has ever cast a larger shadow as evil
incarnate than Communist China. All communists in the Cold War era, like all Islamic radicals today, were assumed to be
part of a unified internationalist movement bent on world conquest. And the Chinese, as the Iranians now, were thought
to be the worst of the pack. Incapable of change and therefore the fit object of unrelenting hostility, they needed to
be confronted militarily, up to the point of nuclear annihilation if that's what it took, as the taped musings of
various U.S. presidents attest.
In Israel, Intermarriage Is Viewed As
Treason
Jonathan Cook
A local authority in Israel has announced that it is establishing a special team of youth counsellors and psychologists
whose job it will be to identify young Jewish women who are dating Arab men and "rescue" them ... Hostility to intimate
relationships developing across Israel's ethnic divide is shared by many Israeli Jews, who regard such behavior as a
threat to the state's Jewishness. One of the few polls on the subject, in 2007, found that more than half of Israeli
Jews believed intermarriage should be equated with "national treason."
Holocaust
Training Now Obligatory for French Defense Ministry Officials
The Associated Press
... The session on genocide awareness -- which also included a debate, film and tour of the Holocaust Memorial museum in
Paris -- is to become regular training for new Defense Ministry officials. Participants on Friday filed past museum walls
etched with the names of thousands of French Jews deported to concentration camps during World War II. Some 76,000 Jews,
11,000 of them children, were deported from France to Nazi concentration camps. Fewer than 3,000 returned alive.
Anti-Semitism on Rise in
Spain, Says Zionist Group
Anti-Defamation League (New York)
Anti-Semitism is on the rise in Spain, with more public expressions and greater acceptance of virulent anti-Jewish
attitudes, according to a new report from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). "Polluting the Public Square: Anti-Semitic
Discourse in Spain" examines recent trends in Spain, including anti-Semitic criticism during Israel's three-week
military operation in Gaza last winter, anti-Semitic cartoons and articles in Spain's mainstream media, and opinion
polls conducted over the last year showing an alarming rise in anti-Semitic attitudes.
Most Americans Are `Mad as Hell'
Frank Luntz -- Los Angeles Times
... Today, Americans are boiling mad, and the elites from Washington to Wall Street to West Hollywood don't get it ... The frightening reality is that where there was hope, now there is cynicism. Where there were dreams, now there is disillusion. Instead of courage and resolve, I hear blame and finger-pointing. According to my research, 72% of Americans agree with Howard Beale -- they really are "mad as hell." Second, 57% now believe that their children will inherit a worse America than they did, and just 33% believe their children will have a better quality of life than they have.
`No Credible Evidence' of Iranian Nuclear Weapons, Says UN Inspector
The Guardian (Britain)
The UN's chief weapons inspector, Mohamed El Baradei, said today he had seen "no credible evidence" that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, rejecting British intelligence allegations that a weapons programme has been going on for at least four years. The claims and counter-claims came on the eve of a potentially decisive meeting in Geneva between diplomats from six world powers and an Iranian delegation about Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Iran insists its programme is for peaceful purposes, and that there is nothing illegal about a uranium enrichment plant under construction near the city of Qom, the existence of which was revealed last week.
Top Things You Think You Know About Iran That Are Not True
Juan Cole
... But on this occasion, I thought I'd take the opportunity to list some things that people tend to think they know about Iran, but for which the evidence is shaky. Belief: Iran is aggressive and has threatened to attack Israel, its neighbors or the US. Reality: Iran has not launched an aggressive war modern history (unlike the US or Israel), and its leaders have a doctrine of "no first strike." This is true of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as well of Revolutionary Guards commanders. Belief: Iran is a militarized society bristling with dangerous weapons and a growing threat to world peace. Reality: Iran's military budget is a little over $6 billion annually. Sweden, Singapore and Greece all have larger military budgets.
WMD All Over Again
Philip Giraldi
... Iran has been the target of choice for the Israel Lobby and its many friends in congress and the media since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein ... The real question for the United States and its citizens should be whether or not Iran constitutes a serious danger and whether the threat level mandates Washington's launching of another war on the heels of two unsuccessful forays into the Muslim world ... One could reasonably ask why Congress and the media seem intent on setting the US on a path that can only lead to war, a conflict that could easily have consequences that would gravely damage the United States and its people. Unfortunately, we have seen all this before and recently.
British World War II Bombers Deliberately Targeted Civilians
Leo Mckinstry -- Daily Mail (Britain)
.... Unpublished papers I have unearthed for my new book on the Lancaster bomber reveal that the mass, indiscriminate killing of Germany's urban population was indeed the key goal of the RAF's campaign. During my research on the Lancaster -- the heavyweight plane that enabled the RAF to mount the bomber offensive -- I uncovered a wealth of archival material which exposes the truth about the Government's policy. Typical was one paper from the Air Ministry, written in August 1941, which urged that the focus of attacks must be 'the people in their homes and factories'. ... Indeed, senior RAF planners did not hesitate to use the term 'terror-bombing' to describe some of their raids.
The Plot Against Art
Lasha Darkmoon -- Occidental Observer
... It will soon become clear to you, if you are a struggling artist, that the art world is dominated by Jews who are only too anxious to bring about this hell on earth. Their control over what now passes for art is as tentacular as it is terrifying. Art has morphed into Anti-Art. "For Jews," Israel Shamir points out, "their group interest lies in undermining visual art, for they can't compete with it. Even deeper group interest is to undermine Christianity, their main enemy." To undermine. To corrupt. To create discord. To drive crazy. To destroy. Verbs to remember.
Comic Book Version of Hitler's `Mein Kampf' is a Hit in Japan
The Telegraph (Britain)
Sales of a comic version of Adolf Hitler's notorious political tract Mein Kampf have become a hit in Japan. The manga book describes both Hitler's autobiography and his infamous Nazi manifesto in the unlikely form of easy-to-read comic pictures and captions. Since it was published in Japan last November, its popularity has soared, with sales of more than 45,000. The book, which forms part of a series on world classics turned into manga, covers a range of aspects of Hitler's life, from his childhood to the formation of his political party.
Subversion of Science: How Psychology Lost Darwin
Glayde Whitney -- Institute for Historical Review
When real history is finally written, mainstream social sciences during most of the twentieth century will be exposed as consisting largely of ethnically motivated disinformation. Much has already been written about the subversion of American anthropology: the shift from legitimate science to ideological pap under the direction of the Jewish immigrant Franz Boas. Much less has been written about how psychology was transformed from a branch of natural science into a section of the Marxist-influenced social sciences. In this paper I will provide information on the subversion of psychology, pointing out the role of Boas and others in the subversion of psychology.
Ron Paul Has the Right Cure
Eric Margolis
Republican Congressman Ron Paul became a hero to many Americans last year when he ran for president against the political establishment. The 11-term Texas congressman is the most respected and admired American politician around the world after President Barack Obama. Rep. Paul is a vocal critic of what he calls reckless deficit spending, `welfare' for big finance, and America's foreign wars ... Dr. Paul and his fellow libertarians offer Republicans and Americans a real alternative to the dumbed-down Republicans and to the wildly spending Democrats whose expanded Afghanistan war and reckless economic policies are leading the nation into growing danger.
The Best Congress AIPAC Can Buy
Philip Giraldi
... Words like "disloyalty" come to mind immediately, but the AIPAC trips targeting congress are signs of a deeper problem. Many congressmen undoubtedly display knee-jerk support for Israel either because it is career enhancing or because they are afraid not to. Those who truly believe that Israel's interests are of paramount importance and that the United States ought to go to war on its behalf should perhaps find another line of work. If they retain even a shred of decency and love of country, it is time for Cantor, Hoyer and others like them to go away. They should leave quietly but do so quickly. The well-being of the United States and its citizens demands it.
Large Hoard of Anglo-Saxon Treasure Uncovered in England
The Associated Press
It's an unprecedented find that could revolutionize ideas about medieval England's Germanic rulers: An amateur treasure-hunter searching a farmer's field with a metal detector unearthed a huge collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver artifacts. The discovery sent a thrill through Britain's archaeological community, which said Thursday that it offers new insight into the world of the Anglo-Saxons, who ruled England from the fifth century until the 1066 Norman invasion, and whose cultural influence is still felt throughout the English-speaking world ...The Anglo-Saxons were a group of Germanic tribes who invaded England starting in the wake of the collapse of the Roman Empire.
Poland's Parliament Condemns Stalin-Era Soviet Crimes
Deutsche Welle (Germany)
At the beginning of World War II, the Soviet invasion of Poland led to massive loss of life in prison camps and massacres. A new resolution from the Polish parliament condemns the invasion -- and irks Russia. A resolution unanimously approved by the Polish parliament this week condemns the Soviet invasion of eastern Poland in 1939. The resolution referred to a series of massacres of Poles in Russia, as well as mass deportations of over one million Poles to Siberia. Poland also called on Russia to condemn the crimes.
The Economy Is A Lie, Too
Paul Craig Roberts
... In bygone days of American prosperity, American incomes rose with productivity. It was the real growth in American incomes that propelled the US economy. In today's America, the only incomes that rise are in the financial sector that risks the country's future on excessive leverage and in the corporate world that substitutes foreign for American labor ... The worst part of the decline is yet to come. Bank failures and home foreclosures are yet to peak. The commercial real estate bust is yet to hit. The dollar crisis is building. When it hits, interest rates will rise dramatically as the US struggles to finance its massive budget and trade deficits while the rest of the world tries to escape a depreciating dollar.
Mussolini Speaks to the American People - In English
Fox Movietone newsreel (1929) -- Video
In this short address, the Italian leader speaks -- in English -- to the American people. In 1929, when this was recorded and shown in American movie theaters, Mussolini was widely admired around the world. In addition to English, the Italian statesman also spoke French and German. Runtime: 1:24 mins.
Russian President Warns Against Attempts to `Rewrite' World War II History
RIA Novosti (Russia)
The UN should firmly act against the rise of neo-Nazism and attempts to rewrite the results of the World War II, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday. "I'm convinced that firm and collective response to signs of neo-Nazism and attempts to revise the results of the WWII enshrined in the UN Charter should remain a priority task for the United Nations," Medvedev said at the 64th session of the UN General Assembly. He said that Russia proposes holding a special session on WWII in May to adopt a resolution on the issue.
Israel 'Deplores' Agency Call to Join Non-Proliferation Treaty
Jason Ditz - Antiwar.com
The Israeli government has officially said that it "deplores" the vote by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) member states to call on Israel to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and submit their nuclear facilities to the same oversight as the rest of the world does. The vote narrowly passed, 49-45, and was generally opposed by Western nations while being supported by UN Security Council permanent members Russia and China, as well as most of the nations in the Middle East.
Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land: US Media and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Media Education Foundation (2003)
This video documentary shows how the pro-Israel lobby manipulates and distorts what Americans read, see and hear about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Scholars, media critics, peace activists, religious figures and Middle East experts explain how -- through the use of language, framing and context -- American television, newspapers and other media misrepresent the reality of Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. In the US, Zionists and their collaborators have been largely successful in portraying Israel's occupation policies as defensive and responsive. Runtime: 79 mins.
