143 MISQUOTED

The Former President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over the years has been persistently and deliberately misquoted by the Western Zionist dominated news media. The original statement in Persian did not say that Israel should be wiped of the map, but instead that it would eventually collapse. It was the Ayatollah Khomeini who in a speech in Farsi delivered to an audience of university students  said:  "Een rezhim-i-eshghalgar-i Quds bayad az sahneh-ruzgar mahv shaved"
Translated into English: "This occupation regime over Jerusalem must vanish from the arena of time".
However anonymous wire service translators rendered Khomeini as saying that Israel "must be wiped of the face of the map" This was also publicly stated by Israel's Minister for Intelligence and atomic energy Dan Meridor that the statement was inaccurate and had never been made as quoted by western news media. The misquote was deliberately disseminated by western Zionist dominated news media for  purely propagandistic reasons and as a pretext to accuse Iran of secretly building an atomic bomb so as to "wipe Israel of the map", a ludicrous accusation that if one cares to consider seriously the geographic location of Israel in the Middle East would not even be possible to be carried out with nuclear weapons.

142 Letter to the editor

May I thank E.E. (21/10/13) for drawing my attention to the 'Palmer Report' regarding the Israeli navy attack on the Mavi Marmara. Alltough I must concede that I had heard of the report, I had never read in full. However I find the report rather ambiguous to say the least, but nevertheless it makes some interesting observations. In its conclusion it states for instance, that the "blockade is illegal if imposed with the sole aim to starve a civilian population or if its effects on the civilian population are in excess of the achieved military advantage" (Has Israel not already have a significant military advantage over Gaza?). Furthemore: "the civilian population must be allowed to receive food and objects to its survival". The General Assembly of the United Nations of 27th September 2010 (17/HRC/15/21) in its final conclusion condemns unambiguously and downright the Israeli raid on the Mavi Marmara. To my surprise I found that even one of the leading Israeli daily newspapers 'Haaretz' concluded that the Israeli action was unlawful.

142 a) UN independent panel rules Israel blockade of Gaza illegal Israel News | Haaretz

UN independent panel rules Israel blockade of Gaza illegal Israel News | Haaretz142

141 BIBLIOGRAPY

As the one sided, imbalanced propaganda dis-information from our corporate mainstream media dominating the "news" is extremely unreliable I have included a list of highly recommended books  indispensable reading for understanding to-day's "Info War" on the Middle East.
Deanna Spingola:  "The Ruling Elite. Te Zionist Seizure of World Power"  (several books)
Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomski : "Manufacturing Consent"(J)
Noam Chomski: "Media Control, second edition"(J)
James Petras : "Zionism, Militarism and the Decline of US Power"
Noam Chomski : "How The World Works" (J)

On Palestine and Israel:
Ilan Pappe: "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine" (J)
William Dever "The Rise of Ancient Israel"
Eugene L. Rogan : "The War for Palestine"
Norman G Finklestein : "The Holocaust Industry" (J)
Alan Hart: "Zionism, The Real Enemy of the Jews"  (3 volumes)
Tikva Honig-Parnass : "The False Prophets of Peace".
Israel Finkelstein & Asher Silberman : "The Bible Unearthed" (J)
Jason Long : "Biblical Nonsense" A review of the Bible for Doubting Christians.
Arthur Koetsler :"The Third Tribe" (J)
Shlomo Sands :  "The Invention of The Jewish People" (J)
      "         "      : "The Invention of the Land of Israel" (J)
Anthony Loewemstein: "My Israel Question"(J)
Jimmy Carter (ex President of the United States) "Palestinian Peace Not Apartheid"

These books are just a few of an impressive number which may be obtained from the International book seller 'Amazon".  They are also available as e-books (Kindle) at greatly reduced prices. If registered with Amazon they will send you regular updates of new book released on your favourite subject.  (J) denotes Jewish authors critical of Israel's policy and propaganda disinformation war, which dominate our national news media.

Useful websites and alternative sources of information:
'Anti War.com',  ' The Colbert Report' from Japan, 'The Real News' from Baltimore, 'Global Research' from Canada, Al Jazeera, RT.com (Russia Today), 'Press TV' from Teheran.


