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… Far from being beneficiaries of “cheap oil,” a stable marketplace, or secure sovereignty, the people of the United States find themselves victims in a war of greed, deceit, and corrupt government that was waged less against Saddam than against themselves. Yet they cannot say they were not warned. Whether due to jingoism, ignorance, or bloodlust, they chose not to listen. When a nation punishes its prophets and rewards its robbers it trembles on the precipice of disaster. A decade after the war was launched, it appears that America may be a dog that has had its day.

… The United States finds itself today pretty much where the British were back in the 1920s and 1930s. We’ve bitten off more than we can chew. The only problem is that there’s no readily available sucker to whom we can hand off the mess we’ve managed to create.

… We’re not going to waste your time with more complaints and whines. No – we want revenge. Or at least some residue of justice. Some chemical trace of real responsibility. When the Romans built a bridge, the architect would have to stand under it when the scaffolding was removed. If he did his work badly, the bridge fell down and he was killed. We’d like to see some feet poking out of the rubble of the Iraq War. Is that too much to ask? Rumsfeld. Bush. Cheney. And all the jackasses in Congress who went along with it.

When a prominent American political figure speaks boldly about Jewish-Zionist power, that’s news. So the remarks by South Carolina’s senior Senator that Iraq was invaded “to secure Israel,” and that “everybody” in Washington knows it, are indeed remarkable … Bush’s motive in going to war for Israeli interests, charged Ernest “Fritz” Hollings, was to get Jewish support in election campaigns.

… On issues related to Israel, many Jews have understandably strong interests that are different from those of non-Jews, but the country as a whole should be careful not to be swept up in such partisan passions. Excessive concern for narrowly Jewish interests could damage broader American interests … Jewish spokesmen have promoted the view that terrorists attacked the United States because it is a beacon of freedom … The struggle of good against evil that many American Jews are promoting just happens to be a war against Israel’s enemies. Kristol and Kagan want us to destroy the military capacity of Iraq, Syria, and perhaps Iran, and forcibly install pliant governments in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan.

Adolf Hitler’s place in history has been distorted because Germany lost the Second World War, an op-ed piece in the official Palestinian Authority newspaper Al-Hayat al-Jadida has claimed. Instead, Hitler was well-organized, hated alcohol, and went to bed early, while Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt were alcoholics, the op-ed, printed on the eve of President Barack Obama’s visit to the Middle East, claimed. “Had Hitler won, Nazism would be an honor that people would be competing to belong to, and not a disgrace punishable by law,” the piece written by Hassan Ouda Abu Zaher said …

… The author [of “Hitler and America”] argues that many American ideas influenced decisions Hitler made and that America had a profound impact on Hitler … [Klaus] Fischer also contends that Hitler held a split view of America. One image, America, was of a strong industrial nation that was a true world power, while the second was Amerika, the feeble, mongrel nation, controlled by the capitalist elite with ties to Jews and Bolshevism … This second image of the United States was one of distrust. Amerika was a land that had become corrupted and greedy … By any definition Fischer’s book is a revisionist history of this important topic.

… In Hitler and America, historian Klaus P. Fischer seeks to understand more deeply how Hitler viewed America, the nation that was central to Germany’s defeat. He reveals Hitler’s split-minded image of America … America was a place that Hitler admired — for the can-do spirit of the American people, which he attributed to their Nordic blood — and envied — for its enormous territorial size, abundant resources, and political power. Amerika, however, was to Hitler a mongrel nation, grown too rich too soon and governed by a capitalist elite with strong ties to the Jews.

… The risk of a US-initiated military confrontation with Tehran during Obama’s second term are rising, not falling. This is because Obama’s administration has made an ill-considered wager that it can “diplomatically” coerce Iran’s abandonment of indigenous nuclear fuel cycle capabilities. This is dangerous, for it will become clear over the next year or so – the timeframe Obama himself has set before he would consider Iran able to build nuclear weapons – that the bet has failed … This is a recipe for diplomatic failure and, before the end of Obama’s presidency, strategic catastrophe.

… By now it is obvious that Obama does not have the balls to take on AIPAC, and yet the US is in no position to start another war either … So Obama will most likely make all the right noises to keep the Israelis satisfied and yet will kick the ball down the road … The Israeli influence over US foreign policy has not disappeared by magic — it is still there, and any US-Iran rapprochement is anathema for them … In addition, we all know that Obama is simply not capable of making any sort of deal with Iran even if he wanted to anyway, since the removal of sanctions would be the minimum quid-pro-quo demand by Iran, and US sanctions are mostly imposed by the pro-Israeli Congress not the US President.

… Sucking America into Syria’s civil war is only a near-term goal for the War Party, which is after larger game — greasing the skids for a U.S. war on Iran … Now we come to the sinister role of the U.S. Senate in setting the table for war … What SR 65 does is authorize the United States to attack Iran — to stop her from what she is doing now. Yet, according to all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, Iran does not have a nuclear bomb program … Should Bibi attack Iran, the Senate urges the U.S. military to join in that attack. SR 65 is a blank check to Bibi to go to war with Iran, with a U.S. Senate commitment to join him.

… Congress has already quietly lowered the threshold for war with Iran. Last year, the House and Senate voted to move the red line for military action to Iran’s achieving an ill-defined nuclear capability as opposed to the administration’s stated line of an actual weapon … Military leaders have been clear that an attack on Iran would be a disaster. Escalating confrontation is the likely result, along with a compelling motivation for the Iranian regime to develop a nuclear weapon — a decision U.S. intelligence argues Iran has yet to make.

A former US Marine Corps and Gulf War veteran gives a calmly presented but fervent 15 minute look at Iran and the US-Zionist campaign of war against this nation of 75 million. O’Keefe, an antiwar activist, was a participant in the Feb. 2013 Hollywoodism Conference in Tehran. According to a West Point graduate and retired US Army Captain, O’Keefe “disarmed two Israeli commandos aboard the MV Mavi Marmara – enabling a more peaceful resolution to the Gaza flotilla atrocity. He suffered the consequences.”

For almost a century, Lincoln Motor Company paid homage to our 16 th president in name only – hoping the mere mention of the man who saved the Union and abolished slavery would somehow cast an aura of prestige and integrity over their product and resonate with potential car buyers. In December, however, the automaker began using Lincoln’s likeness in its advertising for the first time … The Lincoln Motor Company has latched onto something that is slowly pervading modern-day America: Nearly 150 years after his death, Abraham Lincoln is at the height of his career as a corporate pitchman and icon of popular culture.

The death of a Palestinian prisoner in disputed circumstances in an Israeli prison has reignited a longstanding controversy over alleged physician complicity in torture as well as sparking renewed Palestinian anger over the estimated 4600 prisoners held by Israel. The Israeli Medical Association (IMA) denied that medical professionals were involved in torture or abuse … However, human-rights campaigners say Palestinian prisoners have long suffered from beatings, sleep deprivation, prolonged and painful handcuffing, humiliation, and medical neglect — considered torture under international standards.

The 2009 cyberattack by the U.S. and Israel that crippled Iran’s nuclear program by sabotaging industrial equipment constituted “an act of force” and was likely illegal under international law, according to a manual commissioned by NATO’s cyber defense center in Estonia. “Acts that kill or injure persons or destroy or damage objects are unambiguously uses of force,” according to “The Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare.” Michael N. Schmitt, the manual’s lead author, told The Washington Times that “according to the U.N. charter, the use of force is prohibited, except in self-defense.”

Israel’s new government plans to pass a controversial new law defining the country as a “national state of the Jewish people” despite the presence of 1.5 million Arabs within its borders. The move is likely to be denounced as weakening Israel’s democratic principles while triggering accusations of official discrimination against Arabs, who form around 20 per cent of the population … It also strictly defined the country’s flags, emblems and national anthem while requiring the state to promote Jewish settlement in all areas. No such requirement applied to other groups.

