Len Hart

It was last fall, as Americans dared hope that a new administration would take office just in time to save America, Bush announced a first big 'bailout' which would, we were told, prevent a financial collapse, a great depression, a panic! Not least among many reasons the bailout failed is the fact that the wrong people got the money. Although Richard Nixon has famously claimed "We are all Keynesians now", nothing could be further from the truth now. Thanks to the misplaced reverence for Augustus Reagan, we are all still Friedman monetarists now. That is why the bailout failed and it is the reason future bailouts will fail unless something is done to address the root cause of collapse: the wrong people got the money!

It was only last fall that the FED and officials of the Treasury Department 'rode to the rescue' of all the wrong people, specifically, the very financial institutions that created this mess to begin with. In the wake of all this failure, incompetence and criminality, there great hand wringing, wailing, gnashing of teeth because the 'n' word has been utter. Nationalize the banks! At this point, it won't make any difference. As 'the Who' famously said, 'the new boss, same as the old boss'. What is needed is not a new boss following the same, tired, failed policies. What is needed is some intelligent thinking about what drives economies! Here are some clues: banks do not drive economies. Rich elites do not drive economies. Governments do not drive economies. Big corporations do not drive economies though many board chairs are deluded and believe themselves to be 'captains of industry'. Bullshit!

Full story »

Colonel Ghulam Sarwar (RET)

The new American government's attitude is shocking and very disappointing, because as it reaches out its hand of friendship to the Muslim world, it also talks about extending the war on terror in Afghanistan, making it the longest war ever fought in American history.

9/11 will be always remembered because it caused the whole world to be ablaze with peace and harmony, uniting against terror. With the passage of the time, these flames are getting hotter, and the saddest part of it is that the innocent Afghan people are being punished for a crime they did not commit. The poor citizens of that country are being recklessly attacked with bombs, making every street and market of full of blood, as if the lives of these poor innocent citizens are worthless.

The behavior of the attacking countries, which boast of their adherence to human rights, is so shocking that they practically seem to be monsters. It would not be irrelevant to draw the attention of the reader to the fact that on 9/11 the entire security system of America apparently collapsed for some time. Even more surprising was the attitude of the American government in dealing with the failure of the American security system, as not a single concerned official was punished for their negligence. This delinquent negligence of the American government on such an important issue supports the theory that American agencies were involved in the 9/11 attacks and that the whole thing was part of a well-planned conspiracy.

Full story »

Khalid Amayreh

“The ‘main surprise’ of the recent Israeli elections
Avigdor Lieberman is a man who really has much
in common with Adolph Hitler.”

In the early 1930s, many in Germany saw the Nazis as the wave for the future. Thousands of new members joined the Nazi party, giving absolute allegiance to the Fuhrer, Adolph Hitler. In the spring of 1932, with six million unemployed, chaos in Berlin, starvation and ruin as well as the threat of Marxism, and a very uncertain future, the masses turned to Hitler by the millions.

In the German presidential elections, which took place on March 13, 1932, Hitler received over 11 million votes or 30 percent of the total. His opponent, President Hindenburg, received more than 18 million votes or 49 percent.

With Hindenburg failing to get the absolute majority he needed, Hitler seized the opportunity and immediately embarked on a frantic campaign, arousing national feelings and promising something for everyone. In the Third Reich, he said, every German girl would find a husband.

Eventually, on a dark, rainy Sunday, April 10, 1932, the people voted, giving Hitler nearly 13.5 million votes, or 36 percent of the total, with Hindenburg receiving 19.3 million votes. After some political changes, in January 1933, Hitler took the reins of the German republic, being appointed as Chancellor. We all know the rest of the story.

Full story »

Stephen Lendman

On February 15, Venezuelans voted on whether to let presidents, National Assembly representatives, governors, mayors, and state legislators run indefinitely for re-election after Chavez last December proposed a national referendum for constitutional change - so voters, not politicians could decide.

Sunday they spoke decisively in favor by a 54.4% to 45.6% margin with over 94% of votes counted. Chavez didn't win. Venezuelans did for Bolivarian continuity and against oligarch dominance, no democracy, and back to an impoverished state.

Since 1999, Chavez transformed Venezuela to what it is today:

Full story »

Paul Craig Roberts

Why does Israel have a right to exist, but Palestine doesn’t?