 

140 HARD TO BELIEVE

Netanyahu's recent hype on Iran's nuclear program (Press 1/10) is by now getting a little worn. Almost every year for the last 20 years or so, we were informed that, unless someone intervened, Iran would have the 'bomb' within three to five years, sometimes less, unless Iran "was forced to stop". However Israeli's nuclear weapons program yielded nuclear bombs in absolute secrecy in only five years. The Israeli nuclear program was subsequently followed by South Africa, India and even poor Pakistan with virtually no industrial base and more recently North Korea. Yet Iran which is endowed with a robust industrial base, exceptional engineering universities and a well educated population has been unable to build a nuclear bomb within 20 years ?  That's hard to believe. Iran's peaceful nuclear program was also verified in 2007 and 2011 by a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate in a report prepared by 16 U.S. intelligence agencies.
letter submitted to the Christchurch 'Press' 1/10/'13 but rejected by the editors

139 Syria : Mass Murder Chemical attack right after U.N. Insprectors arrive ...

138. THE SARIN MYSTERIES

US Secretary of State John Kerry announced that on August 21 the Assad government slaughtered 1429 people, including 426 children, in a sarin chemical attack in Ghouta, a Damascus suburb. (Doctors Without Borders put the total at about 300) Secretary Kerry insisted that now the United States had no choice but to launch US bombing attacks against President Bashar al-Assad, devolving into another of America's "humanitarian wars".

A few weeks later, Turkish prosecutors issued a lengthy court indictment charging the Syria rebels with seeking to use chemical weapons. The indictment suggested that sarin gas and other "weapons for a terrorist organization" were utilized by the opposition and not by the Assad government.

The "Syrian freedom fighters" include men who are not even Syrian, much like the mujahedeen who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan but who were not Afghani. As reported in the Wall Street Journal (September 19, 2013), the ISIS, an Iraqi al Qaedi outfit operating in Syria, "has become a magnet for foreign jihadists" who view the war in Syria not primarily as a means to overthrow Assad, "but rather as a historic battleground for a larger Sunny holy war. According to centuries-old Islamic prophecy they espouse, they must establish an Islamic state in Syria as a step to achieving a global one".
WRONG HANDS
Meanwhile, a Mini Press News story quoted residents in Ghouta who asserted that Saudi Arabia gave chemical weapons (CW) to an al Qaeda-linked group. Residents blamed that terrorist group for the deadly explosion of August 21. They claimed that some of the rebels handled the weapons improperly and thereby set off the explosion. Anti-government forces, interviewed in the article, said they had not been informed about the nature of the weapon s nor how to use them. "When Saudi prince Bandar gives such weapons to people, he must give them to those who know how to handle them" complained one rebel militant.

At the same time, the Russian government submitted a 100-page report to the United Nations in early September, regarding an attack upon the Syrian city of Aleppo in March 2013. It concludes that the rebels - not the Syrian government - used the nerve agent sarin. According to a member of the U.N. independent commission of inquiry, Carla Del Ponte, there were "strong, concrete suspicions .... of the use of sarin gas" Del Ponte added "This was used on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not the government authorities. "Many of those killed by the gas attack were Syrian soldiers, according to the report.

If true, then we might wonder why are chemical weapons and other weaponry and supplies being supplied to various al Qaeda-type groups? Is not al-Qaeda a secret terrorist organization that delivers death and destruction upon people everywhere? Are we not locked in a global struggle with the demonic jihadists who supposedly hate us because we are rich, successful, and secular, while they are impoverished failures? That certainly is the scenario the public has been fed for over a decade.

The United States claims it provides military assistance to "vetted" rebel groups, "free ones" that are friendly toward America and not Islamic fanatics. (Although as Senator Croker, Republican from Tennessee admitted: "We sometimes make 'mistakes' and give weapons to the wrong rebels) On September 17 President Obama waived a provision in the federal law that prohibits supplying arms to terrorists groups. To many of us this was an unspoken admission that Washington was giving aid to extremist Islamic groups, of which al Qaeda was only the best advertised.

