Are you eating pesticides? Canola oil, soybean oil used as key ingredients in pesticide products Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/032853_canola

June 29, 2011
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com

(NaturalNews) In a shocking new video, Mike Adams (the Health Ranger) reveals that common cooking oils such as canola oil and soybean oil are used as key active ingredients in pesticide products because they work so effectively to kill bugs. The video shows how one pesticide product that kills insects is made with 96% canola oil and is so dangerous that the label says, "Hazards to humans and domestic animals."

The label of the product, made almost entirely with canola oil, goes on to explain "CAUTION: Avoid contact with skin or clothing." If you get it on yourself, you are directed to take off all your contaminated clothing, take a 15-20 minute shower to rinse the canola oil off your skin, and then "Call a poison control center or doctor for treatment advice."

Watch the short video at NaturalNews.TV:
http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=AEE77...

Again, this is a for an insecticide that's made of 96% canola oil -- an oil that's found throughout the food supply and especially in products such as salad dressings and snack chips. Canola oil is also in ingredient often used in so-called "vegetable oil" shown on the ingredients label.

This canola oil-based pesticide also says on the label: "Environmental Hazards: Do not apply directly to water. Do not contaminate water when disposing of equipment..."

Soybean oil also an active pesticide ingredient
The chemical company Bayer also makes a "natural" insect killing product called Natria. It's most prominent active ingredient? Soybean oil (most of which is almost certainly genetically modified).

Much like canola oil, soybean oil is nearly ubiquitous in the U.S. food supply, being found in countless manufactured food items sold at grocery stores everywhere. In his video, Adams asks the obvious question: If these oils kill insects so effectively, and if they are harmful to pets, skin and the environment, why are we eating them as part of our daily diet?

Adams also suggests that if you want a low-cost but highly-effective natural pesticide, just buy canola oil from your grocery store and spray that on bugs. "We've tested it and it really works to kill bugs," Adams says. Plus, it's less than half the cost of the natural pesticide products made almost entirely with canola oil.

The video is available at:
http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=AEE77...

My Grandfather’s Nakba

May 12, 2011
by Nadine
Source: A Palestinian Dreamer

In 1948, when I lived in the British Mandate of Palestine, my world was so intact. We gathered at the sound of my uncle’s tubla, or drum, and sat around while the women danced. I was twelve years old at this time, and my little sister, Miriam, was seven years old. Our dad was killed resisting British colonization, so she often looked to me for answers that I simply could not give her. Our mom was the toughest woman I’ve ever met. Even in this time where women were oppressed, she made sure no man disrespected her. My small family lived in a big, tan house with green vines growing all over the place.

April came, and death came with it. Irgun Zvai Leumi, a Zionist gang, was led by Menachem Begin, who eventually became Prime Minister of Israel, to attack the District of Jerusalem’s Deir Yassin. This event swung like a golf club hitting every Arab country in the region right in the abdomen. Everyone who didn’t know there was such thing as Deir Yassin found out on April 9th, 1948. The gangs shot at anything or anyone that moved.

The air was stiff when we found out what happened. We were mortified. Mortified is an understatement; we were traumatized. We were exhausted at that point. The men in my village ordered the women and children to leave immediately; they were planning to act as a resistance, if necessary, to defend the District of al-Ramla. For the first time ever, the women didn’t argue.

Miriam and I were terrified. I went into my home and said a few prayers in hopes that God would help us. I locked the door and put the key in my pocket. I kept that key with me everywhere I went expecting to go back home any minute.

When we arrived in Betunia, we waited for news of when we could return to Daniel, or news of relatives that died. One day we got news that my aunt had been shot in the hip for protecting her husband. A gang member knocked on her door and asked her where her husband was. She lied and said that he died so they wouldn’t kill him. Just as she said that, my uncle came up behind her, and the gangbanger shot him to death.

The war ended May 14, 1948, a month and three days after the Deir Yassin Massacre, the Jews of Europe won the war and declared a state on the same day. They made a religious claim to our land and carried it out through violence. They founded a country through the blood of innocents.

Life moves on. There would always be a void in my heart. We moved on to the refugee camps. I remember when Golda Meir told the Sunday Times: “There is no such thing as a Palestinian people… It is not as if we came and threw them out and took their country. They didn’t exist.” She just denied everything. I lined up all my kids and told them to never forget their Palestinian identity. My family was there for hundreds of years. Golda Meir’s was not.

Out of all the losses I have ever endured, losing Palestine was the worst. People come and go, but your country should always be there for you. When you lose your country, you feel cheated out of your way of life, and your heart builds sadness. It builds a big, dark hole of sadness. My grandchild, Nadine, kept asking me why I never smiled and why I never seem impressed by anything. I think she eventually figured out why.

Rest in Peace Abraham Badr. July 30th, 2007. When my grandfather died, he gave me the best gift ever. He transferred his unconditional love and loyalty for Palestine to me.

My uncle took his children to Daniel in the summer of 2009. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the pictures of my grandpa’s home! He always said how beautiful it was, but beautiful just didn’t do any justice. No word can describe the green vines growing around the house, which was the color of the Sahara desert. If heaven doesn’t look like this house, then there should definitely be some revisions. The picture my uncle brought home explained why my grandpa moaned on his deathbed, “Take me home! Please! Take me home!” He only calmed down when his nurse Danielle was with him. He loved her name, considering it was the name of his beloved village. I stared at the picture for about twenty minutes. I started to smell the aroma of awama, sweet dumplings that my grandpa loved. There was a light in this picture, a calming and serene light that gave me a sense of comfort.

700,000 Palestinians were driven out of Palestine during the Nakba, or catastrophe. Israel has made a law banning the remembrance of the Nakba. Millions of Palestinians remain in refugee camps to this day. On May 15, 2011 Palestinians will demand their right of return. The people of Lebanon, Syria and Egypt will march alongside the Palestinians.

*This is a story through the eyes of my grandfather, written by me*

U.S. Senate passes resolution threatening to suspend aid to Palestinians

June 30, 2011
By Natasha Mozgovaya


Resolution 185 calls on Palestinians to halt bid for unilateral recognition at UN, calls on Obama to veto September vote.

The United States Senate has passed a resolution threatening to suspend financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority if its leaders "persist in efforts to circumvent direct negotiations by turning to the United Nations or other international bodies,” and called on U.S. President Barack Obama to veto a UN vote on unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.

“Palestinian efforts to gain recognition of a state outside direct negotiations demonstrates absence of a good faith commitment to peace negotiations, and will have implications for continued United States aid,” the resolution declares.

Senator Ben Cardin, who initiated the resolution along with Senator Susan Collins, said after the vote late Tuesday that “The Senate has delivered a clear message to the international community that United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state at this time does not further the peace process.”

Resolution 185, co-sponsored by 87 Senator, states the two-state solution as the official U.S. policy for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and also calls for a review of the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas.

It also calls for the Palestinian unity government to “publicly and formally forswear terrorism, accept Israel's right to exist, and reaffirm previous agreements made with the Government of Israel.”

The Senate also called on Obama to announce that the U.S. will veto any resolution on Palestinian statehood that comes before the UN Security Council which is not a result of a peace agreement – and asked him to “lead a diplomatic effort to oppose a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state and to oppose recognition of a Palestinian state by other nations.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a statement following the resolution passage “the United States of America will not give money to terrorists bent on the destruction of the State of Israel. America’s willingness to continue our current aid program will depend on the Palestinian government’s insistence that Hamas recognize Israel’s right to exist, that it renounce violence and that it honor the commitments made by prior Palestinian Authority governments.”

AIPAC, which lobbied for the passage of the resolution, welcomed the vote's result.

Critics of the measure stressed that by cutting financial aid, the U.S. might lose leverage over the Palestinians and might invite other, less constructive players, into the game, as they have already lost faith in the U.S. as an impartial mediator.

Aaron David Miller, former negotiator and current public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, told Haaretz that “this resolution neither hurts nor helps the current muddle that we call the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. It certainly isn't going to discourage the Palestinians from going ahead in September at the UN; and unity with Hamas - always a long shot - may well collapse on its own."

“Congress has very little capacity to influence the views of Palestinians, only Israelis and the Americans can do that. And neither has yet developed a strategy to preempt the UN initiative, though efforts are underway to do so,” Miller added.

Senator Ben Cardin, who initiated the resolution along with Senator Susan Collins, said after the vote late Tuesday that “The Senate has delivered a clear message to the international community that United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state at this time does not further the peace process.”

Resolution 185, co-sponsored by 87 Senator, states the two-state solution as the official U.S. policy for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and also calls for a review of the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas.

It also calls for the Palestinian unity government to “publicly and formally forswear terrorism, accept Israel's right to exist, and reaffirm previous agreements made with the Government of Israel.”

The Senate also called on Obama to announce that the U.S. will veto any resolution on Palestinian statehood that comes before the UN Security Council which is not a result of a peace agreement – and asked him to “lead a diplomatic effort to oppose a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state and to oppose recognition of a Palestinian state by other nations.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a statement following the resolution passage “the United States of America will not give money to terrorists bent on the destruction of the State of Israel. America’s willingness to continue our current aid program will depend on the Palestinian government’s insistence that Hamas recognize Israel’s right to exist, that it renounce violence and that it honor the commitments made by prior Palestinian Authority governments.”

AIPAC, which lobbied for the passage of the resolution, welcomed the vote's result.

Critics of the measure stressed that by cutting financial aid, the U.S. might lose leverage over the Palestinians and might invite other, less constructive players, into the game, as they have already lost faith in the U.S. as an impartial mediator.

Aaron David Miller, former negotiator and current public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, told Haaretz that “this resolution neither hurts nor helps the current muddle that we call the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. It certainly isn't going to discourage the Palestinians from going ahead in September at the UN; and unity with Hamas - always a long shot - may well collapse on its own."

“Congress has very little capacity to influence the views of Palestinians, only Israelis and the Americans can do that. And neither has yet developed a strategy to preempt the UN initiative, though efforts are underway to do so,” Miller added.

