I have a new hero, Ralph Nader’s sister, Laura Nader. ~ DS
talkingsticktv
April 10, 2009
Talk by Laura Nader, Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley and co-author (with Ugo Mattei) of Plunder: When the Rule of Law is Illegal. The talk was given at the Law of the Commons Conference March 13, 2009 at Seattle University and sponsored by the Seattle Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.
By Sarah van Gelder
ICH
April 10, 2009 “YES! Magazine”
President Obama’s massive giveaway to Wall Street threatens to bankrupt the federal government and undermine the agenda that got him elected. Here are some first steps needed to change course.
Dear President Obama,
I’m getting a sinking feeling. Watching your appointees’ latest bank bailout makes me wonder if all your administration’s good work on health care, education, and jobs will be swept away by the extraordinary giveaway of trillions in taxpayer money to a group of powerful Wall Street operatives, who appear willing to bankrupt our country to continue building their wealth and power.
Could this be happening on the watch of someone who, like yourself, came to Washington with the promise of personal integrity and a concern for the common good?
From outside the Beltway it looks pretty clear: Your financial team’s identification with Wall Street corporations is compromising their ability to advise you on what can save our country. Please listen to some of today’s most astute independent analysts:
by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted on TPJmagazine
April 12, 2009
Over the past several columns I have discussed the successes of George Bush in terms of substantive outcomes. They would have been enough for the Georgites, I’m sure. But some of them can be and are being reversed by the Obama Administration.
Thus many Bush policies, in the foreign and domestic arenas, from war and its threat as the primary instrument of foreign policy, to the deindustrialization of the US with the replacement of industrial capitalism by finance capitalism, to the total degradation of the environment for the sole purpose of enriching the extractive industries in the short-term, and so on and so forth as we have detailed in some detail in recent weeks, can be and to some extent are being moderated by President Obama. What may be more important for the country in the long run is the political process “achievements” of George Bush and his minions. For these apply to the GOP, which remains a major political force in our nation. It is now licking its wounds. Many analysts say that it is “searching for its identity.” That is not true. It has an identity.
By Paul Mitchell
http://www.wsws.org
11 April 2009
Fresh revelations have emerged about torture and murders carried out by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia in 1999 and the occupation that followed.
Allegations that the KLA maintained a secret network of prisons in their bases in Kosovo and neighbouring Albania were made on the BBC programmes “Crossing Continents” and “Newsnight,” broadcast April 9. This is probably the first time a major news network has carried out an investigation into the claims which have been largely ignored, even suppressed, for more than a decade. According to “Crossing Continents,” the evidence reveals “another side to the conflict which the world was not supposed to see.”
Reporter Michael Montgomery, who has spent years investigating the disappearance of thousands of ethnic Albanians, Kosovo Serbs and Roma gypsy civilians during and after the conflict, spoke to sources, including relatives of those who died and are still missing, and former KLA soldiers. Many still remain extremely wary talking publicly about what happened. They face intimidation and some have been killed, according to United Nations officials.
[…]
via Kosovo: Evidence of KLA torture and murders revealed by BBC.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
by José Miguel Alonso Trabanco
Global Research, April 11, 2009
“A lot of what we [National Endowment for Democracy] do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” -Allen Weinstein
It seems that those who anticipated the end of color revolutions have been proven wrong. So far, color revolutions have succeeded in Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. On the other hand, they have failed in Belarus, Uzbekistan and Myanmar. Their common denominator is a wave of protests and sometimes riots whose purpose is to overthrow a local government, often held during electoral times or shortly afterwards. It has not gone unnoticed that the so called color revolutions have been backed (and engineered?) by enthusiastic western supporters including NGO’s, diplomats, businessmen, governmental institutions and heads of state. In those countries where such political mobilizations have prevailed, pro-Western leaders have been enthroned as a result thereof. If one pays close attention to a map, it is impossible not to wonder if it is simply a coincidence that color revolutions have erupted in countries close to Russian and Chinese borders. It has to be pointed out that no color revolution has ever occurred in any country whose government is staunchly pro-Western.
