Former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy reveals something extraordinary from 1997:
A few days before the failed assassination attempt on Hamas leader Khaled Meshal in Jordan in 1997, King Hussein conveyed an offer from the Hamas leadership to reach an understanding on a cease-fire for 30 years. That offer, intended for then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and conveyed by a Mossad representative, reached Netanyahu only after the botched hit.
US journalist Jill Carroll may have been released from captivity in Iraq, but one US conservative is suspicious:
MCGUIRK: She strikes me as the kind of woman who would wear one of those suicide vests. You know, walk into the, try and sneak into the Green Zone.
IMUS: Oh, no. No, no, no, no.
MCCORD: Just because she always appears in traditional Arab garb and wearing a burka.
MCGUIRK: Yeah, what’s with the head gear? Take it off. Let’s see.
IMUS: No, no. This is not –
MCCORD: That’s why the Arab world called for her to be released, because, you know, she defended Iraqis. She was against the war in Iraq and, I wouldn’t be surprised if —
IMUS: Well, so are we. So am I!
MCCORD: Exactly. She cooked with them, lived with them.
IMUS: This is not helping.
MCGUIRK: She may be carrying Habib’s baby at this point.
After all, you really can’t trust a woman wearing the hijab. She might just be a terrorist.
The exposure of the short-lived Washington Post “conservative” blogger reveals a greater malaise within US corporate media:
The entire event seems a misguided attempt to placate the Bush administration, which the Washington Post is tasked with covering objectively. The notion that valid criticism and investigative journalism must be balanced with partisan puff pieces played out to its inevitable conclusion in the Ben Domenech affair. Have lessons been learned? Perhaps. It is doubtful that anyone with Domenech’s lack of experience will follow him, or that a blogger hired to present a conservative viewpoint will be plucked from a pool of established Bush administration cronies.
If we’ve reached the stages that corporate news organisations feel they must “placate” state power in order to ensure access and “sanctioned leaks”, the industry is in serious trouble.
Bradley Burston, Haaretz, March 31:
Daniel Pipes is a new kind of Israel-basher. He is an equal-opportunity hater of Israelis. None of us is good enough for him. We lack the will to fight like the man he quotes as a role model for us, Douglas MacArthur. From unilateralism to transfer, nothing we come up with is good enough for him. Try as we might, we just can’t seem to win his war for him. I guess he’ll just have to do it by himself.
Dahr Jamail, Truthout, March 29:
A disturbing trend noticeable in Iraq for quite some time now is that each aggressive Israeli military operation in the occupied territories results in a corresponding increase in the number of attacks on US forces in Iraq. One of the first instances of this was the assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in March 2004 and the reaction it set off across Shia and Sunni, ultimately spiralling into the siege and devastation of Fallujah. Fallujah is but one example one may use to demonstrate how the ongoing use of heavy handed tactics by the US-Israel alliance is proving to be as suicidal as it is homicidal. US troops in Iraq and Israeli civilians in their homes can bear testimony to this, as they are the ones who bear the brunt. Not to mention the collateral damage in Iraq.
As Ehud Olmert assumes the position of Israeli Prime Minister, a trip down memory lane:
Support for Israel was the major theme of the 2002 Road to Victory conference held by the Christian Coalition in Washington, D.C. October 11-12. Long known as a major source of troops for the right-wing of the Republican Party, the CC has undergone a lot of changes in the last few years. It has always advocated Christian support for the Israeli state, but never so thoroughly and vociferously as this year. At the conference and in the exhibit area there were more Israeli flags than American flags and Stars of David vastly outnumbered Crucifixes. At a solidarity rally scheduled for the Ellipse in front of the White House, but moved to the convention centre due to rain, Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert thanked the “lovers of Zion” for their help and support. His Christian audience gave him a standing ovation while waving a sea of Israeli flags. In the meantime, about 300 Jews who had not learned that the rally had relocated, heard their own speakers on the Ellipse.
Israel may be desperate for international support, but relying on, and courting, the Christian fundamentalist vote will undoubtedly end in a messy divorce. Furthermore, the Republican Party has turned into a religious sect.
Saddam’s Iraq was a truly twisted place:
The year was 2001. Iraqi security services identified a growing threat: Pokemon. The animated Japanese figure - and an entire industry of video games, films and toys - was, in fact, a Zionist plot to undermine Saddam Hussein’s regime by inflaming the fervor of Iraqi children with the help of a pocket-sized monster whose name meant in Hebrew, according to the Iraqi secret service, “I am a Jew.”
The Pokemon “threat”, of course, doesn’t justify unseating a leader and then demanding the people elect Western-friendly figure-heads.