Banker Occupation of Greece

2011/06/28
by Stephen Lendman
From: Mathaba

Economist Michael Hudson calls it "Replacing Economic Democracy with Financial Oligarchy" in a June 5 article by that title, saying:

After being debt entrapped, or perhaps acquiescing to entrapment, the Papandreou government needs bailout help to pay bankers that entrapped them. Doing so, however, requires "initiat(ing) a class war by raising its taxes (harming working households most), lowering its standard of living - and even private-sector pensions - and sell off public land, tourist sites, islands, ports, water and sewer facilities" - in fact, all the country's crown jewels, lock, stock and barrel, strip-mining it of everything of worth at fire sale prices.

Why? Because the US-dominated IMF, EU and European Central Bank (ECB), the so-called "Troika," demand it as the price for bailout help that wouldn't be needed if Greece wasn't trapped in the euro straightjacket. Membership means foregoing the right to devalue its currency to make exports more competitive, maintain sovereignty over its money to monetize its debt freely, and be able to legislate fiscal policies to stimulate growth.

Instead they're entrapped by foreign banker diktats demanding tribute. They call it a "rescue." In May 2010, the Papandreou government agreed to earlier austerity in return for loans. Now they're at it again, demanding more or they'll collapse the entire economy, or so they say. And the same scheme is replicated in Ireland and Portugal. Moreover, it's heading for Spain, and potentially most of Europe and America as representative governments head closer to "financial oligarchy."

In other words, it amounts to financial coup d'etat authority over sovereign governments unless popular anger prevents it, involving more than street protests or short-term strikes accomplishing nothing.

Former Wall Street broker, financial analyst, radio/TV host, and consummate critic Max Keiser calls it "banker occupation" for good reason. They:

-- make the rules;

-- set the terms;

-- issue diktats;

-- pressure, bribe or otherwise cajole or force governments to acquiesce; and

-- burden working households with higher unemployment, wage and benefit cuts, higher taxes, and other austerity measures to assure financial predators profit - always at their expense, forcing once prosperous nations to surrender sovereignty to financial oligarchs, ruling world economies like fiefdoms.

Hudson said European central planning concentrated financial power in "non-democratic hands" from inception under European Central Bank (ECB) dominance. Operating like a financial czar over its 17 Eurozone members, it:

-- "has no elected government (to) levy taxes;

-- (t)he EU constitution prevents (it) from bailing out governments," unlike the Fed able to monetize US debt in limitless amounts; and

-- "the IMF Articles of Agreement also block it from giving domestic fiscal support for budget deficits," saying:

"A member state may obtain IMF credits only on the condition that it has 'a need to make the purchase because of its balance of payments or its reserve position or developments in its reserves.' "

However, despite ample foreign exchange reserves, IMF loans are offered "because of budgetary problems," precisely what it's not allowed to do. As a result, "when it comes to bailing out bankers," said Hudson, "rules are ignored" to save them and their counterparties from incurring losses. And it works the same way in America under the Fed, dispensing open-checkbook amounts to Wall Street on demand.

No wonder Hudson calls finance "a form of warfare," operating like pillaging armies, taking over land, infrastructure, other tangible assets, and all material wealth, devastating nations in the process, causing unemployment, poverty, neoserfdom, "demographic shrinkage, shortened life spans, emigration and capital flight."

Greece's business-friendly fiscal legacy, in fact, caused today's crisis, squeezing public spending in favor of the rich, especially with sweetheart tax policies letting much of their income go undeclared.

Financial deception followed. On February 8, 2010, Der Spiegel writer Beat Balzli headlined, "How Goldman Sachs Helped Greece to Mask its True Debt," saying:

In 2002, Goldman helped them borrow billions by circumventing Eurozone rules in return for mortgaging assets. Using creative accounting, debt was then hidden through off-balance sheet shenanigans, employing derivatives called "cross-currency swaps in which government debt issued in dollars and yen was swapped for euro debt for a certain period - to be exchanged back into the original currencies at a later date."

Debt entrapment followed, nations like Greece held hostage to repay it, the usual price being structural adjustment harshness, making a bad situation worse. In 2010, in return for a $150 billion loan, Papandreou imposed:

-- large public worker layoffs (around 10% overall);

-- public sector 10% wage cuts, including a 30% reduction in salary entitlements;

-- cutting civil service bonuses 20%;

-- freezing pensions;

-- raising the average retirement age two years; and

-- higher fuel, alcohol, tobacco, and luxury goods taxes, knowing much more lay ahead given Greece's worsening debt problem.

More bailout help is now needed in return for greater austerity, as well as selling off Greece's crown jewels as explained above. On June 24, New York Times writer Stephen Castle headlined, "Europeans Agree to a New Bailout for Greece with Conditions," saying:

The deal "came a day after Greece agreed with international creditors to more austerity measures (requiring parliamentary approval) as part of revised plans for 2011-15 aimed at" assuring bankers are first in line to get paid, popular and national interests be damned.

An agreement in principle expects half the funds offered to come from new loans, a fourth from state asset sales, and the remainder from private sector contributions.

An unspecified larger amount (of around 110 billion euros in total) will follow an initial 12 billion euro emergency loan with strings. They include:

-- laying off another 20% of public workers;

-- privatizing public enterprises and assets on the cheap;

-- a one-time personal income levy from 1 - 5%, depending on income;

-- lowering the tax-free income threshold to 8,000 euros annually from 12,000;

-- setting the lowest tax rate at 10%, with exemptions for people up to age 30, over-65 pensioners, and disabled people; and

-- annually taxing the self-employed an additional 300 euros.

Up to $120 billion in cuts are expected though final figures haven't been announced, depending on amounts raised from asset sales and private contributions.

In response, public anger is visceral through daily protests. The ruling PASOK party's approval rating is 27%. Over 90% of the public are dissatisfied with Greece's governance. Another 90% say the country is "on the wrong path." About 80% are unhappy with their lives, and 70% are concerned that conditions will keep deteriorating.

Nonetheless, on June 22, Papandreou won a parliamentary vote of confidence ahead of two more steps the IMF and Eurozone leaders require before releasing more funds - agreeing on their demanded austerity plan and enacting measures to implement it.

In fact, acting IMF managing director John Lipsky (a former JP Morgan Investment Bank vice chairman) said no opposition will be tolerated. In other words, Eurozone nations have no option but to obey IMF diktats, Lipsky acting more like a commissar than banker.

At the same time, austerity, privatizations, and greater debt amounts are self-defeating. Workers, of course, are hardest hit unless mobilized mass action stops it. Ideally they can do it by general strike, shutting down the country, setting non-negotiable demands, staying out until predatory banker diktats are rejected, and prevailing by letting nations regain their sovereignty and people their rights.

That's how labor battles are won. It works the same everywhere when rank and file determination stays the course to victory.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening. #

Africa: Global NATO Seeks To Recruit 50 New Military Partners

February 21, 2011
by Rick Rozoff
Source: Global Research

A recent article in Kenya’s Africa Review cited sources in the African Union (AU) disclosing that the 28-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization is preparing to sign a military partnership treaty with the 53-nation AU.

The author of the article, relaying comments from AU officials in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where the organization has its headquarters, wrote that although “the stated aim is to counter global security threats and specifically threats against Africa, some observers read the pact as aiming to counter Chinese expansion in Africa.”

The feature further claimed that NATO is negotiating the opening of a liaison office at AU headquarters and that the North Atlantic Alliance’s legal department is working with its AU counterpart “to finalise the new pact, which will be signed soon.” [1]

The news story additionally divulged that Ramtane Lamamra, African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security, “confirmed that Nato is to sign a military cooperation agreement with the AU” with particular emphasis on consolidating the African Standby Force (ASF). The latter is intended to consist of brigades attached to the five Regional Economic Communities on the continent. (North, East, West, Central and Southern.) The West African Standby Force has been tasked the role of intervening in – which is to say invading and occupying – Ivory Coast since the announcement of presidential runoff election results in the country in December [2], and contributors to the East Africa Standby Brigade (EASBRIG), Uganda and Burundi, are engaged as combatants in the civil war in Somalia.

The AU’s Lamamra stated “Africa would like to learn from Nato on strategic airlift, advanced communications, rotation of important units among regions and to meet logistical challenges,” adding that “Nato was a good model on which to build the ASF.” [3]

NATO airlifted thousands of Ugandan troops into and out of the Somali capital of Mogadishu last March – 1,700 and 800, respectively – in support of the Ugandan-Burundian African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). [4]

The Kenyan report also revealed that “Experts say Africa is becoming a strategic battleground between world powers and in particular the US, the European Union, China and Russia,” with the first two – collectively subsumed under NATO and its Partnership for Peace program (except, for the time being, Cyprus) – working in unison and the second two expanding oil and natural gas investments on the continent. In addition, Russia and China are competitors of the U.S. and its NATO allies in regards to arms sales to African nations. The piece added:

“According to knowledgeable sources, the new security arrangement could be a way to block the continent’s other main arms suppliers – China and Russia.

“If the pact gets endorsed by AU member states, it would be a big blow for China and Russia.”

“In its 2010 annual summit, Nato set itself a target to be a global ‘security guarantor’ by the year 2020.” [5]

On February 18 and 19 a delegation of high-level officials from the African Union led by Sivuyile Thandikhaya Bam, head of the Peace Support Operations Division of the AU, visited NATO Headquarters and the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Belgium. As NATO reports:

“NATO and the African Union have developed an increasingly fruitful practical cooperation since 2005….NATO supported the AU Mission in Sudan [airlifting over 30,000 troops to and from the Darfur region] and is currently assisting the AU mission in Somalia in terms of air- and sea-lift, but also planning support.

