Hugo Goes to Moscow: Chavez Eyes Jets and Weapons Factory for Venezuela

Moscow/Minsk - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived in Russia on Tuesday to seal a deal to buy weapons he believes his country needs to protect against what he claims are US plans to occupy his country.

US-Venezuelan relations have badly deteriorated over the last several years, but the United States has dismissed as absurd Chavez' allegations that the United States wants to invade Venezuela.

Chavez began the three-day visit in the southern city of Volgograd before travelling to the military rifle-producing centre of Izhevsk and then to Moscow for talks with President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday or Thursday.

Cooperation in oil and gas exploration is another key topic. Chavez is due to meet with Russian oil company representatives to discuss construction of the world's longest pipeline running 8,000 kilometres across South America.

Speaking earlier Tuesday in the Belarusian capital Minsk, Chavez said his country had 'to keep a sword handy' to defend itself and would enter into new strategic alliances for the same purpose. Before flying to Russia, Chavez visited Belarus, which is considered the last authoritarian state in Europe.

Russia and Venezuela have signed contracts on the supply of more than 100,000 AK-103 rifles, a modification of the AK-47 assault weapon, and on licensed production in Venezuela of the rifles and ammunition. According to Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov, Caracas will also buy 30 Sukhoi Su-30 fighter-bombers and 30 military helicopters in a deal worth more than 1 billion US dollars.

The United States has lodged a formal protest with Russia over the possible sale, which it fears could upset the balance of power in South America. Russia rejected the objections as groundless, stressing that the deals with Venezuela do not break international law.

In Washington, US State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey reiterated US concerns over the sale and suggested the money could be better used to improve the lives of Venezuelans. He urged the Russians to reconsider any potential deals for weapons contracts.

'We repeatedly talked to the Russian government (to say) that the arms purchases planned by Venezuela exceeded its defensive needs and are not helpful in terms of regional stability,' Casey said.

'Given the fact that this aircraft costs between 30 million (dollars) and 45 million (dollars) each, depending on which model you're talking about, kind of raises some questions about Venezuela's priorities,' he added.

Chavez' socialist government also aims to arm and train up to 2 million Venezuelans against a potential incursion.

The Venezuelan leader used his three-day visit to Minsk, in Belarus, as a backdrop for further vociferous attacks on Washington, using Communist-era phrases now heard rarely in the former Soviet republic.

'The national projects of our countries are aimed at creating a multipolar world and are directed towards the destruction of imperialism, which tries to create a unipolar world,' Chavez said in a speech at a Belarusian military academy.

'Countries like Venezuela and Belarus must keep their hands on their sword,' he added. 'America has tried to close off our countries ... with its hegemony and imperialism.'

The two states, both antagonistic to the West and targets of US diplomatic isolation efforts, have formed a 'strategic alliance,' Chavez declared. Military trade would form a key part of relations between the two states.

Chavez gave no details on a military cooperation agreement reached in Belarus. The deal would begin with sales of spare parts to service Venezuelan military equipment, a Belarusian Foreign Ministry official said on Monday.

From Russia Chavez plans to visit Iran, Mali, Qatar and Vietnam.

© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Israel Targeted UN Monitors

July 26, 2006 - 9:21AM

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called on Israel to investigate what he termed the "apparently deliberate targeting" by Israeli defence forces of a UN observer post in Lebanon.

The Israeli air strike killed four UN military observers who were part of the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, UN and Lebanese officials said.

"I am shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli Defence Forces of a UN Observer post in southern Lebanon," Annan said in a statement issued at UN headquarters in New York.

He was in Rome for an international meeting on the Middle East on Wednesday.

"This coordinated artillery and aerial attack on a long established and clearly marked UN post at Khiam occurred despite personal assurances given to me by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that UN positions would be spared Israeli fire," Annan said.

In Jerusalem, an Israeli army spokeswoman said the military was investigating the report.

The UN force commander in southern Lebanon, General Alain Pelligrini had been in repeated contact with Israeli officers throughout the day, stressing the need to protect that particular UN position from attack, he said.

"I call on the government of Israel to conduct a full investigation into this very disturbing incident and demand that any further attack on UN positions and personnel must stop," Annan said.

The names and nationalities of the dead peacekeepers were being withheld pending notification of their families, Annan said.

There had been 14 incidents of firing close to the outpost from Israeli forces in the afternoon before it was hit, UN officials said, adding that the firing continued even as rescue operations were under way.

Reuters

IDF artillery shelling kills 2 children, 4 others in northern Gaza Strip

By Avi Issacharoff, Yuval Azoulay, Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents, and News Agencies

Israel Defense Forces shelling in northern Gaza on Monday killed six Palestinians in three separate incidents.

In the first incident on Monday an IDF shell landed near a crowd of people standing outside an apartment building in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahia, killing three people, Palestinian hospital officials said. Two were civilians, residents of the building, and the third was an off-duty police officer, residents said.

The second incident was an IDF shell shot at the same neighborhood, which wounded six Palestinians. An 11-year old girl died later of her wounds.
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Both incidents were likely a case of IDF units shooting at launch areas from which Qassam rockets were previously fired. Over the past few days, the IDF has called for the neighborhood?s residents to leave the area, as it planned to strike at a house that served as a storage place for weapons and to shoot at launch areas in the neighborhood.

The third recent round of shelling by the IDF killed two and wounded several others in the western part of Beit Lahia. An IDF missile hit a carriage pulled by a donkey, killing 62-year old woman and her 12-year old grandson, who were standing near the carriage. Three others were wounded in the incident.

The IDF has also attacked a house in the Gaza City neighborhood of Zeitoun. IDF sources said the type of rockets previously shot at Ashkelon were manufactured in the building.

The IDF has advised residents to evacuate in pamphelts and in the Arab language media. Following these warnings and Monday?s shellings, dozens of families have left Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun fearing further bombings.

An IDF spokeswoman said troops had fired the shells after locating a number of Qassam launch sites in the area. The IDF said that one of its missiles has likely gone off track and fallen near the "officers dwelling" in the city. The spokeswoman added that the terror organizations were responsible for the casualties, as the IDF had given previous warnings that it would target Qassam launching sites.

Five Qassams fall in Israel
Three Qassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip landed in the western Negev town of Sderot on Monday. One landed near a school in the city and the others in open fields. No injuries or damage were reported.

Two other Qassam rocket were fired at Ashkelon on Monday. One landed in the city's industrial zone, causing damage, but no injuries.

The Islamic Jihad militant group said it fired the two rockets at Ashkelon to mark a visit to the region by "the Zionist Condoleezza Rice", the U.S. secretary of state.

"Let Rice go to hell," senior Hamas leader, Osama al-Muzaini, told Reuters.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called Monday on the United States to pressure Israel to stop its nearly month-old offensive in the Gaza Strip.

"All that we ask the American administration is to take a moral stance toward the Palestinian people, and the Palestinian suffering and to bear its responsibility as a superpower in this world," he said. He called on America "to restrain the Israeli aggression and stop it."

IDF targets Gaza house in 'Lebanon measure'
Earlier Monday, an Israel Air Force helicopter fired a missile at a two-story house at the entrance to the Shati refugee camp next to Gaza City, causing damage but no casualties, Palestinians said.

The house belongs to a Hamas activist. The military said the target was a storage facility for rockets and weapons of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

This was the first time the IDF had targeted a private house in Gaza, indicating that it has begun to apply its "Lebanon measures" on the Gaza Strip.

IDF troops telephoned the owners of the house ahead of the strike, advising them to evacuate. The house was severely damaged, but the residents of the house were able to escape without injury.

An IDF spokesman said the army would continue striking houses under suspicion to prevent militant groups from accumulating weapons. "The defense that satisfies civilians won't stand against terrorist organizations," said the spokesman.

PRC denies reports on end to Qassam fire
A spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees has denied reports that Palestinian factions had reached agreement on an end to the Qassam rocket attacks against Israel.

Abu Mujahid said on Sunday that there is no such agreement with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

"This is impossible at a time when Israeli aggression continues against the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples," Abu Mujahid said in an interview with Ramattan, a Palestinian news agency.

He also denied that representatives of the Popular Resistance Committees had participated in a meeting Abbas had organized with other Palestinian factions.

It was reported on Sunday that the heads of Hamas in the Gaza Strip agree in principle to a general agreement with Israel on a cease-fire. The deal reportedly calls for an end to targeted killings and Israel Defense Forces incursions, in return for an end to Qassam rocket attacks.

Abbas met last week with the heads of Hamas and urged them to reach an agreement with Fatah prior to today's arrival of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the region.

Secret 2001 Pentagon Plan to Attack Lebanon

Bush's Plan for "Serial War" revealed by General Wesley Clark

By A Concerned Citizen

07/24/06 "GlobalResearch"

"[The] Five-year campaign plan [includes]... a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan" (Pentagon official quoted by General Wesley Clark)

According to General Wesley Clark--the Pentagon, by late 2001, was Planning to Attack Lebanon

"Winning Modern Wars" (page 130) General Clark states the following:

"As I went back through the Pentagon in November 2001, one of the senior military staff officers had time for a chat. Yes, we were still on track for going against Iraq, he said. But there was more. This was being discussed as part of a five-year campaign plan, he said, and there were a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan.

