Emotional Spin For A Change
Gilad Atzmon
February 10, 2010 – …Apparently Campbell was so upset because Tony Blair is actually a “ totally honourable man”. Clearly Campbell is not upset by the FACT that his own dodgy dossier led to an illegal war and a genocide. In the run up to the Iraq War, Alastair Campbell was involved in the preparation and the release of the “September Dossier” (September 2002) and the “Iraq Dossier” (February 2003). Not before too long, both documents had been proved to be heavily distorted and detached from intelligence findings… As it happens, out of Blair’s and Campbell’s solipsistic universe, in the reality we all share together, as many as 1,366,350 Iraqis have died (so far). They had been murdered in an interventionist criminal war launched by Blair and Bush who “made a decision” to follow a dodgy dossier that was outlined by Campbell. In the ethical realm we tend to share, Campbell and Blair should spend the rest of their lives behind bars…

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No Checkpoints in Heaven
Ramzy Baroud
February 10, 2010 – …Since the siege on Gaza, my father’s life became impossible. His ailments were not ‘serious’ enough for hospitals crowded with limbless youth. During the most recent Israeli onslaught, most hospital spaces were converted to surgery wards, and there was no place for an old man like my dad. All attempts to transfer him to the better equipped West Bank hospitals failed as Israeli authorities repeatedly denied him the required permit. “I am sick, son, I am sick,” my father cried when I spoke to him two days before his death. He died alone on March 18, waiting to be reunited with my brothers in the West Bank. He died a refugee, but a proud man nonetheless. My father’s struggle began 60 years ago, and it ended a few days ago. Thousands of people descended to his funeral from throughout Gaza, oppressed people that shared his plight, hopes and struggles, accompanying him to the graveyard where he was laid to rest. Even a resilient fighter deserves a moment of peace…

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Civilian Casualties in Marjah “Inevitable” as Largest Military Operation of Afghanistan War Begins
Derrick Crowe
February 10, 2010 – Military officials say that civilian casualties in Marjah, Afghanistan are “inevitable” as U.S. and allied forces launch Operation Moshtarak, the largest military action since the U.S-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Thanks in part to conflicting messages from ISAF and in part due to some residents’ inability to flee, many civilians remain in Marjah, in the crossfire. Statements from Brig. Gen. Nicholson, commander of the operation, indicate that he feels he has leeway to use airstrikes in the civilian area, and that he intends to use fast, furious attacks to try to overwhelm the Taliban…

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The World Bank’s role in Haiti
By MARTY GOODMAN
February 10, 2010 – Beginning in the 1980s, the U.S.-led World Bank tightened its grip on Haitian economic policy. Essentially, it decided that the dysfunctional Haitian elite should encourage international investment in export-oriented assembly sweatshops. This was called a “structural adjustment program.” Haiti’s trade tariffs on foreign goods were to be removed, public utilities privatized, and all state subsidies removed—including on essential items like gasoline, subject to sharp price fluctuations that can greatly increase transportation costs for workers and street vendors…

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Humanitarian aid for Haiti — Not troops and occupation!
By MARTY GOODMAN
February 10, 2010 – After a 7.0 earthquake hit the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on Jan. 12, U.S. President Barack Obama solemnly told the Haitian people two days later, “In this hour of need you will not be forsaken.” The quake was a catastrophe that may rival the deadly tsunami of 2004. At press time, the death toll is estimated at 200,000, and the number of affected or displaced persons is perhaps as high as 3 million to 3.5 million out of Haiti’s population of nine million. Yet, for all the media hype, U.S. aid came with big strings: a U.S./United Nations military occupation and the prospect of more U.S.-led World Bank economic misery for the masses…

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Somalia: How Colonial Powers drove a Country into Chaos
Interview of Mohamed Hassan
by Grégoire Lalieu and Michel Colon
February 10, 2010 – Somalia had every reason to succeed: an advantageous geographical situation, oil, ores and only one religion and one language for the whole territory; a rare phenomenon in Africa. Somalia could have been a great power in the region. But the reality is completely different: famine, wars, lootings, piracy, bomb attacks. How did this country sink? Why has there been no Somali government for approximately twenty years? Which scandals stand behind those pirates who hijack our ships? In this new chapter of our series “Understanding the Muslim World”, Mohamed Hassan explains for us why and how imperialist forces have applied in Somalia a chaos theory…