“NATO is also providing…training opportunities and capacity building support to the African Union’s long term peacekeeping capabilities, in particular the African Standby Force.” [6]

The African Standby Force has been systematically modeled after the NATO Response Force, which was launched with large-scale war games in the African island nation of Cape Verde in 2006. The ASF is a joint project of NATO and U.S. Africa Command, which before achieving full operational capability on October 1, 2008 was conceived, developed and run by U.S. European Command, whose commander is simultaneously NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

In 2007 the North Atlantic Council, NATO’s top civilian decision-making body, commissioned a study “on the assessment of the operational readiness of the African Standby Force (ASF) brigades.” [7]

The following year NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer visited Ghana for three days and said “the military alliance could play an important role in training African soldiers,” in particular that “the Alliance had agreed to support the African Standby Force.” [8]

In 2009 the bloc began training African staff officers for the ASF at the NATO School in Oberammergau, Germany. Joint Command Lisbon, the Alliance headquarters tasked to supervise military cooperation with the African Union, has trained African officers to run military exercises, and “NATO has also participated and supported various ASF preparatory workshops designed to develop ASF-related concepts.” [9]

The same year Norwegian Colonel Brynjar Nymo – Norway’s embassy in Ethiopia is the informal liaison office for NATO’s relations with the AU – said that “cooperation between NATO and AU is currently focusing on technical support for the African Standby Force (ASF).”

The Norwegian embassy’s website at the time stated that “The Africa Monitoring & Support Team at the NATO Headquarters in Portugal is the operational headquarters for NATO’s work in Africa,” as indicated above. [10]

Then-NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General Maurits Jochems visited AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, where NATO has a senior military liaison officer and other officials assigned, later in 2009.

“In his capacity as NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary-General, Ambassador Jochems has frequently visited Addis Ababa for discussions with the African Union….NATO is providing technical advice, and making available subject matter experts, experiences from international operations, and access to relevant training facilities to the AUC [African Union Commission] in the context of the African Standby Force.” [11]

This January 26 and 27 NATO’s Military Committee held two days of meetings in Brussels with the chiefs of defense – the U.S.’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen and his equivalents – and other military representatives of 66 nations, a third of the members of the United Nations.

The proceedings discussed ongoing NATO operations in Afghanistan – currently the world’s largest and longest war, with an estimated 140,000 troops from some 50 nations serving under the Alliance’s International Security Assistance Force – the Balkans (Kosovo Force), the entire Mediterranean Sea (Operation Active Endeavor), and the Horn of Africa, the Gulf of Aden and down the eastern coast of Africa (Operation Ocean Shield).

During the Military Committee and related meetings a session of the Mediterranean Dialogue was held with military leaders from the seven members of that NATO partnership: Israel, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan, Morocco and Mauritania. The session occurred as the government of Tunisia’s President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali had recently been toppled and the demonstrations in Egypt that would bring the same denouement to President Hosni Mubarak were getting underway.

On February 9 Serbia’s Beta News Agency reported Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac announcing that a NATO strategic conference entitled After Lisbon: Implementation of Transformation will be held in his nation’s capital of Belgrade in June with representatives from 69 countries attending: All 28 NATO member states, 22 Partnership for Peace nations [12] in Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, and 19 other states. [13]

In addition to the Mediterranean Dialogue, NATO’s Istanbul Cooperation Initiative program is developing military cooperation with the Persian Gulf states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, with Oman and Saudi Arabia to be brought on board next. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen was in Qatar from February 15-16 for the two-day Deepening the NATO-Istanbul Cooperation Initiative conference with the permanent representatives (ambassadors) of the bloc’s 28 members and senior military and government officials from the six Gulf Cooperation Council states: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The first and last of them have troops serving under NATO in Afghanistan.

NATO also has a partnership category called Contact Countries. Subject to expansion, the four such nations are all in the Asia-Pacific region: Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. The U.S.-led military bloc also maintains the Afghanistan-Pakistan-International Security Assistance Force Tripartite Commission to coordinate war efforts on both sides of the Khyber Pass and has troops and other military personnel assigned to its command in Afghanistan from nations that are not currently among the 70 NATO member and official partnership states: Colombia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Singapore and Tonga.

The NATO-Russia Council was revived at the bloc’s Lisbon summit in November and NATO’s Kosovo Force (KFOR) is training and equipping the fledgling armed forces of Kosovo, the Kosovo Security Force. [14] NATO, then, has no fewer than 75 members and partners with nations like previously neutral Cyprus slated to follow. [15]

The African Union has 53 members and will soon have another after the successful independence referendum in Southern Sudan. The AU includes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara), conquered by Morocco in 1975 and not recognized by any NATO state, but not Morocco, which withdrew from the AU because of the latter’s recognition and incorporation of Western Sahara.

Four members of the AU, along with Morocco, are already part of a NATO partnership program, the Mediterranean Dialogue – Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania and Tunisia – so a NATO military cooperation treaty with the African Union could gain the Atlantic Alliance 50 new partners.

That is, the world’s only military bloc can further expand from one that grew from 16 to 28 members in a decade – 1999-2009 – into one that will become truly international in scope with nearly 100 military partners. Partners and members on every inhabited continent. Two-thirds of the nations in the world.

Related articles:

Militarization Of Energy Policy: U.S. Africa Command And Gulf Of Guinea

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2011/01/08/militarization-of-energy-policy-u-s-africa-command-and-gulf-of-guinea

Pentagon And NATO Apply Afghanistan-Pakistan War Model To Africa

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/pentagon-and-nato-apply-afghanistan-pakistan-war-model-to-africa

New Colonialism: Pentagon Carves Africa Into Military Zones

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/05/05/new-colonialism-pentagon-carves-africa-into-military-zones

Japanese Military Joins U.S. And NATO In Horn Of Africa

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/04/26/japanese-military-joins-u-s-and-nato-in-horn-of-africa

NATO: AFRICOM’s Partner In Military Penetration Of Africa

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/03/20/nato-africoms-partner-in-military-penetration-of-africa

AFRICOM’s First War: U.S. Directs Large-Scale Offensive In Somalia

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/africoms-first-war-u-s-directs-large-scale-offensive-in-somalia

AFRICOM Year Two: Seizing The Helm Of The Entire World

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/africom-year-two-taking-the-helm-of-the-entire-world


Notes

1) Argaw Ashine, Nato to sign security cooperation pact with AU
Africa Review, February 18, 2011 http://www.africareview.com/News/Nato+to+sign+security+cooperation+pact+with+AU/-/979180/1110238/-/4igp64/-/
2) Ivory Coast: Testing Ground For U.S.-Backed African Standby Force
Stop NATO, January 23, 2011

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2011/01/23/ivory-coast-testing-ground-for-u-s-backed-african-standby-force

3) Africa Review, February 18, 2011
4) Uganda: U.S., NATO Allies Prepare New Invasion Of Somalia
Stop NATO, July 28, 2010

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/uganda-u-s-nato-allies-prepare-new-invasion-of-somalia

5) Africa Review, February 18, 2011
6) North Atlantic Treaty Organization

http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/news_61534.htm

7) North Atlantic Treaty Organization

http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_54617.htm

8) Ghana News Agency, November 21, 2008
9) North Atlantic Treaty Organization

http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_54617.htm

10) Royal Norwegian Embassy in Ethiopia, April 20, 2009
11) Royal Norwegian Embassy in Ethiopia, November 4, 2009
12) Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia, Finland, Georgia, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Russia in sometimes included.


Rick Rozoff is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Rick Rozoff

Can The Fed Stop Quantitative Easing?

June 28, 2011
Paul Craig Roberts
Prisonplanet.com

If the Fed stops QE, confidence in the US dollar would rise. Money would flow into US investments, both supporting the US stock market and helping to finance the large US budget deficit. Gold and silver prices would decline. Negative dollar expectations would be squeezed out of oil and grain prices, although drought, flood, and supply factors would continue to impact grain prices and the administration’s wars can impact oil prices.

If a halt to QE coincided with more European sovereign debt problems, the dollar might regain a lot of the ground that it has lost.

Looked at from this perspective, the Fed should halt its bond purchases, and people should bail out of their bullion investments and commodity speculations.

But there are other factors in play–the economy and continuing solvency worries about financial institutions. At a June 22 news conference, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said: “Some of the headwinds that have been concerning us, like the weakness in the financial sector, problems in the housing sector, balance sheet and deleveraging issues, may be stronger and more persistent than we thought.”

Despite the fiscal stimulus of the large federal budget deficit and Obama’s $700 billion stimulus program, the economy’s growth and employment performance is not up to expectations. Indeed, as John Williams says, if inflation were fully measured, the economy’s growth could be negative, and if unemployment were correctly reported, the current rate would be over 22%.

An economy this weak offers no support to US-derived corporate profits or to the outlook for financial organizations. US corporations have made large investments abroad in the production of goods and services to sell to US consumers who have neither the income nor borrowing capacity to purchase. People without jobs and those with the low paid jobs provided by domestic service, such as hospital orderlies, bartenders, and waitresses, cannot afford to buy a house even at the depressed current prices. To the extent that financial institutions’ books remain filled with real estate paper, the financial crisis is not over.

Moreover, it is unlikely that the Dow Jones average can be sustained without growth in employment and GDP.

Can the Fed afford to sacrifice recovery, employment, and Obama’s reelection to save the dollar and price stability? This is the unasked and unanswered question.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts is the father of Reaganomics and the former head of policy at the Department of Treasury. He is a columnist and was previously an editor for the Wall Street Journal. His latest book, “How the Economy Was Lost: The War of the Worlds,” details why America is disintegrating.

Press Release: The facts and sequence of events surrounding Sheikh Raed Salah's arrest

29 June 2011
Source: Middle East Monitor

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The facts and sequence of events surrounding Sheikh Raed Salah's arrest

Sheikh Raed Salah arrived in London on Saturday 25th using his Israeli passport to enter Britain legally as he has done many times before. He was not questioned by anyone and there was no indication of the existence of an exclusion order. Over the past few days, Sheikh Salah has addressed MPs in the British parliament and has spoken in large public gatherings. His subsequent arrest last night will be challenged in the courts as unjustified. This seems to be the beginning of a worrying trend of persecution of Muslims and pro-Palestinian activists.

