by Stephen Lendman

America's First Amendment affirms it. So does Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It states "(e)veryone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

In December 1993, the UN General Assembly declared May 3 World Press Freedom Day. Following the recommendation of UNESCO's General Conference, it did so to:

• "celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom;
• assess the state of press freedom throughout the world;
• defend the media from attacks on their independence; (and)
• pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty."

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By John Roth
I am a male over 60 and have [or had] a serious health problem that I tried to ignore for the last three years. I tried every holistic treatment, supplement, vitamin and herb under the sun.

During that period my gastrointestinal tract quit working three times. I had a lot of trouble breathing and although I had the urge nothing would come out of my body. You get the picture.

[Disclaimer: The following is not a medical article]

Since I consider the hospital a dangerous place I refused to go to the Emergency Room. Not only do I avoid the Hospital like the plague I don’t go to doctors. When I was a kid, before modern medicine and “specialists,” our doctor, Abe Greenberg, carried a black bag and took an oath, Primum non nocere, "First, do no harm"). Doctor Greenberg in 1950, 10 years before iatrogenic disease became a reality [Appendix A], had this to say about the sick:

• 95% of the people who are sick will get better by themselves.
• 2.5% will get better with very little help.
• The rest you can’t help anyway so leave them alone.

For Dr. Greenberg to be “politically and medically correct” he would have said:

• 95% of the people who are sick, and who never went to a doctor and were never exposed to an epidemic or pandemic [Appendix B], will get better by themselves.
• 2.5% will get better with very little help.
• The rest you can’t help anyway so leave them alone.

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By Khalid Amayreh

Israeli ambassador to the United State Michael Oren recently tried to bully CBS to kill a story exposing Israeli persecution, harassment and mistreatment of Palestinian Christians, forcing many of them to emigrate.

Oren, a Jewish supremacist, reportedly described the '60 Minutes' broadcast of 12+ minute story on Israel's mistreatment of Palestinian Christians as "a strategic threat" to Israel. He didn't explain how a short documentary would be a threat to a nuclear power that is armed to the teeth and which also happens to tightly control the government and Congress of the only superpower on the planet, namely the United States.

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by FRANKLIN LAMB
Tripoli, Lebanon

It would be an incautious stretch to suggest any sort of parity between Watergate and the unfolding Lutfallah II arms shipment-to-Syria drama, that each day brings more revelations. But some of what we are daily learning about the who, what and why of Lutfallah II reminds some of us of a Watergate, type atmosphere including “bit by bit, drip by drip” revelations, denials, setting up fall guys and remarkable examples of incompetence.

The still unfolding Lutfallah II weapons running misadventure, in which a claimed Syrian-owned vessel registered in Sierra Leone but apparently flying the Egyptian flag, was detained off the Lebanese port of Batoun, by the Lebanese Army Marines because it was sailing too high in the water, and appeared “suspicious,” and was then found to contain 300,000 pounds of weapons may erupt unpredictably with serious political consequences for the region.

“Deepthroat”, the FBI mole who met secretly with Woodward & Bernstein and leaked confidential US government information to the duo, as revenge against President Nixon for rejecting him as successor to the deceased FBI Director, J.Edgar Hoover, outed himself in 2005. “Deepthroat”, after a quarter century of hundreds of sleuths trying to divine, if he/she even existed, turned out to be none other than Deputy Director of the FBI, William Mark Felt, Sr. “Deepthroat” repeated advice to the Washington Post reporters was to “Follow the Money!”

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by Stephen Lendman

France replicates most Western societies. Elections give voters little choice at best. Most often there's none. Two dominant parties usually compete. In France, there's three.

On April 22, first round presidential election voting took place. Three main parties competed. Former Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) leader and current president, Nicolas Sarkozy, faced two main challengers

He squared off against Socialist Party's (PS) Francois Hollande and the far right National Front's (FN) Marine Le Pen.

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