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Illegal FBI Spying on Community Groups
by Stephen Lendman
On December 1, an ACLU of Northern California press release headlined, "FOIA Documents Show FBI Illegally Collecting Intelligence Under Guise of Community Outreach," saying:
"The trust that community outreach efforts aim to create is undermined when the FBI exploits these programs to gather intelligence on the very members of the religious and community organizations agents are meeting with."
"The FBI should be honest with community organizations about what information is being collected during meetings and purge any improperly collected information."
Instead, FBI agents illegally collected names, ID information, opinions of community event attendees, as well as sponsoring groups, including their goals, activities, names and positions of leaders, and their racial, ethnic, and national origin.
Bankers Rule the World: "The Network of Global Corporate Control"
by Stephen Lendman
Bankers rule the world. A new Swiss Federal Institute of Technology study says so. Written by Stefania Vitali, James Glattfelder and Stefano Battiston, it's titled "The network of global corporate control," saying:
"We find that transnational corporations from a giant bow-tie structure and that a large portion of control flows to a small tightly-knit core of financial institutions. This core can be seen as an economic 'super-entity' that raises new important issues both for researches and policy makers."
The study says 147 powerful companies control an inordinate amount of economic activity - about 40%. Among the top 50, 45 are financial firms. They include Barclays PLC (called most influential), JPMorgan Chase, UBS, and other familiar and less known names.
Twenty-four companies are US-based, followed by eight in Britain, five in France, four in Japan, and Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands with two each. Canada has one.
A Tireless Advocate of Justice for Palestinians - Francis Khoo Kah Siang (1947-2011)
By Franklin Lamb
Francis Khoo Kah Siang passed away on November 20, 2011. ?
In addition to the countless reasons Francis will be sorely missed by his friends and loved ones, he will be missed because he leaves a void for many of us who were and remain inspired by his work for Palestinian rights. Francis Khoo is an icon of countless others, who like himself, are neither Arab nor Muslim, neither from the Middle East nor culturally or politically connected to Palestine by birth, but who support the Palestinian cause.
Many of us, but especially Westerners and Americans it seems, learn essentially nothing about the Nakba in school. Yet many, often quite by chance and for one reason or another, have come into contact with the Question of Palestine and, learning about the great injustice that has befallen the Palestinian people, could not remain indifferent or idle. Francis was one of these.
Russia united – for the time being (Part II)
Eric Walberg
Russia’s parliamentary elections have sparked a political crisis, surprising everyone, from President Putin (excuse me, Medvedev) down, including the demonstrators themselves.
Tahrir Square continues to send out its beacon of light. Thousands of Russian riot police were deployed in Red Square to prevent it from being turned into another Tahrir last Saturday, when demonstrators, without any resources except cell phones and fur-lined winter coats, pulled off the largest uprising since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, in 60 Russian cities, across nine time zones, with at least one repeat performance scheduled for 24 December.
Legislating Tyranny in America
by Stephen Lendman
Obama won't prosecute CIA torturers, Wall Street crooks, other corporate criminals, lawless war profiteers, or other venal high-level civilian or government officials.
Instead, expect him to sign into law (or at least tacitly approve) indefinite military detentions of US citizens allegedly associated with terrorist groups, with or without corroborating evidence.
Post-9/11, US freedoms and other democratic values dramatically eroded. Enactment of police state provisions in the FY 2012 National Defense Authorization Act comes closer to ending them entirely.
On December 5, the ACLU headlined, "Indefinite Detention, Endless Worldwide War and the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)," saying:
Enactment of this measure will authorize "the military to pick up and imprison people, including US citizens, without charging them or putting them on trial."
Secretly with no hearings, both Houses are rushing to complete a "joint version" before leaving for Christmas break. "Fundamental American values and freedoms are on the line." Given the stakes, they're perilously hanging by a thread.
BDS update: BDS unites East and West
Eric Walberg
As people of conscience around the world marked the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, ever new actions help bring Palestinians closer to achieving a state of dignity.
Just in case there was an iota of doubt left in your mind, Israel was officially declared an apartheid state during a session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine in Cape Town on 7 November.
Among depositions, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza cited the Fourth Geneva Convention and the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court which prohibits “the transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”
Say NO to the Use of the Military in the United States... Is the Use of the Military Designed for the Occupy Movement?
By Kevin Zeese
The congress is rushing through S. 1867, the Defense Authorization Bill. It contains a radical change in law – allowing the use of the military inside the United States, against U.S. citizens and residents, allowing their indefinite military detention based merely on suspicion of being engaged in hostilities against the U.S. This amendment, sponsored by Senators Carl Levin and John McCain, was added in the senate after a closed door hearing and has received bi-partisan support on the Senate floor, with very little debate.
At the request of the White House language that exempted American citizens and legal residents from indefinite military detention was removed from the bill passed by the Senate Armed Services Committee, as Senator Levin said on the senate floor.
Europe Lays an Egg
by Stephen Lendman
Like earlier summits, they met. They talked. They agreed to talk more and solved nothing. Once again Europe laid an egg.
In fact, in 2011 alone, EU leaders held 19 emergency meetings/summits, proposed dozens of rescue packages, made as many promises, yet are back at square one.
It reminded some of Variety's October 30, 1929 post-market crash headline: "Wall Street Lays an Egg."
After the latest Brussels summit, business publications hinted at systemic failure. On December 12, a Bloomberg editorial headlined, "Europe's Fiscal Pact May Solve Next Crisis, Not This One," saying:
Summit leaders "asked the wrong questions - then failed to answer even those." Moreover, whatever they agree on won't stick. It didn't before and won't now.
Lawless Israeli Oppression in Palestine
by Stephen Lendman
On December 9, al-Nabi Saleh village residents protested peacefully against settlers stealing their land. At point blank range, an Israeli soldier fired a tear-gas canister directly at Mustafa Tamimi's head, killing him.
On December 10, thousands of Palestinians protested against his cold-blooded murder. Tamimi was the 20th Palestinian killed this way in the past eight years, besides many more by other means, especially in Gaza.
On December 12, a Haaretz editorial headlined, "In Israel, the life of a Palestinian is cheap," saying:
"The pictures from....Nabi Saleh are hard to swallow: An Israel Defense Forces soldier opens the back door of an armored military jeep and, from a distance of just a few meters, fires a tear-gas canister directly at a young man who is throwing stones. After the canister is fired, the jeep continues on its way without stopping."
Al-Nabi Saleh residents, like other West Bank ones, hold weekly nonviolent anti-land theft/Separation Wall demonstrations. It's their country and property. Under international law, they have every right to defend it. Not according to Israel.
Critical Health Issues in Gaza
by Stephen Lendman
Since locked down and isolated by Israel, Gaza's experienced systemic crisis. Its health system especially was gravely harmed.
Many services and life-saving treatments aren't available. Accessing it elsewhere is uncertain and tenuous. Treating chronic illnesses is jeopardized by inadequate medicines and proper equipment.
Regular Israel incursions and air attacks exacerbate bad conditions. So do deficient fuel and electricity supplies, as well as unsafe drinking water and other health hazards.
Conditions are getting worse, not better. In September Physicians for Human Rights/Israel (PHR/I) said:
"Israel glaringly violate(s) the rights of Palestinians to health, each time in a different manner." It said the right to health "extends to (its) underlying determinants, (including) food and nutrition, housing, access to safe and potable water and adequate sanitation, safe and healthy working conditions, and a healthy environment."
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