Category: politics

pictures, video and eye-witness testimony related to the mavi marmara killings are surfacing every day. v important to keep the focus on this story and find out the truth. more info at http://www.culturesofresistance.org/gaza-freedom-flotilla.

meet the nine peace activists who were killed on the mavi marmara, while trying to break the 3 year long blockade on gaza:
Ibrahim Bilgen, 61, electrical engineer; Ali Haydar Bengi, 39, telephone repairman; Cevdet Kiliçlar, 38, reporter and webmaster for IHH; Çetin Topçuoglu, 54, former amateur soccer player and taekwondo champion; Necdet Yildirim, 32, IHH aid worker; Fahri Yaldiz, 43, firefighter; Cengiz Songür, 47, from Izmir; Cengiz Akyüz, 41, from Iskenderun; Furkan Dogan, 19, in his senior year at Kayseri High School. Click here for pictures and more.

Is “my” government capable of insisting on respect for their dead bodies? Can it demand that those who are injured but alive be treated with care? Not only with care, but the tenderness and honor they deserve? If it cannot do this, such a simple, decent thing, of what use is it to the protection and healing of the planet? We the people; who ultimately hold all the power. We the people, who must never forget to believe we can win. We the people. It has always been about us; as we watch governments come and go. It always will be. (Alice Walker) Full article.

I don’t think a tough question is disrespectful. I say. “Mr. President…” I say, “Thank you.” What else do you want? The presidential news conference is the only forum in our society where a president can be questioned. If he’s not questioned, he can rule by edict; by government order. He can be a monarch. He can be a dictator, and who is to find out? No. He should be questioned and he should always to able to willingly reply and answer to all questions because these aren’t our questions. They’re the people’s questions. (Helen Thomas, Correspondent/White House Press Corps Reporter for 57 years)

I have for many years understood that we, people of conscience, are the true holders of power in this world. Frustratingly however we have largely relinquished that power and failed to reach our full potential. Our potential to create a better world, a just world. Nonetheless I have conspired with others of like mind to reveal and exercise our true power. (Ken O’Keefe, former US Marine and peace activist)

We turn now to the second part of my interview with Johan Galtung. Known as a founder of the field of peace and conflict studies, he’s spent the past half-century pursuing nonviolent conflict resolution in international relations. His latest book is The Fall of the US Empire – And Then What?: Successors, Regionalization or Globalization? US Fascism or US Blossoming? I spoke to him last week about his prediction of the collapse of US empire in ten years, by 2020. In this second part of our interview, Galtung discusses his assessment of President Obama, the US corporate media and more. But we began with the war in Afghanistan, where he has worked extensively in attempts at conflict resolution. Watch interview.

Adolph Reed on Obama in 1996: He’s a vacuous opportunist. I’ve never been an Obama supporter. I’ve known him since the very beginning of his political career, which was his campaign for the seat in my state senate district in Chicago. He struck me then as a vacuous opportunist, a good performer with an ear for how to make white liberals like him. I argued at the time that his fundamental political center of gravity, beneath an empty rhetoric of hope and change and new directions, is neoliberal. Full article.

Israel is falling victim to “cultural terrorism,” a top music promoter charged on Sunday, after US alternative rock group The Pixies cancelled their first-ever gig in the Jewish state.

The band was to have performed a single gig on Wednesday as part of a five-day music festival in Tel Aviv, but pulled out just days after a deadly Israeli naval raid on a foreign aid flotilla that left nine activists dead.

“It is with great regret that we announce today The Pixies’ decision to cancel their appearance in Israel on June 9,” promoter Shuki Weiss said in an initial statement, which also included an apology to fans from the band. Full article.

Amnesty International says the United States used cluster bombs on a cruise missile in Yemen, killing 55 people, most of whom were civilians. Full article.

The government of Pakistan must take responsibility for extending the rights and protections of citizenship equally to all Pakistanis — regardless of religious affiliation. Pakistan must be a state grounded in principles of justice and fairness which includes respect for the rights of minorities as equal citizens. All legal, administrative and social discrimination on the basis of religion or sect must end, including the repeal of the anti-Ahmadi laws and Blasphemy laws. Full article.

When Mr Obama took office US special forces were operating in fewer than 60 countries. In the past 18 months he has ordered a big expansion in Yemen and the Horn of Africa – known areas of strong al-Qaeda activity – and elsewhere in the Middle East, central Asia and Africa. According to The Washington Post, Mr Obama has also approved pre-emptive special forces strikes to disrupt terror plots, and has given the units powers and authority that was not granted by Mr Bush when he occupied the White House. Full article.

On Monday, a group of lawyers including Avigdor Feldman, Yiftah Cohen, Itamar Mann and Omer Shatz petitioned the High Court, charging that Israel had violated the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea by capturing the boats in international waters. The petitioners are demanding that the court rule that the sea operation was illegal, and that the passengers be released and allowed to return to their boats, which should be permitted to reach the Gaza Strip. Full article.

BP says reporters are NOT allowed to film the dead animals from the oil spill. Turtles, dolphins and other creatures are washing up on shore on many beaches. US Coast Guard is preventing the media from covering Louisianas oil-soaked Gulf shoreline! CBS journalists were threatened with arrest by BP contractors and the Coast Guard when they attempted to film the public beach. BP is running the show, not the Coast Guard or the government! Americans have no freedoms in the BP zone of influence!