* Immediately after the Middle East Monitor [MEMO] announced that it was hosting Sheikh Raed Salah at a public lecture at Queen Mary University, a well-known pro-Israeli website circulated a catalogue of lies and fabrications about him which he has refuted for years.

* On Thursday, 16th June, he issued an unequivocal statement refuting the claims. He ordered lawyers in London to challenge these fabrications in the British High Court.

* On 24th June, lawyers acting on Sheikh Raed's behalf served notice on Andrew Gilligan of the Daily Telegraph and Robyn Rosen of the Jewish Chronicle. These procedures began before Sheikh Raed entered the country and were publicly announced.

* None of the organisers of his lengthy schedule were contacted by the government or the police, either directly or indirectly, regarding the facts about him.

* He began his programme of engagements on Sunday, which was followed with a roundtable in Parliament on Monday 27th June where he was speaking to a number of MPs, Lords and researchers in Committee Room 2A, in which he spoke for an hour. There was still no indication that he had been banned.

* On the evening of Monday 27th he attended a crowded event in Conway Hall, Holborn, for almost three hours which was reported by the Jewish Chronicle. The Evening Standard claims he failed to appear. MEMO has a record of the event, with photos.

* No policemen were present at the public event to arrest or question him before, during or after the event, despite any claims to the contrary.

* Yesterday he made a speech in Leicester in front of an audience of more than one thousand for more than two hours. It was a successful event. And again, there were no police present.

* However, during the day, the Daily Mail and Evening Standard circulated news that a ban was issued last week but for one reason or another, the exclusion order had failed to be enacted and that he had sneaked in, implying that he is on the run.

* Lawyers contacted the Home Office in the afternoon asking for a clarification, although no one had contacted them. It is important to note that none of his legal representatives, who were widely known, were contacted. The Home Office refused to comment. Similarly, contact was made by the MPs and MEMO, and the Home Office again did not confirm or deny anything.

* Around 11pm on Tuesday evening, Sheikh Raed was arrested in his hotel and taken to Paddington Green Police Station by the UK Border Police.

* It is imperative to reiterate that he entered the country legally, with a legal Israeli passport and that the British government knew long in advance of his visit. They never contacted MEMO to find out the truth. The Sheikh himself was willing to challenge all the allegations in court. There were lies and fabrications made in the public domain, which he has rejected and he has never been charged with or convicted these alleged offences. He has expressed a willingness to challenge these in court.

* One example of the baseless lies circulated was published in the Evening standard alleging that he failed to turn up to the Conway Hall event. In fact he was there for three hours and spoke to a large audience there.


Analysis

* Raed Salah is first and foremost the pre-eminent political leader of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Israel. He is one of the main leaders of the biggest political party among the 1.5 million Palestinians in Israel. His appeal goes well beyond Arab Israelis and he appeals to all Arabs and Muslims who see him as championing the issue of Occupied Jerusalem and the right of Palestinians in Israel and elsewhere. His name is synonymous with Jerusalem and he is well known.

* His treatment by the British government will not be taken lightly either here or abroad. By banning him after he began legal proceedings, it appears that the British government is seeking to obstruct the course of justice. He has already started legal action against those who circulated these rumours.

* This appears to be initiating a trend by which we can expect that all Muslim, Arabs and human rights activists will be judged by rumours and denied the right to challenge in court those who spread libellous rumours about them.

* The fact that we were not contacted shows recklessness and disdain for British citizens. If the authorities had wanted to ban him they had the opportunity to do it respectfully, but their recklessness is beyond imagination and it reflects the government's draconian nature.

* Finally, MEMO understands that Sheikh Raed will challenge the deportation order in court. It is not he who is losing his reputation; he has been arrested in Israel on countless occasions for defending Palestinian rights, and now the British government is acting in the same way.

* It will curtail freedom of speech in this country. At a time when the universal laws to prevent war criminals to enter this country unchallenge are being threatened, the double standards are clear. They judge Muslims on rumours and fabrications and allow Israeli war criminals to enter.

* The Home Office have said that the deportation order was served as his deportation is deemed conducive to the public good under Section 3 of the Immigration Act of 1971.




The Middle East Monitor is an independent media research institute founded in the United Kingdom in 2009 to foster a fair and accurate coverage of Middle Eastern issues and in particular the Palestine Question in the Western Media.

Report: Turkey tells West it might launch offensive against Syria

June 28, 2011
by crescentandcross
Source: theuglytruth.wordpress.com

todayszaman.com

Turkish officials have told Western countries that Turkey might launch a military operation in Syria’s north to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported on Monday.

“Turkey informed Britain, France, Italy, Germany and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) leadership of the possibility that it would launch an offensive in … Aleppo, Homs, Hama and Latakia,” As-Seyassah daily quoted an unnamed British officials as saying, according to the Lebanese news website nowlebanon.com.

The report comes amid fears of undesired confrontation between the Turkish and Syrian armies along the border. About 12,000 Syrians have fled their homes in northern towns and have taken refuge on the Turkish side of the border. The Syrian army is reportedly reinforcing troops near the Turkish border to prevent further inflows of refugees towards Turkey. The Turkish military is also reportedly considering reinforcing border troops. Senior Turkish commanders have recently traveled to the border province of Hatay to inspect the border area.

“Turkish officials fear the possibility of the Syrian army committing mistakes on its borders, which might oblige the Turkish army to cross the Syrian border,” the Kuwaiti daily quoted a Lebanese diplomat in Ankara as saying. The Syrian government’s brutal crackdown on anti-regime protesters has brought once-close Turkish-Syrian relations to a breaking point, with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan describing the Syrian response to protests as “savagery.”

Earlier, a columnist for Lebanese daily al-Akhbar, said to be close to Hezbollah, claimed that Iran had threatened Turkey that if it were to be used as a platform for NATO action against Syria, then Iran would bomb US and NATO bases in Turkey. A columnist for the newspaper also said Iran sees the preservation of the Syrian regime as the preservation of the Iranian and Lebanese governments.

Government censorship of Internet to increase, warns Google

28 June 2011
Source: New Media and Search

Google chief says the censorship is to get worse, and he fears for his employees safety across the world

Government censorship of the Internet is set to increase as heads of governments feel that civil society is using new technologies for pro-democracy movements, according to Google chairman Eric Schmidt.

This increase of states cracking down harder on Internet freedoms could be due to the recent Arab Spring movement, where Pro-democracy protesters in Tunisia, Egypt and several other Arab states have used Google owned Facebook and Youtube.

Stating that some governments wanted to regulate the Internet as they regulated television, Eric Schmidt said he feared his colleagues in such countries faced a mounting risk of occasional arrest and torture.

Without directly naming the countries, Schmidt also said he was concerned about the danger faced by employees of the company in parts of the world that deemed found illegal material on its search engine.

Schmidt said, "The reason is that as the technology becomes more pervasive and as the citizenry becomes completely wired and the content gets localised to the language of the country, it becomes an issue like television."

"If you look at television in most of these countries, television is highly regulated because the leaders, partial dictators, half dictators or whatever you want to call them understand the power of television imagery to keep their citizenry in some bucket," he added.

Speaking at summit on militant violence organised by Google in Dublin, Schmidt said he believed the "problem" of governments trying to limit Internet usage was going to "get worse".

The Chinese government and Google have regularly argued over attempts made by the government to limit public access to the search engine's Internet services.

An effort to steal the passwords of hundreds of Google email account holders, including U.S. government officials, Chinese human rights advocates and journalists was unearthed by Google this month. However, China has denied its involvement on the issue.

Israel to cope with 'hardcore terror activists' on flotilla

29/06/2011
Source: Ma'an News Agency

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Israel will be able to handle any violence from "hardcore activists" on board a new Gaza-bound flotilla, the foreign minister said Tuesday, amid claims some were planning attacks with chemicals.

"The moderate elements who were planning to join the flotilla... know that for everyone who wants to help people in Gaza, that there is a legal way to do it," Avigdor Lieberman told public radio in a telephone interview from Zagreb.

"It is clear that those who are still participating in the flotilla are the hardcore terror activists," he said.

"No one doubts the intention of those people... they will be on board several boats. But I am sure we will cope with them."

Israel is gearing up to block the arrival of a new international aid flotilla which is planning to set sail from Greece later this week in a bid to break the five-year blockade on the Gaza Strip.

A similar attempt by a six-ship convoy to reach Gaza in May last year ended in bloodshed when Israeli troops stormed the lead vessel, leaving nine Turkish activists dead and sparking a diplomatic crisis with Ankara.

Following two days of deliberations, Israel's security cabinet on Monday ordered the navy to stop the second flotilla from reaching Gaza, but urged it to do so with "minimal confrontation" with the passengers.

Some 350 pro-Palestinian activists from 22 countries including Canada, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy and Spain are set to join "Freedom Flotilla II" -- among them a good number of middle-aged and even elderly Americans and Europeans.

Security officials and foreign ministry representatives had initially told the cabinet that Israel had no information that anyone linked to a terror group was planning to take part in the flotilla, the Haaretz newspaper reported on Monday.

But by nightfall, the assessment had changed dramatically, with a military spokeswoman telling reporters they had information about "radical elements" who were planning to join the flotilla in order to murder Israeli soldiers.

"There are radical elements on board the American boat who have said they want to kill Israeli soldiers," said Lieutenant Colonel Avital Leibovitz.

"We also know that one of the boats is carrying dangerous incendiary chemicals that these human rights militants want to use against Israeli soldiers," she said, warning that if the troops' lives were endangered, they would react.

Lieberman said it was clear those who were participating in the flotilla were "hardcore" activists bent on violence.

"There are all sorts of groups and factions who, despite the dangers, will take part. Those who are left... are the hardcore activists, the terror activists who don't want to help -- humanitarian aid doesn't interest them," he said.

"They want to purposely create a provocation, they are looking for a confrontation, they are looking for blood, they are looking for many images on the TV screens," he said.

Around seven of the boats are currently docked at ports in Greece, with organizers saying one of them was seriously damaged on Monday night in what they described as "sabotage".