...He said it with reproach--with disbelief, almost--at the breadth of the vision. I moved the conversation away, for this was not something I wanted to hear. And it was not something I wanted to see moving forward, either. ...I left the Pentagon that afternoon deeply concerned."

Of course, this wholly consistent with the US Neocons' master plan, "Rebuilding America's Defenses," published in August 2000 by the Project for the New American Century (PNAC)

And, as PNAC's website ( http://www.newamericancentury.org ) notes, that the lead author of that plan, Thomas Donnelly, was a top official of Lockheed Martin--a company well acquainted with war and its profit potential.

It's no surprise that Republicans are starting to talk about withdrawing troops from Iraq; the troops will be needed in Lebanon. And maybe Sudan and Syria?

Note:

More on General Clark--and his failure to mention all this in his pre-Iraq war commentary on CNN--is in Sydney Schanberg's 9/29/03 article "The Secrets Clark Kept: What the General Never Told Us About the Bush Plan for Serial War" at http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0340,schanberg,47436,1.html

Its “Put up or Shut up” Time in Lebanon

Its “Put up or Shut up” Time in Lebanon

By Mike Whitney

04/24/06 "Information Clearing House" -- -- “Over the past few days, the Israelis did the maximum they can do, from the air and sea. There is no target—old, new, assumed, expected, based on information and analysis—they did not hit… (But) Hezbollah is still managing the battle calmly, slowly, quietly, and without any emotional reaction. You can see this. There are no unnecessary threats and no random rhetoric…We are not a classic army extending from the sea to Mt. Hermon. We are a popular and serious resistance movement that is present in many areas and axes…Our equation and principles are the following: When the Israelis enter, they must pay dearly in terms of their tanks, officers, and soldiers. This is what we pledge to do and we will honor our pledge, God willing.” Hasan Nasrallah, Secretary General Hezbollah, Al Jazeera interview.

The Israeli High-Command loves the air-war phase of the conflict. After all, no one gets killed at 30,000 ft. The only victims of this lethal-strategy are the unlucky women and children who are left scampering for their lives while Israeli bombs flatten their homes and all their worldly possessions.

For 10 days now Israel has casually showered Lebanon with laser-guided munitions, bunker-busters, Daisy Cutters and cluster-bombs. The cheerily-named ordinance reflects the profound affection that US/Israel feel for the deadly weaponry that assures their dominant place in the global order.

But, let’s face it; the bombing campaign is the “coward’s war”. It doesn’t take bravery to pelt civilians with high-explosives when the F-16s are unchallenged in the sky. Nor does it show any courage to ravage the countryside leveling bridges, milk factories and mosques. That’s just terrorism, isn’t it?

But, now we’re entering the ground phase of the war and that does take courage. Israel is massing troops on Lebanon’s southern border and, apparently, has already taken a few small towns in the south. The Israeli-friendly media can be expected to craft a narrative that is sympathetic to the aggressor but, that’s okay. No one disputes the value of propaganda or the rights of the people who own the printing presses, but that will not diminish what is about to take place in southern Lebanon. We are about to see the most powerful army in the Middle East, armed with every homicidal device know to man, go up against a tough-minded, well-disciplined nationalist guerilla-force.

Israel thinks that they’ll be out in a week or two.

We’ll see. Perhaps, it will turn out to be the “cakewalk” that they predict, but maybe not. Hezbollah may not match up very well to the Israeli war-machine, but they are considerably more formidable than the unarmed women and children in the Gaza Strip. Israel will have to fight tooth-and-nail if it wants to succeed in “disarming” Hezbollah according to its “stated” plan. However, if it turns out that we are still having this discussion 3 years from now, we should be willing to admit that Israel lost the war to a very tenacious, hard-fighting organization.

Hezbollah is reviled in the West as a terrorist organization. That may be true, but what difference does it make? It arose as a direct result of Israeli occupation, just as the militias in Iraq have naturally grown up in response to American occupation.

The “militia” is the most basic societal unit. It emerges when the centralized government fragments and is unable to provide security for its people. That is when the masses of young men and women flock to tribal and religious groups with which they most closely identify. That means that Hezbollah is an Israeli invention just like Hamas. If we choose to condemn Hezbollah, than Israel must be held equally responsible. That is the inescapable logic of 18 years of Israeli occupation. Occupation creates militias; deal with it.

In the present conflict, Hezbollah is the only nationalist organization that is prepared to defend its native-soil from foreign aggression. That’s worth something isn’t it?

Sure, if we accept the Bush-Olmert lexicon, than the Israeli aggression is just another extension of the war on terror. I hope that people are smarter than that by now. Just as there were no WMD or links to terrorist organizations in Iraq, Hezbollah’s connections to terrorism are similarly opaque.

Was it wrong for Hezbollah to defend their country and chase Israel from Lebanese soil? Is that terrorism?

In any event, the present altercation is not about Hezbollah. It is about the right of people to defend themselves against unprovoked aggression and violations to their national sovereignty. The two captured Israeli soldiers are completely irrelevant. Israel has many Lebanese prisoners in its jails; that certainly would not justify the Lebanese army marching through Israel destroying everything in its path.

“Sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gander”; we must apply the same standards evenhandedly and without prejudice. Israel has never bothered with a United Nations resolution to justify the current hostilities, and yet, it claims the right to “unilaterally” enforce resolution 1559 (The disarming of Lebanese militias) What sort of farce is that? Israel has stubbornly ignored over 60 UN resolutions in the last 38 years; defying the world body with nearly as much disdain as it snuffs out the lives of innocent Palestinians.

The situation could have been peacefully resolved with a simple “prisoner swap”; a practice that Israel has engaged in many times before. So, why not now?

The real reasons are already known. Numerous reports in the media have confirmed that Israel planned its attack on Lebanon at least a year earlier; the 2 soldiers were merely a pretext for war. There’s nothing anyone can say or do that will stop the impending confrontation; it is a vital part of the Israeli scheme to redraw the map of the Middle East and they won’t be deterred.

The neoconservative plan for the region is no secret. The brain-trust at the American Enterprise Institute expects to see Old Glory and the Star of David flying over every inch of ground from “sea to shining sea”. (In this case, we’re talking about the Red Sea to the Caspian) The US/Israeli overlords will govern a loose confederation of broken Arab nations which are kept in a perennial state of tribal-warfare while their resources are trucked-off to oil-thirsty markets in the West. Lebanon is simply the next domino in the way of regional supremacy.

The conflagration in Lebanon will define 4th Generation (4-G) warfare in unforeseeable ways. It will determine whether a disparate, grass-roots militia can pose a credible deterrent to the high-tech, laser-guided corporate war machine. It will decide whether a cadre of resourceful, poorly-armed nationalists can fend off the overwhelming force of the world’s 4th largest army.

The propaganda war is already in full bloom, but the foul effluent issuing from the keyboards at the New York Times and Washington Post will have no effect on events on the ground. The “coward’s war” is over; the bombing has only strengthened the resolve of the Lebanese nationalists. Now its time to either put up or shut up.

We’ll see if the “world’s most moral army” is capable of “disarming” Hezbollah or not.

Israel’s Criminal Accomplice

Israel’s Criminal Accomplice

By Paul Craig Roberts

07/24/06 "Information Clearing House" -- -- There never was any doubt of the Bush Regime’s complicity in Israel’s naked aggression against the Lebanese civilian population. Bush has protected Israel from world condemnation. Bush has blocked those who attempted to bring a stop to Israel’s bombing of residential neighborhoods and civilian infrastructure, and now Bush rushes more bombs for Israel to drop on Lebanon.

On July 22, the New York Times revealed the full extent of the Bush Regime’s participation in the heinous war crimes being inflicted on the Lebanese people: “The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign. . . . The decision to quickly ship the weapons to Israel was made with relatively little debate within the Bush administration, the officials said.”

Obviously, Bush and his government do not think Israel has yet murdered enough Lebanese. Bush denounces Syria and Iran for allegedly arming Hezbollah, while he rushes more deadly weapons to Israel.

The entire world is appalled at the Bush Regime’s support for Israel’s policy of expanding its borders through naked aggression.

Every Arab and Muslim now knows that the US is Israel’s enabler. Arab hopes are dead that the US will pressure Israel to behave more humanely toward people not armed with American fighter planes, tanks, and high explosives.

America’s complicity in Israel’s war crimes is more than America’s UK lapdog can stand. According to the French news service, AFP, “The United States is starting to look isolated in its refusal to rein in Israel’s attacks on Lebanon with key ally Britain criticizing the wholesale killing of Lebanese civilians and widespread destruction.”

