America and Israel have massacred millions of Arabs under the pretext of security and war on terrorism. Let Freedom ring throughout the Arab world and then learn the word “NO” to America and Israel’s genocidal policy for oil and land.
It will be remembered (when you ask now and later why they hate us), that Mubarak's repression took place with the full support of both parties in the US and the Obama administration. Do you know now why whenever a US official, any US official, ever utter the word "democracy", Arabs get a strong urge to throw up? In Iran, the US covertly smuggled those cute camera pens for demonstrators. They were not cute enough for the Egyptian people.
As the US war in Afghanistan spreads toward Pakistan and the strategy drifts to Counter Terrorism (CT), there is no deescalation in sight. In fact, it is increasingly clear that the White House has little intention to significantly draw down troops in July of this year, as promised in President Obama’s West Point speech.
Webmaster's Commentary: There will be no true, demonstrable drawdown in 2011, because of the engineering and construction, in 2012 of the TAP pipeline, due to start production in 2014. In other words, the US and NATO will be in Afghanistan until the Turkmenistan/Afghanistan/Pakistan pipeline is completed and functioning.
This is a very publicly funded, and fought, war ultimately for private profit.
What we are seeing across the Arab world is not just the undoing of corrupt regimes. We are seeing the undoing of America’s entire foreign policy in that region. No wonder there must be deep misgiving in Washington over the recent turmoil in this key energy-producing region. For decades, US administrations have, through a cocktail of ignorance and arrogance, deluded themselves that they could get away with a mendacious contradiction. That contradiction is the espousal of democracy and peace in the Middle East while at the same time sponsoring regimes that act in every way to undermine any path to democracy and peace. And the vast majority of people in the Middle East see through this delusion.
Webmaster's Commentary: The US has far too long been consistently unable to practice what it preaches both at home and abroad: democracy, human rights, transparency in government, and the rule of law.
Bottom line: State Department logic dictates supporting dictatorship in the name of democracy.
Webmaster's Commentary: Memo to PJ Crowley: Hosni Mubarak has been in power for 30 years; if he hasn't been able to grant the Egyptian people more social reforms and freedoms by this point in time, it is never going to happen, sir, and you know that.
The Obama administration expressed “great concerns” at the likelihood of Hezbollah playing a major role in the new government. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that a government dominated by Hezbollah would mean a major change in relations between the US and Lebanon. She stated, “A Hezbollah-controlled government would clearly have an impact on our bilateral relationship with Lebanon”.
Webmaster's Commentary: This may get gritty in a heartbeat, with Israel invading Lebanon, to attempt to take all the territory it possibly can manage to hold.
W"hile offshore natural gas discoveries have spurred Lebanese and Israeli saber-rattling in a region widely viewed as rich in energy resources, a London analyst said it is too early to make categorical claims about the size and ownership of the potential reservoirs.
In the last several months, Noble Energy Inc., based in Houston, Tex., and Israeli companies have announced two offshore gas discoveries known as Tamar and Leviathan that they say may hold about 24 trillion cubic feet of gas.
Yet, it is “really too early to say” which country has the valid claim over the underwater resources in dispute, as they “may well extend into Lebanese waters,” Catherine Hunter, a senior analyst on the energy team at IHS Global Insight in London, told OilPrice.com. Without further surveys and drilling, the situation is still unclear, she said."
Also, Syria and Iran support Hizbullah in Lebanon. Syria and Iran have a mutual defense pact. If Israel attacks Lebanon, Syria and Iran may well be drawn into the fray. And of course, because of defense commitments between the US and Israel, the US may well have to come in on the Israeli side; a nasty scenario, yes, but potentially possible, particularly with all the popular uprisings going on in the region right now.
British intelligence reported in February 2002 that the Israeli Mossad ran the Arab hijacker cells that were later blamed by the U.S. government's 9/11 Commission for carrying out the aerial attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. WMR has received details of the British intelligence report which was suppressed by the government of then-Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The Egyptian dissident Mohamed ElBaradei warned President Hosni Mubarak today that his regime is on its last legs, as tens of thousands of people prepared to take to the streets for a fourth day of anti-government protests.
The Nobel peace prize winner's comments to the Guardian represented his strongest intervention against the country's authoritarian government since he announced his intention to return to Egypt to join the protests. "I'm sending a message to the Guardian and to the world that Egypt is being isolated by a regime on its last legs," he said.
Webmaster's Commentary: I hope this guy has his Kevlar undies on, in light of the fact that he has been placed under house arrest.
