The Truth About the Rockefeller Drug Empire: The Drug Story

By: Hans Ruesch
Source: http://www.whale.to/b/ruesch.html

Examples The Rockefeller Foundation Censorship Persecution America's Medico-Drug Cartel Colonization The Image "The Ludlow Massacre" Thorough Facelift The Purchase of Public Opinion The Intellectuals — A Bargain Millions of Dollars Free Publicity

In the 30's, Morris A. Bealle, a former city editor of the old Washington Times and Herald, was running a county seat newspaper, in which the local power company bought a large advertisement every week. This account took quite a lot of worry off Bealle's shoulders when the bills came due.

But according to Bealle's own story, one day the paper took up the cudgels for some of its readers that were being given poor service from the power company, and Morris Bealle received the dressing down of his life from the advertising agency which handled the power company's account. They told him that any more such "stepping out of line" would result in the immediate cancellation not only of the advertising contract, but also of the gas company and the telephone company.

That's when Bealle's eyes were opened to the meaning of a "free press", and he decided to get out of the newspaper business. He could afford to do that because he belonged to the landed gentry of Maryland, but not all newspaper editors are that lucky.

Bealle used his professional experience to do some deep digging into the freedom-of-the-press situation and came up with two shattering exposes — "The Drug Story", and "The House of Rockefeller." The fact that in spite of his familiarity with the editorial world and many important personal contacts he couldn't get his revelations into print until he founded his own company, The Columbia Publishing House, Washington D.C., in 1949, was just a prime example of the silent but adamant censorship in force in "the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave". Although The Drug Story is one of the most important books on health and politics ever to appear in the USA, it has never been admitted to a major bookstore nor reviewed by any establishment paper, and was sold exclusively by mail. Nevertheless, when we first got to read it, in the 1970s, it was already in its 33rd printing, under a different label - Biworld Publishers, Orem, Utah.

Examples

As Bealle pointed out, a business which makes 6% on its invested capital is considered a sound money maker. Sterling Drug, Inc., the main cog and largest holding company in the Rockefeller Drug Empire and its 68 subsidiaries, showed operating profits in 1961 of $23,463,719 after taxes, on net assets of $43,108,106 - a 54% profit. Squibb, another Rockefeller-controlled company, in 1945 made not 6% but 576% on the actual value of its property.

That was during the luscious war years when the Army Surgeon General's Office and the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery were not only acting as promoters for the Drug Trust, but were actually forcing drug trust poisons into the blood streams of American soldiers, sailors and marines, to the tune of over 200 million 'shots'. Is it any wonder, asked Bealle, that the Rockefellers, and their stooges in the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Public Health Service, the Federal Trade Commission, the Better Business Bureau, the Army Medical Corps, the Navy Bureau of Medicine, and thousands of health officers all over the country, should combine to put out of business all forms of therapy that discourage the use of drugs.

"The last annual report of the Rockefeller Foundation", reported Bealle, "itemizes the gifts it has made to colleges and public agencies in the past 44 years, and they total somewhat over half a billion dollars. These colleges, of course, teach their students all the drug lore the Rockefeller pharmaceutical houses want taught. Otherwise there would be no more gifts, just as there are no gifts to any of the 30 odd colleges in the United States that don' t use therapies based on drugs.

"Harvard, with its well-publicized medical school, has received $8,764,433 of Rockefeller's Drug Trust money, Yale got $7,927,800, Johns Hopkins $10,418,531, Washington University in St. Louis $2,842,132, New York's Columbia University $5,424,371, Cornell University $1,709,072, etc., etc."

And while "giving away" those huge sums to drug-propagandizing colleges, the Rockefeller interests were growing to a world-wide web that no one could entirely explore. Already well over 30 years ago it was large enough for Bealle to demonstrate that the Rockefeller interests had created, built up and developed the most far reaching industrial empire ever conceived in the mind of man. Standard Oil was of course the foundation upon which all of the other Rockefeller industries have been built. The story of Old John D., as ruthless an industrial pirate as ever came down the pike, is well known, but is being today conveniently ignored. The keystone of this mammoth industrial empire was the Chase National Bank, now renamed the Chase Manhattan Bank.

Not the least of its holdings are in the drug business. The Rockefellers own the largest drug manufacturing combine in the world, and use all of their other interests to bring pressure to increase the sale of drugs. The fact that most of the 12,000 separate drug items on the market are harmful is of no concern to the Drug Trust...

The Rockefeller Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation was first set up in 1904 and called the General Education Fund. An organization called the Rockefeller Foundation, ostensibly to supplement the General Education Fund, was formed in 1910 and through long finagling and lots of Rockefeller money got the New York legislature to issue a charter on May 14, 1913.

It is therefore not surprising that the House of Rockefeller has had its own "nominees" planted in all Federal agencies that have to do with health. So the stage was set for the "education" of the American public, with a view to turning it into a population of drug and medico dependents, with the early help of the parents and the schools, then with direct advertising and, last but not least, the influence the advertising revenues had on the media-makers.

A compilation of the magazine Advertising Age showed that as far back as 1948 the larger companies in America spent for advertising the sum total of $1,104,224,374, when the dollar was still worth a dollar and not half a zloty. Of this staggering sum the interlocking Rockefeller-Morgan interests (gone over entirely to Rockefeller after Morgan's death) controlled about 80 percent, and utilized it to manipulate public information on health and drug matters - then and even more recklessly now.

Censorship

"Even the most independent newspapers are dependent on their press associations for their national news," Bealle pointed out, "and there is no reason for a news editor to suspect that a story coming over the wires of the Associated Press, the United Press or the International News Service is censored when it concerns health matters. Yet this is what happens constantly."

In fact in the '50s the Drug Trust had one of its directors on the directorate of the Associated Press. He was no less than Arthur Hays Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times and as such one of the most powerful Associated Press directors.

It was thus easy for the Rockefeller Trust to persuade the Associated Press Science Editor to adopt a policy which would not permit any medical news to clear that is not approved by the Drug Trust "expert", and this censor is not going to approve any item that can in any way hurt the sale of drugs.

This accounts to this day for the many fake stories of serums and medical cures and just-around-the-corner breakthrough victories over cancer, AIDS, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, which go out brazenly over the wires to all daily newspapers in America and abroad.

Emanuel M. Josephson, M.D., whom the Drug Trust has been unable to intimidate despite many attempts, pointed out that the National Association of Science Writers was "persuaded" to adopt as part of its code of ethics the following chestnut: "Science editors are incapable of judging the facts of phenomena involved in medical and scientific discovery. Therefore, they only report 'discoveries' approved by medical authorities, or those presented before a body of scientific peers."

This explains why Bantam Books, America's biggest publisher, made a colossal mistake in its initial enthusiasm and optimism sending review copies of SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENT to the 3,500 "science writers" on its list, instead of addressing them to the literary book reviewers who are not subject to medical censorship. One single censor decreed NO and SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENT sank in silence.

Thus newspapers continue to be fed with propaganda about drugs and their alleged value, although according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 1.5 million people landed in hospitals in 1978 because of medication side effects in the U.S. alone, and despite recurrent statements by intelligent and courageous medical men that most pharmaceutical items on sale are useless at best, but more often harmful or deadly in the long run.

The truth about cures without drugs is suppressed, unless it suits the purpose of the censor to garble it. Whether these cures are effected by Chiropractors, Naturopaths, Naprapaths, Osteopaths, Faith Healers, Spiritualists, Herbalists, Christian Scientists, or MDs who use the brains they have, you never read about it in the big newspapers.