AFP reports that Britain’s deputy foreign minister Kim Howells “questioned Israel’s military tactics and slammed Israel’s killing of ‘so many children and so many people. If Israel is chasing Hezbollah, then go for Hezbollah. You don’t go for the entire Lebanese nation.’”

But is Israel after Hezbollah or is Israel after the real estate that comprises southern Lebanon?

Rightwing Israelis say Israel needs southern Lebanon as a buffer against Hezbollah. If Israel were to succeed in driving Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon, Israel would then want a buffer for southern Lebanon, where Israeli settlements would quickly spring up, And after that buffer, another, just as Israel has gobbled up Palestine.

The American people need to understand what everyone else in the world understands: The Bush Regime is empowering the Israeli state to push out its borders by stealing land from other people.

This Israeli policy is the source of the Middle East conflict.

It is ignorant and immoral to blame the conflict on Hamas and Hezbollah. These organizations were created by Israeli aggression. Lacking American jet fighters, tanks, ordinance, and resupply, these organizations resort to terror, which is the only weapon that they have. Otherwise, the world would pay no attention as Arabs are ground under by Israeli expansion.

The fault is America’s more than Israel’s. The American government and the brainwashed American public are the source of the conflict. If America did not enable Israeli aggression, Israel would have to behave responsibly and endeavor to co-exist with its neighbors.

Israel is an artificial state created in Arab lands by European colonial powers after World War II. Instead of working to win acceptance and overcoming Arab hostility to Europe shipping off “the Jewish problem” to the Middle East, Israel has antagonized its Middle East neighbors. Israel can play the bully-boy role, because the US acts as Israel’s big brother. With its policy of fang and claw, Israel endangers its own right to exist.

Many distinguished Israelis came to this conclusion long before I did. I am only repeating what can be read in more eloquent writings of distinguished Israelis.

Israel’s greatest friends are its own peace movement and those few in America who dare to criticize Israel’s self-destructive policies. It is not anti-semitic to hold Israel to the same standards as other civilized countries or to report facts instead of Israeli propaganda.

Israel’s greatest enemies are the American neoconservatives, who hold the power in the Bush Regime. What we are witnessing in the Middle East is the unfolding of the neocon plan to destroy all vestiges of Arab/Muslim independence and to remove all opposition to Israel’s agenda. Can five million Israelis, even when backed by the United States, forever suppress hundreds of millions of humiliated Muslims stewing in their humiliation?

This is a recipe for perpetual conflict and the eventual destruction of Israel.

Neocons believe that deception of the American public is a legitimate way for them to achieve their plan. Bush’s so-called “war on terror” is the cloak for neocon deception.

Bush’s war is not on terror. Bush’s war is on Muslim states not ruled by American puppets.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at: paulcraigroberts@yahoo.com

Pulling the Plug on Dissent

Pulling the Plug on Dissent

C. L. Cook

Senior Editor
PEJ News
Victoria, Canada

July 25, 2006

I read of the Moscow Times’ decision to sack Chris Floyd with great disappointment, but not surprise. It’s clear, the ubermensche rulers of the world brook no dissent. They’ve gone to a lot of trouble to corner the “mainstream” media, but controlling newspapers, magazines, radio, television, cinema, and large swathes of internet information isn’t enough; as long as there exists a single voice emanating even the smallest of soapboxes, the paranoid psychopaths currently laying waste to the world will not sleep soundly.

I was unsurprised too to read of the classless manner in which the new editor executed his charge; compassion, understanding, and courtesy are “quaint” old notions, beyond the imaginings of the apparatchiks of our Brave New World birthing.

Though no match for Chris’ decade-plus efforts to bring some notion of humanity to the readers of the Moscow Times, and more recently to broader Cyberia, I came home tonight to find my own little soapbox trodden under the boot of authority. PEJ News is a not-for-profit web news site. We’re a small group of local activists and allies abroad, trying to emphasize Peace, Earth, and Justice. This month, after thousands of hours of dedication by our completely unpaid volunteer editors, writers, techies, and administrators, we were on record pace, boasting what would have been a near half-million page views for the month of July. But, our progress was abruptly halted.

With neither notification, nor consultation PEJ’s “server” pulled the plug. When they finally got back to us, we were informed the site had been harbouring spammers – we’re a site with the most stringent ethical guidelines going, recently pulling Google © ads due to that company's knee-buckling performance in China – and that was it. Our tech. dude is yet to be granted access to any of the “evidence” supporting their charge.

The Canadian government recently announced its intent to revisit “freedom of speech” laws in this country. It’s a small surprise, considering Canadian “War President” Stephen Harper’s enthusiastic support of both America’s and Israel’s horrendous criminality, he would too follow their lead obediently in further “limiting” citizen’s rights in Canada. I wonder too if Harper is aping his friends south of the border, and allowing Canada’s spy agencies to pressure communications companies, in an attempt to silence dissenting voices.

We’re still waiting for word from our self-appointed judge, jury, and executioner “server;” but for now, as Lebanon burns, and Iraq burns, and Afghanistan burns, and Palestine ever burns, we are, temporarily at least, voices without a box to stand on.

"Steve" down at our "server" Doteasy.com invites everyone "Join the hosting revolution." If any are familiar with the work PEJ.org was attempting to do, (and if not, check out my contributions here at Empire Burlesque for a sample of at least one editor's political philosophy) perhaps you may accept "Steve's" invite. He asks any further contact be addressed here: https://www.doteasy.com/ContactUs/Reply.cfm?C=328747-882569550

Chris Cook is, until recently, a contributing editor to PEJ News, and host of Gorilla Radio, a weekly public affairs program broad/webcast from the University of Victoria, Canada. You can check out the GR Blog here.

Re: War Crimes - An Open Letter to Stephen Harper

The Radical Press - Arthur Topham - If the growing power of free information that is contained in this medium is effective, then by the time of your next campaign for re-election, the people of Canada will have come to recognize the imminent danger of you and your political party to the vital interests of Canada and the world as our global home and we the people will take away your license to kill the innocent children of the world and end your evil association with other pro-fascist, Zionist nations.

www.radicalpress.com

Open Letter to Canadian
Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Arthur Topham

The Radical Press
July 21, 2006

Open Letter to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper July 21st, 2006

Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada,Telephone:
613 -992-4211 Fax: 613-941-6900
pm@pm.gc.ca and Harper.S@parl.gc.ca

July 21, 2006

From Arthur Topham
Pub/Ed The Radical Press
radical@radicalpress.com
http://www.radicalpress.com/?cat=4

Dear Sir:

I must congratulate you on your recent stance with respect to Israel’s ongoing war against the people of Palestine and Lebanon.

By your actions you have now shown the people of Canada that your primary purpose in becoming the head of a minority government in this country was to join the ranks of those other nations who likewise have pledged their allegiance to the Zionist ‘state’ of Israel.

Now you can rest assured that your name will go down in the history books as one of the primary war criminals to have appeared upon the world stage in the early beginnings of the 21st Century.

As a professed Christian you will undoubtedly find deep spiritual solace knowing that you have bequeathed unto Canadians and your own family a legacy in keeping with all the other puppet dictators like President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair who also have succumbed to the relentless and deadly influence of the pernicious Prince of Darkness disguised to the world as the downtrodden and beleaguered ‘state’ of Zionist Israel.

Words of admonishment sent to your deaf ears are but a poor substitute to replace the grief, suffering, death and destruction that Zionist Israel has inflicting upon the Arab populations of Palestine and Lebanon since its imperialist inception via the United Nations in 1948.

No nation, I believe, was ever conceived upon God’s fair earth with such evil intent as that of Israel. It’s primary purpose, diligently crafted throughout its nascent beginning, was to facilitate the destruction of every democratically elected nation in the world via embedded subterfuge and deception in order that it eventually would become the central and controlling organ of a world dominating organization euphemistically christened as the New World Order.

To that end the Zionists throughout the U.S.S.R. (where they first originated and gained force within the Bolshevik party), Europe and North America have tirelessly laboured for close to a century to bring this nefarious project to a successful completion.

Those pundits and intellectuals throughout the western world who, for innumerable reasons had not the courage and discipline to dig deep enough into their own particular nation’s political substrata, have remained either puzzled and confused, disillusioned, or worse yet, convinced that paying intellectual and spiritual homage and giving unquestioned financial alms to Zionist Israel (as in the case of the USA) is somehow a noble and a just cause.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

What you are doing Stephen Harper, by pledging Canada’s people to Zionist Israel and its Satanic agenda for global dominion over all the other nations of the world, is personally heaping a measure of karmic ignominy upon a country that for decades has been graced (relatively speaking) with a reputation as a fair and just nation and one that doesn’t easily go out of its way to interfere in the affairs of others outside its borders.

Due in great part to the fact that the Zionists of Israel and their pro-Zionist supporters around the world, be they Jewish or Christian, now control and manipulate all of the major sources of media throughout the western world, they are in a highly critical position when it comes to the average citizen’s ability to gain a balanced perspective on world events.