A report is released today that highlights the forgotten war in Africa:
The rate of violent deaths in war-ravaged northern Uganda is three times higher than in Iraq and the 20-year insurgency has cost $1.7bn (£980m), according to a report by 50 international and local agencies released today.
The violent death rate for northern Uganda is 146 deaths a week or 0.17 violent deaths per 10,000 people per day. This is three times higher than in Iraq, where the incidence of violent death was 0.052 per 10,000 people per day, says the report.
Such shocking figures should also challenge journalists and the mainstream media to remember that African lives are equally important as our own.
Joshua Marshall @ Talking Points Memo explains how the mainstream media - in the US, at least - is increasingly stealing story ideas from the blogosphere. He makes a compelling case:
Conventional news outlets frequently chide blogs for not doing any original reporting but rather feeding off the original reporting of the mainstream media. In many cases, the criticism is true. But if that is the criticism it behooves every mainstream media outlet to enforce their own standing policies and not allow reporters to rip off blog writers who are doing original reporting.
The situation is unlikely to be the same in Australia - the blogging community is far less influential here - but the relationship between the two often-warring mediums is starting to heat-up and this can only be a good thing for information dissemination and journalistic transparency.
A classic piece of mainstream media distortion on Venezuela’s leader Hugo Chavez. Witness the agendas served by distorting the revolutionary shifts occurring in Latin America. Perhaps the US state department is writing the script.
Let’s hope the West remains afraid.
Nick Kaldas, the Arabic-speaking head of the NSW police gangs squad, has been appointed head of the counterterrorism command. He worked in Iraq in 2004 and helped rebuild the Iraqi police force. He clearly did a sterling job.
This Kaldas comment is interesting:
“Australia is very much part of the international community and if something happens in Palestine or Iraq, we have to accept that it has an impact over here.”
Tell that to the Howard government, Islamophobes and war pimps.
International reaction to the Israeli election has been decidedly mixed. The UK Times hails the outcome as “extraordinary” - since when did unilateralism require anything other than contempt for the other side? - while Fairfax’s Michael Gawenda is more circumspect:
In the foreseeable future, there will be no real steps taken towards unilateral withdrawal, there will be no substantive negotiations with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and the United States, which has still to recover from the shock of the Hamas triumph in the Palestinian elections, will be in no position to influence the course of events in the months ahead.
The paper’s editorial rightly states that peace with justice is impossible, while Murdoch’s Australian applauds Israel for simply ignoring the Palestinians. The occupied will, and should, respond appropriately.
Ehud Olmert has said that, “All Zionist parties are potential coalition partners.” He clearly doesn’t realise, or care, about the growing international opposition to an ideology that openly and proudly subjugates another people in the name of self-determination.
The drum of war approaches:
The five U.N. Security Council powers moved closer to an agreement on Wednesday on a statement that would call on Iran to suspend parts of its suspect nuclear program that could be used to build weapons.
Not unlike Iraq, let’s be under no illusion that the US is only using the UN as a cover for future military or aggressive manoeuvres against Iran. Maybe the Islamic state should threaten to invade Washington DC. Besides:
The George W Bush administration failed to enter into negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program in May 2003 because neo-conservatives who advocated destabilization and regime change were able to block any serious diplomatic engagement with Tehran, according to former administration officials.
The Australian government may be pronouncing its new media rules will increase “diversity“, but that’s not how the US media sees it:
Australia’s plans to overhaul its 20-year-old media laws may provide further opportunities for global media magnates looking to spread their influence.
Multinational media moguls clearly deserve to acquire more assets in their ongoing quest for opening-up minds and disseminating useful information.
Witness the beginnings of a sweet, new relationship in US politics:
Hillary Clinton hasn’t had her Hayman Island moment. Yet.
Hayman is a resort off Queensland, Australia, to which Rupert Murdoch flew Tony Blair in 1995 for the annual conference of his right-of-center media megalith, News Corp.
It was a crucial step in the complex and surprising negotiation between the two men that would boost Labour’s Mr. Blair up the little stoop and through the door at 10 Downing Street two years later.
Now, the spectre of an alliance between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Murdoch—two of the most powerful and guarded figures in the world—is beginning to whet the appetites of the chattering classes.
At the moment, the two speak of each other (through surrogates) in notably similar terms:
“Senator Clinton respects him and thinks he is smart and effective,” said a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, Philippe Reines.
“Rupert has respect for her political skills and for the hard work that she’s done as a Senator,” said an executive vice president at News Corp., Gary Ginsberg.