"The propeller and the transmission shaft of the Greek-Swedish boat were cut," Dimitris Plionis told AFP.

Organizers say they are planning to meet up with the other three boats off the Greek island of Crete on Thursday or Friday before making the voyage to Gaza.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and other leaders have urged the flotilla not to set sail, and Washington has warned US nationals not to join the attempt to break the Israeli embargo.

Israel placed a blockade on the Gaza Strip in 2007 after Hamas took control of the coastal enclave.

Rights agencies say that the blockade amounts to a form of collective punishment of the 1.6 million people of Gaza.
Print

Bill & Robert Gates Exposed as Attendees at Secret Bilderberg Group 2011; Sec. of Defense Violates Logan Act; New World Order Summit Ends Early

June 16th, 2011
By Truthquake.com Staff

Infowars reporters Aaron Dykes and Paul Joseph Watson have received confirmation Saturday from an inside mole that six other powerful people who were not named on the Bilderberg Group 2011 official attendee list were present at the conference in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

The missing attendees found by the inside source are:

Anders Rasmussen – Current Secretary General of NATO

Angela Merkel – German Chancellor

Jose Luis Zapatero – Spanish Prime Minister

Bill Gates – Former Microsoft CEO; Head of the Gates Foundation

Robert Gates – Serving US Secretary of Defense

Richard Perle – Reagan Administration Assistant Secretary of Defense

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’s presence at the New World Order Illuminati summit violates the U.S. Logan Act. The federal law makes it a crime for unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments.

The secret society’s summit ended Sunday, and security removed the white privacy curtains blocking the entrance to the Suvretta House Hotel according to the reporters in the area. The week-long secret summit was one of the shortest ones in their history.

Syrian army defector says he was told to shoot unarmed protesters

27 June 2011
Martin Chulov in Istanbul
guardian.co.uk

During a month stationed in Deraa, neither Wasid nor any of his fellow conscripts saw a single armed demonstrator.



Wasid, a Syrian conscript, set off for the southern town of Deraa in late April filled with the zeal of a soldier going to war. "We were going to fight terrorists," he said. But less than a day after arriving there, he was planning to defect.

The Syrian regime has cast the uprising in Deraa as a conflict between a loyal military and a large and highly mobile group of heavily-armed foreign-backed insurgents, roaming the country attempting to ignite sectarian strife.

Over three hours in an Istanbul safehouse, Wasid, 20, described events in the southern town where the wave of dissent that has swept Syria first broke. His account starkly contradicts the official narrative.

"As soon as we got there, the officers told us not to shoot at the men carrying guns. They said they [the gunmen] were with us. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It had all been lies," he said.

In the month they were stationed there, neither Wasid nor any of his colleagues saw any demonstrators with weapons in Deraa or the nearby town of Izraa. And instead of confronting armed insurgents, the unit was ordered to shoot protesters. "It shocked me," he said. "We are soldiers and soldiers do not shoot at civilians."

In the weeks leading up his deployment with the Syrian army's 14th Division, commanders had given regular briefings on the "violence" ahead. Wasid was convinced he would soon be in combat.

"When we were at the base in Damascus before we left for Deraa, we were not allowed to watch television at all, except for two hours each day when we could watch Rami Makhlouf's channel," he said. [Makhlouf, a tycoon, is President Bashar al-Assad's first cousin]. "All they showed were armed groups roaming the villages. I found out later that these groups were on our [the regime's] side – they were the Shabiha." According to Wasid, the Shabiha – ghosts – were the only civilian gunmen in town. Their group has strong links to the military and has developed a reputation over recent bloody months of being willing to do the dirty work in troublesome towns and villages.

"The first day we arrived there, 24 April, the Shabiha came to the base to speak with our officers. It was clear that the relationship was close."

Wasid showed the Guardian his military ID and application for refugee status, copies of which have been kept.

He does not want his real name or photograph used out of fear that his family may be targeted for reprisals.

After weeks of military crackdowns, the government is now on a diplomatic and media offensive. Officials are pushing their version of events to a few correspondents who were last week allowed to enter Syria for the first time since March. The official account has emphasised claims that Sunni Islamist groups have either initiated or hijacked the uprising's agenda.

"I never saw an Islamist or anybody that resembled one," said Wasid. "And nor did anyone else with me."

He estimated that about 30% of his unit were disaffected with the military.

But neither dissent nor defection are easy in Syria, where conscripts are paid £6 a month. "One guy – I only know his name as Wael, he was from the east – told an officer that what we were doing was wrong. "The next day he was killed. They said he had been shot by terrorists." Nevertheless, by 25 May Wasid and 20 others had mustered the courage to attempt to escape. He ditched his military fatigues – and the sniper rifle which he said he had never used – and ran with the group to the highway, where a van took them to Damascus. "Once we got there, we agreed we would go separate directions. I stayed in Damascus for three days and then left for Turkey. I don't know where the others went."

He crossed the border in the Kurdish northeast of Syria and made his way by bus to Istanbul, where the UNHCR and rights group Avaaz are helping him. Wasid's testimony will be used in a referral to the international criminal court being prepared by another group, Insan. Four other defectors from Deraa have made their way to the Jordanian capital, Amman, in recent days and are also briefing investigators.

Defections have been regularly reported during the uprising, but on a small scale. Apart from the apparent mutiny of half a base in the northern town of Jisr al-Shughour (where Syrian officials claim soldiers were massacred by terrorists), none of the defections have been large enough to pose a threat to command and control of the army.

Wasid says his anger is directed not at the government, which he believes betrayed him, but at his army colleagues who stayed behind despite also seeing what he had seen in Deraa. "There were around 100 people each week killed there. They were civilians.

If I see my colleagues again, not only will I tell others what they have done, but I will find their families and tell them too. And then I will hurt them."

Greek PM: Austerity is Patriotic Duty

June 28, 2011
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has told his fellow countrymen it is their patriotic duty to accept the austerity plan cooked up by the IMF and the EU. If not accepted, Greece will not get the fifth installment of an international bailout, he warned.

“I’m not asking you to listen to outside pressures, I ask that you listen to your soul and your internal patriotic conscience,” Papandreou said.

Greek opposition parties have rejected demands by EU leaders for national unity on the prospect of unemployment, a lower standard of living, and a massive giveaway of national resources.

“You cannot terrorize your MPs by referring to patriotism because if there is something we should be proud of today it’s that Greeks have risen up from their indifference and are defending, as is their duty, patriotism by the presence in the streets,” said Alexis Tsipras, leader of the leftist party SYRIZA.

Opinion polls indicate three quarters of Greeks oppose tax rises, spending cuts, globalist privatization, and the selling off of national treasures.

On Tuesday, Greek unions shut down government services, brought public transport to a standstill and grounded flights. Unions began their fourth general strike of the year at midnight.

Greece’s biggest union, the General Confederation of Greek Workers, has characterized the austerity measures as a “mafia-style rescue.”

“This proposed austerity package will only make things worse. It will mean we are pushed deeper into recession and will never pay back our debts,” Zoe Lanara, the union’s international relations secretary, told The Independent.

As former Wall Street economist Michael Hudson notes, the so-called bailout will not help the Greek people, it will enrich the banks at the expense of the people.

“The Greek economy will not end up with the proceeds of any ECB ’bailout.’ The banks will get the money. They would like to turn around and lend it out afresh to the buyers of the land, monopolies and other properties that Greece is being told to privatize,” he writes. “Is this not like military tribute? … The bankers are trying to get a windfall by using the debt hammer to achieve what warfare did in times past.”

Papandreou and the political elite expect the Greek people to acquiesce to what amount to a military attack on the country by the financial elite. Instead, unions and thousands of protesters will close down the country and continue to resist eurozone enslavement and the theft of their heritage by international finance.On Tuesday, Greek unions shut down government services, brought public transport to a standstill and grounded flights. Unions began their fourth general strike of the year at midnight.

Greece’s biggest union, the General Confederation of Greek Workers, has characterized the austerity measures as a “mafia-style rescue.”

“This proposed austerity package will only make things worse. It will mean we are pushed deeper into recession and will never pay back our debts,” Zoe Lanara, the union’s international relations secretary, told The Independent.

As former Wall Street economist Michael Hudson notes, the so-called bailout will not help the Greek people, it will enrich the banks at the expense of the people.

“The Greek economy will not end up with the proceeds of any ECB ’bailout.’ The banks will get the money. They would like to turn around and lend it out afresh to the buyers of the land, monopolies and other properties that Greece is being told to privatize,” he writes. “Is this not like military tribute? … The bankers are trying to get a windfall by using the debt hammer to achieve what warfare did in times past.”

Papandreou and the political elite expect the Greek people to acquiesce to what amount to a military attack on the country by the financial elite. Instead, unions and thousands of protesters will close down the country and continue to resist eurozone enslavement and the theft of their heritage by international finance.

5 WikiLeaks Revelations Exposing the Rapidly Growing Corporatism Dominating American Diplomacy Abroad

June 21, 2011
By Rania Khalek
Source: Alternet

One of WikiLeaks' greatest achievements has been to expose the exorbitant amount of influence that multinational corporations have over Washington's diplomacy.

One of the most significant scourges paralyzing our democracy is the merger of corporate power with elected and appointed government officials at the highest levels of office. Influence has a steep price-tag in American politics where politicians are bought and paid for with ever increasing campaign contributions from big business, essentially drowning out any and all voices advocating on behalf of the public interest.

Millions of dollars in campaign funding flooding Washington's halls of power combined with tens of thousands of high-paid corporate lobbyists and a never-ending revolving door that allows corporate executives to shuffle between the public and private sectors has blurred the line between government agencies and private corporations.

This corporate dominance over government affairs helps to explain why we are plagued by a health-care system that lines the pockets of industry executives to the detriment of the sick; a war industry that causes insurmountable death and destruction to enrich weapons-makers and defense contractors; and a financial sector that violates the working class and poor to dole out billions of dollars in bonuses to Wall Street CEO's.

