Germany: First New Post-Cold War World Military Power, Part III by Rick Rozoff

by Rick Rozoff
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Stop NATO
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/message/40717
July 16, 2009

Part III

The reemergence of Germany as an active military power in Europe and increasingly worldwide occurred entirely under the auspices of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which West Germany joined in 1955 and the East was brought into with reunification in 1990. The citizens of the former German Democratic Republic were given no opportunity to discuss much less vote on the issue.

The first post-World War II deployment of German military forces outside its borders – and outside of NATO’s self-defined security zone – in active military roles rather than in multinational exercises and United Nations missions was fostered and initiated under the chancellorship of Christian Democrat Helmut Kohl in the first half of the last decade.

But it was the Social Democrat-Green Party coalition government of Gerhard Schroeder and Joschka Fischer, what the Western press regularly referred to (with no tincture of irony and less understanding of political history) as a Red-Green alliance, that involved Germany in its first wars since the fall of Berlin in 1945. In fact two wars in less than two and a half years.

Viva Palestina US Crosses Into Gaza through Rafah – Short Speech By George Galloway

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shabbirh
July 15, 2009

At approximately 1820GMT on July 15 2009, the Viva Palestina US Convoy finally crossed into Gaza from the Rafah Crossing in Egypt. Headed up by the British Member of Parliament, George Galloway as well as former Congresswoman Cynthia Mckinney, the convoy was due to bring over US$1million of AID and humanitarian assistance into the besieged Gaza Strip. Due to problems created by the Mobarak Regime in Egypt they were finally only able to cross with half of that amount of aid.

This recording was recorded live as they entered Gaza, and has a short speech by George Galloway where he explains the situation and introduces that there will soon be a Viva Palestina Venezuala.

Broadcast on PressTV at approximately 1820GMT on July 15, 2009.

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Viva Palestina aid convoy enters Gaza + We are in Gaza (photos)

Wendell Potter: They Dump the Sick to Satisfy Investors

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Democracy Now!
July 16, 2009

“They Dump the Sick to Satisfy Investors”: Insurance Exec Turned Whistleblower Wendell Potter Speaks Out Against Healthcare Industry

As the debate over healthcare reform intensifies on Capitol Hill, we spend the hour with a former top insurance executive who’s now exposing the industry’s dirty secrets. Wendell Potter once served as the head of corporate communications at CIGNA, one of the nation’s largest health insurance companies. We speak to Potter about his own transformation from industry mouthpiece to whistleblower, the healthcare industry’s extensive PR and lobbying machine, the campaign to discredit Michael Moore’s film Sicko, and the insurance industry’s most pressing task: the fight against a public option, let alone a single-payer system. [includes rush transcript]

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video and transcript: “They Dump the Sick to Satisfy Investors”: Insurance Exec Turned Whistleblower Wendell Potter Speaks Out Against Healthcare Industry

see

Kucinich Opening Statement to Committee on America’s Affordable Health Choices Act

Bill Moyers Journal: Health Care Reform + Wendell Potter (must-see)

Israeli Navy in Suez Canal Prepares for Potential Attack on Iran

Dandelion Salad

By Sheera Frenkel in Jerusalem
ICH
July 16, 2009 “The Times”

Two Israeli missile class warships have sailed through the Suez Canal ten days after a submarine capable of launching a nuclear missile strike, in preparation for a possible attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The deployment into the Red Sea, confirmed by Israeli officials, was a clear signal that Israel was able to put its strike force within range of Iran at short notice. It came before long-range exercises by the Israeli air force in America later this month and the test of a missile defence shield at a US missile range in the Pacific Ocean.

Israel has strengthened ties with Arab nations who also fear a nuclear-armed Iran. In particular, relations with Egypt have grown increasingly strong this year over the “shared mutual distrust of Iran”, according to one Israeli diplomat. Israeli naval vessels would likely pass through the Suez Canal for an Iranian strike.

“This is preparation that should be taken seriously. Israel is investing time in preparing itself for the complexity of an attack on Iran. These manoeuvres are a message to Iran that Israel will follow up on its threats,” an Israeli defence official said.

[…]

via Israeli Navy in Suez Canal Prepares for Potential Attack on Iran      : Information Clearing House – ICH

see

Iran on Dandelion Salad

Iran Israel US Nukes

Sen. Franken Raises Net Neutrality with Judge Sotomayor

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[note: it gets garbled towards the end of the clip.]

videofreepress
July 15, 2009

Senator Franken’s first question for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor was on net neutrality and the need to protect the Internet as a level playing field for free speech.