THE CASUS BELLI
It is difficult to accept the charge that on August 21 the Syrian government waged a chemical onslaught in Ghouta against its own people in a situation that was bound to backfire in the worst possible way ...by handing over to the U.S. war hawks a casus belli, a perfect excuse to wreak retaliatory "humanitarian" death and destruction upon Syria. This is the last thing the Assad government wants.

CHOICE: Satellite or Enemy
Why do some U.S. leaders seek war against Syria? Like Yugoslavia, Iraq and Lybia and dozens of other countries that have felt America's terrible sword ...Syria has been committing economic nationalism, trying t chart its own course rather than putting itself in service to the western plutocracy. Like Iran, China, Russia and some other nations, Syria has currency controls and other restrictions on foreign investments. Like those other nations, Syria lacks the proper submissiveness. It is not a satellite to the U.S. imperium. And any nation that is not under the politico-economic sway of the U.S. global plutocracy is considered an enemy or a potential enemy.

The Assad government had social programmes for its people, far from perfect services but still better than what might be found in many U.S. satellite countries. When Iraqi refugees fled to Syria to escape U.S. military destruction, the Assad government gave them full benefits. So with the Libyia refugees who crossed over a few years later. Generally Damascus presided over a multi-ethnic society, relatively free sectarian intolerance and violence.

Syria has been ruled by the Bath Party which has dominated the country's parliament and military for half a century. The party's slogan is "Unity, Freedom, Socialism".  "Socialism?". Now that gets us closer to why the trigger-happy boys in Washington will continue to pursue a "humanitarian war" of attrition and a prolonged campaign of demonization against Assad and his "regime". 

WEAPONS of MASS DESTRUCTION REDUX
On September 10, the Syrian government welcomed a Russian proposal calling for the Syria to place all of its chemical weapons under international control and for the weapons to be destroyed. Here was a chance to avoid false charges of mass murder by sarin. If Assad no longer had such an arsenal, no one could accuse him of using it. (In any case, the Syrian government's campaign against the rebels was going well enough using just conventional weapons.

Instead of winning approval from the "humanitarian warriors" of the West, Syria's eager agreement to surrender its chemical arsenal set off a newly framed barrage of threats from U.S. and French leaders, with the irrepressible Secretary Kerry leading the charge. Was his ploy on Syria's part or a genuine offer ? Kerry asked in a scoffing tone. How can we be certain that Assad would not sequester its enormous stock of chemical weapons? Kerry issued a whole barrage of tough-guy threats. Syria will be treated most harshly if it pursued a path of deception. French President Francois Hollande called for a United Nations Security resolution that would authorize the use of force if Syria failed to hand over its chemical weapons.

The August charge had been that Syria had used chemical weapons, a claim that might be refuted. Now the new charge was that Syria possessed such weapons...which was true. And possession itself was suddenly being treated as a crime deserving of swift and severe retaliation.

Now Assad would have to demonstrate the indemonstrable. He would have to convince the western aggressors that he has handed over his entire stockpile of chemical weapons. At the same time, he asserts that a thorough inspection must come at the expense of disclosing Syrian military sites or causing a threat to its national security.

Recall how the Saddam government in Iraq, hoping to avoid war, cooperated fully with the U.N> inspectors hunting for WMD. Every facility in the country was opened to investigation. Even after all of Iraq was occupied, the hunt continued. We were told that the WMD could be anywhere, may be out in some remote part of the desert. It was impossible to be sure.

I fear that the Syrian population is facing more years of painful attrition. The one faintly positive development is that the FSA and the ISIS and all the murderous 'Allah-is Great' groups continue to attack each other. Dozens of rebels have been killed in clashes with each other within the last few months.

Meanwhile young Syrian children, now living in refugee camps in Lebanon, go every morning to work  long days in the fields, earning the few dollars a day upon which their families depend for survival. Some are as young as five. When asked what they miss about Syria, the children reply "school".

the above contribution has been received  with thanks from a follower of Contraviews.