When our media (and this includes the CBC and CTV as well as the Zionist controlled Asper publications and TV networks) is manipulated such that it only reports one side of a ever-growing crisis (such as we’re witnessing today in Palestine and Lebanon) then it becomes virtually impossible for the average working Canadian to come to terms with the content of public coverage of events and thus creates the very same division and dissent which the Zionist controlled media intended from its beginning.

The only hope at this time Mr. Harper for any semblance of truth, honesty and justice to prevail is that found on the internet where, thank God, there still remains a free and open discussion of causes and effects surrounding every action affecting our lives both in a local and a global sense of the word. It has become the last frontier and bastion of freedom for those who cherish true freedom of expression and the natural right to know and decide upon both sides of any story affecting their lives.

If the growing power of free information that is contained in this medium is effective, then by the time of your next campaign for re-election, the people of Canada will have come to recognize the imminent danger of you and your political party to the vital interests of Canada and the world as our global home and we the people will take away your license to kill the innocent children of the world and end your evil association with other pro-fascist, Zionist nations.

In Peace & Love for all humanity I remain,

Sincerely

Arthur Topham
Pub/Ed The Radical Press
http://www.radicalpress.com

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Genocide $ale! Corporate America Rushes to Make a Killing in Lebanon

Genocide $ale! Corporate America Rushes to Make a Killing in Lebanon

PEJ News - C. L. Cook - David S. Cloud and Helene Cooper report for the New York Times today, 'U.S. Rushes Bombs to Israel.' What more must you know about the ultimate aims of the "American" administration in this most recently created "humanitarian disaster?"

www.PEJ.org

Genocide $ale!
Corporate America Rushes to Make a Killing on Lebanon

C. L. Cook

PEJ News
July 22, 2006


Last week, say the Times' reporters, as Israel rained bombs and missiles upon the civilian infrastructure, and incidentally, the civilian population of Lebanon, the leaders of the "only true democracy in the Middle East" requested the United States put a "rush" on delivery of the already approved purchase of "precision-guided" munitions. And of course, the Bush administration got right on it.

According to the Times, the decision to comply with Israel's "pronto" was concurred with "relatively little debate within the Bush Administration." Little merit too was apparently afforded the sensibilities of U.S.-friendly "Arab governments," whose internal critics may construe "America's" military aid to Israel as hypocritical, in light of the Banshee wailings emanating Condi Rice over her allegations Iran and Syria have supplied weapons to Israel's enemy du jour, Hezbollah.

As part of a deal signed last year, the NYT alleges, Israel's "multimillion-dollar arms sale package" allows they draw munitions on an as needed basis. After all, who wants a whole lot of inventory costs?

Cloud and Cooper suggest Israel's request for expediting delivery indicates Israel still has "a long list of targets in Lebanon to strike." It could also be hypothesized; the request for expedited delivery means Israel is running out of "precision-guided" bombs and missiles.

Lebanon is a small country. Over these last days of horror and destruction, Israel's 'Shock and Awe,' all major infrastructure has been hit: Power; transportation; industry; medical; import/export; public administration; military; tourism; construction; all destroyed. Concurrent to these wanton war crimes, civilians have been directly targeted, hundreds killed, thousands wounded, and untold hundreds of thousands rendered refugees. And today, perhaps due to the "shortage" of Israel's "precision-guided" bombs and missiles, Ireland Online is reporting Israeli troops and tanks rampaging across the border into Lebanon, destroying villages as they go.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice friday said she would interrupt her weekend plans, embarking to Israel sunday, doubtless to reassure the Bombers of Beirut. Ms. Rice underscored that point, saying; "I have no interest in diplomacy for the sake of returning Lebanon and Israel to the status quo ante. I could have gotten on a plane and rushed over and started shuttling around, and it wouldn’t have been clear what I was shuttling to do!"

Finally, the lights go on!

Finally, following the reign of terror and despair wrought through the agency of these convicts-in-waiting, these Bushites, the morally vacuous, functionally incompetent Ms. Rice at last describes truthfully the essence of her's and "America's policy" in the Middle East. At long last, a glimmer of recognition of the incalculably disastrous "status quo ante" of the Bush administration.

Since its dubious ascendancy, the Bush administration has flouted all rule of law and decency, flagrantly disregarding what, in saner times, would appear the obvious duties of any government towards both "its" people, and the peoples of the world. And, since re-invented environmental champion, Al Gore's quick acquiescence to the 2000 gerrymandering in Florida, ceding the presidency to the Bush cabalists, the Democrats have supported "their" war president.

But, what about today?

Five horror-filled years later, the state of the Democrat "opposition" is exemplified by Hillary Rodham Clinton's recent statements made to a Jewish organization in New York. Aping Winston Churchill, Clinton vowed to the congregated she would never, NEVER!, allow any question Israel's "right to exist." She promises, she will fight them on the beaches; fight them in the streets; etc., ad nauseam...

In other words: Business, as usual.

But verily, nothing indeed is new under the sun. The Times "quotes" an "American official," naturally speaking under the condition of anonymity, virulently denying frenzied defence contractor's overtime efforts are an indication Israel is in need of an "emergency re-supply," as was the case during Israel's previous Arab-Israeli war in 1973. (On that occasion, Israel agreed to "test out" one of "America's" new and improved weapons of mass destruction, Depleted Uranium.)

For their part, an Israeli spokesperson says the need for the "precision-guided" (non-re-supply) is due to his nation's desire to root out Hezbollah without causing too many civilian casualties.

Heart warming.

Tight-lipped "Pentagon and military officials" don't wish to discuss the details of the expedited delivery, but publicly available documents on last year's "arms-sale package" include: 100 GBU-28, five thousand pound, laser-guided bombs; satellite-guided munitions; and, presumably access to "America's" vast satellite network, the better to guide the half-million pounds of death and mayhem on order; all to be delivered courtesy of "American-made" F-15 fighter jets. Or so the Times says.

It's all a drop in the bucket considering the reported 23 tons of bombs dropped on a Beirut mosque in a single raid last week. But, ever the optimists, an unnamed "senior Israeli official" tipped the Times: Things are still looking up for the Israeli Air Force, saying:

"[T]he campaign could go on for two more weeks or longer. We will stay heavily with the air campaign. There’s no time limit. We will end when we achieve our goals."

No time limits?

Kind of belies Condi's urgent diplomacy!

So, the bombs will fall anew, with increased ferocity, as "America/Israel" plays politics, and the targeted citizenry of Lebanon are driven from their homeland. And, much as their neighbours in Palestine were systematically killed and driven from their homes to make way for "historical" Israel's "right to exist," there is indeed "no time limit" to Israeli designs on the southern reaches of the Levant, and beyond.

And, all the while, "America's" industry will put on the extra shifts to expedite the process.



Chris Cook is a contributing editor to PEJ News, and hosts Gorilla Radio, a weekly public affairs program, broad/webcast from the University of Victoria, Canada. You can check out the GR Blog here.

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One Hand Clapping: Organization Applauds Harper's Israel Position

PEJ News - Canadian entity, the Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD), representing itself as " a non-partisan, multi-ethnic, multi-denominational organization" says it "applauds Stephen Harper's clarity on Middle East Crisis." Surprising then, given the CCD's avowed interest in promoting peace and the spread of democracy, they would choose to support a man who considers the hundreds of violent deaths, thousands of casualties, and myriad human rights violations daily committed against civilians in Lebanon and Palestine at the hands of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) a "measured response" to the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by alleged members of the Lebanon-based, Hezzbollah. Surprising until you scratch below the Canadian Coalition's veneer.

www.PEJ.org

One Hand Clapping:
Organization Applauds Harper's Israel Position

C. L. Cook

PEJ News
July 18, 2006

Though on their website, the CCD broadly claims its pre-eminent concern for peace and democracy, a closer look reveals a narrow definition of those familiar pillars of western civilization, and overriding, ulterior motives behind the motherhood rhetoric.

Beneath the breathless bromides to Canada's "multicultural society," a "model" to the world, it quickly becomes apparent, the Canadian Coalition is less interested in bringing Canada's famed tolerance and democracy to the world, but rather in reshaping the country's foreign policy. The CCD are more interested in Canada providing cover for its "sister democracies," democracies like India, the United States, Taiwan, and Israel. They complain, Canada has "consistently failed" those paragons of human progress, but more has failed to join the attack against "our sister's" enemies.

The peace lovers at down at the CCD suggest Canada could do more to support "democratic movements" in Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, "Assyrians throughout the Muslim world[?]," Christians and Animists in Sudan, and Hindus in Kashmir. Curious, the CCD shares a lot of the concerns of its like-minded southern counterpart, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), home to so many of the so-called "neo-con" architects of U.S. policy in the Middle East since the ascendancy of George W. Bush.

"CCD commends the Stephen Harper government and in particular Foreign Minister [sic] Peter MacKay for bringing a new era to Canadian foreign relations. In only six months since its election in January, this government has taken steps to position Canada as a global leader in a pro-democracy foreign policy."

