The Economist: The wolf returns, Call of the Wild!

In August 2011, Desiree Versteeg, a Dutch mortuarist, was driving home in the suburbs of Arnhem in the eastern Netherlands, when she saw an animal in the road. "At first I thought it was a dog. Then I thought it was a fox. Then, I couldn't believe my eyes, I saw it was a wolf." She got out of the car to take a picture. "I was seven or eight meters away from him. He couldn't get away, because a fence was blocking his path. He turned and stared at me. That was a frightening moment." Both she and the wolf fled. From Ms Versteeg's photographs, and from the carcass of a deer found nearby, its throat torn out in classic wolf fashion, scientists verified that she was the first person to have seen a wolf in the Netherland's since 1897. Having talked to the experts, she now understands that the wolf was probably more frightened than she was, "But all you know at the time is: It's a wolf, it's a predator, and I'm in it's way." Ms Versteeg's experience illustrates a dramatic reversal that has taken place in the West over the past couple of decades. Economic change has led to a fundamental shift in humanity's attitude to wolves. For the first time since man first sharpened a spear, he has stopped trying to exterminate them and taken to protecting them instead. The effort has been so successful that wolves are recolonizing areas from which they disappeared as much as a century ago. As they do so, they are forging revealing divisions over whether mankind can live side by side with the species it replaced as the Western world's top predator. Most man-made extinctions have been accidental, the result of over hunting, or importing predators or diseases. Wolves are different. Through most of human history, killing them has been regarded as a public good. As soon as anything that looked like a state developed, it set about exterminating wolves. In England King Edgar imposed an annual tribute of 300 wolf skins on Idwal, king of Wales. In 960, monarchs made land grants on condition that the beneficiaries carried out wolf hunts. King Edward I employed a wolf hunter in chief, to clear central and western England of wolves. 

Stephen Lendman: Four More Years of War!

Expect Obama to prioritize advancing America's imperium. He did aggressive in term one. New wars are planned. Current ones won't end. Proxy ones continue. So does increasing America's global military footprint. Fiscal cliff hype is about greater force fed austerity to free up more funds for America's war machine. Waging them isn't cheap. Profiteers depend on wasteful spending to boost bottom line performance. It pays to have friends in high places. They assure all the billions wanted. Social America is being sacrificed to provide them. Over the next decade, trillions of dollars will shift from people needs to war making, generous corporate handouts, tax breaks for the rich, and hardened homeland repression against nonbelievers. At the same time, deficits will keep rising exponentially. Hype about urgently cutting them is fake. Post 9/11 has been the worst of times. Expect more of the same on steroids ahead. Conditions today are the most perilous in world history. Global war is possible. The threat is real and ominous. Open discussion is suppressed. Media scoundrels won't touch it, nor do they explain Project Censored top Censored 2013 story: "Signs of an Emerging Police State." It began pre 9/11, accelerated under Bush, then Obama exceeded his extremism. Tyranny in America is a hair's breadth from full blown. For those affected,it arrived long ago. Project Censored's number 4 story is: "FBI Agents Responsible for Majority of Terrorist Plots in the United States." Innocent people are wrongly imprisoned. Media scoundrels convict them in the court of public opinion. Other top censored stories include criminalizing nonviolent protests, corporate predators running the global economy, Federal Reserve money printing madness, enriching Wall Street, Washington joining forces with Al Qaeda, prison slavery, wrecking public education by privatizing it, and NATO war crimes in Libya, but it's much the same wherever this killing machine shows up. Media scoundrel managed news suppresses these and other vital truths people most need to know. Instead, they get The New York Times running cover for Obama's foreign policy by praising what it should condemn.

Ismail Salami: The Good Terrorists versus the Bad

Washington's Dilemma: The Good Terrorists versus the Bad Terrorists: Terrorism is terrorism, and it cannot be defined otherwise unless the interests of one party tilt the scale in disfavor of another, and the dichoto-mization of the terrorists in Syria into good and bad by the West casts doubts on its claims on democracy. In a somber political tone, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov lashed out as absolutely unacceptable the West's support for the terrorists in Syria, in his exclusive interview with Russia Today. Lavrov said the West has divided the terrorists into bad and acceptable, throwing its support behind the latter. It's absolutely unacceptable, and if we follow this logic it might lead us to a very dangerous situation, not only in the Middle East, but in other parts of the world, if our partners in the West would begin to qualify terrorists as bad terrorists and acceptable terrorists, the Russian foreign minister said. The "dichotomization" of such a grave issue by the West is almost nothing new. The de listing of MKO, a long considered terrorist group by Washington is in line with this process of redefining well established concepts and terms by the West. Paradoxically, the MKO has been supported by Washington, even when it was on the terrorist list. They even received their training at the hands of the Bush administration. In an enlightened article, Seymour Hersh showed that US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) trained members of the Iranian Mujahideen e Khalq (MKO) at a secretive site in Nevada from 2005 to at least 2007. According to Hersh, MKO members were trained in intercepting communications, cryptography, weaponry and small unit tactics at the Nevada site up until President Obama took office. In a separate interview, a retired four star general said that he had been privately briefed in 2005 about the training of MKO members in Nevada by an American involved in the program. He said that they got the standard training in commo, crypto, small unit tactics, and weaponry that went on for six months. They were kept in little pods. He also was told, he said, that the men doing the training were from JSOC, which, by 2005, had become a major instrument in the Bush Administrations global war on terror.   