An array of Jewish groups urged President Obama and Congress to ease the path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Nineteen national groups and dozens of local groups and clergy signed on to a letter sent last Friday … Signatories represented all four major Jewish religious streams as well as the major Jewish civil rights groups, and the federation and public policy umbrellas … It calls for legislation that “brings undocumented immigrants out of the shadows by providing a pathway to citizenship …”

A Jewish student group has announced it was taking further legal action against Twitter over the global networking site’s failure to respond to a French court order to hand over data to help identify the authors of anti-Semitic tweets … The association is claiming 38.5 million euros ($50 million) in damages which they would hand over to the Shoah Memorial fund … The union had been pressing Twitter to exercise tighter control of what appeared on its Internet site following a deluge of anti-Semitic messages posted under the hashtag #unbonjuif (#agoodjew). Twitter later removed some of the offending tweets.

Are women equal to men? Are Jews equal to gentiles? Are blacks equal to Italians, Irish, Polish and other white people? The answer is probably a big fat no, and the pretense or assumption that we are equal – or should be equal – is foolhardy and creates mischief … Soft-minded and sloppy-thinking academics, lawyers and judges harbor the silly notion that but for the fact of discrimination, we’d be proportionately distributed by race across incomes, education, occupations and other outcomes. There is absolutely no evidence anywhere, at any time, that proportionality is the norm anywhere on earth; however, much of our thinking, many of our laws and much of our public policy are based upon proportionality’s being the norm.

… When Obama said he admires Israel’s “core values,” which values was he talking about? The dehumanization of the Palestinians? The attitude toward African migrants? The arrogance, racism and nationalism? Is this what he admires? … Obama wants to lower expectations of his visit. Well, they can’t get any lower … The years are passing, the settlements are growing and the occupation is becoming entrenched. Soon, Mr. President, it will be too late – maybe it already is. The core values you so admire are drowning, and there’s no one to rescue them.

We now know that President Obama believes there is little or no prospect for peace in the Middle East … By implication Obama has acknowledged that he does not have the will to confront the Zionist lobby in Washington D.C. and an Israeli government committed to ever expanding settlement, even when doing so is necessary to best protect America’s own interests.

… Many outsiders think of Nuremberg only in terms of its World War II significance. This was where Hitler spoke at huge rallies throughout the 1930s — one of which, in 1934, was recorded for the propaganda film “Triumph of the Will” — and where the military tribunals of Nazis were held after the fighting ended. But the city has much more to offer than somber history, including a magnificent Holy Roman Empire-era castle; a rich brewing and beer tradition; perhaps the best gingerbread in the world; and, if you happen to visit in December, Germany’s most celebrated Christmas market.

American military officials drew up a secret plan in 1930 for war against Britain in which Canada would be the main battleground. “Joint Plan Red,” as it was known, envisaged the elimination of Britain as a trading rival. Professor Floyd Rudmin of Queens University in Ontario, Canada, charges that the plan was a blueprint for an American invasion of Canada. According to the plan, the United States was prepared to invade Canada if political unrest brought on by Quebec’s secession threatened American access to Canada’s fresh water and cheap hydroelectric power. The war plan document was drawn up by the Joint Board of the Army and Navy in May 1930, when Herbert Hoover was President … Its aim was to dismember the British empire on the grounds of “competition and interference with American foreign trade.”

Israel has revealed very little about the man known as Prisoner X, an Australian-Israeli who was jailed here in 2010 after apparently getting caught in a web of espionage and intrigue, other than how he died: alone, by asphyxiation, after hanging himself in the shower of his cell … In the latest twist, two news organizations have reported that Mr. Zygier, who was 34 when he died in December 2010, had unintentionally exposed two top spies for Israel in Lebanon, revealing their identities to a European man known to be close to Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite organization Israel fought in a monthlong war in 2006.

A New York attorney is taking the complicated process of picking a jury to a new extreme. He represents a suspected terrorist and asked a judge to keep Jews off the panel. Inside Brooklyn Federal Court, attorney Frederick Cohn told Judge Eric Vitaliano, “I’m not wild about having Jews on the jury in this case,” CBS 2’s Steve Langford reported. Abdel Hameed Shehadeh, a Muslim, is charged with making false statements in connection with a terrorism offense. His attorney told the court he didn’t believe his client could get a fair trial if Jews are on the jury.

Barbara Kulaszka, Ezra Levant, Paul Fromm and others on the passing of Douglas Christie, One of Canada’s Greatest Freedom Fighters / “I was honoured to work with Doug Christie over the past 25 years. Canada is a much better place today than it might have been because he had the courage to defend clients targeted by the powerful, and did so brilliantly. I regard him as one of the greatest lawyers Canada has produced, since he defended extremely unpopular and isolated people fearlessly, and in doing so protected the rights of all Canadians to freedom of speech and the right to be heard. He is an advocate in the truest sense of the word.” – Barbara Kulaszka

With his black, Stetson-like hat, long dark coat, black cowboy boots and stern, steely gaze, lawyer Doug Christie would not have been out of place as a feared gunslinger in a Hollywood western. But for most of Mr. Christie’s lengthy, controversial career, his main targets were not bad guys, but what he considered bad laws, in particular laws that restricted the expression of views most Canadians consider reprehensible … Mr. Christie, who died March 11 from liver cancer at 66, took on these cases with relish, winning some, losing many, and leaving behind a fierce divide of detractors and admirers. Those he defended called him the Battling Barrister.

… Doug was an intellectual warrior of true grit as well as warmth you seldom find in the legal profession. He was despised and demonized by many, as was and still is his ill-reputed client. Their battle took decades – and isn’t yet done … I ask for 40 minutes of your time to watch this documentary from beginning to the end. It’s grainy, homespun video – yet extraordinary history.

Spanish Jews accused politicians in Galicia of blocking a resolution for commemorating the Holocaust because they oppose Israel. The speakers of the leftist AGE party and the nationalist BNG party in the parliament of Galicia — an autonomous region in northern Spain — vetoed a draft resolution commemorating the victims of the Holocaust, preventing it from going to a vote … During these talks, party officials said they viewed Holocaust commemoration as part of Israeli propaganda, Gomez-Valades said. His organization and the FCJE umbrella group condemned the two parties in a joint statement earlier this month.

… Holocaust remembrance is not, as its supporters claim, a noble effort motivated by sincere concern for humanity. Instead, this relentless campaign is an expression of Jewish-Zionist power, and is designed to further Jewish-Zionist interests … Jewish death and suffering do not deserve to be venerated more than the death and suffering of non-Jews. The Holocaust remembrance campaign deserves scorn, not support, because it is a one-sided effort that serves narrow Jewish and Israeli interests and bolsters Jewish-Zionist power.

… In this light, Netanyahu’s push for war is clearly counter to the views of his own military and intelligence communities. That exposes the risk of handing the most gravely consequential of geopolitical decisions over to the calculations of ideologically-driven political leaders … Despite this, recent developments have made it increasingly likely that any military confrontation would necessarily draw in the United States to a large degree … Unless the Obama administration can pursue peace with the same zealous determination with which its hawkish counterparts are pursuing war, the latter may likely win the day. That would propel the United States once more into a tragic and avoidable war in the Middle East.

The University of Aachen in Germany fired historian Vladimir Iliescu for claiming the Holocaust never happened in Romania. The institution “cancelled the teaching contract” of Iliescu “immediately after statements he made to the Romanian Academy became known,” a spokesperson for RWTH Aachen told JTA on Tuesday, adding that the university was “appalled” by his words. “In Romania there was persecution against Jews, 20,000 Jews died, but this is not a Holocaust,” Iliescu said last month during an address organized by the Romanian Academy in Bucharest.