Israeli PR Campaign Warn Against Marrying Non-Jews
Jonathan Cook
The Israeli government has launched a television and internet advertising campaign urging Israelis to inform on Jewish friends and relatives abroad who may be in danger of marrying non-Jews. The advertisements, employing what the Israeli media described as "scare tactics", are designed to stop assimilation through intermarriage among young diaspora Jews by encouraging their move to Israel. The campaign, which cost $800,000, was created in response to reports that half of all Jews outside Israel marry non-Jews. It is just one of several initiatives by the Israeli state and private organisations to try to increase the size of Israel's Jewish population.
Operation Northwoods and the 9/11 Truthers
Jacob G. Hornberger
... I have no doubts that the 9/11 attacks were no different in principle from the 1993 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center: that is, that the attacks were motivated by deep anger and hatred arising from the bad things that the U.S. government has done (and continues to do) to people in the Middle East. ... I'm referring, of course, to Operation Northwoods, the plan conceived in 1962 by a unanimous Joint Chiefs of Staff to implement fake hijackings and fake terrorist attacks, with the objective of serving as a pretext for a U.S. military invasion of Cuba.
Iran's Ahmadinejad Again Calls Holocaust a `Myth'
AFP
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the Holocaust was a "myth" as he addressed the annual Quds Day rally in Tehran on Friday, reiterating comments that sparked outrage around the world. "The very existence of this regime is an insult to the dignity of the people," he said referring to Israel. "They (Western powers) launched the myth of the Holocaust. They lied, they put on a show and then they support the Jews."
"If as you claim the Holocaust is true, why can a study not be allowed?," the Iranian president said to chants of "Death to Israel" from the crowd gathered for the annual display of solidarity with the Palestinians.
Settling for Failure in the Middle East
Stephen M. Walt -- The Washington Post
Like so many of his predecessors, President Obama is quickly discovering that persuading Israel to change course is nearly impossible ... If Obama tries to make aid to Israel conditional on a settlement freeze, Congress will simply override him. Putting real pressure on Israel risks alienating key politicians and major Democratic fundraisers, as well as Israel's supporters in the media, imperiling the rest of Obama's agenda and conceivably his prospects for reelection.
The Drama and the Farce: The Waldorf-Astoria Summit
Uri Avnery
No point denying it: in the first round of the match between Barack Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu, Obama was beaten. Obama had demanded a freeze of all settlement activity, including East Jerusalem, as a condition for convening a tripartite summit meeting, in the wake of which accelerated peace negotiations were to start, leading to peace between two states - Israel and Palestine ... An American President who wants to undertake such a role must formulate a clear and detailed peace plan, with a strict timetable, and be prepared to invest all his resources and all his political capital in its realization. Among other things, he must be ready to confront, face to face, the powerful pro-Israel lobby.
Tidal Wave of Homeless Students Hits Schools
MSNBC
... But with insufficient federal funding and budgets that are severely strained, many schools are struggling to meet the rising need. In Vista, Calif., about 35 miles north of San Diego, the population of homeless kids in the local school district reached 2,542 this year -- about nine percent of the student body, and nearly ten times the number just two years ago, said Rebecca Benner, the district's homeless liaison. "It's like a tidal wave this school year," she said.
The Ghosts of Vietnam Haunt Washington
Eric Margolis
... The Soviets had a much better understanding of Afghanistan than the American military, which one senior British general recently called, "culturally ignorant." Moscow built an Afghan government army of around 240,000 men. Many were loyal Communists. They sometimes fought well, as I experienced in combat against them near Jalalabad. But, in the end, they smelled defeat and crumbled ... Afghanistan keeps giving me deja vu back to the old British Empire, and flashbacks to those wonderful epic films of the Raj, Drums, Lives of a Bengal Lancer, and Kim. The British imperialists did it much, much better, and with a lot more style. Many of their imperial subjects even admired and liked them.
A Fifth of European Union Will be Muslim by 2050
The Telegraph (Britain)
Last year, five percent of the total population of the 27 European Union countries was Muslim. But rising levels of immigration from Muslim countries and low birth rates among Europe's indigenous population mean that, by 2050, the figure will be 20 per cent, according to forecasts. Data gathered from various sources indicate that Britain, Spain and Holland will have an even higher proportion of Muslims in a shorter amount of time. The UK, which currently has 20 million fewer people than Germany, is also projected to be the EU's most populous country by 2060, with 77 million people.
The Immigration Revolution: Can Europe Be the Same With Different People In It?
Ed West -- The Telegraph (Britain)
Something explosive is about to hit the British political arena, a book with ideas so shocking it will change the debate on the most important issue in European politics.
For years, the European political class have told their peoples that mass immigration was beneficial, inevitable and historically precedented ... The publication of his book Reflections on the Revolution in Europe is a pivotal moment in the debate on immigration, and it heralds the start of a new era - an acceptance by the political mainstream that our system isn't working, and that while a multi-racial society can work, the more multi-racial it is the less well it functions ... The subtitle asks: "Can Europe be the same with different people in it?" The answer, quite clearly, is no.
Hollywood Fights Back Against Anti-Israeli Sentiment
Tina Daunt -- Los Angeles Times
Left, right or center, there's two things nearly everybody in Hollywood agrees on: There's no disease that can't be cured by raising enough money, and the state of Israel deserves unabashed support. These days, sympathy for Israel puts the American entertainment industry at odds with much of the European film and academic communities. In those circles, vehement criticism of Israeli policies toward the Palestinians and boycotts of Israeli scholars and artists have become almost fashionable ... It's hard to believe that even Fonda's well-practiced backpedaling is going to temper the outrage in activist Hollywood, where attacks on Israel in almost any form are a non-starter.
How Low Will Israel Stoop in
Its Propaganda War?
Stuart Littlewood
'The Israel Project', a US media advocacy group, has produced a revised training manual to help the worldwide Zionist movement win the propaganda war, keep
their ill-gotten territorial gains and persuade international audiences to accept that their crimes are necessary and conform to 'shared values' between
Israel and the civilized West. The manual teaches how to justify the slaughter, the ethnic cleansing, the land-grabbing, the cruelty and the blatant
disregard for international law and UN resolutions, and make it all smell sweeter with a liberal squirt of the aerosol of persuasive language.
Rare Photos of an Auschwitz Camp Orchestra
Focal Point (David Irving)
A former camp officer at Auschwitz living in Munich sold to one of us these original snapshots taken of one of the half dozen orchestras and bands formed by
inmates of the infamous Auschwitz slave labor camp, the Kubu orchestra, said to have been comprised of Cuban Jews. On the back of some of the five snapshots
is a rubber stamp of the Auschwitz camp office, and at some time -- possibly after the war -- a German hand has inscribed captions on some of them. Pencil
caption: "gedeckte Tafel für unsere jüdischen Freunde vom Kubu Ochester" ("Table set for our Jewish friends in the Kubu Band")
The Canadian Jewish Congress is Embarrassing the Jews
Ezra Levant (Canada)
... If you wanted to create a perfect caricature of a villainous Jew for anti-Semites to point to, you couldn't do better than Burny [Bernie Farber] and the
CJC [Canadian Jewish Congress]. They despise our freedom of speech. They demand censorship of their political opponents. They disparage any jurist who
disagrees with them. And they do all this in the name of "the Jews". Controlling. Bullying. Censoring. Refusing to submit to the rule of law. Demanding
Canada import foreign ideas of censorship. Excusing -- or even celebrating -- the corruption and abuses in the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
A Symbol of Russian History in
California at Risk
The Associated Press
Nearly two centuries ago, Russian colonists selected a patch of sloping grassland along California's rugged North Coast for a new settlement. It was from
this spot about 80 miles north of San Francisco that they hoped to harvest Redwoods, grow crops and hunt seals for the lucrative fur trade. Today, Russian
Americans throughout Northern California honor their past by visiting Fort Ross Historic State Park ... But the colonial outpost that claims to have
established California's first shipyard and windmill is very much at risk of being abandoned by its current caretaker. Fort Ross is among 100 of California's
279 state parks that officials are considering shutting down.
Failure Looms in Afghanistan
War
The Age (Australia)
Australia is unlikely to send more troops to Afghanistan despite a blunt assessment by the top United States and NATO commander in the field, General Stanley
McChrystal, that unless more forces are provided, the war will ''likely result in failure." General McChrystal is also facing resistance from US President
Barack Obama, who used television interviews to warn that he wanted to fine-tune the strategy in Afghanistan before committing more troops. This marks a
significant shift by Mr Obama as the war becomes increasingly unpopular among Americans. Early in his term he indicated that the US would do what was needed
to achieve its objectives.
The Missing Link in Palestinian Organ Theft
Jonathan Cook
The hyperventilating by Israel's leaders over a story published in a Swedish newspaper last month suggesting that the Israeli army assisted in organ theft
from Palestinians has distracted attention from the disturbing allegations made by Palestinian families that were the basis of the article's central claim. ...
Equally disturbing, the doctor behind the plunder of body parts, Prof Yehuda Hiss, appointed director of the Abu Kabir institute in the late 1980s, has never
been jailed despite admitting to the organ theft and he continues to be the state's chief pathologist at the institute.
A Year Later, Worries Linger On Economy
The Associated Press
One year after Wall Street teetered on the brink of collapse, seven out of ten Americans lack confidence the federal government has taken safeguards to
prevent another financial industry meltdown, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll. Even more -- 80 percent -- rate the condition of the economy as poor
and a majority worry about their own ability to make ends meet.
The
Goldstone Report: Israel Must Be Held Accountable
George Bisharat - Los Angeles Times
Will Israel's decades-long impunity from international law finally come to an end? That is the question facing the international community in the aftermath
of the just-released Goldstone report .. . Israeli abuses are deeply resented around the globe. For too long, we in the United States have abetted Israel,
bestowing on it roughly $3 billion annually in aid since 1973 and vetoing scores of resolutions in the Security Council that attempted to hold Israel
accountable for its violations of international law.
The Forgotten Conservative: Revilo Oliver
Nesta Bevan -- Taki's Magazine
A once prominent name has been erased from the history of the American Right after World War II. Readers of National Review in the late 1950s and early '60s
would have found it difficult to miss the contributions of Revilo P. Oliver, among the most frequent book reviewers for the magazine. Oliver, who taught at
the University of Illinois and read eleven languages, including Sanskrit, was a classical philologist of great distinction, and his articles for the magazine
displayed his remarkable erudition .. . Whether Oliver's stress on racial struggle is an example of the sectarianism he effectively warns against is a
question his readers must confront. But, agree with him or not, Oliver poses basic questions that all too many other writers choose to ignore.
