Islamic Or Republican Fascism?

An interesting discussion broke out on another blog while discussing Canadian politics. It actually forced my eyes open to the plain truth that the George Bush White House is actually facist! Since then I've been running into articles that are helping me to sharpen my understanding of this including this article by Eric Margolis.

A moment ago I found this article that I thought I would share with you before George goes too far, the complete article can be read here.

Reclaiming The Issues: Islamic Or Republican Fascism?

by Thom Hartmann

In the years since George W. Bush first used 9/11 as his own "Reichstag fire" to gut the Constitution and enhance the power and wealth of his corporate cronies, many across the political spectrum have accused him and his Republican support group of being fascists.

On the right,The John Birch Society's website editor recently opined of the Bush Administration's warrantless wiretap program: "This is to say that from the administration's perspective, the president is, in effect, our living constitution. This is, in a specific and unmistakable sense, fascist."

On the left, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. specifically indicts the Bush administration for fascistic behavior in his book "Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and his Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy."

Genuine American fascists are on the run, and part of their survival strategy is to redefine the term "fascism" so it can't be applied to them any more. Most recently, George W. Bush said: "This nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom, to hurt our nation."

In fact, the Islamic fundamentalists who apparently perpetrated 9/11 and other crimes in Spain and the United Kingdom are advocating a fundamentalist theocracy, not fascism.

But theocracy - the merging of religion and government - is also on the plate for the new American fascists (just as it was for Hitler, who based the Nazi death cult on a "new Christianity" that would bring "a thousand years of peace"), so they don't want to use that term, either... more>>>

The Brutal Truth of the Palestine Situation

I read this article today, a portion of the authors book "A World Less Safe". He is a former Deputy Director of the U.S. State Office of Counter-Terrorism and Emergency Planning, and the former Chairman of the Department of International Studies of the National War College. Enjoy.


The Brutal Truth of the Palestine Situation

by Terrell E. Arnold, August 25th 2006

The Israeli Zionist dream for Palestine is coming true. Deprived of food, water, electricity, money, medical care, safety, leadership, and official outside help, the Palestinians are turning on each other as they struggle to survive. But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has made it clear that this is only the beginning. “Nobody dies from not having electricity,” Olmert is said to have told his cabinet, and “no one in Gaza should sleep”. Emphasizing that last point, low-flying IDF jets break the sound barrier over Gaza virtually every night.

The Palestinian government disaster was deliberately contrived by Israel, the United States, the European Union, and the United Nations. On top of this, the Israel Defense Force is conducting daily raids, bombings, attacks, kidnappings, and interference with human movements. The goal is to contrive the utter collapse of Palestinian society, while goading as many as possible into leaving, dying, or killing each other; it is doubtful that the Olmert government or its Zionist backers care which.

While the outside world has been more or less fixated on Lebanon, IDF forces and Mossad have been conducting intensive warfare and political harassment in Gaza and the West Bank. The Israelis have taken much of the parliament, many cabinet members, and the Deputy Prime Minister hostage, although they use the euphemism “arrest” for what they do. They have threatened to assassinate the Prime Minister and have bombed his and other government offices.

In the process they have progressively disassembled the democratically elected Palestinian Government by kidnappings, and it is doubtful that without an international outcry that so far has not been forthcoming, many of these prisoners will ever be released. Instead they may join the ranks of the estimated 10,000 Palestinian hostages the Israelis have held without charge for many years.

Westerners, particularly Americans, should get the goal for this carefully programmed nightmare in Palestine clearly into their heads. It is not to punish the Palestinians for taking an Israeli soldier prisoner. It is not about the sporadic delivery of home-made rockets into Israeli territory that seldom produces casualties. It is not about the occasional body-bomber who detonates himself or herself on an Israeli bus or street with bloody consequences.

Those events actually serve as Israeli game plan window dressing. Anyone who has been watching closely knows that the objective is to assure that the Palestinians never get near a negotiating table. The Zionist government and its close supporters, many Israelis, and many American supporters of it, want all of Palestine as part of Israel, but Israel cannot go on taking Palestine bit by bit if the Palestinians are prepared to negotiate. Nor can they go on with an occupation that is designed slowly to swallow the rest of Palestine unless the Palestinians continue to fight back. As Patrick Seale commented in the Guardian in early July, “Palestinian moderates are Israel’s real enemies.”

