Panama Deception: Was The Invasion Of Panama Just A Practice Run, and Warm-Up To Other Invasions By US Imperialism?

This is the brutal face of US imperialism.

I am posting a link for the film Panama deception, because the lead up, and invasion of Panama by the US has similar features, to other invasions, such as the invasion of Iraq, in 1991, and 2003.

This video was made for PBS, but was not aired on most of the PBS networks at the time. Oh Yes it was censored, and unless you know about, or remember the film, there is very little chance that you would have gotten to see it.

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Brief Explanation of Film:

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This film shows how the U.S. attacked Panama and killed 3 or 4 thousand people in an invasion that the rest of the world was against. (Sound familiar?)

The excuse given was to get the drug lord, General Noriega, who had been on the CIA's payroll for 20 years.

We see not only the devastation the US did to poor cities in Panama, but also how the media was complicit in the way all of this was presented to the American public.

PANAMA DECEPTION PART I

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PANAMA DECEPTION PART II

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For those who can't download I am including a link to the Information clearing house website for the video HERE

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I am also posting a link to another program"The US War On Yugoslavia", since this is also a relevant topic for the discussion of US imperialism, and resembles in many ways the US prelude to war, and the invasion, and occupation of Iraq. PLAY or DOWNLOAD

THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE – DECEMBER WEEK 4

Local anti-Wall organizers shot with rubber-coated bullets and beaten in Bil'in protest.

This and other news stories from This week in occupied Palestine.

AUDIO LINK

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NEWS LINK

“The U.S. Occupation Is The Major Source Of Violence And Chaos In Iraq”

With all the talk by US imperialists, about why they need to remain in Iraq, because of all the Violence there, one must ask who is really responsible for all the violence, by also asking was Iraq like this before the US imperialist invasion and occupation?

And if one takes an honest look at this one must realize who is really responsible for the violence, which is US imperialism. And now US imperialists are giving this their reason for remaining in Iraq. They have no shame!

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I am including part of an article about this topic as well as links to other information. The only problem I have with some of these articles is that the policies in the Middle East or elsewhere in the world are not just George Bushes policies, they are the policies of US imperialism, the only thing the ruling class politicians are disputing about is how to accomplish the goal of US hegemony in the world, and not on whether or not the US should stop being an imperialist nation, and start pursuing policies for the benefit of all humanity.

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The case for immediate withdrawal
December 15, 2006

Article excerpt:

“The U.S. occupation is the major source of violence and chaos in Iraq”The case for immediate withdrawal
December 15, 2006 Pages 4 and 5

ANTHONY ARNOVE is the author of Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal, which will be available January 9 in an updated paperback edition from the American Empire Project with a foreword by Howard Zinn. Anthony is on the editorial board of Haymarket Books and the International Socialist Review. Here, he answers Socialist Worker’s questions about the Iraq Study Group report.

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GEORGE BUSH still talks about the U.S. staying in Iraq until the “mission is completed.” Is that a serious possibility?

BUSH’S POLICY is: when in a hole, keep digging. The real question is how many more Iraqis and how many more U.S. soldiers will die before the U.S. is defeated in Iraq.
All the signs suggest that the endgame in Iraq is likely to be long and very bloody. Iraq and the Middle East are so strategically important to the United States that neither the Republicans or the Democrats are willing to withdraw and admit defeat.

A defeat in Iraq would be more disastrous for the United States than its defeat in Vietnam, especially given the claims that the Iraq invasion would bury once and for all the Vietnam Syndrome. Washington also claimed that Iraq would be part of a regional transformation of the entire Middle East.

Having invaded Iraq intending to weaken Iran and Syria, and to strengthen its position and that of Israel and its Arab allies in the region, the United States instead has achieved the opposite.

THE MAIN suggestion from the Iraq Study Group (ISG) seems to be that the U.S. should threaten to withdraw economic and military support from the Iraqi government if it fails to establish security in the country. What do you think of this suggestion?

READING THE Iraq Study Group report feels at times like reading the notes that a school principal sends home about a kid who is misbehaving at school. The level of condescension is stunning.

The ISG report explicitly states that “the absence of national reconciliation” is “the fundamental cause of violence in Iraq.” Actually, the main source of violence in Iraq today is not the absence of national reconciliation--it is the occupation, which distorts every aspect of Iraqi society.
On one hand, this is simply blame-the-victim politics. On the other hand, the ISG is clearly looking to provide cover for the failures of the Bush administration.

The racist story now being prepared is that the United States intervened to bring democracy to Iraq, but we were overly ambitious. Iraqis--and Arab and Muslims more generally--we are told, “have no tradition of democracy,” are from a “sick society,” a “broken society.”
In a much-lauded speech, Sen. Barack Obama, the great hope of liberal Democrats, couched his criticism of the Bush administration’s policy in a call for “no more coddling” of the Iraqi government. The United States “is not going to hold together this country indefinitely,” he explained, adding, “We should be more modest in our belief that we can impose democracy.”
Richard Perle, former chair of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, one of the main neoconservative enthusiasts of the invasion of Iraq, now says that he “underestimated the depravity” of the Iraqis.

The ISG report chides that “the Iraqi people and their leaders have been slow to demonstrate their capacity or will to act,” and therefore, the U.S. “must not make an open-ended commitment” to them. What this also ignores, of course, is that the vast majority of Iraqis have made it known that they want U.S. troops to leave.

THIS SEEMS to be one thing the Republicans and Democrats agree on--that Iraqis themselves are to blame for sectarian violence, not anything the U.S. has done.
RATHER THAN stemming civil or sectarian conflict, the occupation is spurring it. And rather than being a source of stability, the occupation is the major source of instability and chaos in Iraq.

As Michael Schwartz points out, “Instead of entering a violent city and restoring order, [U.S. forces] enter a relatively peaceful city and create violence.”
Even the ISG report notes that Operation Together Forward II, which redeployed thousands of U.S. troops to Baghdad in August 2006, achieved the opposite of its stated goal: “Violence in Baghdad--already at high levels--jumped more than 43 percent between the summer and October 2006.”

The U.S. set up a political framework in Iraq that has entrenched and intensified sectarian identities. It has also armed militias and disguised some of its own operations as those of religious groups, sowing more enmity and encouraging reprisal attacks. Each day the occupation continues, civil and sectarian conflict in Iraq gets worse.

MORE

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OTHER INFORMATION

How The UN, The Hand Maiden For US Imperialism, Operates In Haiti

The UN once again is being used by US imperialism to squelch resistance to it's neo- colonial policies in the Caribbean. The UN should be re-named with a proper title to suit it's real purpose in the world. Maybe it should be called "Imperial Nations United For US Imperialism". I am using the term imperial nations because the UN Security Council is not a democratic body, and only represents the interests of the dominant nations, and their ruling elites, who are vying to be the lap dogs for US imperialism, because of their own narrow interests. The UN Security Council is the only body that can take any action against other nations. The General Assembly only deliberates, but has no power to do anything. I'm sure some of you can think of other titles, just comment on some of your own ideas.

Article LINKS about Haiti.

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Program LINK from Today's Democracy Now, about Haiti

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The picture on the left shows (in the foreground)the housing that many Haitians live in. In the background is some of the housing that was constructed by Aristide for Haitians who had been previously living in shacks such as the one seen in the front of the picture.

Prelude To Iraq War And Occupation: The Words Flow Like Ashes From Their Mouths: This Is US Imperialism

Israeli sources: “Egypt transferred large amounts of weapons to Palestinian Security Forces”

This should read Mubarak, transferred not Egypt, since I am sure most Egyptians do not agree with what the US puppet who heads their government is doing in their name.

When Will the Egyptian people overthrow this corrupt collaborator who works to help shore up US imperialism in that region?
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Oh yeah here they are!

We found them! Just look at these war lords don't they look brave?

They are unloading their cash and weapons, so they can use it against their own people.

How Brave they all are!!!

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Israeli sources reported on Thursday that Egypt transferred to Palestinian Authority security forces, under the direct control of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of the Fateh party, large amounts of weapons and ammunition. The ruling Hamas party, long a rival of Fateh, considered the move, “a prescription for civil war”.

The Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, reported that a large amount of weapons and ammunition were transferred by Egypt to the Palestinian security devices that are loyal to Fateh movement.The shipments include two million bullets, two thousand Kalashnikov rifles and twenty thousands magazines, the weapons and ammo were transferred through the Kerem Shalom Crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Sources close to the Force 17 presidential guards denied the Israeli report and said that it received no military support from Egypt.

Meanwhile, Hamas slammed the report and said that any attempt to strengthen a certain factions is considered a “Zionist plan and a prescription for a civil war’.The statement was made by Mousa Abu Marzouq, vice-president of the Hamas politburo. Abu Marzouq added that the Israeli report is part of an Israeli campaign to strengthen the security forces in order to prepare for a coup against the government.

Abu Marzouq also said that the US congress decided to allocate 100 million dollars for the Palestinian presidential guards and that there are talks about three Arab countries that might provide the presidential guards with weapons and equipment.“The Palestinians need medicine, equipment and child food”, Abu Marzouq stated, “The people are living under siege, they need essential materials, not weapons that are aimed at creating internal confrontations”.

Despite Israeli assurances, illegal settlements continue to grow

Despite Israeli assurances?

Who ever trusted anything that the Israeli assured for the Palestinians anyway?

The only thing that can be assured from the Israelis' is that they will continue to steal more land, using all methods.

The illegal colonists are one method which is used to steal more land.They are supported and funded by Israel, and it's gangster Occupation forces, and they are also funded by many Zionist charities that operate throughout the US and Europe.

Maybe Abbas and his Fatah collaborators trust Israel, but I'm sure not many other Palestinians do.

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In the month of December alone, 90 new Israeli trailers were placed on illegally-seized Palestinian land in the West Bank. The trailers are the first stage of expanding existing Israeli settlements, and of establishing new ones. According to Israeli law, once illegal settlements are established for a certain amount of time and with a certain amount of population in the West Bank, the government of Israel is then required to recognize them as municipalities and provide services such as roads, electricity and water -- despite the fact that the settlements are built on illegally-seized Palestinian land.Israeli settlers have installed 200 new trailers on stolen Palestinian land in the last six months, despite the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has made numerous public assurances that settlements would not be expanded and illegal outposts would be dismantled.

The new trailers, considered illegal under Israeli law, were spotted in an aerial survey conducted by the Israeli Civil Administration, according to the Israeli daily Ha'aretz. Despite their illegality, the outposts are unlikely to be demolished, according to the Israeli daily, as the Israeli legal system makes it very easy for such outposts to be constructed, and difficult for them to be demolished.The latest trailer construction has been taking place in Givat Assaf, near Beit El, and Amona, near Ofra in the West Bank. 250,000 Israeli settlers currently live in the Israeli-occupied West Bank of Palestine, and 240,000 live in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem. Such settlements, on land seized illegally from Palestinians, are considered illegal under international law, an authority Israel has thus far refused to acknowledge.

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Palestinians must join together to drive these land thieves off of their lands.

Hamas: “We will not remain idle as Israel constructs a new settlement in the Jordan Valley”

Where is Abbas and Fatah when it comes to the continuous stealing of Palestinian land? Why doesn't Abbas and Fatah Join Hamas for the struggle to stop settlements, and construction of the wall?

Oh yeah they're too busy accepting money and guns from the US with Israeli support and approval, so that they can squelch anyPalestinian resistance to Israeli land theft.

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Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, warned on Thursday that it cannot stand idle as Israel continues its settlement activities in the West Bank and Jerusalem, adding that the new approval of a settlement construction in the Jordan Valley aims at creating realities imposed by Israel. Hamas issued a press release revealing that the Israeli Minister of Defense, Amir Peretz, approved the construction of a new settlement in the Jordan Valley and considered the Israeli decision as a serious escalation and violation.

The new settlement plan is intended to provide houses for settlers who wee evacuated from the Gaza Strip last year.

Hamas called for halting all talks with the Israeli side and said that the Israeli decision to construct the new settlement came two hours after a meeting between the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and Israel’s Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert.The movement said that this decision shows the “real Israeli intentions to annex more Palestinian lands in order to construct and expand settlements in the occupied West Bank”.Hamas called on all Palestinian factions to unite their efforts in order to create a united front that is capable of confronting the Israeli annexation plans, and the challenges that the Palestinian people face under the Israeli occupation.

Israeli forces expanding Wall in West Bank's Jordan Valley

Why isn't Abbas condemning any of these other violations of Human Rights, by the Israeli Zionist apartheid regime?

He must be too busy presiding over the unloading of weapons for his Fatah thugs, which have been brought in from Egypt, with Israeli approval, so that they can be used against Palestinian resistance fighters, and cause more civil unrest in occupied Palestine, and distract the Palestinian people from their struggle against The Zionist apartheid regime, as it continues to steal more of their lands.__________

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Residents of the northern Jordan Valley in the West Bank are living in state of fear and anxiety as Israeli forces overtake more land. The Wall is being built on their land and more of the surroundings are being confiscated. Farid Abdul Rahim of the Land Defense Committee said that the peoples' suffering has been exacerbated as they depend on agriculture and are unable to reach it. Hundreds of thousands of the most fertile acres of farm land have been lost.The Israeli Civil Administration, the occupation authority in the area, has targeted areas that are the only source of livelihood for many residents. Israeli forces recently took hundreds of acres from Mousa Jihazi who said that the Wall has usurped the “subsistence of our children.”Reza Khalid said that there are now signs placed around his land indicating that he is no longer allowed to be there. “Army patrols are touring the region to force people to not enter the land. This is in preparation for a full takeover of our land because once we cannot reach it, they will say it is uninhabited.”He continued, “This has been the main objective for years; stifling us and our patience and ability to preserve our energy to resist. Now they have decided to attack us and force us to leave our land and abandon our rights.

”In another northern Jordan Valley village the head of the local council said that the Israeli resolution is meant to seize and control the lands by putting thousands of dunams on the other side of the Wall. He also noted, “Dozens of houses are being destroyed by this.”Israeli forces have imposed several additional checkpoints in the area and issued dozens of warnings to area farmers telling them to remove green houses as the Israeli forces are “establishing a military buffer zone” on hundreds of Palestinian agricultural land.Residents report that in the last week the Israelis have brought in more surveyors and photographers in a prelude to implementing the destruction.The Land Defense Committee issued a statement rejecting the Israeli confiscation and called on the international community to force Israel to abide international law and stop destroying Palestinian lands and livelihood.

MORE NEWS

Palestine Today - December 28, 2006

Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org, for Thursday December 28th 2006.