Dr. Ismail Salami: Good Terrorists Versus Bad Terrorists in Syria!

Terrorism is terrorism, and it cannot be defined otherwise, unless the interests of one party tilt the scale in disfavor of another, and the dichotomization of the terrorists in Syria into good and bad by the West, casts doubt on its claim on democracy. In a somber political tone, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov lashed out as "absolutely unacceptable"the West's support for the terrorists in Syria, in his exclusive interview with Russia Today. Lavrov said the West has divided the terrorists into "bad" and "acceptable," throwing its support behind the latter. "It's absolutely unacceptable, and if we follow this logic, it might lead us to a very dangerous situation, not only in the Middle East, but in other parts of the world, if our partners in the West would begin to qualify terrorists as bad terrorists and acceptable terrorists," the Russian foreign minister said. The dichotomization of such a grave issue by the West is almost nothing new. The delisting of MKO, a long considered terrorist group by Washington, is in line with this process of re-defining well established concepts and terms by the West. Paradoxically, the MKO has been supported by Washington even when it was on the terrorist list. They even received their training at the hands of the Bush administration. In an enlightening article, Seymour Hersh showed that US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) trained members of the Iranian Mujahideen e Khalq (MKO) at a secretive site in Nevada from 2005 to at least 2007. According to Hersh, MKO members were trained in intercepting communications, cryptography, weaponry and small unit tactics at the Nevada site up until President Obama took office." In a separate interview, a retired four star general said that he had been privately briefed in 2005 about the training of MKO members in Nevada by an American involved in the program. He said that they got "the standard training program in communication, cryptography, small unit tactics and weaponry. That went on for six months. They were kept in little pods." He also was told, he said, that the men doing the training were from JSOC, which, by 2005, had become a major instrument in the Bush Administration's global war on terror.            

Michel Chossudovsky: The Destabilization of Pakistan!

This article first published five years ago in December 2007, focuses on the historical process of collapse of Pakistan as a nation state, following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Washington's intent goes beyond the narrow objective of "regime change". The thrust of US foreign policy consists of weakening the central government and fracturing the country. The ongoing US drone attacks under the banner of the "Global War on Terrorism" are part of that process. Washington's intent goes beyond the narrow objective of "regime change". The thrust of US foreign policy consists of weakening the central government and fracturing the country. The ongoing US drone attacks under the banner of the "Global War on Terrorism" are part of that process. Washington had already envisaged a scenario of disintegration and civil war. According to a 2005 report by the US Intelligence Council and the CIA, Pakistan is slated to become a "failed state" by 2015, "as it would be affected by civil war, complete Talibanisation and struggle for control of its nuclear weapons". What is not mentioned in this report, is that the destabilization process, including the drone attacks, is part of a longstanding US led intelligence operation. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto has created conditions which contribute to the ongoing destabilization and fragmentation of Pakistan as a Nation. The process of US sponsored "regime change", which normally consists in the re formation of a fresh proxy government under new leaders has been broken. Discredited in the eyes of Pakistani public opinion, General Pervez Musharaf cannot remain in the seat of political power, but at the same time, the fake elections supported by the "international community" scheduled for January 2008, even if they were carried out, would not be accepted as legitimate, thereby creating a political impasse. There are indications that the assassination of Benazir Bhutto was anticipated by US officials:"It has been known for months, that the Bush Cheney administration and its allies have been maneuvering to strengthen their political control of Pakistan, paving the way for the expansion and deepening of the war on terrorism across the region. Various American destabilization plans, known for months by officials and analysts proposed the toppling of Pakistan's military. The assassination of Bhutto appears to have been anticipated. There were even reports of chatter among US officials about the possible assassinations of either Pervez Musharraf or Benazir Bhutto, well before the actual attempts took place!   

Dirk Adriaensens: CIA Interrogations in Iraq.

Torture and Rape of Detained Women. Kitabat reports on 18 December. The chairman of the Iraqi List, Hamid al Mutlaq, said in a press conference in Baghdad on 18 December: "Iraqi prosecutors have submitted today a report to the Chairman of the Iraqi judiciary, Medhat al Mahmoud, that confirms the occurrence of torture and violations and rape of women detained in Iraqi prisons. The report is based on confidential testimonies of female prisoners in Iraqi jails." Mutlaq said that "the report confirms what has been recently stated by some parliamentary committees and human rights organizations, that there is a systematic violation, torture and rape of female prisoners in Iraqi prisons," The Chairperson of the Committee on Women presented a report on the situation of women prisoners. This report confirms that prisoners are routinely subjected to torture and rape. The presentation led to a heated argument between the deputies of the Iraqi List and the Coalition of State of Law, evolving into a serious affray. Mutlaq demanded that the Iraqi government and the judiciary system would "do their legal duties by issuing a death sentence against those who commit such crimes against Iraqi women, and take the necessary measures to prevent these abuses. He also asked to protect the confidential informant, and to implement Article IV of the Anti terrorism Act. The announcement of the Public Prosecutor to the Iraqi Judicial Council coincides with the statement of the Governor of Nineveh, Ethel Nujaifi, on Tuesday, about an officer in the Second Division of the Iraqi army, who raped a 17 year old minor, after forcing her into the Headquarters of his Regiment in the Nimrod's District. On 12 December, the Sadrist movement submitted a request to the Public Prosecutor, to issue an arrest warrant against the Minister of Justice Hassan Shammari and other officials in the ministry, for preventing the Iraqi MP's from visiting prisons, after they received information about the existence of torture and rape of some of the inmates.          

