WORLDWIDE AUTHENTIC JEWRY APPALLED BY ZIONIST 'RABBIS' STATEMENTS LEGITIMISIZING ZIONIST MASSACRES

Jerusalem, Palestine

In the past week the late so-called Chief "Rabbi" of the so-called State of "Israel",Mordechai Eliyahu, and other irresponsible "Rabbis" employed by the Zionist State have made vicious and provocative statements asserting that Authentic Jewish Edict allows or permits harming or injuring Palestinian individuals in the Gaza Strip, thereby falsely legitimatizing the Zionist massacres in that area. Mordechai Eliyahu and his friends are not in any way authentic Torah authorities, despite the fact that they carry the so-called titles of "Chief Rabbi" and the like. "Rabbis" of the Zionist State only carry legitimacy in the eyes of Zionists. Their status as a "Rabbis" is not much different from the leadership of Theodor Herzl, who also wore a long beard! The State of "Israel" is absolutely illegitimate according to Torah teachings. The founding of the State of "Israel" is in direct contradiction to the teachings of the Torah which forbids the establishment of a Jewish state and commands Jews to remain in exile until released from that exile by G-d Himself, without any human intervention, at which time all nations of the world will live together in peace. We are likewise forbidden to rebel against any nation. We are to remain peaceful and loyal citizens, in every country in which we reside. Therefore to oppress the Palestinian people, harm them, steal their land, expel them, etc. is totally forbidden according to our Holy Torah. The Rabbinical authorities universally have stood in vehement opposition to the ideology of Zionism and have opposed the state of "Israel" from its creation until the present day. Palestinians have the basic human right to return to their land in historic Palestine and to establish their own independent state in the entire Holy Land, which was forcefully taken from them by the Zionists. Indeed, many Gazans are refugees who were expelled from other areas of Palestine by the Zionists in 1948 and have been denied access to their property ever since. Chief Rabbis of the Zionist state, whether Eliyahu or anyone else, are merely very well-paid stooges of the Zionists and serve their Zionist masters without regard for the welfare of the Jewish People, the Palestinians, or any other people in the world. The Chief Rabbinate of the Zionist State, just as all Zionist institutions, has importance only because of its coercive power over the religious, economic and everyday life of the Jewish residents of Zionist occupied Palestine. Whoever recognizes and supports the Zionist State, even innocently, has been taken over by the heretical Zionist movement, no matter how large the halo that it is granted by supposed Jewish authorities. Chief Rabbis, and other rabbis who support the existence of the Zionist state, are wicked emissaries of evil. Such "rabbis" promote hatred and war, and use their coercive powers to demand subservience of Jews to the Zionist enterprise. This description that we posit of such people has been and remains the long-standing position of authentic rabbis for the last century. Mordechai Eliyahu and his friends express feelings of inhumanity that originate from his loyalty to the Zionist cult and they are perfectly prepared to sacrifice Jewish lives on the altar of this idolatry, the State of "Israel." Any moral person would much prefer to see the Zionist warmongers, including Eliyahu, removed from the Holy Land. ELIYAHU AND ALL OTHER ZIONIST RABBIS DO NOT REPRESENT THE JEWISH RELIGION. The Great Rabbi and Authentic Jewish Authority Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan of Blessed Memory (author of the codex "Mishna Brura", & "Chafetz Chayim" found in every Jewish home) repeatedly iterated that Torah Command to destroy seed of the wicked Amalek covers those apparently Jewish individuals, who are only so by merit of having been born into Jewish families, who are dedicated to oppressing the faithful. Rabbi Kagan's foremost prodigy, the Holy Rabbi E. Wasserman went further to specify that this implies the leaders of the Zionist movement and State who so befit this profile. The brazen attempt of Zionist "Rabbis" to falsify those exact passages from the Torah that are meant to convict themselves to condemn the Palestinians is unprecedented! We urgently appeal to the leaders of the world nations, especially the great powers, to stop supporting the Zionist regime. Many nations believe that supporting Zionism shows friendship to the Jewish People. This is incorrect! True friendship to the Jewish People can be demonstrated by saving all the peoples of the Middle East, including Jews, from the bloodthirsty machinations of the dangerous State of "Israel" and by dismantling the Zionist regime entirely, peacefully and speedily in our day. May Almighty G-d protect us from the influence of Zionism in general, their evil warmongering bloodthirsty leaders, and from their wicked servants who call themselves "Rabbis". Rabbi Meir Hirsh NETUREI KARTA PALESTINE http://www.nkusa.org/activities/Statements/20090118.cfm

NETUREI KARTA CONDEMNS ISRAELI ATTACK ON FLOTILLA

Around the world concerned citizens protested the Israeli Attack.