AUDIO LINK

The Difference Between Capitalist & Socialist Models For Prevention, Response And Reconstruction Before During And After A Hurricane Or Other Disaster

While much of New Orleans still looks as it did more than a year later after hurricane Katrina, and there is very minimal rebuilding of the city for it's residence. The small nation of Cuba has weathered many storms like this and has managed to prevent a lot of this sort of destruction as well as rebuild damaged buildings and structures for it's citizens much quicker, than can be done in the much wealthier US. The questions must be asked how, and why is this type of prevention, and reconstruction possible in Cuba which is much poorer than the US, (due to a large part because of the over 40 year old blockade against that nation) and why this can't happen here in the US?

There is one main reason for this , and it is the way the whole economy of the US is structured, which only values anything that can be profitable, and does not value anything that will be used for the social good of the nation, and it's people unless there can be profit made from it.

I am posting part of a report and a link with the complete report from Oxfam America which did a study about this in 2004.

Excerpt:

CUBA – WEATHERING THE STORM: LESSONS IN RISK REDUCTION FROM CUBA
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Cuba’s achievements in risk reduction come from an impressive multi-dimensional process.
Its foundation is a socio-economic model that reduces vulnerability and invests in social capital
through universal access to government services and promotion of social equity. The
resulting high levels of literacy, developed infrastructure in rural areas and access to reliable
health care and other created capital function as “multiplier effects” for national efforts in
disaster mitigation, preparation and response.

At the national level, Cuba’s disaster legislation, public education on disasters, meteorological
research, early warning system, effective communication system for emergencies, comprehensive emergency plan, and Civil Defense structure are important resources in avoiding disaster. The Civil Defense structure depends on community mobilization at the grassroots
level under the leadership of local authorities, widespread participation of the population in
disaster preparedness and response mechanisms, and accumulated social capital.

Both the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the International Federation
of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) have repeatedly pointed out Cuba as
an example for other countries to emulate in risk reduction. As the number of deaths from
weather-related disasters continues to rise worldwide, it is increasingly imperative to protect
those populations most vulnerable to hazards. Fundamentally, long term national and
international strategies of sustainable development are the necessary basis for achieving comprehensive risk reduction for vulnerable populations. With the current absence of that commitment within national and international structures, it is important to explore successful
shorter term strategies and mechanisms for risk reduction that can be implemented with
limited financial resources by local governments.

The increasingly popular Community Based Disaster Management (CBDM) approach
focuses on strengthening capacity and building skills for risk reduction at the community
level. Cuba shows us a rare example of successfully building CBDM into a national risk
reduction program. Examining Cuba’s experience, Oxfam America argues that strengthening
community capacity, strong coordination of local actors and investing in social capital
are determinate factors for successful risk reduction.
This report hopes to present a comprehensive overview of the Cuban model of risk reduction
in disaster mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery and explore what may be adapted from this model in other countries.

A. Why study risk reduction in Cuba?
“Cuba’s success in saving lives through timely evacuation when Hurricane
Michelle struck in November 2001 gives us a model of effective governmentdriven
disaster preparedness. This is all the more impressive when one considers
that Cuba, although possessing a strong central… government, is a poor
country. What was the secret of Cuba’s success?”

— International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) Disasters Report
2002 p.28
“About 700,000 people [in Cuba] were victims of Hurricane Michelle, but
only four or five died and just eight were injured. In the case of Isidore, only
one person was reported dead…. The Cuban methodology of community
mobilization is becoming the standard for the whole of the Caribbean in terms
of its community based training program.”

— Xavier Castellanos, Disaster Preparedness delegate at the International
Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies (IFRC),
Port-of Spain, Trinidad. April 2003 Cuba is a small and poor country whose geographical location gives it a high and recurrent risk of hurricanes. In the seven years between 1996 and 2002, six major hurricanes have hit Cuba, yet a total of only 16 people have died (see Table 1).By comparison, when Hurricane Isabel hit the mid-Atlantic United States in September
2003, it alone was directly responsible for 22 deaths and indirectly responsible for 6
deaths (AP 2003). The question fairly posed is: What is Cuba doing right in terms of
disaster mitigation and preparedness?

There is no “secret” to Cuba’s success. Instead, the nation’s exceptional dedication of
risk reduction incorporation into its structures and risk consciousness can and should
be studied for lessons learned and for opportunities to replicate its life-saving strategies.

These hurricane mortality rates become even more remarkable when compared with the
totals of neighbors in Central America, the Caribbean, and even the United States.
1996 was a record year for hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin as 150 people died throughout
the region (NHC 1996).

In the same year, at the height of the economic crisis in
Cuba, there were no hurricane deaths despite category 3 Hurricane Lili hitting the
island in October. When Hurricane Georges hit Cuba in 1998, six people were killed;
Georges killed 597 people in the rest of the Caribbean, mainly Haiti and the Dominican
Republic (NHC 1998).

AN EXAMPLE OF PRIVATIZATION FROM EL SALVADOR

El Salvador's rainy season makes hundreds of areas in the country vulnerable to landslides
and flooding due to poor environmental practices and regulation. In March
2001, the government "reformed" the Ministry of Public Works, downsizing
6,624 employees and selling off all of its heavy machinery to the private sector. It
took this action even though the rainy season had regularly demanded a major
response by the Ministry. The Ministry is now coordinating an accounting agency to
oversee private contracts for all maintenance and public works, for which it has to
pay the private sector. This means that the Ministry of Public Work's response to
hazards is governed by its budget for contracting.

MORE OXFAM REPORT

I am also posting a link to a sort commentary Called " How The Free Market Killed New Orleans"PLAY or DOWNLOAD

And I am including a link to a speech by Angela Davis about New Orleans, which was broadcast on today's Democracy now program. LINK

Flashpoints: Alternative News And Views

I am posting last nights program with an analysis of the situation in Somalia, with reports from Palestine Today, as well as a report from New Orleans.

Unfortunately I am not as familiar with what is happening in Somalia as I should be, but I know it has a lot to do with US imperialism. The person interviewed on the program brings to light some political understanding of the situation, although I don't fully agree with him on the role of the so-called US peace movement, because I think there needs to be a new type of movement taking place which can organize people into taking actions that actually produce results. I have been to many demonstrations myself, and yes they can be energizing while you are there, but these demonstrations are impotent and really go no where. New movements need to rise up as they did in the early part of the 20th century which actually took actions that produced results.

There is other commentary I will make at future posts on these topics.

PROGRAM LINK or DOWNLOAD

This Is Your Democracy: A year Of Turmoil In The Middle East

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I am posting a link to an audio documentary program with an analysis of what is happening in the Middle east.

It's a compilation of news reports and analysis. Some of it is somewhat interesting but unfortunately many documentaries like this never really expose US imperialism for what it really is, and never implicate US imperialism for the turmoil which it is responsible for in the first place. I am posting the link anyway so you can hear the program for yourself.

AUDIO LINK

The U.N Is The Hand Maiden For US imperialism Once Again

The UN is once again being used for US imperialistic ventures. They have now imposed sanctions against Iran, because Iran is pursuing a way to make themselves independent from the clutches and whims of imperial nations such as the US by enriching uranium for the purpose of nuclear energy.

Why is it that some rogue nations like Israel can have countless amounts of nuclear weaponry, which they could and may use against their neighbors, ( just look at the war crimes that they committed and got away with in Lebanon) and yet there are no UN sanctions against this rogue apartheid state. Why is it that an imperial nation like the US can have thousands of nuclear weapons, which they would use (they have used them already in Japan, and they are using other forms of nuclear weaponry in Iraq today) and there are never any santions against the imperial US. But if a country such as Iran wants to pursue the development of nuclear energy by enriching it's own uranium, so it is not at the will and whim, of the so-called immoral international community, there are sanctions placed against it at the bequest of US imperialism, and it's proxy state of Israel.

The way the UN is set up has always been undemocratic, but this total lack of democracy has become more glaringly apparent in the last 2 decades.

For the UN to gain any legitimacy in world affairs it's needs to change and become more democratic, instead of being used by US and other imperialist nations as their own bully boy.

The UN needs to take steps toward a desperately needed democratization or either it needs to be dissolved altogether.

I am including an article link for Chavez's Speech to the UN, and an audio of his speech, along with an article link President MAHMOUD AHMADI-NEJAD'S speech to the UN, they both address this issue of US supremacy at the UN.

PRINTED VERSION OF CHAVEZ'S SPEECH

This audio is taken from the Flashpoints program so the news of the day is heard on the program first before the broadcast of the speech by Hugo Chavez. This version has the voice of Chavez himself with a voice over in the English translation AUDIO LINK

For those who find it hard to listen to both voices at the same time, here is the English Translation without Chavez's voice. AUDIO LINK

PRINTED VERSION OF AHMADI-NEJAD'S SPEECH

I am also including a link to a speech to the UN in 1964 that was given by Che Guevara. He spoke of how the UN was complicit in the assassination of Patrice Lamumba in the Congo.

SPEECH INTRO

SPEECH EXCERPT

CHE GUEVARA ARCHIVES

Cuba In Focus

I am posting a link to a monthly program about Cuba, because I think it is necessary to have a better understanding of what is really happening in Cuba, which is never presented in the big business media in the US.

This program includes a discussion about where Cuban socialism is heading, and a segment of a speech to the UN in 1995 by President Castro. He spoke of how the UN security council is being used as a mechanism for imperialism, and also about the war and poverty perpetuated by capitalism and imperialism.

There is an ending of another program in the beginning, so it takes a few minutes to go into the program.

PROGRAM LINK or DOWNLOAD

How Capitalism Works To Create And Perpetuate Poverty in The Semi-Colonial World

I am posting a link to a program which discusses the issues of poverty, and how this condition of deprivation is not a natural human condition, but a creation of economic conditions under global capitalism. This program discusses how capitalism works to rob people of their own natural resources, and pushes people into poverty, from a microcosmic perspective.

The begining of the program link has a news report about Lebanon. It takes a few minutes until it leads into the program presentation.

PROGRAM LINK

For a Macrocosmic View Checkout the Program "The Sword and The Dollar"

The Embarrassment of the Wretched: A Campaign By Zionists To Counter Boycotts Against Israel

I am posting part of an article with a link to the rest of it at Electronic Intifada

It's not just the embarrassment that the Zionists want to avoid, they just don't want any real news about the fascism of the Israeli apartheid regime getting out to the public, and they definitely do not want any economic action that could harm the regime to take place.

A recent call for a cultural boycott against Israel by John Berger and others has elicited one of its more wretched responses in the Guardian (Dec. 22), signed by Anthony Julius and Simon Schama. I confess I haven't heard of Anthony Julius before - I am told he is a lawyer, and lawyers sometimes bend truth for their clients. But Simon Schama is a prominent academic, professor of history at Columbia, a man of science. He should know better.Who's Singling Out?A recurrent theme in anti-Palestinian propaganda (usually misnamed "pro-Israel") is "Don't Single Out." The idea is that evil should be addressed everywhere; the greater the evil, the greater the protest against it should be; and since there are worse cases of evil than Israel's, Israel should not be criticized. Not now, at least: perhaps after all other evils have been eradicated.The article by Julius and Schama is no exception: you'll find this cliche as argument number three:
"[T]hough the call [to boycott Israel] purports to affirm universal, human rights values, it is incapable of explaining why it seeks a boycott of Israel, alone among the nations of the world. It says nothing about the abuses and human rights breaches inflicted on Israel's citizens. It says nothing about the egregious human rights abuses committed elsewhere in the world (Darfur, Chechnya, and many other places).

"Let's apply the Don't-Single-Out argument to the writers themselves. If, as they claim, evils should be addressed top-to-bottom, then Schama and Julius must either consider the proposed boycott the greatest evil on earth, or else they have already done their best to address all greater evils.Is the proposed boycott really the greatest evil on earth? Well, I haven't heard of a single human injured, killed, or even suffering because of it. But while Julius and Schama were busy writing their article, Gaza had been under Israeli siege for months on end. Numbers of dead reached historic levels; a million and a half human beings have been locked in the tiny Strip, deprived of proper medical care and on the verge of starvation. Schama and Julius don't even mention this evil.

MORE LINK

Canada: Action to Boycott Chapters and Indigo Bookstores, Because The Owners Are Supporters Of Israeli Terrorism

I'm glad to see that there is international activism taking place against the Zionist apartheid regime for it's human rights violations and oppression of the Palestinian people. This boycott campaign is an important one, since this is aimed a t 2 of the Zionist supporters who are major owners of the bookstore. The Zionist owners are supporting terrorism in Palestine by supporting what is called "the lone soldiers" which is basically an Israeli mercenary group.

Explanation:

What is the Foundation for Lone Soldiers?

- Heather Reisman and Gerry Schwartz, majority owners of Chapters and Indigo bookstores, founded an organisation called Heseg the Foundation for Lone Soldiers. At its peak, it will distribute up to $3M per year to provide scholarships and other support to former 'Lone Soldiers' in the Israeli military.

'Lone Soldiers' are individuals who have no family in Israel but decide to join the Israeli military. As Israeli soldiers, they participate in a military that operates checkpoints that restrict Palestinian freedom of movement, enforces the occupation of Palestinian land, and has a documented history of human rights violations.- Many members of the Heseg Board of Directors are high-ranking Israeli military personnel. Board member Lt. Colonel Mike Hartmen joined the IDF as a lone soldier and is now "head of the marksmanship and sharpshooters section of the IDF.

" Board member Major General (Res.) Doron Almog was Commander of the IDF's Southern Command from 2000-2003. In 2005, a warrant was issued in the UK for his arrest on suspicion of war crimes. Moshe Ronen, Co-Chair of the Canada-Israel Committee, also sits on Heseg's Board of Directors".



The pro- Zionist propaganda that is circling around in the big business media these days, has been attempting to squelch or silence those who are bringing news about actual on the ground human rights violations to the public forefront.

That is why the play "My Name Is Rachel Corrie was cancelled by the Canadian Theatre Company CanStage.

Excerpt from yesterdays democracy now program:

“My Name is Rachel Corrie” Cancelled at Canadian Theatre A play featuring the writings of the late American peace activist Rachel Corrie has been silenced --- for the second time. The Canadian theatre company CanStage has announced its canceling plans to present the play “My Name is Rachel Corrie” in Toronto. Corrie was twenty-three years old when she was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza in March 2003. Earlier this year, the New York Theatre Workshop drew international headlines when it backed out of an agreement to stage the play. The Theatre Workshop cited complaints about the play’s criticism of Israeli policy in the Occupied Territories. It appears similar concerns have led to the CanStage decision. In an interview with Variety magazine, CanStage board member Jack Rose admitted he had neither read nor seen the play but said: "My view was it would provoke a negative reaction in the Jewish community."



