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.

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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."

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Bill Van Auken

[PHOTO: U.S. occupation soldiers try to free a body trapped inside an armored vehicle with a body of a puppet ( quisling ) Iraq soldier in the foreground near the city of Baqouba, 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad on Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2007 after the occupation army unit hit an improvised explosive device. Photo: AP/Karel Prinsloo.]

Recent media reports on the mounting evidence of wholesale corruption in US reconstruction efforts in Iraq are symptomatic of the criminal nature of Washington’s war and occupation from their inception nearly six years ago. These crimes are continuing under the Obama administration, with no end in sight.

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I wish I was a graphic artist, 'cuz I just designed (in my muddled head) a great new Nobama T-shirt. All I can do is describe it . . .

Background: the popular headshot image of the prez, but not in the colors that remind me of a bruise I developed on my shoulder in 1968, the result of a just-missed-my-noggin swing of a riot stick by a cop who took exception to my use of the word "pig" in reference to his ugly self. No, the colors are shades of gray - nothing quite white, nothing quite black. Perfect.

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Deb Reich / Abu Ghosh

The following essay was written by a very dear friend. She has been involved in solidarity work involving Palestinians and Israelis for many years…. she speaks from the heart. [Steve Amsel]

Most people will say I’m delusional; that’s okay. I will say what I have to say anyway. When your opinion is way out on the periphery, it may mean you are delusional - or it may just mean that the so-called center has gradually drifted closer and closer to a very high cliff, and finally fallen off the edge, while the majority of the population follows along like a horde of doomed lemmings. In that scenario, someone needs to stake out a position at the other extreme and drag the locus of the center back from oblivion. So here goes.

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Steve Amsel

The ballots have been counted…… yet there is no government. This has been the norm in Israel since Menachem Begin stepped down as Prime Minister in 1983. There have been ‘rotations’, coalitions, but no real governing body.

As I write this the two leading Parties, Kadima and Likud, are desperately seeking ways to form a coalition with those Parties willing to work with them. Common denominator being the continuation of the occupation, the expansion of illegal settlements, and the draining of resources belonging to other countries.

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Norm Lowry

“The foundation of all Mental Illness is the unwillingness to experience legitimate suffering.” Carl Jung

Lately, I have been inordinately baffled. The combined government & media sources of the world tell the tale of whole countries sitting on the edge of fiscal insolvency; civil unrest now becoming commonplace; starvation & suicide deaths soaring; staggering rises in unemployment; food shortages; rising threats & escalating wars. In my country (USA), the stories are the same…maybe 46 of 50 States, 80% of US cities & 2 of 3 US banks are fiscally insolvent; likely 1 of 5 workers unemployed or working part-time (due to lack of suitable employment); home foreclosures up 80% in 2008 (worse yet expected in 2009).

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