Previously Unknown Hitler
Painting Up For Auction
The Telegraph (Britain)
A painting bought by tourist Anna Sheersmith from a young painter in 1908 in Vienna is set to fetch more than 10,000 pounds at auction as it has emerged it
was by the then unknown Adolf Hitler. The picture, brought back as a holiday souvenir, has been unveiled in public for the first time and looks set to fetch
at least 10,000 pounds at auction next month. Its story had been kept a family secret for over 100 years, hidden by Mrs Sheersmith's relatives until they
entered it into a British auction earlier this year. The New Jersey seller, who wishes to remain anonymous, said the picture had been picked up by her great
great aunt on her regular trips to Europe.
Three-Fourths of Oklahoma High School Students Can't Name First US
President
KWTV News 9 (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)
Only one in four Oklahoma public high school students can name the first President of the United States, according to a survey released today. The survey was
commissioned by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs in observance of Constitution Day on Thursday. Brandon Dutcher is with the conservative think tank and
said the group wanted to find out how much civic knowledge Oklahoma high school students know .. ..
About 92 percent of the people who take the citizenship test pass on their first try, according to immigration service data. However, Oklahoma students did
not fare as well. Only about three percent of the students surveyed would have passed the [US] citizenship test.
US Should Attack Israeli Jets if They Try to Strike Iran,
Says Brzezinski
Jake Tapper
The national security adviser for former President Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski, gave an interview to The Daily Beast in which he suggested President
Obama should make it clear to Israel that if they attempt to attack Iran's nuclear weapons sites the U.S. Air Force will stop them. "We are not exactly
impotent little babies," Brzezinski said. "They have to fly over our airspace in Iraq. Are we just going to sit there and watch? ... We have to be serious
about denying them that right. That means a denial where you aren't just saying it. If they fly over, you go up and confront them."
UN Body Urges Israel to Allow Nuclear Inspection
Reuters
Arab states in the United Nations nuclear assembly on Friday won narrow approval of a resolution urging Israel to put all its atomic sites under the world
body's inspection and join the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel deplored the measure for singling it out while many of its neighbors remained hostile to its
existence, and said it would not cooperate with it. The non-binding resolution, which passed for the first time in 18 years of attempts thanks to more
developing nation votes, voiced concern about "Israeli nuclear capabilities" and urged the International Atomic Energy Agency to tackle the issue.
US Credit Shrinks at Great Depression Rate, Prompting Fears of Double-Dip Recession
The Telegraph (Britain)
Professor Tim Congdon from International Monetary Research said US bank loans have fallen at an annual pace of almost 14 percent in the three months to
August (from $7,147 billion to $6,886 billion). "There has been nothing like this in the USA since the 1930s," he said. "The rapid destruction of money
balances is madness." The M3 "broad" money supply, watched as an early warning signal for the economy a year or so later, has been falling at a five percent
annual rate.
Most Americans Believe Media Is Biased, Inaccurate
Agence France Presse
Public trust in the US media is eroding and increasing numbers of Americans believe news coverage is inaccurate and biased, according to a study released on Monday. Just 29 percent of the 1,506 adults surveyed by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press between July 22-26 said news organizations generally get the facts straight. Sixty three percent said news stories are often inaccurate, up from 34 percent in a 1985 study, Pew said. Sixty percent of those polled said the press is biased, up from 45 percent in 1985.
A Somber Warning on Afghanistan
The New York Times
Western powers now in Afghanistan run the risk of suffering the fate of the Soviet Union there if they cannot halt the growing insurgency and an Afghan perception that they are foreign invaders, according to Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former U.S. national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter. In a speech opening a weekend gathering of military and foreign policy experts, Mr. Brzezinski, who was national security adviser when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in late 1979, endorsed a British and German call, backed by France, for a new international conference on the country.
Netanyahu Says Israel Won't Freeze Building In Settlements
Reuters
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday Israel would not freeze all building in West Bank settlements as demanded by Washington. Israeli officials have said work would continue on 2,500 settler homes being built in the occupied territory, and Netanyahu reaffirmed his position in remarks to a legislative panel, before talks on Tuesday with U.S. envoy George Mitchell. "They (Americans) asked us for a complete freeze and we told them that we will not do this," Netanyahu was quoted as saying by a parliamentary official.
Israel Has Iran in its Sights
Micah Zenko -- Los Angeles Times
... Those hoping that the Obama administration will be able to pressure Israel to stand down from attacking Iran as diplomatic efforts drag on are mistaken ... In June 1967, Israel initiated the Six-Day War without notice to Washington, despite President Johnson's insistence that Israel maintain the status quo and consult with the U.S. before taking action ... These episodes demonstrate that if Israel decides that Iranian nuclear weapons are an existential threat, it will be deaf to entreaties from U.S. officials to refrain from using military force.
Iran Nuclear `Threat' Hyped, Says IAEA's ElBaradei
Reuters
Iran is not going to produce a nuclear weapon any time soon, and the threat posed by its atomic program has been exaggerated, the U.N. nuclear watchdog chief said in a published interview. The West suspects Iran wants to develop a nuclear weapons capability under the guise of a declared civilian atomic energy program. Tehran rejects the charge, saying its uranium enrichment program is a peaceful way to generate electricity. Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said there was no concrete evidence that Tehran has an ongoing nuclear weapons program.
Europe's Complicity in Evil
Paul Craig Roberts
There is a widespread supposition that Obama, being black and a member of an oppressed race, will imbue US foreign policy with a higher morality than the world experienced from Bush and Clinton. This is a delusion. Obama represents the same ideology of American "exceptionalism" as other recent presidents. This ideology designates the United States as The Virtuous Nation and supplies the basis for the belief that America has the right, indeed the responsibility, to impose its hegemony upon the world by bribery or by force ... Europe should disassociate from the United States and go into active opposition to US foreign policy.
US Rebukes Israel for Discrimination Against Palestinian-Americans
The Associated Press
The United States has complained to Israel over rules that keep Palestinian-Americans from entering Israel, officials said Thursday. A travel update posted by the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem says that for some time, Israel has not permitted Palestinians who also hold American passports to enter through Israel's Ben-Gurion international airport, requiring that they use the Allenby Bridge land crossing from Jordan directly into the West Bank. Since spring this year, travelers using the Israeli-controlled bridge crossing have had their passports stamped permitting travel only in Palestinian controlled areas, the update said.
In Britain, Pupils Allegedly Spend `Too Little Time on Holocaust'
The Guardian (Britain)
Some pupils are spending just an hour of their school lives learning about the Holocaust, according to research which suggests there is too much variation in how the events of the second world war are taught. The survey of 2,100 teachers, funded in part by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, reveals that, despite it being a compulsory part of the national curriculum, some schools are skimming over the Holocaust while others dedicate 20 lessons to the subject. The survey comes after a report from the Historical Association this week questioned the quality of history lessons in state secondaries more generally ...
Israel Has 'Stranglehold' on Washington, Says Ex-Congressman Traficant
Fox News - (Video)
Former U.S. Congressman James Traficant says that Israel has a "powerful stranglehold on the American government." In a startling interview with Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteren, the former nine-term Ohio Democratic Congressman also says that Israel is "controlling much of our foreign policy" and "influencing much of our domestic policy." "We're conducting the expansionist policy of Israel and everybody's afraid to say it," he also said. "They control much of the media, they control much of the commerce of the country, and they control powerfully both bodies of the Congress. They own the Congress." Runtime: 8:59 mins.
Why Did the Second World War Begin?
Niall Ferguson -- The Guardian (Britain)
... Only by taking a world-historical view of events can we hope to grasp its true character. The first point to clear up is that the war did not begin in Europe in September 1939 ... For all these reasons, the events of September 1939 look less like the beginning of a world war and more like a critical moment in the escalation of an ongoing global conflict. It was a war, above all, for dominance in Eurasia. It was a war begun by the "have-nots" - Japan, Italy and Germany - but won by the least deserving of the "haves" - the Soviet Union, which had begun on the wrong side in 1939, and the United States, which entered the war more than two years later.
Hitler's Declaration of War Against the United States
... The increasingly hostile attacks by the American President Roosevelt have reached the point that he has ordered the U.S. navy, in complete violation of international law, to immediately and everywhere attack, fire upon and sink German and Italian ships. American officials have even boasted about destroying German submarines in this criminal manner ...The American President and his plutocratic clique have called us the "have not" nations. That is correct! But the "have nots" also want to live, and they will certainly make sure that what little they have to live on is not stolen from them by the "haves."
Is America Coming Apart?
Patrick J. Buchanan
... In what sense are we one nation and one people anymore? For what is a nation if not a people of a common ancestry, faith, culture and language, who worship the same God, revere the same heroes, cherish the same history, celebrate the same holidays, and share the same music, poetry, art and literature? ... The European-Christian core of the country that once defined us is shrinking, as Christianity fades, the birth rate falls and Third World immigration surges. Globalism dissolves the economic bonds, while the cacophony of multiculturalism displaces the old American culture.
UN Condemns 'War Crimes' in Gaza
BBC News
There is evidence that both Israeli and Palestinian forces committed war crimes in the recent conflict in Gaza, a long-awaited official UN report says. It accuses Israel of deliberately using "disproportionate force" in the three-week operation in December and January ... The investigation, led by South African judge Richard Goldstone, found evidence "indicating serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law were committed by Israel during the Gaza conflict", a UN statement said. Israel also "committed actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity".
Remarks by David Irving in Italy Prompt Protest
La Repubblica (Italy)
Polemics at the presence of the British historian David Irving at a press conference with journalists in a hotel at Udine, organised by the Friuli district circle, "Utinum et Patria." The historian is famous around the world for his position on the Holocaust, called "deniers." "I don't 'deny the Holocaust'," the historian said. "There's no doubt whatever that the Nazis killed many Jews. "But we British and the Americans also killed lots of people during the Second World War. I find it odious to single out one group of people when one speaks of victims."
Bin Laden Warns U.S. On Israel Ties
Reuters
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden warned the American people over their government's close ties with Israel in an apparently new audio tape posted on an Islamist website Monday. "The time has come for you to liberate yourselves from fear and the ideological terrorism of neo-conservatives and the Israeli lobby," Bin Laden's latest tape said. "The reason for our dispute with you is your support for your ally Israel, occupying our land in Palestine." "If you think about your situation well, you will know that the White House is occupied by pressure groups," Bin Laden said.
Rights Group Analyst Suspended Over Nazi Memorabilia Collection
BBC News
A human rights group has suspended its senior military analyst after revelations that he collects Nazi memorabilia. New York-based Human Rights Watch said Marc Garlasco was on suspension with pay "pending an investigation". Mr Garlasco's hobby was revealed by Mere Rhetoric, a pro-Israeli blog which said the activities reflected "an anti-Israeli bias". Mr Garlasco said he was interested in military history and was not pro-Nazi. He said his interest sprang from the fact that his grandfather had been conscripted into the Nazi army.