The latest campaign for a boycott is in Canada in Toronto and Montreal. I am posting a link to the article as well as a link to listen to the news report about the boycott. I think that there needs to be activism like this taking place here in the US as well, although I know that the Pro-Israel lobbies have a much stronger grip on what takes place in public discourse here in the US. This grip has to be pryed away.

ARTICLE

AUDIO REPORT

The Oil Factor: Behind The War On Terror

Oil, Smoke,And Mirrors

Was The CIA Involved In The Murder Of Robert Kennedy?

I was checking out some sites on the Internet when I noticed this report from the BBC, and The Guardian

It appears that Shane O'Sullivan has found some evidence about a CIA and Cuban mob connection. I found the report interesting, but in order to verify any of this evidence that O'Sullivan has presented, further investigation will need to be done.

It's not that I don't think that those involved in the US political elite circles are not capable of killing one of their own, (because these people are truly ruthless)I just think that more solid evidence for verifying the identities of the people on the video is needed, along with an investigation following the verification of their identities. If it was them, then the question needs to be asked, what were they doing there?

Anyway check out the video and article for yourself.

VIDEO LINK

GUARDIAN ARTICLE

Palestine Today - December 26, 2006

I am posting a link for "Palestine Today." It has a report of some of todays news from occupied Palestine.

LISTEN

Hebron: Israeli army attacks a medical center, abducts residents, while settlers destroys farm lands

The illegal rabid colonists are allowed to terrorize and shoot to kill Palestinians, on Palestinian land. Just imagine if this was happening the other way around. Would the so-called international community be silent then?

Would the UN impose sanctions on the Palestinians?

Why then Is Israel and their proxy army of colonists not given the same treatment by the UN and the so-called international community, as would be given the Palestinian people if they were behaving the same way?


The answers to these questions are quite simple.
The UN only acts on the bequest of US imperialism, and it's imperialist proxies, such as Israel, and the so-called international community only reacts to defend it's own narrow interests when they are at stake, and, so it also, collaborates with US imperialism to protect these same narrow interests.


Below is an article about the on going terror of the Israeli Occupation Forces, and it's collaboration with the Israeli proxy army of illegal rabid colonists, along with a link for today's news in Occupied Palestine.

Israeli army attacked a medical center and abducted two Palestinian men and Israeli settlers destroyed Palestinian farm lands in three separate attacks in the southern West Bank city of Hebron on Tuesday.

In the village of Beit 'Awwa, west of Hebron, Israeli troops surrounded the medical center that belongs to the village council, searched and ransacked it, eyewitnesses reported.Mohamed Al Suwiti, head of the village council said that soldiers attacked the medical center in the dawn hours. He added that troops surrounded the building, forced the night shift doctor, nurse, and the ambulance driver out and detained them for several hours near the building. Soldiers searched the building and destroyed some medical equipments, Al Suwiti added.The army left after interrogating the three for some time, no arrests were made and army claimed they were looking for what they call wanted Palestinians.

In the meantime in Al Thahria town south of Hebron, right wing Israeli settlers living in illegal Israeli settlement around the village attacked and destroyed Palestinian farm land.Eyewitnesses said that the settlers bulldozed farm lands and destroyed the crops totally in 40 donums of land (10 acres). According to local farmers the settlers are trying to take over this land to enlarge the settlements were they come from.Trad Abu I'ram, 30 Fadel Abu I'ram, 35, were both abducted by Israeli forces on Tuesday morning during an invasion to Yatta village near Hebron. Eyewitnesses reported that soldiers ambushed the two while driving their car in the village. Undercover soldiers attacked them handcuffed them then army jeep convoy rushed to the village put the two men in one of the jeeps and rushed out.So far, eight Palestinians have been abducted on tuesday morning. MORE

Dispatches:the Killing Zone

THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE – DECEMBER WEEK 3

I posted a link on a post below with news from Occupied Palestine.

Here is an Audio link to a round-up of this weeks news from Occupied Palestine.

LISTEN

The Power Of The People Is Driving The Long Awaited Socio-Economic Change In South America, But When Will It Happen Here In The US?

Maybe George Bush and his in-your-face imperialism, has been the best thing that has happened to the nations in the Americas. His up front arrogance, which represents the interests for the World Bank and IMF, has helped to bring about the awakening of the people of Latin America. The people are finally waking up and realizing some of the real power they have if they work together, to pry the boot of US imperialism from their necks.

In this latest development it appears that Ecuador has joined the ranks of nations trying to get from under the US boot.

Hopefully the leaders of these nations will stay on track for the development of an alternative social and economic agenda, that is counter to the US imperialist model of neo-liberalism, and neo-colonialism, because their people are demanding them to do so.

Article LINK

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Below are some of my own thoughts about the need for socio-economic change in the US.

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I just wonder when the rest of the worlds people will follow the example of mass empowerment that has been developing in Latin America.

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The people in the US also need a system that represents their needs, and does not use their tax dollars to enrich the pockets of the US ruling classes, by pillaging and plundering other nations, but instead can start using that money to meet the needs of it's own population.

Below is one example of US inequality, which is perpetuated by an already present inequality, which results in further inequality.

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In the US the education systems in many parts of the country is on the brink of disaster because of it's unequal funding. The way education is funded in the US perpetuates a system of in-equality. Those who can live in the rich suburbs can get a good education for their children because they can afford to pay the higher property taxes which have been used to increasingly fund the US education system. While the urban areas which are much poorer go without even the basic necessities like text books, while the children in these poor urban schools are force fed the rotely memorized instruction in over crowded classrooms so they can pass the standardized

testing which has taken the place of actual learning, the children in the wealthy subards have a plethora of resources available to them in school, from music, and art instuction, to vocational training , such as carpentry, and plumbing, etc., which is available, free of charge, to all who do not have their sights set on college.

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You see even those in the wealthy suburbs realize that not all young people want ot go to college, even if they have that certain ability to sit through boring lectures, and hours of useless course work. (Don't get me wrong, I think good thought provoking courses, and ones that truly enlighten are still worthwhile, as well as ones that get you prepared for what ever career you have chosen, but unfortunately that does not hold true for much of the crap you learn in these mind numbing institutions for so-called higher learning).

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This inequality which is basically driven by an economy that allows those who already have money and resources to get more, and those who do not to fall further and further behind. This is the neoliberal economic model at work in the US. there are many more examples of the increasing inequality in the US but I thought I would use education as an example of how the concentration of money effects one of the basic rights of it's citizens, which is the right to an equal education for all.

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The inequality in the US creates the conditions, for increasing gang wars over drug turf, since drug dealing has increased with the worsening of economic conditions and job opportunity. Murder rates around the country are on the rise, as well as and prostitution. Homelessness, is also on the rise, which is partly due to the lack of affordable housing. Entire families are being made homeless, because of the continuous rise of the cost of living, which includes high mortgage, or rent payments.

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House Foreclosures are way up in US but you wouldn't know this by looking at the gloating faces on Wall Street. Because when house foreclosures increase, the rich investing vultures can swoop in, scoop up, and capitalize on the misery, by buying these properties up cheap, so they can rent them out for extravagant rates, or sell them to earn a good amount of profit.

In the meantime the only industries that are gaining ground in the US besides those connected with the military, are those connected, and part of the US prison industrial complex. This industry feeds off of the worsening US economic conditions, while it in turn perpetuates these conditions.

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The privatization of prisons has led to policies which encourage recidivism, such as: over crowded inhumane conditions, the lack of resources for rehabilitation, and other factors which go to encourage criminal behavior, both inside and outside of the prisons. The details for this are too lengthy to list here so I am providing a link for further explanation. PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

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While there is no money in the US for equal education, equal access to health care, creating good paying jobs for all, etc., there is plenty of money available for the pillage and plunder of other nations.

While US tax payer money is used to enrich the already enriched, most people in the US are falling further and further behind.

These ruling elites are true vultures because they not only use US tax dollars to do their dirty work, they use the blood of our children to feed into their war machine, to go and kill other working class people, or be killed themselves.

The people are uniting and working for real change in Latin America, but the question now is when will the people in the US wake up, and unite to work towards real change here in the US?

Collaboration And Betrayal By Abbas and His US Sponsered Thugs

Don't these thugs look so cozy together?

Why are they smiling I wonder?

Is it because they are good partners in crime?

The following link is for todays news from Palestine, with a story about these two criminals and their next meeting, as well others news about resistance and Palestinian solidarty.

NEWS LINK

Who Is Really Behind The So-Called Sectarian Violence In Palestine?

The US imperialists are funding Abbas and making sure he is their good puppet, so that he can continue to divide the Palestinians.

I am posting a link to yesterdays Flashpoints program, which has an analysis about this situation with a discussion by Ali Abunimah.

There is also other news of the day.

LISTEN

Palestine Today - December 21, 2006

I am Posting a link to an audio Program and today's news in occupied Palestine.

AUDIO LINK

SOME NEWS HEADLINES

Bethlehem in Christmas, surrounded and lacking resources

As Christmas approaches, Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, remains surrounded by the Israeli Annexation Wall, and strangled by Israeli checkpoints and expanding settlements

UN General Assembly Reiterates Palestinian Sovereignty over the Palestinian areas

United Nations General Assembly endorsed unanimously Wednesday a resolution that acknowledges the Palestinian people’s permanent sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) including the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Homemade Shells Injure Three Palestinians Including a Pregnant Woman in Gaza

A Palestinian home made shell landed on Thursday morning on a Palestinian house wounding three Palestinians including a pregnant woman in the northern Gaza strip.

MORE

A One State Solution

I am reposting a link to my post about a one state solution, as well as the link to listen to program about this topic on Flashpoints, and a recent E I interview with Ali Abunimah from December 14th, 2oo6. , as well as a recent interview link to a December 17th, 2006 interview on C-SPAN.

I think this solution needs to be brought to the forefront of the discussion about Palestinian rights, just as it was necessary in South Africa, about the equal rights of the native South Africans

LISTEN FLASHPOINTS AUDIO LINK.

C-SPAN LINK

INTERVIEW

POST LINK

Israel, Apartheid and Jimmy Carter

I am posting part of an article about Israeli Apartheid, since this article decribes the aparthied conditions, In Israel and the Occupied Terrortoies.

Although Carter did bring about a much needed discussion about Israeli apartheid he claimed that it did not exist within the Zionist apartheid state of Israel.

The Palestinians know that this was a blatnat lie and coverup about the true nature of the Zionist state.

Article: BY SAREE MAKDISI

Israel maintains two separate road networks in the West Bank: one for the exclusive use of Jewish settlers, and one for Palestinian natives. Is that not apartheid?

Palestinians are not allowed to drive their own cars in much of the West Bank; their public transportation is frequently interrupted or blocked altogether by a grid of Israeli army checkpoints -- but Jewish settlers come and go freely in their own cars, without even pausing at the roadblocks that hold up the natives. Is that not apartheid?

A system of closures and curfews has strangled the Palestinian economy in the West Bank -- but none of its provisions apply to the Jewish settlements there. Is that not apartheid?

Whole sectors of the West Bank, classified as "closed military areas" by the Israeli army, are off limits to Palestinians, including Palestinians who own land there -- but foreigners to whom Israel's Law of Return applies (that is, anyone Jewish, from anywhere in the world) can access them without hindrance. Is that not apartheid?

Persons of Palestinian origin are routinely barred from entering or residing in the West Bank -- but Israeli and non-Israeli Jews can come and go, and even live on, occupied Palestinian territory. Is that not apartheid?

Israel maintains two sets of rules and regulations in the West Bank: one for Jews, one for non-Jews. The only thing wrong with using the word "apartheid" to describe such a repugnant system is that the South African version of institutionalized discrimination was never as elaborate as its Israeli counterpart -- nor did it have such a vocal chorus of defenders among otherwise liberal Americans.

The glaring error in Carter's book, however, is his insistence that the term "apartheid" does not apply to Israel itself, where, he says, Jewish and non-Jewish citizens are given the same treatment under the law. That is simply not true.

Israeli law affords differences in privileges for Jewish and non-Jewish citizens of the state -- in matters of access to land, family unification and acquisition of citizenship. Israel's amended nationality law, for example, prevents Palestinian citizens of Israel who are married to Palestinians from the occupied territories from living together in Israel. A similar law, passed at the peak of apartheid in South Africa, was overturned by that country's supreme court as a violation of the right to a family. Israel's high court upheld its law just this year.

Israel loudly proclaims itself to be the state of the Jewish people, rather than the state of its actual citizens (one-fifth of whom are Palestinian Arabs). In fact, in registering citizens, the Israeli Ministry of the Interior assigns them a whole range of nationalities other than "Israeli." In the official registry, the nationality line for a Jewish citizen of Israel reads "Jew." For a Palestinian citizen, the same line reads "Arab." When this glaring inequity was protested all the way to Israel's high court, the justices upheld it: "There is no Israeli nation separate from the Jewish people." Obviously this leaves non-Jewish citizens of Israel in, at best, a somewhat ambiguous situation. Little wonder, then, that a solid majority of Israeli Jews regard their Arab fellow-citizens as what they call "a demographic threat," which many -- including the deputy prime minister -- would like to see eliminated altogether. What is all this, if not racism? MORE

More Injustice Dealt Out By Apartheid Israeli Courts

As I Said In My posting below about unjust laws. The Israeli apartheid court behaves as the creature it is. It is set up to establish a Jewish state giving Jews more rights than the Palestinians they occupy, or that live within the state.

One of the many results of these unjust laws is how the Israeli Occupation Forces who shot a young girl (a war crime in itself)and allowed her to bleed to death, had finally picked her body up and took her illegally without her parents consent, to an Israeli hospital.

The IOF had not not allowed the Palestinian ambulance that had been there much earlier to rescue her.

But now the Zionist apartheid court has added insulting humilation to injury by not allowing her father to attend her funeral because the Israeli apartheid regime claims that he is illegally in Israel.

Yet he has more of a right to be there than an American, or European Jew, since the stolen lands of Israel and the occupied territories are part of his ancestral homeland. He also has more right to be there than the rabid colonists who are stealing more and more of his land with the help of Israeli Apartheid laws.

This is among many reasons that the Apartheid regime in Israel and the occupied territories must be dissolved. The Palestinian people should be demanding equal application of laws that advocate human rights for all, and to demand the elimination of unjust laws which discriminate against one group over another, that will apply to all citizens of Israel/Palestine, living in or out side of the apartheid Zionist State.

A One State Solution is the Only real answer to this kind of injustice

LINK

Does Human Rights Watch Stand For Real Justice And Human Rights?

Why Should it be surprising to anyone that a court system which is set up to protect the racist and apartheid practices of the state which it is a part of would verify and uphold unjust laws. The Supreme court in the US upheld racist laws justifying slavery, and other racist practices, as well as supporting anti-labor, and anti-women legislation.

