Pages: << 1 ... 784 785 786 787 788 789 790 791 792 793 794 ... 1279 >>
Drone Warfare in Yemen
by Stephen Lendman
Predator drones sanitize killing on the cheap compared to manned aircraft and ground troops. Teams of remote warriors work far from, and at times, closer to battlefields.
Drone pilots operate computer keyboards and multiple monitors. Sensor staff work with them. They handle TV and infrared cameras, as well as other high-tech drone sensors. Faceless enemies nearby or half a world away are attacked. Virtual war kills like sport.
At day's end, home-based operators head there for dinner, relaxation, family time, then a good night sleep before another day guiding weapons with joysticks and monitors like computer games. Dozens of drone command centers operate worldwide. Dozens more are planned. Pentagon and CIA personnel run them. Some are bare bones. Climate-controlled trailers work fine. They operate effectively anywhere. They maintain constant radio contact with command centers.
UAE leads an anti-Iranian alliance
Kourosh Ziabari
The United Arab Emirates officials are burning with a low blue flame. They have once again started insulting the Iranian nation using an arrogant and offensive language. What has irritated them this time is the recent visit paid by the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the Iranian island of Abu Musa in the Persian Gulf as part of his provincial trip to the southern province of Hormozgan on April 11. They claim that the island belongs to their soil and that Iran has violated their territorial integrity by continuing its "occupation" of the strategic island.
Daring to Criticize Israel
by Stephen Lendman
Addressing this issue responsibly risks rebuke, ostracism, or job loss. For some, it's a career ender. Scoundrel media writers and broadcasters are vulnerable. So are university professors.
Joel Kovel lost his Bard College position for writing books like "Overcoming Zionism" and calling Israel "a machine for the manufacture of human rights abuses."
DePaul University denied Norman Finkelstein tenure. It then fired him for speaking out and writing books like "The Holocaust Industry."
Political activism and honesty about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict also cost tenured professor Denis Rancourt his University of Ottawa job.
UCLA Professor David Delgado Shorter's now targeted. His academic freedom's at stake. On April 4, department chair Professor Angelia Leung rebuked him. She said his web site was being reviewed for posting inappropriate material pertaining to the academic and cultural boycott of Israel. More on that below.
The Shark Whisperer
By Chantal Boccaccio
Cristina Zenato is an enigma; a quiet symphony of fire and passion wrapped in a little girls body. A world-renowned diver, mentored by diving legend Ben Rose, Zenato defies any sort of traditional labeling as shes undeniably One Of A Kind.
--As well as a tireless champion for shark awareness.
This pint sized Italian, part ballerina, part fish out of water, has the ability to coax- what some might call- mans most feared predator, literally, into the palm of her hand.
But dont call them Predators to her face, because to Cristina Zenato, theyre simply family.
Zenatos astounding ability to lull the oceans predators into a trance-like state, allows her to literally hold what some consider the world's deadliest animals in the palm of her hand.
Her techniques have allowed her to globally share behavioral data, tend to injured sharks, extract DNA and engage in rescues that might otherwise prove too precarious.
Glorifying Israel Shames Harvard
by Stephen Lendman
Harvard's motto is "VERITAS (truth)." Its shield displays it. So do rings students buy.
It wasn't present at Harvard's April 19 - 20 Israel Conference (IC). Perhaps an invitation wasn't extended.
IC was billed as a "first of its kind on Harvard's campus." Initiated by Israeli students, they "wanted to bring the Israeli spirit to campus the way they see it - as that of a vibrant, innovative and eternally optimistic state."
"VERITAS" was nowhere in sight. Neither was occupation harshness. Exclusion was more than oversight. Expect little change next year at another session. Topics this year were poor ones. Featuring them concealed reality. Guests were worse. More on them below.
In March, Harvard held a One State Conference. Its purpose was to "to educate ourselves and others about the possible contours of a one-state solution and the challenges that stand in the way of its realization."
Dying to Live Free
by Stephen Lendman
Israel's prison gulag is one of the world's most hellish. Palestinians held suffer horrifically. Inflicting pain and suffering is official Israeli policy. Rule of law principles are spurned.
Virtually all Palestinians held are political prisoners. Refusing food is their only resistance weapon. The Addameer Prisoner Support group estimates about 2,000 now engage in open-ended hunger strikes. Most began on April 17, Palestinian Prisoners Day.
Israel responded as expected. More pain and suffering was inflicted. Detainees are attacked and beaten. Personal possessions were confiscated. Electricity was cut off. Salt for water is prohibited.
Transfers are made harsher locations. Solitary confinement is imposed. Visits by family members and lawyers are denied. Addameer said its attorneys can't get access.
Land Day: Why It Matters
By Stephen Lendman
In 1948, Israel stole 78% of Palestine. In 1967, they took the rest. The Israeli/Palestinian conflict remains the longest unresolved one of our time.
Long denied justice awaits. Western complicity with Israel prevents Palestinians from living free. So did Arafat's Oslo surrender. Abbas and PA cronies continue working against their own people for whatever benefits they derive.
Palestine's an isolated prison. State terror is official Israeli policy. So is attacking nonviolent Palestinian protesters. Edward Said once said, "Jonathan Swift, thou shouldst be living at this hour."
He'd blanche at how bad things are now. We all should and do something about it. Change depends on it.
Occupied Palestine is the region's epicenter. Israeli police state terror suffocates Palestinians for not being Jews. An inexorable quest for dominance and corrupted self-interest deny justice.
Zio-Nazi group attacks academics critical of Israel
Khalid Amayreh
A small supremacist Jewish group is launching a smear campaign against a number of professors and academics on North American campuses for daring to criticize racist Israeli policies against native Palestinians.
The group, called Campus Watch and headed by David Horowitz, an extremist Zionist stalwart, has published advertisements inciting to hatred against a number of prominent professors on American campuses.
The academics are accused of vilifying Israel and of indulging in hate speech that would endanger the very existence of the apartheid Israeli state.
However, it is widely thought that the witch-hunt campaign is aimed first and foremost at silencing legitimate criticisms of murderous and brutal Israeli practices. College campuses are considered the last bastion of liberalism in the United States where right-wing Jewish robber barons and Christian Zionist groups are joining forces to suppress freedom of speech and expression.
Israel's Gulag Prison Hell
by Stephen Lendman
For decades, Palestinians have been slaughtered, displaced, intimidated, humiliated, collectively punished, and denied equal rights as Jews. They've also been mass imprisoned.
Palestine is Israeli occupied territory. Military orders govern all aspects of daily life. Democratic rights are denied. Freedom is a non-starter, persecution a way of life.
Gaza is an open-air prison. The West Bank and East Jerusalem fare little better. Life in Occupied Palestine for about 4.2 million residents is hell. No one's safe from Israel's wrath.
According to the Addameer Prisoner Support group, over 700,000 Palestinians were imprisoned since June 1967. Over 20% of the population was affected. For males, it's 40%. For women, it's about 10,000 and for children around 7,000 since 2000 alone.
A Nation of Morons
by Stephen Lendman
Jefferson called an educated citizenry "a vital requisite for our survival as a free people."
Madison warned that "A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy, or, perhaps both."
Jack Kennedy said "The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all."
In 1748, Montesquieu said "The tyranny of a principal in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy."
In a June 1950 commencement speech, Boston University President Daniel Marsh said, "If the (television) craze continues....we are destined to have a nation of morons."
Well before television arrived, journalist Walter Lippmann called the public "the bewildered herd." In policy matters, their function is to be "spectators," not "participants."
<< 1 ... 784 785 786 787 788 789 790 791 792 793 794 ... 1279 >>
