-
Propaganda and Disinformation: How the CIA Manufactures History
Victor Marchetti – Institute for Historical Review
… The CIA is a master at distorting history — even creating its own version of history to suit its institutional and operational purposes. It can do this largely because of two great advantages it possesses. One is the excessively secret environment in which it operates, and the other is that it is essentially a private instrument of the presidency … The CIA is a secret tool of the president – every president. And every president since Truman has lied to the American people in order to protect the agency … the CIA, functioning as a secret instrument of the U.S. government and the presidency, has long misused and abused history and continues to do so.
-
Startling Facts About America's Decaying Infrastructure
The Economic Collapse
You can tell a lot about a nation by the condition of the infrastructure. So what does our infrastructure say about us? It says that we are in a very advanced state of decay. At this point, much of America is being held together with spit, duct tape and prayers. Our roads are crumbling and thousands of our bridges look like they could collapse at any moment. Our power grid is ancient and over a trillion gallons of untreated sewage is leaking from our aging sewer systems each year … Approximately a third of all of the dam failures that have taken place in the United States since 1874 have happened during the past decade.
-
1. Iran’s civilian nuclear enrichment program is alleged by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to be a stealth nuclear weapons program. But there is no evidence at all for this allegation, and it was contradicted by Netanyahu’s own Defense Minister, Ehud Barak … 3. It is alleged that Iran has threatened to annihilate Israel. It has done no such thing. Iran has a ‘no first strike’ policy, repeatedly enunciated by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has expressed the hope that the ‘Zionist regime over Jerusalem” would ‘vanish from the page of time.’ But he didn’t threaten to roll tanks or missiles against Israel, and compared his hopes for the collapse of Zionism to the collapse of Communism in Russia.
-
Why The American 'Imperium' Is Under Siege
Eric Margolis
… Many Americans believe they are innocent bystanders in the Muslim world, or involved there on an altruistic “mission” to uplift the benighted natives, to selflessly shoulder the heavy burden of policing the unruly globe, or abroad to wage an unending struggle against the dark forces of what we call “terrorism.” … Washington clings to its overseas empire with the same tenacity as Britain’s imperialists at a time when the United Kingdom’s postwar economy lay shattered and drowning in debt. Britain could no longer afford its globe-girding empire then, and America can no longer afford its global imperium today.
-
A Century of Interventionism and Regime Change
Anthony Gregory
… The overwhelming history of U.S. conduct in other countries rarely occurs to the average American. Aside from some obvious instances, such as the Vietnam War and the nearly universally approved U.S. intervention into World War II, the history of U.S. foreign policy does not get the attention and consideration it deserves. Stephen Kinzer, in his new book, Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq … sketches out an engaging, very tightly written narrative of U.S. involvement in overthrowing the governments of Hawaii, Cuba, Nicaragua, Honduras, Iran, Guatemala, South Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
-
The US Becomes an Imperial Power: 1898 and the Great Debate Over Overseas Expansion
John Ries and Mark Weber – Institute for Historical Review
Until the 1890s, America followed its traditional foreign policy of non-interventionism. The year 1898 was a landmark in the transition of the United States from a republic to an imperial power. Today, as Americans debate the merits of new military intervention in foreign lands, many of the arguments for and against such actions echo those made nearly a century ago, but with some interesting differences.
-
The Impossibility of American Empire
William Pfaff
… The Empire of the United States was launched in 1898, and has since traversed a mere century, experiencing increasing ambition, and suffering increasing difficulties. Could it too last 406 years? The current evidence is not reassuring … This is what the War on Terror has come to mean. It is an attempt to create a universal empire that exists only in the American imagination, by an effort that, because its aim is impossible to achieve, is unlimited in the damage it could do to Americans and others.
-
… Declassified documents reveal that even the current prime minister [of Israel] once worked inside the state’s clandestine nuclear arms smuggling rings. Transferring foreign aid to the Middle East’s sole nuclear weapons state — which can obviously take care of itself — is not just unseemly and unnecessary. It is illegal … Ending aid would disentangle unwitting Americans from Israel’s unending conflicts, illegal settlements, systematized abuse of Palestinians, and clandestine nuclear proliferation in the Middle East.
