Stuart Christie learns that secret police tactics have changed little in a century

Stuart Christie, The Guardian, Saturday 27 March 2010

Appearing in the wake of allegations of assassination by Israel’s Mossad and the British secret services’ involvement in torture, the publication of Alex Butterworth’s compelling and insightful book is well timed. Woven into the book’s backdrop are the lives of some of the notable late-19th-century European revolutionaries radicalised by poverty, injustice, tsarist tyranny and the bloody suppression of the Paris commune of 1871. These were men and women who believed, in William Morris’s words, that “No man is good enough to be another man’s master”, and who shared a vision of the world as it might one day be – a cooperative commonwealth rid of exploitation, oppression and conflict.

[Read the review]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Istanbul, Turkey – Following months of preparation, a coalition bringing together a number of organizations and movements working to break Israel’s illegal blockade on Gaza was announced yesterday in Istanbul.  The coalition, comprised of the Turkey-based IHH (Insani Yardim Vakfi) organization, the European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza (ECESG), the Greek Ship to Gaza campaign, the Swedish Ship to Gaza campaign and the Free Gaza Movement, will launch a flotilla of ships laden with cargo, media, parliamentarians, celebrities and activists to Gaza next month.

The flotilla includes at least eight vessels, including three cargo ships, and will set sail from European ports beginning May 3, reaching the port of Gaza later in the month.  Over 500 passengers from more than 20 countries will take part, and 5,000 tons of cargo, including cement, prefabricated housing, other building materials, medical equipment, and educational supplies will be delivered to Palestinians in Gaza.

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By Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, 27 March 2010

A newly leaked CIA report prepared earlier this month (.pdf) analyzes how the U.S. Government can best manipulate public opinion in Germany and France — in order to ensure that those countries continue to fight in Afghanistan.  The Report celebrates the fact that the governments of those two nations continue to fight the war in defiance of overwhelming public opinion which opposes it — so much for all the recent veneration of “consent of the governed” — and it notes that this is possible due to lack of interest among their citizenry:   “Public Apathy Enables Leaders to Ignore Voters,” proclaims the title of one section.

[Read the report]

Related:

Intelligence Agencies Allegedly Going to Extremes to Suppress Video Confirming Pentagon Massacre Cover-up

By Scott Thill, AlterNet.org, 3 April 2010

Disturbing allegations have surfaced around WikiLeaks’ promise to release a video April 5 at the National Press Club confirming a war-time massacre.

On April 5, online truth and transparency advocate WikiLeaks.org plans to release at the National Press Club what it alleges is a video confirming a Pentagon cover-up of a wartime massacre of civilians and journalists committed under the leadership of General David Petraeus.

[Read more]

Pull the Jewish Agency’s US Tax Exemption, and the Settlement Problem Goes Away

by Grant Smith, Antiwar.com, 2 April 2010

President Obama, Vice President Biden, and Secretary of State Clinton have been uncharacteristically frank about how illegal Israeli settlements obstruct prospects for Middle East peace.  General Petraeus went even further, advising a reluctant Congress that Arab perceptions of one sided US support for Israel actually harms US national security and endangers troops.  It is now time for President Obama to cut off hidden US funding — private and public — to illegal Israeli settlements.

[Read the article]

Until the cut-off of this and other funding then tiresome hand-wringing over the “real or phony crisis” is daftness or complicity in motion.

by Eric A. Brill

Introduction

Many Westerners have insisted that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole Iran’s 2009 presidential election from Mir-Hossein Mousavi. The post-election battle has been cast as courageous Truth confronting arrogant Power. Yet no one has come forward with a credible, evidence-backed account of electoral fraud. What if, on this narrow but important question, it turns out to have been courage confronting Power and Truth – the election was valid and fair?

[Read more]