Greg Grandin: Why Latin America Didn't Join Washington's Counterterrorism Posse;

As many of you know, Tom Dispatch was inaccessible to most computers late last week. We were, it seems, overwhelmed by our own popularity. Too many prospective readers did in TD. We are now hard at work strengthening the site, but this may take a while. In the meantime, we are attempting to post on a somewhat more limited basis, beginning today. Our apologies to all frustrated TD readers! Personally, I couldn't be happier to be back. Tom. There was a scarcely noted but classic moment in the Senate hearings on the nomination of John Brennan, the president's counter terrorism "tsar," to become the next CIA director. When Senator Carl Levin pressed him repeatedly on whether water  boarding was torture, he ended his reply this way: "I have a personal opinion that water boarding is reprehensible, and should not be done, and again, I am not a lawyer, senator, and I can't address that question." How modern, how twenty first century American! How we've evolved since the dark days of Medieval Europe, when water boarding fell into a category known to all as "the water torture"! Brennan even cited Attorney General Eric Holder, as one lawyer, who had described water boarding as "torture," but he himself begged off. According to the man who was deputy executive director of the CIA, and director of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center in the years of "enhanced interrogation techniques" and knew much about them, the only people equipped to recognize torture definitely as torture are lawyers. This might be more worrisome, if we weren't a "nation of lawyers" though it also means that plummeting law school application rates could, in the future, create a torture definition crisis. To look on the positive side, Brennan's position should be seen as a distinct step forward from that of the Justice Department officials under the Bush administration, who wrote the infamous "torture memos", and essentially left the definition of "torture" to the future testimony of the torturer. "If a defendant has a good faith belief that his actions will not result in prolonged mental harm, he lacks the mental state necessary for his actions to constitute torture."    

Ellen Brown: How Congress Could fix its Budget Woes Permanently!

As Congress struggles through one budget crisis after another, it is becoming increasingly evident that austerity doesn't work. We cannot possibly pay off a $16 trillion debt by tightening our belts, slashing public services, and raising taxes. Historically, when the deficit has been reduced, the money supply has been reduced along with it, throwing the economy into recession. After a thorough analysis of statistics from dozens of countries forced to apply austerity plans by the World Bank and IMF, former World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz called austerity plans a suicide pact. Congress already has its hands the power to solve the nation's budget challenges today, and permanently. But it has been artificially constrained from using that power to solve the nation's budget challenges today and permanently. But it has been artificially constrained from using that power by misguided economic dogma, dogma generated by the interests it serves. We have bought into the idea, that there is not enough money to feed and house our population, rebuild our roads and bridges, or fund our most important programs. There is no alternative but to slash budgets and deficits, if we are to survive. We have a mountain of critical work to do, improving our schools, rebuilding our infrastructure, pursuing our research goals, and so forth. And, with millions of unemployed and underemployed, the people are there to do it. What we don't have, we are told, is just the money to bring workers and resources together. But we do have it! Or we could. Money today is simply a legal agreement between parties. Nothing back it, but the full faith and credit of the United States. The United States could issue its credit directly to fund its own budget, just as our forebears did in the American colonies, and as Abraham Lincoln did in the Civil War. Any serious discussion of this alternative has long been taboo among economists and politicians. But in a landmark speech on February 6, 2013, Adair Turner, chairman of Britain's Financial Services Authority, broke the taboo, with a historic speech recommending that approach. According to February 7th article in Reuters, Turner is one of the most influential financial policy makers in the world. His recommendation was supported by a 75 page paper explaining why handing out newly created money to citizens and governments could solve economic woes globally, and would not lead to hyperinflation.   

Alan Hart: What do Obama and Abbas Have in Common?