And why the "particular" praise for Mr. Mackay?

Some encouraging bullet points explain.

July 10 - Minster MacKay’s clear statement about the “culture of impunity that prevails in Iran” on the anniversary of the murder of Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi by Iranian authorities;

June 21 - Minister MacKay’s expression of “disgust at the fact that Iran would choose to include … [Prosecutor General Saeed Mortazavi, implicated in the murder of Zahra Kazemi] in its delegation to a new UN body intended to promote … human rights”;

May 12 - Support for the defence of Canada by Peter MacKay and National Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor by renewal of the North American Aerospace Defence (NORAD) Agreement;

March 29 – Announcement by Peter MacKay that “Canada will have no contact with the members of the Hamas cabinet and is suspending assistance to the Palestinian Authority” following the election of a Hamas-dominated government to the Palestinian Authority;

Queer, the defenders of democracy applauding the suspension of assistance to the duly, and democratically elected government of Palestine. But again, maybe not so odd when considering the Canadian Coalition for Democracies includes only those democracies it deems "real."

Not a peep can be heard coming from the CCD regarding the attempt to subvert democratic governments in Venezuela, Haiti, or the United States (which Stephen Harper garners praise for his "mature and constructive relationship with..."). Nothing forthcoming on the Mexican election fiasco either, I expect.

The CCD's recent press release does get one thing correct; they say, "Many Canadians have been troubled by Canada's foreign policy."

Though Stephen and Peter don't deserve all the credit, Canadian foreign policy today bears little resemblance to what Canadians have come to expect over the last half century. And though the Canadian Coalition for Democracies is happy with Harper for the moment, they still have a long way to go to get to that place where they can finally rest, knowing their work is done.

How long it'll take is a matter for speculation; but we'll recognize it when we see in Canada a mirror image of the other great democracies, epitomized by the likes of Israel, India, Taiwan, and the United States of America.

Then we'll know the nation has reached its CCD destination.


Chris Cook is a contributing editor to PEJ News and hosts Gorilla Radio, a weekly public affairs program, broad/webcast from the University of Victoria, Canada. You can check out the GR Blog here.



For a look at the friends who influence the thinkers at the CCD.

CCD Watch

Rabble.ca Babble string on CCD

Juan Cole on AIPAC

CDD Mission Statement: Exerpt - "We have failed to clearly and unequivocally tell those who seek a better life in Canada that they are welcome, but only if they check their hatreds at the border. The validation that past Canadian governments have given to tyrants and terrorists and their apologists has made it easier for them to deny freedom and spill the blood of innocents around the world. Tragically, some of that innocent blood is on Canadian hands."

Profile of CCD funder, Milton Shier


Links provided by the CCD

A video clip of Prime Minister Harper's statements yesterday on the crisis in the Middle East is at:
http://canadiancoalition.com/audiovideo/
20060713_CTV_StephenHarper_IsraeliActionGazaLebanon.asx

If you would like to comment on this statement or other topics relating to foreign policy, please visit our public message forum and post your comments:
http://canadiancoalition.com/forum/messages/17673.shtml

For more information, please contact:

David Harris, Senior Fellow for National Security
613-233-1220

Canadian Coalition for Democracies
PO Box 72602
345 Bloor Street East
Toronto, ON M4W 3J0 Canada

Web: http://CanadianCoalition.com
Public Forum: http://canadiancoalition.com/
forum/ccd-forum.shtml#currentMessages
Email: admin@CanadianCoalition.com

Canada's "Dunkirk" in Lebanon

Canada's "Dunkirk" in Lebanon

PEJ News - C. L. Cook - What is Canada's position on the "conflict" currently unfolding in Lebanon? It's a simple question, one posed repeatedly by CBC's 'The National' host, Peter Mansbridge of Canada's minister of Foreign Affairs, Peter MacKay tonight, with little effect. Who speaks for Canada, according to the minister, is: The G8.

www.PEJ.org

Canada's "Dunkirk" in Lebanon

C. L. Cook

PEJ News
July 17, 2006

That's just great! A day following the immolation of a Canadian family, visiting relatives in Beirut, beneath an Israeli bomb, all the representatives of this country, those whose visages project the nation's image across the world, can bring themselves to say of this war crime come home is: "Go ask the G8 what we think about this."

Couched by ever insouciant anchor, Mansbridge to perhaps transmit the mildest of rebukes to the masters of the Israeli juggernaut currently taking a neighbouring nation to pieces, cloaking it's naked aggression behind the veil of "provocation" by "terrorists," according to Mackay, the kidnap of the now world famous soldiers by Hezbollah was an entirely "unprovoked" attack laying at the heart of this current "escalation."

But Montreal's El-Ahkras family were not the first clan blasted to pieces by Israeli bombs falling from above. Perhaps The National's host was too genteel to mention the families perished during Israel's on-going terror campaign, fetchingly called, "Summer Rains," but he might have thought to educated the minister, and the Canadian people paying his salary to inform them of the facts, as printed in several "credible" corporate news organs: Those claiming to hold the captured soldiers clearly say their actions were a direct response to Israel's murder and mayhem campaign, its "Killing in the Rain" terror production shooting now in Palestine.

That high ranking Hamas officials, kidnapped from Gaza two days before the initial taking of the young Israeli corporal there might be construed, by one with a mind for detail and memory capacity, as a "provocative" act too has evaporated the short memory span of minister Mackay, and again found not worth a mention by Mansbridge.

It's amazing, comical but for the horrendous realities occuring today in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and elsewheres, to watch the linguistic gymnastics of State representative and State broadcaster, literally squirming to avoid anything resembling a criticism of the single most profligate scofflaw on the world stage, save the towering hypocrisy of its benefactor, Israel.

Quickly cut to...

The aftermath of Hezbollah's rocket attacks against cities within Israel. Here documenting the people effected. It's despicable cowardice to rain bombs on civilians. And deplore attacks against civilians anywhere.

Neglected by the CBC; pictures of the dead of Lebanon. They reduced to statistical oblivion.

Video is available of those most horribly effected by the Guernica on the Levant; pictures of limbless babes, headless mothers, uncles, aunts, fathers, sons and daughters rendered to a pulpy mush, reduced to raw hamburger goo, held in the arms of the survivors, shocked and frantic to salvage something of the life that once dwelt there. Can you watch that?

No? Me and Peter either. It's on to the panel discussion... after the break.

But, before that the round table convenes to roundly agree: Iran and Syria are really to blame for wiping out the El-Ahkras family in Beirut. This astonishing leap of logic proffered by Andrew Coyne, of the vaunted 'National Post.' The Post is the crown jewel of the crapulent, Canwest Global media monolith, the same made infamous by their May 19th front page doggerel, 'Iran Eyes Badges for Jews,' a ham-fisted propaganda effort questioned on-line by the Post itself moments after it hit the streets; a journalistic low your writer recorded at the time.

Back to Dunkirk!

Perhaps it was Peter Mansbridge's last stab at redemption? Or, maybe it's the limit we can expect from those slaving away in the corpo/State media, but Pete slyly inserted a reference verboten in any discussion of things Israel: The Nazi Comparison. Mansbridge opened his remarks, on the new subject to divert from the murderous behaviour of the Israeli's against their nearest neighbours, the topic is shifted to, "What to do about the thousands of Canadian remaining alive under the Israeli barrage against Lebanon?" There, Peter, or his producers, tag the piece, 'Canada's Dunkirk in Lebanon.' Or something likewise.

Finally: A glimmer of truth emanates Canada's "trusted" news source. Of course, this refers to the evacuation of British and Canadian soldiers from France following a disastrous invasion feint against Hitler's Nazis, designed by the dismal military "strategist" Winston Churchill (he too of Gallipoli fame). Peter hits it right on the head: As the Nazis, indomitable at that moment, a small force of battle damaged are pushed into the sea, Israel is all-but-for the swastikas, inheritors of that grotesque philosophy.

In everything they've done these decades past, and continue now at a quickened pace, Israel resembles perfectly the fascist ideologies that paradoxically parented the nascent "State" of Israel. The examples are legion, and are daily made more evident. It is a lawless regime, doing as much damage to its own citizens as it metes out to its perceived enemies. It is a violent, remorseless destroyer of worlds; killing it almost seems, for its own sake; stoking a fire that threatens now to inflame the entire region, and the world.

In Canada, primary supporter of Israel's and America's brutal, Iraqesque sanctions, levied for no other reason than Palestinian's temerity to elect a government unsuitable to Israel during the hyped elections there last January, the continued deprivation of the Hamas government of monies, medicines, food, and any hope of escape their walled concentration camp "country," is not considered "provocation." In fact, it's just another unmentionable aspect of the "conflict" unfolding over there.

Of course, as the government has no idea what to do about the Canadians currently trapped beneath the aerial destruction of Lebanon, Peter's second "Dunkirk" in Lebanon, (and Afghanistan, for that matter) might better have been tagged, 'Canada's Second Dieppe.'



