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Freedom: An Endangered Species in America
by Stephen Lendman
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Last September, marking the 9/11 tenth anniversary, the ACLU published a report titled, A Call to Courage: Reclaiming Our Liberties Ten Years After 9/11."
Who then could have imagined America engaged in:
- out-of-control imperial lawlessness;
- torture as official policy;
- extraordinary renditions;
- targeted killings;
- warrantless searches;
Targeting Journalists in Iraq
by Stephen Lendman
March 19 marks Operation Iraqi Freedom's 9th anniversary. Brutal occupation continues. Thousands of US forces remain.
Obama's alleged pullout repositioned troops nearby and left many there. Moreover, an army of paramilitary killers infest the country.
Overall conditions are grim, including millions of refugees, mass poverty and deprivation, rampant human rights and civil liberty abuses, and lack of basic services, including clean water, sanitation, electricity, health care and education.
PA security agency harasses non-conformist Journalist
From Khalid Amayreh
This is not the first time I'm subjected to harassment and abuse at the hands of Palestinian Authority (PA) security operatives. On several occasions, I had been abused, imprisoned and humiliated by these agencies. In one episode in 2009, I was made to sleep in a rancid cell after reporting that PA police were preventing and brutally suppressing demonstrations against Israel in protest against Israel 's 2008-09 genocidal blitzkrieg against the Gaza Strip.
The turbulent 2011 at a glance
Kourosh Ziabari
2011 was a turbulent year for the world. With chained revolutions in the Arab world, mounting financial crisis in Europe and the unprecedented wave of protests and mass demonstrations in the U.S. against the corporate system of the government which has long swallowed the rights of the defenseless majority of the people voraciously, one can call 2011 the year of global unrest and tumult.
For Iran, 2011 was also a challenging year. Benefiting from the all-out backing of the Western mainstream media, the apartheid regime of Israel for several times renewed its hawkish war threats against the Islamic Republic and repeatedly used an aggressive rhetoric against the people of Iran, threatening them with various military options which the United States and certain European governments embraced willingly and enthusiastically.
Targeting Journalists Covering OWS Protests
by Stephen Lendman
On September, 17, 2011, US Day of Rage.org organized protests in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, OR, and Austin, TX.
They hoped many more would follow, grow, and spread nationwide. Indeed they have to over 1,000 large and small cities, towns, and communities.
"We have had enough," they said. "Help us reclaim democracy." Currently, many social justice issues drive them. In response, police violence confronts them.
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan admitted coordinating crackdown efforts with counterparts in other cities.
Examiner.com reporter Rick Ellis said an anonymous federal official told him that "in several (late 2011) conference calls and briefings, local police agencies were advised to seek a legal reason to evict residents of tent cities, focusing on zoning laws and existing curfew rules."
Marwan Barghouti: Prisoner of Conscience
by Stephen Lendman
From March 29 - May 3, 2002, during the second Intifada, Israel conducted Operation Defensive Shield. Before Cast Lead, it was its largest military operation since June 1967 when Israel occupied Palestine.
On September 23, 2001, a warrant was issued for Barghouti's arrest. On April 14, 2002, he was arrested on spurious charges of murder, aiding and abetting murder, promoting murder, criminal conspiracy, and being an active member of a terrorist organization.
At the time he said:
"I am a political leader, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, elected by my people. Israel has no right to try me, to accuse me, to judge me. This is a violation of international law. I have a (legal) right to resist occupation."
On September 5, his trial began. Barghouti disputed its legitimacy under international law. On December 12, Judge Zvi Gurfinkel ruled as follows:
Obama's New Military Strategy
by Stephen Lendman
Obama's January 5 Pentagon news conference reeked of duplicity like all his pronouncements. Surrounded by Joint Chiefs of Staff, hawkishness took center stage.
Stressing a leaner, more agile/flexible military, he said counterterrorism, intelligence and cyberwarfare will be emphasized without sacrificing America's superiority against global enemies.
So will subversion, destabilization, drone killings, other targeted assassinations, global state terrorism, and permanent war.
Libyan Violence and Instability
by Stephen Lendman
NATO's killing machine ravaged a nonbelligerent country posing no threat. Tyranny replaced Jamahiriya government. Violence followed stability.
On January 3, Middle East Online contributor Jay Deshnukh headlined, "Ex-rebels' war for money, power: Fierce clashes erupt in Tripoli," saying:
In central Tripoli, fighting claimed two lives as "former rebels from....Misurata clashed with....ex-fighters from the Libyan capital, witnesses said."
Promoting War on Iran
by Stephen Lendman
In June 2009, a Brookings Institution report titled, "Which Path to Persia? Options for a New American Strategy Toward Iran" was a regime change policy paper. Pro-Israeli right-wing ideologues prepared it, including:
(1) Martin Indyk: former US ambassador to Israel, currently Brookings foreign policy director.
(2) Kenneth Pollack: Former CIA analyst and National Security Council staff member; current Council on Foreign Relations member and Brookings Saban Center for Middle East Policy research director.
(3) Michael O'Hanlon: Former Congressional Budget Office national security analyst, currently Brookings senior fellow for defense and military policy.
(4) Bruce Riedel: Former CIA counterterrorism specialist and assistant to the President and senior director for Near East Affairs on the National Security Council; current Brookings foreign policy senior fellow.
(5) Suzanne Maloney: Former State Department policy advisor, currently Brookings foreign policy senior fellow.
(6) Daniel Byman: Former 9/11 Commission staff member; currently Brookings Saban Center for Middle East Policy research director and Georgetown University security studies professor.
Obama Plans More War
by Stephen Lendman
On January 5, Obama held a first ever administration Pentagon news conference. Its thinly veiled hawkishness explained his 2012 military agenda.
Its Asia/Pacific region policy challenges China and Russia. Its Middle East presence stresses confrontation and belligerency. Globally it plans relying increasingly on naval and air power. It also stresses destabilization, confrontation, and war when other methods don't turn independent states into client ones.
He stressed counterbalancing China and Iran. Undeclared strategy includes confrontation and belligerency. Mindful of Republican opposition to defense cuts, he said America will "avoid repeating the mistakes of the past when our military was left ill-prepared for the future. As commander-in-chief, I will not let that happen again. Not on my watch."
Claiming nuclear weapons proliferation, he pointed fingers at Iran. In response, he said "(w)e're going to stay vigilant.....In addition, investments in counterterrorism, intelligence, and cyberwarfare" will be emphasized.
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