This Israeli scenario is made specifically for an American market. In the midst of the Israeli destruction of Lebanon, a noise level that masked equally concentrated violence against Palestine, top US political leadership, including more than 400 members of the House of Representatives, pledged unswerving allegiance and support to Israel. To be fair, that was not merely a total lack of interest in whatever happened to the Palestinians or the Lebanese; the real concern was about the November congressional elections and the power of the Jewish vote.

Under that order of political corruption, democracy is taking a criminal hit in Palestine. Having led a concentrated campaign to harass the Hamas government of Palestine out of office, the United States now looks blandly on–along with Western Europe and the UN–while Israel takes the freely elected Hamas government apart. Israel is doing that not because, as western media have put it, “Hamas is a terrorist organization”. The Israelis, whatever they say, do not really care about that; since the beginning, Israeli governments have often been led by terrorists, the most recent being Ariel Sharon before he was laid low by illness. The real concern is that from positions Hamas has put into the public domain, Israeli leadership has concluded that negotiating with Hamas could mean real concessions, essentially falling back to the 1967 green line and giving most of the West Bank and Gaza back to the Palestinians.

The brutal truth of the Palestine situation is that with hardly any visible objection–in fact with deliberate Western connivance–the world is watching an Israeli war crime in progress. While during the shooting phase of the late war both Lebanon and Palestine were being systematically destroyed, no UN resolution ever mentioned Palestine, and it is still being destroyed without letup.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Mahmoud Abbas during the run-up to a ceasefire resolution, but she paid no apparent attention to the fact that the democratically elected government of Palestine was being dismantled by Israel. Bland US pleas for moderation on both sides that followed her visit rang weirdly hollow. When the occupying and attacking power has the alleged fourth most powerful army in the world, while the people being attacked have no organized armed forces at all, such a plea is meaningless.

Hamas and Palestine have become a harsh study in intended consequences. It has been well advertised that the US, the Europeans, the UN and Israel want the Hamas government to fail. The denial of international assistance to that government and Israeli withholding of funds that belong to it started the Palestinian system to unraveling. Having had much of its physical infrastructure destroyed by the Israelis over the past four years, the Hamas government had little to work with, and Israeli destruction of power and water facilities in July-August pretty much shut down Gaza and the West Bank. Hamas candidates were elected because they were better at providing essential services than the Fatah leadership, but they cannot do that without resources.

If one looks candidly at the history of international terrorism, it becomes clear that Israel’s efforts to take Palestine away from its people initiated the pattern of attacks that led us to 9/11. President Bush crows often that launching the War on Terrorism after 9/11 made the United States safer. However, in light of the crimes being committed against Palestine, such braggartry is a sad illusion. Enough new terrorists are being generated in Palestine and as a result of crimes against Palestine to keep the world well supplied for at least a generation. The long term consequences of taking down Hamas–intended or not–will be a pattern of political violence for which Americans and everybody else will pay and pay.


The writer is the author of the recently published work, A World Less Safe, now available on Amazon and through bookstores. He is a retired Senior Foreign Service Officer of the US Department of State whose immediate pre-retirement positions were as Deputy Director of the State Office of Counter-Terrorism and Emergency Planning, and as Chairman of the Department of International Studies of the National War College. He will welcome comment at wecanstopit@charter.net.

Truth in Media

Despite what happened to the last clip that I posted from YouTube.com I still think it is the best way of getting truths about the situation in the Middle East out for the simple fact that the traditional media has a 'bit' of a bias. Take for example this clip which I discovered through an anonymous comment at the Palestinian Princess' Blog.

George Galloway (a British MP born in Scotland) has been a strong supporter of the Palestinian people since the early 1970's...at one point even having the Palestinian flag fly over the City Chambers in Dundee, Scotland...at the time Israel had banned the Palestinian flag and even forbade the production of artwork composed of its four colors (that law is still on the books but not widely enforced).