Israeli forces have sprayed Palestinian homes in the village of Nabi Saleh with ‘Skunk’ as a punishment for organising weekly protests against the Apartheid Wall built on occupied West Bank land. Human rights watchdog B’Tselem published a video showing Israel’s armoured tanker trucks fitted with “water cannons” which spray the foul fluid at Palestinian protesters. It is reported that the Israeli forces also targeted all the houses of the village with the liquid formula. A B’Tselem report pointed out the effects of this ‘Skunk’ spray included causing environmental damage.

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS) has called for the sacking of an advisor to the country’s deputy interior minister. Earlier this week it had emerged that Ioannis Kotoulas, who works for Alternate Minister Charalambos Athanasiou of the New Democracy party, has repeatedly justified the crimes committed by the Nazis in his books and belittled the atrocities that were committed under the German occupation of Greece in World War II. The Greek newspaper ‘Avgi’ on Tuesday brought to light a book written by Kotoulas called “The Rise of the Third Reich” in which he refers to Nazism as “a great revolution,” as well as a magazine article in which he refers to concentration camps as “a normal and established practice of all warring sides.”

The prime minister of Greece, Antonis Samaras, promised Jewish leaders who gathered last weekend in Saloniki to mark the 70th year since the start of deportations to the death camps from the city, that his government would enact new laws to proscribe neo-Nazi parties … He said at the service that “Greek society has been infected by voices that seek to resurrect racism” and that “neo-Nazis have reappeared once again in Europe”.

… Jefferson’s interests were always for the welfare of the country and its citizens. Even today, though, there are dishonest individuals and various special interests who hate anyone who shares his ideals. Jefferson once said that he was assailed by so many enemies that if he were to answer them all, he would not have time for anything else. Instead, he declared, he would let judgment of him and his record be made by the people.

.. It’s certainly true that Americans are justifiably proud of certain nationalistic attributes: class mobility, ethnic diversity, religious freedom, large immigrant populations, life-improving technological discoveries, a commitment to some basic liberties such as free speech and press, historical progress in correcting some of its worst crimes. But all of those virtues are found in equal if not, at this point, greater quantity in numerous other countries … This belief in the unfettered legal and moral right of the US to use force anywhere in the world for any reason it wants is sustained only by this belief in objective US superiority, this myth of American exceptionalism. And the results are exactly what one would expect from an approach grounded in a belief system so patently irrational.

… Many researchers have reached a conclusion that turns conventional wisdom on its head: Americans enjoy less economic mobility than their peers in Canada and much of Western Europe … At least five large studies in recent years have found the United States to be less mobile than comparable nations. A project led by Markus Jantti, an economist at a Swedish university, found that 42 percent of American men raised in the bottom fifth of incomes stay there as adults. That shows a level of persistent disadvantage much higher than in Denmark (25 percent) and Britain (30 percent) — a country famous for its class constraints.

… For more than thirty years, American analysts and policy-makers have put forward a series of myths about the Islamic Republic: that it is irrational, illegitimate and vulnerable. In doing so, pundits and politicians have consistently misled the American public and America’s allies about what policies will actually work to advance US interests in the Middle East. The most persistent — and dangerous — of these myths is that the Islamic Republic is so despised by its own people that it is in imminent danger of overthrow … More than ever before, American interests require rapprochement with the Islamic Republic. Continued US hostility only courts strategic disaster.

“Going to Tehran” arguably represents the most important work on the subject of U.S.-Iran relations to be published thus far. Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett tackle not only U.S. policy toward Iran but the broader context of Middle East policy with a systematic analytical perspective informed by personal experience, as well as very extensive documentation. More importantly, however, their exposé required a degree of courage that may be unparalleled in the writing of former U.S. national security officials about issues on which they worked. They have chosen not just to criticize U.S. policy toward Iran but to analyse that policy as a problem of U.S. hegemony.

… As America’s sanctions policy unravels, President Obama will have to decide whether to stay on a path of open-ended hostility toward Iran that ultimately leads to another US-initiated war in the Middle East, or develop a very different vision for America’s Middle East strategy – a vision emphasising genuine diplomacy with Tehran, rooted in American acceptance of the Islamic Republic as a legitimate political order representing legitimate national interests and aimed at fundamentally realigning US-Iranian relations.

… For its own interests, Washington must take a fundamentally different approach. President Obama needs to realign U.S. relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran as thoroughly as President Nixon realigned relations with the People’s Republic of China in the early 1970s … Iran has consistently been prepared to accept more intrusive monitoring of – and perhaps negotiated limits on – its nuclear activities, if Western powers would in turn recognize its right to enrich uranium under international safeguards. But Obama – like his predecessor – refuses to acknowledge Iran’s right to enrich. For this would require acknowledging the Islamic Republic as a legitimate political order representing legitimate national interests …

… Topping the list of those successes — if success is the right word for an operation whose long-term effects were so disastrous — was the August 1953 overthrow of Iran’s elected leader and the installment of the unpopular and authoritarian Shah in his place. Operation Ajax, as it was known, deserves that old cliché: If it didn’t really happen, you’d think that it was a plot imagined by a Hollywood scriptwriter peddling anti-American conspiracies. Ervand Abrahamian isn’t a Hollywood scriptwriter but a renowned Iranian-American scholar who teaches history at the City University of New York. With The Coup, he has authored a concise yet detailed and somewhat provocative history of the 1953 regime change, which the CIA conducted with the British MI6.

During the first two centuries of the Christian era, two competing religions that shared many similarities flourished in the Greco-Roman world: Christianity and Mithraism. For a time, the followers of Mithra outnumbered those of Christ, and it was not until the third century AD that Christianity clearly emerged as the dominant religion of the declining Roman empire.

A Lib Dem MP who sparked a row on the eve of a Holocaust memorial with comments about ‘the Jews’ is to escape censure while he receives training in how not to be offensive. Campaigners accused Nick Clegg of not taking anti-Semitism seriously after it emerged that plans to punish Bradford East MP David Ward have been ‘adjourned’ while he learns what language to use in future.

… This rupture of the inhibition against murder may rank as the single most important turning point in the evolution of Nazi Jewish policy into the Holocaust. Yet we do not know when the decision for it was made, or why. About all we can reliably say is that Hitler– given his very active role in all major decisions concerning policy toward the Jews– made the decision, probably in vague and general terms which his eager subordinates fleshed out … The shooting squads never received a single order to expand the killing to include women and children, but rather a mix of mostly verbal and some written orders, some vague and contradictory, usually delivered personally by Himmler on visits to their area of operations.

… Something akin to a new religious zeal has spread throughout the land, making the people wistful, but strangely light-hearted and confident in their earnestness. It is as if they had been not only raised from the dust, but also shown a star or ball of fire which will lead them to the fulfilment of their destiny … The fact that Germany is to-day stirred by a purpose super-personal and therefore religious, is beyond question … For to-day the sound in health and mind are the honoured of the German nation and, as the guarantors of a desirable posterity, are granted many privileges. Although to us over here this cannot help seeming slightly odd, it is, of course, the most elementary wisdom.

If this aeroplane should crash then the whole history of Europe would be changed. For a few feet away sits Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of Germany and leader of the most volcanic nationalist awakening which the world has seen. Six thousand feet beneath us, hidden by a sea of rolling white clouds, is the land which he has roused to a frenzy. We are rushing along at a speed of 142 miles per hour from Berlin to Frankfurt-on-Main, where Hitler is to begin his lightning election campaign. The occupants of the aeroplane are, indeed, a mass of human dynamite. I can see Hitler studying the map and then reading a number of blue reports. He does not look impressive.