Avi Dichter linked Egypt and Iraq in his speech, putting the two Arab nations at the top of the Zionist entity’s list of ‘who to destroy,’ and these recent events in Alexandria and Nineveh are clearly linked as well. Israel hoped for a successful operation in northern Iraq to coincide with its success in Alexandria. Consecutive explosions in churches, in two predominantly Muslim nations, would spark worldwide outrage at Islam. This fervent hatred could be manipulated into interfaith fighting and subsequent massacres. Malevolence such as this benefits Israel and Israel only, as it is Zionist by design.
DEVELOPING: President Mubarak has expanded the night curfew nationwide, State TV reports. Read earlier report below: Egypt’s military deployed on the streets of Cairo to enforce the nighttime curfew as thousands of protesters tried to storm the foreign ministry and state TV building in Cairo. The day of rioting and chaos amounted to the biggest challenge ever to authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year regime.
Zbigniew Brzezinski’s much feared “global political awakening” is in full swing. Revolts in Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia and other countries represent a truly monumental worldwide rallying cry for freedom that threatens to immeasurably damage the agenda for one world government, but only if the successful revolutionaries can prevent themselves from being co-opted by a paranoid and desperate global elite.
The Mubarak dictatorship is a core pillar of the U.S./Israeli order in the Middle East, an order that completely ignores the wishes and aspirations of people on the ground. The U.S. and Israel are scared of the new order that is to come.
In case you missed this beauty the first time around, we are reposting it in light of yesterday's revelation that Goldman Sachs stole $3 BILLION from taxpayers thru AIG and lied about it repeatedly, even under oath.
90 seconds of Dennis Kucinich kicking Hank Paulson's Ass...
Here’s New York Times reporter Mark Landler on Washington’s reaction to the popular uprising in Egypt against the anti-liberal democratic, human rights-abusing Hosni Mubarak, a “staunch ally.” Washington is “proceeding gingerly, balancing the democratic aspirations of young Arabs with cold-eyed strategic and commercial interests.” In other words, democracy and human rights are fine, but not when strategic and commercial interests are at stake.
Video at source. Cairo's streets have been engulfed by tear gas, as riot squads battled tens of thousands of protesters who poured on to the city's streets after Friday prayers. The streets of the capital were engulfed with tear gas Chants of "Down with the system", "Down with Mubarak" and "From revolution to victory" echoed throughout the city.
"I am here today because I cannot afford to feed my family," said Maha Egadi, 50, a chartered accountant, as his nose streamed from the effects of tear gas. "We have come because we want our freedom, and we want to stop corruption and theft by the government."
Thousands of protesters came out into the streets of Cairo on Friday, to be met with concerted opposition from the security police, who kept them away from Maidan al-Tahrir (Liberation Square) with crowd control vehicles, police phalanxes, and barriers. People massed on bridges and overpasses beyond the grasp of the police below, and sometimes threw rocks down on police vehicles. Increasingly the protesters faced tear gas in such quantities that it covered the Egyptian capital with a low-lying fog.
Read this one carefully. There's a lot in here. This is part 2 of our look at mystery man Dan Jester. Part 1 is linked below. Painstaking detail follows. New angles, new details, new actors, while Henry Paulson stays behind the curtain, controlling the destruction of AIG, the pillaging of taxpayers, and the positive outcome for Goldman Sachs.
Last spring Calvary Baptist Church in Paterson, N.J., faced foreclosure after it was unable to pay its $30,000 per month mortgage.
The strain of possible financial ruin and even shutting the church after 125 years, tested the faith of its congregants and the senior minister, Rev. Dr. Albert Rowe.
"[The bank] filed the papers," Rowe said. "There was a date set for us to have a hearing but I did not think that we would lose the church ... I always had faith that, you want to call it a miracle, or something would happen. I always believed that."
Webmaster's Commentary: What? No pile of gold miraculously appearing on the altar when you most need God's intercession? Imagine that!
"This protest is not going to stop. They won't and can't trick the people again and give us some lame concessions. Hosni has to go," protester Mohamed Taha said after fleeing a police attack.
"I am 70 years old, I am going to die, but these people have to fight to live," he said.
Protesters often quickly dispersed and regrouped.
Some held banners saying: "Everyone against one" and chanted "Peaceful peaceful peaceful, no violence." Others threw shoes at and stamped on posters of Mubarak.
As clashes intensified, police waded into the crowds with batons and fired volleys of tear gas.
"Leave, leave, Mubarak, Mubarak, the plane awaits you," people chanted.