Enjoy this clip as George Galloway puts his interviewer in her place and points out not only HER bias but the bias of her editors, researchers, producers and indeed the Western media:

Brave Israeli Soldiers

I'm not sure how this got out...or why they were even "videotaping their work" but, here's an Israeili Occupation Force patrol getting their laughs by shooting at Palestinian school kids. (Fast forward to about 4:30 and watch to the end.) At one point the cameraman exclaims, "...we're shooting the sh*t out of them...".

~ Nice work guys ~

NOTE: Again, I am not a conspiracy theorist but after having placed this on line it sudddenly became un-available...somebody DOESN'T WANT YOU TO SEE THIS. ...if you have a new link please let me know.

UPDATE: FOUND IT! Click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0vdGI7vNUE

Abu-Issa's Crusade

Ok, I finally lost it...and I did it on somebody elses blog (sorry Sandmonkey)...

For the last 2 months or so I have come accross the term 'Israeli Arab' to describe the Palestinians who stayed behind in what became legislated into the Jewish state in Palestine, my rant went something like this:

"...I’ve decided to go on a crusade…no, not religious, not political …but semantic. If I have to read about ‘Israeli Arabs’ again I’m going to blow chunks! Please, call them what they are: ‘Palestinian’. Do you actually think that these ~Arab speakers~ refer to themselves as ‘Arab Israelis’?? Come down from that high wooden horse…

As well, when speaking of ‘Arabs’ can we specify please? Since after the First World War and the defeat of the Ottoman empire (see Wikipedia: Arab Revolt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_revolt) the Arab speaking world was carved into several countries like Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, not to mention that little disputed region called Palestine which received it’s own special carving.

It’s my feeling that making general statements refering to ‘the Arabs’ tends to sound a tad racist. Kind of like using the term ‘the Orientals’ to refer to the Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Koreans, etc…".

Pass it on...

Hidden Agenda behind War on Lebanon

Now, I'm not a conspiracy theorist but you've got to read this article. I've got a bad feeling that this is all much bigger than any of us ever thought...we are just pawns...

----------------------------------

The War on Lebanon and the Battle for Oil

by Michel Chossudovsky

July 26, 2006
GlobalResearch.ca

Is there a relationship between the bombing of Lebanon and the inauguration of the World's largest strategic pipeline, which will channel more than a million barrels of oil a day to Western markets?

Virtually unnoticed, the inauguration of the Ceyhan-Tblisi-Baku (BTC) oil pipeline, which links the Caspian sea to the Eastern Mediterranean, took place on the 13th of July, at the very outset of the Israeli sponsored bombings of Lebanon.

One day before the Israeli air strikes, the main partners and shareholders of the BTC pipeline project, including several heads of State and oil company executives were in attendance at the port of Ceyhan. They were then rushed off for an inauguration reception in Istanbul, hosted by Turkey's President Ahmet Necdet Sezer in the plush surroundings of the Çýraðan Palace.

Also in attendance was British Petroleum's (BP) CEO, Lord Browne together with senior government officials from Britain, the US and Israel. BP leads the BTC pipeline consortium. Other major Western shareholders include Chevron, Conoco-Phillips, France's Total and Italy's ENI. (see Annex below)

Israel's Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Binyamin Ben-Eliezer was present at the venue together with a delegation of top Israeli oil officials.

The BTC pipeline totally bypasses the territory of the Russian Federation. It transits through the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Georgia, both of which have become US "protectorates", firmly integrated into a military alliance with the US and NATO. Moreover, both Azerbaijan and Georgia have longstanding military cooperation agreements with Israel.

Israel has a stake in the Azeri oil fields, from which it imports some twenty percent of its oil. The opening of the pipeline will substantially enhance Israeli oil imports from the Caspian sea basin.

But there is another dimension which directly relates to the war on Lebanon. Whereas Russia has been weakened, Israel is slated to play a major strategic role in "protecting" the Eastern Mediterranean transport and pipeline corridors out of Ceyhan.