‘The Party.” That is the commonest phrase in Germany today. It denotes that all-powerful organization, NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers Party) which dominates, energizes, and directs the Third Reich. Just what is the Party, and what are its relations with the Nation, the State Administration, and those numberless organizations characteristic of German life? That was one of the first questions I put when I got to Germany … One thing seems certain: The National Socialist upheaval that has created the Third Reich goes far deeper than the Fascist regime in Italy, and is perhaps a more defiant breach with the historic past than even the Communism of Soviet Russia.

This clip of Hitler addressing a mass rally in Berlin conveys something of the fervor, energy and appeal of the extraordinary man whose work and skill transformed a tiny group into Germany’s largest political party. With English subtitles. Hitler speaks on Feb. 10, 1933, to an mass meeting of supporters of his National Solcialist Party in Berlin’s large “Sportpalast” hall. This was his first speech delivered to a public gathering since he had become Chancellor eleven days earlier. He is introduced by Joseph Goebbels, who was chief of the NS Party in Berlin. Some 20 million people across the country were listening by radio.

To deal with the massive unemployment and economic paralysis of the Great Depression, both the US and German governments launched innovative and ambitious programs. Although President Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” measures helped only marginally, the Third Reich’s much more focused and comprehensive policies proved remarkably effective. Within three years unemployment was banished and Germany’s economy was flourishing. And while Roosevelt’s record in dealing with the Depression is pretty well known, the remarkable story of how Hitler tackled the crisis is not widely understood or appreciated.

“We have the power. Now our gigantic work begins.” Those were Hitler’s words on the night of January 30, 1933, as cheering crowds surged past him, for five long hours, beneath the windows of the Chancellery in Berlin. His political struggle had lasted 14 years. He himself was 43 … Half a century later, few people understand the crisis Germany faced at that time … During the preceding years, a score of “democratic” governments had come and gone, often in utter confusion. Instead of alleviating the people’s misery, they had increased it, due to their own instability …

Four years after taking power in Germany, Hitler looks back on his regime’s remarkable success in banishing mass unemployment, raising production and reviving economic life. In this Reichstag address of Jan. 30, 1937, the German leader explains the underlying economic principles of the National Socialist state. The well-being and interests of the people as a whole have priority over the interests of business, labor or any other particular group. With English translation.

Short documentary television report, produced after the war, on the astonishing success of the Hitler’s regime success in banishing mass unemployment, reviving the nation’s economic life, and restoring confidence. Runtime: 4:25 mins.

… Between the death of Hindenburg in August 1934 and the expansion into Austria and the Sudetenland four years later Hitler was indeed successful in gaining the backing of the vast majority of the German people, something of immeasurable importance for the disastrous course of German policy ahead … Compared with the state of Germany six years earlier, it was hard for those listening to Hitler’s 1939 speech, even many who had earlier opposed the Nazis, not to admit that Hitler had accomplished something extraordinary.

… Hitler was the archetypal “charismatic leader”. He was not a “normal” politician – someone who promises policies like lower taxes and better health care – but a quasi-religious leader who offered almost spiritual goals of redemption and salvation. He was driven forward by a sense of personal destiny he called “providence”.

The cult of Hitler is very popular among young Indonesians today. Many young men and women wear Nazi symbols, images of Hitler, SS runes and swastikas on belts, caps and T-shirts. “Mein Kampf” is easy to buy at bookstores … Much the same is happening in other countries of Asia. This can be partly explained by the fact that young people are very far from the Holocaust, says German portal taz.de. The website published an article on the subject titled “Islands of the Fuhrer.” … Many people around the world are aware of Hitler’s crimes, but they still admire him despite everything. The reason is the same as in the case of Che Guevara. Hitler was a revolutionary.

A specter is haunting the world — the specter of Hitlerism. That, in short, is the stern warning of this provocative book, Hitler as Philosophe: Remnants of the Enlightenment in National Socialism, by Lawrence Birken… In spite of decades of vehement vilification, says author Birken, Hitler’s views have enduring and dangerous appeal — not because they are bizarre and alien, but precisely because they are rational and well grounded in Western thought.

The “standard” biographies of Adolf Hitler are inadequate and fundamentally flawed, says American historian Russell Stolfi in a remarkable new book, Hitler: Beyond Evil and Tyranny. The mass media and even supposedly scholarly works portray the German leader as a monstrous, criminal demagogue who was driven by irrational hatred and lust for power. In fact, contends Stolfi, Hitler was a prophetic, messianic and visionary figure, who should be understood along with such personalities as Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Mohammed and Jesus.

British historian David Irving and IHR director Mark Weber tackle the emotion-laden topic of Hitler’s place in history in two talks at an IHR meeting. A balanced or objective portrayal of Hitler is nearly impossible in today’s America, says Weber in his 45-minute address. The portrayal of Hitler and his regime is grotesquely unbalanced, not only in the US mass media, but even in supposedly authoritative history books and reference works. Nonetheless, worldwide fascination with Hitler shows no sign of diminishing, Weber goes on, noting the seemingly endless stream of books, articles, television broadcasts and motion pictures devoted to this extraordinary man.

… Thousands of Indian soldiers who had joined Britain in the fight against fascism swapped their oaths to the British king for others to Adolf Hitler – an astonishing tale of loyalty, despair and betrayal that threatened to rock British rule in India, known as the Raj. The story the German officers told their interrogators began in Berlin on 3 April 1941. This was the date that the left-wing Indian revolutionary leader, Subhas Chandra Bose, arrived in the German capital … By the end of 1941, Hitler’s regime officially recognised his provisional “Free India Government” in exile, and even agreed to help Chandra Bose raise an army to fight for his cause.

… Bose was favorably impressed with the discipline and organizational strength of fascism as early as 1930, when he first expressed support for a synthesis of fascism and socialism. During his stays in Europe during the 1930s, he was deeply moved by the dynamism of the two major “fascist” powers, Italy and Germany. After observing these regimes first-hand, he developed a political ideology of his own that, he was convinced, could bring about the liberation of India and the total reconstruction of Indian society along vaguely authoritarian-socialist lines.

The arrival of Subhas Chandra Bose in Germany in 1941 (during the turbulent period of World War II) and his anti-British activities in that country in co-operation with the German government, culminated in the formation of an Indian legion. This marks perhaps the most significant event in the annals of India’s fight for independence.

I was raised in a religious Jewish environment, and though we were not strongly Zionist, I always took it to be self-evident that “Israel has a right to exist.” … The very idea of a Jewish state is undemocratic, a violation of the self-determination rights of its non-Jewish citizens, and therefore morally problematic … There is an unavoidable conflict between being a Jewish state and a democratic state. I want to emphasize that there’s nothing anti-Semitic in pointing this out, and it’s time the question was discussed openly on its merits, without the charge of anti-Semitism hovering in the background.

On Sept. 22, 1947, Loy Henderson strongly warned Secretary of State George C. Marshall that partition of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states was not workable and would lead to untold troubles in the future. Henderson was director of the State Department’s Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs, and his memorandum … stands as one of the most perceptive analyses of the perils that partition would bring. Henderson informed Marshall that his views were shared by “nearly every member of the Foreign Service or of the department who has worked to any appreciable extent on Near Eastern problems.”

… Attempts to address openly Israeli transgressions in the press or the public forums are invariably stillborn or muted by an inability to reach the American people, combined with obstacles and assaults from almost-uniformly hostile elected politicians, multimedia press, and mostly Protestant pulpits … Perhaps the best way to think of the US-Israel relationship today is not that it is “special,” but rather that it is “unique” – the end product of a concerted effort over decades by a domestic Fifth Column which has effectively captured the US Government from within, and placed it in the service of a smaller foreign country in a modified host-parasite relationship.