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ZIONISM UNMASKED: A Fairy Tale That’s Become a Terrifying Nightmare
Alan Hart
February 10, 2010 – …The Jews who returned in answer to Zionism’s call had no biological connection to the ancient Hebrews. They were converts to Judaism long after the end of the Hebrew conquest and short-lived domination of much of Canaan, the name as in the Bible by which Palestine was first known to the world. They therefore had no legitimate claim on the land. The Jews who did have a legitimate claim, probably not more than about 10,000 at the time of Zionism’s first dishonest mission statement in 1897, were the direct descendants of the Israelites who stayed in place on the land through time. They regarded themselves as Palestinians, and they were fiercely opposed to Zionism’s colonial enterprise because they feared it would make them as well as the incoming alien Jews enemies of the Palestinian Arabs…

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Israel Gets Away with Murder… Again
by Tammy Obeidallah
February 10, 2010 – Amid the glamour of the world’s tallest building, gold bars, man-made islands, casinos and fashion, a man lay dead in his hotel room. Preliminary reports would say he had been suffocated with a pillow; further investigation would determine that he was injected with poison. Post-mortem photos of Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, age 50, told a story the media would not tell: the tip of his nose blackened, red blotches covering his cheeks and jaw and a horrific indentation on one side of his nose testified of torture and a cruel execution…

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Foreign media banned in Iran
AFP
February 10, 2010 – Iran has for the first time banned foreign media from covering Thursday’s street marches marking the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution, amid opposition plans for anti-government protests. An official co-ordinating the media told AFP that reporters and photographers were allowed to cover only the speech of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the historic Azadi (Freedom) Square in southwestern Tehran, and not the traditional street marches across the city…

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The Netanyahu-Fayyad “economic peace” one year on
Ziyaad Lunat
February 10, 2010 – …A year on, the cost of the Netanyahu-Fayyad plan is becoming clear. Low-income Palestinian families and small business are being encouraged to borrow to fuel a high-risk economy. Israel has proven time again that it won’t hesitate to strike a blow against Palestinian infrastructure should they dissent from the current consensus in its favor. Families are risking their possessions as collateral for their debts. Corporations responsible for the global financial collapse are applying their failed models in Palestine. Abraaj Capital, a Dubai-based investment fund that recently sparked fears for debt default, announced a $50 million private equity fund dedicated to “raising standards of living,” mirroring the predatory behavior that led to the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage system in the US.

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British Torture Summary Released – Binyam Mohamed
Bill Egnor
February 10, 2010 – One of the reasons I have always argued for a full investigation of the treatment of prisoners by the U.S. government is that the truths is going to come out sooner rather than later. For those who want to hide from accountability under the law later is always the better goal. The longer it takes for the abuses of the Bush Administration torture program to come to light the less likely there is to be an outcry and the more likely those who ordered and carried out torture are to elderly or dead. Today the British government lost its appeal and was forced to disclose a new piece of the torture puzzle. In 2002 a British subject by the name of Binyam Mohamed was arrested in Pakistan…

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Iraq snapshot – February 10, 2010
The Common Ills
Wednesday, February 10, 2010. Chaos and violence continue, a pipeline is targeted, a reporter is finally released from US military custody, Little Nouri Stirs Up Big Trouble sening his military into a province, Blackwater out of Iraq (kind of, sort of) and more…NPR’s Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reports on the response to the illegal war in Anbar Province: Saddam Hussein is missed: The reason, residents say, is disillusionment with the current Shiite-led government and the local Sunni provincial council. Anbar suffered years of brutal war that pitted U.S. forces against al-Qaida and other insurgents. Now, it’s less violent. But people like Zaid say life is still hard, with few services and no jobs. “It is only now that we have discovered how valuable Saddam was to us,” Zaid says. “People have compared the situation before to the situation now. And then was better.”. This is not a surprising response for Anbar or any other region in Iraq…

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