Ottawa Washington DC New York City Montreal Jerusalem Peace Delegation Meets with Turkish Embassy Officials

PRESS RELEASE ISSUED MAY 31, 2010: Members of Neturei Karta join Viva Palestina aid convoy to Gaza in July 2009, they donated a truck of medical aid "Authentic Orthodox Jewry worldwide decries unequivocally the cold-blooded slaughter carried out by the Zionist occupational forces against innocent, peaceful and freedom-loving noble activists committed to peace and human rights," said Rabbi Dovid Feldman of Neturei Karta International. "This brutal attack took place in international waters on ships bearing humanitarian aid for our brethren, the Palestinian residents in the besieged Gaza Strip. It was an explicitly illegal act which breaches, in a serious manner, basic G-dly human rights, justice and law. "This kind of behavior is, unfortunately, only to be expected from the Zionists," he continued. "Their state's entire existence was built from the very start on Heresy, robbery and murder. They oppressed, murdered and expelled an entire people from its land. Rabbis of Neturei Karta participate in the Gaza Freedom March in Gaza City, on December 27, 2009 "All of this pains us especially because it was done in the name of the entire Jewish people and in the name of the Jewish religion. The truth is that the Torah totally opposes everything they do. The Torah teaches us mercy, the Torah forbids murder, and the Torah forbids stealing. According to the Torah, the entire land from the Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea must be returned to the Palestinian people." "Jews are in exile by Divine decree, and any attempts at ending this Almighty's decree is a rebellion against G-d. The Torah teaches that a rebellion against G-d cannot be successful. "We find it imperative to clearly declare that the State of "Israel" does not represent the Jewish people, and certainly not the Jewish religion. They have no right to speak in our name, nor in the name of the holy Torah. They profane the Holy Land with their abominations, slaughters and countless other actions that emanate from this illegitimate State. Furthermore, the actual existence of this State is illegitimate as the holy Torah strictly and explicitly forbids any Jewish rule over the Holy Land. When the Zionist movement arose a century ago, our rabbis all warned us not to have any connection with them. "The Zionists with their perversion of Judaism have blackened the name of Jews and the Torah throughout the world. They are the worst enemies of G-d, of the Torah and of the true Jewish people who have always remained faithful to G-d in all circumstances. Subsequently, they are the greatest cause of exacerbating anti Semitism around the world. "Jews throughout the centuries have always been on excellent terms with their Arab neighbors. The past centuries, during which Sephardic Jewry lived in thriving communities all over the Arab world, were a golden age between our peoples.  Who brought this golden age to an end? Only political Zionism. Actually, even today there are some Arab and Muslim countries that still have Jewish communities living peacefully in their midst. And even the Palestinians (from both major parties) have declared that they have no problem with Jews living amongst them; they are only opposed to political Zionism. "We express our profound condolences to the families of the murdered innocents, as well as our heartfelt wishes for speedy recoveries to all those wounded by the Zionist occupational forces. May Heaven send you complete and swift healing. "We hope and we pray for a peaceful and speedy end to the Zionist state. Then Jews will be able to live peacefully in Palestine under a Palestinian government, just as they live under other Arab countries to this day. "May we merit the fulfillment of the prophets' promise of the revelation of G-d's kingship over the entire world, at which time all peoples will serve Him in unity." Neturei Karta International PEACE DELEGATION MEET WITH TURKISH EMBASSY OFFICIALS JUNE 4, 2010 WASHINGTON, DV On June 4, 2010, Rabbi Dovid Feldman of Neturei Karta International, part of a peace delegation were received in the Turkish Embassy in Washington DC, expressing condolences to Turkish government, to families of the recent victims and offers prayer for the wounded of the recent Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla PROTEST AGAINST ISRAELI ATTACK ON HUMANITARIAN FLOTILLA TO GAZA JUNE 1, 2010 NEW YORK CITY June 01, 2010 — Anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews joined a counter-protest against a pro-Israeli rally outside the Turkish Consulate in New York City.

USA:Lost Youth Employment in Illinois

ΚΑΙ ΟΜΩΣ, ΟΙ ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΙ ΑΥΤΟΙ, ΟΙ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΚΟΙ ΚΑΙ Ο ΛΑΟΣ ΤΩΝ ΗΠΑ, ΜΕ ΑΦΡΟΣΥΝΗ ΜΟΝΑΔΙΚΗ ΚΑΙ ΔΥΣΕΞΗΓΗΤΗ ΕΠΙΜΕΝΟΥΝ ΝΑΧΟΥΝ ΑΝΟΙΚΤΑ ΤΑ ΣΥΝΟΡΑ ΜΕ ΤΟ ΜΕΞΙΚΟ ΚΑΙ ΝΑ ΘΕΛΟΥΝ ΝΑ ΕΙΣΕΛΘΟΥΝ ΣΤΡΑΤΙΕΣ ΛΑΘΡΟΜΕΤΑΝΑΣΤΩΝ "ΙΣΠΑΝΟ" ΚΑΙ ΚΑΤΗΓΟΡΟΥΝ ΟΛΟΙ ΜΑΖΙ ΟΙ "ΠΡΟΟΔΕΥΤΙΚΟΙ" ΑΜΕΡΙΚΑΝΟΙ ΤΗΝ ΠΟΛΙΤΕΙΑΝ ΤΗΣ ΑΡΙΖΟΝΑΣ ΠΟΥ ΘΕΛΕΙ ΝΑ ΛΗΦΘΟΥΝ ΜΕΤΡΑ!!! ΕΜΩΡΑΝΘΗΣΑΝ ΔΙΑ ΝΑ ΑΠΟΛΕΣΘΟΥΝ!!!