Short answer: Both like to grovel. The president of the United States of America demeans himself for the Zionist lobby, and its neo-con and Christian fundamentalist allies. The Palestinian president demeans himself to Obama , as well as Israel's leaders often. Obama and Abbas are idiotic twins, but now there is the equivalent of a Nobel Prize for that sort of thing, which should be awarded to Obama. If, when he leaves the office, Israel is still able to impose its will in the occupied and oppressed Palestinians, he should hand the Nobel Peace Prize back to the one who gave it to him. The idea for this article was inspired by Daud Abdullah, in a piece he wrote for the Middle East Monitor. His main point was, that the Palestinian national reconciliation talks have become a "process", and that like the peace process, "they are without progress and an apparent end" As long as Abbas continues to grovel to the Americans and Israelis, it will remain an illusion."The Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1843-1881) had one of his characters say, that the choice was "either to be a hero or in the mud. There was nothing in between." I'll get to my suggestion, about what Abbas could do to become a hero in a moment, but first let's explore the terminology. The Norsemen were early Scandinavians, and during the Medieval period, some of them traveled to the British Isles to trade, raid and settle. In the final decade of the 8th century, Norse raiders attacked a series of Christian monasteries located in the British Isles. In the most literal sense, lying or crawling on the ground in abject humility or fear. As perceived by people today, who use the terminology, they had to behave in a demeaning and servile slave to master way, often apologizing when no apology is needed. Put another way, when an American says "Kiss my ass"which is more or less what the Zionist lobby says to Obama from time to time, the one who responds positively says, I'll do whatever you want. So, to the question" What could Abbas do to end his groveling and become a hero? In the coming days, and the sooner the better, he could say, in the most polite and gentle way: If President Obama is coming here without a concrete plan to get a real peace process going, I regret to say there will be no point in me meeting with him."    

Sami Jadallah: Will Obama Say Break Down This Wall?

I am certain Israel will not dare to tear down President Barack Obama's comment as he crosses from Israel to the Israeli Occupied Territories, to prevent him from seeing the barbed wires, and the Apartheid Wall. Will President Barack Obama stop at the ugly gate step out of his car and say to Bibi Netanyahu: "Mr. Prime Minister, Tear Down This Wall? I don't think so. Perhaps the greatest moment of the late Ronald Reagan presidency was, when he gave his speech at the Brandenburg Gate on June 12, 1987, and challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall". It was only a few years later, that the citizens of Germany, including the East and West, tore down the Berlin Wall without having to wait for permission from Gorbachev. Several years ago, when I was the general counsel for a large Middle East construction company, I used to travel to West Berlin almost every other few weeks to our engineering office, and on a few occasions had the opportunity to travel and cross over to the former East Berlin. What a contrast! On my first trip to East Berlin, on a Saturday in late November, a cold and snowy day in Berlin. As the bus stopped at Check Point Charlie, the East German police directed the bus to a stop, and with mirrors inspected the under carriage of the bus, and checked both passengers luggage very carefully. Finding nothing, we proceeded to the East Berlin bus station. What a contrast? As if the cold wintery day were not enough, the miserable faces of East Berliners told the story. Perhaps the most memorable moment on my first visit was not the Soviet Memorial to the fallen Red Army soldiers, but the old woman carrying two bags, as she walked the long lonely road while light snow was falling. On many occasions, I also had the chance to cross Israel's Apartheid Wall, a wall built by Israel, not for its security from terrorists, but to rob Palestinians from their homes and land, to rob them of the underground aquifers, thereby robbing the Palestinians of water resources and a way to redefine and redraw the "provisional" borders of the state of Palestine. The Israeli Apartheid Wall is a racist wall, that defines the Zionist cultural and moral value system of Israel. It is built to inflict permanent damage for the Palestinians, and their properties. It separates Palestinian villagers from their land, from their only source of living, and is intended to humiliate Palestinians, by having them wait for hours, and days for permission to cultivate their fields, if they are not confiscated by Israel for "security reasons".     

Hardy Stone Columnist: Battle Tested. Send him into Battle!

It's often said, veterans are owed a debt, because they freely took a dangerous pledge, that by joining the service, maybe, just maybe, they would be asked to put their lives on the line. Eleven Bravo types don't even hesitate at the promise of challenging themselves, and protecting other members of their squad. The greatest and gravest danger for politicians, in an era of history, is to order men and women to stand in the line of fire, and risk their lives for the greater good. The good of their country, squad or anything worth protecting. It's flat out the worst imaginable order one can thrust on soldiers. That they may lose their life is a tough pill to swallow, and one that is very hard to choke down, if the ordering is done by someone who hasn't born the battle. Former Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff and Secretary of State Colin Powell, understood the price of war, and that it was the final option between nations. No matter how bellicose. or how much a politician may say about it, he will never view battle as the horror that it truly is. He can never smell the blood of his troops on his hands, he never will understand what killing is like to the eighteen year old, or to the thirty five year old. Donald Rumsfeld didn't know. GW Bush did not have a clue, and Barrack Obama and Panetta, cannot feel the anxiety, the fear, the heartbreak, the end, the end. I'll bet Chuck Hagel can smell the oily smoke and the silent fear, and the desperate relief of knowing that the soldiers are alive. The endless headcounts he took as a squad leader in Vietnam, armed him with an understanding. An understanding that war is hell,to give an order to risk it all, is more pressure that any man should have to bear. In addition to the CIB, Sergeant Hagel was awarded two purple hearts, the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry, the Army Commendation Medal. He resigned in 1982 as Deputy Administrator for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Secretary Nimmo wanted to cut vital veterans programs. Robert Nimmo once compared the effects of Agent Orange to 'teenage acne.' Though Colonel Nimmo did serve in the Army Air Corps during WWI and II, he never experienced the human suffering as Chuck Hagel did in Vietnam. Republican Senators, let Hagel head DoD, he is the only man for the job, a man who knows that deadly decisions should not be left in the cold hands of the untested.      

