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international / anti-war / imperialism Friday August 03, 2012 - 13:23 by Yassamine Mather
 4 comments (last - tuesday august 07, 2012 - 19:05)
Romney and Obama attempt to surpass each other in their threats against Iran and their obsequious support for Israel. Yassamine Mather looks at this, the effect of sanctions and how to respond to the CIA-funded Iran Tribunal. Full text at link. It is mid-summer in an election year, so we should not be surprised by the hawkish statements regarding Iran coming from the US - not just from the Republican contender, Mitt Romney, but also the current US president. However, even when we take into account the timing, some of the statements Romney has just made in Jerusalem are more than worrying - and they have been matched by Barack Obama’s promises to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on the despatch of bunker-buster bombs to the Gulf region.1 According to the Financial Times, in a keynote speech delivered in Jerusalem, Mitt Romney stated that the US has a “moral imperative” to stop Iran - the “most destabilising country in the world” - from developing nuclear weapons.2 Earlier in the day one of Romney’s advisors, Dan Senor, had said: “If Israel has to take action on its own, in order to stop Iran from developing that capability, the governor would respect that decision”.3 ... ... read full story / add a comment 
international / rights, freedoms and repression Friday August 03, 2012 - 12:54 by pat c
5 comments (last - friday october 05, 2012 - 23:41)  7 images
Where are the United Nations? Where are the EU sanctions? Why is repression ok in Bahrain? Full text at link. Bahraini riot police have fired tear gas and stun grenades at hundreds of demonstrators attempting to block a highway. Frequent antigovernment protests have wracked the country since February 2011. Protesters and police clashed in several Shiite villages late Thursday and early Friday, witnesses told AFP. The recent protests are a move by Bahrain’s opposition to spark further street demonstrations in the country. The ongoing uprising by the country’s Shiite majority, which claims systematic discrimination on the part of Bahrain’s Sunni monarchy, has weakened after multiple mass arrests. At least 50 people have been killed and many more detained since protests began 18 months ago. ... read full story / add a comment 
national / crime and justice Friday August 03, 2012 - 12:14 by lefty
2 comments (last - monday august 06, 2012 - 14:41) 1 image
Ooooops!...Judge Mary Devins, notorious judge in many cases against shell to sea activists, is finally seen for the right wing racist she is as she trips over her own bigoted remarks ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Tuesday July 31, 2012 - 12:04 by pat c
7 comments (last - saturday august 04, 2012 - 01:26)
Even US media groups like CNN are admitting that foreign jihadists, particularly Libyans, are flocking to Syria. Writing in the New York Times, Vali Nasr, Dean of the Johns Hopkins School of International Studies, warns that if Assad should fall from power, over 100 different opposition groups inside Syria would continue to fight for power with each other and with members of the Alawite, Shiite, Christian, and Druze religious minorities, threatening to turn Syria into “a larger version of Lebanon in the 1970s … There would be ethnic cleansing, refugee floods, humanitarian disasters and opportunities for Al Qaeda.” Full text at link. The Gulf sheikhdoms, especially Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have supplied millions of dollars’ worth of weapons to the Syrian opposition and pledged to pay salaries to “rebel” fighters. While Washington has claimed that it is providing “non-lethal” supplies to the opposition, such as night vision glasses and communications equipment, teams of CIA operatives are acknowledged to be working inside Turkey to coordinate the distribution of money and arms to the various militant groups. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Friday July 27, 2012 - 20:34 by Yassamine Mathe
5 comments (last - monday july 30, 2012 - 12:35)
Yassamine Mather writes on the Sunni Islamist fundamentalist onslaught in Syria. An attack funded and backed by Imperialism. She analyses what has brought Syria to this situation and exposes the massacres carried out by the fundamentalists. Full text at link. It may only be a matter of time before the Assad regime in Syria collapses and Sunni Islamist fundamentalists backed by the US/UK, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and others are in power in Damascus. If that happens, the Shia states of Iran and occupied Iraq, which have backed Bashar al-Assad, would have lost a close ally. ... Non-Arab Iran remains Assad’s main ally, but Assad’s downfall would create an upheaval that would shift the balance of power in the region in favour of Iran’s enemies: the Sunni Gulf states (the main supporters of the Syrian opposition). Tehran’s Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, now the most powerful military and political force in Lebanon, would also be weakened. ... ... read full story / add a comment 
national / crime and justice Tuesday July 24, 2012 - 23:52 by lefty
4 comments (last - friday august 03, 2012 - 12:55) 1 image
Fintan O'toole penned a rather interesting piece in the times regarding the privileged treatment of Sean Quinn who was imprisoned for contempt for 3 months. However evidently prison has a slightly different meaning for Mr Quinn and his ilk compared to the rest of us...plus ca change! ... read full story / add a comment 
international / anti-war / imperialism Tuesday July 24, 2012 - 13:17 by pat c
25 comments (last - monday july 30, 2012 - 16:32) 2 images  1 video file