Lost Youth Employment in Illinois

by Stephen Lendman

June 6, 2010 What affects Illinois plagues the nation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting in January that: "The unemployment rate for young Americans has exploded to 52.2% - a post-World War II high, according to the Labor Dept - meaning millions of Americans are staring at the likelihood that their lifetime earning potential will be diminished and, combined with the predicted slow economic recovery, their transition into productive members of society could be put on hold for an extended period of time." "The number represents the flip-side to the Labor Dept's report that the employment rate of 16-to-24 year olds has eroded to 46.6 percent - the lowest ratio of working young Americans in that age group, including all but those in the military, since WWII." The Illinois Policy Institute says the state is "in a fiscal meltdown that continues to spiral out of control," exacerbated by the economic crisis, falling tax revenues, and mismanagement in a state plagued by corruption. As a result, it ranks in the bottom fifth of states by many key measures, including its economic outlook; Gross State Product growth; debt burden; cumulative per capita income growth; cumulative non-farm employment growth; net out-migration; and property, gasoline, and sales tax burdens. Unsurprisingly, the state's wealth has been declining. At the same time, it's budget crisis has increased because of an expected $13 billion FY shortfall equal to about half the state's operating budget - the largest (on a per capita basis) of any state in America, including California. To address it, huge cuts are proposed, including over $1.3 billion from education from primary through university levels. An estimated 17,000 teachers will be laid off, exacerbating an already dire situation, impacting students by school closures, larger class sizes, eliminated programs, and sharp tuition and fee increases at state colleges and universities, the University of Illinois considering a 20% hike besides large cuts in its operating budget. As a result in January, it furloughed over 11,000 administrators, academic professionals and faculty at Champaign-Urbana, Springfield and Chicago campuses, requiring them to take 10 unpaid days of leave by June. More expected cuts will follow given the university's budget shortfall, one expected to grow, not diminish. In Chicago and Illinois, planned destruction of public education is part of a national effort to privatize it to deny millions of working class youths a chance for a better life, a decent job, or perhaps any at a time half the nation's young people are unemployed. The results show up in Northeastern University's Center for Labor Market Studies (CLMS) January 2010 report titled, "The Lost Decade for Teen and Young Adult Employment in Illinois: The Current Depression in the Labor Market for 16 - 24 Year Olds in the Nation and State." It shows that youths failed to participate in the mid-2003 - 2007 labor market recovery, after which their employment rate fell sharply through 2009. Teens (aged 16 - 19) fared worst of all. In 2000, when employment peaked, their employment/population ratio stood at 45.2%. By 2003, it was 36.8%, then 36.4% in 2005. At the start of the late 2007 economic decline, it was 34.6%, the lowest figure since WW II, and by November 2009, it was 26.2%, overall the largest employment decline of an age group. Young 20 - 24 year olds have also been severely impacted, especially men, Blacks, Hispanics, and non-college grads. Since 2000, teen employment dropped by "20 percentage points" and for 20 - 24 year olds by 13 points, numbers reflecting depression, not recession. While in 2000, Illinois teens were 1.4 times as likely to be working as adults 55 and older (48% v. 34%). Over the past decade, it shifted dramatically to 40% for older workers to 28% for teens, Blacks faring worst with only 12% in Illinois employed. A similar pattern occurred nationally, impacting the long-term employability of those affected, especially for the state and nation's poorest and most disadvantaged. Chicago was especially hard hit given its large Black population. In the metropolitan area in 2009, suburban teens were 1.6 times more likely to be working than their city counterparts - 25% v. 16%, and teens from low income families fared worst. Young adults also fared poorly. In 2000, 72% of 20 - 24 year olds in Illinois had a job. By November 2009, it was 60%, down 12 points. Blacks were especially impacted with only one in four finding work in 2009. In metropolitan Chicago, suburban employment dropped by 16 points. In the city, it was 19 points - "the equivalent of a Great Depression era, especially for young Black men." The ability to stay actively engaged in school, training, and/or employment is key to future labor market and earning success. Underutilized youths run serious risks of long-term unemployment and poverty, a growing problem in Illinois and nationally. The CLMS conclusion is that Illinois and Chicago teens and young adults "have been massively left behind in the labor market," given the state's historic low employment rate, especially for teens. Facing likely high jobless rates through at least 2015 or longer, teens and young adults can expect "an unmitigated disaster" in their job market and future prospects. Short of massive federal intervention, nothing envisioned offers hope, especially given the administration's penchant for budget restraint, except for Wall Street, militarism, homeland security, and debt service. As a result, a generation of youths is being trashed, discarded for other priorities. Chicago's South Side Dilemma - America's Second Highest Unemployment Rate On November 18, 2009, the Chicago Reporter covered the problem based on 2008 US Census Bureau American Community Survey data. It showed that the collective unemployment rate for the Auburn Gresham, Englewood, Washington Heights and West Englewood neighborhoods was 23.2%. Only Detroit's northeast corner was higher at 28.5%, and these figures exclude: -- discouraged workers who want jobs but gave up looking; -- "marginally attached workers" not actively looking after unsuccessfully seeking work in the past 12 months; and -- part timers seeking full-time employment but can't find it. Including these categories, South Side Chicago, Detroit and other community unemployment rates would be double or more the official figures. Exclude the bogus birth-death ratio, and the numbers are higher - at true depth of depression levels in communities throughout America, including Chicago's West and South Sides (with large Black and Latino populations in traditionally poor neighborhoods), facing grim prospects for many years to come, on their own and out of luck. A New Worktrends Study Rutgers University Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy's May 2010 report titled, "No End in Sight: The Agony of Prolonged Unemployment," is based on a March 2010 survey addressing the issue - systemic, growing and endangering the nation. Its findings include the following: -- of those unemployed since August 2009, 21% found work by March 2010, 67% are still unemployed and looking, and the remaining 12% gave up for lack of success or pursued other directions including school; -- younger respondents had better success than older ones; -- women fared better than men; -- Blacks, Hispanics and those least educated were especially impacted; -- of the 21% who found work, only 13% got full-time jobs; -- 65% of those finding employment looked for at least seven months; another 28% for over a year; -- 61% settled for less than they wanted, saying it was "something to get you by while (looking) for something better;" -- more than half of the newly reemployed took a pay cut; for about one-fourth of them, it was significant, and one-third lost benefits; -- a clear trend was the pessimism among long-term job seekers, and their belief that they'll never again have employment as good as what they lost; -- many of the unemployed have no safety net; -- only 30% have unemployment insurance (UI) or health care coverage; -- 33% have neither; -- 21% have UI but no health coverage; -- 16% have health coverage but no UI; -- "The Great Recession has touched almost everyone;" -- over three-fourths of the unemployed said the economic situation was having a major impact on them and their families; examples given were reduced spending, increased borrowing, missed debt payments, less medical care, and bankruptcy; -- About 70% had to tap their retirement or other savings to get by, but it's not enough; -- long-term unemployment caused physical and emotional stress, isolation, and for some, substance abuse; -- nearly two-thirds believe the economy is undergoing fundamental, long-lasting change for the worst; -- 61% rated the Obama administration's handling of the economy fair to poor; 68% said fair or poor on its handling of unemployment; and -- half of respondents believe it's government's responsibility to help the unemployed, UI being the main support. Despite reported economic improvement, more illusion than fact, "millions of unemployed Americans see no end to the Great Recession that wrecked their finances and threw their lives into turmoil." The unemployed understand things better than media pundits or political optimists, unable to fool all the people all the time or those unemployed any time. As a result, they're angry, pessimistic, wonder what's next, and say what's needed are government efforts to create jobs, not cut taxes for business and the rich, the standard formula since Reagan under Republicans or Democrats, governing the same way or worse. It's why poverty, hunger, homelessness and despair affect millions in the country. Food stamp usage is at record highs, and millions have no health coverage because the state of working America is dire and worsening for millions facing greater than ever challenges on their own with government indifferent to their plight. Is it any wonder they're disillusioned, pessimistic, fed up and angry! Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached atlendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

