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Federal Judge Rules Against Mass Surveillance
by Stephen Lendman
On December 16, Federal District Court of the District of Columbia Judge Richard Leon issued a damning 68-page ruling. He called NSA spying unconstitutional. It's "almost Orwellian," he said.
"The threshold issue is whether plaintiffs have a reasonable expectation of privacy that is violated when the Government indiscriminately collects their telephone metadata along with the metadata of hundreds of millions of other citizens without any particularized suspicion of wrongdoing, retains all of that metadata for five years, and then queries, analyzes, and investigates that data without prior judicial approval of the investigative targets."
"I cannot imagine a more 'indiscriminate' and 'arbitrary' invasion than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval."
Memories of South Africa
Joel S. Hirschhorn
Earlier this year I had the great pleasure to visit South Africa. Compared to most Americans, the passing of Nelson Mandela brought tears to my eyes many times as I recalled being in many of the places being shown on countless news shows.
In particular, I was fortunate in spending significant time with several black elderly South Africans who knew Mandela and were prisoners also, and who spoke in considerable detail about the horrors of living in the apartheid society. Nothing I have seen and heard on many news outlets has presented the true horrors of what life was like for not only blacks but also other people of color in the apartheid society. There were virtually no freedoms whatsoever for nonwhites and the blacks suffered the most. I recall listening to these apartheid experts and feeling absolutely bewildered that the apartheid government and society could actually have been created and prospered for so many decades.
US Scholars Endorse Boycotting Israel
by Stephen Lendman
The American Studies Association (ASA) is the nation's oldest and largest organization involved in the interdisciplinary study of US culture and history.
In 1951, it was chartered. It has 5,000 members. It's affiliated with 2,200 libraries and other institutional subscribers.
Members represent many academic disciplines. They include history, literature, religion, art, architecture, philosophy, music, science, ethnic studies, anthropology, sociology, political science, education, and gender studies among others.
Members include academics, researchers, librarians, and public officials and administrators.
On December 16, ASA headlined "ASA Members Vote to Endorse Academic Boycott of Israel." They did so decisively. Over 66% of members support doing so. Less than 31% opposed. Another 3.4% abstained.
Gaza's Humanitarian Crisis Deepens
by Stephen Lendman
Israel's lawless siege caused Gazans unspeakable misery. It shows no signs of ending. It got worse. Around 1.8 million people are affected.
Mother nature wasn't kind. Once in a century storm conditions exacerbated human misery. Fierce winds and torrential rain battered the Strip. They began last Wednesday. They continued into the weekend.
Ordinary Gazans explain things best. On Friday, Mohammed Omer painted a nightmarish scenario. It makes grim reading, saying:
On Monday, the Palestine News Network headlined "Gaza Suffers after Storm."
"It is cold, there is no power, and I am charging my computer using a car battery in order to get this message out."
On Friday, things got worse. Gaza's Disaster Response Committee said Israel opened nearby dams. Doing so flooded numerous residential areas. Emergency conditions were exacerbated.
The Sycophantic Palestinian Solidarity Movement
By Gilad Atzmon
In the Palestinian Solidarity Movement we really love celebrities – those famous, rather special people who write great books, play musical instruments (drums included) or even just think great thoughts. We like those people to stand up for Palestine and denounce ‘Zionism’, ‘Israeli Colonialism’ and ‘Apartheid.’ We love them - as long as they don’t say what they really think.
Here’s the problem. Celebrities are often famous and successful because they’re clever and independent. Unlike our progressive, dysfunctional activists, who in most cases lives on income support and repeat our ‘party line’, the celebrity is a confident, career-oriented, self-sufficient subject and, because of their capacity to make autonomous decisions, he or she is assertive and thriving . In short, the activist and the celebrity are made of very different stuff – so a collision is inevitable.
Washington's Dirty Game in Ukraine
by Stephen Lendman
Weeks of Ukraine street protests continue. Washington's dirty hands are involved. They're manipulating things disruptively. Imperial ruthlessness operates this way.
International law is clear and unequivocal. Meddling in the internal affairs of other countries is illegal. Doing so is longstanding US policy.
It's to eliminate independent sovereign states. It's about replacing them with pro-Western vassal ones.
It's about weakening major rivals. It aims to eliminate them altogether if possible. It's for unchallenged global dominance.
It's to make the world safe for corporate American profiteers. John Perkins was an "economic hit man." He explained, saying:
"(H)ighly paid professionals cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars."
'Good' Syrian rebels on run - Saudis ask Putin for help
Michael Collins
In that case, the end result would be a negotiating table with the Syrian government and the U.S. backed rebels on one side and the Saudi backed Islamist Front on the other. Stranger things have happened lately but not much stranger than this extrapolation.
Will there be any 'good' Syrian rebels left to provide credible representation at the January United States - Russia sponsored Geneva II peace conference?
The U.S. favored rebel group, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), experienced major setbacks in December. On the first, the Syrian Arab Army killed a key FSA commander in Daraa Province in southern Syria. On the eighth, "the top Western-backed rebel commander in Syria," General Salim Idris, head of the FSA, fled Syria after an Al Qaeda aligned rebel faction took over FSA weapons warehouses north of Aleppo near the Syria-Turkey border. On December 15, an Al Qaeda affiliated rebel group killed another FSA regional commander in a town near Aleppo.
The Myth of Turkish Secularism
By David Boyajian
Turkey is a secular state. So claim its government and nearly all mainstream Western media. They are mistaken.
In civilized, democratic countries, secularism means not only a respectful separation between church and state but also freedom of religion. As we shall demonstrate, Turkish policies have long been the antithesis of secularism.
The Turkish government massively supports and funds Islam – specifically Sunni Islam - inside the country. Turkey simultaneously represses religions such as Alevism, and bullies and persecutes indigenous Christians, most of whom it liquidated in 20th century genocides. Moreover, it uses Islam to project Turkish political power into Europe, Asia, and elsewhere. Turkey’s system is more properly termed State Islam.
This article is not a criticism of Islam or its faithful. We respect both. Turkey’s secularism myth, nevertheless, cries out to be laid bare.
Making the World Safe for War Profiteers
by Stephen Lendman
Adam Smith said governments are "instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor." Wars are waged to make them richer.
Howard Zinn called war "terrorism magnified a hundred times." Make it many thousands of times.
Michael Parenti said "the best way to win a Nobel Peace Prize (is) to wage war or support those who wage (it) instead of peace."
In his book titled "The Face of Imperialism
Waging wars requires selling them. Public support is needed. Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky call it "Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
Yemen: Chaos, Conflict And Revolution
By: Sufyan bin Uzayr
Yemen. The very name of this country brings many thoughts to one’s mind. It happens to be one of the oldest centres of civilization in the region, and is currently the second largest country in the Arabian Peninsula. If that does not impress you, Yemen is also the only state in the Arabian Peninsula to have a purely republican form of government, and was the first country in the region to grant voting rights to women.
A nice resume, indeed! Sadly, of late Yemen has not made it to the papers for the right reasons. As harsh as it may sound, present-day Yemen is far from perfect.
Some Historical Context
Yemeni unification occurred back in 1990 when North Yemen (officially Yemen Arab Republic) was united with South Yemen (PDR of Yemen). What seemed to be a peaceful unification later on led to an atmosphere of civil war and the quest for power-grab ensued -- you know how it goes!
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