Richard Eskow: For Wall Street It's "Peace On Earth"

Goodwill Toward Remington. Despite an epic of gun deaths, the river of gun cash never stops flowing. If you follow that river upstream you'll see that the source lies very close to Wall Street, and the river's mouth speaks with the voice of politicians, whose campaign fundraising is undoubtedly taking place even on this supposedly holy day for most of them. "Tis the season to be lobbied. "More than 50 firearms related companies have given at least $14.8 million to the National Rifle Association, Bloomberg News reports, and that's just the money we know about. The NRA spent nearly $25 million in the last election cycle alone. True to form, the NRA's chief said this week that we need more guns in the schools to end the killing of our children. That's like spreading a flu virus to stop an epidemic, but Wayne La Pierre did his job. Everyone is talking about how crazy he is. Noone is talking about how crazy we are for tolerating this situation, or how immoral our corporate class is for financing it. Wall Street's investments extend beyond the manufacturers themselves, to the NRA, and to all the other groups supporting the NRA's nihilistic objective, the total elimination of any and all controls on even the deadliest weapons. That includes ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, which foments the "Stand Your Ground" reign of terror, that so effectively distracts millions of Americans from the true source of their anxiety and hardship. It's working. As we reported after another gun tragedy this year, "Firearms and ammunition sales rose 45 percent between 2009 and 2010 alone." The tragedy of Newton has been great for business all around the country. Just look at a sampling of headlines we've seen in the last week: "Tucson Gun Sales Surge After Newtown" (Arizona Daily Star). "New Hampshire sets record on background checks for gun sales after Newtown shootings" (Nashua Telegraph). "Local gun dealers see sales increase after Newtown tragedy" Indianapolis local television). Somebody's making money from these tragedies. But who?

William Rivers Pitt: All I want for Christmas. Guns Peace & Justice!

I want Wayne La Pierre to sit in a room with the families of the victims of the Newtown massacre, and explain to them his grand theories on further arming our hyper armed society. I will not get that wish, however, because Wayne LaPierre is a cowardly blowhard who gives "press conferences" where no questions are allowed. I want those children to be alive on Christmas morning. I want those teachers to be alive. I want Adam Lanza to be alive. I want his mother to be alive. I want those teachers to be alive. I want her guns to be un-bought, sitting in a gun store display case gathering dust, forever unloaded. Early on Christmas Eve morning, a man outside of Rochester set fire to a house and waited with his firearm for firefighters to arrive. When they did, the man shot four of them, killing two and wounding two severely, before killing himself. Because of the gunshots, the fire could not be dealt with, and several neighboring houses also burned. I want those two dead firefighters to be unharmed, I want the shooter alive, those houses unburnt, and I want someone to explain to me how a man who would set a trap for firefighters by burning down his own house got his hands on a gun, and why that is the definition of American freedom. I want Wayne LaPierre to be in a roomful of firemen when he announces the solution to problems like this is to arm firefighters. I want to watch what happens next. I want a broad national conversation on sane and sensible gun control, but I won't get that, either, because "gun control" is the Israel Palestine of American policy discussions, the opinions are so entrenched, and the arguments have been repeated so many times that nobody actually talks to each other about it anymore, but merely belch well worn cliche responses like some demented exercise in cut and paste conversation, while the bodies pile up, and up, and up. If I get my wish about having a real conversation on the issue, I want the idea of establishing a 28th Amendment to the Constitution, one that clarifies the 2nd Amendment, and for all time nails down what gun rights are in America, to be part of the debate,   

Veterans Today: Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today's News!

We encourage you to browse the list, so that you can take what you want, and keep what you need. 1. Mexico frees ex-Marine jailed for bringing in a gun. Jon Hammar, the Marine veteran from South Florida, detained for months in a Mexican border prison for bringing his great grandfather's shotgun into the country, was released Friday night, in what his mother called a "Christmas miracle." 2. Obama's Offer Holiday Wishes, Call for All to Remember Vets. During the weekly address from the White House, President Obama and his wife Michelle wished service members, veterans and their families a happy holiday season, and called on all Americans to remember those in harm's way. 3. Defense Secretary Leon E Panetta called four service members deployed to Afghanistan today to wish them happy holidays. Panetta expressed his gratitude, and that of the American people, to the service members and to their families for their service and sacrifice, according to a statement issued by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. 4. Sex assault reports at Air Force Academy continue to rise. Sex assault reports involving Air Force Academy cadets increased by about 50 percent over the previous academic year, accounting for the majority of reported assaults across the nation's three military academies, according to a Defense Department report issued Friday. 5. Obama takes heat on Hagel candidacy. President Barack Obama's consideration of Chuck Hagel to be the defense secretary, has set off an outcry of criticism that would force a second damaging White House retreat over a Cabinet pick. 6. Texas Department of Veterans Affairs to track deaths. The Department of Veterans Affairs in Texas will conduct a mortality study to track causes of death for veterans, putting together a model that could allow similar data to be gathered. 7. Bay of Pigs invasion veterans mark 50 years since their release. In the days before Christmas 50 years ago this weekend, 1,113 Bay of Pigs fighters captured by Fidel Castro's forces, and imprisoned for 20 months, were finally released to a heroes' welcome in Miami. 8. WWII veteran returns to Germany, where injury ended combat career. Fred Woelkers never thought he'd return. But there he was, 68 years and 13 days later, standing near the same spot where a Nazi bullet ended his fighting days on the front lines of World War II.  