Layla Anwar-A Lone Book in a Concentration Camp...

June 3, 2010

A Lone Book in a Concentration Camp...

Layla Anwar 

I have nothing to add to the humongous amount of information regarding the latest Jewish Israeli massacre...
And I hail Turkey (with reservations - because no major player however much we may like its immediate politics is a totally benign force). And in some way, if I am to choose between the Persian or Ottoman empire, I would opt for the latter,.anytime...

But Turkey aside, this massacre revealed what we have known all along, the total impotence of Arab regimes...and it also revealed the enormous support the Palestinian cause still mobilizes after 60 years of struggle...

Al-Jazeera Arabic has a full coverage of the latest Israeli massacres, actually it has nothing else but this coverage and interview after interview of testimonies from the activists detained and now released...

All of the testimonies were touching but there is one that stood out, and that testimony was by Mohamed Vall, one of Al-Jazeera's English correspondents. This guy is not only a journalist, he is also a writer, I can tell from the way he spoke...

And it is his story I will focus on tonight....because he encapsulated in a few minutes the whole Palestinian tragedy....but not only...

And despite my strong criticisms of both the Palestinian leadership whether it is Hamas or the PA, and despite my strong criticisms of Palestinian "intellectuals" (thinkers, writers, academics, journalists, activists, bloggers etc...and their supporters) and their most disgraceful stands vis a vis Iraq and the Iranian occupation of Iraq, I still feel that the Palestinian tragedy is not the tragedy of the Palestinians alone but the tragedy of all Arabs. And I still believe that at the core of all the Mideast conflicts up to 2003, at least, the Palestinian issue is the kernel...and by correlation the illegal racist existence of the Jewish entity called Israel...

But since 2003, we have another enemy, at least we Iraqis do, and it is called Iran that has done everything in its power to de-Arabize us through the ugliest forms of torture, ethnic cleansing and exile....worse than whatever has been witnessed from the Zionist entity....

Having said, that I will get back to the testimony I registered most...because it touched me the most...and that is of Mohamed Vall's. I am not sure what Vall's nationality is - maybe he is from Mauritania...but I cannot vouch for that...which reminds me, massive demonstrations are taking place everywhere...including Mauritania, and I saw the Mauritanians carrying pictures of President Saddam Hussein. I thought I'd mention that....because Iraq was a big player that had to be re-sized...and I know for a fact that had Iraq been fully sovereign, with all its military capabilities, Israel would have never dared to engage in such a carnage...

It is so easy to see why Iraq and its President had to go....leaving a huge political and strategic vacuum now filled by Turkey and Iran...

OK, I will try not to sidestep the issue no more...back to Mohamed Vall...as well as other testimonies that show the total savagery of the Jewish entity...

An Egyptian doctor that was released yesterday, said and this was corroborated by other witnesses - the wounded were left to bleed until death,  the activists were left with no water, no food, on top of the vessel's deck under the scorching sun....some were tortured while detained, insulted, and the Jewish racism was all too obvious -- the Westerners were treated better than the Muslims and the Arabs on board...

