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QE Shell Game
by Stephen Lendman
Now you see it. Now you don't. QE III is the Fed's latest scam. A previous article quoted PIMCO's Bill Gross. He called it money printing "till the cows come home."
Doing it won't resolve festering economic problems. They're getting worse while Bernanke, the ECB, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, Congress, Obama, and like-minded world leaders fiddle.
After crisis conditions erupted in fall 2007, one scam followed another. Occupy Wall Street is right. "Banks got bailed out. We got sold out." It hasn't stopped and won't until either people rebel or the whole house of cards Greenspan/Bernanke built collapses.
Hamas & the Brotherhood: Homogenous ideology but variant concerns
Khalid Amayreh
Hamas thought the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's accession to power would create a dramatic transformation in Gaza, however, they have discovered their Brothers in Cairo have different priorities
When Mohamed Morsi was finally declared the winner in the hotly-contested Egyptian presidential election on 23 June, Hamas's supporters in the Gaza Strip reacted almost euphorically.
Overwhelmed by a feeling of ecstasy, Islamists of all ages paraded the streets, distributing sweets and shouting enthusiastic slogans in support of Egypt's new Islamist president and his (their) mother party, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas's legitimate mother.
Many congratulated each others on the "historic Islamist victory," made possible thanks to the Egypt's January 25 Revolution.
Education and Democracy
by Stephen Lendman
Democracy and an educated citizenry go hand in hand. Public education is the great equalizer. America's founders believed it was insurance against loss of liberty.
Jefferson said:
"Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories. And to render them safe, their minds must be improved to a certain degree."
Neil Postman perhaps is best known for saying "Americans are the most entertained and least informed people in the world." Most know little or nothing about what matters most.
Occupation Hell in Palestine
by Stephen Lendman
Forty-five years and counting. In 1977, John Pilger titled his documentary film "Palestine Is Still The Issue." It's no different today than then. In many respects, it's worse.
He said his film "was about a nation of people - the Palestinians - forced off their land and later subjected to a military occupation by Israel. An occupation condemned by the United Nations and almost every country in the world except Britain" and America. Add a couple of small Pacific islands that go along with everything Washington demands.
For its part, Israel has a powerful ally in America. US media scoundrels never broadcast Pilger's film. In August 2003, he said:
"So in 25 years, if we're to speak of the great injustice here, nothing changed. What has changed is that the Palestinians have fought back."
China in closed door negotiations to purchase Mexican crude oil without using US Dollars
Von Helman
the Pemex CEO Juan Jose Suarez Coppel
Sources inside the Mexican government refuse to confirm that the Mexico government has been in secret negotiations with China over possible crude oil sales to China without using the US dollar.
China officials claim meetings held with the Mexican government and Petróleos Mexicanos (or Pemex) are for investment and economic growth inside Mexico. Crude oil purchases fall under this heading however officials on both sides in the past have stopped short of publicly discussing crude oil or any talks related to any special agreements relating to crude oil purchases.
Score One for Hedges v. Obama
by Stephen Lendman
Southern District of New York federal Judge Katherine B. Forrest
On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong called his Apollo 11 landing "one step for man, a giant leap for mankind."
Hedges v. Obama perhaps reflects a baby step, if temporary, for justice.
On September 12, Southern District of New York federal Judge Katherine B. Forrest blocked Obama's indefinite detention law.
In her 112-page ruling, she called it "facially unconstitutional: it impermissibly impinges on guaranteed First Amendment rights and lacks sufficient definitional structure and protections to meet the requirements of due process."
Long Knives Target Iran
by Stephen Lendman
Mohammad Mossadeq
Some background:
February 11, 2012 marked the 33rd anniversary of Iran's 1979 revolution. It ended a generation of repressive rule under Washington's installed Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.
In 1953, CIA operative Kermit Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt's grandson and Franklin's cousin, engineered the Agency's first coup. Democratically elected Mohammad Mossadeq was ousted. The New York Times called him Iran's "most popular politician."
As late as 1977, Jimmy Carter declared Iran an "oasis of stability." He ignored years of brutal Shah repression. In January 1979, he fled the country. Ayatollah Khomeini returned. He proclaimed the Islamic Republic with overwhelming public support.
US officials thought they could control him. They thought wrong. Iran was free from Western dominance and didn't look back. Tensions escalated. Washington planned regime change. It remains US policy.
New Challenges Grip Lebanon’s Palestinian Camps
Franklin Lamb
Shatila Camp
The Sabra-Shatila Massacre: it seems like a dozen weeks, not 30 years ago. This year American citizens received messages to stay away from Beirut and the annual commemoration of the Israeli facilitated Massacre at Sabra-Shatila from their State Department and Beirut Embassy. The latter’s staff on 9/19/12 completed destroying sensitive documents and packing all non-essential items. The French government too told its citizens not to come to Beirut or participate in “mass gatherings because of concerns over sudden random violence”.
But they came. Despite the well-meaning admonitions from their governments, they came in numbers greater than ever before. They came to bear witness with the survivors and their families to the horror of this crime against Palestinians and to plead for justice.
One year after Troy Davis, more injustice on death row
Mary Shaw
September 21 marked the one-year anniversary of the death of Troy Davis. Davis was executed by the state of Georgia for a crime he probably did not commit. Davis's original trial was flawed, and there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime. His conviction was based solely on questionable testimony by witnesses, most of whom later recanted or contradicted their stories. Everyone from Jimmy Carter to the Pope had issued calls for clemency in his case. But the authorities killed him anyway.
Now Missouri is pursuing a very similar case, with death row inmate Reggie Clemons. As with the Davis case, there is no physical evidence linking Clemons to the crime for which he was convicted, and his conviction was based solely on witness testimony. One witness had been a former suspect in the case. In other words, here too there appears to be reasonable doubt as to the defendant's guilt.
The Summer of Muslim Discontent: It’s Not “The Amateur Film” Stupid[1]!
James Petras
Introduction
The so-called “Arab Spring:” is a distant and bitter memory to those who fought and struggled for a better world, not to speak of the thousands who lost, life and limb.
In its place, throughout the Muslim world, a new wave of reactionaries, corrupt and servile politicians have taken the reins of power buttressed by the same military, secret police and judicial power who sustained the previous rulers[2]. Death and destruction is rampant, poverty and misery has multiplied, law and order has broken down, retrograde thugs have seized political power, where previously they were a marginal force. Living standards have plunged, cities are devastated and commerce is paralyzed. And presiding over this “Arab Winter” are the Western powers, the US and EU, - with the aid of the despotic Gulf absolutist monarchies, their Turkish ally and a motley army of mercenary Islamic terrorists and their would-be exile spokespeople.
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