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Pakistan in Search of Change and New Leadership
Mahboob A. Khawaja, Ph.D.
American friendship is more dangerous than its publicly defined animosity. Rejecting cynicism but pondering on the US rationale of “war on terrorism”, there are ample similarities of the blueprint what happened in Iraq, the same fate could be waiting for Pakistan.
Nobody would cry nor would the sky fall if the corrupt Zardari regime is ousted by the voices of reason and a much desired non-partisan government is put in place to re-arrange the affairs of the nation……. The recent Wikileaks documents reveal how some of the Generals and the PPP politicians are accomplice to conspire against the interest of the people of Pakistan. Their mindset and behaviors belong to draconian age full of poisonous backdoor conspiracies for continued power sharing governance. The so called PPP operated democracy does not have roots in Pakistani society; it is a mere foreign illusion to destroy the nation by it sown agents. The political gangsterism has ruined the life of ordinary Pakistanis. These agents of foreign rule have no sense of fear and shame that emboldens them to commit any wicked and cruel crime against the freedom and security of Pakistan.
Salam Fayyad: Israel's Man in Palestine
by Stephen Lendman
His resume includes a University of Texas economics Ph.D., a teaching position at Jordan's Yarmouk University, and economic research at the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank. From 1987 - 1995, he also served as a World Bank and IMF official, and until 2001, was IMF's man in Palestine, serving as Yasser Arafat's finance minister.
In Palestine's 2006 legislative elections, his Third Way party got 2.4% of the votes, a clear renunciation. Yet after Fatah's coup d'etat co-opted the PLO, PA and West Bank, President Mahmoud Abbas illegitimately appointed him prime minister.
The New York Times calls him "a political independent who gained the confidence of the West and is largely respected in Israel." In fact, he's a political opportunist, Israel's man in Palestine. Also Washington's. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Nathan J. Brown calls him "indispensable to US diplomacy....confusing a useful individual with sound policy." He's mainly improved security, providing enforcer services for Israel against his own people.
Oppressors and liars, and they call themselves a light upon the nations
By Khalid Amayreh
When Israeli President Shimon President was pressed by some human rights organizations to stop the practice of "administrative detention" of Palestinian intellectuals, he claimed that "Palestinians who don't hurl fire bombs and who don't shoot have nothing to fear." Peres were lying through his teeth as usual because nearly all victims of administrative detention have not indulged in any illegal activity.
Administrative detention is very much like taking hostages. One is snatched from his home and family by the Israeli occupation army (and now by the Palestinian Authority-PA- forces) and kept behind bars for months or years without charge or trial). I remember one of these seemingly perpetual detainees, Mustafa Shawar of Hebron telling me that he begged the Israeli military judge to inform him why he was being kept in jail.
Planet Overkill
Mickey Z.
"Everything in excess is opposed to nature." - Hippocrates
Back in the Cold War days, a useful myth was that of extreme Soviet supremacy. Surely, if the godless communists, hell bent on world domination, were allowed to surpass US military might…well, you get the picture. Author Edward Herman once defined the "Soviet threat" as "a large and formidable beast of prey, the size of whose claws and fangs varied with the demands of the Military-Industrial Complex." As journalist Ken Silverstein explains: "It’s now virtually undisputed that the menace once attributed to the Red Army was greatly overrated."
On the topic of overrated, I'm reminded of another America delusion: the protein myth. In the US, the typical adult ingests 100 grams of protein every day—roughly four to five times the amount recommended by scientists not affiliated with meat and dairy corporations. The average American, in his/her lifetime will consume 12 sheep, 15 cows, 24 hogs, 900 chickens, and 1000 lbs. of assorted animals (like fish). How did we ever develop this idea that more is better when it comes to protein, especially animal protein?
Israel begrudges Palestine its fragile tourism
By Stuart Littlewood
Israel lobby here in the UK is creating a storm in an advertising teacup in a bid to throw a spanner in the works of Palestinian tourism.
The Jerusalem Post reports that Britain's advertising watchdog has launched an investigation into "a barrage of complaints" over a ‘Travel Palestine’ advert in the National Geographic magazine because it "appears to blot out the existence of the State of Israel".
The Palestinians’ modest attempt to attract tourists to their country was promptly met by the Israel lobby’s ‘usual suspects’ squealing their indignation and making fatuous territorial claims.