Lynn Stuart Parramore: Crazed Republicans Turn on Each Other!

in Ugly Fiscal Cliff Battle. Fear gripped Middle Earth. The little people looked nervously toward the horizon,, wondering if their few remaining possessions would be snatched away by marauding bands of goblins and orcs. For years the simple, honest folk had suffered as the twin forces of greed and hatred darkened the land, but this time, maybe there was hope. Maybe the goblins and the orcs would turn their fury upon each other, as they battled on the edge of a cliff over which both might fall. And so things appear, as Americans watch the fiscal cliff deadline draw near. There is just a week to go for lawmakers to make a deal, to avert automatic tax increases and spending cuts. Last week negotiations
broke down as Speaker Boehner failed to get enough votes to pass a bill that would have required the wealthy to pay a miniscule increase in taxes, at a time when income inequality is crippling the nation's future. With the House gridlocked, attention turns to the Senate, where some Republicans appear to be in favor of Obama's call for a partial deal, that insulates most Americans from the tax increases, but defers a resolution on spending. A deal may yet pass, but it's getting very ugly in the GOP. The Republican Party, particularly in the House of Representatives, is so blinded by greed and stupidity, that factions are turning on each other. One group, let's call them the goblins, is just plain greedy, but not completely crazy. These are the folks who favored Mitt Romney for president, and simply want to continue shoveling money toward the one percent, as they have been doing very successfully for the past three decades. They are willing to make a deal, because they know that any deal, particularly one that will shred the social safety net, with cuts like those Obama has proposed to make to Social Security, the widely condemned chained CPI adjustment, will work out very nicely to their advantage. They are thrilled, that instead of focusing on the jobs crisis, the country has been railroaded into a premature deficit reduction deal that serve as a cover for conservative wealth redistribution schemes.    

James F. Tracy: The Sandy Hook Massacre. Unanswered Questions!

and missing information. Inconsistencies and anomalies abound when one turns an analytical eye to news of the Newtown school massacre. The public's general acceptance of the events, validity and faith in its resolution suggests a deepened credulousness, born from a world where almost all news and information is electronically mediated and controlled. The condition is reinforced through the corporate medias unwillingness to push hard questions vis a vis Connecticut and federal authorities, who together bottle-necked information, while invoking prior restraint through threats of prosecuted action against journalists and broader citizenry seeking to interpret the event on social media. Along these lines, on December 19, the Connecticut State Police assigned individual personnel to each of the 26 families who lost a loved one at the Sandy Hook Elementary. The families have requested no press interviews, State Police assert on their behalf, and we are asking that this request be honored. The de facto gag order will be in effect until the investigation concludes, now forecast to be several months away even though lone gunman Adam Lanza has been confirmed as the sole culprit. With the exception of an unusual and apparently contrived appearance by Emilie Parker's alleged father, victims family members have been almost wholly absent from public scrutiny. What can be gleaned from this and similar coverage, raises many more questions, and glaring inconsistencies than answers. While it sounds like an outrageous claim, one is left to inquire whether the Sandy Hook shooting ever took place, at least in the way law enforcement authorities and the nations news media have described. An especially important, yet greatly under reported feature of the Sandy Hook affair, is the wholly bizarre performance of Connecticut's top medical examiner H Wayne Carver II at a December 15 press conference. Carvers unusual remarks and behavior warrant close consideration, because in light of his professional notoriety they appear remarkably amateurish and out of character. H. Wayne Carver II has an extremely self assured, almost swaggering presence in Connecticut state administration. In early 2012, Carver threatened to vacate his position, because of state budget cuts and streamlining measures that threatened his professional autonomy over the projects and personnel he oversaw.        

Stephen Lendman: Four More Years of War!

Expect Obama to prioritize advancing America's Imperium. He did aggressive in term one. New wars are planned. Current ones won't end. Proxy ones continue. So does increasing America's global military footprint. Fiscal cliff hype is about greater force fed austerity to free up more funds for America's war machine. Waging them isn't cheap. Profiteers depend on wasteful spending to boost bottom line performance. It pays to have friends in high places. They assure all the billions wanted. Social America is being sacrificed to provide them. Over the next decade, trillions of dollars will shift from people needs to war making, generous corporate handouts, tax breaks for the rich, and hardened homeland repression against nonbelievers. At the same time, deficits will keep rising exponentially. Hype about urgently cutting them is fake. Post 9/11has been the worst of times. Expect more of the same on steroids ahead. Conditions today are the most perilous in world history. Global war is possible. The threat is real and ominous. Open discussion is suppressed. Media scoundrels won't touch it. Nor do they explain Project Censored's top Censored 2013 story. "Signs of an emerging Police State." It began pre-9/11, accelerated under Bush, then Obama exceeded his extremism. Tyranny in America is a hair's breadth from full blown. For those affected, it arrived long ago. Project Censored number 4 story is: "FBI Agents Responsible for Majority of Terrorist Plots in the United States." Innocent people are wrongly imprisoned. Media scoundrels convict them in the court of public opinion. Other top censored stories include criminalizing nonviolent protests, corporate predators running the global economy, Federal Reserve money printing madness enriching Wall Street, Washington joining forces with Al Qaeda, prison slavery, wrecking public education by privatizing it, and NATO war crimes in Libya, but it's much the same wherever this killing machine shoes up. Media scoundrel managed news suppresses these and other vital truths people most need to know. Instead, they get The New York Times running cover for Obama's foreign policy by praising what it should condemn. 