-
Imminent Iran Nuclear Threat: A Timeline of Warnings Since 1979
Scott Peterson - The Christian Science Monitor
Breathless predictions that the Islamic Republic will soon be at the brink of nuclear capability, or – worse – acquire an actual nuclear bomb, are not new. For more than quarter of a century Western officials have claimed repeatedly that Iran is close to joining the nuclear club. Such a result is always declared “unacceptable” and a possible reason for military action, with “all options on the table” to prevent upsetting the Mideast strategic balance dominated by the US and Israel. And yet, those predictions have time and again come and gone. This chronicle of past predictions lends historical perspective to today’s rhetoric about Iran.
-
… Given his current efforts to take the U.S. to war in Iran, I thought it might be useful to review at least part of Netanyahu’s advice and exhortations to Washington in the run-up to the Iraq war … You will be quick to see that Netanyahu echoed many of the same points that were being made at the time by Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Bill Kristol, et. al. who spoke with similar confidence (and profound understanding of the region) about the necessity for war and the unmitigated good that would come of it.
-
Israel’s Netanyahu Issues New Warning About Iran
The Associated Press and Reuters
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Sunday [Sept. 16] that Iran would be on the brink of nuclear weapons capability in six to seven months, adding new urgency to his demand that President Barack Obama set a clear “red line” for Tehran in what could deepen the worst U.S.-Israeli rift in decades. Taking his case to the American public, Netanyahu said in U.S. television interviews that by mid-2013, Iran would be 90 percent of the way toward enough enriched uranium for a bomb. He urged the United States to spell out limits that Tehran must not cross or else face military action – something Obama has refused to do.
-
Iran has no interest in nuclear weapons but will keep pursuing peaceful nuclear energy, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told heads of state from developing countries in Tehran. Iran, hosting a summit of the 120-nation Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), is hoping the high-profile event will prove that Western efforts to isolate it and punish it economically for its disputed nuclear programme have failed. “Our motto is nuclear energy for all and nuclear weapons for none,” Khamenei told the assembled heads of state.
-
An ancient Buddhist statue that was recovered by a Nazi expedition in the 1930s was originally carved from a highly valuable meteorite. Researchers say the 1,000-year-old object with a swastika on its stomach is made from a rare form of iron with a high content of nickel. They believe it is part of the Chinga meteorite, which crashed about 15,000 years ago. The findings appear in the Journal, Metoritics & Planetary Science. The 24 cm (9-inch) tall statue is 10 kg (22 lb) and is called the Iron Man. The story of this priceless object owes more perhaps to an Indiana Jones film script than sober scientific research. It was discovered in Tibet in 1938 by German scientist Ernst Schafer.
-
Iran’s Ahmadinejad Rebukes US and Israel in UN Speech
Breitbart (USA)
… Ahmadinejad alluded to what he sees as Israel’s illegitimate nuclear arsenal, and criticized members who haven’t stopped Israel from acquiring it: “Some members of the Security Council with veto rights have chosen silence with regard to the nuclear warheads of a fake regime, while at the same time [impeding] … the scientific progress of other nations.” He also bore down on those who have revolted at Holocaust revisionism. He did this by calling attention to those who “infringe upon other’s freedom and allow sacrilege to people’s beliefs and sanctities, while they criticize posing questions or investigating into historical issues.”