So an unjust court passing unjust laws, should have no legitimacy in the realm of human rights.

This should also apply to some so-called human rights groups who change laws according to their own political interests and perceptions.

In their convoluted effort to explain themselves about their stand against the Palestinians peaceful resistance to stop the unjust and unlawful policies of house demolitions, by the Israeli Occupation Forces, it appears that HRW, just gets itself deeper into the muck, which they deserve to be in.

They dare to compare the Israeli use of Palestinians as human shields with the courageous act by Palestinian women in the defence of their husbands and sons.

"This continues to be a live issue in the Israeli-Palestinian armed conflict. In July 2006, Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups documented the IDF’s forcible use of Palestinians as human shields in a well publicized incident during military operations in Beit Hanoun. According to the groups, the IDF blindfolded six civilians, including two minors, and forced them to stand in front of soldiers who took over civilian homes during a raid in northern Gaza. And on November 3, Hamas militants hid behind civilian women when exiting from a mosque where the militants had been cornered by IDF forces after more than two days of fighting. The fact that the women voluntarily went to aid the men does not absolve the militants of their duty not to endanger civilians. Both of these cases took place in the course of armed conflict so that the laws of war did apply."

And in a previous section they actually excuse the illegal behavior of the Israeli Offensive Forces.

"We have since concluded that we were wrong, on the basis of the available evidence, to characterize the IDF’s planned destruction of the house as an act of war. If the planned attack against the house – a three-story building housing three families - was, in fact, an administrative action by the Israeli government aimed at punishing a militant for his alleged activities, the law regulating the conduct of hostilities during armed conflict would not apply and could not be violated. "

This biased organization has revealed it's true colors over and over again, and they behave as nothing more than as one of the tentacles of the US imperialist octopus. They heavily condemn all those who are counter to US interests while they half heartedly condemn US imperialist, or Israeli actions, invasions and occupations. As I have said before, the masquerade is finally over.

HRW ARTICLE LINK

Video: Venezuela Bolvariana: People and the Struggle of the 4th World War

I am posting a direct link to the film on Google if there is a problem with viewing it at my blog.

The only problem with some of these videos is that depending on the time of day they sometimes take a lond time to download.

But this video is worth waiting for just press play and pause and wait for the complete download. After the complete download it will play without hesitating. It works the same for this video posted on my blog below.

VIDEO LINK

More Resistance Against The Occupation

With all the News of Israeli atrocities that are taking place in Occupied Palestine, as well as the focus on US and Israeli supported, and encouraged civil strife , I think it is important to post some news about the Palestinian resistance against the occupation, Both military and peaceful.

The people of Palestine working together to find solutions through resistance is a necessary advancement in the Palestinian struggle for justice against the Zionist apartheid regime. Only a unified movement which is developed by an empowered people can be effective against a brutal Israeli occupation.

The liberating feeling which comes from resisting injustice, even in the face of brutal repression, can be an empowering mechanism which can build movements of larger collaborative resistance.

Effective unified resistance is what the Zionists and US imperialists fear most of all and that is why they work at keeping people divided, and fighting amongst themselves.

Article below:

Two people from Bil’in injured in protest against the Apartheid Wall

Latest News, Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, December 16th, 2006 This Friday, as every Friday, people from the village of Bil'in marched against the Apartheid Wall after prayers.

Around 200 protesters took part in the demonstration, marching to their land isolated by the Wall carrying the Palestinian flag, placards and banners for national unity. As the villagers approached the Wall, Occupation forces attacked them, preventing them from crossing to their land on the other side. The Occupiers fired tear gas, sound bombs and rubber bullets until the demonstration appeared to disperse. However, protesters responded from new positions, throwing stones. The Occupation forces then escalated their attack, randomly firing rubber bullets and filling the streets of the village with tear gas.Two youths from the village sustained injured from rubber bullets: Muhammad Mustafa al Khatib and Fadi Mustafa Omar. MORE INFORMATION

OTHER NEWS

Palestine Today: Wednesday December 20, 2006

I am posting todays News in Occupied Palestine, and an article about the continued struggle against the Zionist Occupation.

Article Below:

Palestinian nonviolent protest at checkpoint as Israeli soldiers beat student .

On Wednesday Israeli forces occupying Al Hamra Checkpoint in Jenin confiscated the identity cards of hundreds of Palestinians, detaining them for five hours.

While the soldiers were confiscating identification and detaining citizens, a young man spoke to the soldiers while others shouted to stop oppressing students. Eyewitnesses report that an Israeli soldier took the identification of Salem Zayada and suddenly pulled the student to the ground by grabbing ahold of his beard. Soldiers drug the young man behind a barrier where seven soldiers beat him.

Hundreds of Palestinians were shouting to stop as they disembarked from their cars while Israeli soldiers trained their machine guns on the people. A nonviolent protest ensued with residents shouting for justice while beginning a sit-in.Taxi driver Zacharia Khalid requested that an Israeli officer come to the checkpoint in hopes that an official would make the beating stop, but instead Israeli soldiers began to fire into the air and physically attacking people. The young man, beaten and bloody, was then taken to an unknown location.MORE

OTHER NEWS

AUDIO LINK LISTEN

Venezuela Bolivariana: People And The Struggle Of The 4th World War

The Horrific Hidden Effects Of The US Imperialist Invasion And Occupation Of Iraq

A Look At US Hired Thugs Working With The US Imperialist Military In Iraq

Video: As'ad AbuKhalil...Speaks about The Middle East

Today on Flashpoints

For those who nissed the Flashpoints program tonight with As'ad's interview I am posting a link to listen to it below.

Three more Palestinians killed in clashes in the Gaza strip while the US actively arms and trains Fatah security guards against Hamas, in what many people believe is fomenting of civil violence. As'ad Abu-Khalil discusses the US-Israeli undermining of Palestinian democracy and what this means in terms of regional politics and resistance; also, we broadcast the full interview with JR and death row prisoner Kevin Cooper, who has an upcoming hearing in San Francisco; and the Knight Report.

LISTEN

PALESTINIAN HIPHOP - "WHO'S THE TERRORIST?!"

"Injustice in the Holy Land"

CIA: In Search of Enemies

Iraq For Sale: Video about some of the pillage and plunder taking place in Iraq.

Palestine Today - December 19, 2006

I am posting a link to a short program about todays news in Occupied Palestine along with a link to the headlines and articles for more in depth reading.

LISTEN

NEWS and ARTICLES

Holy Warriors Set Sights on Iran

As many supporters of the Palestinians are in constant fear of having their homes invaded because they gave to a Charity for Palestinian children, (and I have A friend who had this happen to her), those who support and give to Zionist, or Christian fundamentalist charities which support the Zionist agenda are given praise and awards.

My friends home was invaded by the FBI, and her family and children were forced to lie on the floor in terror, as their home was ransacked by these agents of fascism. They seized her computer, and took her in to be interrogated. All this because she had given a small amount of money for a charity for Palestinian children. Her action was deemed as a support of terrorism.

Now if she had given to a charity that was set up to provide rabid Israeli colonists with weapons so they can kill and terrorize Palestinians on Their own lands, she would have been given a medal of Honor, by the Zionists and their supporters in Washington.

This article caught my attention since it involves these Zionist so-called charities, and their continuing focus on Iran.

Although the article has a somewhat religious slant about the Zionist and US plans in the Middle East, it exposes the links between the fundamentalist Christians and the Zionists, and their demagogic attempts to use their twisted interpretations of biblical scriptures to pursue their imperialist agenda against Iran. They have used this kind of demagoguery to justify the Invasion and occupation of Iraq and US, and Israeli hegemony in the Middle East.

Excerpt Below.

OAKLAND, California (IPS) - Over the past 20 years, the U.S. Christian right has evolved into one of the most powerful grassroots organising forces within the Republican Party, and a host of Christian Zionists have taken a well-earned seat at the foreign policy table. At the same time, their support for Israel is not only growing -- it is also becoming an influential political factor.

Several prominent Christian right and conservative Jewish leaders have teamed up to found organisations that have provided millions of dollars to Israeli charities, lobbied in support of policies advanced by right wing leaders in Israel, opposed President George W. Bush's so-called "Road Map" to peace in the Middle East, and have helped defray the costs of the immigration of Russian Jews to Israel, among other activities.

While the Reverends Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell have been longtime supporters of Israel, the founding earlier this year of Christians United for Israel by John Hagee, the pastor of the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, drew a great deal of media attention. As Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's popularity has plummeted since the end of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, Christian Zionists in the United States view the outcome not only as a defeat for Israel, but also as a prelude to a much wider war. In fact, they think the conflict might be a sign of impending Armageddon.

"The end of the world as we know it is rapidly approaching," Hagee wrote in his most recent book, Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World. "Just before us is a nuclear countdown with Iran," he wrote, "followed by Ezekiel's war (as described in Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39), and then the final battle -- the battle of Armageddon." For Hagee, bestselling author Joel Rosenberg and other Christian Zionists, Israel plays the critical role in End Time scenarios. Their books, commentaries, and public statements reflect their beliefs that serial conflicts in the Middle East are a sign of the biblical prophesy presaging Armageddon, the return of Jesus Christ, and the final battle for the souls of mankind. MORE

Fidel: The Untold Story

I am featuring the film Fidel: The Untold Story by Estela Bravo, at this post because I think that many people really have a biased narrow picture of Fidel Castro, and the Cuban Revolution based on US propaganda, and I think this film goes a long way in addressing some of this propaganda.

Fidel, The Untold Story produced by Estela Bravo. Is a film that covers 40 years of the Cuban revolution and is unprecedented in providing its viewers with an understanding of Cuba and its leader. Ms. Bravo uses exclusive archival footage and a remarkable mix of interviews with Fidel. She includes such luminaries as Harry Belafonte, Aleida Guevera (Che's daughter), Alice Walker, Ramsey Clark, Sydney Pollack, Angela Davis and longtime friend of Castro, Nobel Prize-winning writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez. We hear from journalists, both in Miami and Cuba, guerrillas who fought in the revolution, politicians, writers, musicians, scientists, old teachers, family and friends.

There are priceless and touching exchanges between Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro.

I am supplying links to radio broadcast of the film, and it is a good introduction to the cinematic production, but cannot give a full perspective since this film is meant to be seen and not just heard. The programs only have a partial segment of the film but ithey are worth listening to

But check the listening link out, along with a review of the film, and a link on how to purchase it. I am providing 2 different listen links.

The first features the film in the first half of the broadcast, and the second half is a Michael Parenti Presentation, Called "Rulers Of The Planet: The Real Reasons For the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq."

The second link is from the Program "LA Raza" which also features part of the film, but has some good commentary about the film. Both links are part of a fund drive so there is some talk for fund raising, but not for most of the programs.

LISTENING LINK

"LA RAZA" LISTENING LINK

REVIEW LINK

RENT FILM

BUY FILM

Palestine on the brink of civil war?

Instead of focusing on the real causes of strife in Palestine, such as the blockade , and starvation of a people by Israel with the support of the US and European imperialists, the news media wants to concentrate on a so-called civil war.

The big business media will never focus on what the US imperialists are really doing in their support of Abbas (the collaborator) with sending money to his Fatah organization, so it can dole out as it pleases to those it considers loyal to their feudal enterprise in Palestine. My hope is that the Palestinian people can see beyond this manipulation by the US and Israel, and start demanding their rights, as equal citizens, for a one state solution, like the native South Africans did, as a united people living under the subjugation of an apartheid regime, and not fall for the divisive tactics being used by the US imperialists, and it's Zionist client state of Israel.

Article about STRIFE

Chavez Calls for Socialist Unity Party of Venezuela

Chavez is coming to realize that the factionalization of parties under the US or European model has led to nothing more than dividing the people, and playing one group against the other, for the advancement of corporate interests. It appears that he is trying to change this divisive model of so-called democracy into one of unity that can benefit the people of his country. Unlike the two sides of the same coin politics that we have in the US where you have two sides of the same ruling class parties to choose from. He is building solidarity for a party that represents the interests of the Venezuelan people. And I think that we here in the US can take lessons on that kind of people politics.

Although Chavez still has to function within the framework of a capitalist economy, and so it is unclear how far the ruling elites in Washington, along with the ruling class collaborators in Venezuela will allow him to go. This will also depend on the revolutionary class consciouness and awakening of the Venezuelan people.

Article Excerpt:

Caracas, December 18, 2006 (venezuelanalysis.com)— In an event to celebrate the successful reelection of President Chavez, Chavez called on his followers to dissolve their existing parties and to form a new “Socialist Unity Party of Venezuela.” Chavez also explained that the main project for the next term is to “construct socialism from below,” via this new party.

The celebration was held last Friday in the Teresa Carreño Theater, with the participation of Chavez’s campaign team, the Commando Miranda, and the supporters that had organized in neighborhoods for Chavez’s reelection.

According to Chavez, the plethora of parties that currently support his government are an obstacle to the creation of “21st century socialism.” “We need one party, not an alphabet soup with which we would be falling over each other in lies and cheating the people,” said Chavez.
Instead, a new single party is needed, which would provide a forum for debates because, “We should not imagine socialism as a state that we will reach some day by the art of magic,” said Chavez during the event, instead, “Socialism is a process of daily construction." MORE

The Culture Struggle

I think that understanding culture, and the influences that capitalism, and corporate entities have had in the creation of so-called American culture, as well as other cultures around the world and how it has effected how and what we think as a people is important for us to understand and take apart. It is vital, for us to be aware of, that this thing we call culture is an artificially and commercially created entity that has been very influential on our everyday thought processes and lives.

I am presenting a program with an interview about the book "The Culture Struggle" HERE.

This is an excerpt from a description of the book

Drawing from cultures around the world, Parenti demonstrates that beliefs and practices are readily subjected to political manipulation, and that cultures are instruments of social power. Many parts of modern culture are being commodified, that is, packaged and sold to those who can pay. Folk culture is giving way to a corporate market culture.

Art, science, medicine, psychiatry, and even marriage have been used as instruments of cultural control across the centuries. Powerful interests also employ racism, sexism, and class supremacy to maintain their existing politico-economic rule. Culture is both something to be contained and itself an instrument of domination.