Ted Rall: Six Weeks After Reelection, Obama Sells Out Liberal Democrats!

After the election Kerry Eleveld wrote a piece for The Atlantic titled "Why Barack Obama Will Be a More Effective Liberal in His Second Term." "In response to their initial disappointment with the president's early performance, many progressives speculated that Obama was just waiting for a second term to be more liberal," he said. That was true. They were. Eleveld continued: "A more likely explanation is that Obama was just waiting for a second term to be more liberal," he said. That was true. They were. Eleveld continued: "A more likely explanation is that Obama was still finding his groove, figuring out which levers worked best for him in the context of governing the nation, and in some ways, he was still developing the courage of his convictions." That, it turns out, was false. He wasn't. You can't develop convictions that you don't have in the first place. It's hard to remember now, more than six weeks later,but there was once a time, six long weeks ago, when liberal Democrats who naively chose to ignore Obama's consistently conservative first term, his consistently conservative career in the Senate, and his consistently conservative pre politics career as a University of Chicago law professor, seriously believed that his reelection would lead to a progressive second term. "It's hard to remember now, more than six weeks later, but there was once a time, six long weeks ago, when liberal Democrats who naively chose to ignore Obama's consistently conservative first term, his consistently conservative career in the Senate, and his consistently career in the Senate, and his consistently conservative pre-politics career as a University of Chicago law professor, seriously believed that his reelection would lead to a progressive second term. "It's time for President Obama to assume the Roosevelt inspired mantle of muscular liberalism," Anthony Woods wrote in The Daily Beast. This is his moment. He only has to take it." It's his moment all right, and he's taking it, but when it comes to Obama, liberals are once again guilty of some major wishful thinking. Obama's economic policies are closer to Herbert Hoover than Franklin Roosevelt.  

Michel Chossudovsky: The Spirit of Christmas:

George W. Bush and Tony Blair were banned from the Birthplace of Jesus Christ. War criminals George W Bush and Tony Blair were banned for life in April 2003 from the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, widely believed to be the birth place of Jesus Christ. The ban was announced at the height of the illegal US allied bombing and invasion of Iraq. Below are the original 2003 press reports pertaining to that decision, as well as a subsequent introductory note published by Global Research in December 2006. "The Bethlehem sanctuary issued a ringing reprisal Sunday, April 2003 of the coalition attack, going as far as banning US President George W Bush, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, and UK Foreign Minister Jack Straw from entering church grounds, due to their aggressive war in Iraq. The priest in the Church of the Nativity has every right to ban Bush and his supporters, since they have marred the teachings of Christ. Their entry into the church will tarnish it as Bush's hands are covered with blood of the innocent, Karmash told The Jordan Times. The local priest went on to say that he felt the punishment was not enough. We need a tougher one to eradicate evil at its very root, he exclaimed. The Nativity Church's parishioner, Father Panaritus, said during a rally organized Sunday by the Greek Orthodox community in Bethlehem that Bush, Rumsfeld, Blair and Straw are war criminals and children killers that will be banned from entering the church forever! The Church parishioner, Father Panaritus, said during a rally organized Sunday by the Greek Orthodox community in Bethlehem that Bush, Rumsfeld, Blair and Straw are war criminals and children killers that will be banned from entering the church forever! The Church Parishioner, Father Panaritus made the decision public at a massive protest demonstration organized by Orthodox institutions in front of the Church of Nativity. "They are war criminals and murderers of children. Therefore the Church of Nativity decided to ban them access into the holy shrine for ever." the parishioner said." 

Chris Hedges: The Final Battle!

Over the past year I and other plaintiffs including Noam Chomsky and Daniel Ellsberg have pressed a lawsuit in the federal courts to nullify Section 1021(b)(2) of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This egregious section, which permits the government to use the military to detain US citizens, strip them of due process, and hold them indefinitely in military detention centers, could have been easily fixed by Congress. The Senate and House had the opportunity this month to include in the 2013 version of the NDAA an unequivocal statement that all US citizens would be exempt from 1021(b)(2), leaving the section to apply only to foreigners, but restoring due process for citizens was something the Republicans and the Democrats, along with the White House, refused to do. The fate of our most basic and important rights, ones enshrined in the Bill of Rights as well as the Fourth and Fifth amendments of the Constitution, will be decided in the next few months in the courts. If the courts fail us, a gulag state will be cemented into place. Senators Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Mike Lee, R-Ariz., however, removed the amendment from the bill last week. "I was saddened and disappointed that we could not take a step forward to ensure at the very least, American citizens and legal residents could not be held in detention without charge or trial," Feinstein said in a statement issued by her office. "To me, that was a no-brainer." The House approved the $633 billion NDAA in the House, including Rep Morgan Griffith, R-Va., cited Congress' refusal to guarantee due process and trial by jury to all citizens as his reason for voting against the bill. He wrote in a statement after the vote that "American citizens may fear being arrested and indefinitely detained by the military without knowing what they have done wrong." The Feinstein Lee amendment was woefully adequate. It was probably proposed mainly for its public relations value, but nonetheless it resisted the concerted assault on our rights, and sought to calm nervous voters objecting to the destruction of the rule of law.