The implications of this rapidly growing corporatism reach far beyond our borders and into the realm of American diplomacy, as in one case where efforts by US diplomats forced the minimum wage for beleaguered Haitian workers to remain below sweatshop levels.

In this context of corporate government corruption, one of WikiLeaks' greatest achievements has been to expose the exorbitant amount of influence that multinational corporations have over Washington's diplomacy. Many of the WikiLeaks US embassy cables reveal the naked intervention by our ambassadorial staff in the business of foreign countries on behalf of US corporations. From mining companies in Peru to pharmaceutical companies in Ecuador, one WikiLeaks embassy cable after the next illuminates a pattern of US diplomats shilling for corporate interests abroad in the most underhanded and sleazy ways imaginable.

While the merger of corporate and government power isn't exactly breaking news, it is one of the most critical yet under-reported issues of our time. And WikiLeaks has given us an inside look at the inner-workings of this corporate-government collusion, often operating at the highest levels of power. It is crystal clear that it's standard operating procedure for US government officials to moonlight as corporate stooges. Thanks to WikiLeaks, here are five instances that display the lengths to which Washington is willing to go to protect and promote US corporations around the world.

1. US officials work as salespeople for Boeing. The merger of state and corporate power is striking in a slew of cables detailing US State Department officials acting as marketing agents on behalf of one lucky corporation. Earlier this year the New York Times revealed details about how US diplomats have actively promoted the sale of commercial jets built by the US company Boeing.

Hundreds of cables from WikiLeaks show that Boeing had a sales force of US diplomats that went up to the highest levels of government, even going as far as sabotaging sales for Boeing's European rival Airbus. Enticing deals for the jetliners were offered to heads of state and airline executives in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Turkey and other countries. The WikiLeaks documents also suggest that demands for bribes, or at least payment to suspicious intermediaries, still take place.

In a deal that was valued at about $3.4 billion, the US Embassy in Istanbul pushed for the sale of Boeing jetliners to Turkish Airlines (THY), according to a cable from January 2010. In return, the president of Turkey asked the Obama administration to let a Turkish astronaut sit in on a NASA space flight.

The most puzzling and ironic tidbit in the cable is the US ambassador's bewilderment at the "conflation of USG-GOT interactions and what is ostensibly a commercial sale between private firms," which he complains is "an unwelcome, but unsurprising degree of political influence in this transaction." The accusation that inappropriate political influence exists among the Turkish government and a private airline is laughable considering that the US State Department is the one pitching the sale on behalf of a private firm.

The cable goes on to say, “We probably cannot put a Turkish astronaut in orbit, but there are programs we could undertake to strengthen Turkey’s capacity in this area that would meet our own goals for improved aviation safety. In any case, we must show some response to the minister’s vague request if we want to maximize chances for the sale.”

In November of last year, Saudi Arabia announced a deal with Boeing to buy more than $3.3 billion worth of airliners, a deal that WikiLeaks reveals was preceded by years of intense lobbying by American officials of the highest order.

In late 2006, then President George W. Bush wrote a personal letter he had hand-delivered to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, practically begging the king to buy as many as 43 Boeing jets to modernize Saudi Arabian Airlines and 13 jets for the Saudi royal fleet.

King Abdullah responded by asking the US government and President Bush to trick out his private airplane with the same high-tech equipment used on Air Force One. He hinted that if the US fulfilled his request, he would make a large purchase of Boeing planes for the royal family's fleet and Saudi Arabian Airlines. And lo and behold, King Abdullah got his airplane upgrade, and Boeing made billions.

A cable from early 2008 details a plan that successfully sabotaged an Airbus sale. In December 2007, the Bahrain-owned airline Gulf Air announced plans to buy a new fleet of Airbus planes. Boeing officials alerted the State Department, which immediately intervened urging them to buy from Boeing instead. Following months of intense lobbying by the ambassador, the crown prince and king of Bahrain agreed to kill the Airbus purchase. They ordered Gulf Air to reopen negotiations with Boeing, ultimately winning the deal valued at $6 billion, which was signed while President Bush was visiting Bahrain.

2. US diplomats by day — Monsanto henchmen by night. Boeing isn't the only multi-billion-dollar corporation US diplomats have been shilling for. In a cable from late 2007, former ambassador to France, Craig Stapleton, advised Washington to launch a military-style trade war against any European Union country that opposed genetically modified (GM) crops.

"Country team Paris recommends that we calibrate a target retaliation list that causes some pain across the EU since this is a collective responsibility, but that also focuses in part on the worst culprits. The list should be measured rather than vicious and must be sustainable over the long term, since we should not expect an early victory," he wrote.

Stapleton was reacting to efforts by France to ban a Monsanto GM corn variety. He specifically asked Washington to punish the EU countries that did not support the use of GM crops.

"Moving to retaliation will make clear that the current path has real costs to EU interests and could help strengthen European pro-biotech voices."

An embassy cable from 2009 written by the ambassador to Spain directly cites meetings with Monsanto executives, showing that US diplomats were taking orders directly from GM companies.

Monsanto's director for biotechnology for Spain and Portugal briefed embassy officials about the region, complaining that "Spain is increasingly becoming a target of anti-biotechnology forces within Europe. If Spain falls, the rest of Europe will follow."

In a random insult thrown into the cable, the ambassador says, "Within the agriculture sector, only left-wing farmers' unions have negative opinions of GMOs."

The cable ends with a dramatic call for intervention by the US government on behalf of Monsanto: "ACTION REQUESTED: In response to recent urgent requests by [Spanish rural affairs ministry] State Secretary Josep Puxeu and Monsanto, post requests renewed US government support of Spain's science-based agricultural biotechnology position through high-level US government intervention."

3. Pharmaceuticals + US diplomats = best friends forever. In October 2009, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa issued a decree to improve access to medicines and support public health programs through a protocol that would reduce drug costs. Cables from US embassy personnel in Ecuador to the U.S. Department of State show the United States, multinational pharmaceutical companies, and three ministers within the government shared information and worked to undermine Ecuador's emerging policy.

In a cable dated October 13, 2009, before the decree was issued, the US ambassador was troubled by Correa's plans because it would prioritize local production and eliminate pharmaceutical patents. In other words, Ecuador was about to makes changes that would negatively impact the profits of US pharmaceutical companies.

Immediately following word of Correa's plans, the US embassy staff met with local representatives of US pharmaceutical companies Pfizer, Merck, Sharp and Dohme, Scering-Plough, and Wyeth to share strategies that would prevent or limit Ecuador's licensing changes.

US concerns intensified as revealed by a cable written days later, which refers to meetings with "well-placed contacts" with "potentially sympathetic ministries." In what sounds like attempted blackmail, Minister of Health Caroline Chang -- one of the "well-placed contacts" described as an ally — assured multinational pharmaceuticals that she was looking into financial irregularities and business dealings of some of the local producers with the intent of gaining some leverage.

Despite efforts to undermine Ecuador’s access protocol, Ecuador issued its first compulsory license in April 2010, enabling generic imports of the HIV/AIDS drug ritonavir.

4. Washington 'hearts' abusive mining companies in Peru. From Bolivia to Venezuela to Peru, American diplomats are obsessed with securing the profits of multinational mining corporations at the cost of indigenous rights and the environment. At least that is the impression given by WikiLeaks cables that detail the eruption of anti-mining protests near the Ecuador border against the mining firm Minera Majaz.

In August 2005, a group of protesters in northern Peru marched to the site of a copper mine operated by the firm Minera Majaz, a subsidiary of the British mining company Monterrico Metals. Of the hundreds of people who converged at the mine site from the surrounding communities, 28 were brutally tortured and three were shot, one of whom bled to death.

But you wouldn't know this from the WikiLeaks US embassy cables that describe the protests. The tone is one of sympathy for the mining company, while depicting the protesters as dark and sinister "militant anti-mining protesters" maliciously sabotaging Majaz.

In a cable following the protests, J. Curtis Struble, the former US ambassador to Peru, toes the Majaz line that communists and unions were to blame for sowing the seeds of rebellion, an accusation that reeks of Washington's typical red-baiting of anything opposed to abusive corporate practices in the developing world.

"The anti-mining forces in action in Majaz represent a strange group of bedfellows indeed -- the Catholic church, violent radical leftists, NGOs, ronderos and perhaps narcotraffickers. Working behind the scene are a combination of the Peruvian Communist Party/Patria Roja, national teachers, union SUTEP and perhaps opium poppy traffickers," says Struble.

Struble's glowing profile of the mining company reads: "Majaz has spent $20 million exploring for copper for over a year, building roads and providing services and employment to area residents. Militants still deny access to most of the pipeline route."

Not once does Struble acknowledge the long history of devastation that mining companies have caused throughout the region, such as pollution of the local water supply and land, the use of brutal paramilitaries in assassinating indigenous leaders who challenge them, or the displacement caused by theft of indigenous lands.

Just days after the blatant human rights violations committed against the protesters, another cable reveals that the US and Canadian ambassadors hosted a meeting with representatives from several international mining companies in Peru. Struble expresses his pan to reinforce security in the mines, to avoid the closing of highways by demonstrators which would disrupt commerce, and to encourage the Peruvian government to prosecute the protesters.

5. Diplomats as corporate spies. A more recent US embassy cable dated March 17, 2008, reveals that US diplomats spied on indigenous activists and their supporters who were organizing anti-summit protests against the European Union-Latin American Heads of State summit that was scheduled in Lima that year.

US ambassador to Peru James Nealon identified specific indigenous activists and tracked the involvement of Bolivian President Evo Morales, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Bolivia Ambassador Pablo Solon, prominent Quechua activist Miguel Palacin Quispe and other influential community leaders.

What do all these people have in common? Their unwavering support for indigenous rights and the environment along with their successful organizing tactics and popularity among indigenous populations, which has Washington's corporate masters shaking in their boots.