An excerpt from book:

Can we ever think that one subjective, imperfect opinion is better than another? Yes, as a rough rule of thumb, dissident opinions that are less reliant on the dominant paradigm are likely to be more vigorously tested and challenged. People approach the heterodox viewpoint with skepticism, assuming they ever get a chance to hear of it. Having been conditioned to the mainstream orthodoxy most of their lives, they are less inclined to place their trust automatically and unthinkingly in an unfamiliar analysis, one that not fit their background assumptions. They even will self-censor it by tuning out. If given the choice to consider a new perspective or mobilize old arguments against it, it is remarkable how quickly they start reaching for the old arguments. All this makes dissent that much more difficult but that much more urgent. Website LINK

An Interview With Robert Fisk And His Chauvinistic View Of The Middle East

Mr. Robert Fisk, as usual is taking his usual chauvinistic point of view about empire and imperialism, and how the US needs to be a more kinder and gentler imperialist empire, and they can take their lessons from guess who? The Roman empire. I kid you Not! This interview is still worth listening to just to hear some of Fisk's personal experiences in the ME, and to pick apart his superior perspective. LINK TO LISTEN

I am including a link to 2 programs which are relevant to the topic of imperialism, in the ME and imperialism in general.

The first talks about the maledevelopment of the so-called third world. Below is a discription.

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What is called "underdevelopment" is a set of social relations that has been forcefully imposed on countries. With the advent of the Western colonizers, the peoples of the Third World were actually set back in their development sometimes for centuries. British imperialism in India provides an instructive example. In 1810, India was exporting more textiles to England than England was exporting to India. By 1830, the trade flow was reversed. The British had put up prohibitive tariff barriers to shut out Indian finished goods and were dumping their commodities in India, a practice backed by British gunboats and military force. Within a matter of years, the great textile centers of Dacca and Madras were turned into ghost towns. The Indians were sent back to the land to raise the cotton used in British textile factories. In effect, India was reduced to being a cow milked by British financiers.

By 1850, India's debt had grown to 53 million pounds. From 1850 to 1900, its per capita income dropped by almost two-thirds. The value of the raw materials and commodities the Indians were obliged to send to Britain during most of the nineteenth century amounted yearly to more than the total income of the sixty million Indian agricultural and industrial workers. The massive poverty we associate with India was not that country's original historical condition. British imperialism did two things: first, it ended India's development, then it forcibly underdeveloped that country.

Similar bleeding processes occurred throughout the Third World. The enormous wealth extracted should remind us that there originally were few really poor nations. Countries like Brazil, Indonesia, Chile, Bolivia, Zaire, Mexico, Malaysia, and the Philippines were and sometimes still are rich in resources. Some lands have been so thoroughly plundered as to be desolate in all respects. However, most of the Third World is not "underdeveloped" but overexploited. Western colonization and investments have created a lower rather than a higher living standard.

Referring to what the English colonizers did to the Irish, Frederick Engels wrote in 1856: "How often have the Irish started out to achieve something, and every time they have been crushed politically and industrially. By consistent oppression they have been artificially converted into an utterly impoverished nation." So with most of the Third World. The Mayan Indians in Guatemala had a more nutritious and varied diet and better conditions of health in the early 16th century before the Europeans arrived than they have today. They had more craftspeople, architects, artisans, and horticulturists than today. What is called underdevelopment is not an original historical condition but a product of imperialism's superexploitation. Underdevelopment is itself a development.

The above is an excerpt from imperialism 101 and the complete article can be found on the right hand side of my blog

These are the two of the program links which give presentations about imperialism and it's victimization of other nations. They can also be found at the right hand side of my blog along with other programs.

The first is about the exploitation, and maledeveopment of the so-called third world

The Sword And The Dollar LINK

The second is about imperialism and the racist chauvinistic attitudes perpetuated by the imperialists, and there are mentions of imperialism in relation to Iraq, and other nations ME and elsewhere.

Empires Past And Present LINK

Military Resistance Or Peaceful Resistance: That Is The Question

I am posting a program which discusses and analyzes what is happening in Palestine and the rest of the Middle East, under the vicious boot of Zionism and US imperialism from a Progressive Arab point of view.

There is a great interview on the program with the Filmmaker Donia Mili about her new film "Uprooted" on resisting occupation, which brings up the question of whether or not to use military resistance, and when and why it may be necessary to do so. The host and guest discuss the ideas of Noam Chomsky who appears in the film, and the intellectualizing of resistance, which advocates for only peaceful solutions, and bears no results on the ground for the everyday lives of the Palestinians. Chomsky's pacifist ideology is challenged by the filmaker and host, as they discuss their beliefs that the Palestinians should not be trapped in one form of resistance.

Also for everyone who thinks that life is great in northern Iraq ought to think again.

There is also an interview on the program with Orhan Ketene in northern Iraq, who speaks about the ethnic cleansing taking place there.

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Program link.LISTEN

TAHRIR Website

Womens Rights Plummet In Iraq SInce The Imperialist Invasion And Occupation

The fact that women's rights are becoming non-existent in Iraq should be no surprise, since all standards of human rights have been violated, by the puppet regime and it's collaborators. Imperialism is not meant to advocate for womens rights, labor rights, civil rights, or any other kind of human rights, that allow people to live in dignity, so actually these rights are counter to the very nature of imperialism itself, because it's aim is to subjugate, and exploit, for the benefits of the imperialists themselves.

I have included a link to a program which discusses and analyzes this topic. The program also includes other news of the day.

At least sixty Iraqis killed in Baghdad today as hundreds more die across the country, we'll talk with our special correspondent Dahr Jamail about the current unraveling in Iraq and specifically how women's rights have plummeted since the U.S-led invasion began; also, Patricia Isasa, a survivor of torture during Argentina's so-called "Dirty War" describes what happened to her in three concentration camps and how she eventually tracked her torturers down and sent them to prison; and the Knight Report. LINK or PLAY

News And Views About Recent Headlines

I am posting last nights Flashpoints program, with reports about the puppet regime in Iraq.

It appears that Maliki is not a willing puppet so he must be replaced by another puppet who is the leader of the main death squads in Iraq, (the Badr Brigades). This is the democracy of US imperialism.

Also a report on Chile and Pinochet, along with an analysis of Chilean democracy.

It appears that Chilean democracy means very little democracy for the people of Chile, since Pinochet and his cohorts changed the Chilean constitution in 1980, so the right wing minority is guaranteed 20% more representation in congress than they actually have in terms of population, and guaranteed Pinochet a seat in the senate for life, and even up to his death he was influencing Chilean politics. These are the types of democracies supported by US imperialism

I included photo of Pinochet which shows him as the gangster he really was, also a photo of the presidential palace which was blown up during the assassination and overthrow of the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende.

For a link to a list of the disappeared in Chile, and other info on the torture. LINK HERE

Main Link with testimonies, and a list of the torturers. LINK HERE

Also a report from Gaza about the killing of 4 Palestinian children and more reports of Israeli war crimes.

The photo I included is another war crime committed by The Israeli Offensive Fascist Forces.

An Israeli soldier looking at the body of a Palestinian boy who has been killed by the Israeli Occupation Fascist Forces in West Bank, photos by AFP..

Along with a link of reports from Rafah.

RAFAH LINK and FLASHPOINTS LINK.

Israeli War Crimes

Israeli War Crimes are very numerous and it would be impossible to list all them here, but I am posting some here on my blog to remind everyone about the continuous brutality of the Israeli apartheid colonial settler state.

Report about the family of Naji Abaas

The conditions of the Palestinians are far worse than the conditions of the apartheid of South Africa. Reporters who dare to go in and photograph or document these war crimes, have been assassinated by the Israeli Offensive Fascist Forces. The Israeli Zionist apartheid regime does not want the world to see what they are doing there. But they can never stop the truth from reaching the people, thanks to some brave photo journalists who have risked their lives to bring people the truth.

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The picture of the man who is handcuffed on the ground is Naji Abaas is 35 years old, he used to work as a tailor/dressmaker and never was engaged in any terrorist or political activities. His family consists of 4 members.

They live in Beit Lahia, near Jewish settlements. The 2 children suffer from anemia and the family is very poor.One day, while the family was sleeping at 7 o'clock, a group of Israeli soldiers came with tanks to their street. They came to their house, smashed the door and entered the house while all family members were in bed.

The faces of the soldiers were covered with paint, they did not look like human beings, all family members were shocked and filled with fear.The soldiers destroyed all the furniture and all belongings of the family while they were shouting all the time. Nothing remained intact. Then they asked Naji to come to them, and handcuffed him, while another soldier put his knee on the mother's neck, holding her head down this way, and saying bad and most insulting things to her. The woman cried and asked why the soldiers do this to her family, but instead of and answer, the soldier hit her head with his weapon.

The other soldiers continued to smash and destroy all the household items, and they found nothing but bread and tea in the cupboard, and started to make bad and cynical jokes about the poverty of the family.After that, one of the soldiers hit into the face of the girl child Malak ... the mother asked him, why do you hit her, she is still a child? The soldier answered: we hit her because she has brown eyes, and we will take her with us, because she is our child, not yours, and you have stolen her from us!! But then he released the child.Then the soldiers told the mother and 2 children to stand in the corner of the room and to stay there and not to move, or they would kill them.

The picture of the two children are Naji's son and daughter

The soldiers left the completely damaged house with Naji. The mother and kids spent more than three hours in the house in that corner. After this, a group of their neighbors come to this house and ask what happened, then they found the mother with her two kids crying, and she was unable to speak with any one.

About 8 o'clock in the evening, they saw their father coming back, with half of his clothes, with his tears, and with serious injuries on his body, and he was hardly able to breath. He reported what happened to him: He said "they put me in a very narrow hole, and hit me at my head with iron balls many time, I don’t know any thing after they cover my eyes, one of the soldiers put his leg at my head, and put more and more sand on my head, I felt that they want to bury all my body, it was horrible, I ask them for help, but I didn’t hear anything. After that, they left us and went back to their centers.

Then one of the prisoner came and ask me to get out of this hole, I wasn’t able to do that, because I was afraid that they are still nearby and would shoot me when I leave the hole, and because I was so weak I could not move any more. Finally, a man helped me to get out of the hole.

The family faces many problems since then. Naji still suffers from his injuries and still has difficulties to breath. They find it hard to cover the expenses for the most basic things of life. The 2 children were now happy to receive a child sponsorship.

The child in the photo of a poster is 8 years old, and her name is Islam Mahmoud Al Khateeb. Her family found her body buried in the sand near the Jewish settlement. Her body was burned and they found evidence of violence on her body.The parents do not know who committed this crime, but since the body of her child was found near Tal Al Sultan, Rafah, where the Israeli soldiers live, they suspect the child was killed by soldiers or settlers and then buried in the sand.

Translation of the text on this poster:
A question, who is responsible for that terrorism??! She went from her house on 21/5/2002,she went as a flower and innocent girl, and in that way, we find her naked in the sand, with many injuries in her body, we found her on 1/6/2002.Signature: All the people of Rafah and Tal Al Sultan area. And her family. And also her name: Islam Mahmoud Al Khateeb, 8 years old.

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Revolution And Resisting Imperialism

There is of course this debate about the resistance, and the struggle against US imperialism in Iraq, and elsewhere in the Middle East, and what form it should take.

All peoples have the right to resist, occupation, oppression and imperialism, but that struggle can take many different forms. One form of course is armed struggle.

I am presenting some thoughts about this from a great revolutionary himself Che Guevara.

Although he never claimed to be an expert in armed struggle, and guerrilla warfare, he did help to lead a successful revolution in Cuba against US imperialism.

His thoughts on this topic are very enlightening.

Below are some excerpts with a link to the rest of the writing, as well as a main link, and links to Audio of Che at the UN, and an interview with him done in New York City on December 16, 1964.

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We consider that the Cuban Revolution made three fundamental contributions to the laws of the revolutionary movement in the current situation in America. First, people's forces can win a war against the army. Second, it is not always necessary to wait for all conditions favorable to revolution to be present; the insurrection itself can create them. Third, in the underdeveloped parts of America, the battleground for armed struggle should in the main be the countryside. (Ernesto Che Guevara, Guerrilla Warfare ).

The armies in Latin America are set up and equipped for conventional warfare. They are the force through which the power of the exploiting classes is maintained. When they are confronted with the irregular warfare of peasants based on their home ground, they become absolutely powerless; they lose 10 men for every revolutionary fighter who falls.

Demoralization among them mounts rapidly when they are beset by an invisible and invincible army which provides them no chance to display their military academy tactics and their military fanfare, of which they boast so heavily, and which they use to repress the city workers and students.

The initial struggle of the small fighting units is constantly nurtured by new forces; the mass movement begins to grow bold, bit by bit the old order breaks into a thousand pieces, and that is when the working class and the urban masses decide the battle. What is it that from the very beginning of the fight makes these units invincible, regardless of the numbers, strengths and resources of their enemies? It is the people's support, and they can count on an ever-increasing mass support.

The peasantry, however, is a class that because of the ignorance in which it has been kept and the isolation in which it lives, requires the revolutionary and political leadership of the working class and the revolutionary intellectuals. It cannot launch the struggle and achieve victory alone.
In the present historical conditions of Latin America, the national bourgeoisie cannot lead the ant feudal and anti-imperialist struggle. Experience demonstrates that in our nations this class — even when its interests clash with those of Yankee imperialism — has been incapable of confronting imperialism, paralyzed by fear of social revolution and frightened by the clamor of the exploited masses.

Completing the foresight of the preceding statements that constitute the essence of the revolutionary declaration of Latin America, the Second Declaration of Havana states:
The subjective conditions in each country, the factors of revolutionary consciousness, organization and leadership, can accelerate or delay revolution, depending on the state of their development.

Sooner or later in each historic epoch objective conditions ripen, consciousness is acquired, organization is achieved, leadership arises, and revolution takes place.
Whether this takes place peacefully or comes into the world after painful labor does not depend on the revolutionaries; it depends on the reactionary forces of the old society, who resist the birth of the new society engendered by contradictions carried in the womb of the old. Revolution, in history, is like the doctor assisting at the birth of a new life, who will not use forceps unless necessary, but who will use them unhesitatingly every time labor requires them. It is a labor bringing the hope of a better life to the enslaved and exploited masses.
In many Latin American countries revolution is inevitable.

This fact is not determined by the will of any person. It is determined by the horrifying conditions of exploitation under which the Latin American people live, the development of a revolutionary consciousness in the masses, the worldwide crisis of imperialism and the universal liberation movements of the subjugated nations. We shall begin from this basis to analyze the whole matter of guerrilla warfare in Latin America.

We have already established that it is a means of struggle to attain an end. First, our concern is to analyze the end in order to determine whether the winning of power in Latin America can be achieved in ways other than armed struggle.

Peaceful struggle can be carried out through mass movements that compel — in special situations of crisis — governments to yield; thus, the popular forces would eventually take over and establish a dictatorship of the proletariat. Theoretically this is correct. When analyzing this in the Latin American context, we must reach the following conclusions: Generally on this continent objective conditions exist that propel the masses to violent action against their bourgeois and landholding governments. In many countries there are crises of power and also some subjective conditions necessary for revolution. It is clear, of course, that in those countries where all of these conditions are found, it would be criminal not to act to seize power. In other countries where these conditions do not occur, it is right those different alternatives will appear and out of theoretical discussions the tactic suitable to each country should emerge. The only thing history does not allow is that the analysts and executors of proletarian politics be mistaken.