To teach the Rockefeller drug ideology, it is necessary to teach that Nature didn't know what she was doing when she made the human body. But statistics issued by the Children's Bureau of the Federal Security Agency show that since the all-out drive of the Drug Trust for drugging, vaccinating and serumizing the human system, the health of the American nation has sharply declined, especially among children. Children are now given "shots" for this and "shots" for that, when the only safeguard known to science is a pure bloodstream, which can be obtained only with clean air and wholesome food. Meaning by natural and inexpensive means. Just what the Drug Trust most objects to.

When the FDA, whose officials have to be acceptable to Rockefeller Center before they are appointed, has to put an independent operator out of business, it goes all out to execute those orders. But the orders do not come directly from Standard Oil or a drug house director. As Morris Bealle pointed out, the American Medical Association (AMA) is the front for the Drug Trust, and furnishes the quack doctors to testify that even when they know nothing of the product involved, it is their considered opinion that it has no therapeutic value.

Persecution

Wrote Bealle:

"Financed by the taxpayers, these Drug Trust persecutions leave no stone unturned to destroy the victim. If he is a small operator, the resulting attorney's fees and court costs put him out of business. In one case, a Dr. Adolphus Hohensee of Scranton, Pa., who had stated that vitamins (he used natural ones) were vital to good health, was taken to court for 'misbranding' his product. The American Medical Association furnished ten medicos who reversed all known medical theories by testifying that 'vitamins are not necessary to the human body'. Confronted with government bulletins to the contrary, the medicos wiggled out of that one by declaring that these standard publications were outdated!"

In addition to the FDA, Bealle listed the following agencies having to do with "health" —. i.e., with the health of the Drug Trust to the detriment of the citizens —. as being dependent on Rockefeller: U.S. Public Health Service, U.S. Veterans Administration, Federal Trade Commission, Surgeon General of the Air Force, Army Surgeon General's Office, Navy Bureau of Medicine & Surgery, National Health Research Institute, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences.

The National Academy of Sciences in Washington is considered the all-wise body which investigates everything under the sun, especially in the field of health, and gives to a palpitating public the last word in that science. To the important post at the head of this agency, the Drug Trust had one of their own appointed. He was none other than Alfred N. Richards, one of the directors and largest stockholders of Merck & Company, which was making huge profits from its drug traffic.

When Bealle revealed this fact, Richards resigned forthwith, and the Rockefellers appointed in his place the President of their own Rockefeller Institution, Detlev W. Bronk.

America's Medico-Drug Cartel

The medico-drug cartel was summed up by J.W Hodge, M.D., of Niagara Falls, N.Y., in these words:

"The medical monopoly or medical trust, euphemistically called the American Medical Association, is not merely the meanest monopoly ever organized, but the most arrogant, dangerous and despotic organisation which ever managed a free people in this or any other age. Any and all methods of healing the sick by means of safe, simple and natural remedies are sure to be assailed and denounced by the arrogant leaders of the AMA doctors' trust as fakes, frauds and humbugs.

Every practitioner of the healing art who does not ally himself with the medical trust is denounced as a 'dangerous quack' and impostor by the predatory trust doctors. Every sanitarian who attempts to restore the sick to a state of health by natural means without resort to the knife or poisonous drugs, disease imparting serums, deadly toxins or vaccines, is at once pounced upon by these medical tyrants and fanatics, bitterly denounced, vilified and persecuted to the fullest extent."

The Lincoln Chiropractic College in Indianapolis requires 4,496 hours, the Palmer Institute Chiropractic in Davenport a minimum of 4,000 60-minute classroom hours, the University of Natural Healing Arts in Denver five years of 1,000 hours each to qualify for a degree. The National College of Naprapathy in Chicago requires 4,326 classroom hours for graduation. Yet the medico-drug cartel spreads the propaganda that the practitioners of these three "heretic" sciences are poorly trained or not trained at all —. the real reason being that they cure their patients without the use of drugs. In 1958, one of those "ill-trained" doctors, Nicholas P. Grimaldi, who had just graduated from the Lincoln Chiropractic College, took the basic science examination of the Connecticut State Board along with 63 medics and osteopaths. He made the highest mark (91.6) ever made by a doctor taking the Connecticut State Board examination.

Colonization

Rockefeller's various "educational" activities had proved so profitable in the U.S. that in 1927 the International Educational Board was launched, as Junior's own, personal charity, and endowed with $21,000,000 for a starter, to be lavished on foreign universities and politicos, with all the usual strings attached. This Board undertook to export the "new" Rockefeller image as a benefactor of mankind, as well as his business practises. Nobody informed the beneficiaries that every penny the Rockefellers seemed to be throwing out the window would come back, bearing substantial interest, through the front door.

Rockefeller had always had a particular interest in China, where Standard Oil was almost the sole supplier of kerosene and oil "for the lamps of China". So he put up money to establish the China Medical Board and to build the Peking Union Medical College, playing the role of the Great White Father who has come to dispense knowledge on his lowly children. The Rockefeller Foundation invested up to $45,000,000 into "westernizing" (read corrupting) Chinese medicine.

Medical colleges were instructed that if they wished to benefit from the Rockefeller largesse they had better convince 500 million Chinese to throw into the ashcan the safe and useful but inexpensive herbal remedies of their barefoot doctors, which had withstood the test of centuries, in favor of the expensive carcinogenic and teratogenic "miracle" drugs Made in USA, which had to be replaced constantly with new ones, when the fatal side-effects could no longer be concealed; and if they couldn't "demonstrate" through large-scale animal experiments the effectiveness of their ancient acupuncture, this could not be recognized as having any "scientific value". Its millenarian effectiveness proven on human beings was of no concern to the Western wizards.

But when the Communists came to power in China and it was no longer possible to trade, the Rockefellers suddenly lost interest in the health of the Chinese people and shifted their attention increasingly to Japan, India and Latin America.

The Image

"No candid study of his career can lead to other conclusion than that he is victim of perhaps the ugliest of all passions, that for money, money as an end. It is not a pleasant picture.... this money-maniac secretly, patiently, eternally plotting how he may add to his wealth.... He has turned commerce to war, and honey-combed it with cruel and corrupt practices.... And he calls his great organization a benefaction, and points to his church-going and charities as proof of his righteousness. This is supreme wrong-doing cloaked by religion. There is but one name for it —. hypocrisy."

This was the description Ida Tarbell made of John D. Rockefeller in her "History of the Standard Oil Company", serialized in 1905 in the widely circulated McClure's Magazine. And that was several years before the "Ludlow Massacre", so JDR was as yet far from having reached the apex of his disrepute. But after World War II it would have been hard to read, in America or abroad, a single criticism of JDR, nor of Junior, who had followed in his father's footsteps, nor of Junior's four sons who all endevoured to emulate their illustrious forbears. Today's various encyclopedias extant in public libraries of the Western world have nothing but praise for the Family. How was this achieved?

Ironically, the two apparently most NEGATIVE events in the career of JDR brought about a huge POSITIVE change in his favor, to a degree that he himself could not foresee. To wit:

In the year when according to the current Encyclopaedia Britannica (long become a Rockefeller property and transferred from Oxford to Chicago), Rockefeller had "retired from active business", namely in 1911, he had been convicted by a U.S. court of illegal practices and ordered to dissolve the Standard Oil Trust, which comprised 40 corporations. This imposed dissolution was to provide his Empire with added might, to a degree that was unprecedented in the history of modem business. Until then, the Trust had existed for all to see - an exposed target. After that, it went underground, and thereby its power was cloaked in security, and could keep expanding unseen and therefore unopposed.