Nealon describes the anti-summit groups as "a variety of radical Peruvian social movements and European anti-globalization NGOs," citing specific peasant and indigenous groups along with the names of prominent organizers who the US embassy was keeping tabs on. The cable is riddled with insulting references to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Bolivia's Evo Morales, particularly Morales and his supporters. One Bolivian social leader is described as a "pro-Morales ideologue" and another as a "top Evo Morales adviser and anti-free trade and globalization guru."

In almost all of the Peru cables, the US government interprets the enemies of corporate power as being enemies of the United States. As a result, leftist activists and community organizers, particularly those who threaten corporate profits, are regularly targeted. Unions, environmentalists and indigenous communities that challenge multinationals are consistently regarded with disdain and viewed as hostile villains. The US government's propensity at conflating threats to corporate interests as threats to US interests should alarm anyone who values democracy.

What don't we know about?

Besides getting a good laugh at watching pathetically corrupt diplomats whore themselves out to corporate executives, these cables give us a rare glimpse at American diplomatic subservience to corporate behemoths regardless of the costs to people and the environment.

It appears that the collusion between corporate executives and US diplomats is taking place at an ever accelerating rate around the globe, yet more and more, these shady endeavors are shrouded in secrecy. Transparency and accountability have taken such a devastating blow over the past decade, that whistleblowers and media outlets such as WikiLeaks are the only mechanisms left still capable of shedding light on the consequences of the unbridled corporate influence infecting our government.

With tens of thousands of WikiLeaks embassy cables still waiting to be published, there’s sure to be hundreds if not thousands of episodes involving US corporate and government collusion that have yet to be discovered.


Rania Khalek is a progressive activist. Check out her blog Missing Pieces or follow her on Twitter @Rania_ak. You can contact her at raniakhalek@gmail.com.

Barney Frank and Ron Paul Introduce Bill to End Federal Marijuana Prohibition

June 23, 2011
By Rob Kampia
Source: Alternet

The bill would essentially treat marijuana like alcohol on the federal level.

I just left a landmark news conference on Capitol Hill where -- along with Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) and spokespersons from three other advocacy organizations -- we announced the introduction of the first-ever bill to end marijuana prohibition on the federal level.

This bill, the "Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011," is broader and bolder than the medical marijuana bills that Congressman Frank has introduced in every Congress since 1995. The bill introduced today would allow states to determine their own marijuana laws -- not just medical marijuana laws -- without federal interference.

The passage of today's bill is our ultimate goal on the federal level. That is, when the bill ultimately passes, our work in Washington, D.C. will essentially be completed.

The bill would essentially treat marijuana like alcohol on the federal level: It would allow states to choose between prohibiting marijuana entirely, making marijuana medically available, decriminalizing the possession of marijuana, taxing and regulating marijuana like alcohol, having "dry" and "wet" counties, regulating marijuana like tomatoes, and so forth.

The bill would also remove marijuana from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. Since Congress and President Nixon placed marijuana in the strictest of five schedules in 1970, marijuana has been in the same category as heroin, PCP, and LSD -- drugs that supposedly have no therapeutic value and a high potential for abuse.

In fact, the bill would not just remove marijuana from Schedule I; it would remove marijuana from the list of controlled substances entirely. By doing so, the bill -- once again -- would treat marijuana like alcohol. (Alcohol and tobacco are the only two drugs not to be scheduled.)

If and when the bill passes, the federal government's role would be reduced to monitoring the importation of marijuana from foreign countries, as well as prohibiting marijuana from being transported from a marijuana-legal state to a marijuana-prohibition state.

We expect that the bill will receive neither a hearing nor a vote in the 2011-2012 House, which is controlled by Republicans. Unlike in most state legislatures -- which give all bills hearings and committee votes -- the vast majority of bills in Congress die quiet deaths. This is partially because it's physically impossible to find the time to give more than 10,000 bills hearings, and partially because committee chairs can kill bills they don't like simply by doing nothing.

(By way of comparison, our medical marijuana bill failed to receive a hearing or a vote in the 2009-2010 House, which was controlled by mostly supportive Democrats. Indeed, we actually had the votes needed to pass the bill in the House crime subcommittee, which was chaired by a strong supporter!)

While today's bill won't pass anytime soon, its significance cannot be overstated: The bill serves as the ultimate organizing tool for the Marijuana Policy Project and other organizations.

For example, approximately 150 of the 435 members of the House support medical marijuana, but most of the 150 have been silent about or hostile to broader marijuana policy reform. Activists who live in the districts of these pro-medical marijuana House members will now have the opportunity to start a new conversation with these elected officials.

Also, if the federal debate shifts solidly from "medical marijuana" to "marijuana legalization" -- a process that started during the Prop. 19 initiative campaign in California last year -- then perhaps the passage of medical marijuana legislation on Capitol Hill will be seen as less radical, or even inevitable.

The federal bill also adds additional legitimacy to the initiatives that are sure to be on the ballots in California, Colorado, and possibly Washington state in November 2012. In past initiative campaigns that sought to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol, our opponents said that our initiatives were pointless, because what we were proposing was against federal law anyway. Now we can say, "Actually, there's legislation in Congress that would remove federal obstructionism to what we're trying to do here in Colorado. So let's go ahead and pass the initiative, and then we'll push Congress to pass the federal bill in early 2013."

The "Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011" has six original sponsors -- five Democrats and one Republican. Our goal is to increase that number to 15 sponsors by the fall of 2012. In the meantime, my organization will be dedicating substantial resources to passing a ballot initiative in Colorado in November 2012; if that initiative and/or the initiatives in California and Washington state pass, then our nation will have a real debate about the federal bill in the weeks and months after Election Day.

Rob Kampia is executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, DC.

The Gaza Cruise: On the Scene with Canadian Activists En Route to the Gaza Strip

June 23, 2011
By Jesse Rosenfeld
Source: Alternet

For flotilla activists, the struggle is as much about forcing a local debate on alternatives to Mideast policy as confronting Israel’s continued oppression of Palestinians.

THENS—“Oh my god Jesse, you’ve got to come, it’s a Mediterranean cruise to Gaza,” filmmaker and social justice activist John Greyson said to me, tongue partly in cheek, a while back.

He was trying to convince me that I should get on board a boat of Canadian activists and report on their voyage to Gaza as part of a flotilla of ships bringing supplies and running Israel’s blockade.

Ten days later I find myself on a cramped flight to Athens, sandwiched between Toronto’s contingent on the Canadian boat. After watching the latest rendition of Gullivers Travels starring Jack Black, Greyson chats with me about how his involvement in the struggle against South African apartheid, desire to tackle tough issues in the Queer community and the influence of his progressive Jewish friends has put him on a collision course with Israel’s siege.

He, along with the other Toronto activists flying out had received a less than warm send off by members of the far right nationalist, Jewish Defense League (JDL), who protested their planned voyage at the airport, accusing them of supporting terrorism. Most notable at the protest was a biker with sunglasses and beard rivaling Santa Clause, pacing back and forth with a yellow and black sign that poorly attempted to combine “Hamas,” and “assholes” into one word.

For the flotilla activists, the struggle is as much about forcing a local debate on alternatives to Harper’s mideast policy as confronting Israel’s continued oppression of Palestinians.

“Our government is not going do anything so we have to make some changes,” says Kate Wilson, a member of the feminist organization Code Pink (a group planning the flotilla).

Activism is not new to Wilson. Like Greyson, she is a veteran of the South African struggle, living in Botswana for three years during white rule in South Africa and supporting the liberation struggle there and in Canada.

There is a strong culture of security upon arriving at the hotel in Athens, and information is given on a need to know basis. Departure dates, locations and contingency plans are kept strictly under wraps.

Most of the flotilla organizing happens inside two hotels where chatter about the extent of covert Israeli diplomatic pressure is everywhere. People are apprehensive about the mossad (Israel’s spy agency) sabotaging boats before they depart, as was suspected to have happened to two boats before the first flotilla last year, that resulted in Israel commandeering six ships and the death of nine Turkish activists.

Meanwhile, outside the hotel, Athens is in a state of semi organized chaos as rolling, general strikes continue to loom. Most public squares and plazas in the downtown are occupied with protest tents and banners and public assemblies held nightly for the communities to gather and discuss alternative to the austerity measures gripping Greece.

In the public square across from Parliament a whole tent city, independent media office and activist community operates around the clock. I’m told by local activists that this is where the largest assemblies happen, often in the thousands.

Alongside the large and ruckus protests that have gained international attention, everywhere in the city there are signs of resistance to austerity measures. It’s common to hear people tell you that the entire Parliament are the cronies of the IMF and must go.

Even walking though the shopping district to get a local cell phone I can’t ignore the political posters that almost outstrip adds, and while the corporate cell phone stores are operating normally, the shop front logos have been trashed or spray painted.

And that’s just it; while Palestinian solidarity activists meet in Greece to plan and prepare to confront Israel’s occupation by sea, supporting the spreading of an Arab Spring in Palestine, the Greek students, workers and unemployed are bringing the spirit of the uprisings across the Mediterranean to change politics at home.

In many ways it’s the same idea of the Canadian’s calling their boat to Gaza "The Tahrir" after the Arabic name of Cairo’s liberation square. Or as Quaker nonviolence activist and code pink member Lyn Adamson says to me before the plane lands “We have an Arab Spring, but we need a global spring.”


Jesse Rosenfeld is a journalist who was based in Ramallah and Tel Aviv from 2007 to March 2011 and is currently in Toronto. He has written for The Nation, Al Jazeera English, the Guardian, and Foreign Policy among others.

Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip – Facts & Statistics

June 25, 2011
by occupiedpalestine

The IMEU | June 25, 2011

As Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip enters its fifth year, a civil society flotilla – Freedom Flotilla II – made up of ten ships with civilians from 22 countries is setting sail for the Gaza Strip. Last May, Israel attacked Freedom Flotilla I, killing nine civilians including one U.S. citizen.

While this flotilla will be carrying a symbolic amount of humanitarian aid, the stated goal of the flotilla organizers is to challenge the illegality of the blockade itself. What is the situation in Gaza such that hundreds of civilians from tens of countries are risking their lives on the high seas to challenge Israel’s blockade?