No-one can solicit the role of vanguard party as if it were a diploma given by a university. To be the vanguard party means to be at the forefront of the working class through the struggle for achieving power. It means to know how to guide this fight through shortcuts to victory. This is the mission of our revolutionary parties and the analysis must be profound and exhaustive so that there will be no mistakes. MORE

Audio links: December 11, 1964: Speech delivered before the General Assembly of the United Nations. INTRO and SPEECH EXCERPT

Che INTERVIEW

Che Guevara ARCHIVES

There Are Weapons Of Mass Destruction In Iraq

The real weapons of mass distruction, and genocide.

Toys For the Children Of Iraq To Compensate For the Murder and Destruction by U.S.Imperialism

I heard this advertised on one of the radio stations that I was listening to last night. It was an advertisement for a toy collection drive to send toys to the children in Iraq. Hearing this just made my blood boil.

This kind of arrogant, insolent, cynical promotion drive to send toys to children, whose homes, towns, and cities were blown up by US weapons of mass destruction, with dead mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, cousins, grandparents, and others, is typical of the empires demagogic domestic policy, which tries to make the people at home feel good about the fact that their government is pillaging and plundering a sovereign nation, but it's all being done with good intentions, because, look, now we can send children there these useless toys to compensate for all the horrifying real life events, which devastated their families, and their minds and bodies.

Children with injured and deformed bodies, and psychological trauma caused by this illegal invasion, occupation, are now to be sent toys to be given out by the very perpetrators of this genocide. I don't have to read "1984", It's an Orwellian world we are witnessing right before our very eyes. MORE PICTURES

Human Rights Watch denying Palestinians the right to nonviolent resistance

I always believed that HRW was just another biased, imperialist, and pro-Zionist organization, but this condemnation against the Palestinians for peaceful resistance against the war crimes of Israel ultimately proves my point. Instead of condeming Israel for the home demolitions, and supporting the Palestinians right to resist, which under the Geneva conventions, is the right of any occupied people to resist their own occupation, they chose to condem the peaceful resisters of the war crimes. With this sort of condemnation, they no longer can disguise their collaboration with imperialism, and Zionism, behind the facade of justice, and human rights. The masquerade is over.

I am including an excerpt of an article which points out this glaring contradiction.


If one thing offers a terrifying glimpse of where the experiment in human despair that is Gaza under Israeli siege is leading, it is the news that a Palestinian woman in her sixties -- a grandmother -- chose last week to strap on a suicide belt and explode herself next to a group of Israeli soldiers invading her refugee camp.Despite the "Man bites dog" news value of the story, most of the Israeli media played down the incident.

Not surprisingly -- it is difficult to portray Fatma al-Najar as a crazed fanatic bent only on the destruction of Israel.It is equally difficult not to pause and wonder at the reasons for her suicide mission; according to her family, one of her grandsons was killed by the Israeli army, another is in a wheelchair after his leg had to be amputated, and her house had been demolished.

Human Rights Watch denying Palestinians the right to nonviolent resistanceJonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada, 30 November 2006 Just a few of the thousands of Palestinians who have been rendered homeless by Israel's punitive house demolitions. Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, 21 October 2006. (MaanImages/Hatem Omar)If one thing offers a terrifying glimpse of where the experiment in human despair that is Gaza under Israeli siege is leading, it is the news that a Palestinian woman in her sixties -- a grandmother -- chose last week to strap on a suicide belt and explode herself next to a group of Israeli soldiers invading her refugee camp.Despite the "Man bites dog" news value of the story, most of the Israeli media played down the incident. Not surprisingly -- it is difficult to portray Fatma al-Najar as a crazed fanatic bent only on the destruction of Israel.It is equally difficult not to pause and wonder at the reasons for her suicide mission; according to her family, one of her grandsons was killed by the Israeli army, another is in a wheelchair after his leg had to be amputated, and her house had been demolished.

Or not to think of the years of trauma she and her family have suffered living in a open-air prison under brutal occupation, and now, since the "disengagement", the agonising months of grinding poverty, slow starvation, repeated aerial bombardments, and the loss of essentials like water and electricity.Or not to ponder at what it must have been like for her to spend every day under a cloud of fear, to be powerless against a largely unseen and malign force, and to never know when death and mutilation might strike her or her loved ones.Or not to imagine that she had been longing for the moment when the soldiers who have been destroying her family's lives might show themselves briefly, coming close enough that she could see and touch them, and wreak her revenge.

Western observers, and the organisations that should represent the very best of their Enlightenment values, seem incapable of understanding what might drive a grandmother to become a suicide bomberYet Western observers, and the organisations that should represent the very best of their Enlightenment values, seem incapable of understanding what might drive a grandmother to become a suicide bomber.

Their empathy fails them, and so does their humanity.Just at the moment Fatma was choosing death and resistance over powerlessness and victimhood -- and at a time when Gaza is struggling through one of the most oppressive and ugly periods of Israeli occupation in nearly four decades -- Human Rights Watch published its lastest statement on the conflict. It is document that shames the organisation, complacent Western societies and Fatma's memory.In its press release "Civilians Must Not Be Used to Shield Homes Against Military Attacks", which was widely reported by the international media, HRW lambasts armed Palestinian groups for calling on civilians to surround homes that have been targeted for air strikes by the Israeli military.Noting almost as an afterthought that more than 1,500 Palestinians have been made homeless from house demolitions in the past few months, and that 105 houses have been destroyed from the air, the press release denounces Palestinian attempts at nonviolent and collective action to halt the Israel attacks.


HRW refers in particular to three incidents.On November 3, Hamas appealed to women to surround a mosque in Beit Hanoun where Palestinian men had sought shelter from the Israeli army. Israeli soldiers opened fire on the women, killing two and injuring at least 10.And last week on two separate occasions, crowds of supporters gathered around the houses of men accused of being militants by Israel who had received phone messages from the Israeli security forces warning that their families' homes were about to be bombed.In language that would have made George Orwell shudder, one of the world's leading organisations for the protection of human rights ignored the continuing violation of the Palestinians' right to security and a roof over their heads and argued instead: "There is no excuse for calling [Palestinian] civilians to the scene of a planned [Israeli] attack. Whether or not the home is a legitimate military target, knowingly asking civilians to stand in harm's way is unlawful."

There is good reason to believe that this reading of international law is wrong, if not Kafkaesque. Popular and peaceful resistance to the oppressive policies of occupying powers and autocratic rulers, in India and South Africa for example, has always been, by its very nature, a risky venture in which civilians are liable to be killed or injured. Responsibility for those deaths must fall on those doing the oppressing, not those resisting, particularly when they are employing nonviolent means. On HRW's interpretation, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela would be war criminals.

HRW also applies a series of terrible double standards in this press release.It refuses Palestinians the right to protect homes from attack, labelling these civilians "human shields", even while admitting that most of the homes are not legitimate military targets, and yet it has not said a word about the common practice in Israel of building weapons factories and army bases inside or next to communities, thereby forcing Israeli civilians to become human shields for the army.And HRW prefers to highlight a supposed violation of international law by the Palestinians -- their choice to act as "human shields" -- and to demand that the practice end immediately, while ignoring the very real and continuing violation of international law committed by Israel in undertaking punitive house demolitions against Palestinian families
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One of the Many real Intentions For The US Occupation Of Iraq

The Imperialists in the US are finally revealing some of their true intentions in Iraq.

This is a segment of todays Democracy Now Program.

Thursday, December 7th, 2006Oil for Sale: Why the Iraq Study Group is Calling for the Privatization of Iraq's Oil Industry.

Among its recommendations, the Iraq Study Group advised that Iraq privatize its oil industry and to open it up to international companies. Author and activist Antonia Juhasz writes "Put simply, the oil companies are trying to get what they were denied before the war or at anytime in modern Iraqi history: access to Iraq's oil under the ground."
Antonia Juhasz, author and activist. Her latest book is "The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time," Watch/Listen

I am also posting the link to the rest of the program, because there are some other segments which may also be of interest.

PROGRAM LINK

The Iraq Study Group: A Study About How The US Empire Can Shore Up It's Imperialism

This was basically a study about how the US can maintain it's occupation of Iraq.

The massacre, murder, and mayhem caused by the US occupation is now the justification by the empire to remain in Iraq, so they can continue their pillage, and plunder of that nation.

I am including a link to last nights Flashpoints program which discusses this issue. Although I take a more revolutionary and anti-imperialist view than the one on last nights program, I think it is still worth a listen since it provides a view that will not be heard in the mainstream media. LISTEN

US Acknowledges Venezuelan Presidential Elections as Democratic

I think Venezuela should choose whether or not to acknowledge US elections.

Caracas, Venezuela, December 6, 2006 (Venezuelanalysis.com) - The US government implicitly acknowledged the legitimacy of Venezuela’s December 3rd presidential election on Monday, where Hugo Chávez comfortably retained his position as president for the next 6 years.

After Chávez’ victory had been confirmed, White House National Security Council spokesperson Kate Starr made an official statement. “We congratulate the Venezuelan people for demonstrating their commitment to a democratic process”, she said. More

A Fair and Square Vote in Venezuela

Yeah Venezuela had a fair and square vote but when is the US going to have one?

I think the US could use some international election monitors.

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With the eyes of the world on the race for the Venezuelan presidency, 700 monitors from the United States, the Organization of American States, the European Union, the Middle East and Africa met in Caracas last week to observe the presidential election up close and to see if it was the real thing. More

Cuba In Focus

I am supplying a link to a monthly program which gives an alternative perspective about Cuba, which will never be found in the big business media. I believe it is necessary to hear this perspective.

The program is from Monday November 27, 2006. It has news about the celebrations of the anniversary of the Cuban revolution, Cubans condemnation of Israel for their brutality of the Palestinians, the Cuban five, updates on the blockade of Cuba, Fidel Castro's health, and Cuba's preparation against the plans of US imperialism, which seeks to turn Cuba into another Iraq, and other news. [Download] or {PLAY}

Alternative News And Analysis

Below is a link and a description of tonights Flashpoints program.

An in-depth conversation with two human rights activists in Beirut about the ongoing civil resistance actions taking place in the city and throughout the country, as Israel and the United States continue to threaten and undermine Hezbollah, and the political situation quickly deteriorates; also, Palestinian resistance fighters survive an apparent assassination attack in northern Gaza, while in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Israeli troops continue their attacks against journalists; we speak with Bay Area activists just back from Cuba, looking at that country under the new Latin American progressive political context; and the Knight Report. LINK TO LISTEN

US appoints intelligence chief for Cuba and Venezuela

Negroponte has done such a splendid job in Iraq at setting up the death squads there, and so now he must spread his splendor to Cuba and Venezuela.

Does anyone see a resemblance in these pictures or is it just me?

WASHINGTON, November 27.— John Negroponte, the U.S. national director of intelligence, announced this Monday that Norman Bailey is to be the chief of an intelligence “mission” for Cuba and Venezuela.

This post – created in August and similar to just six other posts within the U.S. intelligence service – does not imply operative or analytical tasks, stated an official communiqué, reported AFP.

According to the information, Bailey’s work will consist of tasks at “a strategic level… including the collection (of information) and analysis, identifying and filling gaps in (the field of intelligence), and planning and guaranteeing the implementation of those strategies.”The announcement by Negroponte, former ambassador in Honduras during the dirty war against the Sandinistas and the Iran-Contra scandal, does not mention the ultimate goal of this appointment or if it has any links to the secret anti-Cuba clause of the Bush Plan.

Message from Fidel to Chávez

President Fidel Castro sends message of congratulations to his colleague Hugo Chávez on his victory in Venezuela’s presidential elections, which he won with more than 61% of the votes.
Fulll text of the message:
Havana, December 4, 2006
“Year of the Energy Revolution in Cuba”

Compañero Hugo Chávez Frías

President of the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela

Hugo:

I will be brief so that my emotions do not betray me.
Your victory was resounding, crushing and unparalleled in the history of our America.
The oppressed peoples of the world will always be grateful for the strategy and the courage with which you waged such a difficult battle of ideas.
Your political prowess and that of the Venezuelan people has moved the world.
We Cubans are happy.
A tremendous and Martí embrace.

Fidel Castro Ruz

Gaza and Darfur: When Will Kristoff Go to the Occupied Territories?

Many times when discussing the brutality of the Israeli apartheid state, Zionists and imperialists will often try to take you off the subject by bringing up Darfur. And certain so-called liberal organizations on the liberal side have also taken up the cause in Darfur which is not being perpetrated by the US or a US proxy state, while totally ignoring the horrific events in apartheid Israel/Palestine, which is being carried out by a US proxy, and whole heartily supported by the US. As a matter of fact I just got a call from this long distance provider, which I am thinking about canceling, to take action on Darfur and call my representatives. This LD provider is Called "Working Assets", and supposedly they take some of my money and use it for socially responsible causes. I have phoned them a number of times to ask, and demand that they call an action against Israel, and I also called them before the Iraq invasion to ask them to take a stand against this. They then have gave me some lame excuse about how they couldn't get involved with those topics.

Of course now that Iraq is occupied they have called for a lame alternative occupation solution like the one by John Murtha. But still no response against Israel. Well any way finally someone has written about this contradiction which has taken place throughout the US media, and the Ruling class establishment.

Not that there are not horrible things happening in Darfur, but that can be said about many other places in the world as well, and I think that all brutality and injustice should be brought to an end, no matter where it is. But why not take on first what one has the power to change, and then work on the rest. The brutal Israeli policy can be halted immediately with one swift action of cutting off all aid to Israel unless they comply to international law and human rights standards.

But of course since Israel is the bulwark for US imperialism in the ME, that will never happen, and it is up to individual citizens to organize and take action.

Below is an excerpt and link to the article I was referring to about Gaza and Darfur.