Chris Cook is a contributing editor at PEJ News, and host of Gorilla Radio, a weekly public affairs program, broad/webcast from the University of Victoria, Canada. You can check out the GR Blog here.

Stay informed. Subscribe and get the best of PEJ News by email. Free.

Gorilla Radio for Monday, July 17, 2006

PEJ News - C. L. Cook - This week: American journalist, Bob Nichols on the worldwide toxic legacy of Depleted Uranium; Jon Elmer on Israel's burgeoning destruction of the Middle East; and Victorian abroad, Ingmar Lee from India, and the view from the top of the world.


www.PEJ.org

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday,
5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, 104.3 cable,
and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca

It’s the war crime that keeps on killing. Long after the collateral victims of America and her allies’ bombs and missiles are buried, those bombs, bullets, and missiles continue to pose a deadly hazard. For a new generation of atrocity, a new weapon has been devised and deployed. Depleted Uranium is simply the most pernicious instrument of war ever conceived, and since its early use by the Israeli Defence Forces against Arabs in 1973 it has spread its toxic legacy. Bob Nichols is a correspondent for the San Francisco Bay View newspaper, and a recipient of a Project Censored Award for his writings on the effects of DU. He’s a long time anti-radiological weapons activist, currently working to complete a book revealing the horrendous potential fifteen-plus years of “nuclear war” promises the soldiers using them, those at the receiving end, and the rest of the planet. Bob Nichols in the first segment.

And; last week the crypto-fascist, racist and criminal government of Israel declared war on its neighbour Lebanon after launching air and artillery attacks against that country’s people and civilian infrastructure. It opens a second front in Israel’s unilaterally declared aggression against Arabs, most notably the Palestinian population of concentration camp, Gaza. Jon Elmer is a Canadian freelance journalist and photographer, and creator of the web news site, From Occupied Palestine.org. Jon has lived and reported from Gaza and will join us in the second segment, in another all too frequent appearance, to discuss the further deteriorating situation in Palestine.

And; from his new digs in Pondicherry, India long-time Victoria environment and social justice activist, writer, and friend of Gorilla Radio, Ingmar Lee and the view from the other side of the world. Ingmar Lee in the third segment. And; Janine Bandcroft may be here to bring us up to speed with some of the groovy things she’s been up to in and around Victoria this busy summer season.

But first, Bob Nichols and the toll of America’s doomsday weapons now deployed in Central Asia.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, 104.3 cable, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca He also serves as a contributing editor at the progressive web news site: http://www.pej.org.

You can check out the GR blog at: http://GorillaRadioBlog.blogspot.com

G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media. Some past guests include: M. Junaid Alam, Joel Bakan, Maude Barlow, David Barsamian, William Blum, Luciana Bohne, William Bowles, Vincent Bugliosi, Helen Caldicott, Noam Chomsky, Michel Chossudovsky, Diane Christian, Juan Cole, David Cromwell, Murray Dobbin, Jon Elmer, Reese Erlich, Anthony Fenton, Jim Fetzer, Laura Flanders, Chris Floyd, Connie Fogal, Susan George, Stan Goff, Robert Greenwald, Denis Halliday, Chris Hedges, Sander Hicks, Julia Butterfly Hill, Robert Jensen, Dahr Jamail, Diana Johnstone, Kathy Kelly, Naomi Klein, Anthony Lappe, Frances Moore Lappe, Jason Leopold, Jeff Leys, Dave Lindorff, Jim Lobe, Jennifer Loewenstein, Wayne Madsen, Stephen Marshall, Linda McQuaig, George Monbiot, Loretta Napoleoni, John Nichols, Kurt Nimmo, Greg Palast, Mike Palecek, Michael Parenti, Robert Parry, Kevin Pina, William Rivers Pitt, Justin Podur, Jack Random, Sheldon Rampton, Paul Craig Roberts, Paul de Rooij, John Ross, Danny Schechter, Vandana Shiva, Norman Solomon, Steven Staples, Starhawk, Grant Wakefield, Paul Watson, Bernard Weiner, Mickey Z., Dave Zirin, and many others.

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Day of the Bright-Eyed Dog

PEJ News - C. L. Cook - The stars are awry. This turbulent week around the orb, this madness passing as diplomacy and responsibility has revealed, in shockingly clear contrast, we are standing on the rim of the abyss.

www.PEJ.org

The Day of the Bright-Eyed Dog

C. L. Cook

Pej News
July 14, 2006


A noble portrait below my prospect, an accident of "nature," in the form of an oil stain, appears in the parking lot. In relief, it's a dog with blazing pine cone eyes, staring accusingly, behind a terrier's silhouette. Sometimes you're arrested in the most unlikely moments by things meaningless on their face, but that resonate in queer contexts, if pressed for the details of which, you would be at a loss; magic perhaps?

Jesus appears periodically in tacos, rain stains, and is a hauntingly familiar amidst potato chips; so, it's no surprise to me to conjure figures from Rorschach blots on the tarmac. That's what people's brains do; create sense from a meaningless randomness. Out the fallen cones, perfectly symmetrically lain in my imaginings, came figures reminding too of a chance encounter today with an odd eye-coloured mutt.

In speaking to animals one must maintain a respectful tone. It may seems mad, but the most sceptical cynic cannot deny moments of transcendent communion with the "other," animals and plants whose voices, in your mind's ear you hear.

It is, accordng to Sue, the optometrist astrologist, a strange moon, and ominous solar house ascending as we commiserated our crazy F-ed up week today. There is more much than is dreamt of within your philosophy, Horatio!

What can be divined in the eye of a dog?

There were a pair of lab cross siblings straining the tether today on the sidewalk downtown. Through my car, window one looked revealing eyes of pale blue; shining eyes, curious and alive. This dog, I'm near certain, knows nothing of the bombing campaign currently conducted by fascist Israel over Palestine and Lebanon. S/he (I didn't look that closely) doubtless kens not why the 'apes-that-feed' would fall upon one another as they are apt to do. Living largely in their noses, it seems to me their sniffing now questions survival.

The stories of animal raising the alarm of impending disasters are rife in history past, and more recent. 'Elephants Warn Phuket before Tsunami,' (or something likewise) spring to mind; but deeper still than this geologically determined prescience attributed our co-creatures, is nascent animal consciousness.

As that quizzical, questioning , cock-headed Labrador's stance, I too wonder: "Why do the apes behave such?

Blue eyes are not necessarily signs of Aryan intent; oft times, it's just another colour, one of a palette making up us all. As we stand today, peering over the precipice, the dogs may have a tale to tell we cannot afford missing.

A single planet, and lone star are peering through the cloud cover tonight. Hanging in their solitudes o'er peaceable little Victoria, they appear beacons of a hope we apes and dogs all can, living on our single planet, find peace tonight.



Chris Cook is a contributing editor to PEJ News, and hosts the weekly public affairs program, Gorilla Radio, broad/webcast from the University of Victoria, Canada. You can check out the GR Blog here.

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Picture Perfect: Victoria Models Future Media

PEJ News - C. L. Cook - Already a poster child for the corporate monopolist vision of information dissemination for the 21st century, one-paper Victoria, British Columbia seems now destined to become a one T.V. station town too. Bell Globalmedia Inc. has successfully gobbled up CHUM Ltd., and today the axe first fell on more than a dozen media workers at A-Channel, the city's second television station.

www.PEJ.org

Picture Perfect:
Victoria Models Future Media

C. L. Cook

PEJ News
Jully 13, 2006d

As Israel declares war on the Muslim world, in green and pleasant Victoria another "war" has killed the current careers of at least 17 citizens. Yesterday's media buyout of CHUM by Canadian communications industry megalith, Bell Mediaglobal Inc., (yet to be approved by the flaccid Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission) resulted in CHUM organ, A-Channel Victoria lopping their morning program and 17 paid positions.

Or so reports media "rival," Canwest Global.

Victorian's local media choices have become paradoxically slimmer as the mutlti-channeled, broadband world expands. A one daily newspaper town, save media-mogul to be, David Black's "community" weekly newspaper chain's recent foray into a daily reposting of wire stories, the Times Colonist is itself affiliated with one of the town's two T.V. stations; radio stations; and, assorted web assets. Victoria is the living image of Big Media's future vision for Everytown, Everywhere.

Canadians, and Victorians particularly, are the most narrowly informed peoples of the western world. Yes, "we" know more about America than most Americans, and more too about many other nations than those own nation's citizens, but how much, smarty-pants Canuck, do you know about Canada?

Do you know the names of Canada's [sic] interlocked billionaire families, and the goings on of their interests in business and politics? Does "your" media go out of their interlocked, club-cultured way to inform you?

Bell Globalmedia Inc. has already said Victoria's A-Channel is toast. But are they surrendering a promising small C-city market? Not exactly. Both leviathan communication entities, Canwest and Bell have been wheeling-dealing, cutting up turf together; in effect acting as a cartel, possessing the nation's information management infrastructure.

