Antony Loewenstein

Chuck Schumer, The Democratic Senator, was a key supporter of even the most radical Bush appointees, and then led the way in sinking an Obama appointee who made “statements against Israel.”

Salon’s Glenn Greenwald examines the ways in which Democrats are often equally blinded by their Israel love as Republican opponents (and the blogger kindly links to one of my posts about neo-con gloating:)

It’s worthwhile to review the actions of Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer with regard to some controversial appointments of the last few years, as it really reflects where the ”centre” is in Washington’s political culture.

Debate over Israel in the US is changing and rabid Zionists don’t know what to do about it.

Sit back and enjoy.

Glenn Greenwald, Salon, November 9:

As the Bush administration comes to a close, one overarching question is this:  how were the transgressions and abuses of the last eight years allowed to be unleashed with so little backlash and resistance?  Just consider — with no hyperbole — what our Government, our country, has done.  We systematically tortured people in our custody using techniques approved at the highest levels, many of whom died as a result.  We created secret prisons — “black site” gulags — beyond the reach of international monitoring groups.  We abducted and imprisoned even U.S. citizens and legal residents without any trial, holding them incommunicado and without even the right to access lawyers for years, while we tortured them to the point of insanity. We disappeared innocent people off the streets, sent them to countries where we knew they’d be tortured, and then closed off our courts to them once it was clear they had done nothing wrong.  We adopted the very policies and techniques long considered to be the very definition of “war crimes”.

Things may not change all that much under an Obama administration.

Salon’s Glenn Greenwald on a nation we’re supposed to respect:

…In the Land of the Free: if you’re an adult who produces a film using other consenting adults, for the entertainment of still other consenting adults, which merely depicts fictional acts of humiliation and degradation, the DOJ [Department of Justice] will prosecute you and send you to prison for years. The claim that no real pain was inflicted will be rejected; mere humiliation is enough to make you a criminal. But if government officials actually subject helpless detainees in their custody to extreme mental abuse, degradation, humiliation and even mock executions long considered “torture” in the entire civilized world, the DOJ will argue that they have acted with perfect legality and, just to be sure, Congress will hand them retroactive immunity for their conduct. That’s how we prioritize criminality and arrange our value system.

The myth of the “liberal media” in the US. Glenn Greenwald demolishes the lie:

…The greatest and most transparent myth in American politics is that the U.S. has a “liberal media.” That is a myth that is maintained, first and foremost, by defining anyone who isn’t Rush Limbaugh as a “liberal.” Hence, people such as the wife of Bush official Dan Senor (Campbell Brown) is a “liberal,” as is Alan Greenspan’s wife (Andrea Mitchell), along with establishment-worshipers such as Rush-Limbaugh-admirer Brian Williams, right-wing-talking-points-spouting Charlie Gibson, and anyone who writes for the war-enabling New York Times and Washington Post.

Glenn Greenwald, Salon, August 19:

The idea that the U.S. can, should and must be, more or less, in a state of permanent war, and can start wars in a whole host of circumstances having nothing to do with defending the country from an attack or imminent attack, is as close to an unchallengeable, bipartisan article of faith as it gets. We’re a country that fights wars and uses military force in far more places and for far broader reasons than any other country in the world, by far. Again, regardless of one’s views about whether our wars are really Good and Just — even if one believes that what we drop on other countries are Good and Loving Freedom Bombs — it’s still just a fact that no country views military action as a more appropriate response in more situations than the U.S. does.

What is it with hardline Zionism and its wish to bomb other countries? First Iraq, now discussion about Iran, the Jewish establishment’s embrace of the “war on terror” rhetoric highlights a fundamentally anti-democratic, draconian, insecure and racist mindset (not least because most of the victims of a government’s over-zealous plans are directed against Muslims.) And now in Britain:

Three members of a Jewish human-rights organisation have accused the Board of Deputies of misusing its claim to speak for the Jewish community.

Richard Kuper, newly elected chair of Jews for Justice for Palestinians, and two colleagues, Professor Irene Bruegel and Murray Glickman, have complained about a submission to the Home Office last August by the Board and the Community Security Trust on the Counter Terrorism Bill 2007.

In it, the Board said it agreed with the then head of Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorist branch, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, that terror suspects should be detained for up to 56 days before being charged. Currently it is 28 days.

In a letter to the JC, they questioned why the Board was discussing the subject and complained that in saying it spoke for the Jewish community, it ignored “very real divisions” in it.

Until mainstream Judaism wrestles control of the community away from individuals and groups that do not represent its interests (and consistent polls show this), they should expect to be blamed for disastrous policies hatched in Washington or London.

After the recent revelations of a Pentagon-led plan to twist US media coverage of the “war on terror”, Wikileaks uncovers a 2006 document titled, “Media is the Battlefield: Tactics, Techniques and Procedures“. Produced for those in the US military, typical statements include:

You do not have to regurgitate the Secretary of Defense’s responses, but you can ensure that your messages are in line and focused on how things are from your foxhole. Military leaders must be aware of what is being said to avoid their comments being taken out of context. For example, if the President said yesterday, “There are indications that foreign fighters are involved in conducting these attacks,” and you say, “We have no indications of foreign fighter involvement,” it would appear that you are not on the same sheet of music. If you knew what the President’s statement was, you could have rephrased your response to more accurately articulate your message.

[...]

The interview itself is all about control. You want it; the reporter wants it. You have to learn how to structure effective answers and control the interview. Do not be question-driven; be message-driven. The trick is to use your messages as guideposts and not repeated phrases. This is where skill, preparation, and experience come in. You should be trying to articulate command messages that will positively influence the outcome of your mission. Use the media as a “nonlethal fire.”

The Bush administration has made the US military just one more outpost in its plans to “democratise” the world.

Headline on a leading conservative, American website on May 20:

Iranians Would Welcome Airstrikes, Sources Say.

The Iranian people will supposedly welcome being attacked by Freedom Bombs and feel liberated just like the Iraqis.

China is a repressive regime. Clearly it now makes sense, in a post 9/11 world where the US engages in torture of its own, to join forces with the Communists:

U.S. military personnel at Guantanamo Bay allegedly softened up detainees at the request of Chinese intelligence officials who had come to the island facility to interrogate the men — or they allowed the Chinese to dole out the treatment themselves, according to claims in a new government report.

Buried in a Department of Justice report released Tuesday are new allegations about a 2002 arrangement between the United States and China, which allowed Chinese intelligence to visit Guantanamo and interrogate Chinese Uighurs held there.

According to the report by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine, an FBI agent reported a detainee belonging to China’s ethnic Uighur minority and a Uighur translator told him Uighur detainees were kept awake for long periods, deprived of food and forced to endure cold for hours on end, just prior to questioning by Chinese interrogators.

Susan Manning, a lawyer who represents several Uighurs still held at Guantanamo, said Tuesday the allegations are all too familiar.

U.S. personnel “are engaging in abusive tactics on behalf of the Chinese,” she said Tuesday. When Uighur detainees refused to talk to Chinese interrogators in 2002, U.S. military personnel put them in solitary confinement as punishment, she said.

“Why are we doing China’s dirty work?” Manning said. “Surely we’re better than that.”

Actually, today’s America is not, but rather a torturing, murdering state placing itself above the law.

A definition of “appeasement.”

After years of propagating lies about Iraq and its alleged threat to the world, the New York Times continues to publish Bush administration talking points, this time outlining the supposed menace of Iran.

Critical thinking? Don’t expect that from the “paper of record.”