… Marriage in Israel is controlled by state religious authorities; there are virtually no civil weddings in the country. Jews who want a marriage license must first prove they are Jewish in accordance with Orthodox tradition, which means they need to have been born to an uninterrupted line of Jewish mothers. Such a pedigree can be difficult to prove, especially for the children of Israel’s largest immigrant community, the former denizens of the Soviet Union, many of whom spent years obscuring their Jewish roots to avoid discrimination.

More than 40 writers, filmmakers and scholars from the US, France, Italy and other foreign countries, together with dozens of Iranian cinema specialists, journalists, officials and others, gathered at the large Azadi hotel in north Tehran for a four-day “Hollywoodism” conference to critically examine the formidable role and often harmful social-political impact of the US film industry, and to discuss how to counter it. I was one of several Americans who had been invited to the event … During this expense-paid visit I gained a greater understanding of this ancient but vibrant nation of 75 million, which Israel and its allies in the US have demonized and threaten with military attack.

The US is like a drunkard who charges to war with anyone who might pose a threat, ex- presidential candidate Mike Gravel says. “I like the US. But at the same time I think my country is an imperial country that is going downhill, and our leadership does not even acknowledge the problem,” confesses Gravel. “Phony triumphalism has turned into a device to make Americans live in fear of a terrorist attack, yet you are a thousand times more likely to catch cancer than ever be hurt by that,” he points out. “All I can say about what the US is doing – it‘s immoral,” Gravel says …

Iran supports the establishment of a Middle East free of nuclear weapons and backs efforts to dispose of existing ones in the region, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said today. “We are at the forefront of efforts to scrap nuclear weapons,” Mehmanparast said at a press conference in Tehran aired live by Iran’s state television. Iranian authorities complain of double standards over their country’s nuclear program, which they say is solely civilian while the U.S. and Israel say it may have military intent.

… The nuclear powers must apply the same standard to themselves as to others: zero nuclear weapons. Whereas the international community has imposed blanket bans on other weapons with horrendous effects – from biological and chemical agents to landmines and cluster munitions – it has not yet done so for the very worst weapons of all. Nuclear weapons are still seen as legitimate in the hands of some. This must change. …

… Obama’s bluster about stopping Iran from getting nuclear weapons seems to contradict his own intelligence community’s consensus that Iran has not yet made any move to develop nukes. Obama also spoke about the ongoing Arab Spring. “In the Middle East, we will stand with citizens as they demand their universal rights, and support stable transitions to democracy,” he claimed, even as the US continues to support dictatorship in numerous countries like Iraq, Jordan, Bahrain, and throughout the Persian Gulf.

Western leaders appear positively lackadaisical about striking a deal with Iran … There is no evidence to indicate that Iran is currently developing nuclear weapons — in fact, the U.S. director of national intelligence, James Clapper, has a “high level of confidence” that they have made no such decision. Yet there is no reason not to strike a deal with Iran on suspending their 20 percent uranium enrichment, especially since they are amenable to such a bargain … Contrary to expectations, sanctions are not leading to some groundswell movement to oust the Supreme Leader’s regime.

… World powers are again poised to “solve” an international crisis through an “agreement” that is essentially predicated on intimidation, illegal threats of military action, unilateral “crippling” sanctions, sabotage, and extrajudicial killings of Iran’s brightest minds — that is, in 19th-century style. But injustice and imprudence are not the only flaws of an agreement concluded through coercion. Its major defect is coercion’s legal impact on its sustainability: As stated above, an agreement that is forced upon a sovereign state breaches the provision of Article 52 of the Vienna Convention and as such contains in itself the legal seeds of its own dissolution.

As Austria prepares to mark the anniversary of its annexation by Nazi Germany, an opinion poll has shown that more than half of the population think it highly likely that the Nazis would be elected if they were readmitted as a party. A further 42 per cent agreed with the view that life “wasn’t all bad under the Nazis”, and 39 per cent said they thought a recurrence of anti-Semitic persecution was likely in Austria.

The famed Vienna Philharmonic has acknowledged that many of its musicians were Nazi party members during Hitler’s rule and that its director may have delivered a prestigious orchestra award to a Nazi war criminal two decades after the end of World War Two. The orchestra, which has come under fire for covering up its history, on Sunday night published details for the first time about its conduct during the Nazi era … The Alpine republic will solemnly mark the 75th anniversary on Tuesday of its annexation by Nazi Germany, an event most Austrians at the time welcomed.

The Vienna Philharmonic, one of the world’s leading orchestras, revealed the depth of its collusion with the Nazis last night, admitting that it planned to honour Adolf Hitler with a gold medal inscribed “for the Fuehrer”. It confirmed that a “ring of honour” was awarded to Baldur von Schirach, a Nazi governor of Vienna who oversaw the deportation of tens of thousands of Jews, in the late Sixties after he was released from Spandau prison.

This portrayal of the 1938 union (“Anschluss”) of Austria with the German Reich, includes contemporary film footage with recent English-language voiceover commentary. Runtime: 4:14 mins. For decades American officials and historians, along with the US media, have portrayed the union of Austria with the Reich as an act of “aggression” or “rape.” The truth is exactly the opposite. Rarely in history has a historical event taken place with broader and more joyful popular approval.

“The Sound of Music” is perhaps the most popular American musical picture ever produced. But whatever its merits as entertainment, the film’s presentation of history is deceitful. In particular, its portrayal of the 1938 union or Anschluss of Austria with the German Reich is a gross distortion of historical reality.

A Victoria [British Columbia] lawyer who was considered a free-speech defender by some and hate-speech apologist by others died Monday. Doug Christie, 66, died at Victoria Hospice, at Royal Jubilee Hospital, with his wife of 31 years, Keltie Zubko, his sister, and his two children — daughter Kalonica, 20, and son Cadeyrn, 22 — by his side. “The kids and I and his sister [were with him] and we’re so grateful,” Zubko said. To family, Christie was much more than the man who garnered favourable or negative attention in the media — he was a loving father and partner.”

… The time has come to recognize that the principles of liberal democracy are not universal. They are embedded in unique historical and cultural conditions and cannot be pressed on other national societies that are not ready and perhaps not even interested in adopting them. Instead of embracing a futile and counterproductive mission of making the world safe for democracy, the American people and their leaders should contribute to the Enlightenment project by applying and perfecting its principles at home.

For centuries, it has been a crystal of legend locked in the verses of Norse myth with little or no evidence that it was ever real. Now it seems scientists at last have grounds for believing that the Viking “sunstone” used to navigate the seas did indeed exist. Researchers who have spent three years poring over a cloudy crystal discovered in the wreck of an Elizabethan ship sunk off the Channel Islands believe they have proved that it could be the substance described by the Norsemen as helping to locate the sun when obscured by cloud.

In 2012, the Chinese film industry produced numerous movies and television dramas with anti-Japanese themes, many of them dealing with the two wars between the countries. The trend seems set to continue in 2013, with at least nine anti-Japan productions in progress. According to a report in the Guangzhou-based Yangcheng Evening News, Hengdian World Studio, known as China’s Hollywood, produced between 40 and 50 such shows last year alone … “Whenever you need a good bad guy in the United States, you can never go wrong bringing in a Nazi,” said Young. “It’s the same way in China. You can never go wrong vilifying the Japanese, and they take advantage of that fact.”