Rethinking the Good War
Laurence M. Vance
... From the American point of view, World War II is basically considered to be the Good War for two reasons: Pearl Harbor
and Hitler ... Was it necessary that tens of millions were slaughtered to prevent Hitler from slaughtering millions? Was
it wise to join forces with a brutal dictator like Stalin, who had already killed millions, with the result that he
enslaved half of Europe under communism? It is time to rethink the Good War ... It is time to rethink the Good War. Rather
than being good, just, and necessary, it was the most destructive thing to life, liberty, and property that the world
has ever seen. As Benjamin Franklin once said: "There never was a good War or a bad Peace."
Czech Town
Divided Over How to Commemorate 1945 Massacre of Ethnic Germans
Der Spiegel (Germany)
More than six decades after the end of World War II, long-suppressed information about a massacre of around 2,000
Sudeten Germans in June 1945 is dividing the Czech town of Postoloprty. Supporters of a memorial to the incident are
clashing with those who want to forget all about the murders ... The oldest was 15, the youngest 12. They were flogged
and then shot dead -- in full view of the others, who were held back at gunpoint. The Czechs didn't use machine guns,
but their rifles, so it took a long time to kill all five. "One of the boys who hadn't been mortally wounded by the
gunfire ran up to the marksmen begging to be allowed to go to his mother," recalls 80-year-old Heinrich Giebitz. "They
just carried on shooting."
Israeli Troops `Ill-Treat
Kids'
BBC News
A former Israeli military commander has told the BBC that Palestinian youngsters are routinely ill-treated by Israeli
soldiers while in custody, reports the BBC' s Katya Adler from Jerusalem and the West Bank. "You take the kid, you
blindfold him, you handcuff him, he's really shaking.. . Sometimes you cuff his legs too. Sometimes it cuts off the
circulation. "He doesn't understand a word of what's going on around him. He doesn't know what you're going to do with
him. He just knows we are soldiers with guns. That we kill people. Maybe they think we're going to kill him."
The Leaking Game: Planted News
Stories to Discredit Iran
Gareth Porter
Western officials are leaking stories to the Associated Press and Reuters aimed at pressuring the outgoing chief of the
International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, to include a summary of intelligence alleging that Iran has been
actively pursuing work on nuclear weapons in the IAEA report due out this week. The aim of the pressure for publication
of the document appears to be to discredit the November 2007 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on the Iranian
nuclear programme, which concluded that Iran had ended work on nuclear weapons in 2003.
Threatening Iran
Paul Craig Roberts
... The US, which has been threatening Iran with attack for years, has passed the job to Israel. During the third week of
July, the American vice president and secretary of state gave Israel the go-ahead ... Israel intends to dominate the
Middle East. Israel's goal is to incorporate all of Palestine and southern Lebanon into "Greater Israel." The US
intends to dominate the entire world, deciding who rules which countries and controlling resource flows. The US and
Israel are likely to succeed, because they have effective PSYOPS. For the most part, the world media follows the US
media, which follows the US and Israeli governments' lines. Indeed, the American media is part of the PSYOPS of both
countries.
President Obama Faces 30 Death Threats a Day
The Telegraph (Britain)
President Barack Obama is the target of more than 30 potential death threats a day, and is being protected by an
increasingly over-stretched and under-resourced Secret Service, according to a new book. Since Mr Obama took office, the
rate of threats against the president has increased 400 percent from the 3,000 a year or so under President George W.
Bush, according to Ronald Kessler, author of In the President's Secret Service.
Gladiators Were Vegetarians
History Today (Britain)
Gladiators were mostly vegetarians and their diets consisted, above all, of barley and vegetables.They were neither too
poor to buy meat nor staunch defenders of animal rights; instead, their carbohydrate-rich diets made them put on weight,
which both protected them during fights and made them appear more spectacular, which pleased the crowds. A
200-square-foot plot of land in the city of Ephesus (now in western Turkey), alongside the road that originally led from
the city centre to the Temple of Artemis, is the world's only known gladiator graveyard.
Is
Obama Making `Depression' Mistakes?
The Telegraph (Britain)
Barack Obama is committing the same mistakes made by policymakers during the Great Depression, according to a new study
endorsed by Nobel laureate James Buchanan. His policies even have the potential to consign the US to a similar fate as
Argentina, which suffered a painful and humiliating slide from first to Third World status last century, the paper says.
There are "troubling similarities" between the US President's actions since taking office and those which in the 1930s
sent the US and much of the world spiralling into the worst economic collapse in recorded history, says the new
pamphlet, published by the Institute of Economic Affairs.
Battle of the
Teutoburg Forest: Germany Recalls Myth That Created the Nation
Der Spiegel (Germany)
In September 9 AD, Germanic tribesmen slaughtered three Roman legions in a battle that marked the "big bang" of the
German nation and created its first hero -- Hermann. The country is marking the 2,000th anniversary with restraint
because the myth of Hermann remains tainted by the militant nationalism that would later be associated with Hitler.
Germany's 20th century history has been so troubled that anniversaries of positive events are in short supply.
Churchill Spurred the
Decline of the West
Patrick J. Buchanan
... Over that half century, no other career of a Western statesman was more calamitous for his country and his
civilization than that of Winston Spencer Churchill. More than any other British leader, in 1914 and 1939, Churchill
lusted for war and pushed his country to turn two European wars into world wars, so Germany might be destroyed. Both
times, he succeeded. And history records that those wars, that together took the lives of perhaps a hundred million
Europeans, were the mortal blows that advanced the death of the West. And it was Winston Churchill who led the West in
its advance to barbarism.
What Role Did the
U.S.-Israeli Relationship Play in 9-11?
Jeff Gates
... Only one nation had the means, motive, opportunity and stable nation state intelligence required to take the U.S. to
war in the Middle East while also making it appear that Islam is the problem. If Barack Obama continues to defer to Tel
Aviv, he can rightly be blamed when the next attack occurs in the U.S. or the European Union featuring the usual orgy of
evidence pointing to a predetermined target. Should another mass murder occur, that event will be traceable directly to
the U.S.-Israeli relationship and the failure of U.S policy-makers to free America from this enemy within.
Why Not Sanctions
Against Israel?
Paul Craig Roberts
... In other words, Israel and the US claim the right to abrogate Iran's right to develop nuclear energy. The Israeli/US
position has no basis in international law or in anything other than the arrogance of Israel and the United States. The
hypocrisy is extreme. Israel is not a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and developed its nuclear weapons
illegally on the sly, with, as far as we know, US help. As Israel is an illegal possessor of nuclear weapons and has a
fanatical government that is capable of using them, crippling sanctions should be applied to Israel to force it to
disarm. Israel qualifies for crippling sanctions for another reason. It is an apartheid state, as former US President
Jimmy Carter demonstrated in his book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.
The Rise of
Israel's Military Rabbis
BBC Newsnight (Britain)
Israel's army is changing. Once proudly secular, its combat units are now filling with those who believe Israel's wars
are "God's wars". Military rabbis are becoming more powerful. Trained in warfare as well as religion, new army
regulations mean they are now part of a military elite. Some of their activities raised troubling questions about
political-religious influence in the military ... Some leaflets called Israeli soldiers the "sons of light" and
Palestinians the "sons of darkness". Others compared the Palestinians to the Philistines, the bitter biblical enemy of
the Jewish people.
The `Jewish Soap' Fable
Mark Weber
One of the most lurid and slanderous Holocaust claims is the story that the Germans manufactured soap from the bodies of
their victims. Although a similar charge during the First World War was exposed as a hoax almost immediately afterwards,
it was nevertheless revived and widely believed during the Second. More important, this accusation was "proved" at the
main Nuremberg trial of 1945-1946, and has been authoritatively endorsed by numerous historians in the decades since. In
recent years, though, as part of a broad retreat from the most obviously untenable aspects of the "orthodox"
extermination story, Holocaust historians have grudgingly conceded that the human soap tale is a wartime propaganda lie.
Understanding Dictatorships
Jon Basil Utley
... Washington's plans to create democracy and legitimate government for Iraq and Afghanistan in a few years crashes
against these traditions. For thousands of years tribal systems have provided for personal and economic security. Such
traditions do not change quickly ... Understanding Third World governments and tribal societies would save America from
the disastrous interventions, unending wars, and growing domestic bankruptcy. We can't simply "win" wars with such
regimes, as jingoists demand, and then come home to celebrate. War is not a football game.
Gandhi `Was One of Nazi's Greatest Friends,' Says German Historian
The Telegraph (Britain)
A leading German historian said Mahatma Gandhi was "one of the greatest friends of Nazi Germany" because the Indian
activist and the Third Reich shared a shared a common enemy in Britain. Götz Aly, the popular historian, accused black
Allied soldiers of the systematic rape of German women during the Second World War .. . Though he was invited to speak,
Mr Aly dismissed what he called a "politically correct" version of history and argued that, in fact, people from
colonised countries had a "parallel interest" with the Nazis in defeating imperial nations such as Britain and France.
Churchill: A Liability to
the Free World?
History Today (Britain)
'Churchill was more a liability than an asset to the free world'. That was the motion defended, on September 3rd, by
Patrick Buchanan, Norman Stone and Nigel Knight at the Methodist Central Hall Westminster ... Buchanan, Stone and Knight
condemned Churchill's economic policies as Chancellor of the Exchequer (from November 1924 to June 1929), his military
strategy during the Second World War and the British bombing of German cities in 1945 and blamed him for the loss of the
British Empire.
Obama Mid-East Plans in
Jeopardy
Roger Hardy -- BBC News
One of US President Barack Obama's most important foreign policy initiatives is in jeopardy. The Netanyahu government in
Israel has approved the building of 455 new homes for settlers in the West Bank - in defiance of Mr Obama's call for a
complete settlement freeze. One former US diplomat with extensive experience of the Middle East calls it "a huge slap in
the face" for the Obama administration. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to have it both ways. He
wants to appease the settler lobby by allowing new construction, and to appease the Americans by finalising an agreement
on a temporary freeze.
I Was in Hitler's Suicide Bunker
BBC News
At his living room table, 92-year-old Rochus Misch shows me some of his old photo albums. Private pictures he had taken
more than 60 years ago. There are colour images of Mr Misch in an SS uniform at Adolf Hitler's home in the Alps,
snapshots of Hitler staring at rabbits, and photos of Hitler's mistress and future wife Eva Braun. For five years, SS
Oberscharfuehrer Rochus Misch had been part of Adolf Hitler's inner circle, as a bodyguard, a courier and telephone
operator to the Fuehrer ... Misch is the last survivor of the Hitler bunker. He is the final witness of the drama that
took place there on 30 April 1945. It was the day Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide.
Irving Interview With Spanish Newspaper Prompts Complaints
Daily Mail (Britain)
Eminent historians, as well as the state of Israel, have condemned a Spanish newspaper for publishing an interview with
Holocaust denier [sic] David Irving as part of its World War II coverage. El Mundo's interview, which they say is
justified by freedom of expression, saw Irving make statements such as: "The [Jewish] Holocaust is just a slogan, a
product like Kleenex or Xerox printers." "They've turned it into a commercial phenomenon, and succeeded in making money
out of it -- producing films about it which have made millions," he said.