                                                 

137. Who is really behind the Syrian war?

137

136 Miko Peled Seattle. Oct. 1, 2012

136

135. ABSENCE OF DEBATES 2

Many a reader and contributor to the Press letter pages must no doubt have noticed with great concern an apparent black out of debate on the Middle East crisis and in particular the US/Israel role  in the crisis, which is of paramount global importance. During the years of the Iraq war and before, there has always been lively and intense debates. Not any more. One may wonder what is behind this. The recently adopted GCSB surveillance legislation is no doubt all about population control. Censorship, i.e. the suppression of freedom of citizens to freely express themselves on extremely worrying developments in our world, in particular Israel, is no doubt also part of population and mind control. Only local, trivial and silly letters find their ways to the letter pages to-day. It would be unfair to blame individual editors - although surely carefully vetted - since they receive their directions and guidelines from 'above' and probably in conjunction with government policies as well.
They do have to comply if they don't want to loose their jobs. Yes, much have changed in recent years and not always for the better.

134. TOO MANY QUESTIONS

So the US is planning to escalate the Syrian war and inflicting even more destruction, chaos and civilian casualties on that hapless country. Western powers have been supporting an internally divided bunch of rebels affiliated to al Qaida and al Nusra by supplying them with all sorts of weaponry. It just doesn't make any sense. Besides to accuse the Syrian government troops of the recent chemical attack on civilians defies all logic. Why would they do so precisely at a time when UN inspectors have entered the country? How can the Syrian government be made responsible for refusing UN inspectors to enter a rebel held area when the area is occupied by the opposition?  The last few month the Syrian army was getting a grip on the situation and had cleared several rebel held towns. They were steadily gaining ground, so there was no need for them whatever to use chemical weapons. What do they gain by launching chemical attacks on civilians and thus providing an excuse for western powers to intervene?  Only rebel forces would gain by it not the Syrian government. It is also known that rebels have used chemical weapons on a small scale before. This latest chemical attack has all the hallmarks of an outside power attempting to provide an excuse to intervene and escalate a war in which the Syrian army was gaining the upper hand.
26 August 2013

133 ABOUT ORIGINS

Robin Pawsy is absolutely right when he states that Palestinian and Jews have a 'common ancestry' (Press 22/08). When Islam spread over the Middle East between appr. 650 ad and 750 ad most of the population then living in Palestine and beyond converted to Islam en mass. The other minor religions such as Judaism and Christianity were accepted and tolerated by Islam. In fact Jews often joined the Islamic armies during their further conquests west along North Africa into Spain (Sephardi Jews) and east as far as the Caucuses and southern Russia (the Jewish Khazar Empire)_ Jews often became proselytizers for Judaism in the Islamic conquered countries. The 'Jews" who in large numbers, often illegally entered Palestine after WW2 however, are converted Jews genetically mainly Caucasian of Russian and East European descent.
22 August 2013

132. OLD MYTH

Old persisting myth tend to linger on for long times.  This has certainly been the case with the atom bombing of Japan in August 1945 and the erroneous claim that it would save thousands of American lives. The truth however is quite different. Intelligent data revealed in the 1980's show that Japan's situation in the Pacific was virtually in a state of collapse and that it was already working on peace negotiations as early as April 1945.  This was also confirmed by the Dutch Judge Professor Bert Roling what sat on the international Military Tribunal for the far East and revealed that it was rather the threat of a (partial) Soviet occupation that made Japan surrender. The Russians had already proclaimed their intend at the Potsdam meeting to enter the war in the Far East ninety days after VE Day (May 8th) which would have been August 8, two days after Hiroshima was bombed on August 6. The bombs were meant to be a warning to the Russians. It was the beginning of the Cold War.
5 August 2013