Since March 1 the New York Times has run seventy news stories on Darfur (including sixteen pieces from wire services), fifteen editorials and twenty-one signed columns, all but one by Nicholas Kristof. Darfur is primarily a "feel good" subject for people here who want to agonize publicly about injustices in the world but who don't really want to do anything about them. After all, it's Arabs who are the perpetrators and there is ultimately little that people in this country can do to effect real change in the policy of the government in Khartoum.
Now, Gaza is an entirely different story. The American public as well as the US government have a great deal of control over what is happening there. And it is Israel, America's prime ally in the Middle East that is, on a day-to-day basis, with America's full support, inflicting appalling brutalities on a civilian population. To report in any detail on what's going on in Gaza means accusing the United States of active complicity in terrible crimes wrought by Israel, as it methodically lays waste a society of 1.5 million Palestinians. Of course the death rate is a fraction of what's alleged about Darfur, but all the same, we are talking here about a determined bid by Israel, backed by the U.S. and E.U. to destroy an entire society.
I wan't at all surprised there was a sharp swerve in emphasis towards Darfur at about the time of the Kerem Shalom attack and the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit in Gaza in June of this year. By the time Israel's campaign of destroying Lebanon got under way this summer (a campaign intricately linked to the Palestine issue), Darfur was hotter still as a distracting topic.
Where is Kristof? Couldn't he trade at least one of his Darfur columns for one on Gaza's suffering? Maybe he is deferring to Thomas Friedman, who owns the Middle Eastern turf on the NYT op-ed page the way Kristof owns chunks of Africa.
Israel's soldiers are not going to march into Gaza and truck all the inhabitants away. The strategy is simply to make the place into a garbage dump picked over by destitute people. The current ceasefire will do nothing to relieve the siege imposed physically, financially, commercially by Israel, the U.S. and the E.U. Israel and its accomplices are sentencing Gaza's occupants to a living death in situ, with actual death meted out each day to "terrorists" and those unfortunate enough to be in the line of fire, like the family in Beit Hanoun or the school teacher by the minibus filled with children (a near miss).
As Gideon Levy wrote in one of his many searing reports in Ha'aretz, the Israeli army "has been rampaging through Gaza-there's no other word to describe it-killing and demolishing, bombing and shelling, indiscriminately". When my brother Patrick was there in September he reported in The Independent that "Israeli troops and tanks come and go at will. In the northern district of Shajhayeh they took over several houses last week and stayed five days. By the time they withdrew, 22 Palestinians had been killed, three houses were destroyed and groves of olive, citrus and almond trees had been bulldozed. Fuad al-Tuba, the 61-year-old farmer who owned a farm here, said: 'they even destroyed 22 of my bee-hives and killed four sheep.' His son Baher al-Tuba described how for five days Israeli soldiers confined him and his relatives to one room in his house where they survived by drinking water from a fish pond. 'Snipers took up positions in the windows and shot at anybody who came near," he said. "They killed one of my neighbors called Fathi Abu Gumbuz who was 56 years old and just went out to get water.'"
The sound that Palestinians most dread, Patrick wrote, "is an unknown voice on their cell phone saying they have half an hour to leave their home before it is hit by bombs or missiles. There is no appeal."The Israelis have destroyed 70 percent of the orange groves; stopped the fishermen from going out in their boats, destroyed the central power station. More than 50 percent of the population is out of work, and per capita income is less than $2 a day.
Jennifer Loewenstein, of the Middle Eastern studies program at the Unversity of Wisconsin at Madison, has visited Gaza many times and written powerfully about it on the CounterPunch website. She wrote to me last week, "If people received genuine information about Gaza they would also be appalled-and that's of course why they don't get any real information about it from getting out. In addition, if the Israeli blockade of virtually all human traffic into Gaza were to end and more visitors could actually get in, more people-including freelance journalists-would be outraged, or stunned into disbelief at what Israel with US and EU backing has done to that miserable strip of land. Again, that's why the Israeli-imposed human blockade persists. And while diplomats, UN and international aid workers and a few others do get in, the fact that most of them utter not a peep about this ongoing crime against humanity suggests in the most sinister way that they will continue not to utter a peep when things get worse.
As Loewenstein concluded: "Servility to power doesn't get more insidious or malignant than this."The entire article

Apartheid Israel

Below is an excerpt from an article in Counterpunch magazine, and it lays out the reality which needs to be recognized in Israel/Palestine in order for real justice to take place. Israel/ Palestine is one state and it is an apartheid state. And Israel and the US can take most of the credit for making it that way. Now the question is how does the rest of the world including the Palestinians, and Israelis themselves work to resolve this problem.

First of all as any 12 step counselor will tell you before a problem can be resolved it needs to be recognized first. So that is the first step, and the rest can be taken on after that.


Excerpt Below:

First, let's finally face it: The two-state carrot, dangled before the diplomatic donkey for the past fifteen years, has led us straight to this debacle.
The Oslo and Road Map processes were not only fruitless. They were deceptions. Preying on collective hopes for a Palestinian state, Israel never actually agreed to one. The Oslo Accords, which Israel signed, never mentioned a Palestinian state. The Road Map explicitly called for one, but Israel signed onto it only with fourteen "reservations", the first of which precluded any Palestinian state. Before it would lift a finger toward its own obligations, Israel required the PA to ensure complete cessation of all Palestinian resistance, collect and turn over all "illegal" weapons, stop all smuggling of arms (how?), "dismantle" Hamas and the other militant groups "and their infrastructure" (how?), submit all Palestinian resistance fighters to arrest, detention, and interrogation, support a system of laws that ensures their continuing arrest, detention, and interrogation, cease "incitement" (what is that?) and "educate for peace" (again vague - instil an ethos of surrender in Palestinian youth?). Complete success in all these measures was required to proceed even within the Road Map's three stages. Moreover, the Palestinians must give up the right of return and any claim on Jerusalem.
Since no rational observer can consider these conditions workable, they clearly signified Israel's intention not to comply with the Road Map. That a wilfully gullible world has pretended that this sham was meaningful, and therefore placed a moral and legal onus on the Palestinians to fulfil their obligations to the Road Map, is only more shame.
No wonder Israel bombed Lebanon to smithereens. Its leadership was fatuous with victory.
Second, Israel's sovereignty in Mandate Palestine has moved into a new stage. Israel has long controlled the airspace, sea, ports and border controls, economy, land, water, infrastructure, and the social management of the entire territory's population. But Israel has also become sovereign in Max Weber's famous sense: "a state is a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory." Of course, Israel's claim to a monopoly on violence is not "successful" as long as the Palestinians continue to resist it. And certainly Israel's brutal methods are not considered "legitimate" by the Palestinians or by anyone with moral sensibilities the world over. But consider: the international community has endorsed Israel's insistence that Hamas and all Palestinians are required to "abandon terror" and "recognize Israel". These conditions signal that continuing Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation is now considered illegitimate.
This shift is immensely important. The right of a population to resist occupation is enshrined in the UN Charter. Resistance to occupation becomes illegitimate only if and when the occupier is recognized as the legitimate sovereign. Of course, the international community has not admitted openly that Israel is sovereign in all of Mandate Palestine, because that would wreck the already-shaky collective pretence that the West Bank and Gaza Strip are territories from which Israel can be expected to withdraw someday. But denying Palestinians the right to resist occupation demonstrates that Israel's occupation itself has been tacitly redefined.
Israel's own model is not occupation. The word "occupation" rarely appears in Israeli government parlance. (Ariel Sharon used it once or twice, but it caused an enormous stir, and it appears now only in the formula "Israel ended its occupation of Gaza", patently untrue in any case.) Israel's model regarding the West Bank is openly one of sovereignty. Jewish-Israeli settlers potter about peacefully in their gardens in the West Bank because they know it is "Israel". The big settlements around Jerusalem, which divide the West Bank in half, are called "neighbourhoods". Israeli government maps of the country still do not show the green line. The West Bank, as we know it, is not there for Israel.
In sum, Israel has used the Road Map only to mask its own one-state program: retain sovereignty over all the land and exclude the native people. Israel is even being treated like a sovereign power. But here is the trick: Israel is getting away with its astoundingly brutal treatment of the Palestinians ­ and Israeli Jewish citizens sustain their impressive immunity from caring about it - only through the collective fiction that Israel is not sovereign.
Israel evades any open claim to sovereignty over all Palestine because its hands would then be tied. No government that styles itself a democracy could get away with slaughtering and terrorizing its own citizens this way or, alternatively, refusing to enfranchise parts of its territory's permanent population this way. Israel excuses its treatment of the Palestinians on grounds that they are, in fact, aliens. The world has accepted this formula, viewing the territory's native people as citizens of some other country that exists only in the future, in territory that no one can find. Israel is understood to be "at war" with this nonexistent country, represented by these aliens. (That the native people have no weapons worthy of the term "war" is an inconvenient fact very poorly veiled by nuclear Israel's thumping accusations that the impoverished Palestinians, with their automatic rifles and hand-painted homemade rockets, still stubbornly want to "destroy Israel".) The Entire Article

Between Resistance and Deception - The Palestinian Struggle 30 years after UN sanctions against apartheid

A good reason for the one state solution, because unlike what Jimmy Carter said Israel/Palestine is an aparthied state, and needs to be discussed as such.

The Israeli regime unleashes racist brutality that by far outstands the crimes of the previous apartheid regime in South Africa. It imprisons an entire people behind ghetto walls, kills them and submits them to an economic blockade that has brought communities to the verge of starvation. Yet, while exactly 30 years ago the UN General Assembly called for comprehensive sanctions against apartheid in South Africa, Palestinians are reminded on a daily basis that the Zionist Occupation can still count on the blindness of the world to its atrocities and crimes. Until when? In Beit Hanoun, Palestinian women have set another symbol of our resistance. And while Palestinians acknowledge their sacrifice, the rest of the world seems oblivious to the latest crimes in Gaza despite video cameras capturing the siege. In the hellish prison the Strip has been turned into - even more since “disengagement” took place – and after days of large-scale murder and destruction, sixty men had taken refuge in a mosque. The women gathered to save the lives of their fathers, brothers, sons and comrades and marched towards the mosque as Occupation Forces threatened to demolish it over the men. They continued marching as the Occupation opened fire, murdering two and leaving dozens injured. They prevented an even bigger massacre as the men escaped the siege of the mosque. However, the Occupation has taken the lives of at least 60 people in just the last week. Similarly, in the West Bank farmers are putting their lives at stake, confronting the occupants at the gates that seal Palestinians in and in the fields isolated by the Apartheid Wall. The annual harvest of olives forms a major source of income for agricultural communities and workers and they continue to be steadfast to their lands. Only two weeks ago, Palestinians from across the West Bank and isolated parts of Jerusalem challenged their ghettoization by climbing over the Apartheid Wall in order to enter the city. Ladders and broken streetlights were deployed as people overcame the 8-metre high cement walls to break the siege and isolation of the Palestinian capital. MORE

Bolton Resigns As UN Ambassador

Bush Thinks Bolton did a wonderful Job as dictator of the UN, but now he needs to find a more softer spoken dictator to take his place.

President Bush: "I received the resignation of Ambassador John Bolton. I accept it. I'm not happy about it. I think he deserved to be confirmed. And the reason why I think he deserved to be confirmed is because I know he did a fabulous job for the country."

Israeli settlers shoot and kill a 6 year old Palestinian boy in the West Bank

Yet The media never shows these atrocities, which are happening continuously, Now just think of the world reaction if a Palestinian shot an Israeli in Israel

Israeli settlers shoot and kill a 6 year old Palestinian boy in the West Bank as Israeli soldiers continue sweeping raids and arrest campaigns, we'll have a report from occupied Bethlehem;

Venezuelan Opposition Candidate, Manuel Rosales, Concedes

With Chavez's 23 point lead what else could he do, but this wounded crocodile will still be in the streets causing trouble because he said it was a close Margin that he lost by.

“I want to announce to the people of Venezuela that today we are beginning the struggle for the construction of a new time for Venezuela… and I won’t stop there, from today on I will be in the streets,” said Rosales to huge applause.

“The results of the CNE are not the what they say they are,” continued Rosales, “The margin of difference is smaller, so I’m going to continue in the streets, struggling for the people of Venezuela, struggling for democracy, with liberty which we present.”

“The truth is that even with a closer margin, we recognize that today they defeated us, but we will stay in the struggle, in the fight, we will stay in the streets,” said Rosales
There is little doubt that Rosales’ recognition of the CNE results is welcome news for Venezuela. Many Venezuelans feared, before Sunday, that regardless of the victor, the loser of the presidential elections might refuse to recognize the results, potentially seeding conflict among Venezuela’s strongly divided population.

Lebanon Political Crisis Continues As Anti-Government Protests Enter Fourth Day

The U.S. puppet is being pressured by demonstrators to step down, but first he has to plead with Bush for permission to do so. Come on show Bush some of those tears.

Siniora is refusing to step down to make way for a government that would include more of Hezbollah's allies. The protest started on Friday when hundreds of thousands of Hezbollah supporters staged a massive rally in the center of Beirut. Demonstrators blocked the entrance to Siniora's offices. More protestors joined the sit-in over the weekend and have vowed to stay there until Siniora and his ministers resign. On Sunday, Siniora denied that his government was under siege.

Fouad Siniora, Prime Minister of Lebanon: " We are not under siege, the sit-in is fine they are sitting there, it is their right of expression, we respect them, and this is their right. Yet at the same time there are plenty other Lebanese, much more than this, who have different opinions. We have to do our best in order to reconcile."

Chavez Re-Elected For Third Presidential Term in Landslide Victory

The U.S. only believes in democracy when one of their puppets gets elected, otherwise all other elections are in question

GREG WILPERT: Well, it was pretty -- almost an anticlimax, in the sense that the polls had predicted that Chavez would win the election. But still, the big question was exactly how the opposition would react, and that was the real big surprise, because a lot of people here predicted that the opposition would reject the result, and it turns out Manuel Rosales, the opposition candidate, gave a fairly conciliatory concession speech late last night after Chavez’s speech. And I think that was the real big surprise, and it also shows that Venezuela is really heading more on a road towards a more normal society, where politics is fought in electoral campaigns instead of on the street.


AMY GOODMAN: What about the polls? Some showed a vast advantage for Chavez, that he was going to win, but there were other polls, particularly a US polling firm, that talked about a dead heat to the end.


GREG WILPERT: Yes, that was quite odd. There was the US polling firm, Penn, Schoen & Berland, which had worked for Clinton in the past and actually has a track record of doing suspicious polls around the world, predicted a dead heat. And actually, luckily, nobody really gave that poll much credence, because it was so far off from what the other polls were saying. And not only that, Penn, Schoen & Berland actually, a couple years ago for the recall referendum, had predicted that Chavez would lose the recall referendum, which he didn’t. He won in the end with 60 percent of the vote, so they had no credibility here in Venezuela, and it seems like an attempt, a cheap attempt, to cast doubt on the electoral results on Sunday.

Chavez easily wins re-election

Who still thinks the US media does not represent US imperialism? I can hear the voices on these CNN reporters shudder with fear, as they project and regurgitate US propoganda.

CARACAS, Venezuela - Emboldened by a resounding re-election, President Hugo Chavez pledged to shake up Venezuela with a more radical version of socialism and forge a wider front against the United States in Latin America.


