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The Secret and Profitable World of Intelligence and Narcotrafficking
Antifascist
When Afghan drug kingpin Haji Bashir Noorzai was arrested in New York in 2005, it set off a chain of events that continue to echo today.
A federal jury in Manhattan convicted Noorzai September 22, for his involvement in an international narcotics trafficking conspiracy that sold tens of millions of dollars of heroin on world markets. The drug lord now faces life in prison and will be sentenced on January 7.
But things aren't always what they seem.
Noorzai, described by federal investigators and journalists as "the richest man in Afghanistan," enjoyed close and cosy relations with the Taliban's top leader Mullah Omar, al-Qaeda and Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence agency (ISI).
Indeed, Noorzai had become one of the capo tutti capos of Afghanistan's flourishing heroin rackets and profited handsomely from the protection of his Taliban "friends," his ISI mentors and allegedly the CIA.
The Washington Post reported December 27, that Noorzai's New York arrest was aided by a private security outfit, Rosetta Research and Consulting, a firm founded in 2003 by two "businessmen" which the Post refuses to name "because of the sensitive nature of their undercover work."
The Israeli holocaust in Gaza -Some reflections
Khalid Amayreh
The virtual holocaust Israel is now waging against the Gaza Strip is taking its toll on innocent civilians. The shocking scenes speak for themselves. The gruesomeness transcends reality; it exceeds by far the most eloquent of words.
Gaza-2008-9 is very much like Dresden-1945. And as Dresden was annihilated by the RAF toward the end of the Second World War, the 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza are being decapitated and thoroughly terrorized by the Israeli army, the Wehrmacht of our time.
But there is obviously a fundamental and conspicuous difference between Gaza and Dresden. Dresden was targeted by the allies as an act of sheer vengeance and revenge for what the Nazi war machine had done, including German attacks on London and other British cities.
But Gaza committed no crime against Israel. To be sure, the opposite is quite true. Have we forgotten that the bulk of the Gaza victims, who are being annihilated with the Zionist war machine, happen to be refugees and their children and grandchildren uprooted from their towns and villages across the borders inside Israel?
The U.S. Response to the Gaza Crisis: Unfair and Unbalanced
Wajahat Ali
Moral relativism, political double talk, and a military juggernaut blind to its violence against an occupied people highlight the most recent, tragic conflagration in Israel and Palestine. In justifying Israel’s most brutal and bloody salvo against Gaza in decades – which has so far killed nearly 400 Palestinians and wounded more than 1800 - Israel’s UN ambassador stated that Israel was "rightfully defending itself from continued Hamas rocket attacks within her borders." Furthermore, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert forewarned that the offensive "is liable to continue for some time” and Defense Minister Ehud Barak declared it as an "all-out war against Hamas and its branches."
By affirming Israel’s “right to self defense” and supporting Israel’s contention that the onus is on Hamas to renew the truce, President Bush’s waning administration highlighted its remarkably predictable political incompetence and tone-deaf moral vacancy by squandering yet another precious opportunity to remedy – at least rhetorically – the festering, radioactive sore that is the Palestinian human rights crisis in Gaza and the West Bank. Continuing to spin a broken record, his administration condones Israel’s brazen and repeated violations of international law while simultaneously denying Palestinian human rights, at the precarious risk of destabilizing a hostile and volatile Middle East region.
PALESTINE’S LONG TORMENT
Anindya Bhattacharyya
In 1917 the British foreign secretary Lord Balfour gave official backing to their colonial ambitions. He hoped that a Zionist state in Palestine would serve the interests of British imperialism.
The Gaza Strip is effectively the world’s largest prison camp.
Zionist terror gangs drove its population from their homes during the creation of Israel in 1948.That event – known in Arabic as the Nakba (catastrophe) – saw 750,000 Palestinians ethnically cleansed. They were uprooted and driven out of their homes and homeland to the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and to other countries.
Prior to this Britain controlled Palestine. The British imperialists had promised the land to both the native Palestinian population and to the Zionists, who had settled there over the previous 50 years.
The US Army Document That Proves the US is the World's Number One Sponsor of World Terrorism
Len Hart
In a 'manual' which was officially to be released only to 'students from foreign countries on a case-by-case basis only', the US Army outlines a program of what it now calls 'irregular warfare', in fact US state sponsored terrorism, insurgency, and PSYOPS.
1-21. Waging protracted IW depends on building global capability and capacity. IW will not be won by the United States alone but rather through combined efforts with multinational partners. Combined IW [Irregular Warfare, euphemism for TERRORISM] will require the joint force to establish a long-term sustained presence in numerous countries to build partner capability and capacity. This capability and capacity extends U.S. operational reach, multiplies forces available, and provides increased options for defeating adversaries. The constituent activities of IW are:
UN complicity in Israel's massacre in Gaza
Omar Barghouti
A friend forwarded to me the most original greeting for the New Year: "I wish in 2009 a horrible year for all war criminals and their accomplices." I could not but think of whether some UN officials can be counted among such 'accomplices'.
