America, Israel’s Lackey

November 12, 2009
by Paul Craig Roberts, Antiwar.com,  November 12, 2009

It did not take the Israel Lobby long to make mincemeat out of the Obama administration’s “no new settlements” position.  Israeli prime minister Netanyahu is bragging about Israel’s latest victory over the US government as Israel continues to build illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land.

In May President Obama read the Israelis the riot act, telling the Israeli government that he was serious about ending the Israeli conflict with the Palestinians and that a lasting peace agreement required the Israeli government to abandon all construction of new settlements in the occupied West Bank.

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Joya: End the occupation of my country Afghanistan

November 12, 2009

By Malalai Joya, CommonDreams.org, Nov 1 2, 2009

As an Afghan woman who was elected to Parliament, I am in the United States to ask President Barack Obama to immediately end the occupation of my country.

Eight years ago, women’s rights were used as one of the excuses to start this war. But today, Afghanistan is still facing a women’s rights catastrophe. Life for most Afghan women resembles a type of hell that is never reflected in the Western mainstream media.

In 2001, the U.S. helped return to power the worst misogynist criminals, such as the Northern Alliance warlords and druglords. These men ought to be considered a photocopy of the Taliban. The only difference is that the Northern Alliance warlords wear suits and ties and cover their faces with the mask of democracy while they occupy government positions. But they are responsible for much of the disaster today in Afghanistan, thanks to the U.S. support they enjoy.

The U.S. and its allies are getting ready to offer power to the medieval Taliban by creating an imaginary category called the “moderate Taliban” and inviting them to join the government. A man who was near the top of the list of most-wanted terrorists eight years ago, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, has been invited to join the government.

Over the past eight years the U.S. has helped turn my country into the drug capital of the world through its support of drug lords. Today, 93 percent of all opium in the world is produced in Afghanistan. Many members of Parliament and high ranking officials openly benefit from the drug trade. President Karzai’s own brother is a well known drug trafficker.

Meanwhile, ordinary Afghans are living in destitution. The latest United Nations Human Development Index ranked Afghanistan 181 out of 182 countries. Eighteen million Afghans live on less than $2 a day. Mothers in many parts of Afghanistan are ready to sell their children because they cannot feed them.

Afghanistan has received $36 billion of aid in the past eight years, and the U.S. alone spends $165 million a day on its war. Yet my country remains in the grip of terrorists and criminals. My people have no interest in the current drama of the presidential election since it will change nothing in Afghanistan. Both Karzai and Dr. Abdullah are hated by Afghans for being U.S. puppets.

The worst casualty of this war is truth. Those who stand up and raise their voice against injustice, insecurity and occupation have their lives threatened and are forced to leave Afghanistan, or simply get killed.

We are sandwiched between three powerful enemies: the occupation forces of the U.S. and NATO, the Taliban and the corrupt government of Hamid Karzai.

Now President Obama is considering increasing troops to Afghanistan and simply extending former President Bush’s wrong policies. In fact, the worst massacres since 9/11 were during Obama’s tenure. My native province of Farah was bombed by the U.S. this past May. A hundred and fifty people were killed, most of them women and children. On Sept. 9, the U.S. bombed Kunduz Province, killing 200 civilians.

My people are fed up. That is why we want an immediate end to the U.S. occupation.

© 2009 San Jose Mercury News

Nasrallah slams Obama Israel ‘bias’

November 12, 2009
Al Jazeera, Nov. 12, 2009
Nasrallah accused Obama of disregarding the feelings and dignity of Arabs and Muslims [AFP]

The leader of the Lebanese group Hezbollah has accused Barack Obama, the US president, of “absolute bias” in favour of  Israel and of disregard for the dignity of Arabs and Muslims.

In a televised speech on Wednesday, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said Obama has gone further than his predecessor, George Bush, in supporting the Jewish state adding that the high expectations that followed Obama’s election had been “shattered”.

He said Obama’s initial statements calling on Israel to freeze settlement building and then backtracking was a “tactic” agreed on by both Israel and the US, and that the initial settlement demand had been exposed as “an American ploy to pass the time and gain Arab sympathy”.

Wednesday’s remarks are the Hezbollah leader’s strongest criticism yet of Obama since he took office almost a year ago.

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TRUE HERO: British soldier faces 10 years for decision to speak out against war

November 12, 2009
Morning Star Online, Wednesday 11 November 2009
by Lizzie Cocker
DISASTER ZONE: Joe Glenton has been arrested after speaking out against injustice and illegality of the war in Afghanistan

DISASTER ZONE: Joe Glenton has been arrested after speaking out against injustice and illegality of the war in Afghanistan

Anti-war Lance Corporal Joe Glenton has been arrested and faces 10 years in jail for bravely honouring his moral responsibility to speak out against the illegal occupation of Afghanistan.

The serving soldier faces up to seven charges after he defied orders to address 10,000 demonstrators last month in Trafalgar Square and told the media that he did not believe the war was legitimate or in the nation’s interest.

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U.S. Envoy in Afghanistan Said to Advise Against More Troops

November 12, 2009

By Viola Gienger and Roger Runningen, Bloomberg Press

Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) — Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and a former top military commander there, has recommended that President Barack Obama not send more troops to the country for the time being, a U.S. official said.

The advice, which counters a troop-increase request from the current American commander in Afghanistan, was sent by cable to Washington, the official said yesterday on condition of anonymity.