-
New York Tabloid Papers 'Curse' Iran’s President
Tom McGovern - Capital (New York)
Each day, the New York tabloids vie to sell readers at the newsstands on outrageous headlines, dramatic photography, and, occasionally, great reporting. Who is today’s winner? Och!-madinejad. I think these are the biggest letters I’ve ever seen on the front of the Daily News. “VILE” read the enormous red, white-outlined letters at the bottom of the page, over a picture of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad …
-
Romney: A Corporation Masquerading as a Person
Ralph Nader
… Hey, Mitt, why start with the 47 percent? Fully 100 percent of the nation’s 500 biggest corporations are dependent on various kinds of corporate welfare – subsidies, giveaways, bailouts, waivers, and other dazzling preferences – while many pay no tax at all on very substantial profits … Mr. Romney doesn’t understand the double standard where government checks, whether already paid for or not, to people are called “entitlements” while far bigger checks to corporations are called “incentives.”
-
'Anti-Semitism Is Part of Europe’s DNA', Says Jewish Leader
European Jewish Press
“Jews in Europe have always experienced anti-Semitism,” heard participants at a conference in Brussels on ‘European Integration and its impact on anti-Semitism’, only days after anti-Semitic attacks on rabbis occurred in Berlin and Vienna. European Jewish Union CEO Tomer Orni, the organizer of the conference together with the European Jewish Parliament and Tzedek, the Association of European Jewish Lawyers, opened the discussion on Tuesday by insisting “anti-Semitism is part of Europe’s DNA”. “It is rooted in Europe and there were always different sources of motivations for anti-Semitism.”
-
In Italy, Tribute to Fascist General Reignites Debate About Past
The New York Times
… The town’s fascist sympathies became the subject of intense debate when its mayor unveiled a publicly financed memorial to one of its most controversial former citizens: Rodolfo Graziani, a general under Mussolini who was accused of war crimes at the end of World War II and earned the title of “the Butcher” in two campaigns during Italy’s colonization of North Africa in the 1920s and ’30s. The monument, in a style reminiscent of fascist architecture, sits on the town’s highest hill, with the Italian flag flying from the top and inscriptions reading “Honor” and “Homeland.”
-
Lessons From the U.S. De-listing of MEK as a Terrorist Group
Glenn Greenwald -- The Guardian (Britain)
The Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), or People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran is an Iranian dissident group that has been formally designated for the last 15 years by the US State Department as a “foreign terrorist organization”. When the Bush administration sought to justify its attack on Iraq in 2003 by accusing Saddam Hussein of being a sponsor of “international terrorism”, one of its prime examples was Iraq’s “sheltering” of the MEK. Its inclusion on the terrorist list has meant that it is a felony to provide any “material support” to that group. Nonetheless, a large group of prominent former US government officials from both political parties has spent the last several years receiving substantial sums of cash to give speeches to the MEK, and have then become vocal, relentless advocates for the group …
-
Three-fifths of Americans distrust the mass media — an all-time high, according to a poll released Thursday. Sixty percent of Americans have little or no faith in the media to report the news accurately and fairly, according to a Gallup Poll, and 40 percent trust them a fair amount or a great deal. The percentage of Americans who distrust the media has been steadily rising since 2006, when 50 percent still trusted the press. In 2011, 55 percent of Americans were distrustful and 44 percent trusted the media.
-
SAT Reading Scores Hit A Four-Decade Low
The Washington Post
Reading scores on the SAT for the high school class of 2012 reached a four-decade low, putting a punctuation mark on a gradual decline in the ability of college-bound teens to read passages and answer questions about sentence structure, vocabulary and meaning on the college entrance exam … The national trend lines are alarming and should serve as “a call to action,” College Board President Gaston Caperton said. “When less than half of kids who want to go to college are prepared to do so, that system is failing.”
-
Israel will eventually go beyond threats and will attack Iran, the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards was quoted as saying on Saturday. As speculation mounts that Israel could launch air strikes on Iran before U.S. elections in November, Mohammad Ali Jafari told a news conference that the Jewish state would be destroyed if it took such a step … Jafari’s comments, made at an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military exhibition, come as Israeli leaders have increased their rhetoric against Iran.