In light of yesterday's news on the Goldman Sachs - AIG taxpayer heist, we wondered again -- Who the hell is Dan Jester? And why isn’t he telling us what he did during the A.I.G. bailout and other pivotal moments of the banking crisis?
By Lehman author William D. Cohan
Mystery Men of the Financial Crisis
Until Dan Jester, a mysterious former Goldman Sachs banker turned Treasury official — among many others — comes forward and shares with us the roles he played before, during and after the crisis, the questions will continue.
Following two weeks of demonstrations in various cities across Jordan against high commodity prices and government policies, the country's ruler King Abdullah II said on Wednesday that it's time to bring about more political and economic reforms in the desert kingdom.
"Abdullah II insisted on the need to move forward with clear and transparent programmes of political and economic reform, which will allow the kingdom to overcome the economic challenges, and assure Jordan and Jordanians the decent future they deserve," the royal palace reportedly cited the king as saying in an apparent bid to connect with disgruntled Jordanians.
Webmaster's Commentary: It will be interesting, with this tidal wave of protests in the Middle East and North Africa, where they will ultimately lead, and how the US will have to realign its policies accordingly. But one thing is certain: change (and very probably regime change) is coming to a number of countries, and most probably very soon.
SUEZ, Egypt — Thousands of Egyptian protesters stormed the main police station in the port city of Suez Friday, overwhelming security authorities and raising an even bigger challenge to the embattled regime of President Hosni Mubarak.
The protesters freed prisoners from the city jail, destroyed armored police vehicles then sacked the building and looted its contents.
The demonstrators emerged from Friday prayers at mosques in Suez and confronted police outside the station. Police fired at the demonstrators, who then surged forward to take over the station. The protesters dragged fleeing riot police off their motorbikes and seized their batons and equipment. They also set at least a half dozen armored vehicles on fire.
Israel expects the Egyptian government to weather the protests roiling the country and to remain in power, an Israeli Cabinet minister said Thursday, providing Israel's first official assessment of the crisis affecting its powerful southern neighbor. The minister said that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, backed by his powerful security forces, was strong enough to overcome the unrest, though he did not rule out the possibility of further violence.
Webmaster's Commentary: Notice that this isn't sourced.
But were I a betting woman, I wouldn't bet on Mubarak's power to hold the country together.
“Yemen is not like Tunisia,” Interior Minister Motahar Rashad al-Masri insisted today. But who exactly is he trying to convince? Surely it is not the tens of thousands of angry protesters on the streets of the capital today, demanding the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Things appear to be moving surprisingly fast, particularly in Yemen, where the first protests on Sunday sparked arrests and even bigger protests, and led President Saleh to promise that he wouldn’t run for an addition term in office, just as Tunisian President Ben Ali did shortly before being chased into exile.
Webmaster's Commentary: It appears to be a matter of time before there is regime change in both Yemen and Egypt. And what those in the bowels of US government pathologically refuse to consider is this; when peaceful revolution is impossible, violent revolution is almost always inevitable, at some point. The US government ultimately cannot provide enough guns, rockets, and aircraft to suppress a popular uprising when it is virtually all of the people of a country demanding change.
And our problem of consistently supporting various tinpot thugs, just because they are "our thugs", like Batista in Cuba; King Abdullah in Jordan; the Shah in Iran; Pinochet in Chile; and Mubarak in Egypt, is that there comes a point where the people of those countries are going to rise up, and tell these guys to "get the heck out of Dodge".
And the following government, after an overthrow, is almost inevitably anti-American, because we have consistently supported some of the most repressive regimes on the planet.
The US government, consistently, appears to be amazingly incapable of learning from history, and therefore has only itself to blame when these events happen because we consistently back people who do not care about the welfare of their people, but only their own personal gain.
Britons' confidence in the economy and their finances has suffered its biggest drop in close to 20 years, raising fears that the Government's austerity onslaught will set off a self-feeding downward spiral.
When so many diverse forces converge and conflict, a tipping point of global awareness to the human condition is reached. The momentum must spill over into a time of sweeping change...
Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in the Albanian capital Tirana Friday for a silent protest closely monitored by police, a week after another demonstration turned deadly. The opposition went ahead with the protest in defiance of international appeals and police warnings, insisting it would be a peaceful gathering to honor the three people killed last week. The demonstrators headed by the leadership of the opposition socialists and the families of the victims started their march on the government buildings, passing by the spot where the people were shot, placing flowers at the scene in silence.
Voices of online dissent are being taken in two ways. In the free world, social media has merged with government decision through what is referred to as “Government 2.0.” Repressive regimes that resist the trend are quickly finding that the Internet is not just a place to voice opinions, but a place to organize.