… I count myself among a very small proportion of recent graduates that isn’t drowning in student debt. So much debt, in fact, that 35 percent of those of us under age 30 simply won’t — or can’t — make their loan payments anymore, according to a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Since 2004, educational debt has nearly tripled, to $966 billion, surpassing credit-card debt, auto loans, and home equity lines of credit to take second place behind mortgage debt, with a total balance moving steadily toward $1 trillion.

On this RT television show “The Truthseeker” host Daniel Bushell debunks the claim made repeatedly by American politicians that the USA is “the greatest nation on earth.” Actually the US is among the worst of western or developed nations. On a range of key indicators, he shows, the US ranks at or near the bottom, with high crime rates, vast income and wealth inequality, and shabby infrastructure.

Officially, since June 2009 the US economy has been undergoing an economic recovery from the December 2007 recession. But where is this recovery? I cannot find it, and neither can millions of unemployed Americans … Neither real retail sales nor housing starts, consumer confidence, payroll employment, or average weekly earnings indicate economic recovery … Both the corporations and the Fed have created a stock market bubble based on profits obtained from labor arbitrage (the substitution of cheaper foreign labor for US labor) and from banks speculating with the money that the Fed is providing to them. This situation is untenable. Sooner or later something will pop these bubbles, and the consequences will be horrendous.

The threat of a nuclear-armed Iran is overhyped, and there is no evidence suggesting that the country has or intends to produce weapons of mass destruction, a UN expert on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) said at a forum in Dubai on Tuesday. Dr Hans Blix, Head of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), said during a talk at Capital Club that with North Korea making a nuclear bomb test detonation, the world should focus more on tackling the state that has violated the NPT. “So far Iran has not violated NPT and there is no evidence right now that suggests that Iran is producing nuclear weapons.

Ten years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, ex-UN inspector Hans Blix has urged world powers to avoid committing the same error by going to war against Iran based on fears it is developing nuclear weapons. World “memories are short,” the now 82-year-old Swedish ex-diplomat told a small group of journalists, including AFP, at a press gathering in Dubai. “Memories of the failure and tragic mistakes in Iraq are not taken sufficiently seriously,” he said. “In the case of Iraq, there was an attempt made by some states to eradicate weapons of mass destruction that did not exist, and today there is talk of going on Iran to eradicate intentions that may not exist. I hope that will not happen.”

Sanctions are not preventing Iran’s nuclear progress, the US Army commander in the Middle East told Congress on Tuesday, adding that he had prepared a military option. A simple “No, sir” was General James Mattis’s response when asked whether “the current diplomatic and economic efforts to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear capability” were working. “I think we have to continue sanctions, but have other options ready,” said Mattis, of the Central Command, to the Armed Services Committee during an official hearing.

In a little-noticed exchange Tuesday at the Senate Armed Services Committee, a top US general said he had no doubt Israel would attack Iran if the Islamic Republic reached a critical point in its nuclear weapons drive. Furthermore, said General James Mattis, Israel could so without the assistance of the United States. Mattis, who is retiring this month as head of the US army’s Central Command, which includes the Middle East and North Africa, was responding to questions from Sen. Lindsey Graham …

The accident on May 6, 1937, that killed 36 people took place as the huge airship was preparing to land at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey and prompted several theories as to the cause. British aeronautical engineer Jem Stansfield and a team of researchers based in San Antonio, Texas, told the Daily Mail that the airship ignited when the ground crew ran to take the landing ropes, effectively earthing the ship and causing a spark. Stansfield and his team said the goal of their experiments, which are the subject of a British Channel 4 documentary to be aired on Thursday, was to rule out theories ranging from a planted bomb to explosive properties in the paint used on the Hindenburg.

A Dutch researcher who interviewed a group of Muslim immigrant teenage boys from Turkey was shocked at their repeated response to questions about the Holocaust: Hitler should have finished the job, they suggested. “As far as I’m concerned, Hitler should have killed all Jews,” one said on the video, which aired on Nederland 2 TV last month and is now available with English subtitles, The Blaze reported. And another: “On the one hand, I’m satisfied with what Hitler did with the Jews. I am being really honest.” His friends agreed, The Blaze reported. That line of thought is echoed throughout the boys’ school, they said. “Nobody in our school likes Jews,” one said in the interview.

An Israel newspaper has condemned the “SS” badge on the Holden Commodore, rebadged as a Chevrolet, as a Nazi reference. The SS, which stands for Super Sport, has been threatened with being banned from entry, because it shares initials with the Schutzstaffel (or SS) Nazi unit that persecuted Jewish people under Adolf Hitler’s reign of terror across Europe. Barach Shuv, manager of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, told the Hebrew daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth:”The use of this name is very inappropriate It is not a name that will bring them pride or success.”

… The Irgun was not the only Jewish terrorist group but it was the most active in causing indiscriminate terror in pre-Israel Palestine. Up to the time of the Jaffa attack, its most spectacular feat had been the July 22, 1946, blowing up of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, with the killing of 91 people – 41 Arabs, 28 Britons and 17 Jews. The other major Jewish terrorist group operating in Palestine in the 1940s was the Lohamei Herut Israel – “Fighters for the Freedom of Israel,” Lehi in the Hebrew acronym – also known as the Stern Gang after its fanatical founder Avraham Stern.

Devotees of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, whose brutal purges killed millions of innocent citizens and made his name a byword for totalitarian terror, flocked to the Kremlin to praise him for making his country a world power Tuesday, while experts and politicians puzzled and despaired over his enduring popularity. Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov led some 1,000 zealots who laid carnations at Stalin’s grave by the Kremlin wall in Moscow, praising him as a symbol of the nation’s “great victories” and saying that Russia needs to rely on this “unique experience” to overcome its problems.

… For eight decades, the greatest mass murder in modern history has been shamefully covered up or ignored … If we keep demanding that Germany and Japan atone for their wartime crimes, is it not time for our governments to finally recognize and atone their alliance with the biggest mass murderer in history, Josef Stalin, a man whose crimes exceeded those of Adolf Hitler by a factor of at least three or four times? Particularly so in the United States, where World War II has become something of a state religion and is endlessly invoked by conservatives and neocons to justify foreign military adventures.

The European Court of Human Rights has ordered Spain to pay 13,000 euros in damages and legal costs to a Barcelona bookseller jailed for disseminating genocidal propaganda. Pedro Varela, a Nazi sympathizer and owner of the Europa bookstore in the Catalan capital, had been seeking compensation of 125,000 euros for the seven-month prison sentence imposed on him by Barcelona Provincial High Court in 2010. The court of first instance had also considered him guilty of incitement to racial hatred and handed down a five-year sentence, but the higher court later exempted him of that charge and reduced the jail term.

US Vice President Joe Biden opened the second day of the annual conference by the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Monday, as he insisted that “there is only one nation — only one nation in the world that has unequivocally, without hesitation and consistently confronted the efforts to delegitimise Israel.” … “I’ve served with eight Presidents of the United States of America, and I can assure you, unequivocally, no President has done as much to physically secure the State of Israel as President Barack Obama,” he emphasised.

The annual Israel-Congress orgy dubbed as the AIPAC Policy Conference kicked off today. It might just as well be called the War on Iran conference — that’s sure to be the issue that dominates the proceedings. The US-Israel relationship is taking the second spot. And the Palestinians? More than ever before, they will be invisible … AIPAC has never favored negotiations, always leaning toward militant stances, military threats and ever more devastating sanctions. More of the same can be expected at their conference, with the many members of Congress, from both parties, who will be speaking, attending and parroting the AIPAC line.

A renowned Seattle-based artist who integrates Nazi imagery in some of his edgy work admits he is a white nationalist and “Holocaust skeptic.” Charles Krafft, 65, even went on a white nationalist podcast last year and, among other incendiary comments, said “I believe the Holocaust is a myth.” … The revelation has shaken the art world, which interpreted Krafft’s artwork, including a teapot in the shape of Hitler’s head called “Hitler Idaho,” in an ironic way … “I arrived at my controversial opinions on race and WWII history only relatively recently.”