And it's a natural culmination of a shared philosophy that disregards human values, as tradition would have it, favouring instead the steely bottom-line mentality the Chicago School of Economics, and other Friedmanian economic schools, espousing a single mantra motto:

Profit is all, and end all!

For me, I could give a s*it! I don't believe any of the crap coming from CH, or it's "competitor" A-Channel. The CBC, American Networks, and Cable outlets too have earned my studied neglect.

Following months of bombardment of Palestinian infrastructure, for example, those twits tonight, (yeah, I peeked in) would have me wring my hands at poor Israel's suffering as a few score Kassam "rockets," glorified pipe-bombs, landed amidst they the privileged Israelis. Equating those attacks to the wholesale barrage of Gaza, the West Bank, and now Lebanon too, all ostensibly to save kidnapped soldiers, the news fit to broadcast is no better on any of the corporate organs than Israel "Izzy" Asper's infamous promise to never on any Canwest global platform, criticize the actions of the criminal Israeli government.

So, what's news?

That thousands of children, women, and men, guilty of nothing more than being Palestinian within a rifle butt's reach of the long arm of Fascisto-racist Israel hardly merits mention. This, despite the painfully explicit missives sent the media by reputed groups connected to the abductions, which state their aims as freeing those women and children held in Israel's gulags. But true to the coarse nature of Victoria's 'Asper family' controlled, Canwest Global, these same that rule more than 70% of this country's "major" media, their "competitors" ring the same bell, barely bothering to change the wording.

So, as the wars "escalate" Victorians can expect to learn less, the more they watch, read, and listen to local media. It's a model the rest of the "free world" should find instructive, and better get used to.



Chris Cook is a contributing editor to PEJ News, and host Gorilla Radio, a weekly public affairs program, broad/webcst from CFUV at the University of Victoria, Canada. You can check out the GR Blog here.

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Gorilla Radio for July 10th, 2006

Gorilla Radio for July 10, 2006

PEJ News - C. L. Cook - This week, indepedent American journalist, Jason Leopold, 'News Junkie.' Internet activist, writer, and editor, Kim Petersen and Canada's continued colonialism at home. And, Janine Bandcroft brings us up to speed with the good goings-on in and around Victoria in the coming week.



www.PEJ.org

Gorilla Radio for July 10, 2006

C. L. Cook

PEJ News
July 10, 2006

Investigative journalists, those few still cleaving to the precepts of their craft, are well used to exposing the vice and venality of crooked politicians and their friends in big business, but rarely are the razor-sharp implements turned back on themselves. Jason Leopold is an award-winning independent journalist, who broke Enron’s now infamous California energy scam, among others, and author of the new book, News Junkie, an autobiographical account of his decent into drug addiction and petty crime. He is a former bureau chief for the Dow Jones Newswires, and past reporter for the LA Times. Jason Leopold and the story behind the news in the first half.

And; you don’t have to go to Iraq, Afghanistan, or New Orleans to experience the recent corporate mercenary phenomena; right here in Canada, the Kithcenuhmaykossib Inninuwug Ojibway First Nations’ band of Ontario are under siege. It seems Platinex, a mining company eager to exploit minerals found beneath the band’s land just won’t take “NO” for an answer. Their fight reveals the growing militancy of corporations, both in the courts, and in the field. Kim Petersen is co-editor of Dissident Voice, a progressive web news site, and contributor to the grassroots newspaper, The Dominion where he edits the Original Peoples section. Kim Petersen and Canada’s colonial occupation at home in the second half.

And, Janine Bandcroft will join us in the second half to bring us up to speed with all that’s good to do in and Victoria in the coming week. But first, Jason Leopold and an addiction to news.

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Me and Jack Layton: As Good As it Gets?

PEJ News - C. L. Cook - New Democrat Party leader, Jack Layton blew through my little burgh yesterday, so I went down to the soiree to mingle with the faithful, and ask Jack a few pointed questions regarding Canada's continuing role in the occupations of Afghanistan and Haiti, and the Harper government's abysmal abetting of the holocaust unfolding in Palestine.

www.PEJ.org

Me and Jack Layton:
As Good As it Gets?

C. L. Cook

PEJ News
July 8, 2006

On a beautiful summer's day, I mingled with they, and local party supporters, all anxious to meet the man of the moment. All this city's NDP apparatchik, past and present, were in attendance, squeezed into the Queen Mother's Cafe, down on Victoria's Gorge waterfront. One-time provincial NDP leader, Dave Barrett, aspirant to office, Charlie Beresford, sitting MP, Denise Savioe, and MLA, Rob Fleming, pressed the flesh, and graciously granted interviews to yours truly; I guess they hadn't read my last piece on Jack and the NDP, 'An Open Invitation to Jack Layton: Why Do We Not Fight?'

Pound for pound, I think we'd match up evenly, though Jack is a few years my senior, and a little paunchier, but my "invitation" is of another sort; what I mean is: Why does Canada go along with the fascist agenda emanating from Washington? Why do we NOT fight?

Eight years, and hundreds of interviews since my beginnings in, what has come to be called, 'Citizen Journalism,' I've learned a few things; chief among them: I hate interviewing politicians! They're, generally, coached cleverly, cautious, and rarely give straight answers. I understand, there's a broad constituency to consider, and better to say nothing than stake a position easily assailed, or possibly alienating. But, these are dangerous times, perhaps the most so ever witnessed by we hapless human masters of the world. Now is not the time for meek circumspection.

As in the United States, where the Democrat "opposition" mouths platitudes concerning the horrors of Iraq, more being discovered daily, the NDP's position on Afghanistan refuses a complete and immediate withdrawal of Canadian Forces and support personnel for fear, it seems, that the "thick as a two short planks" Afghanis are incapable of administering their own affairs. Instead, Jack and his party fence-sit, "supporting the troops," while feigning to oppose those troops' masters of war.

Just another "failed state," it is now apparently Canada's duty to ensure Afghanistan's future, irregardless of the wishes of the Afghanis. Though Jack says the time to have Canadians out of the occupation is now, a careful listen to the NDP position requires we first define what the definition of is is.

My time with Jack was short, only time enough for a few questions. I asked:

(CL) "There's many Canadians that want Canada out of Afghanistan now, what's your position?"

Jack Layton agrees, saying:

(JL)"That's our position. We, of course, were the ones to precipitate the vote in the House of Commons..."

(CL) "A vote for bringing them [Canadian Forces] out by 2007; what about bringing them out in 2006?"

(JL) "Well our view, the vote we were able to precipitate, was a vote on whether there should be any extension beyond 2007, and of course if one was not extending beyond 2007 one would have to be starting to pull out now. We voted against, and were the only party to vote 100% unanimously, in attendance, against any continuation in Afghanistan, which of course by implication suggests we should be doing the withdrawal at this moment. And, Canadians, I think, in the majority, and certainly New Democrats, do not support the war fighting role that has been assigned to our troops there."

O.K., so that's it.

The NDP demand the immediate withdrawal of all Canadian troops, and support personnel now, right?
Well, not exactly. When I asked if it not be the time for that, Jack would not "totally agree" with me.

(JL) "I think Canada can, and has, traditionally been able to help countries in conflict to work through conflicts..."

(CL) "But this is a country under occupation."

(JL) "Yes it is. And we have to move away from this concept of occupation, and towards a process of multi-party talks."

(CL) "We're being seen, Canadian soldiers are being seen, as aiding and abetting an illegal occupation of their country, and as well the "reconstruction teams." And, they will be targeted."

(JL) "That's right. And that's why, of course, we didn't support the extension of 'The Mission.' And what we say... I don't believe we should walk away, and wash our hands and say, "Whatever happens in Afghanistan, if horrific things begin to take place, that we're not even gonna suggest that the sides get together. I think Canada should play that creative, important diplomatic role that we've often played in situations where there's conflict."

O.K., so we should stay and go?

What is "one" to make of this shite?

As the planet careens towards global fascism, thousands violently erased daily, here amid the shrimp cocktail and wine I and the party faithful are expected to swallow this limp acquiescence to a perceived Real Politik, merrily congratulating ourselves for token opposition?

Bull Shit!

Remember, please the brutal bombing and invasion of Afghanistan was "justified" by the United Nations on the precept of Article 51, which provides for military action taken in self-defence. The U.S.A. argued the 9/11 attacks emanated from caves by Osama bin Laden, he sheltered by the Taliban government of Afghanistan. For this pauper's gruel thin logic thus the B-52s flew. Never mind due process.

Thousands in that benighted country are dead, maimed, and destroyed on this precept, an assumption so lame, in the view of the vaunted Federal Bureau of Investigation, a direct charge against M. bin Laden has yet to be filed.

But, never mind the facts, bombs away!

There is a true "crisis of democracy" unfolding before us in 2006. In Canada, "America," Britain, Australia, and elsewheres, it seems a consensus has been arrived at where the quaint notion of a system of governance for, and by, the people can't work. It is, that consensus informs, to be replaced by a State/corporate marriage; a union that permits no place for pity, or empathy. It is a vision best encapsulated in the corporate ethos of maximum economic profit manifest in Mussolini's Italy in that awful century past, with shocking results.