The second apparently negative experience was a certain 1914 event that persuaded JDR, until then utterly contemptuous of public opinion, to gloss over his own image.

"The Ludlow Massacre"

The United Mine Workers had asked for higher wages and better living conditions for the miners of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, one of the many Rockefeller-owned companies.

The miners —. mostly immigrants from Europe's poorest countries —. lived in shacks provided by the company at exorbitant rent. Their low wages ($1,68 a day) were paid in script redeemable only at company stores charging high prices. The churches they attended were the pastorates of company-hired ministers; their children were taught in company-controlled schools; the company libraries excluded books that the Bible-thumping Rockefellers deemed "subversive", such as "Darwin's Origin of the Species." The company maintained a force of detectives, mine guards, and spies whose job it was to keep the camp quarantined from the danger of unionization.

When the miners struck, JDR, Jr., then officially in command of the company, and his father's hatchet man, the Baptist Reverend Frederick T. Gates, who was a director of the Rockefeller Foundation, refused even to negotiate. They evicted the strikers from the company-owned shacks, hired a thousand strike-breakers from the Baldwin-Felts detective agency, and persuaded Governor Ammons to call out the National Guard to help break the strike.

Open warfare resulted. Guardsmen, miners, their women and children, who since their eviction were camping in tents, were ruthlessly killed, until the frightened Governor wired President Wilson for Federal Troops, who eventually crushed the strike, The New York Times, which then already could never be accused of being unfriendly to the Rockefeller interests, reported on April 21, 1914.

"A 14-hour battle between striking coal miners and members of the Colorado National Guard in the Ludlow district today culminated in the killing of Louis Tikas, leader of the Greek strikers, and the destruction of the Ludlow tent colony by fire."

And the following day:

"Forty-five dead (32 of them women and children), a score missing and more than a score wounded is the known result of the 14-hour battle which raged between state troops and coal miners in the Ludlow district, on the property of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, the Rockefeller holding. The Ludlow is a mass of charred debris, and buried beneath it is a story of horror unparalleled in the history of industrial warfare. In the holes that had been dug for their protection against rifle fire, the women and children died like trapped rats as the flames swept over them. One pit uncovered this afternoon disclosed the bodies of ten children and two women."

Thorough Facelift

The worldwide revulsion that followed was such that JDR decided to hire the most talented press agent in the country, Ivy Lee, who got the tough assignment of whitewashing the tycoon's bloodied image.

When Lee learned that the newly organized Rockefeller Foundation had $100 million lying around for promotional purposes without knowing what to do with it, he came with a plan to donate large sums - none less than a million - to well-known colleges, hospitals, churches and benevolent organizations. The plan was accepted. So were the millions. And they made headlines all over the world, for in the days of the gold standard and the five cent cigar there was a maxim in every newspaper office that a million dollars was always news.

That was the beginning of the cleverly worded medical reports on new "miracle" drugs and "just-around-the-corner breakthroughs" planted in the leading news offices and press associations that continue to this day, and the flighty public soon forgot, or forgave, the massacre of foreign immigrants for the dazzling display of generosity and philanthropy financed by the ballooning Rockefeller fortune and going out, with thunderous press fanfare, to various "worthy" institutions.

The Purchase of Public Opinion

In the following years, not only newsmen, but whole newspapers were bought, financed or founded with Rockefeller money. So Time Magazine, which Henry Luce started in 1923, had been taken over by J.P. Morgan when the magazine got into financial difficulties. When Morgan died and his financial empire crumbled, the Thorough FaceliftHouse of Rockefeller wasted no time in taking over this lush editorial plum also, together with its sisters Fortune and Life, and built for them an expensive 14-story home of their own in Rockefeller Center —. the Time & Life Building.

Rockefeller was also co-owner of Time's "rival" magazine, Newsweek, which had been established in the early days of the New Deal with money put up by Rockefeller, Vincent Astor, the Harrimann family and other members and allies of the House.

The Intellectuals — A Bargain

For all his innate cynicism, JDR must have been himself surprised to discover how easily the so-called intellectuals could be bought. Indeed, they turned out to be among his best investments.

By founding and lavishly endowing his Education Boards at home and abroad, Rockefeller won control not only of the governments and politicos but also of the intellectual and scientific community, starting with the Medical Power —. the organization that forms those priests of the New Religion that are the modern medicine men. No Pulitzer or Nobel or any similar prize endowed with money and prestige has ever been awarded to a declared foe of the Rockefeller system.

Henry Luce, officially founder and editor of Time Magazine, but constantly dependent on House advertising, also distinguished himself in his adulation of his sponsors. JDR's son had been responsible for the Ludlow massacre, and an obedient partner in his father's most unsavory actions. Nonetheless, in 1956 Henry Luce put Junior on the cover of Time, and the feature story, soberly titled "The Good Man", included hyperboles like this:

"It is because John D. Rockefeller Junior's is a life of constructive social giving that he ranks as an authentic American hero, just as certainly as any general who ever won a victory for an American army or any statesman who triumphed in behalf of U.S. diplomacy."

Clearly, Time's editorial board wasn't given the choice to change its tune even after the passing of Junior and Henry Luce, since it remained just as dependent on House of Rockefeller advertising. Thus, when in 1979 one of Junior's sons, Nelson A. Rockefeller died —. who had been one of the loudest hawks in the Vietnam and other American wars, and was personally responsible for the massacre of prisoners and hostages at Atticia prison - Time said of him in it obituary, without laughing: "He was driven by a mission to serve, improve and uplift his country."

Perhaps it was all this that Prof. Peter Singer had in mind when telling the judges in Italy that the Rockefeller Foundation was a humanitarian enterprise bent on doing good works. One of their best works seems to be sponsoring Prof. Peter Singer, the world's greatest animal friend and protector who claims that vivisection is indispensable for medical progress and for more than 20 years refuses to mention that legions of medical doctors are of the opposite view.

Millions of Dollars Free Publicity

Another interesting revelation in the article of Time was that many years ago already Singer "was pleasantly surprised when Britannica approached him to distill in about 30,000 words the discipline that is, at its heart, the systematic study of what we ought to do." So now we touch the subject of sponsorisation and patronage. They don't always mean immediate cash but, more important, long-term profits.

Many decades ago the Encyclopedia Britannica moved from Oxford to Chicago because Rockefeller had bought it to add much needed luster to the University of Chicago and its medical school, the first one he had founded. Peter Singer, "the world's greatest animal defender" who keeps a door permanently open to vivisection and the lucrative medical swindle, gets millions of dollars free publicity thanks to the worldwide engagement of the Rockefeller Foundation and the media makers who are in no position to oppose it.

From the article in Time we also learned that Singer's mother had been a medical doctor in the old country, which could mean that little Peter started assimilating all the Rockefeller superstition on vivisection with his mother's milk.