… Krafft, who is 65, has always had an edge to him, and it’s been sharpening in recent years. “I drifted into white nationalism as a result of reading a book about a Romanian archbishop who was charged with crimes against humanity and subsequently deported from the United States,” Krafft explains … Krafft’s friends say it’s exhausting to argue with him because of his ability to cite everything he’s read. He’s been a poet and an artist since the 1960s and a proven rabble-rouser since high school, when he was expelled by a headmaster who said, according to a story Krafft delights in repeating, “Charlie puts people on edge and keeps them there.”

… The province’s Human Rights Commission appealed the case to the Canadian Supreme Court. Now the Court has ruled, and it’s an icy day for freedom in the Great White North. To be sure, the Court’s unanimous ruling on the Whatcott case pretends to be nuanced, measured, carefully thought-out … Another key detail is that truth is no defense: it is impermissible even to state demonstrable facts if, in the authorities’ estimation, those facts might spark enmity toward a group.

I suspect a lot of people would like to believe Chuck Hagel’s confirmation as secretary of defense shows that Obama has broken the back of the Israel lobby and will now move U.S. Middle East policy in a direction that would be better for us, better for Israel, better for the Palestinians, and maybe even better for the entire region. Don’t count on it … It would be a huge mistake to conclude that the lobby’s clout has been broken and that Obama will now be free to chart a new course … Capitol Hill will remain supine, the executive branch will be constrained, and U.S. Middle East policy will be about as successful as its been for the last couple of decades.

Starting on Monday, certain buses running from the West Bank into central Israel will have separate lines for Jews and Arabs. The Afikim bus company will begin operating Palestinian-only bus lines from the checkpoints to Gush Dan to prevent Palestinians from boarding buses with Jewish passengers. Palestinians are not allowed to enter settlements, and instead board buses from several bus stops on the Trans-Samaria highway … Transportation Ministry officials are not officially calling them segregated buses, but rather bus lines intended to relieve the distress of the Palestinian workers.

The vice president of Germany’s lower house of parliament, Petra Pau, called for a review into the 1933 fire that destroyed the Reichstag in Berlin which helped clear the way for the Nazi rise to power. A communist Dutchman, Marinus van der Lubbe, was sentenced to death for treason and arson in 1933 for setting fire to the parliament building four weeks after Adolf Hitler became chancellor. Historians still debate whether van der Lubbe acted alone or if the Nazis were involved in the crime.

One of the most enduring myths of our age is the story that the Nazis set the Reichstag building on fire as a “false flag” operation to generate popular support for measures of the Hitler government to suppress dissent and consolidate power. Even some prominent historians have accepted the often repeated smear, which was invented and vigorously promoted by Communists, that Goering and other Nazi officials set the German parliament building ablaze on Feb. 27, 1933, and then cynically blamed the crime on enemies.

George Galloway, Respect MP, is being accused of antisemitism after he stormed out of a debate at Oxford University saying “I don’t debate with Israelis” to a student speaker. The debate was organised by Christ Church college and was on whether Israel should withdraw from the West Bank. Galloway, speaking in favour of the motion “Israel should withdraw immediately from the West Bank”, interrupted his opponent, Eylon Aslan-Levy, three minutes into his speech. He said: “You said WE. Are you an Israeli?” Third year student Aslan-Levy answered “I am, yes.” Galloway quickly stood up and replied: “I don’t debate with Israelis, I’ve been misled, sorry”.

The feisty Scottish-born British MP adroitly refutes key pro-Israel arguments made by a Jewish supporter of Zionism. In a just a few focused sentences, George Galloway highlights the pretentiousness and arrogance of Zionist claims to Palestine.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder cleared the way for a state takeover of Detroit, declaring that the birthplace of the U.S. automotive industry faces a fiscal emergency and that he has identified a top candidate to assume its management. Friday’s declaration by the Republican governor virtually assures that the state of Michigan will assume control of Detroit’s books, and eventually decide whether the city should file the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history … A report commissioned by Snyder has described what it called “operational dysfunction” in the city government, crushing debt of $14 billion and a current fiscal year budget deficit of $100 million.

… Into the fray marched “Argo,” a decontextualized, ahistorical “true story” of Orientalist proportion, subjecting audiences to two hours of American victimization and bearded barbarians, culminating in popped champagne corks and rippling stars-and-stripes celebrating our heroism and triumph and their frustration and defeat. Salon‘s Andrew O’Hehir aptly described the film as “a propaganda fable,” explaining as others have that essentially none of its edge-of-your-seat thrills or most memorable moments ever happened.

… The hostility and prejudice against Arabs and Muslims engendered by Hollywood and US television infects not only tens of millions of Americans, but also hundreds of millions of credulous viewers worldwide. Such noxious propaganda over a period of decades inevitably has grave long-term consequences. This flood of ethnic-religious poison understandably produces deep resentment among hundreds of millions of Arabs and Muslims around the globe — creating a vast and growing reservoir of resentment and rage that one day will almost certainly erupt with terrible fury.

… From the West, there has to be a better understanding of the Iranian psyche. Transcending their political divisions, Iranians have a strong and shared sense of national identity, and a yearning to be treated with respect, after decades in which they feel (with justification) that they have been systematically humiliated, not least by the UK … In any event, a nuclear-armed Iran would certainly not be worth a war. There has been no more belligerent cheerleader for the war party against Iran than Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister.

… The best intelligence about Iran’s nuclear program indicates that no nuclear weapons work is going on in Iran right now. James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, has confirmed that he has “a high level of confidence” that no such work is going on now. This reflects the consensus view of 16 different U.S. intelligence agencies. It says far more than merely that there is no evidence now for any nuclear weapons development work in Iran. It says there is actual concrete high-quality evidence that Iran is not making nuclear weapons, and that the leaders in Tehran have not even made a decision to embark on such a program.

Iran’s nuclear program and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are expected to top the agenda when the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC holds its annual convention beginning Sunday in Washington. The convention convenes as U.S. President Barack Obama prepares for a visit to the Middle East – including his first trip to Israel as president. Every year, thousands of Jewish Americans arrive in Washington for the annual convention of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee – or AIPAC. The group is the most influential pro-Israel lobbying organization in the U.S.

… The agenda will focus on the Congress enacting legislation that would designate Israel a “major strategic ally” of the United States — a relationship not enjoyed by any other nation — and on facilitating a U.S. green light should Israel decide to strike Iran. Should the measures being considered by the Senate and the House of Representatives pass, it would constitute the most explicit congressional sanction for military action against Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program.

… Under a 1975 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the US guaranteed all Israel’s oil needs in the event of a crisis. The MoU, which has been quietly renewed every five years, also committed the USA to construct and stock a supplementary strategic reserve for Israel, equivalent to some US $3 billion in 2002. Special legislation was enacted to exempt Israel from restrictions on oil exports from the USA. Moreover, the USA agreed to divert oil from its home market, even if that entailed domestic shortages, and guaranteed delivery of the promised oil in its own tankers if commercial shippers were unwilling or not available to carry the crude to Israel. All of this adds up to a potentially massive financial commitment.

In this “Brainwash Update” segment, host Abby Martin speaks forcefully about Israel’s military bombing of media buildings and targeting of journalists, including the Russia Today office in Gaza. She also highlights Zionist arrogance, and cites Israel’s veiled threats to RT’s headquarters in Moscow. Runtime: 4:58 mins.
 