A new coalition of thw willing is being prepared by the US to wage war on Syria. That includes the EU as a whole, the EU have imposed sanctions on Syria and sanctions are war by another means. Full text at link. Following its failure to ram through a resolution against syria at the united nations security council last week, the administration of barack obama has intensified its preparations to gather a “coalition of the willing” to oust the government of syria and install a us client regime. The resolution would have imposed new sanctions against damascus under chapter 7 of the un charter, which authorizes the use of military force. The last such resolution by the council was used by the us and nato to justify their war for regime-change in libya. ... read full story / add a comment
international / miscellaneous Monday July 23, 2012 - 02:00 by Gearoid O Loingsigh
A comment on the latest indigenous revolt in Colombia, where the indigenous have expelled troops from their areas. ... read full story / add a comment
international / eu Monday July 23, 2012 - 00:04 by T
1 comment (last - thursday december 26, 2013 - 23:13)
As reported by the financial blog The Automatic Earth written by Nicole Foss, she has reported that the German magazine Der Spiegel dropped a bombshell this morning in an article that the IMF plans to dump Greece in September. So far the Der Spiegel article is in German. Normally they will eventually publish articles in English. "Griechenland könnte schon im September pleitegehen. Der Internationale Währungsfonds hat nach Informationen des SPIEGEL der Brüsseler EU-Spitze signalisiert, dass er sich nicht an weiteren Hilfen für das Land beteiligen werde." Greece could go bankrupt as early as September. Spiegel has obtained information that the IMF told the Brussels leadership it would not make more money available for help to Greece. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Friday July 20, 2012 - 23:34 by Yassamine Mather
1 comment (last - saturday july 21, 2012 - 09:01)
Yassamine Mather examines the excuses used by ‘leftwing’ supporters of the Iran Tribunal and finds them wanting. In particular she finds their comparison the Lenin and the Bolsheviks agreeing to board a German sealed train for Petrograd in 1917 to be risible. Lenin got on that train to Finland station in order to help lead a working class revolution, not to further German war aims. Full text at link. Debates about the Iran Tribunal - convened to put the Islamic regime in the dock for its massacre of 5,000-10,000 political prisoners in 1988 - continues to occupy a prominent place in the publications and websites of the Iranian left, both in exile and to a lesser extent inside Iran itself. In a sense it is true that, given the current situation in Iran - not least the disastrous consequences of what the US calls “comprehensive sanctions” - this is a small, irrelevant issue. After all, this week alone another 400 workers lost their jobs in Iran’s main car manufacturer, Iran Khodro, as a direct consequence of sanctions: Malaysia, under pressure from the US, pulled out of a contract. It is also true that sanctions are not the same as cluster bombs, but their effect on the Iranian working class can be devastating nevertheless. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Friday July 20, 2012 - 01:09 by pat c
3 comments (last - friday july 20, 2012 - 16:56)
The Israelis were quick to assert that Iran and Hezbollah were responsible for the Bulgarian bombing.But now it emerges that Mehdi Ghezali, a jihadist who spent two years in Guantanamo was the likely culprit. But things are murky. Who was he really working for? CIA? MOSSAD? Don't rule out a false flag operation with Mehdi thinking he was working for a Jihad group when in fact his masters were really CIA/MOSSAD. Fulltext at link. Bulgarian media have reportedly identified the man responsible for blowing up the bus with Israeli tourists on Wednesday as Mehdi Ghezali, a jihadist who spent two years in Guantanamo. US officials responded there is “no evidence” that it was him. Ghezali’s name was revealed by Times of Israel newspaper, who cited local Bulgarian media sources. But later the story grew murkier, with ABC reporting that Bulgarian officials denied that Ghezali was behind the attack. Swedish agency TT says it has received similar refutals from security services in Stockholm. NBC later said that US officials also had no information linking Ghezali with the terrorist act. None of the countries have issued an independently verified statement. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Friday July 20, 2012 - 00:33 by pat c
11 comments (last - monday july 23, 2012 - 11:57) 1 image
Bill Van Auken reports on the suicide bombing in Damascus which killed leading members of Assads Cabinet. The bombing may have been carried out by fundamentalists but it was inspired by Israel or the US. Full text at link. A suicide bomber's attack on a meeting of cabinet ministers and senior security officials claimed the lives of at least three senior members of the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday. Syrian state media confirmed Wednesday that Defense Minister Dawould Rajha, his deputy, Assef Shawkat, the brother-in-law of the president, and Hasan Turkmani, Assad's security adviser, were killed in the morning blast, which occurred during a top-level meeting held in the tightly secured National Security Building in the Rawda district of central Damascus ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Tuesday July 17, 2012 - 23:14 by pat c
7 comments (last - friday july 20, 2012 - 03:17)