-
Iran could launch a pre-emptive strike if Israel prepares to attack it, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander told broadcaster Al-Alam on Sunday, a day after his boss warned that conflict was inevitable. Should Israel and Iran engage militarily, “nothing is predictable… and it will turn into World War III,” Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh told Iran’s Arabic-language television network … He added that Iran would deem any Israeli strike to be conducted with US authorisation, so “whether the Zionist regime attacks with or without US knowledge, then we will definitely attack US bases in Bahrain, Qatar and Afghanistan.” He warned that Israel “cannot imagine our response — and it will sustain heavy damage and that will be a prelude to its obliteration.”
-
Iran Bashing, Terrorism and The Chosen People
Anthony Lawson – Video
A frank rebuke of the arrogant “chosen people” mindset behind the Zionist campaign for war against Iran. Runtime: 15 mins.
-
Pakistan Leader Highlights Hypocrisy On Free Speech
Huffington Post
… Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf urged the international community to pass laws to prevent people from insulting the prophet, and the Foreign Ministry summoned the U.S. charge d’affaires in Islamabad, Richard Hoagland, over the film. “If denying the Holocaust is a crime, then is it not fair and legitimate for a Muslim to demand that denigrating and demeaning Islam’s holiest personality is no less than a crime?” Ashraf said in a speech to religious scholars and international diplomats in Islamabad. Denying the Holocaust is a crime in Germany, but not in the U.S.
-
‘Holocaust Denier’ Extradited to Germany For Prison Term
The Associated Press
Bavarian prosecutors say a German neo-Nazi who spent seven years on the run until he was captured in Portugal has been extradited to Germany to serve his prison sentence. The Nuremberg-Fuerth prosecutor’s office said Wednesday that 54-year-old Gerhard Ittner was flown to Germany on Tuesday and will begin serving his 33-month sentence for slander, racial hatred and other crimes. Ittner was convicted in 2005, but fled before he could be imprisoned. He was captured by Portuguese authorities in April and has been in custody there since then.
-
Fredrick Toben, the Holocaust denier who was jailed in 2009 for contempt of a court order banning him from publishing anti-Semitic material on his website, has been declared bankrupt. Toben, who is based in Adelaide, was ordered earlier this year to pay $175,618.97 in court costs to Jeremy Jones, who filed the original case against him. When Toben failed to pay the court costs, Jones lodged a bankruptcy claim against him. In the Federal Magistrates Court Monday, Registrar Anthony Tesoriero, on the application of Jeremy Jones, made a sequestration order against Toben, declaring him bankrupt.
-
A Violin Once Owned By Goebbels Keeps Its Secrets
The New York Times
Joseph Goebbels, in a pinstripe suit, his hair slicked back, gave a simple but philosophical speech about the importance of music. Then, smiling, he handed over the violin to a young woman. The passing was captured on film: the violin’s elegant outline, the figure on its flamed-maple back, the wear pattern of its varnish. Japan’s ambassador to Germany, Hiroshi Oshima, was on hand to witness the transfer. Nejiko Suwa, 23, played her new gift on the spot.
-
Debt Collectors Cashing In on Student Loans
The New York Times
… As the number of people taking out government-backed student loans has exploded, so has the number who have fallen at least 12 months behind in making payments — about 5.9 million people nationwide, up about a third in the last five years. In all, nearly one in every six borrowers with a loan balance is in default. The amount of defaulted loans — $76 billion — is greater than the yearly tuition bill for all students at public two- and four-year colleges and universities, according to a survey of state education officials. In an attempt to recover money on the defaulted loans, the Education Department paid more than $1.4 billion last fiscal year to collection agencies and other groups to hunt down defaulters.
-
US Flexes Naval Might in Persian Gulf War Games
Russia Today (Russia)
The US Navy is leading its largest-ever war games in the Persian Gulf, with warships from 25 countries being deployed in the region. Tehran, in return, is preparing for its biggest air defense war game in the history of Islamic Republic next month. The countries that deployed the largest number of warships for the 12-day training mission are the US, Britain, France, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The exact number of aircraft carriers, battleships and submarines taking part is unclear. Three American aircraft carriers out of the four currently in commission are reportedly gathering in the Persian Gulf for the training. USS Enterprise, USS John C. Stennis, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower have reportedly arrived.