Opposition contender Manuel Rosales accepted defeat Sunday night, but promised to continue countering a leader whom he accuses of becoming increasingly authoritarian.
Touting his victory in a speech to thousands, Chavez said Venezuelans should expect an "expansion of the revolution" aimed at redistributing the country's oil wealth among the poor.
"Long live the revolution!" Chavez shouted from the balcony of the presidential palace. "Venezuela is demonstrating that a new and better world is possible, and we are building it."
With 78 percent of voting stations reporting, Chavez had 61 percent of the vote, to 38 percent for Rosales.

Chavez wins with over 60%

December 3 — Wild celebrations have broken out here as the National Electoral Council (CNE) has announced that left-wing incumbent Hugo Chavez has won the Venezuelan presidential elections with a vote of over 60%. In pouring rain, thousands of cheering supporters have flocked to the Miraflores presidential palace to applaud the president, who has spoken to the people from the balcony of the palace.

CNE president Lucena Tibisay announced at 10pm that, with around 78% of the vote counted, Chavez had received 5,936,000 votes (61.4%), to right-wing opposition candidate Manuel Rosales’s 3,715,000 (38%). The total registered electorate in Venezuela is around 16 million. The crowds around Miraflores, dressed in their red T-shirts and caps, waved Venezuelan flags and cheered loudly as the president spoke of a great victory for the Venezuelan people and for socialism of the 21st century.

The president himself sounded hoarse at the end of a long and exhausting campaign, which has taken him and his “Red Hurricane” across the length and breadth of the country, visiting every regional city several times at least. Chants of “Uh, ah, Chavez no se va!” (“Uh, ah, Chavez will not go!”) rang out through the night. Chavez repeated, “Libertad, libertad, libertad!” (“Liberty, Liberty, Liberty!”), and stressed that the result was a victory for socialism, for the Bolivarian revolution, and for love of the people.

Irish store deshelves products made in Apartheid Israel

The Irish in Ireland know and understand about occupation, and colonization, and they haven't forgotten their own struggle for independence, now if only the Irish in America would learn, and understand some of this history, ie, John "fascist" McCain.

But what else can you expect from a bourgeois politician.

Worldwide Activism, Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, November 28th, 2006 Atlantic Homecare in Limerick on Monday took all its Israeli stock off their shelves and put Out of Stock stickers on produce too big to move in response to a picket outside their store by the Limerick branch of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign.


Atlantic Homecare in Limerick today took all its Israeli stock off their shelves and put Out of Stock stickers on produce too big to move in response to a picket outside their store by the Limerick branch of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

The group displayed large posters calling on Atlantic HC to stop supporting Apartheid Israel, handed out fliers to shoppers and spoke to people entering the store. Security guards asked the campaigners to move but they refused. following discussion with the store manager Clive Long, he then agreed to remove all their Israeli produce, mainly made up of Keter plastic wheelbarrows, garden sheds and storage boxes. He undertook to keep the produce off the shelves until Monday when the IPSC can discuss the matter further with Atlantic HC head office. MORE

Four people injured in Bil’in while dozens in al-Khas and Nu’man stand against settler attack

Where is the outrage by the so-called international community, and The U.N.?
Somehow there is a numbing silence on their part. Now I'm sure you would hear about it if one of these rabid colonizers were being attacked.

Four people were injured yesterday by Occupation bullets in Bil’in during the weekly demonstrations organized by the people of the village in coordination with the popular committee against the Wall.

Around 300 people joined the demonstration, accompanied by representatives of national parties and institutions. This protest came on the anniversary of the UN Partition Resolution in 1947. People carried a big placard with 4 Palestinian maps: one of historical Palestine, the second showing the Partition plan and the third showing the ghettos created by the Apartheid Wall. The fourth bore the map of Palestine with a big question mark to illustrate the uncertainty of survival under conditions imposed by the Occupation. MORE

Haitian President René Préval in Cuba. Evo Morales and Daniel Ortega expected

His Excellency Mr. René Préval, president of the sister Republic of Haiti, arrived in our country yesterday to take part in the tribute organized by the Guayasamín Foundation and to celebrate the 80th birthday of our President Fidel Castro Ruz.
Also in the ambit of the Guayasamín Foundation tribute, Evo Morales, president of the sister Republic of Bolivia, is due to arrive in the country shortly.
Likewise arriving today for the tribute is Daniel Ortega, president-elect of Nicaragua. During their stay in our country, the two presidents and the president-elect of Nicaragua are to attend activities programmed for the occasion and have meetings with Cuban leaders.

Cuba perfects its combat capacity

IN remarks at the official political ceremony for the 50th anniversary of the landing of the Granma yacht, Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and General of the Army Raúl Castro Ruz said that Cuba is increasing its combat capacity and modernizing its combat equipment to guarantee the country’s defense.

Cuba is disposed to patiently wait for “common sense” to prevail in Washington with respect to its relations with the island nation; independently of that, however, “we will continue to consolidate the military invulnerability of the nation based on the strategic concept of the War of the Entire People,” he said.

Raúl affirmed that Cuba is willing to resolve its differences with the U.S. government at the negotiating table, “as long as they accept our condition of being a country that will not tolerate shadows over its independence.” He added that they must be relations based on equality, reciprocity, non-intervention and mutual respect.

The minister ratified Cuba’s position against war as a means of resolving conflicts, but made it clear that the country’s regular and reserve troops, its Brigades of Production and Defense, and its Party and government structures are increasing their combat preparation and capacity.
At the same time, he affirmed, its combat and communications equipment is being modernized to increase their operational functionality.

The Rebel Army was the soul of the Revolution, the element of cohesion among the country’s progressive forces at a time when the Communist Party had not yet been created, Raúl said, referring to Fidel’s remarks during the central report to the First Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba. Since then and still today, military and civilian troops have been fused together to form the armed people.

“It is appropriate to ratify the monolithic unity of the people, the Army and the Party,” Raúl said. That unity has been “our main strategic weapon” for resisting and defeating imperialist aggression, he said.

Cuba has shown the great maturity and unity of its people over the last four months, he said, and has won extremely high prestige, as was demonstrated by the successful Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Non-Aligned Movement, held in Havana in September, and the recent overwhelming vote against the U.S. blockade in the UN General Assembly.
Raúl expressed thanks for the solidarity offered to Cuba by all of its friends, and noted the tributes paid to the Cuban president by the Guayasamín Foundation and more than 1,000 prominent individuals from all over the world who came to Havana to celebrate the 80th birthday of the leader of the Revolution.

He also remarked on the heightened consciousness prevailing at this time in Latin America, where the failure of neoliberal economic policies has been demonstrated.
“The revolutionary movements are becoming stronger despite Washington’s blackmail,” Raúl said. “New and experienced leaders are taking over the leadership of their nations,” and the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) is appearing as a true alternative of liberation for the peoples of Latin America.

“We will preserve at whatever cost necessary the freedom of the Cuban people and the independence and sovereignty of the Homeland,” he concluded.

The Plaza is covered in olive-green

The Plaza is covered in olive-green

THE Granma yacht, the emblematic boat of the Rebel Army, once again sailed through the waters of dignity. On this occasion, it moved through a sea of Cuban children who escorted it down Paseo Avenue and through José Martí Plaza de la Revolución waving their blue kerchiefs. A military band played “La Lupe,” a song composed by Commander of the Revolution Juan Almeida Bosque before the revolutionary expeditionaries departure from Mexico in 1956, as the yacht passed in front of the military review stand.

The yacht was preceded by 120 horseback riders carrying machetes, representing the Mambí Calvary, in allusion to the Liberation Army, the seeds of the Rebel Army and today’s Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR).
The Granma was then followed by the companies of infantry troops from the various military divisions of the FAR. In compact blocs, uniformed regular and reserve troops marched goose-step, along with special battalions, the Revolutionary Navy, cadets from the Camilo Cienfuegos military schools and members of the Territorial Troop Militias (MTT).
As the sound of the soldiers’ boots marching in step echoed through the José Martí Plaza de la Revolución, the parade announcer explained the weapons they were carrying, including Cuban-produced Alejandro sniper rifles and Russian-made AKM automatic weapons with telescopic sights.
After the battalions came the combat equipment, including armored cars, trucks, command posts and tanks, all technologically modernized to provide them with greater combat capacity
Likewise, there was a representation of mobile anti-aircraft and reactive artillery, the famous BM-21s, self-propelled rocket-launching platforms for various types of rockets and anti-aircraft guns in optimal combat status, among other equipment.

The military aspect of the parade ended with a squadron of Mig-21, Mig-23 and Mig-29 fighter-interceptor jets from Cuba’s Air Force, as well as Mi-35 and Mi-17 helicopters.
The parade, which also served as a tribute to President Fidel Castro on his 80th birthday, wound up with 300,000 compatriots from neighborhoods surrounding the Plaza, in representation of the entire Cuban people, many waving Cuban flags and carrying handmade signs in tribute to Fidel and the Revolution.

"One Country": a new book from EI cofounder Ali Abunimah

As the Israeli-Palestinian conflict rages on with relatively new leadership on both sides, we are led to ask what has become a perennial yet only more urgent question -- will this conflict ever be resolved in a way that will finally bring peace to the region? The son of Palestinians who fled the country in 1948, Electronic Intifada co-founder Ali Abunimah makes the radical argument that what is needed is one state shared by Palestinians and Israelis in his new book, ONE COUNTRY: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. Ali will also be speaking throughout the country and make media appearances to coincide with the launch of his new book.

EI's Ali Abunimah discusses "One Country" on Flashpoints

On October 20, EI co-founder Ali Abunimah appeared on Flashpoints Radio to discuss his new book: One Country, a Bold Proposal to the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. The program also features excerpts from his recent speech in Oakland, California.

Listen to Ali discuss the need to break through the current impasse of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and hear his proposal for a better future for all concerned parties."Flashpoints" is KPFA's newsmagazine, regularly featuring voices of resistance, education and information from around the world. It airs every weekday at 5 PM PST on KPFK.

Fiesta Starts Outside Venezuela’s Presidential Palace Miraflores

Caracas, December 3, 2006 (venezuelanalysis.com)— While the last citizens are voting in Venezuela’s Presidential elections, the fiesta has already started outside the Presidential Palace, Miraflores.
Hundreds of Chavez supporters, in red shirts and with Venezuelan flags are now on the western end of Llaguno Bridge, which is closed for normal traffic. Members and supporters of Lina Ron’s, Popular Venezuelan Unity (UPV), including a group of bikers, are a block to the east, celebrating in the Plaza of the Revolution, next to the Vice-President’s Office.
Fireworks light up the sky, and a giant screen airing the state channel, VTV, is set up in the blocked off street just in front of Miraflores.
Another celebration of Chavez supporters began spontaneously at Plaza Altamira, in one of Caracas’s wealthiest neighborhoods, which used to be the center of anti-Chavez rallies.

Update 1 - 10:30pm

Caracas, December 3, 2006-- According to the first preliminary results from Venezuela's National Electoral Council, President Hugo Chavez won the presidency with 61.4% of the vote to his challenger's 38.4%. This is with 78.3% of the votes counted.
So far, Chavez got 5.9 million votes and Manuel Rosales, the candidate of the opposition, who got 3.7 million votes. This means that Chavez got slightly more votes than during the 2004 recall referendum and about 23 percentage points more than Rosales.
CNE President Tibisay Lucena also announced that as soon as 80% of the votes had been tallied, the CNe would make an announcement of who officially won the presidency.
In middle and upper class neighborhoods people started booing and banging pots in protest to the announcement, while in the capital's poor neighborhoods people began launching fireworks in celebration.
A mere 20 minutes after the CNE announcement, Chavez appeared on the balcony of the Miraflores Presidential Palace, singing the national anthem to a crowd of supporters who had gathered below in the midst of a heavy downpour.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2164

Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people must end -

Published: 8 November, 2006
Sinn Féin Chairperson Mary Lou McDonald MEP has today said that tough international pressure must be brought to bear upon Israel after its latest attacks against the Palestinian people resulted in the deaths of 23 people, including many women and children.
Speaking today Ms McDonald said:
"The slaughter of 23 people in Gaza, including 18 in one attack, follows a well worn pattern of Israeli Government sanctioned aggression against the people of Palestine.
"It is completely unacceptable for the Israeli military and government to feign concern at civilian deaths, only to then continue to bomb the heart out of the infrastructure and built up residential areas leading to more inevitable civilian casualties.
"The world must stand together and demand an end to this genocide. Tough international pressure must be brought to bear upon Israel. The Irish government must demand an end to these strikes and the illegal occupation of Iraq. At European level, Sinn Féin previously called for the suspension of the EU's Preferential Trade Agreement with Israel. We repeat that call today.
"Neither silence nor inaction is acceptable. We must be prepared to stand up collectively and send a message to the Israeli Government that their mistreatment of Palestinians is totally unacceptable."

http://www.sinnfein.ie/news/detail/16654

International community has responsibility to bring an end to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine

Published: 29 November, 2006
Speaking in the Dáil today, on International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Sinn Féin Human Rights and International Affairs spokesperson Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD, called on the international community to act on its responsibility to help end Israel's illegal occupation of the area. Deputy Ó Snodaigh said the occupation itself is ultimately responsible for all the humanitarian failures and human rights abuses in Palestine.
He said, "As highlighted by Human Rights NGO Al-Haq, during the past 365 days Israeli military operations resulted in the deaths of 562 Palestinians, many of whom were civilians, including 86 children.
"Given the potential for peace posed by the current ceasefire, there is an urgent need for the government to recognise on this International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People that the source cause of the humanitarian failures and human rights abuses in the area is ultimately the Israeli occupation itself. The international community including Ireland must finally act on its responsibility to bring an end to this illegal occupation.
"I would like to commend the active citizenship demonstrated by IPSC members in Limerick last weekend who persuaded Atlantic Homecare to remove Israeli goods from the shop floor and I would call on the government to follow that example by suspending preferential trade between the EU and Israel."

http://www.sinnfein.ie/gaelic/news/detail/16930

Chavez Re-elected President

Update 1 - 10:30pm
Chavez Reelected President of Venezuela: 61.4% of Vote

Sunday, Dec 03, 2006


Caracas, December 3, 2006-- According to the first preliminary results from Venezuela's National Electoral Council, President Hugo Chavez won the presidency with 61.4% of the vote to his challenger's 38.4%. This is with 78.3% of the votes counted.

So far, Chavez got 5.9 million votes and Manuel Rosales, the candidate of the opposition, who got 3.7 million votes. This means that Chavez got slightly more votes than during the 2004 recall referendum and about 23 percentage points more than Rosales.

CNE President Tibisay Lucena also announced that as soon as 80% of the votes had been tallied, the CNe would make an announcement of who officially won the presidency.