The IMEU offers the following facts and figures on Israel’s blockade and how, after more than four years, it has affected life for the roughly 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza.

1. Is Israel’s blockade of Gaza legal?

No. The stated aim of Israel’s blockade is to apply “pressure” or “sanctions” to weaken the economy of Gaza and decrease support for Hamas. This amounts to collective punishment of Gaza’s civilians, and as such is a violation of international humanitarian law under Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Further, as an occupying power, Israel is required under Articles 55, 59 and 60 of the Fourth Geneva Convention to ensure free, unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief and is prohibited from impeding the full realization of the occupied people’s human rights. Israel’s blockade impedes Gazans’ rights to food, to an adequate standard of living, to work, and to the highest attainable standard of health, and therefore is a violation of international law.

2. Israel claims that it allows necessary humanitarian provisions to enter Gaza. Is this true?
No. The amount of goods allowed into Gaza by Israel falls far short of the minimum required to avoid malnutrition, poverty, and prevent or treat a variety of illnesses. The United Nations’ fact-finding mission regarding Israel’s attack on the 2010 humanitarian flotilla found that “a deplorable situation exists in Gaza” that “is totally intolerable and unacceptable in the twenty-first century. It is amazing that anyone could characterize the condition of the people there as satisfying the most basic standards.” Consider the following statistics:

* 54 percent of households face food insecurity, defined as inadequate physical, social or economic access to food. An additional 12 percent are considered vulnerable to food insecurity. Only 20 percent of Gazan households are food secure.
* 38 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.
* Since the blockade began, the number of Palestinian refugees completely unable to secure access to food and lacking the means to purchase even the most basic items, such as soap, school stationery and safe drinking water (‘abject poverty’) has tripled to 300,000.
* 75 percent of households polled by the World Food Programme in the Gaza Strip received outside aid.
* Gaza’s hospitals are at “zero stock levels” for 178 of 480 essential medications, with another 69 at low stock. Of 700 essential medical supplies, 190 are at “zero stock levels” and another 70 at low stock.
* Due to lack of fuel, the Gaza Power Plant runs at 45 percent capacity, leading to daily blackouts of eight to twelve hours. Given this fuel shortage, 90 percent of private cars are no longer driven and of public services, only 15 percent are operational. (Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, The Illegal Closure of the Gaza Strip: Collective Punishment of the Civilian Population, December 10, 2010)
* The Gaza aquifer provides 90 percent of Gaza’s water. Only ten percent of that water meets the standards of being suitable for consumption. Water-borne diseases cause 26 percent of illnesses in Gaza.
* Because of lack of treatment capacity and electricity, Gaza authorities must release around 80,000 cubic meters of sewage into the Mediterranean Sea on a daily basis.
* The construction of 86,000 houses is required to meet natural growth and recover from previous Israeli invasions.

3. Does the blockade prevent the functioning of Gaza’s economy?

Yes. Export of Palestinian goods, the import of raw materials and access to Gaza’s natural resources have been severely restricted, devastating Gazan businesses and the ability of the region to be self-sufficient, thereby rendering it dependent on international aid. For example:

* Economic output per capita has fallen by 40 percent of 1994 levels.
* 95 percent of Gaza’s 3,900 industrial businesses are closed or have suspended work. The other five percent are operating at 20 to 50 percent of capacity. This has cost between 100,000 and 120,000 jobs.
* Israeli restrictions block access to 35 percent of Gaza’s agricultural land and fishermen are forbidden to fish beyond 3 nautical miles from the shore. In 2010, employment in agriculture fell from 14,900 to 10,100.
* While Gaza needs 670,000 truckloads of construction material, an average of 715 enter per month, at 11% of pre-blockade levels. The construction industry now has 10,000 workers, 42 percent of pre-blockade levels.
* Unemployment is at 45.2 percent, with only 40.3 percent of working-age Gazans in the labor force. Youth unemployment is at more than 47 percent.
* 290 truckloads of exports were allowed out of Gaza between November 2010 and May 2011. Before the siege, more than 960 truckloads a month exited Gaza. This is only five percent of pre-blockade levels.
* In 2011, a weekly average of 900 truckloads of goods entered Gaza. Before the siege, 2,807 truckloads entered weekly.
* On March 2, 2011, Israel closed the Karni crossing, forcing importers and exporters to use the Kerem Shalom crossing. For wheat exporters, this increased transport costs by 235 percent and for wheat importers by 30 percent.
* Between June 2010 and March 2011, the cost of wheat flour increased by 50 percent and vegetable oil increased by 40 percent. Meanwhile, the average wage has decreased by more than 25 percent since 2007.
* Gazan households spend 56 percent of their expenditures on food, with 52.5 percent eating lower quality food and 67 percent buying food on credit as a result of high food costs.

Flotilla organizers shake off threats

28/06/2011
By Mya Guarnieri
Source: Ma'an News Agency

ATHENS, Greece (Ma'an) -- Organizers and participants of the second Freedom Flotilla announced in Athens Monday that recent events have not weakened their resolve to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.

At a spirited news conference, they also called into question American foreign policy.

While organizers remain reluctant to give an exact exit date -- saying only that the flotilla will set sail for Gaza in the next few days -- a departure seems imminent.

Members of European Parliament and a number of European politicians were present. The nine organizers and participants who spoke sat before a white, red, black, and green banner that read: “We are breaking the blockade” in Greek.

Thomas Sommer-Houdeville, a French writer and the author of “La Flotille,” pointed out that the flotilla has already set sail as the French ship left its port in France on Saturday. He praised the French government for allowing the ship to leave and criticized both the Americans and Israelis for allegedly meddling in Greek affairs.

“The US or Israel should not be able to tell the Greek government which boat can leave from its own port,” he said.

Ann Wright, a retired US army colonel and former diplomat who resigned in 2003 in opposition to the Iraq war, remarked that the 22 national delegations of the flotilla sought “to challenge the policies of Israel and the United States.”

“We are challenging President Obama’s policies and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton who has called our actions provocative. We say there is nothing provocative about carrying our cargo, which is letters, letters to the people of Gaza that say that we love them.”

Wright asked the Greek government to “let us sail.”

US Boat to Gaza passengers cheered and chanted “Let us sail! Let us sail!”

Some held signs reading, “Free Gaza” and “Let freedom ring,” a reference to a famous speech given by Dr. Martin Luther King, jr. during the African-American civil rights movement.

“We call on the government of Israel to end the blockade,” Wright continued, closing with the words, “We say to the people of Gaza: we are coming!”

Several hundred people will partake in the flotilla, which consists of 10 passenger boats and two cargo ships. Wright is one of the 36 Americans who will be on the US Boat to Gaza, the Audacity of Hope. A majority of the passengers are women. Many are middle-aged or elderly. Approximately 30 percent of the activists are Jewish.

In addition to Wright, there will be several other high-profile passengers on the US boat: Alice Walker, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of “The Color Purple”; Medea Benjamin, founder of the anti-war movement Code Pink; Ray McGovern, a retired CIA analyst and a critic of US foreign policy; and Hedy Epstein, an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor.

Dror Feiler is an Israeli who lives in Sweden. The chairperson of European Jews for a Just Peace, Feiler will be on the Swedish ship. He commented that if Israel tried to stop them or "physically stop us, they know that we will come again and again and again until the siege is lifted completely and permanently … This is the purpose of our missions to open the traffic of people and goods to make the relation between Gaza and the world normal again.”

Feiler said that the Holocaust created two kinds of Jews -- those that felt the need to protect only the Jewish people from another catastrophe and those who say, “We will not let it happen to anybody again.”

As the crowd cheered, Feiler added that there are many Israelis that fall into the second group.

His remarks reflected the sentiment that organizers have stressed -- that the flotilla is not against Israel or her citizens. The flotilla is only intended to challenge the Israeli blockade of the enclave.

Referring to Israeli diplomatic maneuverings against the flotilla, Feiler criticized Israel for “trying to outsource” the blockade to the United States and Greece.

Huwaida Arraf, founder of the Free Gaza Movement, said, “Because I’m a lawyer, let me start with the legal. There is no question that Israel’s closure of Gaza is illegal.”

“A blockade is an act of war,” she continued. “Israel is occupying Gaza. You don’t declare war on a territory you occupy. Second, Israel’s policy is one of collective punishment, punishing an entire civilian population for something they did not do …”

Arraf added that the blockade’s disproportionate impact on the people of Gaza is enough to make it unlawful.

“So there’s no question that Israel’s policy is illegal,” she said. “The question is why does the international community allow Israel to continue violating international law and the rights of the Palestinian people with impunity? That is the only question.”

Her voice rose and shook with emotion as she remarked, “Now I will speak as a Palestinian. Israel’s policy to undermine the flotilla by saying that aid is getting into Gaza will not work. The flotilla is not about aid and Palestinians do not want humanitarian aid. We yearn for, we demand liberation.”

“So to [Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton, [UN] secretary Ban Ki Moon, and others that call on flotilla organizers to use established channels to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, we say, ‘Shame on you.’”

Famed writer Alice Walker remarked, “I am going to Gaza because my government has failed, it has failed us, it has failed to understand or care about the Gazan people. But, worse than that, our government is ignorant of our own history in the Unites States.”

“When black people were slaves for 300 years,” Walker, an African-American, continued, “it took a lot of people from outside of our communities to come to help free us. Also, during the period of the civil rights movement, which was in the 1960s, again, it took people from outside our own communities to come and help us free ourselves.

She added, “This is a fine condition of going to people who need us wherever they exist on the planet. This is our responsibility. This is what we are here for as human beings.”

Walker called the blockade of Gaza and the decades of occupation “insufferable.”

“We will not accept it,” Walker said. “We will not, as Americans with our history of enslavement of people, of segregation, of apartheid … of lynching. We will not accept this, we will not. So Gazans, especially the children, we are on our way. We are coming.”
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