Other evidence is still a bit lean. Lunch has been taken at News Corp.’s midtown headquarters, friendly noises have emanated from the New York Post’s editorial page, and Mr. Murdoch has retained a key advisor to Mrs. Clinton, Howard Wolfson.
Murdoch has a talent for spotting enthusiasm - witness his seduction of Blair in 1995, or was it the other way around? - and likes to be one step ahead of the political curve. The fact that Hilary aspires to imperial arrogance like George W. Bush doesn’t bother the media mogul. After all, the Murdoch empire is still praising the “leadership” and “vision” of Blair.
With Kadima looking like the winner in Israel’s elections - and record low turnout suggests a less than healthy democracy - the colonial mentality is still alive and well in the Jewish state:
Three organizations are busy renovating, upgrading and improving roads in the West Bank in response to the transportation problems created by the Israel Defense Forces barriers and the diversion of Palestinian vehicles to secondary roads. The transportation problems, which are having severe economic and social effects, were described extensively Haaretz this past Monday and Friday.
These three groups are the Palestinian Authority, the IDF and Palestinian local councils. They are not coordinating their repairs or construction, although the PA and the local councils need Israeli approval for works outside of Area A.
In recent months the IDF has revised its plan to create a system of roads for contiguous Palestinian traffic. Military sources say this comes from the desire to enable the best possible quality of life for Palestinians. Palestinian sources say the IDF has not officially informed the PA of the new plan.
Eric Haney is a retired command sergeant major of the U.S. Army and a founding member of Delta Force, the military’s elite covert counter-terrorist unit. He tells the LA Daily News that the Iraq war has damaged the US for generations:
Q: What’s your assessment of the war in Iraq?
A: Utter debacle. But it had to be from the very first. The reasons were wrong. The reasons of this administration for taking this nation to war were not what they stated. (Army Gen.) Tommy Franks was brow-beaten and…pursued warfare that he knew strategically was wrong in the long term. That’s why he retired immediately afterward. His own staff could tell him what was going to happen afterward.
We have fomented civil war in Iraq. We have probably fomented internecine war in the Muslim world between the Shias and the Sunnis, and I think Bush may well have started the third world war, all for their own personal policies.
Q: What is the cost to our country?
A: For the first thing, our credibility is utterly zero. So we destroyed whatever credibility we had. … And I say “we,” because the American public went along with this. They voted for a second Bush administration out of fear, so fear is what they’re going to have from now on.
He also talks about the US policy of torturing “terror” suspects and the ability of the Bush administration to throw away the US constitution.
These are the “values” supported by Blair and Howard (and encouraged by the Murdoch followers). The Iraq war - “imperial overreach“, in the words of one commentator - has hastened the increasing irrelevance of the US empire. China is rising, and so is India. By so strongly supporting the US, leaders like Blair and Howard show themselves to be the sycophants they really are. The US era is coming to an end.
While Israel’s mainstream is likely to vote for “racism” in today’s election, some Jews prefer to take the more obvious path:
Several parties who maintain anti-Arab platforms are running for seats in the upcoming Israeli general elections, with at least one having previously called for “relentless terror” against Palestinians.
The Jewish Front, headed by Baruch Marzel, is an offshoot of the Kach group, whose principles Israel’s Supreme Court said incited racism.
Kach was outlawed by both the Israeli and US governments in 1994.
The Jewish Front advocates the forced expulsion of Arabs from “the land of Israel”.
According to Beny Elyaho, a co-founder of the party, the expulsion of non-Jews would resolve all of Israel’s political, economic and social problems.
“Our party calls for cleansing the region extending from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean from the goyim (non-Jews) and thus guaranteeing a Jewish majority of no less than 90% throughout the land of Israel,” he was quoted as saying during a party meeting in West Jerusalem last year.
The Arab world may be filled with vile anti-Semitism, but Jews advocating ethnic cleansing is equally outrageous.
Arguably Iraq’s best blogger is receiving her due recognition in the West:
An anonymous Iraqi woman has become the first blog author to be in the running for a big literary prize for a book published between hard covers.
Baghdad Burning, by a 26-year-old author who has won an international readership under the pen name Riverbend, is longlisted for the £30,000 Samuel Johnson award.
Riverbend began the blog with the words: “I’m female, Iraqi and 24. I survived the war. That’s all you need to know. It’s all that matters these days anyway.”
University-educated Riverbend worked as a computer programmer before the invasion which began on March 20, 2003.
She lost her job, she told her readers, when it became too dangerous for Iraqi women to travel to work alone.
Her reflections on the three-year anniversary of the invasion displayed the trauma suffered by so many Iraqis since the country was “liberated.”
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