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Taken from the CIVIS Foundation Report number 15, Fall-Winter 1993 CIVIS: POB 152, Via Motta 51-CH 6900, Massagno/Lugano, Switzerland

Impressions of Gaza

 

Noam Chomsky

Chomsky.info, November 4, 2012

Source: Noam Chomsky

http://chomsky.info/articles/20121104.htm

Even a single night in jail is enough to give a taste of what it means to be under the total control of some external force. And it hardly takes more than a day in Gaza to begin to appreciate what it must be like to try to survive in the world’s largest open-air prison, where a million and a half people, in the most densely populated area of the world, are constantly subject to random and often savage terror and arbitrary punishment, with no purpose other than to humiliate and degrade, and with the further goal of ensuring that Palestinian hopes for a decent future will be crushed and that the overwhelming global support for a diplomatic settlement that will grant these rights will be nullified.

The intensity of this commitment on the part of the Israeli political leadership has been dramatically illustrated just in the past few days, as they warn that they will “go crazy” if Palestinian rights are given limited recognition at the UN. That is not a new departure. The threat to “go crazy” (“nishtagea”) is deeply rooted, back to the Labor governments of the 1950s, along with the related “Samson Complex”: we will bring down the Temple walls if crossed. It was an idle threat then; not today.

The purposeful humiliation is also not new, though it constantly takes new forms. Thirty years ago political leaders, including some of the most noted hawks, submitted to Prime Minister Begin a shocking and detailed account of how settlers regularly abuse Palestinians in the most depraved manner and with total impunity. The prominent military-political analyst Yoram Peri wrote with disgust that the army’s task is not to defend the state, but “to demolish the rights of innocent people just because they are Araboushim (“niggers,” “kikes”) living in territories that God promised to us.”

Gazans have been selected for particularly cruel punishment. It is almost miraculous that people can sustain such an existence. How they do so was described thirty years ago in an eloquent memoir by Raja Shehadeh (The Third Way), based on his work as a lawyer engaged in the hopeless task of trying to protect elementary rights within a legal system designed to ensure failure, and his personal experience as a Samid, “a steadfast one,” who watches his home turned into a prison by brutal occupiers and can do nothing but somehow “endure.”

Since Shehadeh wrote, the situation has become much worse. The Oslo agreements, celebrated with much pomp in 1993, determined that Gaza and the West Bank are a single territorial entity. By then the US and Israel had already initiated their program of separating them fully from one another, so as to block a diplomatic settlement and punish the Araboushim in both territories.

Punishment of Gazans became still more severe in January 2006, when they committed a major crime: they voted the “wrong way” in the first free election in the Arab world, electing Hamas. Demonstrating their passionate “yearning for democracy,” the US and Israel, backed by the timid European Union, at once imposed a brutal siege, along with intensive military attacks. The US also turned at once to standard operating procedure when some disobedient population elects the wrong government: prepare a military coup to restore order.

Gazans committed a still greater crime a year later by blocking the coup attempt, leading to a sharp escalation of the siege and military attacks. These culminated in winter 2008-9, with Operation Cast Lead, one of the most cowardly and vicious exercises of military force in recent memory, as a defenseless civilian population, trapped with no way to escape, was subjected to relentless attack by one of the world’s most advanced military systems relying on US arms and protected by US diplomacy. An unforgettable eyewitness account of the slaughter — “infanticide” in their words — is given by the two courageous Norwegian doctors who worked at Gaza’s main hospital during the merciless assault, Mads Gilbert and Erik Fosse, in their remarkable book Eyes in Gaza.

President-elect Obama was unable to say a word, apart from reiterating his heartfelt sympathy for children under attack — in the Israeli town Sderot. The carefully planned assault was brought to an end right before his inauguration, so that he could then say that now is the time to look forward, not backward, the standard refuge of criminals.

Of course, there were pretexts — there always are. The usual one, trotted out when needed, is “security”: in this case, home-made rockets from Gaza. As is commonly the case, the pretext lacked any credibility. In 2008 a truce was established between Israel and Hamas. The Israeli government formally recognizes that Hamas observed it fully. Not a single Hamas rocket was fired until Israel broke the truce under cover of the US election on November 4 2008, invading Gaza on ludicrous grounds and killing half a dozen Hamas members. The Israeli government was advised by its highest intelligence officials that the truce could be renewed by easing the criminal blockade and ending military attacks. But the government of Ehud Olmert, reputedly a dove, chose to reject these options, preferring to resort to its huge comparative advantage in violence: Operation Cast Lead. The basic facts are reviewed once again by foreign policy analyst Jerome Slater in the current issue of the Harvard-MIT journal International Security.

The pattern of bombing under Cast Lead was carefully analyzed by the highly informed and internationally respected Gazan human rights advocate Raji Sourani. He points out that the bombing was concentrated in the north, targeting defenseless civilians in the most densely populated areas, with no possible military pretext. The goal, he suggests, may have been to drive the intimidated population to the south, near the Egyptian border. But the Samidin stayed put, despite the avalanche of US-Israeli terror.

A further goal might have been to drive them beyond. Back to the earliest days of the Zionist colonization it was argued across much of the spectrum that Arabs have no real reason to be in Palestine; they can be just as happy somewhere else, and should leave — politely “transferred,” the doves suggested. This is surely no small concern in Egypt, and perhaps a reason why Egypt does not open the border freely to civilians or even to desperately needed materials

Sourani and other knowledgeable sources observe that the discipline of the Samidin conceals a powder keg, which might explode any time, unexpectedly, as the first Intifada did in Gaza in 1989 after years of miserable repression that elicited no notice or concern,

Merely to mention one of innumerable cases, shortly before the outbreak of the Intifada a Palestinian girl, Intissar al-Atar, was shot and killed in a schoolyard by a resident of a nearby Jewish settlement. He was one of the several thousand Israelis settlers brought to Gaza in violation of international law and protected by a huge army presence, taking over much of the land and scarce water of the Strip and living “lavishly in twenty-two settlements in the midst of 1.4 million destitute Palestinians,” as the crime is described by Israeli scholar Avi Raz. The murderer of the schoolgirl, Shimon Yifrah, was arrested, but quickly released on bail when the Court determined that “the offense is not severe enough” to warrant detention. The judge commented that Yifrah only intended to shock the girl by firing his gun at her in a schoolyard, not to kill her, so “this is not a case of a criminal person who has to be punished, deterred, and taught a lesson by imprisoning him.” Yifrah was given a 7-month suspended sentence, while settlers in the courtroom broke out in song and dance. And the usual silence reigned. After all, it is routine.

And so it is. As Yifrah was freed, the Israeli press reported that an army patrol fired into the yard of a school for boys aged 6 to 12 in a West Bank refugee camp, wounding five children, allegedly intending only “to shock them.” There were no charges, and the event again attracted no attention. It was just another episode in the program of “illiteracy as punishment,” the Israeli press reported, including the closing of schools, use of gas bombs, beating of students with rifle butts, barring of medical aid for victims; and beyond the schools a reign of more severe brutality, becoming even more savage during the Intifada, under the orders of Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, another admired dove.

My initial impression, after a visit of several days, was amazement, not only at the ability to go on with life, but also at the vibrancy and vitality among young people, particularly at the university, where I spent much of my time at an international conference. But there too one can detect signs that the pressure may become too hard to bear. Reports indicate that among young men there is simmering frustration, recognition that under the US-Israeli occupation the future holds nothing for them. There is only so much that caged animals can endure, and there may be an eruption, perhaps taking ugly forms — offering an opportunity for Israeli and western apologists to self-righteously condemn the people who are culturally backward, as Mitt Romney insightfully explained.