Harvard
Paper Says Smith's Holocaust Ad Published By Accident
CNN
Harvard University, one of America's premiere academic institutions, is coming under fire for running an advertisement
in its campus newspaper questioning the reality of the Holocaust. ... On Tuesday, however, The Harvard Crimson, in what it
said was an error, ran the Holocaust-questioning advertisement, which had been rejected by the paper over the summer.
Israeli Ad Campaign Targets
Jews `Abducted' by Intermarriage
Haaretz (Israel)
The Prime Minister's Office and the Jewish Agency unveiled an aggressive advertisement campaign for the Masa project
which is designed to strengthen Jewish identity among youths in the Diaspora and their bonds to Israel. One video clip
likens Jews who marry outside of the religion to missing persons, with fake notices and pictures which drive home the
point. As part of the campaign, similar "missing person" notices will be plastered on walls around the country. Masa
hopes the campaign will spur the public to commit to the cause of preventing marriage to non-Jews, which Jewish Agency
officials believe is tantamount to a "strategic national threat."
Former AIPAC Official Accuses Zionist Group of Espionage
Grant F. Smith
Steven J. Rosen's defamation lawsuit against the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is now entering a
critical phase. A series of cross-filings stakes out the critical court terrain. Rosen intends to show that obtaining
and leveraging classified U.S. government information in the service of Israel is common practice at AIPAC. He claims it
was unfair for AIPAC to fire and malign him in the press after he was indicted on espionage charges in 2005. AIPAC's
defense team is committed to getting the case thrown out on technicalities before it goes to trial early next year.
Churchill: As Good As We Think?
BBC News
... Today, exactly 70 years after Britain declared war against Germany, the debate still continues as to whether he was truly great. Churchill's vast
reputation rests not only on his well-documented and long life but also on his own voluminous, self-penned, memoirs. The latest in a long line of Churchill
biographers includes historian Sir Max Hastings, whose new book - Finest Years: Churchill as Warlord 1940-45 - presents a positive version of the Churchill
story. But another work - Churchill: The Greatest Briton Unmasked - by the Cambridge academic Dr Nigel Knight, lays out a more critical view. The controversy
surrounding Churchill and his legacy is widespread. But here are just a few areas of contention.
Winton Churchill: An Unsettled Legacy
Mark Weber
The well-entrenched idealization of Churchill is part and parcel of a drastically misleading view of the Second World War that Americans have been fed for
decades. One common deceit is to give the impression that Hitler sought war against Britain and France, and that Germany aggressively attacked those two
countries... Churchill's enduringly stellar image is all the more remarkable considering that his views on a range of issues were, by today's standards,
hopelessly backward and politically incorrect ... Along with most Britons (and Americans) of his era, he was also an unabashed racist.
Israel: A Stalemated Action of History
Gabriel Kolko
.. . There is simply no rational reason that justifies the [Zionist] state's creation. The outcome is a small state with a military ethos that pervades all
aspects of Israel's culture, its politics and, above all, its response to the existence of Arabs in its midst and at its borders. From its inception, the
ideology of the early Zionists - of Labor Zionism as well as the rightist Revisionism that Vladimir Jabotinsky produced - embodied a commitment to violence,
erroneously called self-defense, and a virtual hysteria .. . After all, the Arabs that live under Israeli control will quite soon outnumber the Jewish
population, leaving a de facto Jewish state in which Jews are a minority!
Tarantino's `Basterds': A Film of Jewish
Vengeance
Religion News Service
Talk about an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. In Quentin Tarantino's blood-soaked new film "Inglourious Basterds," Brad Pitt and his merry band of
Jewish soldiers bash Nazi soldiers' heads with a baseball bat and collect their scalps in a bid to avenge their people and stop the Holocaust. At its roots,
Tarantino's World War II fantasy and its orgy of violence are little more than cartoonish savagery and perhaps a cathartic experience for some Jewish
viewers. It's a sort of reverse form of Schadenfreude: Jews giving Nazis the ultimate taste of their own medicine. Yet the film also represents a growing
genre of Jewish-themed films in which the victims become the victors.
Canada Gives Asylum to White South
African As Victim of Racist Violence
The Guardian (Britain)
Asylum seeker Brandon Huntley claimed he had been persecuted, abused and repeatedly stabbed. But it was the reason he gave for his ordeal that caused a
diplomatic rift today. Huntley is South African - and white. Canada's decision to grant him refugee status because of his colour prompted accusations of
racism from the South African government and a fresh bout of soul searching in a country still scarred by the legacy of apartheid. Some South African whites
say they have become a persecuted minority ... The immigration board, in Ottawa, found "clear and convincing proof" Huntley was persecuted for being white.
Arabs Are Paying the Price of the Holocaust, Says Bishop Tutu
Haaretz (Israel)
"The lesson that Israel must learn from the Holocaust is that it can never get security through fences, walls and guns," Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu of
South Africa told Haaretz Thursday ... He said the West was consumed with guilt and regret toward Israel because of the Holocaust, "as it should be." "But who
pays the penance? The penance is being paid by the Arabs, by the Palestinians..." He also slammed Jewish organizations in the United States, saying they
intimidate anyone who criticizes the occupation and rush to accuse these critics of anti-Semitism. Tutu recalled how such organizations pressured U.S.
universities to cancel his appearances on their campuses.
Hamas Condemns Holocaust Lessons
BBC News
Gaza's ruling Islamist movement Hamas has resisted suggestions that Palestinian children should be taught about the Holocaust in UN-run schools. The head of
its education committee in Gaza, Abdul Rahman el-Jamal, told the BBC that the Holocaust was a "big lie". He said that to teach it would be to "grant a big
favour" to Israel, which has been fighting Hamas for years.
Inconvenient History: A Journal for Free Historical Inquiry
Serious, non-conformist history writing, in the spirit of James J. Martin and other revisionist scholars. This issue includes "The Prohibition of Holocaust
Denial," by Joseph Bellinger, "David Irving and the `Aktion Reinhardt' Camps," by Juergen Graf, and a review by Joe Bishop of "The Chief Culprit: Stalin's
Grand Design to Start World War II."
MSNBC Removes Buchanan Column On Hitler After Jewish Complaint
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
MSNBC took down the Pat Buchanan column defending Hitler's actions hours after a Jewish group urged its removal. The National Jewish Democratic Council had released a statement Thursday imploring MSNBC to remove the article from its Web site.
Buchanan, a conservative pundit, had alleged that Hitler did not want war and that the Allies' actions were unnecessary. "MSNBC took the responsible action" in removing the column, NJDC President David Harris said in a statement. "No worthy news organization should employ and promote a commentator who engages in such vile fiction," he said. "This sort of historical revisionism is deplorable."
Hate Speech Law Violates Charter Rights, Canadian Tribunal Rules
The Globe and Mail (Canada)
A federal law governing hate speech violates Canadians' charter rights to freedom of expression, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has ruled. The development could give more ammunition to those who complain that the Canadian Human Rights Commission, which refers cases to the tribunal, is engaging in censorship by attempting to restrict what people say on the Internet. The decision, released in Ottawa Wednesday, also seems to call into question whether the tribunal should be involved at all in policing online content through Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act.
End the Witch Hunts For Good
National Post (Canada)
Finally, a human rights commission decision that makes sense .. . CHRC [Canadian Human Rights Commission] employees and their sympathizers in police racism units and activist groups around the country logged onto Mr. Lemire's site under phoney names .. . When there were insufficient hateful postings on Mr. Lemire's site, these staffers and their associates would post racist, homophobic and pro-Nazi statements themselves under their assumed names then encourage human rights activists to bring hate-speech complaints before the commission over those postings.
It's a Great Day for Freedom of Speech
Ezra Levant -- National Post (Canada)
Yesterday, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal did something its never done in its 32-year history. It acquitted somebody of "hate speech" charges. Until now, the tribunal had a 100% conviction rate. In a 107-page ruling, tribunal member Athanasios Hadjis didn't just throw out the case against Marc Lemire, he threw out the law, too, calling it an infringement of the free speech guarantees of the Charter of Rights .. . As of yesterday, it's no longer illegal to write politically incorrect things on the Internet. Now it's illegal to prosecute someone for it. This will have an immediate impact on the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC), which maintains a large censorship department and has other cases under investigation.
A Landmark Victory: The Lemire Case Ruling
Mark Steyn
Yesterday's decision in the Marc Lemire case was a great day for the campaign to restore Canada's lost liberties ... We should also salute Marc Lemire. It is not necessary to agree with his views on this or that - that, after all, is the point of this campaign: If you don't believe in free speech for people you disagree with, you don't believe in free speech at all - as Commissar Lynch and Bernie Farber [of the Canadian Jewish Congress] most certainly don't ... It is only because of Mr Lemire that we know of the astonishing procedural abuse at the CHRC and that Richard Warman and Dean Steacy are sad 007-wannabe fantasists spending their days posting undercover on neo-Nazi websites.
Before the 'Human Rights Tribunal' in Canada
Mark Weber -- Institute for Historical Review (2000)
.. . Amazingly, "truth is no defense" in this bizarre proceeding. Neither the truthfulness (factuality) of a "complained of" writing, nor the motive of the writer, may be considered in determining if it is "likely" to expose persons to "hatred or contempt." .. . As a witness on Zündel's behalf, I experienced first-hand some of the absurdity and hypocrisy of Canada-style "human rights." .. . The same Jewish groups that demand, in the name of "human rights," that Zündel be silenced, have well-documented records as staunch defenders of, and apologists for, the Zionist regime in Israel that routinely, and as a matter of state policy, oppresses people on the basis of ancestry.
Sharp Rise in US Demand for Bullets and Guns
Los Angeles Times
There's a bull market for bullets. Stacks of ammo, once piled high at gun shops across America, have dwindled .. . Bullets are in demand as the United States' interest in firearms has spiked. U.S. gun sales are up in the aftermath of the 2008 presidential election in which the National Rifle Association poured millions of dollars into advertisements portraying Barack Obama as anti-gun and raising fears that gun sales might be restricted .. . From January through July, gun sales increased 22 percent over the same period.
It Is Right to Expose Wiesenthal
Daniel Finkelstein -- The Jewish Chronicle (Britain)
.. .Walters's documentary evidence on Wiesenthal's inconsistencies and lies is impeccable. He shows how the Nazi hunter's accounts of his wartime experiences are contradictory and implausible. He demonstrates that he had no role, contrary to his own assertion, in the capture of Adolf Eichmann. He pitilessly dissects Wiesenthal's overblown claims about the numbers he brought to justice, suggesting it was not much more than a handful. When you read Hunting Evil, you know its author is telling the truth.
