Clashes between police and indigenous protesters over drilling for oil and gas in rain forest. Recent free trade agreements signed with the American and Canadian governments fueled the government to go ahead with changes to domestic laws that would seek to advance mineral, logging, oil and agricultural ‘development’ into previously untouched areas of the Amazon. This touched off a over-50-day protest that has shut down parts of the Amazon. Visit The Real News

from: William Hughes

On Monday, June 8, 2009, exactly 42 years after the USS Liberty (GTR-5) was attacked, in international waters off the coast of Sinai by Israel, members of the USS Liberty Veterans Association were at the U.S. Navy Memorial, in downtown Washington, D.C. Their purpose was to present a model of the vessel to the institution for it to be maintained on permanent display. Accepting the USS Liberty model on behalf of the U.S. Navy Memorial was its CEO, Rear Admiral Edward K. “Tad” Walker (ret); and responding on behalf of the USS Liberty Veterans Association was Ernest A. Gallo, its President. Mr. Gallo is also Chairman of the Liberty Foundation.

After the dedication ceremony, I interviewed a USS Liberty survivor, Petty Officer, (Shipfitter 3rd), Americo “Rick” Aimetti. He’s a native of Long Island, NY, and he was only 19 years old when he served aboard the vessel. He shared some of what it was like to be on the USS Liberty on the afternoon of the attack and the effect that harrowing experience has had on him and many of his fellow crew members.

The “Liberty” was subjected, on June 8, 1967, during the Six-Day War, to an unprovoked assault by the Israeli Air Force and Navy for close to 75 minutes, with rockets, torpedoes, cannon fire, napalm and machine gun fire. Thirty-four crew members on the vessel were killed and 171 seriously wounded. For more background, see: http://www.gtr5.com/ and the web site for the USS Liberty Association, found here: http://www.usslibertyveterans.org/

See also: “Assault on the Liberty” by LCDR James Marquis Ennes, Jr. and “The Attack on the Liberty: The Untold Story of Israel’s Deadly 1967 Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship” by James Scott. The U.S. Navy Memorial is located at 701 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. #123.

There was a rally against police brutality in New Jersey. It follows Friday's release of a surveillance videotape showing a police officer beating a man outside a bar in Passaic... "I don't know why he did that, I respect the law," said Holloway. Last Friday, surveillance footage shows Holloway waiting outside Lawrence's restaurant in Passaic when a police cruiser pulls up and a female officer asks Holloway to zip up his sweatshirt. Holloway appears to comply, but in an instant, Officer Joseph Rios III jumps out and starts beating him. That's not all. The video shows Officer Rios beats Holloway with his fists and his baton... "It's a clear example of brutality, that officer needs to be removed from the police force," said Holloway's lawyer, Nancy Lucianna. Officer Rios, a seven-year veteran on the force, remains on active duty. Passaic police had no comment. As long as the criminal American injustice system consistantly finds the police innocent of brutality like this, the brutalizing of the people will continue at the behest of the so-called government. http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=6850726

from: William Hughes

On June 6, 2009, a spirited solidarity rally in support of the people of Occupied Gaza was staged by human rights activists in front of the Israeli Embassy, in Washington, D.C. The protest action demanded: “End the Siege of Gaza!” June 6th marks the 42nd anniversary of the Israeli “seizure of Gaza.” The demonstration was sponsored by the ANSWER Coalition, among other groups. For details on the supporting organizations for the event, go to: http://answer.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ANS_homepage
Featured in the video are: Brian Becker, Mahdi Brey, David Barrows, Eric Anderson, Ray Gordon, Mara Verheyden-Hilliard and Ibrahim Ramey. For background on the current humanitarian crisis in Israeli-Occupied Gaza, please see:
http://www.pchrgaza.org/ and
http://www.phrmg.org/ and
http://www.wrmea.com/ and
http://justiceandaccountability.org/ and http://www.endtheoccupation.org/ and
http://www.amnesty.org/en/gaza-crisis and
http://www.hrw.org/en/features/israel-gaza

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has rounded on closed enterprise bosses and local officials, demanding that wages be paid out by the end of Thursday. 63 million rubles ($2 million) has already been transferred to the town’s enterprises’ bank accounts, which includes money to pay outstanding wages, Ria Novosti news agency reports. Read more What a difference between the leadership in Russia and America. Here the workers would have been labeled terrorists and the National Guard would have been called out to crush them. Certainly the workers grievances would have been totally ignored and the corrupt corporate basturds would have kept the money they had stolen from the workers.

Is there NOTHING left on the Supermarket shelves, which we have to be constantly vigilant about?

from: William Hughes

On June 3, 2009, filmmakers Eric Nadler and Bob Coen held a congressional screening, in the Canon Office Building, with respect to their riveting documentary, “Anthrax War.” They are also the co-authors of “Dead Silence: Fear and Terror on the Anthrax Trail,” a companion book to the film. Trailers for the documentary, and more detailed information about the investigative project of Nadler and Coen, which was done on a global scale, can be found at: http://www.anthraxwar.com/ As a result of the deadly anthrax attacks in the days following 9/11, the Bush-Cheney Gang created a $57 billion “Bio-Terrorism Military Industrial Complex.” This huge entity, “a cash cow,” the authors underscored, has been mostly “privatized,” and is also operating “with little oversight.”

See Max Blumenthal's shocking footage of the reaction by some Israelis and American Jews in Jerusalem to Obama's speech to the Muslim world. Co-produced by Joseph Dana, aka Ibn Ezra: ibnezra.wordpress.com and Mondoweiss, a blog that covers the Israel-Palestine conflict and the Middle East from a progressive Jewish perspective.