Militarization of the Eastern Mediterranean
The bombing of Lebanon is part of a carefully planned and coordinated military road map. The extension of the war into Syria and Iran has already been contemplated by US and Israeli military planners. This broader military agenda is intimately related to strategic oil and oil pipelines. It is supported by the Western oil giants which control the pipeline corridors. In the context of the war on Lebanon, it seeks Israeli territorial control over the East Mediterranean coastline.

In this context, the BTC pipeline dominated by British Petroleum, has dramatically changed the geopolitics of the Eastern Mediterranean, which is now linked , through an energy corridor, to the Caspian sea basin:

"[The BTC pipeline] considerably changes the status of the region's countries and cements a new pro-West alliance. Having taken the pipeline to the Mediterranean, Washington has practically set up a new bloc with Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and Israel, " (Komerzant, Moscow, 14 July 2006)

Israel is now part of the Anglo-American military axis, which serves the interests of the Western oil giants in the Middle East and Central Asia.

While the official reports state that the BTC pipeline will "channel oil to Western markets", what is rarely acknowledged is that part of the oil from the Caspian sea would be directly channeled towards Israel. In this regard, an underwater Israeli-Turkish pipeline project has been envisaged which would link Ceyhan to the Israeli port of Ashkelon and from there through Israel's main pipeline system, to the Red Sea.

The objective of Israel is not only to acquire Caspian sea oil for its own consumption needs but also to play a key role in re-exporting Caspian sea oil back to the Asian markets through the Red Sea port of Eilat. The strategic implications of this re-routing of Caspian sea oil are farreaching.

What is envisaged is to link the BTC pipeline to the Trans-Israel Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline, also known as Israel's Tipline, from Ceyhan to the Israeli port of Ashkelon. In April 2006, Israel and Turkey announced plans for four underwater pipelines, which would bypass Syrian and Lebanese territory.

"Turkey and Israel are negotiating the construction of a multi-million-dollar energy and water project that will transport water, electricity, natural gas and oil by pipelines to Israel, with the oil to be sent onward from Israel to the Far East,

The new Turkish-Israeli proposal under discussion would see the transfer of water, electricity, natural gas and oil to Israel via four underwater pipelines.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1145961328841&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

“Baku oil can be transported to Ashkelon via this new pipeline and to India and the Far East.[via the Red sea]"

"Ceyhan and the Mediterranean port of Ashkelon are situated only 400 km apart. Oil can be transported to the city in tankers or via specially constructed under-water pipeline. From Ashkelon the oil can be pumped through already existing pipeline to the port of Eilat at the Red Sea; and from there it can be transported to India and other Asian countries in tankers. (REGNUM )

Water for Israel
Also involved in this project is a pipeline to bring water to Israel, pumping water from upstream resources of the Tigris and Euphrates river system in Anatolia. This has been a long-run strategic objective of Israel to the detriment of Syria and Iraq. Israel's agenda with regard to water is supported by the military cooperation agreement between Tel Aviv and Ankara.

The Strategic Re-routing of Central Asian Oil
Diverting Central Asian oil and gas to the Eastern Mediterranean (under Israeli military protection), for re-export back to Asia, serves to undermine the inter-Asian energy market, which is based on the development of direct pipeline corridors linking Central Asia and Russia to South Asia, China and the Far East.

Ultimately, this design is intended to weaken Russia's role in Central Asia and cut off China from Central Asian oil resources. It is also intended to isolate Iran.

Meanwhile, Israel has emerged as a new powerful player in the global energy market.

Russia's Military Presence in the Middle East
Meanwhile, Moscow has responded to the US-Israeli-Turkish design to militarize the East Mediterranean coastline with plans to establish a Russian naval base in the Syrian port of Tartus:

"Defense Ministry sources point out that a naval base in Tartus will enable Russia to solidify its positions in the Middle East and ensure security of Syria. Moscow intends to deploy an air defense system around the base - to provide air cover for the base itself and a substantial part of Syrian territory. (S-300PMU-2 Favorit systems will not be turned over to the Syrians. They will be manned and serviced by Russian personnel.)

(Kommerzant, 2 June 2006, http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=IVA20060728&articleId=2847

Tartus is strategically located within 30 km. of the Lebanese border.