Simon Wiesenthal: Fraudulent `Nazi Hunter'
Mark Weber (1995)
.. . Wiesenthal's reputation as a moral authority is undeserved. The man whom The Washington Post has called the "Holocaust's Avenging Angel" has a little known but well-documented record of reckless disregard for truth. He has lied about his own wartime experiences, misrepresented his postwar "Nazi-hunting" achievements, and has spread vile falsehoods about alleged German atrocities.
Did Hitler Want War?
Patrick J. Buchanan
.. . But if Hitler was out to conquer the world --Britain, Africa, the Middle East, the United States, Canada, South America, India, Asia, Australia -- why did he spend three years building that hugely expensive Siegfried Line to protect Germany from France? Why did he start the war with no surface fleet, no troop transports and only 29 oceangoing submarines? .. . Why did he offer the British peace, twice, after Poland fell, and again after France fell? Why, when Paris fell, did Hitler not demand the French fleet, as the Allies demanded and got the Kaiser's fleet? Why did he not demand bases in French-controlled Syria to attack Suez?
Poland Recalls Outbreak of War
BBC News
Poland has been holding a day of commemorations to mark the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II. Leaders from 20 countries laid candles during a ceremony near Gdansk. Earlier, Polish President Lech Kaczynski criticised the former Soviet Union over responsibility for the war. His words added to an ongoing row with Moscow, although Russian PM Vladimir Putin said he hoped the two countries could settle their differences. Mr Kaczynski said Poland had received a "stab in the back" from the former Soviet Union when it invaded and occupied the east of the country as the German army was advancing westwards.
Canadian `Hate Speech' Law is Unconstitutional, Rules Rights Tribunal
National Post (Canada)
The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has ruled that Section 13, Canada's much maligned human rights hate speech law, is an unconstitutional violation of the Charter right to free expression because of its penalty provisions. The decision released this morning by Tribunal chair Athanasios Hadjis appears to strip the Canadian Human Rights Commission of its controversial legal mandate to pursue hate on the Internet ... Today's shocking decision is a victory over Mr. Warman by Marc Lemire, webmaster of freeedomsite.org and a prominent figure in the Canadian far right, who was supported in his constitutional challenge of Section 13 by the legal team defended Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel.
Israeli Organ Harvesting: The New `Blood Libel'?
Alison Weir -- If Americans Knew
Last week Sweden's largest daily newspaper published an article containing shocking material: testimony and circumstantial evidence indicating that Israelis may have been harvesting internal organs from Palestinian prisoners without consent for many years.
Worse yet, some of the information reported in the article suggests that in some instances Palestinians may have been captured with this macabre purpose in mind ... The fact is, however, that substantiated evidence of public and private organ trafficking and theft, and allegations of worse, have been widely reported for many years. Given such context, the Swedish charges become far more plausible than might otherwise be the case, and suggest that an investigation could well turn up significant information.
President Roosevelt's Campaign To Incite War in Europe
Mark Weber
This essay focuses on Roosevelt's secret campaign to provoke war in Europe prior to the outbreak of hostilities in September 1939. It deals particularly with his efforts to pressure Britain, France and Poland into war against Germany in 1938 and 1939. Franklin Roosevelt not only criminally involved America in a war that had already engulfed Europe, he bears a grave responsibility for the outbreak of the most destructive war of all time. This paper relies heavily on a little-known collection of secret Polish documents that fell into German hands when Warsaw was captured in September 1939. These revealing documents also confirm the crucial role of Jewish power and influence on US foreign policy during these years.
President Roosevelt and the Origins of the 1939 War
David L. Hoggan
In this scholarly article, excerpted from his book, The Forced War: The Origins and Originators of World War II, Dr. Hoggan examines the secret war aspirations of President Franklin Roosevelt. Hoggan also shows how Poland's leaders, bolstered by assurances from London of military backing, sought to provoke war with Germany. During the months prior to the outbreak of war in September 1939, he explains, Poland's provocation of Germany was frequent and extreme. Hitler had more than sufficient justification to go to war with Poland.
Russia Presents Evidence of 1930s Polish Collusion With Third Reich
The Guardian (Britain)
Russia today released secret documents from the archives of its foreign intelligence service that it said showed how Poland sided with the Nazis before the Second World War and tried to destroy the Soviet Union. Russia published 400 pages of documents gathered by undercover Soviet agents between 1935 and 1945, including telegrams, letters and reports intercepted from Polish missions abroad. Their release coincided with the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of war. The declassified files from Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service allegedly show that Poland was plotting against the Soviet Union in the years preceding the war, which began when Hitler invaded western Poland on September 1, 1939.
Progress Report: An Important Move and a Successful Meeting
Institute for Historical Review
This has been a busy and productive summer for the IHR. In July operations were moved to a less expensive and more professional office-warehouse property ..
A high point of the summer was the IHR meeting on July 25, which was a rousing success. In fact, a number of attendees expressed the view that this was the
most spirited and upbeat IHR event in years.
The Genocide Britain Hushed Up
Daily Mail (Britain)
A new film tells the terrible story of Stalin’s own Final Solution - and Churchill’s shameful complicity / … This is the harrowing scene of a devastating new film, Katyn. It takes its name from the village in western Russia where the bodies of more than 4,000 Polish prisoners of war were dug up in 1943. But these bodies were by no means the only ones to be disinterred. Near the Soviet city of Kalinin, now known as Tver, another 6,000 bodies were unearthed. Near Kharkov in Ukraine there were 4,000. In all, more than 22,000 Poles -- roughly two-thirds of them officers and policemen, the rest political prisoners -- suffered the same appalling fate: to be executed, without trial or even warning, and thrown like carcasses into mass graves.
Germar Rudolf Released from Prison in Germany
Altermedia
Germar Rudolf, 44, a German chemist and intellectual dissident who had been serving a prison sentence for violating Germany’s law against “Holocaust denial,” was released from Mannheim prison on July 4 after three years and nine months behind bars. Upon his release, he was met by his American wife and four-year-old US-born daughter. In October 2005 he was arrested in Chicago, and deported to his homeland, where he was tried, sentenced, and imprisoned.
David Irving Speaks in 17 US Cities in July
In a tour of the western US, David Irving is addressing meetings in 17 cities, including Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Costa Mesa, and Kansas City. His topic is “Hitler, Himmler and `Enigma’: Re-writing World War II history using Nazi messages decoded by the British Secret Service.” The best-selling British historian also has available copies of his prison memoir, which tells of his headline-making arrest and harrowing prison ordeal in Austria, 2005-06.
Alarm in Baltic as Kremlin Seizes Control of Soviet Past
The Independent (Britain)
In Russia it is not only the future that is unpredictable; often the past is equally in doubt … When authorities in Estonia removed a monument to Soviet soldiers from the centre of Tallinn two years ago, riots between police and ethnic Russian citizens of Estonia ensued, and the Kremlin made furious noises. With its new commission and law, Moscow is upping the stakes. Russia accuses the governments of Estonia and Latvia of glorifying partisan regiments which fought on the side of the Nazis. In recent years, relations between Latvia and Russia have normalised in many spheres, but the Second World War is still a thorny issue.
Jewish Group Objects to Ukraine ‘Great Famine’ Case
JTA
A Jewish group in Ukraine is objecting to a criminal case brought over the "Great Famine" committed in the 1930s. The nation's security service is pressing the case against a list of former Soviet officials accused of committing the Holodomor, which caused the deaths of millions in Ukraine in 1932-33. Most of the names on the list were Jewish.
Holocaust Denial And Uncomfortable Truths
Robin Davis
It has always been those few who can see through the political correctness and hypocrisy of popular attitudes who are considered dangerous. "Holocaust denial laws" are now in place in about a dozen countries. Defenders of these laws claim that the expression of unconventional views about the Jewish genocide is "hate speech" and "incitement to violence" and therefore must be suppressed. But history shows the greatest purveyors of lies, hatred and incitement to violence are those with the power to spread their poison by manipulating popular opinion via the control or complicity of the mass media.
Jewish Leader: Obama May Be 'Most Hostile President to Israel’
Ronald Kessler
President Barack Obama’s refusal to take a stand on protests in Iran stands in sharp contrast to demands he has made on Israel, Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, says in a Newsmax interview … Klein says leaders of Jewish organizations are rethinking their support of Obama in light of his attitude toward Israel. “There are many leaders in the organized Jewish world who have privately discussed this issue with me, and say they are deeply concerned about Obama’s actions and policies toward Israel, and now they’re rethinking their support for Obama during the campaign and the election,” says Klein …
A `Virulent’ New Anti-Semitism is Rife in Britain, Says Chief Rabbi
The Times (Britain)
Britain is in the grip of a “virulent” new strain of anti-Semitism, according to the Chief Rabbi. Sir Jonathan Sacks told The Times in an interview that in January the number of anti-Semitic incidents reached the highest level since records began. Jews have been physically attacked, schools targeted and cemeteries desecrated … Although the new “mutation” was different from the anti-Semitism promoted by Hitler, it was dangerous because it was international, he said. “The internet means that we no longer have national cultures; we have global cultures and the new anti-Semitism is very much a phenomenon of the global culture.” Whereas in the past, hatred was focused against Judaism as a religion or Jews as a race, the focus this time was on Jews as a nation.
The Pentagon Spigot is Wide Open: How Obama Will Outspend Reagan on Defense
Winslow T. Wheeler
… Not counting money projected for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the presidentially approved budget plan would continue increasing the Pentagon's budget: by another $8.1 billion in 2011 (up 1.5 percent), another $9 billion in 2012 (up 1.6 percent), and $10.4 billion in 2013 (up1.8 percent), and so on all the way out to 2019. If we add in the costs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon budget for the current fiscal year - 2009 - exceeds any year since the end of World War II, including the spending peaks for the Korean and Vietnam wars. President Obama's plan is to increase that lead. Obama also will outspend Ronald Reagan on defense.
The Language That Absolves Israel
Saree Makdisi -- Los Angeles Times
… Reality can be so easily stood on its head when it comes to Israel because the misreading of Israeli declarations is a long-established practice among commentators and journalists in the United States. In fact, a special vocabulary has been developed for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the United States. It filters and structures the way in which developing stories are misread here, making it difficult for readers to fully grasp the nature of those stories -- and maybe even for journalists to think critically about what they write. The ultimate effect of this special vocabulary is to make it possible for Americans to accept and even endorse in Israel what they would reject out of hand in any other country.
The U.S. Regime-Change Recipe for Iran
Paul Craig Roberts
… In Iran’s system, election fraud has no purpose, because a small select group of ruling mullahs select the candidates who are put on the ballot. If they don’t like an aspiring candidate, they simply don’t put him on the ballot. When the liberal reformer Khatami ran for president, he won with 70% of the vote and served from 1997-2005. If the mullahs didn’t defraud Khatami of his win, it seems unlikely they would defraud an establishment figure like Mousavi, who was foreign minister in the most conservative government, and is backed by another establishment figure, Rafsanjani.