That Egyptian doctor said when the boat anchored in the Israeli port, there were hundreds of Israeli "citizens" applauding their army, even applauding the dying wounded...this is the true nature of the Jewish Zionist...make no mistake about it....it's a sick entity...deeply sick, deeply immoral, deeply vile, deeply racist, deeply murderous....

Mohamed Vall's testimony is fit for a novel...

Ten days before he boarded on his way to Gaza, he was reading an Oscar Wilde novel, a story about some prisoner...he took the book with him...he wanted to finish it during his sea trip...on the boat, Mohamed met an elderly man from Gaza with his wife. The man is a cardiac patient and he took his wife to Istanbul for treatment of colon cancer...this Palestinian couple was never allowed to return home...they boarded that ship in the hope of making it back home....back to Gaza...

When the criminal Jewish Zionist attacked the ship, Israeli soldiers grabbed ALL the belongings of the passengers, tore the suitcases, tore the clothes, confiscated the cells phones, the notebooks, the agendas, the money...and Mohamed's book...Right before the raid, the activists tried throwing their personal belongings into the sea, they did not want their privacy raided...cells phones were smashed, notebooks were thrown into the ocean, money carried for Gaza was distributed to other activists...

The book by Oscar Wilde on the Prisoner was grabbed and Mohamed Vall found himself in an Israeli cell, he was not allowed to take his book with him...but that elderly Palestinian man was there...a new book, a real story...

That elderly Palestinian man was very lost, very despaired, he kept asking Mohamed to stay by his side...as if Mohamed was his only anchor in this Israeli jail...Mohamed, during a period of 11 hours of imprisonment, got to intimately know and live the whole Palestinian tragedy as embodied in that man's story...

When different consuls came to check on their detained citizens....Mohamed said that this elderly man's eyes were filled with sadness and hopelessness...no consul of his country, of his land was there to mediate for him...
He was a prisoner in his own land...a land stolen by force, by brutality, by lies and by deceit...

Mohamed was released and found himself in Jordan...the elderly man was released and was allowed to return to his family in Gaza, but his wife, the cancer patient, is still held up and detained in her own country....in her own land....by foreigners....blond, blue eyed Ashekenazis, Europeans or by black haired, black eyed Africans from Ethiopian origins...

But the Palestinians know that the sympathy and solidarity exhibited in their regard is overwhelming....they are not alone...and history is merciless....it is all recorded in books...invisible books, invisible faces, nameless lists....all is recorded...

Gaza, the greatest concentration camp, the ghetto of the 21st century, enforced by none other than the survivors of concentration camps and ghettos...history is ashamed, she covers her face with a veil of shame...so do the Jews who died in Nazi concentration camps....they feel shame too...a great shame...

And I cannot forget Iraq.  For 13 years,13 years of a draconian embargo, an inhuman siege where not 1.5 million people were held hostages, but 24 million Iraqis were living in the greatest concentration camp for over a decade...how many mobilized for us when Iraqis were starving, dying off like flies from diseases and malnutrition...how many ?  The names can be counted on the fingers of one hand...

For over a decade, we lived in a ghetto, the hugest ghetto, the hugest concentration camp installed by America and Great Britain....how many spoke for us ? how many sailed towards us ? how many were willing to risk it for us ?

We were and are just a lone book....still a lone book, in a huge concentration camp. An American- Iranian camp.

Link: arabwomanblues.blogspot.com/

Iraq - the Black Hole of Forgetfulness

Iraq - the Black Hole of Forgetfulness

Layla Anwar

June 7, 2010 It's turning out to be a black hole series...but seriously Iraq is the Black Hole par excellence... There is a total blackout of the news coming from Iraq...one remains with the distinct impression that NOTHING is happening there...all is calm on the Western Front...this blacking out is really amazing...you see Iraq is a fait accompli - a done deal... Forgotten the thousands that died, forgotten the exiled in thousands, forgotten the displaced, forgotten the poverty, forgotten the D.U, forgotten the mass graves, forgotten the secret prisons, forgotten the sectarian militias that still rule, forgotten the corruption and pillaging, forgotten the destruction, forgotten occupation...as if it never happened. Amazing is not ? Well not really, it's not amazing at all...because in the back of those little minds of yours...and trust me they are tiny these little minds of yours...you must have read somewhere, sometime, that around 50'000 criminal american dickheads are withdrawing from Iraq -- so all is cool now...there is no more occupation, you've done a great job...all will fall back into place...eventually...nah, let them sort it out.... So what is going on in Iraq ? No one knows...no one knows...but I know, a little...there is no more haggling over the whore Iran nuclear dossier, it's been quiet on that front...so the whore is relaxing for a little while...she's taking a pause...and Turkey's flotilla has captured the hearts and minds... This is how it all happens...if they feed you enough of it, whatever it is, you shall salivate... I can hear a stray dog barking in the dark, in the blackness...somewhere out there, from my window...and this is just about it. Link: arabwomanblues.blogspot.com/2010/06/iraq-black-hole-of-forgetfulness.html