Tony Cartalucci: War Crimes and the Global War on Terrorism!

US arms Al Qaeda in Syria. Mass Slaughter of civilians in Afghanistan. AFP has reported that a recent NATO airstrike in Afghanistan has killed over 10 civilians in all too familiar headline, glossed over by the Western media, in an exercise of depravity and hypocrisy. RT's article, "NATO airstrike kills 10 Afghan civilians, mostly women and children, officials," notes in particular that up to 11,864 civilians were killed in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2011, and that civilian deaths before 2007  were not even tracked by the UN. Such facts reveal alarming hypocrisy, as the UN keeps almost daily, inflated tallies of civilian deaths elsewhere, in particular, in nations like Libya and Syria, where Western interests have been heavily involved in regime change, and in dire need of manipulating public perception worldwide. The United Nations had in fact, pieced together a dubious report crafted from "witness accounts" compiled not in Syria, or even beyond its borders in a refugee camp, but instead, in Geneva by "witnesses" supplied by the so called Syrian "opposition." Worse yet, that UN report was co-authored by Karen Koning AbuZayd, a director of the US Washington based corporate think tank, Middle East Policy Council. Its board of directors includes Exxon men, CIA agents, representatives of the Saudi Binladin Group, Osama Bin Laden's family business, former ambassadors to Kuweit, Oman and Qatar, US military and government representatives, and even the president of the US Qatar Business Council, which includes among its membership, Al Jazeera, Chevron, Exxon, munitions manufacturer Raytheon, who supplied the opening salvos during NATO's operations against Libya, and Boeing. In other words, the very under-writers of the armed militancy that is consuming Syria, are sitting along side the head of the UN commission, producing reports portraying the Syrian government as guilty of "war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The hypocrisy does not end here. The pretense of the US and NATO have used for over a decade to occupy, subjugate and slaughter the people of Afghanistan, in a conflict increasingly creeping over both Afghanistan's borders with Pakistan and Iran, is supposedly to fight "terrorism."    

Dr. Kevin Barrett: I am not an Israeli Journalist.

I'm an American journalist: AIPAC is trying yo blackmail Chuck Hagel with this photograph, which shows him standing in front of the wrong flag: My latest Press TV op ed begins: Chuck Hagel, President Obama's Secretary of Defense nominee, is in trouble. Why? Because he famously said: "The Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here. I'm not an Israeli senator. I'm a United States senator." On Friday, forty alleged American Senators blocked Hagel's nomination with a filibuster. Their message was loud and clear: "We are not United States Senators. We are Israeli Senators." Here is the ADL Lynching by ADL and "friends." Alan Hart, former BBC Mideast correspondent, expressed his disgust at the Israeli Senators' vote on my radio show, Thruth Jihad Radio, this Friday: "This is treason. Serving a foreign nation, rather than one's own, is not just wrong, it is treasonous." Ironically, my article could not be published by any American mainstream media outlet, so I had to send it to Iran based Press TV. Iran, according to conservative Catholic scholar Dr. Michael Jones, is now "the capital of the free world", while the US, now a fascist rather than a free nation, recently removed Press TV from its satellite platform, depriving the American public of access to information about who really controls their country. But still the word is getting out. The Homeland Security officers, who briefly questioned me upon my return from Iran on Thursday, nodded in agreement, when I explained how Israel controls the USA. They sincerely and enthusiastically wished me luck in my effort to awaken Americans to the truth about 9/11. To Abe Foxman's chagrin, even the Jewish comedy writers at Saturday Night Live, are embarrassed by the Israel lobby's ham handed strangle hold on America. Their recent Hagel hearings sketch, provides the last word on the moral character of those forty "patriotic Christian Republican senators" who blocked Hagel's nomination on behalf of Israel.