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Lebanon's Oppressed: Domestic workers, Women, Palestinians
by FRANKLIN LAMB
Beirut
University students surveyed last month in Lebanon on the subject of how to improve their society and move it in the direction of meeting international human and civil rights norms identified three groups most in urgent need of immediate Lebanese governmental action.
Not surprising perhaps, but nevertheless refreshing, were the students' strongly expressed convictions, regardless of particular sect, that those most victimized by Lebanon's government and current laws are the roughly 200,000 migrant domestic workers, woman, who make up half of Lebanon's population, and the estimated 250,000 Palestinian refugees waiting to return to their country, Palestine.
Last month's suicide by domestic worker 33 years old Alem Dechasa-Desisa, following a beating in front of her Ethiopian Consulate by Ali Mahfouz and his colleague, whose recruitment agency arranged for Alem to work in Lebanon, was condemned across this country and angered those watching the video of the beating on LBCI TV.
Scoundrels Attack Gunter Grass Truths
by Stephen Lendman
Gunter Grass
Touching the most sensitive nerves has risks. Nearly always hostile responses follow.
Criticizing Israel is the third rail of US politics. It's also largely off limits in scoundrel media managed news, op-eds, and editorials.
Gunter Grass took the risks. He acted forthrightly. His new poem "What Must Be Said" explained that he'll no longer be silent on what's long been known but virtually never discussed publicly.
Israel's nuclear armed and dangerous. A previous article discussed it. Portions are repeated below to explain what's vital to know.
America's Fiscal Cliff
by Stephen Lendman
America's weak economy shows further deterioration. According to former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, "(t)he fiscal cliff in early 2013 - when the government stimulus spending and tax relief are set to fall - is not misfortune. It is the inevitable result of policies that kick the can down the road."
In other words, chickens inevitably come home to roost. Reckless money printing, free lunch handouts to corporate favorites and rich elites, and other policies favoring super-rich Americans won't last forever. When the music stops, watch out.
The latest jobs report perhaps warns what's coming. Characterized by some as bad Friday, it was much worse than reported. It suggests trouble ahead, perhaps by late spring or summer.
Obama Wreaks Duplicity
by Stephen Lendman
Like most in Congress, he serves wealth and power alone. People needs don't matter. Rule of law principles are spurned.
Peace is deplored. War is official policy. So are other duplicitous foreign policies for unchallenged global dominance.
Imagine what's ahead in a second term, regardless of which party controls Congress. Both are in lockstep on issues mattering most. They include pursuing regime change in Syria and Iran.
At the same time, Obama delivers mixed messages on Iran. Conciliatory comments follow baseless accusations and hawkishness, then more threats. In late March, he appealed directly to Iranians, saying there's "no reason for the United States and Iran to be divided from one another."
Reality in Occupied Palestine
by Stephen Lendman
Gaza's attacked regularly. Dozens of West Bank incursions occur weekly. Police state harshness and arrests follow.
In the week ending April 5, one Palestinian was killed and dozens injured, including 18 children. They were nonviolently commemorating Land Day.
Many others, including an international human rights defender, were wounded during a peaceful anti-Separation Wall demonstration. Dozens more suffered from tear gas inhalation.
From March 29 through April 5, Israeli soldiers conducted 77 West Bank community incursions - on average, 11 per day. Gazans experienced three others. Affected Palestinians faced police state harshness. Twenty-eight arrests were made, including five children and a journalist doing his job.
Solar Maximum Ramps Up Earth Cataclysms
By Cosmic Convergence Research Group
How is the SUN triggering many earth changes?
More than any other major co-factor, the unprecedented, meteoric and relentless changes taking place throughout Planet Earth are the direct result of exceedingly powerful influences emanating from the presiding star of our solar system. The sun, and especially its recent and extraordinary activity, is at the very heart of every major geophysical and meteorological event taking place around the globe today.
Were common sense to be utilized more frequently, it would seem readily apparent that global climate change (GCC) is directly the result of the sun’s influence on every aspect of the earth’s geological architecture and biosphere. It is because of this lack of understanding that the conventional wisdom tried to attribute GCC to human activity.
Their first attempt was to say that global warming was primarily due to the outworking of all human endeavor around the planet. Quite inconceivable, since such an extreme correlation within a purely scientific and empirical context makes no sense. However, on the level of consciousness, there is very good reason to link human conduct with earth reactions with solar blowback, as we shall see.
Britain’s mad-house foreign policy
Stuart Littlewood
'Operation Cast Lead' in Gaza
My local MP, Henry Bellingham, is a Foreign Office minister whose responsibilities include the United Nations, the International Criminal Court and conflict resolution.
I take this to mean he's tasked with keeping the British Government on the straight-and-narrow as regards international law, with ensuring dutiful conformity with the UN's Charter and numerous resolutions, with saving our warmongering hotheads from the calaboose in The Hague, and with treading the path of peace at all times.
The International Criminal Court is, to say the least, challenging. The world is crawling with high-ranking war criminals but the ICC in its 10 year history has delivered only one verdict. As if to underline the Court’s utter uselessness as an instrument of justice, the ICC prosecutor has just rejected a bid by the Palestinian Authority to have the war crimes tribunal investigate Israel’s conduct during 'Operation Cast Lead' in Gaza.
Hate Crime or Terrorism? The Ku Klux Klan Still "Kill At Will"
By Ismail Salami
Kendrec McDade, and Shaima Alawadi
Once upon a time in America back in the nineteenth century, there was a far-right organization known as Ku Klux Klan that adhered to primitively radical and hidebound ideas including white supremacy and brutalized and persecuted the colored race through an act of terrorism.
Also known as the Klan, the group emerged in Pulaski, Tennessee, and is today stigmatized as a hate group. The organisation, which has now been stripped of its name, still exists and splinters into different manifest forms: Racial hatred, religious hatred and ideological hatred. The organization is not extinct as many sinister forces in the US government tried to consign at least the name to oblivion and is estimated to have more than 10,000 dedicated hatetivists in the United States alone who spare no efforts in giving vent to their racial and religious hatred by intimidating and liquidating those they deem as the wretched of the earth.
US-Israel War on Iran: The Myth of Limited Warfare
James Petras
Introduction
The mounting threat of a US-Israeli military attack against Iran is based on several factors including: (1) the recent military history of both countries in the region, (2) public pronouncements by US and Israeli political leaders, (3) recent and on-going attacks on Lebanon and Syria, prominent allies of Iran, (4) armed attacks and assassinations of Iranian scientists and security officials by proxy and/or terrorist groups under US or Mossad control, (5) the failure of economic sanctions and diplomatic coercion, (6) escalating hysteria and extreme demands for Iran to end legal, civilian use-related uranium enrichment, (7) provocative military ‘exercises’ on Iran’s borders and war games designed for intimidation and a dress rehearsal for a preemptive attack, (8) powerful pro-war pressure groups in both Washington and Tel Aviv including the major Israeli political parties and the powerful AIPAC in the US, (9) and lastly the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (Obama’s Orwellian Emergency Decree, March 16, 2012).
Friends of Syria Subvert Peaceful Resolution
by Stephen Lendman
Washington-backed so-called "Friends" won't tolerate resolving Syrian violence peacefully. How can they when America, rogue NATO partners, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and other regional despots incited it, fund it, arm it, and continue it.
The name of the game is regime change, not peace. Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and current UN head Ban Ki-moon are active players.
Annan's sham peace plan is cover to mask it. Both support imperial dominance. For a decade as Secretary-General, Annan violated his own charter mandate.
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