Moreover, Moscow and Damascus have reached an agreement on the modernization of Syria's air defenses as well as a program in support to its ground forces, the modernization of its MIG-29 fighters as well as its submarines. (Kommerzant, 2 June 2006). In the context of an escalating conflict, these developments have farreaching implications.
War and Oil Pipelines
Prior to the bombing of Lebanon, Israel and Turkey had announced the underwater pipeline routes, which bypassed Syria and Lebanon. These underwater pipeline routes do not overtly encroach on the territorial sovereignty of Lebanon and Syria.

On the other hand, the development of alternative land based corridors (for oil and water) through Lebanon and Syria would require Israeli-Turkish territorial control over the Eastern Mediterranean coastline through Lebanon and Syria.

The implementation of a land-based corridor, as opposed to the underwater pipeline project, would require the militarisation of the East Mediterranean coastline, extending from the port of Ceyhan across Syria and Lebanon to the Lebanese-Israeli border.

Is this not one of the hidden objectives of the war on Lebanon? Open up a space which enables Israel to control a vast territory extending from the Lebanese border through Syria to Turkey.

"The Long War"
Israeli Prime minister Ehud Olmert has stated that the Israeli offensive against Lebanon would "last a very long time". Meanwhile, the US has speeded up weapons shipments to Israel.

There are strategic objectives underlying the "Long War" which are tied to oil and oil pipelines.

The air campaign against Lebanon is inextricably related to US-Israeli strategic objectives in the broader Middle East including Syria and Iran. In recent developments, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice stated that the main purpose of her mission to the Middle East was not to push for a ceasefire in Lebanon, but rather to isolate Syria and Iran. (Daily Telegraph, 22 July 2006)

At this particular juncture, the replenishing of Israeli stockpiles of US produced WMDs points to an escalation of the war both within and beyond the borders of Lebanon.

Michel Chossudovsky is the author of the international best seller "The Globalization of Poverty " published in eleven languages. He is Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Center for Research on Globalization, at www.globalresearch.ca . He is also a contributor to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. His most recent book is entitled: America’s "War on Terrorism", Global Research, 2005. To order Chossudovsky's book America's "War on Terrorism", click here.











Related article on Lebanon: "Triple Alliance": The US, Turkey, Israel and the War on Lebanon, by Michel Chossudovsky - 2006-08-06 Revised, 28 July 2006. Annex The BTC Co. shareholders are: BP (30.1%); AzBTC (25.00%); Chevron (8.90%); Statoil (8.71%); TPAO (6.53%); Eni (5.00%); Total (5.00%), Itochu (3.40%); INPEX (2.50%), ConocoPhillips (2.50%) and Amerada Hess (2.36%). (source BP) Route of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline © Map by Eric Waddell, Global Research, 2003. (click to enlarge) For details on th Campaign against the pipeline see http://www.bakuceyhan.org.uk/more_info/bp_pipeline.htm See related articles: The Militarisation of the Eastern Mediterranean: Israel's Stake in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline - by Michel Chossudovsky Planned US-Israeli Attack on Iran, by Michel Chossudovsky Is Israel running out of Bombs? New Deliveries of WMD "Made in America" The Replenishing of Israeli WMD stockpiles points to escalation both within and beyond the borders of Lebanon, by Michel Chossudovsky


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STOP the Bloodshed: Ceasefire Now!

Sign this petition

Right now a tragedy is unfolding in the Middle East. Hundreds of civilians have died in the bombings in Lebanon, Israel and Palestine and the death toll is rising every day.


UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has called for an immediate ceasefire and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has joined Annan in calling for the deployment of international troops to the Israel-Lebanon border. This is the best proposal yet to stop the violence, but for it to succeed other global leaders need to get behind it immediately.


I have just signed a petition urging regional and global leaders to speak out and support Kofi Annan's proposal. If people around the world can persuade their governments to unite in demanding a ceasefire, all sides in this conflict will be pressured to stand down. Can you sign the petition too?


http://www.ceasefirecampaign.org


The petition will be sent to key regional and global leaders and publicized in major newspapers in the Middle East, US and Europe. With enough signatures we can help pressure our leaders to stop the violence.