… Starting in 1940, the military oath of the Red Army read: “Surrendering to the enemy is treason.” It was a sentence that sealed the fate of tens of thousands of Soviet citizens. Many who returned safely from German war captivity at the end of the war were executed at home or sent to prison camps for 25 years. But Russians were not told that Stalin’s own son had been in German captivity since one month after the war began. This meant that Yakov Dzhugashvili himself was considered a traitor to his country. Was he?

… In August 1941 Hitler permitted a Red Cross delegation to visit the camp for Soviet POWs in Hammerstadt. It is these contacts that resulted in an appeal to the Soviet government, requesting that it should send food parcels for our officers and men. We are prepared to fulfill and comply with the norms of the Geneva convention, Moscow said in its reply, but sending food in the given situation and under fascist control is the same as making presents to the enemy … How great was Stalin’s hatred for those who had found themselves behind enemy lines. It made no difference: who, where, how and why? Even the dead were considered to be criminals.

When my father flew to Scotland on May 10, 1941, I was three-and-a-half years old. As a result, I have only very few personal memories of him in freedom. One of them is a memory of him pulling me out of the garden pond … I am convinced that history and justice will absolve my father. His courage in risking his life for peace, the long injustice he endured, and his martyrdom, will not be forgotten. He will be vindicated, and his final words at the Nuremberg trial, “I regret nothing!,” will stand forever.

…. He spent 46 years — half his life — behind bars, a victim of a cruel victor’s justice. More than any other man, Rudolf Hess symbolizes the vindictiveness and hypocrisy of the Nuremberg Tribunal … Known as the “conscience of the party,” he often used what power and influence he had to intervene on behalf of victims of persecution by extremists in the National Socialist party. In his detailed study, Justice at Nuremberg, which is generally very critical of the German defendants, historian Robert E. Conot called Hess a “decent and honest” man and “a pacifist at heart.” … Rudolf Hess was a prisoner of peace and a victim of a vindictive age.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday that Islamophobia must be recognized as a crime against humanity in the same fashion that Zionism, anti-Semitism and fascism should be. Speaking at the Fifth Alliance of Civilizations Forum in Vienna’s Hofburg Palace, Erdogan warned against the rise of fascist forces in Europe. “We are facing a world in which racist attacks have gained momentum, terrorism has claimed more lives, and religions and sects treat each other with less understanding,” he said. “Just like Zionism, anti-Semitism and fascism, it becomes unavoidable that Islamophobia must be regarded as a crime against humanity,” the Turkish premier said.

The United States is expressing its disapproval with the comments of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who this week said Zionism should be viewed as a crime against humanity. U.S. officials say Secretary of State John Kerry plans to personally raise the issue with Turkish officials during talks in Ankara on Friday. The officials, speaking anonymously, said the comments were “particularly offensive” and have a “corrosive effect” on relations. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Erdogan told a United Nations forum in Vienna that Islamophobia should be considered a crime against humanity, “just as with Zionism, anti-Semitism, and fascism.”

For decades, trends in American life have usually been analyzed through the prism of race, with white Americans serving as the reference point … Our understanding of white America is subject to a number of outdated assumptions that need rethinking. One: Working-class whites are more religious than upper-class whites; Two: Elite colleges are bastions of white upper-middle-class privilege; Three: Marriage is breaking down throughout white America; Four: White working-class men have a strong work ethic; Five: White Americans are yesterday’s news.

Swiss author and researcher Jürgen Graf is best known for his revisionist writings on the Holocaust. He was forced to leave his homeland, and is now living stateless in Moscow / In July 1998, the district court of Baden sentenced me to 15 months in prison without probation and a fine of about 40,000 Swiss francs for my revisionist writings … Since my Swiss passport expired years ago, and as I have no possibility to obtain a Russian or White Russian passport, I am unable to move and cannot do any research in Moscow archives either. If I could get an Iranian passport, this would be immensely helpful to me. From November 2000 until April 2001, I lived in Teheran …

Hollywood’s complicity with Washington is longstanding. Movie moguls are duplicitous. The only thing they like better than good films are good deals … Long before Pearl Harbor, film content promoted war. In 1939, Warner Bros. premiered “Confessions of a Nazi Spy.” It claimed Germany sought world conquest … They glorify war in the name of peace. They proliferate Big Lies. They stoke fear. They aid and abet state crimes. They convince people that Washington’s wars are justified … Argo is malicious, unjust, and one-sided. It’s Hollywood propaganda at its worst. It foments anti-Iranian hatred. It stereotypically portrays Iran according to pro-Western misinformation.

Iran has criticised Hollywood for awarding its top honour to the Iran hostage drama Argo, with a senior official saying it “lacks artistic value” and media poking fun at US first lady Michelle Obama’s surprise appearance at the Oscar ceremony … Iran’s state television earlier slammed the 85th Academy Awards as “the most political Oscar ever,” as it reported the news that Argo had won the coveted best film Oscar. The broadcaster accused Argo director and star Ben Affleck of specialising “in exaggeration, blowing things out of proportion and creating false scenes.”

Decades of deceitful motion pictures have done much to produce a misinformed and compliant American public. A notable example of such film deceit is “Mission to Moscow,” a major Hollywood production made with White House backing, that portrays Soviet dictator Stalin and the Soviet Russian regime as benevlolent, peace-loving and trustworthy. Another good example is the “Why We Fight” series of documentary-style films produced by the US War Department, which have been viewed by millions. Made during World War II,d these seven films use staged scenes and fake quotations to present a grossly distorted view of history and the world.

As I noted in the piece published on IPS Friday, “It’s All About Israel,” Israel and the presumed threat posed by Iran to its security dominated Chuck Hagel’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) … That the panel chose to focus almost exclusively on the challenges facing Israel, rather than the United States, speaks volumes about the influence of the Israel lobby on the U.S. Senate. It also speaks volumes about the very basic lack of seriousness or curiosity on the SASC’s part about the geo-strategic issues that one would expect to be at or near the top of the Pentagon’s agenda.

… Professor Gerald Crabtree, who heads a genetics laboratory at Stanford University in California, has put forward the iconoclastic idea that rather than getting cleverer, human intelligence peaked several thousand years ago and from then on there has been a slow decline in our intellectual and emotional abilities. Although we are now surrounded by the technological and medical benefits of a scientific revolution, these have masked an underlying decline in brain power which is set to continue into the future leading to the ultimate dumbing-down of the human species, Professor Crabtree said.

In the last century, humans have landed a man on the moon, sequenced the genome, and created the Internet — but, surprisingly, we may be slowly evolving to be less intelligent than our ancestors. That’s because a series of mutations affecting the estimated 5,000 genes controlling human intellect have crept into our DNA, says Gerald Crabtree, a geneticist at Stanford University, whose findings were published in the journal Trends in Genetics. “I would wager that if an average citizen from Athens of 1000 BC were to suddenly appear among us, he or she would be among the brightest and most intellectually alive of our colleagues and companies, with a good memory, a broad range of ideas, and a clear-sighted view of important issues,” he writes.

The president of Emory University is taking heat from faculty after he wrote an essay citing the three-fifths compromise on slaves as an example of finding common ground in politics. A faculty group has voted to censure Emory President James Wagner, and students are planning a protest next week. Wagner was writing about the value of finding common ground when he mentioned the compromise of 1787. The compromise allowed states to count three-fifths of the slave population toward representation in Congress, giving southern states more power.

After more than a century, the Census Bureau is dropping its use of the word “Negro” to describe black Americans in surveys. Instead of the term that came into use during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation, census forms will use the more modern labels “black” or “African-American” … First used in the census in 1900, “Negro” became the most common way of referring to black Americans through most of the early 20th century, during a time of racial inequality and segregation. “Negro” itself had taken the place of “colored.”