Holocaust Denial And Uncomfortable Truths
Robin Davis
It has always been those few who can see through the political correctness and hypocrisy of popular attitudes who are considered dangerous. "Holocaust denial laws" are now in place in about a dozen countries. Defenders of these laws claim that the expression of unconventional views about the Jewish genocide is "hate speech" and "incitement to violence" and therefore must be suppressed. But history shows the greatest purveyors of lies, hatred and incitement to violence are those with the power to spread their poison by manipulating popular opinion via the control or complicity of the mass media.
Historian Says He’s Found `Real’ Reason for Hitler’s Hatred of Jews
Daily Mail (Britain)
Adolf Hitler's obsessive hatred for Jews was sparked by his experiences after World War One, according to a new book. Respected historian Ralf-George Reuth argues the dictator blamed them for both the Russian revolution and the collapse of the German economy. The claim is a stark contrast to previous theories … At the time almost half of all German private banks were Jewish owned, the stock exchange dominated by Jewish stockbrokers, almost half of the nation’s newspapers were Jewish run as were 80 per cent of chain stores. It became fashionable to decry the loss of the war on Jewish financiers. But Hitler, according to Reuth, also blamed Jews for the Russian revolution …
The Underworked American
The Economist (Britain)
Americans like to think of themselves as martyrs to work. They delight in telling stories about their punishing hours, snatched holidays and ever-intrusive BlackBerrys … But when it comes to the young the situation is reversed. American children have it easier than most other children in the world, including the supposedly lazy Europeans. They have one of the shortest school years anywhere, a mere 180 days compared with an average of 195 for OECD countries and more than 200 for East Asian countries. German children spend 20 more days in school than American ones, and South Koreans over a month more.
Canadian Politician Sues Jewish Groups
JTA
An ex-candidate in Canada is suing the country's leading Jewish advocacy groups, alleging they ruined her political career. Lesley Hughes, who was dumped as a Liberal candidate in a Winnipeg-area electoral district, claims the Canadian Jewish Congress and B'nai Brith Canada made false and defamatory accusations that she is anti-Semitic. In a lawsuit filed June 16, Hughes alleges that as a result of the actions of the CJC and B'nai Brith, former federal Liberal leader Stephane Dion revoked her candidacy in last September's federal elections.
Sharp Drop In US Support for Israel, New Poll Shows
Mondoweiss
… The state-run radio station’s Washington correspondent, Nathan Guttman, obtained data from a recent unpublished poll, conducted by the Israel Project, an organization that works to improve Israel’s image in the United States. The Israel Project has been conducting a periodic running poll, asking American registered voters questions about Israel … There is a steep decline in the percentage of Americans who say that the U.S. should support Israel. That has dropped from 71% in March 2008 (at the time of the Annapolis process) to only 44% now.
Israeli 'Settlements': Fictions on the Ground
Tony Judt -- The New York Times
… Thus President Obama faces a choice. He can play along with the Israelis, pretending to believe their promises of good intentions and the significance of the distinctions they offer him. Such a pretense would buy him time and favor with Congress. But the Israelis would be playing him for a fool, and he would be seen as one in the Mideast and beyond. Alternatively, the president could break with two decades of American compliance, acknowledge publicly that the emperor is indeed naked, dismiss Mr. Netanyahu for the cynic he is and remind Israelis that all their settlements are hostage to American goodwill. He could also remind Israelis that the illegal communities have nothing to do with Israel's defense, much less its founding ideals of agrarian self-sufficiency and Jewish autonomy.
The Risky Provocations of Mr. Netanyahu
Leonard Fein -- Forward (New York)
… I sometimes fear there’s a genetically inbred survival characteristic of the Jews that predisposes us to try to beat the system, to get away with things, a characteristic that came in very handy for all those many centuries during which the nerve and cleverness to beat the system enabled survival, but that has now become a dysfunctional anachronism. Be that as it may, Netanyahu’s stance will likely turn out to be a serious miscalculation of Obama’s intentions and abilities. Obama has no intention of endangering Israel, but when it comes to outsmarting a would-be outsmarter, he is not exactly a beginner.
Netanyahu’s Speech: When He Says Yes, What Does He Mean?
Uri Avnery (Israel)
… The idea of the Palestinian state has now become a part of the national consensus, and only a handful of ultra-rightists reject it directly. But this is only the beginning. The main struggle will be about turning the idea into reality. The entire speech was addressed to one single person: Barack Obama. It was not designed to appeal to the Palestinians … Obama is not seeking a frontal collision with the Israeli government. It seems that he wants to exert “soft” pressure, vigorously but quietly. To my mind, that is a wise approach.
U.S. Jewish Leaders Deeply Troubled by Obama
Haaretz (Israel)
There is growing concern among the American Jewish community over Obama's Mideast initiatives, this according to the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Malcolm Hoenlein. "President Obama's strongest supporters among Jewish leaders are deeply troubled by his recent Middle East initiatives, and some are questioning what he really believes," Hoenlein, said in an interview published Monday.
Carter Says Palestinians Treated 'Like Animals'
AFP
Former US president Jimmy Carter on Tuesday met Hamas leader Ismail Haniya in the Gaza Strip, where he called for a lifting of Israel's blockade, saying Palestinians are being treated "like animals." Following the talks, Carter called for an end of "all violence" against both Israelis and Palestinians. "This is holy land for us all and my hope is that we can have peace ... all of us are children of Abraham," he said at a joint news conference with Haniya, prime minister of the Hamas government in the Palestinian enclave.
Holocaust Lawyer Edward Fagan is Disbarred For Misusing Victims’ Funds
The Star-Ledger (New Jersey)
Only a few years ago, Edward Fagan was a world-renowned lawyer for the underdog, brash and audacious enough to take on Swiss banks and even whole countries to win judgments for Holocaust survivors and victims of South African apartheid. This week, the Supreme Court announced he was barred from practicing law in New Jersey, completing one of the steepest falls from grace in the state's law community. The court found Fagan, 56, misappropriated nearly $400,000 of the money he won for the victims he so effectively championed.
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Wartime Code-Breaking and
an `Unknown Holocaust': Irving, Weber Address Upbeat IHR Meeting
At an upbeat IHR meeting on Saturday evening, July 25, 2009, best-selling British author David Irving and American
historian Mark Weber tackled important aspects of twentieth-century history in two informed and well delivered talks.
Attendees commented on the gathering's buoyant and purposeful spirit, and several remarked that this was
the most successful IHR meeting in years.
Progress Report: An Important Move and a Successful Meeting
August 2009
This has been a busy and productive summer for the IHR. In July operations were moved to a less expensive and more professional office-warehouse property ... A high point of the summer was the IHR meeting on July 25, which was a rousing success. In fact, a number of attendees expressed the view that this was the most spirited and upbeat IHR event in years.
An `Unknown Holocaust' and the
Hijacking of History
By Mark Weber
... We hear a lot about terrible crimes committed by Germans during World War II, but we hear very little about crimes
committed against Germans. Germany's defeat in May 1945, and the end of World War II in Europe, did not bring an end to
death and suffering for the vanquished German people. Instead the victorious Allies ushered in a horrible new era of
destruction, looting, starvation, rape, "ethnic cleansing," and mass killing .
In 'Eisenhower's Death Camps': A U.S. Prison Guard Remembers
By Martin Brech
... In Andernach about 50,000 [German] prisoners of all ages were held in an open field surrounded by barbed wire. The women were kept in a separate enclosure that I did not see until later. The men I guarded had no shelter and no blankets. Many had no coats. They slept in the mud, wet and cold, with inadequate slit trenches for excrement ... I encountered a captain on a hill above the Rhine shooting down at a group of German civilian women with his .45 caliber pistol. When I asked, "Why?," he mumbled, "Target practice," and fired until his pistol was empty.
 The Destruction of Ethnic Germans and German Prisoners of War in Postwar Yugoslavia
By Tomislav Sunic
The Weight of Tradition: Why Judaism is
Not Like Other Religions
By Mark Weber
... Judaism is not just "another religion." It's unique among the world's major religions. The core values and ethos of
Judaism are markedly unlike those of Christianity, Islam, and the other great faiths ... A core message of the Hebrew
scriptures is that Jews are a divinely "chosen" people -- a unique community distinct from the rest of humanity ... The
seemingly intractable Middle East conflict is more than just a problem of Zionism or politics, or a dispute over land.
Israel's often arrogant policies, and especially its inhumane treatment of non-Jews, have roots in centuries-old
attitudes that are laid out in ancient Jewish religious writings.
We’ve Moved!
After weeks of strenuous work, we’re now finally settled in our new offices, which are a few miles from the quarters in southern California we occupied for years. This laborious and time-consuming move to a less expensive and more professional office-warehouse property is the latest in a series of measures taken to improve our productivity. It also re-affirms our dedication to the IHR’s long-term effectiveness and survival.
Straight Talk About Zionism
By Mark Weber
… A Zionist Jew, by definition, owes his primary loyalty to the Jewish community and to Israel. Zionism is not compatible with patriotism to any country or entity other than Israel and the world Jewish community … Zionist Jews and their non-Jewish supporters embrace a blatant double standard. Jewish-Zionist organizations, along with their non-Jewish allies, support one social-political ideology for Israel and the world Jewish community, and a completely different one for the United States and other non-Jewish countries. They insist that ethnic nationalism is evil and bad for non-Jews, while at the same time they vigorously support ethnic nationalism -- that is, Zionism -- for Jews.
IHR Condemns Holocaust Museum Shooting
The Institute for Historical Review unequivocally condemns the shooting yesterday at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, in which a security guard was killed. “We condemn this despicable and criminal attack, carried out by an obviously deranged individual,” says Mark Weber, director of the IHR. “We are all the more emphatic in condemning such violence because the IHR itself has been a victim of extremist violence.”
The `Good War’ Myth of World War II, and Why It’s Dangerous
By Mark Weber
How accurate is this hallowed portrayal of America’s role in World War II? As we shall see, it does not hold up under close examination … The three Allied leaders accomplished what they accused the Axis leaders of Germany, Italy and Japan of conspiring to achieve: world domination … Presidential deception to justify war did not start with George W. Bush. Americans who express admiration for the US role in World War II, and for Franklin Roosevelt’s presidential leadership, have little moral right to complain when presidents follow his example and lead the country into war by breaking the law, subverting the Constitution, and lying to the people.
What Christians Don’t Know About Israel
By Grace Halsell
American Jews sympathetic to Israel dominate key positions in all areas of our government where decisions are made regarding the Middle East. This being the case, is there any hope of ever changing U.S. policy? … The answer to achieving an even-handed Middle East policy might lie elsewhere -- among those who support Israel but don't really know why. This group is the vast majority of Americans. They are well-meaning, fair-minded Christians who feel bonded to Israel - and Zionism - often from atavistic feelings, in some cases dating from childhood.