Gaza has the look of a typical third world society, with pockets of wealth surrounded by hideous poverty. It is not, however, “undeveloped.” Rather it is “de-developed,” and very systematically so, to borrow the terms of Sara Roy, the leading academic specialist on Gaza. The Gaza Strip could have become a prosperous Mediterranean region, with rich agriculture and a flourishing fishing industry, marvelous beaches and, as discovered a decade ago, good prospects for extensive natural gas supplies within its territorial waters.

By coincidence or not, that is when Israel intensified its naval blockade, driving fishing boats toward shore, by now to 3 miles or less.

The favorable prospects were aborted in 1948, when the Strip had to absorb a flood of Palestinian refugees who fled in terror or were forcefully expelled from what became Israel, in some cases expelled months after the formal cease-fire.

In fact, they were being expelled even four years later, as reported in Ha’aretz (25.12.2008), in a thoughtful study by Beni Tziper on the history of Israeli Ashkelon back to the Canaanites. In 1953, he reports, there was a “cool calculation that it was necessary to cleanse the region of Arabs.” The original name, Majdal, had already been “Judaized” to today’s Ashkelon, regular practice.

That was in 1953, when there was no hint of military necessity. Tziper himself was born in 1953, and while walking in the remnants of the old Arab sector, he reflects that “it is really difficult for me, really difficult, to realize that while my parents were celebrating my birth, other people were being loaded on trucks and expelled from their homes.”

Israel’s 1967 conquests and their aftermath administered further blows. Then came the terrible crimes already mentioned, continuing to the present day.

The signs are easy to see, even on a brief visit. Sitting in a hotel near the shore, one can hear the machine gun fire of Israeli gunboats driving fishermen out of Gaza’s territorial waters and towards shore, so they are compelled to fish in waters that are heavily polluted because of US-Israeli refusal to allow reconstruction of the sewage and power systems that they destroyed.

The Oslo Accords laid plans for two desalination plants, a necessity in this arid region. One, an advanced facility, was built: in Israel. The second one is in Khan Yunis, in the south of Gaza. The engineer in charge of trying to obtain potable water for the population explained that this plant was designed so that it cannot use sea water, but must rely on underground water, a cheaper process, which further degrades the meager aquifer, guaranteeing severe problems in the future. Even with that, water is severely limited. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which cares for refugees (but not other Gazans), recently released a report warning that damage to the aquifer may soon become “irreversible,” and that without remedial action quickly, by 2020 Gaza may not be a “liveable place.”

Israel permits concrete to enter for UNRWA projects, but not for Gazans engaged in the huge reconstruction needs. The limited heavy equipment mostly lies idle, since Israel does not permit materials for repair. All of this is part of the general program described by Israeli official Dov Weisglass, an adviser to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, after Palestinians failed to follow orders in the 2006 elections: “The idea,” he said, “is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.” That would not look good.

And the plan is being scrupulously followed. Sara Roy has provided extensive evidence in her scholarly studies. Recently, after several years of effort, the Israeli human rights organization Gisha succeeded to obtain a court order for the government to release its records detailing plans for the diet, and how they are executed. Israel-based journalist Jonathan Cook summarizes them: “Health officials provided calculations of the minimum number of calories needed by Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants to avoid malnutrition. Those figures were then translated into truckloads of food Israel was supposed to allow in each day ... an average of only 67 trucks — much less than half of the minimum requirement — entered Gaza daily. This compared to more than 400 trucks before the blockade began.” And even this estimate is overly generous, UN relief officials report.

The result of imposing the diet, Mideast scholar Juan Cole observes, is that “[a]bout ten percent of Palestinian children in Gaza under 5 have had their growth stunted by malnutrition ... in addition, anemia is widespread, affecting over two-thirds of infants, 58.6 percent of schoolchildren, and over a third of pregnant mothers.” The US and Israel want to ensure that nothing more than bare survival is possible.

“What has to be kept in mind,” observes Raji Sourani, “is that the occupation and the absolute closure is an ongoing attack on the human dignity of the people in Gaza in particular and all Palestinians generally. It is systematic degradation, humiliation, isolation and fragmentation of the Palestinian people.” The conclusion is confirmed by many other sources. In one of the world’s leading medical journals, The Lancet, a visiting Stanford physician, appalled by what he witnessed, describes Gaza as “something of a laboratory for observing an absence of dignity,” a condition that has “devastating” effects on physical, mental, and social wellbeing. “The constant surveillance from the sky, collective punishment through blockade and isolation, the intrusion into homes and communications, and restrictions on those trying to travel, or marry, or work make it difficult to live a dignified life in Gaza.” The Araboushim must be taught not to raise their heads.

There were hopes that the new Morsi government in Egypt, less in thrall to Israel than the western-backed Mubarak dictatorship, might open the Rafah crossing, the sole access to the outside for trapped Gazans that is not subject to direct Israeli control. There has been slight opening, but not much. Journalist Laila el-Haddad writes that the re-opening under Morsi, “is simply a return to status quo of years past: only Palestinians carrying an Israeli-approved Gaza ID card can use Rafah Crossing,” excluding a great many Palestinians, including el-Haddad’s family, where only one spouse has a card.

Furthermore, she continues, “the crossing does not lead to the West Bank, nor does it allow for the passage of goods, which are restricted to the Israeli-controlled crossings and subject to prohibitions on construction materials and export.” The restricted Rafah crossing does not change the fact that “Gaza remains under tight maritime and aerial siege, and continues to be closed off to the Palestinians’ cultural, economic, and academic capitals in the rest of the [occupied territories], in violation of US-Israeli obligations under the Oslo Accords.”

The effects are painfully evident. In the Khan Yunis hospital, the director, who is also chief of surgery, describes with anger and passion how even medicines are lacking for relief of suffering patients, as well as simple surgical equipment, leaving doctors helpless and patients in agony. Personal stories add vivid texture to the general disgust one feels at the obscenity of the harsh occupation. One example is the testimony of a young woman who despaired that her father, who would have been proud that she was the first woman in the refugee camp to gain an advanced degree, had “passed away after 6 months of fighting cancer aged 60 years. Israeli occupation denied him a permit to go to Israeli hospitals for treatment. I had to suspend my study, work and life and go to set next to his bed. We all sat including my brother the physician and my sister the pharmacist, all powerless and hopeless watching his suffering. He died during the inhumane blockade of Gaza in summer 2006 with very little access to health service. I think feeling powerless and hopeless is the most killing feeling that human can ever have. It kills the spirit and breaks the heart. You can fight occupation but you cannot fight your feeling of being powerless. You can't even dissolve that feeling.”

Disgust at the obscenity, compounded with guilt: it is within our power to bring the suffering to an end and allow the Samidin to enjoy the lives of peace and dignity that they deserve.

Noam Chomsky visited the Gaza Strip on October 25-30, 2012.

New Canadian $20.00 Dollar Bill is a reminder of foreign Ownership

Video Source: Press TV

Opinion By: Stewart Brennan

The changes made to the new Canadian Twenty Dollar Bill ($20.00) proves itself to be another example of a stab by the Harper Government directly at the First Nations People of this country. It is also perceived as an imperial statement to glorify war. The new 20 which is the most common note used throughout Canada, leaves the Impression of subservience. It’s a real kick in the teeth to anyone that believes Canada is a free and Independent nation.