And, the best today's leader of the "peace party" can do is parse paragraphs,
paraphrasing his lamentable confrere Democrats south.

Stephen Harper says the reason Canadian soldiers are in Afghanistan today is entirely due to the "about 30 Canadians" perished during the fateful 9/11 attacks. Nearly five years, and nearly five billion Canadian dollars spent since, nothing of substance has been achieved to help the bombed and irradiated people of Afghanistan. But none in the House have mounted a serious challenge to this idiotic policy.

In fact, the opposite is the case.

Had I the misfortune to interview Stephen Harper, or the Liberal party's titular leader, Bill Graham, I would expect nothing more than the B.S., so familiar on every "American" media outlet, blathering about "pottery shop rules," to whit:

"Well, we may have made a mistake, but now we've broken it, we're stuck with it."

But, coming from what I, and many Canadians have, viewed as the guardians of Canadian values, the NDP, it cuts to the bone. If they, the good and decent folks, can't find it in themselves to stand against the mass butchery of women, children, and men, killed solely for the corporate pursuit of profit, what is left?

Sitting on a sunny patio, beneath benevolent skies in my green and pleasant British Columbia, the horrors of our [sic] government's policies abroad are difficult to fathom. Perhaps it's better to just eat the goddamned shrimp cocktail, have a drink, and comfort one's self that, as long as we utter the right words, we're O.K.

Let us all just surrender to this War of Terror, and sanction barbarity in the name of preserving our privilege.

But I can't do it, Jack.

If Jack Layton and his New Democrats are the best we can get out of this system, now is the time to look farther a-field for those willing to defend the identity we Canadians have become accustomed, and wiling to put up a fight for what's left.



Chris Cook is a contributing editor to PEJ News, and host of Gorilla Radio, a weekly public affairs program, broad/webcast from the University of Victoria, Canada. You can check out the GR Blog here.

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Uncounted votes raise questions about projections, fears of unrest

By Kevin G. Hall and Jay Root

McClatchy Newspapers

MEXICO CITY - Discovery of 3.5 million uncounted ballots in Mexico's disputed presidential election cast doubt on early projections showing conservative Felipe Calderon in the lead, raising fears of prolonged uncertainty and political unrest.

Hinting at insider corruption and citing a series of voting "irregularities," advisers to leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador are demanding a manual recount of every single vote and did not rule out street protests to ratchet up pressure on federal election authorities.

"You cannot come to a final outcome if you do not count all the votes," said Manuel Camacho Solis, a top Lopez Obrador aide. "We are going to demand that the votes are counted ... We have the right to go to the streets and we have the right to express our opinion with full freedom."

A simple recount begins Wednesday, but a full-blown election contest could drag Mexico through weeks of uncertainty and tension.

Calderon's ruling National Action Party, or PAN, dismissed the allegations of irregularities, portraying Lopez Obrador as a sore loser.

The standoff has left Mexico the equivalent of one hanging chad away from a Latin American version of the disputed 2000 U.S. presidential election - only with a greater potential for unrest among the country's poor masses, who already are receptive to the idea of fraudulent elections.

There had long been fears that a close election split could spark violent protests and plunge Mexico into a destabilizing crisis. Those fears seemed to ease after early results showed Calderon clinging to a thin but seemingly stable lead. Now the edgy feel is back, even though Lopez Obrador and his advisers have promised to act responsibly and work within established electoral procedures.

As of late Monday, preliminary vote totals released by Mexico's Federal Election Institute (IFE) showed Calderon leading with a little more than 400,000 votes, or 1 percent more than Lopez Obrador. A mandatory recount of vote tallies is scheduled to begin Wednesday - and the revelation that 3.5 million votes went uncounted has become Exhibit A in the growing controversy.

Luis Carlos Ugalde, head of Mexico's Federal Election Institute, acknowledged that the ballots had not been included in Election Day reports. He stressed in an interview with Televisa that it doesn't matter because an official winner won't be announced until the agency concludes its nationwide recount, perhaps by Friday.

He said the tally sheets representing the millions of uncounted votes were set aside on election night because of various "inconsistencies," such as indecipherable markings on the voting booth records.

Asked if the tallies will be included in the recount, Ugalde told the Televisa network: "Of course they will. These tallies will have to be reviewed at a table with representatives from all the parties."

The elections chief also warned that the preliminary tally, known by the Spanish initials PREP, shouldn't have been taken as projecting a winner. That was a rebuke to both candidates who declared themselves victorious.

It's unclear how important the uncounted votes will turn out to be. Some might be ruled invalid. Lopez Obrador would have to win an unusually large portion of the uncounted 3.5 million votes to reverse Calderon's lead.

Lopez Obrador aides said the votes were evenly distributed throughout the country and not concentrated in one particular region.

"I think that, given the margin, I think it will be very difficult for the vote to overturn," said Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, an expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a center-right think tank in Washington. He was in Mexico to observe the elections. "We still have to wait and see for the counting of the votes and then probably the adjudication process. This is probably going to go until Aug. 31."

That's a reference to the deadline the IFE has set for hearing election challenges. By law, a winner must be announced by Sept. 6, officials said.

Even if the 3.5 million votes don't swing the election, the PRD says it has other "inconsistencies" that prove the results are flawed, including double voting in a Calderon stronghold. They also say that hundreds of vote tallies show markings in congressional races but inexplicably no preference in the presidential contest.

A McClatchy photographer working in the troubled southern state of Oaxaca witnessed discrepancies between the vote tallies posted outside voting stations in the town of Tlalcolula and the data appearing on the IFE's Web site. The photographer also found examples of the presidential vote not counted.

PRD officials are also hinting that Calderon may have a conflict of interest in the election agency itself, saying that could explain why computerized returns showed both candidates actually shedding votes in the wee hours of election night.

Namely, Camacho, the Lopez Obrador adviser, said the campaign was looking into allegations that Calderon's brother-in-law had been involved in the creation of vote-tallying software used by the IFE.

"We are investigating this," he said.

Calderon's brother-in-law Diego Zavala has confirmed that he participated in a bid for election-count software but didn't win. The weekly news magazine Proceso on June 11 reported that the top election official overseeing election-reporting software, Rodrigo Morales, is an old friend of Calderon, raising questions of conflict of interest.

Arturo Sarukan, a top Calderon adviser, referred questions about election software to the IFE. As for the broader allegations of irregularities and skewed results, he said he was certain that Calderon's victory would hold and that the PRD's drive to discredit the IFE, one of the few Mexican institutions held in high esteem, would backfire.

"We haven't seen any irregularities," he said. "They are making a fatal error."

Gabriel Guerra Castellanos, a political analyst, columnist and spokesman for former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, said the IFE's technical work is above question. It's communication with the public and political parties, however, leaves much to be desired.

"The IFE has been real slow in terms of providing information. It has allowed this vacuum (on information), he said, adding, "If you give people excuses to question things, somebody is bound to do it."

Gorilla Radio for July 3, 2006

GR 03-60 CFUV 101.9FM 104.3 Cable ‘cfuv.uvic.ca’

Monday, July 3^rd 2006

5:00:00 3:00 Welcome to GR, etc. Happy belated Canada Day! Or perhaps more fittingly, Happy Late Canada Day. This July 2006, Canada is dead. Verily, the functions of the body politic yet turn, its economic prerogatives churning, digesting the fruits of the people’s labours, still spewing its by-products into the environment maps inform as: the geographical mass known as “Canada,” but for all intents and purposes this nation is a dead letter society. Just one of the many proofs of our collective undoing is Lord Stephen the Harpy’s enthusiasm for the destruction by siege of the Palestinians. As disgusting as this nation’s co-opted leaders leading we to wars of empire in Afghanistan, Haiti, and elsewheres is, “Canada’s” quick acquiescence to America’s embargo fiat against the nascent Hamas government of Palestine starkly demonstrates the depths to which we have sunk. Jon Elmer is a long-time friend of GR; freelance journalist and photographer, and creator of the news web site, From Occupied Palestine.org, Jon has lived and reported from Occupied Palestine and joins us today to discuss the latest from that benighted country in the first half.

And, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hours to bring us up to speed with all that’s good to do in and around Victoria this week coming.

And, in the second half… I’ll be farting and tap-dancing, reading and ranting, and playing a little long-weekend music for this beautiful July holiday.

But first, Jon Elmer and Canada’s quiet complicity in the Palestinian genocide.

5:03:00 27:00 Discussion with Jon Elmer

5:30:00 1:00 Cart(s)

5:31:00 4:00 Music

5:35:00 11:00 Janine Bandcroft

5:46:00 3:00 Music

5:49:00 10:00 Chris Rants

5:59:00 1:00 Thanks to JE, J9; upcoming.

6:00:00 --:-- -0-