“Any government that is trying to repress free information exchange is really engaged in a futile battle that will eventually end in their own demise,” said Peter Corbett, CEO of iStrategyLabs, a civic engagement company that develops government 2.0 technology.
As a father, I may not always agree with the opinions of my children, but I respect and honor their right to have them and I am proud when they have the courage to express them, even if those opinions are unpopular. How else can any of us continue to learn?
The United States and Japan received sharp warnings from the IMF and ratings agencies Thursday that they must tackle their huge budget deficits to avoid investors dumping their bonds, which would create a sovereign debt crisis and push up their borrowing costs.
Webmaster's Commentary: The US government may come crashing down, choking in its insolvency and inability to pay its bills. The people of this country are tapped out economically, underemployed, and overtaxed: there is no money left for any increase in taxes. The mere printing of more money (cutely characterized by the Fed as "quantitative easing" just devalues the worth of existing currency, and is manifesting as rampant inflation.
For me two things come out clearly from these painful documents (some of them have parallel data in the US embassy cables on Wikileaks). First it is not that the Palestinian officials are traitors but merely (and this is bad
Updates from Intifada Editor: There are reports that former UN nuclear chief Mohamed El Baradei is under house arrest . Egypts President Mubarak due to speak to nation in the next hour. Army reportedly on the streets of Cairo as curfew is imposed from 6pm to 7am local time.
"Because we will order the American schmucks to go kill them all otherwise!" -- Tel Aviv
(Ahem)
It seems that Egypt has become the litmus test for Democracy in our time. Clearly the Egyptian people are tired of the thirty year corrupt rule of Mubarak. Clearly the Egyptian people want a change. Thus, everyone who stands up to defend Mubarak is in effect proclaiming their opposition to the principles of Democracy. It does not matter what the Egyptian people want. They will have Mubarak as their ruler. It does not matter what the Palestinian people want. They will have Abbas as their ruler. And on and on and on. You cannot have it both ways. If you support Democratic principles, than Mubarak must go.
{etRelated 50057, 50047, left}With word of Egypt’s protests spreading across the country—largely via Twitter, Facebook, and SMS—by Thursday night local time, all of those electronic channels went silent. Twitter, Facebook, and SMS have been interrupted intermittently since the mass protests began on Tuesday. Still, messages from ad hoc organizers calling for larger demonstrations were getting through, via Internet users with proxy servers that allowed them to circumvent the digital walls.
By the evening of Jan. 27, however, Facebook, and SMS were no longer accessible, and at roughly midnight, the entire Internet suddenly went dead.
Egyptian military vehicles were sighted on the streets of Cairo on Friday after a day of violent clashes between police and protesters demanding an end to President Hosni Mubarak's rule. Protesters had previously chanted slogans calling for the army to support them, complaining of police violence during clashes on Friday in which security forces fired teargas and rubber bullets.
"Where is the army? Come and see what the police is doing to us. We want the army. We want the army," the protesters in one area of central Cairo shouted, shortly before police fired teargas on them.
CNBC contributor Erin Burnett said Friday that oil prices would skyrocket if countries in the Middle East broke out from under the rule of brutal dictators.
Appearing on a Friday broadcast of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Burnett said that the ongoing revolution in Egypt could threaten US interests in the region due to Egypt's history as an ally on matters pertaining to Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Webmaster's Commentary: If we would have spent as much developing alternative energy as we have pursuing these immoral and illegal wars to obtain oil and natural gas, we wouldn't need the oil from the Middle East any more. But historically, Burnett is correct in that the US has made a habit of supporting tinpot dictators to make sure that the oil flows, and at a reasonable price. Two examples of this are the US government's support of Ali Saleh in Yemen, and the House of Saud in Saudi Arabia. Yemen is now experiencing massive demonstrations; one has to wonder if Saudi Arabia will be next?!?
Alright people, if you can’t see it you’re not looking very closely. The dominoes are starting to tumble. All around the world, that unrest we have been expecting is rearing its revolutionary head. What will the outcome be? It’s going to be something different than the corpse feeding bankers, making bets on the sidelines, anticipate. For the moment it would be a good idea, for everyone with money that they need to put somewhere, to put it in a Muslim bank. It makes all kinds of good sense from all kinds of angles, or you could take it out of the bank altogether, just to show yourself how much you've been depending on them.
"You. House Boy. Barry. Barack. Whateveryournameis. You send a bunch of your kids to kill the Egyptians and keep our puppet in place. Right now! Or else!"