131 TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE

Part of Bradley Manning's defence is enshrined in the Nuremberg Tribunal trials, which tried NAZI leaders after WW2, but was dismissed by the Court. This makes his trial a travesty of justice. The Chief prosecutor at Nuremberg at the time insisted that the central crime committed by defendants and the source of all crimes was "the preparation and waging wars of aggression". Also obeying orders where clearly war crimes have been committed, as revealed by Manning during the Iraq war, 'shall not be a defence'. They are therefore the instigators planning the Iraq war on what we now know turned out to be pure fabrications ands lies who should be on trial and not Manning. This brave man felt he had the moral duty and courage to reveal what he had witnessed during his tour of duty in Iraq.
1 August 2013

130. DRACONIAN STEPS

I can see quite a distinct correlation between mounting impoverishment in the US (Press 30/07) and  aggressive surveillance programs being created in the world, including New Zealand's contentious GSCB bill currently discussed in Parliament. Billions of dollars are being squandered annually on armaments and propping up corrupt dictatorships, while millions of people are suffering extreme hardship. One in six people to-day lives in a slum. This must inevitably lead to ever increasing discontent amongst large sections of the world's population, who will no longer tolerate and accept such economic deprivations and injustice. Since the American fake democratic system does not offer people real viable choices, it stands to reason that ever mounting poverty and increased discontent must eventually at some future point in time be spilling over in violence. It is a trend governments are no doubt well aware off and are therefore already taking such draconian steps as spying on their own populations, enabling them to nib any unrest in the bud.
31 July 2013

129. The Hiroshima Myth. Unaccountable War Crimes and the Lies of US Military History

  The Hiroshima Myth. Unaccountable War Crimes and the Lies of US Military History

128. The Great Book Robbery - Witness - Al Jazeera English

The Great Book Robbery - Witness - Al Jazeera English

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The Promise (2011 TV serial)

Also: Gilad Atzmon author of the 'Wondering who?' :

http://youtube.com/watch?v=bq6qsZ1poAI   

Interview with Norman Finkelstein:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=TdKStHuOrZs

Contributed by two followers

127. THE PROMISE

A quite recent British TV drama series called "The Promise" was recently screened on TV in Britain, Australia, Canada, Scandinavia and Brazil (and on an online TV service in the US) - ....and in some cinemas in Israel.
It is about a young English woman travelling to Israel to-day, learning the real situation, and reading in her grandfather's diary (portrayed in flashbacks) how he served with the British army in Palestine during the Mandate period in the years up to the founding of Israel and how he becomes disgusted with the Zionist terrorism and mistreatment of Arabs. He then does his best to aid the Palestinians and witnesses the massacre at Deir Yassin. The young women ends up meeting the ancestors of the Arabs her grandfather tries to help.
Some leading British acting and writing talent involved such as Claire Foy (one of Britain's best young actresses of stage and screen) who described it as the most rewarding work she's ever done. She doesn't care about hostile reactions the series and her participation has attracted and is openly sympathetic with the Palestinian plight and is to be admired for that.
It was initially to be a BBC project but they chickened out and luckily Channel 4 in the UK took over with a French co-producer. It was filmed on location in Israel (without the authorities knowing what it was about probably!)
The film has predictably severely criticized as bias and anti-Israel/anti- Jewish etc by Jewish groups who laid official complaints in countries where it's screened.
"The Promise" can be watched on Youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/yoahmed400/videos   or
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGkUTxtwgNQ .                                                                       Interview with lead actor Claire Foy :                                                  http://bips.channel4.com/programmes/the-promise/articles/all/interview-Claire-foy
Contributed by two followers.

126. ISRAEL'S HYPE ON IRAN'S NUCLEAR BOMB EMPTY

Netanyahu's hue and cry about Iran seeking to build nuclear weapons is hollow, according to Gary Sick, who served on the US National Security Council under Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.  More than 20 years ago already, Mr. Netanyahu informed us that, unless someone intervened, Iran would have a nuclear weapon within five years. Almost every year since we were assured that Iran would have the 'bomb' within three to five years, sometimes less, unless Iran "were forced to stop". However Israel's nuclear weapons program yielded nuclear bombs in absolute secrecy in only a few years. The Israeli nuclear weapons program was subsequently followed by South Africa, India and even poor Pakistan with virtually no industrial base and more recently North Korea.  Yet Iran which is endowed with a robust industrial base, exceptional engineering universities and a well educated population....has been unable to build a nuclear bomb within those 20 years ?
It is also worth mentioning that all US intelligence services have confirmed that Iran does not intend to build nuclear weapons. In 2007, a US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) verified Iran was not after nuclear arms. The report, prepared by 16 US intelligence agencies, confirmed with "high confidence" the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program. A similar report was published in 2011.
21 July 2013

