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Hail to the Thief: The New York Times Defends Mikhail Khodorkovsky
by Stephen Lendman
On October 25, 2003, Khodorkovsky (below called MK) was arrested for tax evasion and corruption, dating from when the Soviet Union dissolved and state privatizations followed. "Behind every great fortune lies a great crime," explained Honore de Balzac. Billionaire Russian oligarchs, like MK, illegitimately amassed great fortunes, avoiding prosecution during Yeltsin's tenure (1991 - 1999).
Beginning in 1991, various socio-economic measures were implemented without public discussion or parliamentary approval. Most important were Yeltsin's personal directives, creating a billionaire aristocracy handed the economy's most important, profitable sectors, free of charge - literally a license to loot.
Will 2011 see the creation of Palestine?
Khaled Amayreh
A Palestinian rioter, left, throws a stone at Israeli border police during
clashes in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan
With the peace process going
nowhere, and the US having failed in its role as broker, Palestinian leaders are considering their options.
Palestinian Authority (PA) officials in Ramallah are reluctant to give an unequivocal answer to the question of whether 2011 will see the establishment of the state of Palestine. International goodwill is certainly what many Palestinians are pinning their hopes on. However, international goodwill alone won't be enough, especially if Israel resorts to stonewalling and if its guardian-ally, the United States, refuses to rein in Israeli intransigence and unilateralism.
The LBJ-CIA Assassination of JFK
By Robert Morrow
Lyndon Johnson made a dirty deal with CIA Republicans to murder John Kennedy in the 1963 Coup d’Etat. (People like Clint Murchison Sr., H.L. Hunt, Nelson Rockefeller, David Rockefeller, top Nelson Rockefeller aide Henry Kissinger, George Herbert Walker Bush and Gen. Edward Lansdale all are excellent candidates for elite sponsorship.) Lyndon Johnson and Allen Dulles may very well have been co-CEOs of the JFK assassination; with the CIA in charge of the killing of JFK, and Lyndon Johnson and (his close friend and neighbor of 19 years in Washington, DC) FBI director J. Edgar Hoover in charge of the cover up.
Clint Murchison, Sr – more so than even H.L. Hunt – was a key player in the JFK assassination because of his close ties to the inner core of US intelligence (Allen Dulles, Nelson Rockefeller, John J. McCloy), close ties to Lyndon Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI, bankers Rockefellers; Murchison was even friends with key Kennedy-hater mafia godfather Carlos Marcellos of New Orleans. Not only that, Murchison, Sr. was a patient and partner of Dr. Alton Oschner, the former president of the American Cancer Society and who ran covert cancer research for the CIA. Oschner, likewise was a Kennedy-hater. John Simkin: “One of Ochsner's friends described him as being ‘like a fundamentalist preacher in the sense that the fight against communism was the only subject that he would talk about, or even allow you to talk about, in his presence.”
Four Polygamous Families with Congenital Birth Defects from Fallujah, Iraq
By International Journal of Environmental Research of Public Health 2010
1. Introduction
In Fallujah (Iraq), birth defects, with prevalence of congenital heart defects (CHD) and neural tube defects (NTD), have reached in 2010 unprecedented numbers, above the World average [1]. Lack of a comprehensive birth registry has made it difficult to make an accurate comparison with the pre war period and to understand modalities and dimension of this unusual occurrence in Fallujah. We thus introduced a protocol allowing for reconstruction of the reproductive history of families with birth defects in Fallujah that allows to see the pattern of their presentation in time. We present here the analysis of four cases of fathers with two lineages of progeny, chosen among more than 50 cases under study. Birth defects presented here are classified according to the primary defect as NTD (neural tube defects), CHD (cardiac birth defects), SK (skeletal defects), even when they have additional phenotypes, or O (others). Modalities of presentation within each family suggest that epigenetic factors may be at the origin of the mechanisms responsible for these defects. The timing of the birth defect occurrences suggests that they may be related to war-associated long-term exposure to contamination.
Haiti's Elections: Illegitimately Recounting Fraud
by Stephen Lendman
Haiti's November 28 elections were irremediably fraudulent, farcical and outrageous. The entire process was rigged. New elections, including all excluded parties, are essential, but not planned. Instead, so-called independent OAS experts began recounting verification to legitimize fraud. According to Albert Ramdin, Assistant OAS Secretary General:
Recounting will be secretive behind closed doors. No public statement will be made until final results are announced, likely early in January. Team members will "look at all systems and then....agree on how (to) proceed" instead of trashing junk tally sheets and starting over.