Anyone would be able to get a copy of President Barack Obama's birth records for a $100 fee under a bill introduced in the state Legislature that backers hope will finally dispel claims he was born elsewhere.
A multiple trillion dollar loss emanates from Wall Street and no crimes are committed? Will any form of real justice ever be served? Will those who facilitated and enabled this crisis to unfold ever be singled out? Are there individuals on both Wall Street and in Washington who just exhaled thinking, “We got away with it.”
Webmaster's Commentary:
I am sure they are watching Egypt (Syria, Jordan, Albania, Tunisia) right now and realizing that the American people have a far greater reason to be angry with their government than the people of those other nations.
They have not gotten away with it yet. Only in their graves will they be assured of being beyond the reach of the people.
On Thursday Jan 27th at 22:34 UTC the Egyptian Government effectively removed Egypt from the internet. Nearly all inbound and outbound connections to the web were shut down. The internet intelligence authority Renesys explains it here and confirms that "virtually all of Egypt's Internet addresses are now unreachable, worldwide." This has never happened before in the entire history of the internet, with a nation of this size. A block of this scale is completely unheard of, and Senator Joe Lieberman wants to be able to do the same thing in the US.
Internet service in Egypt was disrupted and the government deployed an elite special operations force in Cairo on Friday, hours before an anticipated new wave of anti-government protests. The developments were a sign that President Hosni Mubarak’s regime was toughening its crackdown following the biggest protests in years against his nearly 30-year rule. The counter-terror force, rarely seen on the streets, took up positions in strategic locations, including central Tahrir Square, site of the biggest demonstrations this week. Facebook and Twitter have helped drive this week’s protests. But by Thursday evening, those sites were disrupted, along with cell phone text messaging and BlackBerry Messenger services. Then the Internet went down.
With Egypt pretty a done deal, many are wondering who is next. Al Arabiya provides the answer: Syria has just shut down its internet service. And as one glance at the map below suggests, should this indeed be the case, and if Jordan promptly follows suit, Israel will be surrounded by revolutions. Which is surely a reason for WTI to plunge another 20%.
The truth is that the "establishment" is constantly trying to divide us and get us fighting with one another. They pit the Republicans against the Democrats (even as though control both sides). They pit one race against another. They pit one gender against another. We are told that the rich are against the poor, the north is against the south, urban is against rural and that there are even "generational battles" going on. Frustration and hate are rapidly growing in the United States today, and a lot of that frustration and hate is unfortunately aimed at the targets that the mainstream media has programmed all of us to hate.
As is the case with all the socio-political developments across the globe, social media emerged as a potent tool for the anti-government protestors in Egypt. Despite the blockade imposed on internet and mobile communication services by the authorities, photos and videos as well as responses to the Egypt unrest flood social media.Threatened by the possibility of what could follow if access to internet and other modes of communication continued, the authorities quickly turned to blockades.
As the Egyptian government suspends internet communications and bans protest, massive demonstrations manifest. Following in the steps of Tunisia, Egyptian protesters hope to exile President Mubarak, now in office for over 30 years.
Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters poured into the streets of Egypt Friday, stoning and confronting police who fired back with rubber bullets and tear gas in the most violent and chaotic scenes yet in the challenge to President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule. One protester was killed and even a Nobel Peace laureate was placed under house arrest after joining demonstrations.
We must tell congressman Peter King that making people who call in tips immune a nightmare waiting to happen on the people. Under the Bill of Rights. Americans have a right to confront there accusers and to bring forth witnesses for their defense. Making people who turn in their neighbors immune from any prosecution and being confronted by the accused is unconstitutional. The accusers credibility to be challenged and the validity of accusations is part of the accused right of due process.
Media in the Arab world are generally reporting cautiously on the protests rocking Egypt following the shakeup in Tunisia, but those in Iran are giving the turmoil prominent, almost gleeful, coverage. Sunni Egypt, viewed as the leader of the Arab world, and Shi’ite Iran are longstanding rivals. Iranian outlets, especially those linked to the government and establishment, are using terms like “revolution” and “uprising” to describe the protests, painting the demonstrators as heroic and giving headline treatment to voices predicting the downfall of President Hosni Mubarak...
Michael T. Klare warns us to, “Get ready for a rocky year. From now on, rising prices, powerful storms, severe droughts and floods, and other unexpected events are likely to play havoc with the fabric of global society, producing chaos and political unrest. It’s not surprising then that food and energy experts are beginning to warn that 2011 could be the year of living dangerously — and so could 2012, 2013, and on into the future.” Just weeks into the New Year things are not looking so good with rising prices already threatening to devastate a great part of humanity...
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