 

125. PROPOSED GCSB BILL

An overwhelming majority last Friday (12/07/13) on the Cambelllive survey voted 'NO' on the proposed GCSB bill and gives us some indication what the overall opinion is amongst the public. In a democratic society a government takes notice of the will of the people it represents. In this case the government has clearly no mandate whatsoever for this bill. The bill, if accepted will eventually have fundamental ramifications, as rightly feared by human rights organisations and others. This bill is a dangerous retrograde step designed to bring us in line with the US and may eventually bring us down on a slippery slope into the abyss of the totalitarian police state. The disingenuous argument that  'as long as you are a law abiding citizen going about your daily business' is sheer bogus, as future governments by introducing new laws can easily shift the goalposts. To-day's activist or protester may then well be dubbed a 'terrorist' to-morrow. You'd better be warned !
(posted 14 July '13 rejected by the Press editor(s)

124. WORRYING TRENDS

During the recent inquiry into the Dotcom saga, PM John Key accused Dotcom of being a 'conspiracy theorist'. Such empty remarks are nothing new. The PM knows very well that the world of politics is full of conspiracies, as the 'Wikileaks' revelations and more recently the NSA surveillance on private citizens have so clearly brought to light. Also New Zealand was specifically mentioned in this respect, together with the US, Canada, UK and Australia. It is however no coincidence that these inroads on civil liberties go hand in hand with a simultaneously further radicalisation of our society effecting freedom of expression and debate on ground breaking events with far reaching consequences to all of us. The discerning reader cannot miss as far as our local Press is concerned that by far most articles on world affairs emanate from a few single sources and mainly from Murdoch's 'the Times'. The news paper industry in contemporary society has a purely political role to play by shaping public opinion and manufacturing consent. In the absence of any explanation, openness and transparency one can safely assume this to be the truth. John Cambell last night on TV3 'Cambelllife' is to congratulated on his attempts to highlight to some extent these worrying developments.
(submitted 11/07/13 rejected by the Press)

123 PRESS APPLYING DOUBLE STANDARDS IN REPORTING

Last Monday 1 July, 2013 a guest speaker form GAZA, by the name of Yusef Aljamal held a talk in the WEA in Christchurch for a packed audience. His talk was mainly about conditions in GAZA and his family's experiences over the years in the Israeli besieged enclave. I did notify The Press (one of the main local news papers in NZ) and asked for a reporter to attend the meeting. The meeting as well as the request (to send a reporter) were completely ignored. A similar thing happened a number of years ago when the Jewish Australian journalist and author of the book 'My Israel Question' delivered a talk on his book. Although the reporter rang me on that occasion and inquired about the venue, he never turned up. It's obvious that his boss had forbidden him to report on it. However, not long ago an Israeli women by the name of Eva Lavi delivered a series of talks on the Holocaust to a number of Christchurch schools. The Press devoted a full article on it. It is not very difficult from all this to guess where the sympathies of the Press lie, but at least The Press owes its readers an explanation. 'Nihil Utile Quod Non Honestum' has become an empty, out of date phrase, no longer relevant in to-day's politically selective reporting. I'll be genuinely surprised if this letter will find its way to the letter pages. I don't think so, but I'll give it a go anyway.
6th July 2013 rejected
 