This is the question of our time.

For sixty years Israelis have been stealing Palestine from Palestinians. There are maps available on the Internet and in Israeli publications showing the shrinkage over time of what was once Palestine into what Palestine is today—a small number of unconnected ghettos or bantustans.

Palestine became "the occupied territory" from which Palestinians were ejected and Israeli settlements built for "settlers." Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are full of refugee camps in which Palestinians driven off their lands by Israeli force have been living for years now.

Driving people off their land is strictly illegal under international law, but Israel has been getting away with it for decades.

Full story »

Interview by Ahmadreza Tavassoli

Unfortunately most of the people in the world, because of massive negative propaganda run by some media corporations, consider Iran as an unfriendly country. But when people visit Iran, they see a reality which is very different from the perception created by the mainstream media. Instead they find a country which has close to 15000 years of recorded history and civilization with a very attractive literature and culture and of course with the warmest people.

Dr. Philip Price is an American tourist who came to Iran in April 1999 to see his Iranian friend Mohammad. Before that, he had visited some other countries like Italy, Mexico, Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece. So he is very familiar with different people and cultures.

Now 10 years later, I had an opportunity for a friendly conversation with him about his memorable trip to Iran. I think what he has to say will be interesting for people who want to see the facts and other sides of Iran.

Full story »

Ali Abunimah

[PHOTO: Israeli riot police argue with Palestinian and Jewish citizens of Israel protesting against racism outside a polling station in Um al-Fahem during the Israeli elections, 10 February 2009. (Oren Ziv/ActiveStills)]

Whenever Israel has an election, pundits begin the usual refrain that hopes for peace depend on the "peace camp" -- formerly represented by the Labor party, but now by Tzipi Livni's Kadima -- prevailing over the anti-peace right, led by the Likud.

This has never been true, and makes even less sense as Israeli parties begin coalition talks after Tuesday's election. Yes, the "peace camp" helped launch the "peace process," but it did much more to undermine the chances for a just settlement.

Full story »

Marjorie Cohn

A Call to End All Renditions: The U.S. government should disclose the names, fate, and whereabouts of all persons rendered by the CIA since 2001.

Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian residing in Britain, said he was tortured after being sent to Morocco and Afghanistan in 2002 by the U.S. government. Mohamed was transferred to Guantánamo in 2004 and all terrorism charges against him were dismissed last year. Mohamed was a victim of extraordinary rendition, in which a person is abducted without any legal proceedings and transferred to a foreign country for detention and interrogation, often tortured.

Mohamed and four other plaintiffs are accusing Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. of flying them to other countries and secret CIA camps where they were tortured. In Mohamed’s case, two British justices accused the Bush administration of pressuring the British government to block the release of evidence that was “relevant to allegations of torture” of Mohamed.

Twenty-five lines edited out of the court documents included details about how Mohamed’s genitals were sliced with a scalpel as well as other torture methods so extreme that waterboarding “is very far down the list of things they did,” according to a British official quoted by the Telegraph (UK).

Full story »

Paul J. Balles

Paul J. Balles argues that decent Americans need to reconsider their willing support of Israeli pathological murderers currently in control of the US – people who openly describe Palestinian civilians as “human animals” that should be slaughtered.

What kind of thinking explains why it is so easy for Israelis to slaughter 3500 civilians in Gaza, 40 per cent of whom were children? The Israeli murderers were fully aware of their incomparably strong armaments. They launched at least 2500 air-raids on Gaza, dropping more than 1000 tons of explosives, including phosphorous bombs, against a relatively helpless population.

Full story »

John Hoefle

We have said, repeatedly, that the attempts to bail out the global banking system, including the U.S. banks, are not working, will not work, and can not work. Not only will they not restore the banking system to solvency, but they are actually making the economic crisis worse.

There are several problems with the bailout process. One is that the global financial system, with its quadrillion dollars-plus derivatives bets and hundreds of trillions of dollars of worthless securities and unpayable debts, is hopelessly insolvent. This is, and has been from the beginning, a full-blown banking crisis; the widely touted "subprime crisis" and "credit crunch" were marketing slogans created for the purpose of hiding the true nature of the problem, and positioning the banks to lobby for a public bailout under the guise of protecting the so-called "little guy."

Full story »