Jonathan Cook: Ruppert Murdoch's Bid to Persuade

General David Petraeus to run as Republican Candidate in the 2012 Presidential Election. Carl Bernstein, of All the President's Men fame, has a revealing commentary in the Guardian today, though revealing not entirely in a way he appears to understand. Bernstein highlights a story first disclosed earlier this month in the Washington Post by his former journalistic partner Bob Woodward, that media mogul Rupert Murdoch tried to buy the US presidency. A taped conversation shows that in early 2011 Murdoch sent Roger Ailes, the boss of his most important US media outlet, Fox News, to Afghanistan to persuade General David Petraeus, former commander of US forces, to run against Barack Obama as the Republican candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Murdoch promised to bankroll Petraeus campaign and commit Fox News to provide the general with wall to wall support. Murdoch's efforts to put his own man in the White House failed, because Petraeus decided he did not want to run for office. Tell Ailes, if I ever ran, Petraeus says in the recording, "but I won't, but if I ever ran, I'd take him up on his offer. Bernstein is rightly appalled, not just by this frontal attack on democracy, but also by the fact that the Washington Post failed to splash with their world exclusive. Instead, they buried it inside the paper's lifestyle section, presenting it as what the section editor called a buzzy media story, that didn't have the broader import that would justify a better showing in the paper. In line with the Washington Post, most major US news outlets either ignored the story or downplayed its significance. We can probably assume that Bernstein wrote the piece at the bidding of Woodward, as a covert way for him to express his outrage at his newspaper's wholesale failure to use the story to generate a much deserved political scandal. The pair presumably expected the story to prompt congressional hearings into Murdoch's misuse of power, parallel to investigations in the UK that have revealed Murdoch's control of politicians and the police there. As Bernstein observes: The Murdoch story, his corruption of essential democratic institutions on both sides of the Atlantic, is one of the most important and far reaching political/cultural stories of the past 30 years, an ongoing tale without equal!    

Jim W. Dean: Israel Activates American 5th column

for Sandy Hook damage control. The Veterans Today site counts Gush Shalom, founder Uri Avnery and rabid anti Israel activist Gilad Atzmon as writers, Ilan Ben Zion, The Times of Israel, First published in Press TV, December 19, 2012.  This article was a follow up to Gordon Duff's on Press TV,  which went viral and became the most read article in Press TV history. It triggered a quick and organized Israeli Lobby smear campaign before the day was done, which we enjoyed. It began 36 hours ago during a TV interview about gun control, with an angry American radio show host, Mike Harris, made his case for Israeli complicity in the Connecticut school killings. Mike based his feelings on the recent Gaza outrages, access to Intel reports on the Berwick killings in Norway, backed by a wealth of circumstantial evidence that raised very serious questions, but did not "close." Mike based his feelings on the recent Gaza outrages, access to Intel reports on the Berwick killings in Norway, backed by a wealth of evidence that raised very serious questions, but did not "close." Then Gordon Duff wrote a short article on the Harris interview, giving some background, but stayed well short of endorsing Harris' conclusions. Today Duff's article went viral on Press TV. It hit a nerve, the UN votes, Gaza bombings, the world was, it seemed, ready to blame Israel for whom killing children has been part of their state defense policy for some time. What can put the "Israeli stamp of approval" on a preemptive attack more than killing children, right? In the intelligence world especially, Israel has a very long history of state terrorism, going back to their pre 1948 war market basket bombs. Many of their top leaders came up through their terrorist ranks, where having murdered people was considered a resume enhancer to the voters. Every counter intelligence officer and analyst working the Israel desk carries around a mental encyclopedia of the methods used in every Israeli attack on record, including those the public is unaware of. When any nation, group, company, be it a bank, insurance company or even a political party needs a convenient car bombing, no matter which side or who or what dies, you cab always hire Israelis. They have a reputation. When they blow things up, they stay "blown up."      