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‘Declare Independence of Palestine Now’

November 11, 2009

 

Nasir Khan’s  Note:  The betrayal and isolation of the Palestinian people has run its full course. The imbecile Arab regimes  (in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan,  etc.,)  more in the nature of prehistoric shapeless oddities, have failed to support meaningfully the cause of the  occupied, oppressed and brutalized fellow Arabs of  Palestine. Instead,  they have furthered the U.S. imperialism’s  geopolitical interests in the Middle East so that the United States  controls the Middle East and it  remains the prime  guarantor of the continued support to their corrupt and decadent dynastic rule and their antidemocratic system.

The present leadership of the Palestinian people is divided; the myopic PA President Abbas has been dancing to the tunes of Tel Aviv and Washington for long. A growing number of the  suffering people of Palestine regard him a traitor and puppet of the U.S. and the Israeli Zionists.

The talk of peace and peace negotiations under  various U.S. administrations served only Zionist expansion and further colonization of the occupied Palestine. If President  Obama had any intention to stop Israel’s ever-increasing expropriation of the Palestinian land then he has failed miserably. Obviously,  Secretary of State  Clinton, Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli lobby struck at his intentions and nullified him. It leaves no doubt about who control American  foreign policy.

Where can the Palestinians go from here? The question of establishing a viable independent state is in the doldrums. The occupied land has been eaten up by Israel. That leaves the possibility of one-state solution the only alternative for the Israelis and the Palestinians.

But if Israel turns its back on its previous history of colonization and expropriation, accepts the UN resolutions and reverts to the pre-1967 borders by vacating all its illegal settlements then the two-state solution has a chance to materialize. But this is more of a long shot in the  dark.

Mr Yesh Prabhu’s advocacy of declaring an independent state by Palestinians can be instrumental in breaking the present impasse. At least, the Palestinians will not lose anything. On the contrary, it can take the matters out of the hands of Washington and Tel Aviv and this  may create a new momentum. But one major  hurdle remains: the divided Palestinian leadership of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. If Abbas disappears then even worse traitors like Mohammad Dahlan  may be waiting for a complete sell-out to Washington and Tel Aviv.

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Declare Independence of Palestine Now

Yesh Prabhu, A Sane Voice For Peace Blog, Nov. 10, 2009

It is now abundantly clear that the stalled negotiation for peace in the Middle East is now dead.

During Secretary of State Clinton’s recent short sojourn through the region, in her joint press conference with Mr. Netanyahu in Jerusalem, she effusively praised Netanyahu’s intransigence regarding Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank. The peace process died when she bizarrely described as “unprecedented” Mr. Netanyahu’s paltry concession to slow down the feverish tempo of building illegal housing units in the occupied territories. Even though she hastily tried to back-track, the damage to the peace process had been done. It was as if she had given the peace process a death blow. The Palestinian negotiators were deeply shocked. Did not President Obama, and even Mrs. Clinton herself, say only a month ago that the Israeli settlements in the occupied land were illegitimate? It dawned on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that the peace process was dead, and so he announced that he will be resigning from his position soon. He had threatened to resign a couple of times on previous occasions, of course, but this time it seems that he means to carry out his threat.

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Norway pays £150m to save rainforests

November 11, 2009
Morning News Online, Tuesday 10 November 2009
Norway will provide financial support to Guyana to protect its rainforests

Norway will provide financial support to Guyana to protect its rainforests

Norway has agreed to pay Guyana up to $250 million (£150m) by 2015 to preserve rainforests as part of a scheme to slow climate change.

Norway, which has led donor nations in slowing tropical deforestation with a budget of 3 billion Norwegian crowns (£320m) a year, said on Monday it wanted to help Guyana maintain forests that cover 75 per cent of its land.

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Israeli Jews and the one-state solution

November 11, 2009

By Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada, November 11, 2009

“Anyone who rejects the two-state solution, won’t bring a one-state solution. They will instead bring one war, not one state. A bloody war with no end.” — Israeli President Shimon Peres, 7 November 2009.

One of the most commonly voiced objections to a one-state solution for Palestine/Israel stems from the accurate observation that the vast majority of Israeli Jews reject it, and fear being “swamped” by a Palestinian majority. Across the political spectrum, Israeli Jews insist on maintaining a separate Jewish-majority state.

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Terrible toll of senseless wars

November 11, 2009

This statement was issued by the Fort Hood chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War and Under the Hood Café, a meeting place organized near Fort Hood by antiwar activists for soldiers to meet and unwind.

Socialist Worker, November 9, 2009

The shooting at Fort Hood caused 13 deaths and some 30 people wounded

OUR COMMUNITY is distraught by the tragic shooting at Fort Hood yesterday. We extend our condolences to the families and friends of the victims.

As upset as we are about this incident, this shooting does not come as a shock. Eight years of senseless wars have taken a huge toll on our troops and their families. It’s time to admit that the wars in southwest Asia are in no one’s best interests. Bring the troops home now!

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Gorbachev to Obama: ‘Prepare the ground for withdrawal’ in Afghanistan

November 11, 2009

By Jordan Fabian,  The Hill, Nov. 10, 2009

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Tuesday advised President Barack Obama to prepare to withdraw forces from Afghanistan, rather than adding more troops.

The USSR leader, who in 1986 began the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan after a lengthy conflict there, said that adding more troops will be counterproductive.

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