-
The Big Hollywood Lie: Denying Jewish Control.
New American View (1994)
… The Jewish denial that Hollywood is controlled by Jews is a great lie which can be attested to by anyone who has ever been associated with the film industry … It is positively insulting for them to deny their influence and power — particularly when they themselves are continually boasting in their own circles about their “overrepresentation” in these fields. And it is absolutely infuriating when this denial reaches the point that non-Jews are attacked by Jewish agitators and Zionist zealots for stating obvious facts and truth.
-
How Jewish is Hollywood?
Joel Stein -- Los Angeles Times
… The Jews are so dominant, I had to scour the trades to come up with six Gentiles in high positions at entertainment companies. When I called them to talk about their incredible advancement, five of them refused to talk to me, apparently out of fear of insulting Jews … As a proud Jew, I want America to know about our accomplishment. Yes, we control Hollywood. Without us, you’d be flipping between “The 700 Club” and “Davey and Goliath” on TV all day … I don’t care if Americans think we’re running the news media, Hollywood, Wall Street or the government. I just care that we get to keep running them.
-
The Zionist Lobby in America
Mark Weber (in Iran) – Audio MP3 - In English and Farsi
Address by the IHR director in Tehran on Sept. 6, 2012. Nearly all of the 800 people in the “Friendship Salon” hall are Iranian university students, about half of them women. As he speaks, Weber’s remarks are translated into Farsi. His address, which lasted about two hours, includes a Q and A session. In this talk, titled “The Zionist Lobby in America,” Weber emphasizes the crucially important Jewish-Zionist role in the relentless campaign of smears against Iran, and the many threats by Israel to attack the country. He also speaks about widespread misconceptions in the US about Iran, and the Jewish grip on Hollywood and American cultural and political life. Runtime: 131 minutes.
-
The Hungarian government urged the Claims Conference to “refrain from misleading, intentionally misguiding and provoking fear.” The announcement, which was published recently on the government’s website, is the latest escalation in an exchange that began last month when the Hungarian government froze money transfers to the Claims Conference, citing poor reporting. The Claims Conference — a New-York-based body representing world Jewry in talks on compensation for Holocaust-era persecution — denied the allegations and accused Budapest of “depriving” Holocaust survivors through “disgraceful, deceitful tactics.”
-
U.S. officials say the Obama administration is planning to remove an Iranian militant group once allied with former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from the U.S. terrorism list … The move will end years of high-profile campaigning from the group, but is expected to anger the Iranian government. Iran and Iraq’s current Shi’ite-led government consider the People’s Mujahedeen a terrorist organization. Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq gave the MEK shelter after the Iranian revolution in 1979, and some group members were accused of helping Saddam crush a Shi’ite revolt about 20 years ago.
-
Zionism and Anti-Semitism: A Strange Alliance Through History
Allan C. Brownfeld
…. When the term “anti-Semitism” is casually used to silence those who are critical of the government of Israel and its policies, it should be noted that Zionism’s history of alliance with real anti-Semitism has been long-standing, and this has been so precisely because Zionism and anti-Semitism share a view of Jews which the vast majority of Jews in the United States and elsewhere in the world have always rejected. This rarely discussed chapter of history deserves study, for it illuminates many truths relevant to the continuing debate, both with regard to Middle East policy and the real nature of Jews and Judaism.
-
The Definition of a Quagmire
Dexter Filkins – The New Yorker
We can’t win the war in Afghanistan, so what do we do? We’ll train the Afghans to do it for us, then claim victory and head for the exits. But what happens if we can’t train the Afghans? We’re about to find out. It’s difficult to overstate just how calamitous the decision, announced Tuesday, to suspend most joint combat patrols between Afghan soldiers and their American and NATO mentors is. Preparing the Afghan Army and police to fight without us is the foundation of the Obama Administration’s strategy to withdraw most American forces — and have them stop fighting entirely — by the end of 2014. It’s our ticket home. As I outlined in a piece earlier this year, President Obama’s strategy amounts to an enormous gamble, and one that hasn’t, so far, shown a lot of promise. That makes this latest move all the more disturbing. We’re running out of time.
