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Abbas Feeling Heavy-Handed Pressure
by Stephen Lendman
Washington wants Abbas' UN membership Security Council application tabled in limbo for months. On September 28, it was sent to a standing admissions committee.
On September 30, New York Times writer Neil MacFarquhar headlined, "Palestinian Request Sent to Experts," saying:
"The Security Council membership committee referred the Palestinian request for full (UN) membership to its experts on Friday to evaluate whether it meets the criteria for statehood."
Why the New Security Zone along the Canadian Border?
By Michael Collins
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) just issued an environmental report on its enhanced security plan to cover an area extending from the East Coast to the West Coast, from the northern border of the United States to 100 miles south of the border. While there are few specifics on the new security measures, the environmental report offers enough to see how we will be protected against threats to national security coming from Canada. The Department of Homeland security will enhance efforts and technologies to reduce the danger from "known terrorist affiliates and extremist groups [that] have an undisputed presence along the Northern Border in both the United States and Canada." Northern Border Security Programs, p. 1-3, September 2011 (Northern Border) (Image: thelastminute)
In 2006 the American Civil Liberties Union exposed the expansion of border control activities to within 100 miles of any point on the U.S. border. ACLU labeled this area the Constitution Free Zone. Search and seizure options at border checkpoints are not constrained by the Fourth Amendment to the U.S Constitution, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure. Now, thanks to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), just because they're within 100 miles of the nearest border nearly 200 million citizens are subject to searching and procedures that previously were used exclusively at border checkpoints.
What do they have in store for citizens on the northern border?
Black America and Obama: The Cost of Silence
Written by Frederick Alexander Meade
Since the 2008 election of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States, numerous constituencies have experienced some measure of social uplift as they have exercised their political strength in compelling the administration to advance their interests.
This reality prevails, as the Hispanic community, ever politically cognizant of Obama’s campaign promises ensuring his commitment to the body’s general prosperity, observed the 2009 nomination and installment of Justice Sonia Sotomayor to the United States Supreme Court.
Latino Americans would further realize a social triumph, as this population in the late spring and summer months of last year asserted their increasing political might in pressuring the White House to maneuver on behalf the collective in halting Arizona’s veiled efforts to establish an apartheid state in its attempt to enact Arizona Senate Bill 1070.
Beyond the Palestinians’ Crisis, A larger conflict is now in process
by Dan Lieberman
The closer the Arab nations get to achieving nationalist aspirations and political acceptance of their Muslim Brotherhoods, the more intense becomes their conflict with Israel. That trend has happened, and with it the conflict's trajectory becomes predictable.
President Obama's closest neighbor must know. While occupying a tent across from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in a twenty year vigil for world peace, diminutive but mighty Concepcion Picciotto interfaced with a sufficient number of Americans and surveyed the public pulse. After campaigning for Palestinian rights and an equitable solution to the Middle East crisis for two decades, the nation capital’s most famous activist offered a wry and defeating conclusion; nothing has changed and nothing will change. Israel continues unimpeded in its quest to obtain the entire West Bank, and no external or internal force is prepared to halt the endeavor and the eventual destruction of those whose ancestors resided in the land for centuries. If any powerful force cared, and many exist in the western world, wouldn't it have applied its power in the past and be active today? The American people haven't learned anything.
SHEARED BY THE SHORTS: HOW SPECULATORS FLEECE INVESTORS
Ellen Brown
“Unrestrained financial exploitations have been one of the great causes of our present tragic condition.” -- President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933
Why did gold and silver stocks just get hammered, at a time when commodities are considered a safe haven against widespread global uncertainty? The answer, according to Bill Murphy’s newsletter LeMetropoleCafe.com, is that the sector has been the target of massive short selling. For some popular precious metal stocks, close to half the trades have been “phantom” sales by short sellers who did not actually own the stock.
Latin America: Growth, Stability and Inequalities: Lessons for the US and EU
James Petras
Introduction: Images of the Past
The image of Latin America portrayed by the mass media and held by the educated public is a region of frequent coups, periodical revolutions, perpetual military dictatorships, alternating boom and bust economies and an ever-present International Monetary Fund (IMF) dictating economic policy.
In contrast the same opinion makers plus their academic counterparts project images of the United States and the European Union as stable societies, with steady economic growth, incremental expansion of social welfare programs, resolving issues via consensual compromises and practicing sound fiscal policies.
Prison Hell in America
by Stephen Lendman
Prison is hell everywhere. America is no different in, by far, the world's largest gulag. Inmates are treated worse than subhumans.
Torture is commonly used. It not just at Guantanamo and similar offshore hellholes. It happens across America in federal, state and local prisons where inmates are terrorized by dogs, shocked with cattle prods, burned by toxic chemicals, harmed by stun guns, beaten, stripped naked, raped, and abused in other ways.
In July 2008, the Southern California ACLU (ACLU/SC) released a "Report on Mental Health Issues at Los Angeles County Jail." It discussed how confinement in overcrowded conditions produces an epidemic of unaddressed mental health issues.
Palestinian UN Membership Roulette
by Stephen Lendman
As Palestinian legal advisor in 1987, Law Professor Francis Boyle drafted its Declaration of Independence, creating a Palestinian state.
Palestinians now want and deserve official recognition and full de jure UN membership. Washington and Israel remain obstructionist.
Doing so further isolates both countries. Globally, Obama and Netanyahu are laughing stocks, more caricatures than leaders.
Turkey redraws Sykes-Picot
Eric Walberg
A new Bermuda Triangle has been spotted, but this one is in the eastern Mediterranean -- between Turkey, Cyprus and Israel.
Turkey’s foreign policy shift is now in full gear. Having kicked out the Israeli ambassador and rejected the UN Palmer Report, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says that Turkey plans to take its case against Israel’s blockade of Gaza to the International Court of Justice, not alone, but with the support of the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the African Union. “The process will probably reach a certain point in October and we will make our application.”
Entrapping Muslims in America
by Stephen Lendman
Post-9/11, American Muslims became fair game, targeting them for their faith, ethnicity, and at times prominence and charity.
As a result, they've been ruthlessly vilified and exploited as "war on terror" scapegoats for political advantage.
Entrapment is commonly used. Guilt or innocence doesn't matter, just the illusion that America is safer when, in fact, every victim assures greater insecurity and fear. Many are left wondering who's next.
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