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Arab League impotence continues & What a mess the Arab world is in
By Alan Hart
A thought constantly in my mind, and which was reinforced by the Arab League’s 25th Summit in Kuwait, is that with Arab leaders and governments as “enemies” the Zionist state of Israel does not need friends.
The Arab League was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945. Its six founding member states were Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan (renamed Jordan in 1949) Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Today the Arab League has 22 members (though Syria’s membership has been suspended since November 2011).
Question: In terms of significant, positive contributions to regional and international affairs, what has the Arab League got to show for its 69 years of existence?
Israeli Crimes Go Unpunished
by Stephen Lendman
They're longstanding. They continue daily. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) highlights them. It did so in its 2013 annual report.
PCHR Director Raji Sourani called 2013 "the worst year ever due to the Israeli crimes which went unpunished…"
"(T)he world's silence towards Israel's closure of any door to justice in the face of the Palestinian victims (includes) pressure exerted on countries which adopt universal jurisdiction…"
Israeli war criminals want immunity. They want unrestricted freedom to brutalize Palestinians unaccountably. They want slow-motion genocide continued against besieged Gazans.
They want thousands of Palestinian political prisoners to suffer unjustly. Cruel and unusual treatment is official Israeli policy. Mercy is verboten
Palmyrenes: Risking their lives to preserve our Global Cultural Heritage
Franklin Lamb
Palmyra, Homs Governorate, Syria
This observer, seemingly ever miscalculates life’s realities. For example, he deluded himself recently into believing that Hezbollah guys were about the wildest, luckiest and fastest drivers from the archeological sites in Baalbek in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, or for a fast trip from the charming village of Britel, to Beirut’s southern suburbs. Even if one takes a public passenger van (the fare is just $ 7.50) and the driver is pro-Resistance, which he usually is, the trip takes only a bit more than half the time than with a more “normal” Lebanese van driver. But these “H guys” as Americans living in Dahiyeh, often refer to them; remind one of some of the more snail-paced rural southern Iowan Sunday drivers compared to how some Syrian taxis drive these days, particularly at night, on the main highways of Syria, as I was just reminded.
Why I Am a Conscientious Objector To The ACA
By Margaret Flowers
I have been an outspoken advocate for a Medicare for all health system. During the health reform process, I did all that I could to push for single payer, including being arrested three times for civil disobedience. I was one of fifty doctors who filed a brief in the Supreme Court which expressed opposition to forcing people to buy private health insurance, a defective product. It pains me to see that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) siphons billions of public dollars to create more bureaucracy and transfers hundreds of billions of public dollars directly to the private insurance industry when I know that those dollars should be paying for the health care that so many in our country desperately need.
IMF “Shock Treatment” for Ukraine: Collapse of the Standard of Living
By Prof Michel Chossudovsky
On March 27, Ukraine’s interim coalition government announced concrete policy measures as part of its agreement with the IMF: a 50 percent increase of the retail price of gas coupled with the deregulation of the foreign exchange market.
The hike in gas prices is required by the IMF as part of an 18 Billion dollar pledge, which was approved on March 27. The IMF has demanded that retail gas and heating tariffs be raised “to full cost recovery.”
It is worth recalling that following the instatement of a coalition government on February 23, the interim (puppet) prime minister Arseny Yatsenyuk casually dismissed the need to negotiate with the IMF.
Yatsenyk intimated that Ukraine will “accept whatever offer the IMF and the EU made” (voice of russia.com March 21, 2014)
Prior to the conduct of negotiations pertaining to a draft agreement, Yatsenyuk had already called for an unconditional acceptance of the IMF package: “We have no other choice but to accept the IMF offer”.
The Real Evil Empire
by Stephen Lendman
None in human history compare to America. It's by far the most lawless. It's the world's most egregious civil and human rights abuser.
It's done more harm to more people for longer than any combination of other nations. None match its ruthlessness.
It's genocidal legacy is longstanding. It began in pre-colonial days. Expanding America from sea to shining sea claimed tens of millions of lives.
Mass extermination became policy. Centuries of slaughter reduced America's indigenous population to a tiny fraction of its original numbers.
Ward Churchill's chilling quote bears repeating. He minced no words, saying:
Millions were "hacked apart with axes and swords, burned alive and trampled under horses, hunted as game and fed to dogs, shot, beaten, stabbed, scalped for bounty, hanged on meathooks and thrown over the sides of ships at sea, worked to death as slave laborers, intentionally starved and frozen to death during a multitude of forced marches and internments, and, in an unknown number of instances, deliberately infected with epidemic diseases."
Plundering Ukraine for Profit
by Stephen Lendman
On March 27, an IMF press release headlined "IMF Staff Level Agreement with Ukraine on US $14 - 18 billion Stand-By Arrangement."
Nikolay Gueorguiev is IMF Mission Chief for Ukraine. He's loan shark chief in charge of plundering it for profit. He issued a statement, saying in part:
"The mission has reached a staff-level agreement with the authorities of Ukraine on an economic reform program that can be supported by a two-year Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) with the IMF."
"The financial support from the broader international community that the program will unlock amounts to US$27 billion over the next two years."
"Of this, assistance from the IMF will range between US$14-18 billion, with the precise amount to be determined once all bilateral and multilateral support is accounted for."
Willful Medical Negligence in Israeli Prisons
by Stephen Lendman
UN Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners affirm their fundamental rights. They require they "be treated with the respect due to their inherent dignity and value as human beings."
"There shall be no discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status."
"(A)ll prisoners shall be discharged in keeping with a State's other social objectives and its fundamental responsibilities for promoting the well-being and development of all members of society."
International human rights law prohibits cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. It affirms the right to health.
It requires all members of society receive proper treatment to the extent feasible. Incarceration is no excuse to deny them.
Article 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) requires treating "(a)ll persons deprived of their liberty (with) humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person."
Obama Sells Confrontation with Russia
by Stephen Lendman
On Wednesday, Obama spoke at Brussels' Palais des Beaux-Arts (Palace of Fine Arts). Lies, damn lies, and demagogic Russia bashing were featured.
He duplicitously hailed Western "ideals." They're being "tested," he said. US policy is polar opposite deceptive rhetoric. His address was a beginning-to-end litany of lies.
He outrageously said America "believe(s) in democracy, with elections that are free and fair, and independent judiciaries and opposition parties, civil society and uncensored information so that individuals can make their own choices."
"Yes, we believe in open economies based on free markets and innovation and individual initiative and entrepreneurship and trade and investment that creates a broader prosperity."
"And yes, we believe in human dignity, that every person is created equal - no matter who you are or what you look like or who you love or where you come from."
NYT Editors Front for Power
by Stephen Lendman
The New York Times is an establishment broadsheet. It's the leading one. It dates from September 18, 1851. Its feature stories get worldwide coverage.
Its editors are notorious. They support wealth, power and privilege. They're on the wrong site of history. They defend the indefensible.
They're in lockstep with Western imperial lawlessness. They endorse US global dominance.
They turn a blind eye to homeland police state repression. They're mindless about disappearing freedoms.
They ignore monied interests running America. They support what demands condemnation.
The so-called newspaper of record is the closest thing to an official US ministry of misinformation and propaganda.
Reports, editorials, commentaries and op-eds are biased. They're one-way. They ignore what readers most need to know.
Vital truths are buried. Managed news misinformation substitutes. Rare exceptions prove the rule.
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