122 FALSE ACCUSATIONS

The US accusations of the Syrian government using chemical weapons is simply a pretext - similar as we have seen before in Iraq at the time - to intervene in that war and incidentally comes at a time that Syrian government forces are gaining the upper hand. The accusation obviously emanates from growing frustrations by the US and its European allies over the failure of rebel forces to make any headway. There never has been any credible evidence of the Syrian army using chemical weapons and all these convoluted statements to that effect in past rather show the fraudulent character of these accusations that make no sense at all. There also have been accusations of rebels using chemical weapons and the small scale on which they are used make it more likely that they could well have been staged attacks by rebels or other outside proxies to invites intervention by western forces eager to perpetuate and widen the war into a sectarian conflict causing even more civilian casualties. The motives underlying and intervention have nothing to do with the qualms about chemical weapons, but rather concern definite geostrategic interests in which human life is subordinate.
15th June 2013

121 "HATE MUST BE STOPPED"

Reply to Lorne Kuehn (Weekend Press 25/05)
Come on Mr. Kuehn what do you expect ? The question how populations can be protected from excessive violence of the types recently displayed in London and Boston is not so difficult to answer. Stop all wars that we have not only brought onto ourselves, but also exacerbated by financing and arming Islamic rebels affiliated to al Qaida, currently in Syria and in the past also in Afghanistan including the Taliban during the Soviet occupation ! Judging from recent utterings from President Obama that it is time to "end the war on terror", the President apparently is also - hopefully - beginning to realize that the incessant indiscriminate killings of innocent men, women and children in Islamic countries is counter productive, invoking and fuelling hatred towards the west. It was reported quite recently that two US drone 'pilots' quit their jobs after watching on their screens the gruesome mutilated images of women and children in Yemen and Afghanistan. Mr. Kuehn should read Michael Chossudovski "America's War on Terror", a book that makes quite compelling reading.
(rejected)121

Palestinian Expulsions Mapped in Hebrew by Jillian Kestler-D'Amours -- Antiwar.com

120 Palestinian Expulsions Mapped in Hebrew by Jillian Kestler-D'Amours -- Antiwar.com

Toronto 9/11 Hearings: Uncovering 10 Years of Deception (Trailer)

119 Toronto 9/11 Hearings: Uncovering 10 Years of Deception (Trailer)

See also Post 111 my footnotes

118 ABSENCE OF DEBATE

Ten years ago the Iraq war broke out and from then on there was a lively intensive debate in these columns about the rights and wrongs of that war. For many years after I used to be a regular contributor to that debate on the Iraq war with more than sixty letters published. Also during the Vietnam war there used to be lively lengthy debates and discussions going on in the media. I had even more letters published then, very long letters with references and lengthy quotes from relevant sources. Writing about geo-political issues in particular in the Middle East to-day is taboo, so one may wonder what is going on ? A vicious proxy war is being waged in Syria to-day, started and fomented by the US/NATO/Israel alliance, supplying outside forces with sophisticated weaponry via their client states of Qatar and Saudi Arabia.  A war that may well lead to a nuclear war eventually. Mankind stands at a cross road to-day, yet no word whatsoever in New Zealand news media or in their letters to the editor columns. It is becoming more obvious by the day that western corporate media are Zionist dominated and controlled and as your cartoonist so aptly expresses it in yesterday's Press (20/03) "The next manufactured conflict". How right he is.
21st March 2013 

117 ANTI SEMITISM QUESTIONED

 I bet my bottom dollar that the British Peer Lord Ahmed (Press 16/03) never blamed or used the word 'Jews' during his talk about the Israeli oppression of the Palestinians in the West Bank. He blamed Zionism which is quite distinct from anti-Semitism. Not all Jews are Zionists and some Christians are Zionist. Many Jewish people abhor Zionism. Lord Ahmed is quite right when he states that the western mainstream media are Zionist controlled. That is not a 'conspiracy', it is verifiable fact. A little bit of research will confirm that fact. Scores of books and commentaries - even by Jewish authors - have been published underscoring that fact. Even browsing through our own New Zealand news papers and our own Christchurch Press one cannot fail to notice the absence of any criticism on Israeli criminal behaviour towards Palestinians, either in the letter columns or articles. (most of them from 'TheTimes'). This particular article with its old trite, stereotyped 'conspiracy' theory cliche is in itself in fact already a piece Zionist propaganda.
16 March 2013