-
Here’s a finding that would have made for great occupy sign last year: American income inequality may be more severe today than it was way back in 1774 — even if you factor in slavery … Scraping together data from an array of historical resources, the duo have written a fascinating exploration of early American incomes, arguing that, on the eve of the Revolutionary War, wealth was distributed more evenly across the 13 colonies than anywhere else in the world that we have record of. Suffice to say, times have changed … In the end, the pair find that the colonies were an exceedingly egalitarian place, financially, if not politically.
-
Sleeping With the Enemy: French Women Embraced Germans During World War II, New Study Shows
Daily Mail (Britain)
… Soon, every French child was crying out that he wanted to be German, while every young French girl was lusting after the newcomers as though they were allies, not enemies, offering them oranges and standing on tip-toe to look into the plush interior of their limousines. And French housewives, deprived of companionship while their soldier husbands were held prisoner, were happily sleeping with the enemy … Now, with uncharacteristic daring, Patrick Buisson, director of France’s History Channel, TF1, has set the record straight by writing a book, whose titillating title – 1940-1945: The Erotic Years – shows the extent to which his fellow countrymen actually enjoyed their wartime experiences.
-
Jamaica Classrooms To Promote Teachings of Black Nationalist Garvey
The Associated Press
Struggling with a chronically stagnant economy and one of the highest crime rates in the world, Jamaica is turning for help to a black nationalist leader who died more than 70 years ago. Marcus Garvey, who inspired millions of followers worldwide with messages of black pride and self-reliance, is being resurrected in a new mandatory civics program in schools across this predominantly black country of 2.8 million people. Students from kindergarten through high school are supposed to learn values such as self-esteem, respect for others and personal responsibility by studying Garvey.
-
Italy Upholds Rendition Convictions For 23 Americans
The Guardian (Britain)
Italy’s highest criminal court on Wednesday upheld the convictions of 23 Americans found guilty of kidnapping a Muslim cleric from a Milanese street and transferring him to a country where torture was permitted. The court of cassation’s ruling is the final appeal in the world’s first judicial review of the CIA practice of abducting terror suspects and transferring them to third countries, a practice also known as extraordinary rendition. The 23 Americans were all convicted in absentia following a trial that lasted over three years. The verdict paves the way for the Italian government to seek redress and could put the Americans at risk of arrest if they travel to Europe.
-
California 'Anti-Semitism' Resolution Targets Anti-Israel Campus Activism
The Associated Press
An Assembly resolution urging California colleges and universities to squelch nascent anti-Semitism also encouraged educators to crack down on demonstrations against Israel, angering advocates for Muslim students … The resolution, which is purely symbolic and does not carry policy implications, also condemns the suggestion that Israel is a “racist” state and that Jews “wield excessive power over American foreign policy.” The resolution characterizes the student campaign to pressure the University of California system to divest from Israel as anti-Semitic, and applauds university leaders’ refusal to consider it.
-
Scholars Voice Opposition To California Resolution On 'Anti-Semitism'
Nora Barrows-Friedman
In response to the California Assembly’s recent passage of a resolution calling on university administations to address what it calls “anti-Semitism” on California campuses, a group of academics have written an open letter of opposition to each of the 66 Assembly members who authored and/or sponsored the resolution … The Simon Wiesenthal Center — the ultra-right-wing Zionist organization at the head of building a “museum of tolerance’ on top of an ancient Muslim cemetery, which is being steadily destroyed, in Jerusalem — helped draft the language in HR 35. Zionist organizations and Israel lobby groups have been relentlessly attempting to repress free speech and Palestine solidarity activism on campuses across the US; trying to stifle debate and discussion about Israeli policies by claiming that such speech is “anti-Semitic.”