A Straight Look at the Jewish Lobby
By Mark Weber
… Jews wield immense power and influence in the United States. The "Jewish lobby" is a decisive factor in US support for Israel. Jewish-Zionist interests are not identical to American interests. In fact, they often conflict. As long as the "very powerful" Jewish lobby remains entrenched, there will be no end to the systematic Jewish distortion of current affairs and history, the Jewish-Zionist domination of the U.S. political system, Zionist oppression of Palestinians, the bloody conflict between Jews and non-Jews in the Middle East, and the Israeli threat to peace.
The Jewish Role in the Bolshevik Revolution and Russia's Early Soviet Regime
By Mark Weber
Jews played a highly disproportionate and probably decisive role in the infant Bolshevik regime, effectively dominating the Soviet government during its early years … With the notable exception of Lenin, most of the leading Communists who took control of Russia in 1917-20 were Jews … The US ambassador in Russia warned in a dispatch to Washington: "The Bolshevik leaders here, most of whom are Jews and 90 percent of whom are returned exiles, care little for Russia or any other country but are internationalists and they are trying to start a worldwide social revolution."
What is Holocaust Denial?
By Barbara Kulaszka
In recent years, considerable attention has been devoted to the supposed danger of "Holocaust denial." Politicians, newspapers and television warn about the growing influence of those who reject the Holocaust story that some six million European Jews were systematically exterminated during the Second World War, most of them in gas chambers. In several countries, including Israel, France, Germany and Austria, "Holocaust denial" is against the law, and "deniers" have been punished with stiff fines and prison sentences. … Often overlooked in this controversy is the crucial question: Just what constitutes "Holocaust denial"?
Progress Report: How The IHR is Making a Difference
Feb. 2009
The IHR doesn’t just “preach to the choir.” Consider, for example, the global impact of just one IHR item, “A Straight Look at the Jewish Lobby.” … This item -- which is regularly revised and updated -- has been reprinted in newspapers in the US and overseas. It’s been posted on many websites around the world. Many tens of thousands of copies have been distributed as leaflets … No similar group - certainly none with a comparably modest budget and staff - rivals the IHR's level of outreach and distribution …
Obama’s Promised Foreign Policy `Change’ Will Be Mostly Cosmetic
By Mark Weber - Dec. 2008
… The appointments that Obama has made to positions in the new administration, along with his public statements of recent months, show that he is unlikely to make major changes in U.S. foreign policy. The promised “change” will be mostly cosmetic. His foreign policy will be familiar, but conducted more prudently and with more appealing style. During the election campaign, Obama never called into question the basic premise of U.S. military interventionism around the world. His pledge to increase U.S. military forces in Afghanistan shows that he supports the misguided “war on terror,” and accepts an American role as a global policeman.
Holocaust Remembrance:
What's Behind the Campaign?
By Mark Weber
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Abraham Lincoln and the Issue of Race
By Robert Morgan
Many Americans think of Abraham Lincoln, above all, as the president who freed the slaves. Immortalized as the "Great Emancipator," he is widely regarded as a champion of black freedom who supported social equality of the races, and who fought the American Civil War to free the slaves. While it is true that Lincoln regarded slavery as an evil and harmful institution, it also true, as this paper will show, that he shared the conviction of most Americans of his time, and of many prominent statesmen before and after him, that blacks could not be assimilated into white society. He rejected the notion of social equality of the races, and held to the view that blacks should be resettled abroad.
Israel at 60: A Grim Balance Sheet
By Mark Weber
… Contrary to claims made by American and Israeli political leaders, US support for Israel has never been in America’s authentic national interest, nor has it been based on a commitment to democracy and freedom … In spite of its impressive military arsenal, and virtually unlimited support from the United States, Israel’s long-term prospects are not good … Although Israel is a formidable military power, it is an aberrant, crisis-prone state, artificially kept alive with outside support, and based on an unworkable ideology.
The Challenge of Jewish-Zionist Power
By Mark Weber
Regardless of the particular causes or principles that most move us, that are closest to our hearts, no issue is of greater urgency than breaking the Jewish-Zionist grip on American political, social and cultural life … Now we are engaged in a great global struggle -- in which two distinct and irreconcilable sides confront each other. A struggle that pits a self-assured and diabolical power that feels ordained to rule over others, on one side, and all other nations and societies -- indeed, humanity itself -- on the other.
The Elusive `Six Million'
By Mark Weber
… The Six Million figure is hammered into the public consciousness, not only in newspapers, magazines, motion pictures, and television, but also routinely in our schools … An information sheet issued by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council describes the grand Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, as a "living memorial to the six million Jews and millions of other victims of Nazi fanaticism who perished in the Holocaust." Just what is the basis for this familiar figure?
 Was Hiroshima Necessary?
By Mark Weber
How Relevant is Holocaust Revisionism?
By Mark Weber
Follow Up: A Reply to Critics
By Mark Weber
Toben's Arrest: A New Assault Against Free Speech
By Mark Weber - Oct. 2008
A Productive Summer and a More Effective IHR
Sept. 2008
Bishop Williamson and `Holocaust Denial’: Why the Uproar?
By Mark Weber
The furor over the “Holocaust denial” remarks of Bishop Richard Williamson is not a controversy about historical truth, the role of history in society, anti-Semitism or “hate.” This affair is really about power -- about those who really wield it in our culture, as well as about how and why that power is used.
Weber Addresses Peace Conference in Baltimore
Mark Weber addressed a conference to promote peace and cross-cultural understanding on August 16, 2008, in suburban Baltimore. In a crisply delivered and well-received address, the IHR director spoke about the motives behind the US invasion of Iraq, the harmful consequences of America's "blank check" support for Israel, the Jewish-Zionist grip on US foreign policy, the danger of new wars, and the prospects for an effective peace movement. The event was organized by an Islamic association, Jamaat Al-Muslimeen. Among the other speakers were: Ramsey Clark, former US Attorney General; Charles E. Carlson, director of "We Hold These Truths," a Christian organization for peace and justice; and, Dr. Kaukab Siddique, MC and publisher of "New Trend Magazine."
A Zionist Smear: The ADL Attacks an Islamic Peace Conference
By Mark Weber
In the Struggle for Peace and Justice
By Mark Weber
... By supporting Israel and its policies, the United States betrays not only its own national interests, but the principles it claims to embody and defend. The only country in the world that has a nuclear weapons arsenal, that occupies territory of its neighbors, and which is in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions - is Israel. In fact, if the United States were to hold Israel to the same standards that it has applied to Iraq, Serbia, and other countries, American bombers and missiles would be blasting Tel Aviv, and American troops would seize Israel's leaders and punish them for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Irving Describes His Austria Imprisonment at IHR Meeting
In an engaging talk at a memorable IHR meeting, June 14, 2008, David Irving described his harrowing arrest in Austria, his sensational trial in Vienna, and his 13 months of imprisonment. The British historian also spoke about wartime Germany's harsh treatment of Jews, presenting a view of "the Holocaust" similar to the one he laid out more than 30 years ago in the first edition of Hitler's War. Mark Weber took aim at the American national mythology about World War II. He spoke about the two new books by Patrick J. Buchanan and Nicholson Baker, praising them as important antidotes to the familiar, much propagandized portrayal of the war.
First-Rate Talks Mark Successful IHR Meeting
First-rate talks by three seasoned speakers marked a memorable IHR meeting on May 24, 2008, in southern California. Paul Fromm reported with insight and humor on the battle for on-line free speech in Canada. Mark Weber, in a closely reasoned and well-referenced lecture, dismantled the myth of World War II as a "good war" clash between virtue and evil. Mark Green explained why the dread label of "anti-Semitism" is inaccurate and bogus.
Weber Speaks on the Israel Lobby at University of Oregon
The Israel Lobby: How Powerful Is It?
By Mark Weber
New Book On Mass Killings and Brutal Mistreatment of Germans
at the End of World War II
By Mark Weber
  Holocaust Remembrance: Behind the Campaign
(WMV, 28mb)
 IHR Update newsletter for Summer 2007
(PDF, 7.6M)
Iraq: A War for Israel
By Mark Weber
'Operation Barbarossa' and the
Russian Historians’ Dispute
By Daniel Michaels
New Evidence on Hitler's 1941
Attack Against the Soviet Union
By Daniel Michaels
 Learning from the
Nine Eleven Attacks (2001)
By Mark Weber
`For Fear of the Jews’
By Joseph Sobran
The news that I would be addressing the Institute of Historical Review came to some people as, well, news. It was mentioned in the Jewish newspaper Forward and on the Zionist Wall Street Journal OnLine. The editors of two conservative magazines called and wrote me to express their concern that I might damage my reputation, such as it is, by speaking to "Holocaust deniers." … In short, the Holocaust has become a device for exempting Jews from normal human obligations. It has authorized them to bully and blackmail, to extort and oppress. This is all quite irrational, because even if six million Jews were murdered during World War II, the survivors are not entitled to commit the slightest injustice.
Behind the Iran Crisis:
The Israel Lobby's Campaign
for War
By Mark Weber
Familiar Lies for a New War:
Fighting for Truth in an Age of Deceit
By Mark Weber
Who Is Ernst Zundel,
And Why Is He In Jail?
By Mark Weber
Sunic, Weber and Smith Address Spirited IHR Meeting
March 24, 2007
 IHR Update Newsletter for December 2006
(PDF, 470k)
Zionism and the Third Reich
By Mark Weber
A little-known chapter of history is the wide-ranging collaboration between Zionism and Hitler's Third Reich. During the 1930s, Jewish Zionists and German National Socialists shared similar views on how to deal with the "Jewish Question." They agreed that Jews and Germans were distinctly different nationalities, and that Jews did not belong in Germany.
Impact and Future of Holocaust Revisionism
By Robert Faurisson
 Weber, Fromm Tackle Current Issues at IHR Meeting in Arlington
July 2006
My Patient, Hitler: A Memoir of Hitler’s Jewish Physician
By Dr. Eduard Bloch
… I knew Adolf Hitler as a boy and as a young man. I treated him many times and was intimately familiar with the modest surroundings in which he grew to manhood. I attended, in her final illness, the person nearer and dearer to him than all others -- his mother … What kind of boy was Adolf Hitler? Many biographers have put him down as harsh-voiced, defiant, untidy; as a young ruffian who personified all that is unattractive. This simply is not true. As a youth he was quiet, well-mannered and neatly dressed.
Holocaust Remembrance Strengthens Jewish-Zionist Power
By Mark Weber
 IHR Update Newsletter for November 2005
(PDF, 1.6M)
The Simon Wiesenthal Center:
A Bastion of Jewish-Zionist Power
By Mark Weber
Stormy IHR Rally Against Wiesenthal Center Defies Zionist Thugs
July 29, 2005
Weber Addresses Spirited IHR Meeting in New York
July 16, 2005
US 'Democratization' Initiative in the Middle East is Insincere: An Interview with Mark Weber
July 3, 2005
 Irving, Weber Speak on Hitler's Place in History
April 17, 2005
IHR Update Newsletter for March 2005
(PDF, 414k)
Americans Rally for Zundel's Freedom (photos/video)
Feb.4, 2005
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