In my opinion, the new Canadian $20.00 dollar bill drives home the fact that Canada is not an independent nation but one that is still controlled by Britain. To further bring this point home, witness the recent actions and statement of British Foreign Secretary William Hague where he announced that Britain and Canada were to clinch an agreement to establish joint diplomatic missions in other states in a bid to cut costs. Hague also said that, “the new partnership will give “BRITAIN" a bigger reach abroad for less cost”. (1)

Another revealing statement was made last year in 2011 by British Premier David Cameron where he said, “We are two nations, but under one Queen and united by one set of values”. (2) What set of values was he talking about? Was it the position that both countries were aligned in past military conflicts or is it Canada’s present day change from peacekeepers to one of military aggression with the UK? Cameron’s statement is also perceived as an arrogant reminder that we do not have complete independence from Britain politically, or monetarily and since Canadian money is “BORROWED” with an added interest by the Bank of Canada for the Government of Canada (3), Cameron is telling Canadians flat out that we are subservient to their crumbling empire.

Video: British PM Cameron Addresses Canadian Parliament (September 2011)

The NEW Canadian 20 dollar Bill

The New twenty dollar bill boldly shows the WWI Vimy Ridge memorial, which does not rest in Canada, but in France. The WW I memorial was unveiled by British Monarch “King Edward VIII in 1936 when Canada still flew a colonial flag. Following an extensive multi-year restoration, Queen Elizabet II rededicated the memorial on April 9^th, 2007 when Canada had its own flag.(4) The figurehead, “Queen Elizabeth II” is placed smack in the Middle of this new 20 dollar bill in a sea of sickly coloured lime green. 

 Back of New Canadian $20.00 Bill (War memorial in France)

What really stands out is how European the new note is with no traces of Canada or the people of this Country. Removing the Indigenous Art is like removing the heart and soul of this nation for an Imperial standard of the old Roman Empire…it sure feels that way.

Front Face of New Canadian $20.00 Bill

Back of Old Canadian $20.00 Bill (with Native Art)

  

If one was to travel the unofficial threads of history, by tracing the money trail of the European Royal families back to the ruling elite and Patrician class of the Roman Empire, one could also draw the conclusion that World War I was the final war to end all wars between these self imposed Monarchies and rulers of men. A winner take all won by an elite that quickly claimed all spoils of war for their own, including the people as their subjects. I don’t like the new Canadian twenty dollar bill because it does not reflect Canada, it reflects British Rule.

 The Canadian World War I Memorial in Vimy France

Links:

British Initiative Undermines Canada’s Sovereignty

British PM Cameron Addresses Canadian Parliament (September 2011)

Canada issued Debt Free Money from 1935 - 1974

Canadian National Vimy Memorial

The Crime of the Canadian Banking System

Victory for Palestine and the People of the World: “We are all Palestinian”

By: Stewart Brennan

World United News

On November 21^st, 2012 we were witness to an agreement of peace between the government of Hamas in the Gaza strip, and the Israeli government; a MAJOR breakthrough for global peace.

However, it is important to note that the reason why this peace treaty was reached between the two sides in the first place was due to the massive outcry by ordinary people around the World…the voice that cried out at every protest on every street around the World, “The People United, Will Never Be Defeated”!  

A Lasting Peace?

If we are to see a lasting peace in the Middle East we will need to see the total cessation of hostilities between Israel and the people of Gaza, but also, this cessation must include ending the hostile starvation blockade placed on Gaza by Israel and its supporting Western Governments.

The terms of the peace agreement reveal that the air, land, and sea blockade will be lifted by Israel…so this is a MAJOR step forward IF the Israelis remain true to their word…only time will tell. For the time being however, we must rejoice that significant progress has been made for the besieged people of Gaza.

Choices and Requirements for Lasting Peace:

Requirements for a lasting Peace throughout all of Palestine and Israel must also include an end to all illegal settlements, occupations, including a cessation of hostility towards the people, that is, of course, if a two state solution is still being supported. If so, then Israel must return to 1967 borders as stated by the United Nations and its general assembly.

Let’s be realistic about this, the two state solution has no possibility of working because the Israeli government and the settlers will refuse to give up any of the land they have seized from the Palestinians, and the Palestinians will refuse to concede the land that was taken from them, so there is no possible way to do this unless both sides are forced to do it at gunpoint. 

The problems faced in the region today go back to the errors made by the United Nations in 1948 when they created the State of Israel by carving it out of Palestine. In essence, the two state solution was a UN Security Council decision which is at the heart of this problem.

The "One State Solution", dominated by the Israeli's or by the Palestinian's is also not acceptable because it is a recipe for total disaster. Dominance by either side would be destructive because it is totally divisional, militaristic, driven by fanaticism and powered by a warlike nationalist mindset. Taking this path leads to an endless war between both sides that could quickly lead to regional war and or a global conflict, so this path must be avoided at all costs.

Real Solution for Lasting Peace

The only real solution for the region is the one that nobody is talking about and that is a “Reunification of Palestine” where ALL THE PEOPLE, within the old borders of Palestine, rule together. Shared power would mean a democratic process for all the inhabitants regardless of faith or ethnicity, and it would mean freedom of worship, freedom of movement, and the right to live for all.

The reunification solution also calls for the creation of provinces within the state, where for example, one region could be called Israel, another Gaza, etc. This option requires that ALL POLITICAL FACTIONS make concessions in the name of peace, prosperity, respect, and unity. This option is the true path to peace in the Middle East and for that matter the road to global peace that I am sure is supported by a large majority of the people.

Back to the Present Reality

There’s one thing that Israel and the Western leaders did not expect when they gave Israel the authorization to attack the people of Gaza, and that was the backlash from a growing political awakening by people around the world.

Communication with each other VIA the Internet has fostered the awakening of a global consciousness that is dynamic in the social, political, and ethical spheres; and it was this global consciousness that forced the World leaders to pressure Israel into a peace treaty on November 21^st, 2012. It will be a day remembered when the global majority spoke out with one voice on the World’s Political stage.

On this day, the global collective declared themselves to be Palestinian.

Common Sense

If the UN is going to hold onto any credibility with the citizens of the world, then the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council must be unanimous in recognizing Palestine and the needs of all people throughout the world. If they cannot agree to this simple fact then there simply will not be a need for the United Nations body, such as it is, anymore. It’s time to turn swords into ploughshares and evolve with the citizens of the World.

A transition period is always required, when bringing any new venture into reality, so let's move away from the standard process of extremes and move forward through gradual change towards a realistic goal.

Freedom for the Palestinian people is directly linked to the moral well being of the Worlds population and by the global political awakening that has put an Imperial driver in check.

There is a great deal of danger ahead for everyone, but we can rise together in unity and end the insanity that dictates the direction of the world simply by adding a moral consciousness to it.

The younger generation that is coming up will be a tidal wave of change…things will never go back to the way they were again. The economy and its stinging reality in hardship is beginning to hit home throughout Europe and North America, and that is causing more minds to open in the global consciousness. 

The common foundation of all people in North America, Europe and the rest of the World, including those asleep, is moral perception and common sense based on education and upbringing. Social networks have given all of us a platform for education, where we can voice our opinions and interact in a spirit of sharing knowledge and most importantly, a chance to see what life is really like on the other side of the fence.