Oil disaster: Our seas sacrificed for their profits

Deepwater Horizon disaster: Our seas sacrificed for their profits

Simon Basketter

June 6, 2010 As millions of gallons of oil turn the Gulf of Mexico black, Simon Basketter looks at BP and the causes of what could be the worst environmental disaster in history It’s hard to grasp the awesome scale of the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. It is definitely the US’s biggest ever environmental disaster – and by some estimates may be the worst in world history. Oil firm BP and the US government first claimed that a "mere" 1,000 barrels (42,000 gallons) a day have poured into the ocean. Then they increased the guess to 5,000 barrels a day. They now say it is 17,000. But some scientists believe the amount could be 60,000 or 70,000 barrels, making it by the far the worst oil disaster ever. The region’s fishing industry will be destroyed. The full effect of the spill on fish, birds and marine mammals will not be known for generations. Oil is pouring into the deep currents of a semi-enclosed sea, poisoning the water and depriving it of oxygen so that entire classes of marine species are at risk of annihilation. It is as if an underwater bomb has struck the Gulf of Mexico, causing some damage on the surface but destroying the living creatures below. And most of the methods to deal with this process have made it worse. The reason for the different estimates on how much oil has leaked is money. Under the US Clean Water Act, BP could be fined up to £3,000 for every barrel of oil gushing into the Gulf. If its lower estimates are accepted it will save BP millions of dollars. So it was not just arrogance that led Tony Hayward, the boss of BP, to claim, "The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume." BP won’t even say how much oil it thinks is in the field it was exploring. It claims this is commercially sensitive information. The 20 April explosion happened because BP was in a hurry to seal off the oil well so it could move the rig to another drilling location. Eleven workers died as a result. BP, which has boasted of its success in boosting oil production in the gulf, has a sordid history when it comes to safety. Last October it was fined $87 million (£60 million) for failing to correct safety problems discovered after a 2005 explosion that killed 15 workers at BP’s Texas City refinery. Like every other oil company, BP has also sought a blanket exemption from requirements that it conduct an environmental impact assessment for each new offshore well it drills. BP and its subcontractors were able to drill because the US government, under George Bush and then Barack Obama, encouraged them. Obama has been critical of his predecessor’s environmental policies and promised to place fresh emphasis on developing alternative fuels – but nothing changed. In 2009 BP spent nearly £11 million on lobbying the US government – and the leases for offshore drilling in the Gulf kept flowing. Oil drives the global capitalist economy, and the competition for this "black gold" breeds conflict and corruption. A handful of massive corporations and producer countries control the industry, backed to the hilt by powerful states – and they are willing to organise coups and wars in the pursuit of profit and power. Even on its very best day, the oil industry is a series of violent, toxic horrors. Drilling, shipping, refining and burning oil is destroying the planet – at the local level through poisoned air and water, and globally by fuelling climate change. Explosion The latest disaster is merely an extreme version of this norm in which accidents and pollution are routine. In January a tanker collided with two barges at Port Arthur, Texas, dumping 450,000 gallons of oil into the gulf. In Ecuador, Texaco leaked 19 billion gallons of toxic wastewater and 17 million gallons of crude oil in pristine forests. And there are echoes of a 1979 accident off the coast of Mexico that caused what was the world’s worst oil spill – until now. Both then and now, natural gas flowed unnoticed into the well being drilled, causing an explosion. And, then and now, the same critical piece of fail-safe equipment failed – the blowout preventer. The 1979 Ixtoc spill belched crude oil for 297 days. And, importantly, it continued to leak oil more than three months after the spill was "fixed". Mexico’s Ixtoc well was only 150 feet below the sea surface. The current Deepwater Horizon disaster is 5,000 feet deep. The scale of the catastrophe is prompting some newspapers to call it "Obama’s Katrina". More than a month since the start of the disaster, the US government has been completely unable to get a grip on it. Obama says BP will pay "every cent" of the clean-up cost. But it was his administration that last year intervened to support the reversal of a court order that would have halted offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Obama’s interior secretary Ken Salazar named an example of an important project that must be allowed clearance – BP’s Deepwater Horizon. BP: profiting from destruction BP started as the British Persian oil company, exploiting the oilfields and markets of the British empire. The firm got a monopoly of Iranian oil on the back of a £20,000 deal – and a £5,000 bribe to Winston Churchill. The carve-up culminated with secret agreements between the major companies to ensure their profits. Throughout the oil company’s history, its desire for profits and control led to the disaster of imperialist intervention and wars in crucial parts of the world, particularly the Middle East. The British multinational is the third largest global energy company and the fourth largest company in the world. The total cost of the cleanup will be $760 million – but for BP that is just 12 days’ profits. The great toxic clean up Marine scientists have discovered a massive new plume of oil, stretching 22 miles from the leaking well. It is the second such plume discovered by independent researchers within weeks. Some believe it may be from a second leak. But a more likely scenario is that it is caused by the attempts to clean up the mess. The main method used to "clean up" the spilled oil is chemical dispersant. Oil company crews are injecting the surface of the oil slick with toxic dispersant chemicals, which are designed to break up the oil. This can do more harm than good. It hides the extent of the catastrophe by dividing the oil into smaller parcels that sink to the seafloor. The Gulf of Mexico is filling with globs of heavy, black oil that will be harder to clean up – and will be carried to shore on currents and tides for decades to come. BP is pumping a dispersant called Corexit – which it helped develop – into the sea. The US government told the company to stop using Corexit as it is more toxic than competing products, but BP has ignored this. The US Coast Guard recalled all 125 fishing vessels working on cleaning up the oil spill last week because the workers on the ships became ill. BP made workers sign waivers saying they wouldn’t sue before they were given work in the clean-up operation. Marine toxicologist Riki Ott said the chemicals used by BP can wreak havoc on the body and even kill. "The volatile, organic carbons, they act like a narcotic," Ott said. "At high concentrations, we learned in Exxon Valdez from carcasses of seals and sea otters, it actually fried the brain [and there were] brain lesions." Why did it happen? The cause of the oil spill is simple – the pursuit of profit at all costs. BP has tried to pin the blame on the survivors of the disaster. But the real culprit was the firm’s cost-cutting. The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig came after the well was capped with a cheap type of casing, produced by Halliburton. BP rushed as it was leasing the rig for half a million dollars a day. Rig chief mechanic Douglas H Brown told a US investigation that BP was constantly pushing for work to be speeded up. BP has known of the problems with rigs’ safety preventer valves for ten years – but wouldn’t spend the money to fix the problem. Walruses of Mexico BP’s official response plan for oil disasters in the Gulf of Mexico is studded with inaccurate nonsense – but was approved anyway. The "BP Regional Oil Spill Response Plan – Gulf of Mexico" lists "sea lions, seals, sea otters [and] walruses" as "sensitive biological resources" in the Gulf. None of these animals live anywhere near it. It also gives a website for its "primary equipment providers for BP in the Gulf of Mexico Region [for] rapid deployment of spill response resources". The link leads to a Japanese home shopping website. But there is some honesty. It directs media spokespeople to never make "promises that property, ecology, or anything else will be restored to normal". Culture of bribery The US oil drilling regulator, the Minerals Management Service (MMS), was a tool of the oil companies. It provided leases without making the companies, including BP, obtain required environmental permits. It has approved 27 new offshore projects since the Deepwater Horizon explosion – and 26 were exempt from review. The reason is simple. An investigation into MMS found "a culture where the acceptance of gifts from oil and gas companies was widespread". Some MMS inspectors had allowed oil company officials to fill out inspection forms. The inspectors would then sign the forms and turn them in as their own. In 2008, one inspector used his government email to conduct job negotiations with Island Operating Company (IOC), an offshore oil services company he had repeatedly cited for breaking safety rules. After the employment negotiations began, he conducted four inspections of IOC oil platforms, none of which resulted in any criticism. Soon afterwards, IOC hired him. Asked if he ever takes bribes, another former inspector said he didn’t – but added that he did take "gifts’" from "good friends that I wouldn’t write up anyway".