Kucinich Opening Statement to Committee on America’s Affordable Health Choices Act

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Congressman Dennis Kucinich

Washington, Jul 15, 2009

Congressman Dennis Kucinich D-OH today made the following statement after the Education and Labor Committee began its markup process of HR 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act. The Education and Labor Committee is one of three House committees involved in examining the bill.

“Medicine in the U.S. is a profit driven market commodity distributed according to the ability to pay rather than a basic human right distributed as a public service according medical need. No wonder that the United States ranks 47th in life expectancy and 23rd in infant mortality. In this profit driven, private insurance based system there are over 1400 manage care organizations and 5000 health insurance plans. We have the most expensive health care system in the world – over 16% of our GDP. Two point four trillion dollars a year goes to health spending and 1 out of every 3 dollars go to the activities of the for-profit system- for corporate profits, stock options, executive salaries, advertising, marketing, and the cost of paperwork. Yet 47 million people remain uninsured and another 50 million are underinsured. I submit that there is a direct relationship between the for-profit health care system and the uninsured and the underinsured.

NYCCAN Press Conference at City Hall + Testimony from 9/11 Survivor by Eileen Coles

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by Eileen Coles
crossposted at www.docudharma.com/diary
July 16, 2009

Today I attended the press conference that NYCCAN (NYC Coalition for Accountability
Now) held on the steps of City Hall in Manhattan. Press were there
from 1010 WINS, WOR, NY1 and WFUV. I don’t know if what we had to say
will make it past the phlanx of mainstream media editors, but we’ll
see.

NAM calls for new world order

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PressTV

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:18:59 GMT

More than 50 heads of state from the developing world will meet to tackle the fallout from the global economic meltdown, with calls for a new world order.

The Cuban President Raul Castro said in a speech at the opening session of the Non-Aligned Movement NAM summit that the financial crisis had hit the developing nations the hardest.

The Cuban President also called for a new monetary and economic world order that would take into consideration the needs of the developing countries.

[…]

via NAM calls for new world order

Honduras coup leader ready to quit

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PressTV
Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:57:46 GMT

Micheletti says he will only step down so long as the deposed president Manuel Zelaya refrains from reclaiming power.

Honduran interim President Roberto Micheletti sets conditions for his departure following weeks of political turmoil in the Central American state. Micheletti said he would only step down so long as the deposed president Manuel Zelaya refrains from reclaiming power.

Micheletti expressed willingness to leave “at some point that decision is needed to bring peace and tranquility to the country, but without the return, and I stress this, of former President Zelaya.”

[…]

via Honduras coup leader ready to quit

see

Washington & the Coup in Honduras + U.S. continues to train Honduran soldiers

Honduras cardinal urges Zelaya to stay away

Season of Travesties – Freedom and Democracy in mid-2009 By Noam Chomsky

2 Honduras Activists Killed; Venezuelan Journalists Expelled; Coup Leaders Hire Top Democrat Lobbyists by Eva Golinger

Military Coup Honduras Zelaya

Israeli soldiers have spoken–Share their stories with Congress

Dandelion Salad

from an email

by Sydney Levy
Jewish Voice for Peace

Washington & the Coup in Honduras + U.S. continues to train Honduran soldiers

Dandelion Salad

By Eva Golinger
Postcards from the Revolution
15 July 2009

• The Department of State had prior knowledge of the coup.

• The Department of State and the US Congress funded and advised the actors and organizations in Honduras that participated in the coup.

• The Pentagon trained, schooled, commanded, funded and armed the Honduran armed forces that perpetrated the coup and that continue to repress the people of Honduras by force.

• The US military presence in Honduras, that occupies the Soto Cano Palmerola military base, authorized the coup d’etat through its tacit complicity and refusal to withdraw its support of the Honduran military involved in the coup.

[…]

The Washington Lobby

Republican Senator John McCain, ex US presidential, helped coordinate the visit of a coup regime delegation to Washington last week. McCain is well known for his opposition to governments in Venezuela, Bolivia and other countries in the region considered “anti-imperialist”. McCain also maintains very close ties to the Cuban exile community in Miami. McCain is also Chairman of the Board of the International Republican Institute (IRI) that has funded the coup participants in Honduras. McCain offered the services of a lobby firm in Washington, closely tied to him, the Cormac Group, that organized a press conference for the coup regime delegation at the National Press Club on June 7th. McCain also helped set up several meetings in Congress with the traditional Cuban-American representatives and those general “Chávez-haters”, such as Connie Mack, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mel Martinez.

[…]

via Postcards from the Revolution: Washington & the Coup in Honduras: Here is the Evidence

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U.S. continues to train Honduran soldiers