116 JUST FOR THE RECORD

So Mr. Netanyahu wants us to believe that Israel is an 'exemplary' democracy. Nothing however is further from the truth. An exclusively 'Jewish' state and at the same time claiming to be a 'democracy' is a contradiction in terms and by definition such a country could never be a democracy. However, in order to give Israel some semblance of a 'democratic' state it is often being argued that there is an Arab party sitting in the Knesset representing the Arab population. This is sheer window dressing, because these so called Arab parties are not included in any key-decision making committees as is the case in a real democracy. In a democracy no one is forced to sign a declaration of allegiance to the state; in a democracy people of different faith and ethnic origins can marry each other. In Israel an Arab cannot marry a Jew or visa versa. In order to preserve the Jewish identity of the sate the Jewish/Arab population ratios are artificially kept at respectively 80/20%. Israel to all intents and purposes is a fake democracy and for that reason would never be accepted as a member of the European Union or for that matter become the 51st state of the United States of America.
19 February 2013

115 WHO IS TALKING /

May I remind your correspondent Paul O'Donnell (Press 16/02) that in the name of Christianity over the last decennia or so, far and far more innocent people have been killed and are still being killed in similar gruesome manner as described in his letter - although by different advanced killing technologies - than by Muslims and Islam. Perhaps if he had ever been given a chance to visit the battle fields of Europe during WW 1 and 2; of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia or had visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he may well have come to a different opinion. And for that matter we may even go further back into history and consider the extermination of the North and South American natives by Christian nations. So who is talking ?
16 February 2013

114 ISLAMOPHOBIA

Richard Prosser (NZ Parliamentarian) may have apologized for his inflammatory islamohobic remarks, but the damage has already been done and he knows that too well. The question is how sincere are his apologies ? Such irresponsible racial remarks do invariably appeal a a small and ignorant section of the general public. Islamophobia is just as repugnant and unacceptable as anti-Semitism and should be condemned outright by all right thinking people. Mr. Winston Peters (leader NZ First party) should realize that individuals such as Richard Prosser are not fit to rep[resent a constituency and take a seat in a supposedly democratic parliament. It is to be hoped that his remarks will back fire on him at the next general elections.
14 February 2013

113 DRONE WARFARE

In light of the on-going killings of innocent people resulting from American drone strikes (Press 7/02 'World') in the Islamic world and our subservient alliance with US foreign policy, it is imperative to have our military alliance with that country publicly debated, as US foreign policy is bound top have serious repercussions for New Zealand as well. Obama claims that the use of drones are 'morally and ethically' defensible, because they kill with surgical precision. That is an unacceptable deceptive excuse, for it is not its claimed precision, but the ordnance used; small rockets which explode on impact and kill innocent bystanders in the immediate vicinity of the targeted suspect being often women and children. (e.g. during a funeral or wedding celebration). If we consider the widespread use of torture (CIA rendition to countries notorious for their human rights violations, Guantanamo Bay, the spying on US citizens, the almost daily murders in the US itself) as well as America's enormous economic and financial problems, increasing unemployment and poverty, than there can be no doubt that the US is morally, socially and ethically in sharp decline.
8 February 2013

112 CARTOON

There is no need to apologize for the cartoon (Press 30/01 'World') in the Sunday Times recently as it accurately, precisely and truthfully depicts Netanyahu's pernicious policies in the illegally Israeli occupied West Bank. It shows once again the enormous power the Zionist lobbies are wielding over our corporate news media accusing critiques of 'anti-Semitism', demanding apologies from the editor in their efforts to defend their reprehensible actions against defenceless, innocent people. The Israeli Human Rights Movement B"Tselem recently reported 56 Palestinian stone throwers being killed, mostly young boys still in their teen. Over the last 45 years many thousands of Palestinians have been killed in this way. Anti-Semitism is often wrongly confused with anti-Zionism; they are completely different things. Criticizing NAZI Germany does not mean hating Germans, although may of them - same as Israelis to-day and beyond - were caught up in the Nazi propaganda web. Personally I have great respect for the many Jewish people opposing Zionism.
30 January 2013