Over the last two days, various UN officials stated that the percentage of civilians among those Palestinians killed in the current Israeli war of aggression on Gaza is about "25%" and is "likely to increase". Assuming the best of intentions, stating such a painfully low figure reflects shabby research or scandalous incompetence. At worst, it reveals intentional deception and misinformation that can only benefit the already massive and well-oiled Israeli PR machine.
Blaming the Victims - The Dominant Media Vilify Hamas
Stephen Lendman
The blame game - no one plays it better than the dominant media, and they're at it again over Gaza. Expect no comments below in their spaces, yet honest journalism would headline them.
After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Franklin Roosevelt addressed Congress - with an appropriating updating for Gaza:
December 27 "will live in infamy." The people of Gaza were "suddenly and deliberately attacked by....air forces of the" State of Israel. The "attack was deliberately planned many (months) ago. During the intervening time (Israel) deliberately sought to deceive (Palestinians) by false statements and expressions of hope for" the peace process.
"The (weekend and continued) attack(s) caused severe damage to" property throughout Gaza. In addition, "many (Palestinian) lives have been lost. The facts (on the ground) speak for themselves....this "unprovoked and dastardly attack" must not go unanswered.
Note the contrast. Japan in the 1940s sought accord, not conflict. Not America. FDR goaded them to attack through numerous harassments and provocations - selling arms to Tokyo's enemies, denying Japan strategic resources and port access, as well as imposing a damaging embargo.
For its part, Hamas has been conciliatory and sought peace. It's willing to recognize Israel in return for a sovereign Palestinian state inside pre-1967 borders - just 22% of it original homeland. In 2008 and earlier, it agreed to unilateral ceasefires in spite of repeated Israeli violations and Gaza in duress under siege. It responds only in self-defense when attacked as international law allows, yet Washington, Israel, and the West call it "terrorism."
New Years Eve in Gaza: "We are human…"
Rich Wiles
I am not in Gaza, this article has been put together with two young women I know in Gaza who spent several hours describing the events of the last few days to me on New Years Eve. They want the world to know what is happening…
Amahl and Rana are two sisters, in their early 20’s. Both live in the Gaza Strip - Rana lives in Gaza City where she is married to a surgeon who works at Shifa Hospital, and her sister Amahl is a recently qualified GP who lives with their parents in Deir Alballah. For days now both Rana and Amahl have lived with the constant sound of the Israeli bombing and shelling which has already killed more than 400 people and injured over 2000. Rana lives in one of the most heavily bombarded areas of Gaza City:
“The situation here is the worst ever. I'm from Gaza city, the ‘Al Nasser’ area. Right now I can hear shelling by war boats and tanks. I live in a big house near ‘Al Mashtal’ which was the first target for the Israeli army. The distance between this place and my home is about 400 meters. The Israeli army shelled it with 6 rockets from F-16 fighter planes and you can imagine what happened… All the windows in my house have been blown-out by the recurrent shelling. The house didn’t just shake; every window has been blown-out by the ongoing and repeated shelling!”
The calculations behind Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza
Uri Avnery
Uri Avnery explains how Israel engineered the collapse of the truce in the Gaza Strip in order “to terrorize the civilian population by unremitting attacks from the air, sowing death and destruction”, utterly destroying the entire life-supporting infrastructure in the Strip, creating anarchy and consequently prompting the population to rise up against Hamas.
Just after midnight, Al-Jazeera’s Arabic channel was reporting on events in Gaza. Suddenly the camera was pointing upwards towards the dark sky. The screen was pitch black. Nothing could be seen, but there was a sound to be heard: the noise of airplanes, a frightening, a terrifying droning.
It was impossible not to think about the tens of thousands of Gazan children who were hearing that sound at that moment, cringing with fright, paralyzed by fear, waiting for the bombs to fall.
The Origins of the Overclass
Steve Kangas / Len Hart
[Core of Corruption - 2nd Teaser Trailer] Steve Kangas: The Origins of the Overclass.
Excerpt: It turns out the CIA has:
Corrupted democratic elections in Greece, Italy and dozens of other nations;
Been involved to varying degrees in at least 35 assassination plots against foreign heads of state or prominent political leaders.
Successful assassinations include democratically elected leaders like Salvador Allende (Chile) and Patrice Lumumba (Belgian Congo); also CIA-created dictators like Rafael Trujillo (Dominican Republic) and Ngo Dinh Diem (South Vietnam); and popular political leaders like Che Guevara. Unsuccessful attempts range from Fidel Castro to Charles De Gaulle. Helped launch military coups that toppled democratic governments, replacing them with brutal dictatorships or juntas.
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