Gulf of Mexico oil well disaster-Tackling slick

Gulf of Mexico oil well disaster

• Tackling slick

Emergency teams are using several methods in attempts to deal with the oil at the surface, which has closed 75,920 sq miles (1.96m sq km) of the Gulf of Mexico to fishing.

More than 1,700 vessels, including skimmers, tugs, barges and recovery vessels, are being used.

Skimmers, which skate over the water, brushing up the oil are also being employed and more than 13.8 million gallons of oil-water mix have been removed.

Around 371 miles of floating boom are being used as part of the efforts to stop oil reaching the coast. A US charity is even making booms out of nylon tights, animal fur and human hair.

Miles of booms are being used to stop oil reaching the shore

Hair donations have been sent from around the world to help make the special booms, which will be laid on beaches to soak up any oil that washes ashore.

Dispersant chemicals, rather like soap, are being sprayed from ships and aircraft in an effort to help break down the oil - which is also degraded by wind and waves.

Burning is another method used to tackle oil spills - although it can be tricky to carry out and has associated environmental risks such as toxic smoke.

More than 120 controlled burns have been conducted, which is said to have removed a total of more than 2.8 million gallons of oil from the open water in an effort to protect shoreline and wildlife.

New underwater technology aimed at stopping crude oil rising to the surface at the site of the leak has had some success.

SAND BARRIERS

Meanwhile, BP said it would pay for the construction of six sand barriers - or berms - off the coast of the US state of Louisiana.

The barriers are designed to protect fragile wetlands from the huge oil slick that has leaked from the well.

• Aim is to prevent oil reaching the Louisiana coastline by bolstering the islands to the east and west of the Mississippi delta which already provide some natural protection
• Sand is dredged from "borrow points" in the Gulf of Mexico near the islands
• It is then dumped on the seaward side of the islands and flattened
• The entire proposed barrier would run for 128 miles (206km) and require 78 million cubic metres of sand
• At present six sections, totalling 50 miles (80km), have been approved for construction

Why Did Israel Attack Civilians in the Mediterranean?

June 2, 2010

by Thierry Meyssan 
Original Source:  http://www.voltairenet.org/article165593.html

ISRAEL WEIGHED IN ADVANCE THE CONSEQUENCES of its attack against a humanitarian convoy of ships carrying aid to the Gaza Strip.  What were its objectives in triggering a world diplomatic crisis, and why did it defy its Turkish ally as well as its U.S. protector?

President Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, an Israeli citizen, met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on May 26, 2010, five days before Israel's massacre of civilians - in international waters.   Israel's use of lethal force on the Gaza flotilla was evidently preplanned.

Extracts from "Why did Israel attack civilians in the Mediterranean?"

An "Act of War" Against a NATO Member State

Under international law, the decision to accost a civilian vessel in international waters is an "act of war". Legally speaking, Israel’s acts constitute the appropriation of the vessels and their cargo, the kidnapping of the passengers, murder or possibly even assassination, if one accepts the reports relayed by Turkish television according to which the commandos were in possession of a list of people that had to be eliminated...