The advert was published by the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. According to the Jerusalem Post, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said it had received 60 complaints. The Zionist Federation of the UK, for example, grumbled that the advert was misleading as it gave the “false impression” that Palestine is a country; that Jerusalem is part of Palestine; and that Palestine extends from the Mediterranean to the River Jordan.
The Amoral, Psychiatric--Pharmaceutical Victimization of Foster Children in the United States of America
by Fred Baughman, MD
Re: "The Medication of Foster Children", PBS (video) January 7, 2011
Foster children are unfortunates without parents and families, not a medical population—not victims of a disease or epidemic. I would add here that increasingly, foster children are children “kidnapped” by government—by child protective services and family courts, their parents having had the audacity to resist the psychiatric labeling and drugging and having been charged with “medical neglect” for their audacity.
Like children in US public schools 10 to 15 percent of whom are psychiatrically labeled and drugged, foster children are medically, physically normal, having only emotional, educational, and social needs to be met. As of 2007, 5.4 million US schoolchildren were said to have so-called ADHD, the majority of them on addictive, dangerous, and deadly amphetamines stunting their growth, their brain size (denied by the manufacturers and their experts), causing psychoses leading to suicide and homicide, and a seven-fold increase in sudden cardiac death.
Ecology and Islam: review of Abdul-Matin's "Green Deen" (2010)
Eric Walberg
Muslim Americans are slowly beginning to make their mark on their conflicted society. There are more Muslims than Jews in the US now --approximately 5 million. They are the most diverse of all American believers, 35 per cent born in the US (25 per cent Afro-American), the rest -- immigrants from southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Traditionally they have voted Republican, but have shifted to Democrat and Green parties in recent years.
Ibrahim Abdul-Matin is the son of black converts, raised in New York, a community organiser now environmental adviser to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. His book about Islam and the environment -- Green Deen -- is a stimulating overview of both the US environmental movement and how American Muslims are becoming part of it, bringing their own unique perspective.
Abdul-Matin sees the weakness of the environmental movement today in its secular, legalist approach to problems: pass enough laws and you can curb the negative practices of business and consumers, and push them along an environmentally-friendly path.
Why Hezbollah walked
Franklin Lamb, South Beirut
“ In case no one has noticed, the Obama administration just gifted Lebanon to Iran. Washington earlier presented Iraq, Afghanistan, the Gulf, and Pakistan. Could it be more clear that Iran’s strategic trump card is America’s subservience to Israel? For Iran, Israel’s strangle hold on the US government is the gift that keeps on giving. ” With his comment, my neighbor, Lebanese Human Rights Ambassador Ali Khalil, declared American hegemony in the region was on a slippery and descending slope and that yesterday’s political maneuvering in Lebanon likely accelerated American withdrawal.
My other neighbors in South Beirut appeared to go to bed early last night following the day’s events which saw the collapsed of Lebanon’s US-Saudi and Israeli backed government. Some, like my American and Lebanese roommates were planning for quick evacuations should our Hezbollah neighborhood-watch guys give us that special knock on the door. Two rapid raps and a shouted “Yalla!” (Let’s go) and it’s time to head north fast without looking back. The reason is because, like many here, some neighbors fear Israel might use this latest government crisis to invade Lebanon again.
A renegade, lawless and murderous state
By Khalid Amayreh
Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, have been complaining about the increasing "de-legitimization" of the Zionist state across the world. Netanyahu, who is a skilled media operator, said that Israel "needs to de-legitimize the de-legitimizers".
However, a fleeting glance at recent Israeli actions shows that Israel is a nefarious, lawless and murderous entity whose representatives commit murder and terrorism knowingly and deliberately against innocent people. In doing so, it is they who "de-legitimize" the state of Israel.
Murder, even when "mistaken", is Israel's modus operandi when dealing with its real or imaginary foes, whoever and wherever they happen to be. Some of the murder victims are apolitical figures, innocent people whose killing has no possible justification other than the "need" to make the other party suffer psychologically.
Hard Times in Illinois
by Stephen Lendman
With America's worst budget crisis per capita, Illinois reflects the crushing nationwide burden facing most states. As a result since 2008, they raised taxes, made big cuts in health care (including Medicaid), education and other social services. They also laid off thousands of state workers, cut pay and benefits for others, and plan more of the same going forward.
Collectively in FY 2011, state governments face about a $140 billion deficit, besides major shortfalls in large and small cities. In fact, according to Nick Johnson of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, this year "will actually be the most difficult budget year for states ever," and 2012 may be as or more challenging.
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