-
The Simon Wiesenthal Center: A Bastion of Jewish-Zionist Power
Mark Weber - Institute for Historical Review
Since its founding in 1977, the Simon Wiesenthal Center has grown to become one of the most important and influential Jewish organizations in the world … The Wiesenthal Center has a long record of reckless propaganda for war. Long before the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003, it had been pressing for an American attack against the Middle East nation, backing its effort with alarmist “Big Lie” claims about the supposed danger posed by the Baghdad regime.
-
The Katyn Massacre Cover-Up
Jacob Heilbrunn - The National Interest
World War II is the good war, the one where evil was defeated. But there was always a rub. The great ally of England and America was not a democracy. It was a totalitarian power. And it did the heavy lifting, which is to say that Stalin’s Red Army carved up the German Wehrmacht … Now, with the release of numerous documents from the National Archives about Stalin’s murder of over twenty thousand Polish officers and intellectuals in the Katyn forest in 1940, we know in even more detail just how far they [Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill] were prepared to go to extol and defend the Soviet Union.
-
Restoring the Walls, and the History, at Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair
The New York Times
For nearly three years, Hitler commanded the Third Reich from a vast network of bunkers and buildings hidden in the forest here, guiding his genocidal war effort from an encampment called the Wolf’s Lair … Now, however, the Polish government has decided that the Wolf’s Lair holds valuable history lessons that need to be preserved, especially amid signs that right-wing ideologies of hate and blame are taking root in corners of Europe. As a requirement of issuing a new lease, the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage has demanded that the company running the site transform it into a historical and educational destination with detailed outdoor exhibits and a museum.
-
Historic Voice Recordings
The Free Information Society
Here, in their own voices, are remarks and statements by dozens of historical figures, including Franklin Roosevelt, Lenin, Stalin, Winston Churchill, Hitler, Thomas Edison, Malcolm X, Ronald Reagan, Fidel Castro, Dwight Eisenhower, Warren Harding, and many others.
-
Israel's Nuclear Arsenal Vexed Nixon: Deceit and 'Pressure'
The New York Times
… “The Israelis, who are one of the few peoples whose survival is genuinely threatened, are probably more likely than almost any other country to actually use their nuclear weapons,” Henry A. Kissinger, the national security adviser, warned Mr. Nixon in a memorandum dated July 19, 1969 … “This is one program on which the Israelis have persistently deceived us,” Mr. Kissinger said, “and may even have stolen from us.” … “On the other hand, if we withhold the Phantoms and they make this fact public in the United States, enormous political pressure will be mounted on us,” Mr. Kissinger went on.
-
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.”
-
Zionist Lobby Group AIPAC Thanks Obama for 'Steadfast Support'
Ynet News (Israel)
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) thanked US President Barack Obama and other elected leaders for “steadfast” support of Israel, in a rare statement issued Sunday ahead of Rosh Hashana. This show of support by a predominantly conservative body is extremely significant for Jewish voters on the eve of the US elections in the backdrop of statements by Republican candidate Mitt Romney who claimed Obama had “thrown Israel under the bus.”
-
The United States has slipped further down a global ranking of the world’s most competitive economies, according to a World Economic Forum (WEF) survey released on Wednesday. The world’s largest economy, which was placed 5th last year, fell two positions to the 7th spot — marking its fourth year of decline … Despite declining in the overall ranking, the forum highlighted that the U.S. remains one of the world’s top innovators … Switzerland and Singapore retained their positions as the most competitive economies, coming in 1st and 2nd, respectively.
-
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s 2012 Education at a Glance report has found that while the U.S. boasts high education attainment levels overall, it lags behind other countries that are increasing attainment levels at a higher rate … When it comes to the young adult population, however, the U.S. ranks 14th among 37 OECD and G20 countries in the percentage of 25-34 year-olds boasting higher education attainment, at 42 percent. This puts it above the OECD average of 38 percent, but over 20 percentage points behind the leader, Korea, at 65 percent.