By boarding a Turkish ship and killing passengers, Tel Aviv opted for a military response to the diplomatic crisis that has pitted it against Ankara since January 2009. Israel expects this decision will provoke a crisis within the Turkish Army command as well as between the latter and the Turkish government. However, it could also lead to a complete break in military ties between the two countries, even though Turkey has been Israel’s closest regional ally for over half a century. Turkish-Israeli joint exercises have already been canceled indefinitely. Moreover, this crisis could also affect trade relations between the two countries, despite the fact that Turkey is a vital partner for the Israeli economy...

In the afternoon, as a member of NATO, Turkey addressed the Atlantic Council. If Ankara fails to receive the appropriate response from the Israeli government, it could decide to qualify the attack as an act of war and seek military aid from member states of the Alliance under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty...

The Israeli decision to attack civilian vessels in international waters came after the assassination in the Emirates a Palestinian leader by a Mossad cell, the discovery of a vast network of falsified copies of passports to the embarrassment of Western states; and after Israel’s refusal to attend the international follow-up conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This set of facts can either be interpreted as a succession of exploits on the part of a state which is confident of its impunity - in this case, it could amount to just one more exploit or one too many -, or as an escalation following a brief public friction with the U.S. administration - signifying that Israel is asserting itself as the leader of the Zionist movement by showing that Tel Aviv decides and Washington complies....

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, stated that the Israeli operation had absolutely no legal justification. The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Richard Falk, made it a point to emphasize that beyond the violation of the freedom of movement at sea, the blockade remains the fundamental issue. "Unless prompt and decisive actions are taken to challenge Israel’s attitude vis-à-vis Gaza, we will all be complicit in a criminal policy that threatens the survival of a beleaguered community," he said.

Thierry Meyssan is a French political analyst and founder of theVoltaire Network and the Axis for Peace conference.  Author of 9/11 the Big Lie and Pentagate, Meyssan's articles on international relations are published in newspapers and magazines in Arabic, Spanish, and Russian.


Christopher Bollyn spoke about the evidence of thermite in the destruction of the Twin Towers at the first Axis for Peace conference in Brussels in 2005.

Do Primordial Magnetic Fields Roam the Universe?

June 02, 2010

Do Primordial Magnetic Fields Roam the Universe?

NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope may have uncovered a new high energy mystery: galaxies and even large-scale galaxy clusters have magnetic fields shrouding them much like Earth. 

While examining distant extra-galactic sources, a team of astronomers at the University of Geneva’s Center for Astrophysics found something startling; distant sources such as blazars and highly energetic galactic nuclei seemed sapped of their predicted strength. This effect is the same without variation in all directions, which suggest that free floating magnetic fields range the cosmos, perhaps predating the modern day galactic fields. 

These intervening fields are a predicted cause of the observed drop in gamma-ray energy from these distant sources. Could the universe itself have an overall polarized field? Or is there another effect that has yet to be accounted for, such as intervening dark matter or dark energy?  Further analysis by Fermi and other scopes soon to come online may prove to be key to unraveling this mysterious effect.

Another international team of researchers have stared down the barrel of one of the most violently energetic objects in the universe - and they didn't blink.  Instead, they've figured out the physics behind one of the most impressive astrophysical events in existence.

BL Lacertae is a blazar, a supermassive galactic-core black hole emitting vast and variable beams of energy.  Please understand that giving this thing a name like "blazar" is like calling a speeding sixteen wheeler truck full of professional wrestlers, grizzly bears and dynamite a "gentle prodder." The English language simply lacks the ability to get across the staggering scale of these events - because it doesn't have a case above upper or letters bigger than capital.

The most famous property of black holes is the event horizon, the "point of no return" beyond which you cannot escape.  But even before this final barrier you're still close to a gigantic gravitational well built out of most of an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) - if not a point of no return, it's still a "point of incredibly difficult to escape from".  We observe vast, super-energetic near-light speed particle streams from the poles of some such systems - what gives them the power?

That was the question Professor Alan Marscher and an international team set out to answer, confirming their theories with observations of the inner workings of the BL Lac blazar particle stream.  Big questions need big tools (especially when they're over nine hundred million miles away), so they enlisted the help of a global network of satellites including the Very Large Baseline Array (VLBA), a continental set of dishes with resolution equivalent to a dish larger than the USA.

These mega-scale observations tracked particles as they were hurled from the throat of the blazar, emitting radiation as they go, and confirmed the team's theories that the power source is massively compressed and twisted magnetic fields.  

As material is sucked into the black hole, it spirals in along a large accretion disk.  As it gets closer to being consumed, the material is crushed smaller and smaller by increasing gravitational forces - and the magnetic field lines coming along with it are crushed together as well, creating hugely intense fields oriented around the spinning black hole.  These gigantic fields can drive particles away from the hole, causing them to corkscrew along a narrowly confined path while emitting precise bursts of radiation - bursts the astronomers observed exactly.

Understanding these universe-grade events is a great step forward in astrophysics - for one thing, The BL Lacertae blazar is a particle accelerator that makes the LHC look like an asthmatic child throwing pebbles.

Casey Kazan with Luke McKinney.

Magnetic Power Jets

http://astroguyz.com/2010/06/01/01-06-10-do-primordial-magnetic-fields-roam-the-cosmos/