Alex Henderson: 10 Key Court Decisions That Prevent Right Wing

Christians from Controlling Your Sex Life. If the Christian Right had its way, the United States would be a fundamentalist theocracy in which contraception, homosexuality, abortion, sexually explicit hip hop lyrics, and all adult pornography were illegal, but making the US that much of a theocracy would mean overturning a lot of major Supreme Court decisions. Over the years, the US Supreme Court has had many rulings that helped to advance sexual freedom in the United States, and it will be easier to protect those advances if fewer socially conservatives to the High Court, if Republican Mitt Romney had been elected president on November 6, while President Obama has shown a tendency to nominate justices who are at least centrist in their judicial philosophy, and now that Obama is getting ready to begin his second term, he will be more likely to appoint justices who will uphold, or perhaps even expand Supreme Court decisions that are favorable to gay rights, contraception, or one's right to possess sexually explicit adult erotica. Below are 10 landmark decisions that have had major implications for sexual freedom in the United States: 1. Stanley v Georgia, 1969. The Christian Right loves to demonize the late Earl Warren, who served as chief justice of the US Supreme Court from 1953-1969, and social conservatives' hatred of Warren is quite ironic, in light of the fact that he was a Republican who was nominated by GOP President Dwight D Eisenhower. Warren served three terms as California's Republican governor, and was Republican Thomas E Dewey's running mate in the 1948 presidential election. But then, the term "socially liberal Republican" wasn't an oxymoron in the days of the Warren Court, and shortly before Warren's retirement in 1969, the Warren Court handed down one of the rulings social conservatives are still cursing 43 years later: It's decision in Stanley v Georgia, ruling upheld that it is not a crime even if the material is obscene. The Stanley v Georgia ruling upheld that selling, creating or distributing obscene adult material was illegal, but a consumer could not be charged with obscenity, merely for being in possession of that material.     

Felicity Arbutnot: America's Hype Over WMD: Five Invasion Plots!

Three Continents, Identical Lies! "I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. We have definitely adopted the position at the Peace Conference of arguing in favor of the retention of gas as a permanent method of warfare. I am strongly in favor of using gas against uncivilized tribes. Winston S. Churchill, 1874-1965, from War Office minute, 12th May 1919. As the saber rattling against Syria gets even louder, the allegations ever wilder and double standards stirring, plotting and terrorist financing, it is instructive to look at the justifications presented by US Administrations for a few other murderous incursions in recent history: This month is the twenty third anniversary of the US invasion of Panama on 20th December 1989, as Panamanians prepared their Christmas celebrations. A quick check reminds the late Philip Agee recalling President George HW Bush, telling the American people that the threat from Panama, population 3,571,185 -2011 was such that our way of life is at stake. Agee referred to this in his aptly named talk "Producing the Proper Crisis." Apt then as now. Nothing changes. The aim of the invasion was to capture the country's leader, General Manuel Noriega and, of course, to establish a democratic government. Regime change. With the approaching transfer of control of the Panama Canal to Panama, originally scheduled for 1st January 1990, after a century of US colonial stewardship, America wanted to ensure it was in the hands of malleable allies. Noriega is a CIA asset, since 1967, who had also attended the notorious School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia, came to power with US backing, but seemingly his  support for the US was cooling. To encapsulate a long story, the US kidnapped him and sentenced him to forty years in jail. Plans to invade were called: Operation Prayer Book, later renamed Operation Just Cause, with General Colin Powell commenting that it was a moniker of which he approved as: Even our severest would have to utter Just Cause while denouncing us. (Colin Powell, with Joseph E Persico: My American Journey, 1995.) All military marauding should simply be called: Operation Silly Name 1, then 2,3,4 etc, until the numbers finally run out.

Jim W. Dean: Lieberman Plays His EU Holocaust Card

Isreal's Racist Foreign Minister pretends to be anti-holocaust, when he is really pro holocaust for Palestinians. Corruption indictment has sidelined Lieberman, but I think he will be back, like the Terminator. The Likud Mafia is still resorting to the old 'good guy, bad guy' interrogation tactic. Netanyahu led with his expected response to the EU Palestinian vote in the UN,'it changes nothing'. And when the 27 EU countries formally denounced the settlement expansion, he claimed that it should in no way obstruct starting peace negotiations. To follow this opening act Bibi sent foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman out to do some public relations work, representing Israel's racist and fascist ministries. This was supposed to make Bibi look like a moderate, but people are wise to this old game. As a long time observer of Israeli and Jewish Lobby guilt tripping tactics, I knew the holocaust card was going to be trotted out once again. Jews the world over love to be reminded of their special victim status, in their own heads anyway, and it is a good vote getter. 'Evet', as Lieberman is called in Russian, did not disappoint. When asked during an interview with Israel Radio what his feelings were on the EU's united opposition to the new round of settlement construction in Jerusalem (Al Quds) he replied: "Europe once again in history is ignoring calls to destroy the state of Israel. Europe is keeping silent. We have been through this with Europe at the end of the 1093's and in the 1940's." Mr. Lieberman seems to have the situation confused. It is not the Jews who are in the largest prison camp on earth, 1,5 million people in Gaza. It is not Jews who are being bombed by Hamas F-16's and GPS guided munitions paid for by the people of Europe to support their cleansing of the last Zionist invaders. Hamas does not have the decades old WMD programs, nuclear submarines, and soon to arrive ten warhead ICBM's being jointly developed with India. I don't think Mr Lieberman is into the hate racism lifestyle: Love Palestine, hate racism. One people, one World! It is militant Israelis, along with their Russian Pretend a Jews, who have been working to finish the 65 year holocausting of the Palestinian state. Let's go ahead and give them a new name, one that describes what they do. Let's call them the Neo-holocausters. If they sue us for libel, we can then bring all our evidence into court, and have some real fun!