Clinton does a duet on the drums of war with Netanyahu as they plot a strike against Iran.The US have introduced new sanctions against 11 Iranian companies allegedly involved in defence projects. Sanctions are war by another means. Full text at link. During her visit to Israel yesterday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton renewed the threat of a US attack on Iran. After meeting with top Israeli leaders, she declared: “We will use all elements of American power to prevent Iran developing a nuclear weapon.” That obviously includes America’s massive military firepower. ... read full story / add a comment 
international / rights, freedoms and repression Monday July 16, 2012 - 18:06 by pat c
1 comment (last - monday july 16, 2012 - 20:58) 3 images
The media are quick report massacres in Syria. However when real State massacres of civilians take place in India you rarely hear anything. Full text at link. When we entered the village there was a solemn air about it. The only humans we saw there were some heavily armed paramilitary forces inside the bushes - they might have been from CoBRA force or CRPF. The men in arms averted our gaze. They couldn't meet our eye with the shadow of the dastardly act of a few days ago looming large over them. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Saturday July 14, 2012 - 19:01 by pat c
2 comments (last - monday july 16, 2012 - 13:25)
Out of the fog of misinformation the truth begins to emerge. Full text at link. Reports of scores of deaths in the Syrian village of Tremseh Thursday, in the course of violent clashes between government forces and opposition militia, have been seized upon by the United States and its allies to ramp up their campaign to overthrow the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. In a press statement issued Friday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asserted that the Syrian regime had carried out “yet another massacre,” claiming there was “indisputable evidence that the regime deliberately murdered innocent civilians.” ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Wednesday July 11, 2012 - 23:54 by pat c
Prisoners inGuantanamo who had been diagnosed with serious mental health problems and who were on psychoactive medications were continuously interrogated. Other prisoners were given drugs against their will. Full story at link. Prisoners inside the U.S. military’s detention center at Guantanamo Bay were forcibly given “mind altering drugs,” including being injected with a powerful anti-psychotic sedative used in psychiatric hospitals. Prisoners were often not told what medications they received, and were tricked into believing routine flu shots were truth serums. It’s a serious violation of medical ethics, made worse by the fact that the military continued to interrogate prisoners while they were doped on psychoactive chemicals. ... read full story / add a comment 
international / rights, freedoms and repression Monday July 09, 2012 - 20:59 by pat c
3 comments (last - tuesday august 07, 2012 - 19:19) 1 image
Where is the UN? Where is Clinton? Where is NATO? Where are the Sanctions? Where are the international conferences in support of the Saudi Shia people? Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, a dictatorship, but it doesn't bother those who are out destabilise Syria. Actually Saudi Arabia is arming and bankrolling the Syrian fundamentalists. Two men have been killed in Saudi Arabia during a protest against the arrest of a prominent Shia cleric. Activists said Akbar al-Shakuri and Mohammed al-Filfil were shot by police while attending a demonstration in Qatif, a city in Eastern Province. The interior ministry said there had been no clashes with police, and that the incident was being investigated. ... read full story / add a comment
international / arts and media Friday July 06, 2012 - 13:33 by pat c
As Hugo Chavez faces another election the capitalist media has gone into overdrive. Its message is that dissent is crushed in Venezuela. Yet from below comes another meme: the story of alternative media. Full text at link. Today we celebrate the national day of journalists in Venezuela. Because of this day, it’s worth remembering a phrase that was written in the streets of Argentina during the December 2001 crisis: “They piss on us and the press says it’s raining”. This aphorism captions the situation of the social media today. Readers are reading, listening, or watching the information they receive more and more carefully. However, the people of Venezuela have gone beyond that. Thanks to legal, technological, technical, and formative support from the government of the president, Hugo Chavez, and because of the determination of citizens after 2000, a national system of community and alternative media started to be born. It’s a system which, even though it has a long way to go, it is a symbol of collective organisation and the satisfying of everybody’s right to communicate. ... read full story / add a comment
international / crime and justice Thursday July 05, 2012 - 13:17 by Tony Greenstein
2 comments (last - monday december 10, 2012 - 19:09)
3 years ago I carried the report that Farrouk Khaddoumi, the ex-PLO Foreign Secretary and deputy to Arafat, had alleged that Abu Mazan (Abbas) had co-operated in an Israeli plot to murder Arafat . http://azvsas.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/arafat-murdered-by....html ... read full story / add a comment
international / rights, freedoms and repression Friday June 29, 2012 - 13:46 by Flame Song
1 video file
'Lee Hazelwood' is the pseudonym of a reporter who has worked on investigations in British television and press and used to be a member of the Cook Report team - including the groundbreaking report which exposed the infiltration of the IRA by British army personnel which unearthed the operative known as Stakeknife. He has gone undercover to train as a security officer for G4S who have the contract for security at the London Olympics. ... read full story / add a comment |
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