By Mike Whitney
April 10, 2009 “ICH”
On Tuesday, a congressional panel headed by ex-Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren released a report on Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s handling of the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). Warren was appointed to lead the five-member Congressional Oversight Panel (COP) in November by Senate majority leader Harry Reid. From the opening paragraph on, the Warren report makes clear that Congress is frustrated with Geithner’s so-called “Financial Rescue Plan” and doesn’t have the foggiest idea of what he is trying to do. Here are the first few lines of “Assessing Treasury’s Strategy: Six Months of TARP”:
“With this report, the Congressional Oversight Panel examines Treasury’s current strategy and evaluates the progress it has achieved thus far. This report returns the Panel’s inquiry to a central question raised in its first report: What is Treasury’s strategy?”
Six months and $1 trillion later, and Congress still cannot figure out what Geithner is up to. It’s a wonder the Treasury Secretary hasn’t been fired already.
From the report:
“In addition to drawing on the $700 billion allocated to Treasury under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA), economic stabilization efforts have depended heavily on the use of the Federal Reserve Board’s balance sheet. This approach has permitted Treasury to leverage TARP funds well beyond the funds appropriated by Congress. Thus, while Treasury has spent or committed $590.4 billion of TARP funds, according to Panel estimates, the Federal Reserve Board has expanded its balance sheet by more than $1.5 trillion in loans and purchases of government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) securities. The total value of all direct spending, loans and guarantees provided to date in conjunction with the federal government’s financial stability efforts (including those of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as well as Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board) now exceeds $4 trillion.”
Howard Zinn Pt5 : In the next ten years conditions for new parties may develop
Warning
This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.
Thousands of civilians caught between government and LTTE forces (Sri Lanka Pt2)
R. Cheran says that the roots of the conflict go back to period after independence when the Sri Lankan state became a majoritarian state representing only the majority community, that is, the Sinhalese community.
Niels Harrit and 8 other scientists found nano-thermite in the dust from the World Trade Center.
He is interviewed on danish TV2 News.
Update: 4.13.09 added a video
Australian Herald
Friday 10th April, 2009
A week before Israel launched an aerial bombing campaign on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the U.S. military shipped 989 20-foot containers of munitions, each weighing 14,000 tonnes, to Israel.
In the dying days of the Bush administration, and a week before Israel launched an aerial bombing campaign, followed by a land invasion of the Gaza Strip, the U.S. military shipped 989 containers of munitions to Israel.
Each container was 20-feet long with a total estimated net weight of 14,000 tonnes. The shipment reportedly reached Israel last month at Ashod, 40 kiometres north of Gaza. The huge arsenal of munitions will replenish those expended in the Gaza War.
According to Amnesty International in the UK, the shipment included white phosphorous.
The international organization says 300 of the containers had been unloaded at Ashod in March by a German cargo ship, Wehr Elb.
[…]
via U.S. shipped 989 munitions containers to Israel week before Gaza invasion
h/t: CLG
***
US arms shipment reaches Israel, president Obama urged to halt further exports
http://www.amnesty.org.uk
02 April 2009
The new delivery to Israel of a massive consignment of US munitions, revealed by Amnesty International today, throws into question whether President Obama will act to prevent the US fuelling further Israeli attacks against civilians that may amount to war crimes, as was perpetrated in Gaza.
According to new information received by Amnesty International, the Wehr Elbe, a German cargo ship which had been chartered and controlled by US Military Sealift Command, docked and unloaded its cargo of reportedly over 300 containers at the Israeli port of Ashdod, just 40 km north of Gaza by road. The German ship left the USA for Israel on 20 December, one week before the start of Israeli attacks on Gaza, carrying 989 containers of munitions, each of them 20 feet long with a total estimated net weight of 14,000 tons.
Brian Wood, Amnesty International’s arms control campaign manager, said:
‘Legally and morally, this US arms shipment should have been halted by the Obama administration, given the extent of the evidence showing how military equipment and munitions of this kind were recently used by the Israeli forces for war crimes.
[…]
via AIUK : US arms shipment reaches Israel, president Obama urged to halt further exports
h/t: CLG
***
Update
Amnesty International calls on US to stop funding Israeli army
currentsituation
April 12, 2009
Vodpod videos no longer available.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
see
Focus on Gaza: White Phosphorous
from the archives:
U.S. arms shipment to Israel canceled due to Gaza conflict
US plans massive arms delivery to Israel
chemical weapons-white phosphorus-DU
Israel-Palestine-Gaza-Occupation
Dandelion Salad 