Adele M. Stan: How I Gave Up Christmas and Found Serenity

I can't remember exactly when it was that I gave up Christmas, but I've never regretted it. While my friends and family run around in a frenzy of mall purchases and the attendant anxiety of how to pay for it all, I bask in the serenity of having let it all go, well, most of it. It seemed to happen in stages. One year, I asked my brothers that they stop buying gifts for me, and to forgive me for not buying gifts for them. It took a while for that to take. One brother refused to buy into the pact. Another has a wife from a non Western country who, in dealing with her in laws, expresses her love by thoroughly embracing the traditions of her new homeland, but as time went on, everyone seemed to accept, however grudgingly, that I was not taking part. Eventually, I stopped making the 300 mile trek to go home for Christmas. I made a point of getting there every Thanksgiving instead, a holiday for which the company of family is its own reward, and love is shown through the preparation and sharing of food. Sometimes we even pull out the guitars and make bad music together, passing out rhythm instruments to the kids. Christmas, on the other hand, held such expectations of material splendor, that it was impossible to have any quality time with my nieces and nephews, wound up as they were on the highs of the day, with their exhausted parents busy trying to police the pandemonium, and so, one year, I decided to stay home and cook myself a duck. I could have gone to the families of friends nearby, but that would have been just another permutation of what I had escaped, so I opted for solitude. It was delicious, both the duck and the solitude. On Christmas, the phone doesn't ring, except for the occasional well wisher. The streets are quiet, and no one expects you to check your e-mail. If you've ever wished for a moment of silence, of peace, of space to contemplate the abundance of life, spend a Christmas alone, and your wish will be granted. Now, I'm not anti Christmas. I love the decorations, the special foods, and some of the seasonal music. I'm not religious in the traditional sense, but Christmas Eve often finds me in church, hearing friends sing in choirs, or play liturgical music. I love the Christmas story, the notion of the redemption of the world through the birth of a child is breathtakingly beautiful, and so I come back to that.

Stuart Littlewood: Is Palestinian Leadership Still Asleep at the Wheel?

Empowered, emboldened, but what is the PLO doing with its new UN status? The Palestinian Embassy in London has just issued a press release under the heading: "Pressing need to halt Israel's illegal settlement colonization campaign via political, legal, and diplomatic means". It complains about Israel's "flagrant disrespect of international law" in announcing, the day after the UN upgraded Palestine's status, a further 3,000 illegal settlement units in Palestinian East Jerusalem. "It is time that political, economic and legal means are used so that Israel bears its responsibility for its violations and obstruction of peace efforts," says Ambassador Manuel Hassassian. He wants the British government and the EU to ban Israeli settlement products and bar Israeli extremist settlers. "This is the only way to halt Israel's illegal settlement campaign, salvage the two state solution, and revive the peace process." What's more, he urges the British public to write to their MP outlining Israel's illegal settlement expansion activities, which are a breach of article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention and constitute war crimes. Ask their MP to call for a ban on import of settlement products into the UK. Contact the Foreign Office. Inform the Embassy of any responses. There has been a "pressing need" to halt Israel's illegal settlement building, ever since the Allon Plan of 1967, but the PLO did remarkably little over the years to use the channels open to it, until last month, when it finally got around to applying for, and getting non Member observer status at the UN. Why is the newly empowered Palestine, fresh from its victory, still asking us to do the donkey work? One hoped that President Abbas would waste now time in signing up to the Rome Statute, and joining the International Court of Justice in order to lay long overdue charges against Israel for its illegal occupation, blockade, war crimes and crimes against humanity. First among the many legal options, surely, is to cut the endless whining, and apply for an injunction against further settlement construction. True, reports are circulating that Palestinian officials talk of filing war crime charges and encouraging the international community to impose sanctions, but there may be a long wait before this Zionist corrupted British government suspends trade with the thugs it repeatedly pledges to support, and persuades its EU partners to do the same.    

James Petras: The Religious and Social Crisis in America.

Political Consequences. The opening long decade of the 21st century (2000-2012) has been a period of repeated and profound economic and social crises, of serial and prolonged wars and declining living standards for the vast majority of Americans. How have people responded to this crisis? No large scale, long term, socio political movements have emerged to challenge the bi partisan dominant classes. For a brief moment the Occupy Wall Street movement provided a platform to denounce the 1% super rich, but then faded into memory. Questions arose whether in the midst of prolonged hardship, people would turn to religion for solace, escape into spiritual pietism. The question this essay addresses is whether religion has become the opium of the people, as Karl Marx suggested, or whether religious beliefs and institutions are themselves in crisis, losing their spiritual attraction in the face of their inability to resolve the everyday material needs of a growing army of impoverished, low paid, unemployed and contingent workers, and a downwardly mobile middle class. In other words, are major religions growing and prospering in our time of permanent economic crises and perpetual wars, or are they on the down-slope part and parcel of the decline of the US Empire? According to the latest data, as of 2008 the biggest religious group is Christianity with 173, 402 million members, representing 76% of adult population, followed by Judaism with 2,680 million,  representing 1.2% of the adult population, followed by Eastern religions 1.961 million, and representing .9% Muslims 1.349 million, representing .6% of adults. The second most populous group after the Christians are those who state they have no religion 34.169 million or 15%. The dynamic trends over time show a declining percentage of adults who are Christians: between 1990-2008, they dropped from 86.2% to 76%. Jews have declined from 1.8% of adult population in 1990 to 1.2% in 2008, and Eastern religion is growing from .4% of adult population to .97% of population. Likewise, the percentage of Muslims in the adult population has grown from .3% in 1990 to .6% in 2008. The percentage of non religious adult population has increased from 8.2% in 1990 to 15% in 2008.