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by Stephen Lendman
On June 21, The New York Times headlined "CIA Said to Aid in Steering Arms to Syrian Opposition," saying:
Operating covertly from southern Turkey, CIA operatives are "decid(ing) which Syrian opposition fighters across the border will receive arms to fight the Syrian government, according to American officials and Arab intelligence officers."
Weapons supplied include "automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, ammunition, (and) antitank weapons...."
They're smuggled across Turkey's border through "a shadowy network of intermediaries...."
They're also entering through Lebanon.
Muslim Brotherhood officials are involved. So are Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, other Gulf States, Jordan and Israel.
By Gilad Atzmon
In a desperate attempt to capture the imagination of patriots and nationalists, Labour leader Ed Miliband today promised new measures to prevent the British people being "locked out" of their own jobs by foreign workers. But what jobs is he talking about? Everyone knows there are no jobs. For forty years now, all British governments have gone out of their way to dismantle any manufacturing in this country and with devastating results - British industry and engineering belong to the past and the British governments have done little to change the situation.
Desperate to maintain his political relevance, Milliband distances himself from his predecessor, Gordon Brown’s, rhetoric. He (Brown) went on record saying: "I am not going to promise 'British jobs for British workers'”. Here, I must mention, that the reference to ‘British workers’, used so often by Labour politicians, is obviously and completely out of date. Our elected politicians care nothing for the ‘worker’. They are far more interested in transforming those who used to be workers, into consumers. In fact, all Western governments are there to regulate consumption and are therefore, openly and completely submissive to big monopolies and global interests. Accordingly the rest of us, immigrant or a native, have but one simple role in life: to buy, or more accurately, to spend money we don’t have.
by Stephen Lendman
According to senior Iranian legislator Esmayeel Kosari:
Western nations recognize Iran's legitimate "nuclear rights, and they have no way out but to continue negotiati(ing)."
Nonetheless, multiple rounds achieved nothing. Moscow June 18 and 19 talks ended in failure. Washington and Israel are obstructionist. Britain, France and other Western states agree to policies harming their own interests.
They demand Iran relinquish rights enjoyed by dozens of other nations with commercial nuclear programs.
On June 19, The New York Times headlined "Setback in Talks on Iran's Nuclear Program in a 'Gulf of Mistrust,' " saying:
"Talks on Iran’s disputed nuclear program descended into mistrust and frustration in Moscow on Tuesday, casting doubt on whether the two sides can negotiate a way out of the escalating crisis."
Khaled Amayreh in Ramallah
Palestinians and Israelis react to the possible victory of Islamists in Egypt's presidential race, with Fatah and Tel Aviv left worried.
Palestinian Islamists, who closely followed this week's Egyptian presidential elections run-off, reacted with deep satisfaction to the apparent victory of the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Mursi over his secular opponent Ahmed Shafik, the last prime minister under ex-president Hosni Mubarak.
Prior to the elections, Hamas leaders commented tersely and diplomatically on political developments in Egypt, saying they were standing at the same distance from all political players in the Egyptian arena. However, it was clear beneath such words what party and candidate Hamas and other Islamist groups were favouring.
By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese
The U.S. media has been writing an obituary for Occupy, but in fact Occupy is active all over the country and is just being ignored by the corporate media. This weekly installment of Occupy news highlights families occupying schools in Oakland to prevent their closure, Occupiers across the country working to prevent evictions and foreclosures, Occupiers confronting Jamie Dimon about JPMorgan Chase's foreclosure policies and Occupy SEC asking Dimon some tough questions.
One big news story this week was the United States being called out by the international community for its inhumane behavior. Two United Nations envoys have asked the US to respect the rights of Occupy protesters and to protect them. In their four page letter to Secretary of State Clinton, they describe specific examples of abusive police behavior. The US, which often admonishes countries like Russia, China, Iran and Egypt for the way they treat protesters (while selling them tear gas and other weapons) has not responded. So far, rather than protecting our rights, federal officials secretly coordinated with law enforcement in the occupy crackdowns.
by Stephen Lendman
Rare Palestinian battles are won. Liberating struggles continue.
Hunger strikers Khader Adnan and Hana Shalabi were released. After 92 days without food, Israel agreed to free footballer Mahmoud Sarsak.
He'll leave prison on July 10. He's been held nearly three years uncharged and untried.
Doing so constitutes gulag justice.
In the presence of prison officials and his lawyer, he ceremonially broke his fast by eating a piece of chocolate.
By Michael Collins
One goal of Egypt's 2010 union inspired Tahrir Square protests was fulfilled during the December, 2011 parliamentary elections. Nearly 65% of the nation's fifty million eligible voters turned out to vote. Turnout for the June 16 and 17, 2012 presidential election dropped to an estimated 15%* according to local and press observers. What happened?
Three factors contributed to the exponential decline in voting. Egypt's courts took leading candidates off of the final presidential ballot. The disappeared candidates had the support of 68% of the electorate according to a major preelection poll in early May. Egyptian courts also disqualified one third of the recently elected parliament. Just a day before the election, military commander Mohamed Hussein Tantawi announced that the constitution had been annexed. This was a nice way of saying that the military was assuming most of the powers of the presidency, leaving the newly elected chief executive with little to do.
The entire foundation of the election vanished in plain sight. There was no point in voting. The preelection actions by the courts and military represented the most fundamental form of election fraud by making the elections meaningless.
Why vote?
by Ellen Brown
When Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase Bank, appeared before the Senate Banking Committee on June 13, he was wearing cufflinks bearing the presidential seal. “Was Dimon trying to send any particular message by wearing the presidential cufflinks?” asked CNBC editor John Carney. “Was he . . . subtly hinting that he’s really the guy in charge?”
The groveling of the Senators was so obvious that Jon Stewart did a spoof news clip on it, featured in a Huffington Post piece titled “Jon Stewart Blasts Senate’s Coddling Of JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon,” and Matt Taibbi wrote an op-ed called “Senators Grovel, Embarrass Themselves at Dimon Hearing.” He said the whole thing was painful to watch.
by Stephen Lendman
On April 21, Security Council Resolution 2043 established UNSMIS.
It authorized 300 observers to monitor "a cessation of armed violence in all its forms by all parties and to monitor and support the full implementation of the (Annan plan) to end the conflict in Syria."
On June 16, UNSMIS suspended its activities subject to daily review. On June 17, China's Xinhua News Agency headlined "Suspension of UN observer mission serves for western 'next step' in Syria," saying:
Next steps involve "political transition." Military options may be chosen. Syria said violence escalated markedly after UN monitors arrived.
by Stephen Lendman
Colonialism and apartheid breach international law.
The 1973 International Convention for the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (the Apartheid Convention) called it state-sanctioned discriminatory "inhuman" racism "committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them."
Apartheid is an international crime. The above definition builds on the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).
The 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court calls apartheid a crime under the Court's jurisdiction. For 45 years, Israel flagrantly breached the law.
ICERD's Article 3 calls apartheid a particularly egregious form of discrimination. The Apartheid Convention and Rome Statute criminalized its practice.
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