The internet has given rise to a consciousness that has united people in mind and spirit around the world...it is a global awakening…however there are many that have been left behind by the advances in global communication simply because they cannot escape the prisons of propaganda in their minds due to years of state programming. Many of my generation in North America (Baby Boomers) will pass with the old world beliefs, mainly because they are fearful of letting go of old programs. During the baby boom years people were only given a distorted one sided view of the World, so today’s information age can be a real challenge for those who are set in their ways. The younger generation, for the most part, has no such limit and is very quick to find out how the world works and who is running it. This is a generation that finds time on its hands to do extensive information research on the internet due to mass youth unemployment and rising costs for education. They are the future, and they are awake.

Global Identity

All around the World, people have evolved during the Information age and become more aware of the extremely criminal and fraudulent banking cartel that has systematically destroyed of their freedoms and liberties. When protesting the power elite and their monopoly, people are met with a militarized police force who use teargas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets to disperse them. The riot police are there to enforce the system and beat down any resistance to it. But it is also in this context of suffering that people begin to understand and identify with what it is like to be Palestinian, although it pales in comparison to the daily strife that the Palestinian people endure everyday under their brutal occupation by the Israelis.

Sticking with the current World Banking System is a recipe for disaster which only leads to extreme poverty. The people have had enough and will not allow the status quo to continue. Change is required across the board, be it in banking, institutional education, living conditions, or human rights. The people of the World have expressed their anger towards today's economic system controllers and have stated vociferously that they (we) are in complete solidarity with the Palestinian people. We are all Palestinian, and that means the people of the World want their freedom and independence from the totalitarian power structure that drives the world towards war. It is time for the voice of the people to enter the sphere of decision-making and to forge a new World that drives humanity towards a 1000 years of peace. Free Palestine, Free Gaza, Free the World!

Today, we are Palestinian.

Stewart Brennan

Bus Bomb in Tel Aviv was a False Flag Attack

 

Photo – Russia Today (rt.com)

Opinion By: S. Brennan

http://worldunitednews.blogspot.com/

The Bus bombing in Tel Aviv today (November 21st, 2012) was a false flag attack to drum up sympathy and support for an Israeli government that is committing Mass Murder in the Gaza strip.

I’m sure there are some inside Gaza or the West Bank that would love to claim responsibility for the bombing, but in truth the only ones that will gain from this crime are the Israeli and Western governments image, as they search for ways to hide their acceptance of ethnic cleansing in the current Gaza massacre.

Israel, and the Western governments that back the despotic regime are being challenged by an informed public that demands justice for the Zionist War Crimes being committed in Gaza.

Repercussions of a Planned Invasion on Gaza

Moving forward with the pre-planned Israeli ground invasion of Gaza will spark an exponential outcry by the global public to demand immediate cessation of relations with Israel.

The international political landscape would be changed immediately under this scenario and the implications will certainly destroy the credibility of every western government leader should nothing be done to villianize Hamas before they begin their pre-planned invasion. The establishment will never admit that Israel is wrong so they have been scheming of ways in which to change the direction of public opinion.

You can be sure that evil minds have been hard at work to find a way in justifying a ground war on Gaza and since the scenario needs to be within the confines of Israeli control, they decided to come up with the elusive bus bomber.

The type of minds are we dealing with here are absolutely evil in every way. Consider that these monsters can commit indiscriminate mass murder on the women and children of Gaza and get away with it time and again. Israel is a lunitic state that is out of control…and your Western leaders approve of their despotic actions!!

Bombs Placed on a Bus

The story is so full of holes that one has to wonder at the shear insanity at play trying to convince the World that it was an outside terrorist attack. Itis only a matter of time before they blame someone for the attack, and we all know whom they will blame…

As the story goes, a bomb was PLACED inside public transportation (Bus) as opposed to a suicide bomber and when it was further investigated a SECOND bomb was found that did not go off. These bombs were planted in one of the most security control freak states in the World!

Afterwards, Israeli police claimed that they are looking for 2 men, which contradicted eyewitness claims of one person fleeing the scene. Later the police arrested someone but then let him go…starting to sound familiar.

Hamas did not claim responsibility for the bombing incident although with the anguish and grief they are experiencing during these grievous times, I’m sure they would love to or at least express some sort of gratification to ease their suffering. If Hamas was going to carry out an attack inside Tel Aviv they would have attacked a significant structure such as the Knesset or IDF Military Building and you can be damn sure it would have been huge!

Internationally, we already know who will be blamed by the Western Zionist Controlled Media, and we also know what our bullshit western leaders would say publicly AGAIN and that is, Israel is justified for committing a holocaust on the Palestinian people.

However, what these ass holes have failed to see is that hundreds of millions of people around the World are politically, socially and intellectually awake and have already seen through this self inflicted, FALSE FLAG ATTACK in Tel Aviv. I don’t believe the Israeli officials side for one second, do you. This attack was carried out by Israeli Mossad, end of story!

 

False Flag? - Bus explodes in central Tel Aviv, first terror attack in the city since 2006

An Israeli police officer looks at a damaged bus after an explosion in Tel Aviv November 21, 2012 (Reuters / Nir Elias)

Source: Russia Today

At least 16 people were injured, one seriously, in a bus bombing in central Tel Aviv at the corner of of Shaul Hamelech and Henrietta Szold streets. The blast was a terrorist attack, police said.

Bystanders were ordered to stay away from the scene of the explosion. Police cordoned off the Azrieli Center compound nearby, but said they did not believe there were other terror plots taking place in the area.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesperson confirmed the bombing was a terrorist attack.

The bomb was not a suicide attack and was triggered remotely. Another explosive that did not detonate was reportedly found on the bombed bus.

This bombing is the first one in Tel Aviv since 2006.

Police are searching for two people involved in the attack, contradicting previous reports of a single suspect. Eyewitnesses reported seeing the bomber flee the scene, Israeli radio said.

A suspect was reportedly taken into police custody about half an hour after the explosion, and was later released.

Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri praised the bombing as a just response to Israel’s recent attacks on Gaza, but stopped short of claiming responsibility, Haaretz reported.

MORE DETAILS TO FOLLOW

Israeli police survey the scene after an explosion on a bus in Tel Aviv November 21, 2012 (Reuters / Nir Elias)

Image from tweeter.com @Vostvitzech

Fed chairman warns US lawmakers on impact of 'fiscal cliff'

 

US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/21/273685/us-lawmakers-alarmed-on-fiscal-cliff/

US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has once again warned American legislators to ward off the abrupt and severe combination of legislated tax hikes and federal spending cuts, known as ‘fiscal cliff,’ due to take effect by the end of the year.

In a Tuesday speech at the New York Economic Club, Bernanke described fiscal cliff as a “substantial threat” to the country’s economic recovery and urged US lawmakers to put aside partisan political rivalries to avert the massive financial impact on the nation’s already slow economy.

‘‘Uncertainties about the situation in Europe and especially about the prospects for federal fiscal policy seem to be weighing on the spending decisions of households and businesses as well as on financial conditions,’’ he said, adding, ‘‘Such uncertainties will only be increased by discord and delay.’’

According to reported estimates, the impact of the scheduled federal spending cuts and the expiration of temporary tax breaks will take at least USD 500 billion out of the US economy, threatening to push it back into yet another recession.

Citing several outside economic assessments on the enormity of the ensuing tax hikes and spending cuts, Bernanke said ‘‘a fiscal shock of that size would send the economy toppling back into recession.’’

This is while the Obama administration and Congress are still negotiating over an agreement to reduce the government's massive budget deficit, which has exceeded USD 1 trillion for a fourth consecutive year.

The last time the debt limit was about to be reached, Republican lawmakers in the US Congress waited until the very last minute before deciding to raise the limit.