Networks of Empire and Realignments of World Power
James Petras
Imperial states build networks which link economic, military and political activities into a coherent mutually reinforcing system. This task is largely performed by the various institutions of the imperial state. Thus imperial action is not always directly economic, as military action in one country or region is necessary to open or protect economic zones. Nor are all military actions decided by economic interests if the leading sector of the imperial state is decidedly militarist.
Moreover, the sequence of imperial action may vary according to the particular conditions necessary for empire building. Thus state aid may buy collaborators; military intervention may secure client regimes followed later by private investors. In other circumstances, the entry of private corporations may precede state intervention.
Decline and Fall (Maybe) January 1, 2011
The Happy New Year Edition (with some good news about 2011)
Michael Collins
The Money Party. Lots of fiddling while Rome and the rest of the world burned. Knowledge is power and among the ruling elite in the United States, the power was off. Somebody forgot to pay the bill or paid with a bad check, no doubt.
A Decade of Job Stagnation In 2000, 135 million citizens were employed. In 2010 there were 139 million Americans employed. Given the 9.7% increase in population since 2000, we would expect to see at least 148 million citizens with jobs. Nobody much wants to talk about this or the true unemployment figures produced by the US Census called "U6". That measure accounts for, "Total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force." Bureau of Labor Statistics
The "U6" unemployment figure is 17%, well above the official 9.8% we hear all the time. The official number accounts for 15 million citizens. But when we use U6, we add 9 million citizens forced by economic conditions to work less than they want in part time jobs and 2.5 million marginally attached to the work force - those who gave up looking and get no benefits. That gives us a real world total of 26.5 million citizens out of work or working part time against their will.
President Obama and the US Generals in Search of Navigational Change
By Mahboob A. Khawaja, Ph.D
H.G. Wells (Outline of History), once noted on the fall and decline of the Roman Empire: “so began the first of the most wasteful and disastrous series of wars that has ever darkened the history of mankind.” The 21st century US-British leaders share the same verdict of history that typifies what can go wrong with men who claim political ingenuity. In an age of global accountability, it is a staunch warning to the leaders that they are not above the laws and cannot escape the consequences of their treachery and wickedness. The global humanity flourishes with live conscience, not as digits and numbers on the electoral billboard but expects the leaders to be accountable for their role and performance. The mankind lives in one world on one planet. War waged by aggressors in one part of the planet, is a war against the whole of the mankind. Since the elected leaders faltered to deliver peace, they must be questioned for their treacherous role-play. There is no shortage of visionary, competent and intelligent people in the Western societies. Perhaps, the call of time will reinforce the demand to hire leaders who could serve the interest of the people for peace and lead the nations rather than waste time, money and hopes and disregard institutionalized political cynicism and bigotry - not Bush, not Cheney, not Blair and certainly not Rumsfeld - they are all candidates for war crimes against humanity.
Any respect for International law left in the US Congress?
By Franklin Lamb
This week marks the second anniversary of among the most savage criminal slaughters of human life in long memory. The 522 hour indiscriminate carnage, “Cast Lead” that killed 1,417 Palestinians, mostly civilians, 352 of them children, injuring for life more than 5,300 , indicts Israel as well as those countries that continue to supply it weapons, diplomatic cover and to enforce Israel’s illegal siege on sealed Gaza.
The US administration, as revealed in a State Department cable posted by Wikileaks, has been working overtime with Israel to parry further condemnation of Israeli crimes documented in the Richard Goldstone and Richard Falk Reports, among others. These investigations established massive violations of human rights and international law, war crimes, and possible crimes against humanity while refuting claims by Israel that it acted according to the limited international right of self-defense. Goldstone, Falk and others have demonstrated that it was both the victims of Cast Lead and the Mavi Marmara who alone possessed the right of self defense in light of Israel’s agressions, not Israel.
Hail to the Chief: Spinning Obama's Presidency
by Stephen Lendman
As if on cue, major media reports hailed "the Comeback Kid." In Obama's December 22 press conference, Reuters' Caren Bohan asked:
"You racked up a lot of wins in the last few weeks that a lot of people thought would be difficult to come by. Are you ready to call yourself the 'comeback kid?' "
CBS News anchor Katie Couric gushed about how "the president isn't calling himself the 'comeback kid,' but some other folks are."
From ABC News came Jake Tapper offering "congratulations," and George Stephanopoulos saying:
"The president takes a victory lap. How the Christmas season became what he called a 'season of progress.' Will it continue in the new year?"
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