From: International Movement to Open Rafah Border

The 39 members of the delegation are still stranded inside the Egyptian border compound and they are still trying to enter into Gaza.

After allowing them to enter and stamping theirs passports, Egyptian authorities took them back their passports and denied them to cross the border, telling them to go back to Al Arish.

The whole delegation is always inside the compound and they refuse to leave.

Full story »

Allen L Roland

Three dead Americans in Iraq ~ why ?

War is a waste so why do we celebrate it with parades, flags and glorious war stories when, in reality, they are fought by our youth who are but pawns in the hands of old men ~ seduced by power and greed ~ who are more than willing to waste our most precious resource:

On this Memorial Day 2009, America is still enmeshed in a costly and illegal war and occupation of Iraq, rapidly increasing its military presence in Afghanistan and preparing for the possibility of war with Iran. American defense secretary Gates told NBC television today that president has instructed him to refresh plans for military action against Tehran ~ prepared during the Bush era. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/1,7340,L-3720065,00.html

Full story »

Franklin Lamb Beirut

“We don’t know where the Der Spiegel magazine did get their information from and we don’t know where they brought this story from. No one in the prosecutor’s office has spoken to the German magazine about anything. We have a clear policy of not leaking any information about the tribunal through media outlets, and we have been stressing this since the beginning. When Der Spiegel spoke about Bellemar’s spokesperson, they meant me. They emailed me and asked a few questions. My answer was that the tribunal does not deal with investigation files through the media and adopts the policy of direct announcement by the part of Mr. Bellemar.If we had something to say, we would have said it directly, not through media outlets.”

Radiya Ashouri, Spokeswoman for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) (5/24/09)

Full story »

Len Hart

Of the many ways in which a ruling elite of just one percent of the US population wages war upon the American people, the denial of health to everyone but the rich is the most evil. This is a direct result of the GOP/right wing domination of America since the rise of Ronald Reagan. Today, just one percent of the population is in a position to deny everyone but very, very rich a right to even basic health care. Denied this right, millions will die that might have lived productive and meaningful lives. This is not merely a matter of personal loss; it is that of the nation.

Since the GOP ascension to power began with the rise of Ronald Reagan in the early 80s, American wealth has been re-distributed upward. Gini indices evinced a dramatic shift upward even as Ronald Reagan still ruled. Those indices, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, prove that only the uppper quintile had benefited from Reagan's widely touted tax cuts'.

Although this trend reversed under Clinton, the GOP wasted no time in undoing the good that had been done. Under Bush Jr, the GOP transfer of wealth to the ruling aristocracy, the ruling elite was resumed. Today --just one percent or less of the US populations earns more and owns more than 90 percent of the rest of us combined. As a result, 90 percent of us are priced out of the markets for better homes, cars and other consumables, but most importantly crucial essentials like health care. The effects of these policies are transparent. These effects are achived so predictably, so methodically and so consistently that I am entirely justified in charging that it is all done deliberately.

Full story »

Stephen Lendman

On March 15, 2006, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly 170 to 4 (with only the US, Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau against) "to establish the Human Rights Council (HRC), based in Geneva, in replacement of the Commission on Human Rights, as a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly....responsible for promoting universal respect for the protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction of any kind and in a fair and equal manner."

HRC "is an inter-governmental body within the UN system made up of 47 states responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe."

Full story »

Andrew Hughes

After 8 years of the Bush-Cheney nightmare during which we saw the wanton destruction of Afghanistan and Iraq, the cynical negation of centuries of Law designed to protect the most basic human rights and a foreign policy worthy of Genghis Khan, there came along the "Great Black Hope" in the persona of Barack Obama. The collective world consciousness turned uncritically to what was presented as a new era for peace, change and trust in Government.

Full story »

eileen fleming

Dr. Patch Adams CODE PINK Photo © Dana Balicki

USA, May 23, (Pal Telegraph), United Nations human rights investigators announced this week that they intend to enter Gaza in early June to hold public hearings on whether war crimes were committed between December 27 to January 18th, during Israel's invasion on Gaza which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, over 900 were civilians, and destroyed over 4,000 homes and buildings. 50,000 were displaced on top of a brutal three years of economic blockade.

Israel's investigation of its armed forces last month exonerated the troops, but "international human rights groups have called for a credible independent investigation into the conduct of Israeli troops in Gaza, including the destruction of several Gazan residential areas and firing artillery shells containing white phosphorous which can cause severe burns...The U.N. team will also investigate allegations that Hamas fighters fired rockets at civilian targets in southern Israel." [1]

Full story »

Roland Michel Tremblay

I used to believe I was following a destiny. I could even tell you what that destiny was.

I asked my Mentor what value I should put on one’s life. I asked my Mentor what meaning I should give to my life. You must have asked yourself the same questions recently, or else, are you sure you are worthy of being such a good Citizen, such a good Christian? Would you like to know what my Mentor told me? You are dying to find out, as we are dying to find answers to these questions. Well he told me… nothing, as I have no mentor. I am my own master.

That’s the secret of this existence, you are your own master. You make out of this life whatever you want. Let’s just hope you are an ethical and moral human being at the core and cannot so easily be influenced into believing anything and everything floating around in the heavens. Or you will quickly be joining the ranks in the never ending extermination of all Muslims from this Earth. And what will this achieve in the end? I’m not sure.

Full story »

Allen L Roland, Ph.D.

Lies, omissions and deceit were the trademarks of the Cheney/Bush administration and they were on full display yesterday during Dick Cheney's self-serving address at the American Enterprise Institute ~ but here, at long last, are the facts: Allen L Roland

Dick Cheney's defense of his approval of interrogation policies which included waterboarding - simulated drowning that's considered a form of torture - forced nakedness and sleep deprivation, were that they were "legal" and produced information that "prevented the violent death of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent people."

Full story »

Stephen Lendman

This writer just completed a six-part series on Ellen Brown's remarkable 2007 book titled "Web of Debt." This article follows from it by picking up on the theme she struck, using L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" as a combination parable, monetary allegory, and political manifesto for change at a time it's most needed.

Published in 1900 as an American fairytale, it became a popular staple, later made into the classic 1939 film staring Judy Garland, the 1975 award-winning Broadway musical, The Wiz, featuring the first-ever all-black cast, followed by a hit film on the stage production.

As Brown explained, who would have thought this "charming tale....was drawn from that most obscure and tedious of subjects, banking and finance," and (in the wrong hands) the chokehold they have on societies. Who understood that it was "all about people power, manifesting your dreams, (and) finding what you wanted in your own backyard." Who also could have imagined that "the real-life folk heros who inspired (Baum's) plot may have had the answer to" today's global economic crisis.

Full story »