Saying "the deficit is on an unsustainable path," the Fed chairman further added, ‘‘As you will recall, the threat of default in the summer of 2011 fueled economic uncertainty and badly damaged confidence, even though an agreement ultimately was reached.’’

‘‘A failure to reach a timely agreement this time around could impose even heavier economic and financial costs,” he warned.

Japan posts another record trade deficit

 

(Reuters / Toru Hanai)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/business/news/japan-trade-deficit-record-219/

Japan has seen its worst trade deficit for October in over 30 years, renewing September’s record, with dropping exports to China due to the territorial dispute, and easing demand from debt-stricken Europe.

The government data showed that a 549 billion yen ($6.7 billion) visible trade deficit in October far exceeded the 360 billion yen shortfall expected by economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires and the Nikkei. This year, Japan posted trade deficits every month except February and June.

Overall, exports fell 6.5% year on year in October to 5.15 trillion yen. Total exports to China were down 11.6% year on year, compared with a 14.1% drop in September due to the growing anti-Japanese sentiment. Exports of automobiles to China were down 82% year on year, and exports of car parts were off 28.1%. The shortfall in car exports to China was the largest since October 2001, according to Japan’s Ministry of Finance.

The territorial dispute with China that sparked anti-Japanese riots in September re-emerged after the Japanese government bought a group of islands that China also claims.

Meanwhile, exports to the European Union dropped 20.1% year on year according to the data. But exports to the US were up 3.1%, supported by a rise in supplies of cars, engines and car parts.

Weaker exports have hit Japanese corporate majors such as Sharp, Panasonic, and Nissan, which heavily rely on foreign trade. Panasonic forecast a $9.5bln loss this year, 30 times bigger than analyst estimates, while Hitachi Construction Machinery Co. and Nissan Motor Co. cut their full-year profit forecasts.

Experts say Japan’s economy would experience its fifth technical recession in 15 years as it is expecting a fall in October-December, after dropping by 3.5% in Q3, which is below analysts’ expectations.

On Tuesday the Bank of Japan announced it has no plans for further stimulus measures, but experts suppose that weak figures would force them to change their mind. "With weak trade data, and likely a weak result to the BOJ's December Tankan survey, the BOJ could very probably ease in December," said Daiwa Securities senior economist Maiko Noguchi.

 

Recent Israeli war on Gaza pre-planned: Israel diplomat

 

People carry the body of a Palestinian in the West Bank city of Ramallah, November 20, 2012.

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/21/273680/gaza-war-preplanned-israeli-diplomat/

An Israeli diplomat says the Tel Aviv regime’s ongoing aggression against the besieged Gaza Strip was pre-planned.

In an interview with France 24 TV channel on Tuesday, Freddy Eytan said the Israeli regime had long been preparing for the attack on Gaza, but was waiting for an opportunity to enforce the plan.

Assassinating the senior commanders of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas was also part of the Israeli mission, the diplomat stated.

Eytan also said that a ground operation against the Gaza Strip would be possible if the desired goals of the Israeli regime were not achieved.

Tel Aviv has intensified its deadly attacks on Gaza despite Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s expression of hope for a ceasefire.

On Wednesday, Israeli Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz said Tel Aviv will continue its attacks on Gaza despite ongoing truce talks.

Meanwhile, Gilad Sharon, son of former Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, has said that the regime should “flatten Gaza” in the same manner as the United States ruined Hiroshima in its nuclear bombing of the Japanese city in 1945.

“We need to flatten entire neighborhoods in Gaza. Flatten all of Gaza. The Americans didn’t stop with Hiroshima - the Japanese weren’t surrendering fast enough, so they hit Nagasaki, too.”

Over 135 Gazans, including women and children, have been killed and more than 1,100 others have been injured in over 1,450 Israeli attacks on the besieged Palestinian territory since November 14.

Puppet state America

 

Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu and President Obama at the White House

By: Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/273689.html

The United States government and its subject peoples think of the US as “the world’s only superpower.” But how is a country a superpower when its entire government and a majority of the subjects, especially those members of evangelical churches, grovel at the feet of the Israeli Prime Minister? How is a country a superpower when it lacks the power to determine its own foreign policy in the Middle East? Such a country is not a superpower. It is a puppet state.

In the past few days we have witnessed, yet again, the “American superpower” groveling at Netanyahu’s feet. When Netanyahu decided to again murder the Palestinian women and children of Gaza, to further destroy what remains of the social infrastructure of the Gaza Ghetto, and to declare Israeli war crimes and Israeli crimes against humanity to be merely the exercise of “self-defense,” the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, the White House, and the U.S. media all promptly declared their support for Netanyahu’s crimes.

On November 16 the Congress of the “superpower,” both House and Senate, passed overwhelmingly the resolutions written for them by AIPAC, the Israel Lobby known as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the only foreign agent that is not required to register as a foreign agent. The Global News Service of the Jewish People reported their power over Washington with pride. Both Democrats and Republicans shared the dishonor of serving Israel and evil instead of America and justice for the Palestinians.

The White House quickly obeyed the summons from the Israel Lobby. President Obama announced that he is “fully supportive” of Israel’s assault on Gaza. Ben Rhodes, White House deputy national security adviser, told the media on November 17 that the White House “wants the same thing as the Israelis want.” This is an overstatement as many Israelis oppose the crimes of the Israeli government, which is not the government of Israel but the government of the “settlers,” that is, the crazed land-hungry immigrants who are illegally, with Netanyahu’s support, stealing the lands of the Palestinians.

Netanyahu’s Israel is the equivalent of the Lincoln Republicans 150 years ago. Then there was no international law to protect Southern states, who left the voluntary union, a right under the Constitution, in order to avoid being exploited by Northern business interests. Subsequently, the Union army, after devastating the South, turned on the American Indians, and there was no international law to protect American Indians from being murdered and dispossessed by Washington’s armies.

Washington claimed that its invasion forces were threatened by the Indian’s bows and arrows. Today there is international law to protect the Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza. However, every time that the world tries to hold the Israeli government accountable for its crimes, Israel’s Washington puppet vetoes the UN decision.

Demonizing a victim is a way of hiding state crimes. The American print and TV media is useless as a check on state crimes. The only crimes reported by the media are assigned to “terrorists,” that is, those who resist U.S. hegemony, and to Americans, such as Bradley Manning and Sibel Edmonds, who liberate truth from official secrecy. Julian Assange of WikiLeaks remains in danger despite the asylum granted to him by the President of Ecuador, as Washington has little regard for international law.

In the U.S. the exercise of the First Amendment is coming to be regarded as a crime against the state. The purpose of the media is no longer to find the truth, but to protect official lies. Speaking the truth has essentially disappeared as it is too costly to journalist who dare to do so. To keep one’s job, one serves Washington and the private interest groups that Washington serves.

In his November 19 defense of Israel’s latest war crimes, President Obama said: “no country on earth would tolerate missiles raining down from outside its borders.” But, of course, numerous countries do tolerate missiles raining down from the U.S. The war criminal Obama is raining down missiles in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen, and has rained missiles on Libya, Somalia, Iraq and Syria as well.

The German assault on the Warsaw Ghetto is one of the horror stories of Jewish history. Such an event is happening again, only this time Jews are perpetrators instead of victims. No hand has been raised to stay Israel from the goal of the operation declared by Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai to be “to send Gaza back to the Middle Ages.”