-
New Survey of 'Holocaust Education' Around the World
UNESCO (France)
How do schools worldwide handle the Holocaust as a subject? In what areas of the world does the Holocaust form part of classroom teaching? Answers to these questions are to be provided by a project conducted by UNESCO and the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research. The project, entitled ‘International Status of Education on the Holocaust, A Global Mapping of Textbooks and Curricula’, will for the first time make it possible to compare representations of the Holocaust in school textbooks and national curricula. The study will begin with an assessment of curricula from 195 countries, showing where and to what extent the Holocaust is established in the official school syllabus.
-
Nikola Tesla: The Patron Saint of Geeks?
Tom de Castella - BBC News
Fans have rallied to buy the lab of inventor and electricity pioneer Nikola Tesla to turn it into a museum. But why do so few people appreciate the importance of Tesla’s work? Lots of people don’t know who Nikola Tesla was. … But his work helped deliver the power for the device on which you are reading this. His invention of the induction motor that would work with alternating current (AC) was a milestone in modern electrical systems. Mark Twain, whom he later befriended, described his invention as “the most valuable patent since the telephone”. Tesla was on the winning side in the War of the Currents – the battle between George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison to establish whether AC or direct current (DC) would be used for electricity transmission.
-
Is General Motors Becoming China Motors?
Video – Vince Wade
A few years ago the US federal government saved General Motors from bankruptcy. But did the rescue financed by American taxpayers help American workers? As this video commentary explains, seven out of ten GM cars are now made outside the USA, with ever greater focus by the foremost US-based automaker on manufacturing and sales in China. Runtime: 9:15 mins.
-
Exporting the Holocaust: Exile and the Prophetic
Marc H. Ellis
If you’re not involved in academic life or the Holocaust museum industrial complex you might not be aware that one of the main Jewish exports of our time is the Holocaust … A global Holocaust bank account has been established where the Jewish establishment in America and Israel trades the Holocaust (thus Jewish suffering and a need for empowerment) for political and military support. There are also highly trained cadres of Jewish academicians who trade the Holocaust for a livelihood. This includes teaching in universities but, as well, advising genocide museums and the like around the world.
-
Jewish (Holocaust) Missionaries: Exile and the Prophetic
Marc H. Ellis
… You see, if you want to export the Holocaust you have to believe it. Believing it isn’t about whether the Holocaust happened or not, that’s the easy way out. Believing the Holocaust is about Jewish innocence. Translated, Jewish innocence is about Jewish exceptionality. Translated further, Jewish innocence is about Jewish destiny … Our Holocaust proselytizing is coming to an end. Last legs kind of stuff, another decade or two, max … When the innocence rug of the Holocaust and Israel are pulled from under us, Jews are going to run for cover with our identity tanks on empty.
-
Jewish Writer Grapples With Ethical Dilemma of the Holocaust and Zionism
Robert Countess -- Institute for Historical Review
… As Marc Ellis, a bright young Jewish scholar, persuasively argues in this insightful and provocative book [Beyond Innocence and Redemption], a pseudo-religious mythos centered upon the Holocaust and an increasingly brutal and suppressive Israel state have now firmly replaced the Jewish religion as the binding force that unites Jews everywhere. This new situation, Ellis goes on to emphasize, has had the most profound consequences for the Jewish people, and for the perpetually difficult relationship between Jews and non-Jews.
-
Can We Still Afford to Be A Nation Of Immigrants?
David M. Kennedy –The Atlantic
… The biggest apparent novelty in current immigration is its source, or sources. Well over half of the immigration of the past thirty years has come from just seven countries: Mexico, the Philippines, China (I am including Taiwan), Vietnam, Korea, India, and the Dominican Republic. Not a single European country is on that list. Here, it would seem, is something new under the historical sun. Europe has dried up as a source of immigration and been replaced by new sources in Latin America and Asia … Knowing the old is the project of historical scholarship, and only that knowledge can reliably point us toward the new.