Terrorist released 5-31-2007

31, May 2007 Terrorist released
While Washington, its border police and immigration authorities round up hundreds of undocumented workers, another illegal immigrant, Luis Posada Carriles, guilty of mass murder, is allowed to walk free. Such is our skewed form of justice. The National Security Archives at George Washington University released documents, that “unequivocally prove” that Posada Carriles’ was the mastermind behind the 1976 mid-air bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed all 73 people on board. According to the released Archive (Electronic Briefing Book No. 153), Carriles was also responsible for organized terror attacks on Cuban installations in Panama, Colombia and Trinidad several months prior to the bombing of Flight CU-455. Attempts to expose the dark deeds of Carriles landed five Cuban Nationals (known as the “Cuban Five”) multiple life terms. The terror charges against Carriles were mysteriously dropped and replaced with lesser charges of immigration fraud. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone—a Bush appointee, dismissed all charges against Posada Carriles on May 8, allowing him to walk the streets of Miami a free man.

The ‘special treatment’ accorded Carriles triggered street demonstrations throughout the world and adds another sad chapter of our double-speak on the ‘war on terror’. 

World Trade Organization 5-27-2007

27, May 2007 World Trade Organization

More and more cases are emerging exposing the dark side of The World Trade Organization (WTO)  – a sinister acronym used to promote trade by rich countries to the detriment of the poor nations of the world. Increasingly, rich counties are flexing their economic muscles to bolster their trade with the emerging markets of India, China and Brazil The WTO is meeting in Brussels to craft a new strategy to increase commerce with the primary focus on bolstering agricultural exports. These unfair trade practices are having a devastating impact on Indian farmers who are unable to complete with heavily subsidized agricultural products from Western nations. Indian farm products do not enjoy the price support practices that are largely taken for granted by European and US farmers. The Indian government has ignored the desperate plight of Indian farmers and has instead stockpiled with cheaper imported wheat products from Australia and the US. This is but another glaring example of the predatory practices of the WTO. The long term effects for the Indian economy will be devastating. 

Many Indian farmers have been driven to suicide, others have been forced to assume heavy debt or forced to sell their land to commercial interests. For example, shopping malls have been built on prime agricultural land to satiate the voracious appetite of the noveau rich middle class. Vandana Shiva, a vehement critic of WTO, decried the plight of the Indian farmers stating, “The farmers are spending 10 times more for their costs of production, and earning 50 per cent to 70 per cent less than they were earning before. They are getting squeezed. And there's a magical word that the WTO has floated on the horizon called competition; if you get wiped out, it was your fault, not the twisted trickery of the WTO rules." Soon, laments Shiva, “the flour mills may become a farming relic displaced by cheaper foreign imports.” Kasmir Singh, a 40 year farmer crushed by a staggering loan of $12,000 he paid for his tractor ended his life by drinking pesticide crop he had brought for his fields. His grieving wife, Satvinder Kaur, is now condemned to a life of punishing poverty, another victim of globalization that pits poor countries against the trade practices of the US and European consortium. Similar agricultural repercussions are occurring in Africa. 

It is tragic that the ‘haves’ of the world are able to satiate their appetite for rampant consumerism on the backs of the ‘have nots’ under the much touted umbrella of globalization. As we drink our lattes in the comfort of Starbucks cafes dressed in our Nikes, slacks and designer shirts we should take pause and reflect on the exploited sweat shop slave labor, which enriches corporations and allows us maintain our high standard of living. Perhaps the Bible said it best, “on to he that hath it shall be given, on to he that hath not, it shall be taken, even that what he hath.” Let us jettison the siren song of unfettered wealth and work to creating a world based on fairness and justice for all.

India’s Trade Agreements with Israel 5-24-2007

24, May 2007 India’s Trade Agreements with Israel
India’s increasing trade agreements with Israel is extremely disturbing in light of Israel’s long history of using brute force to expel the indigenous population of Palestine. Israel’s tentacles penetrate deeply into the Bush White House, Congress and the Senate. The few politicians who had the courage to criticize Israel have been silenced. Paul Findley’s latest book, "They Dare to Speak Out" and "Silent No More" offers a disturbing glimpse of the influence of the powerful Jewish lobby, AIPAC. Findley, a former senior Republican represented Illinois in the U.S. House for 22 years, paid the ultimate price for speaking out in favor of Palestinian rights and criticizing the construction of Jewish-only settlements on confiscated Palestinian land. Findley was narrowly defeated by his opponent who received large amounts of money from the deep pockets of the pro-Israeli lobby. His book describes the tactics used by pro-Israeli groups to silence critics of Israel’s war of aggression. Other human rights stalwarts, such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and UN Envoy John Dugard, compare Israeli policies to former white South African apartheid. Surprisingly, even Israeli politicians such as former Education Minister, Shulamit Aloni, acknowledge that an apartheid system exists in Israel. Prof. John J. Mearsheimer and Prof. Stephen Walt, who warned of the undue influence of the pro-Israel lobby, were excoriated, mocked and largely silenced into obscurity.

However, it is encouraging that more and more high profile politicians, such as President Jimmy Carter, and renowned scholar, DePaul Professor, Paul Finkelstein, are voicing their concerns over the appalling plight of the Palestinians. Earlier this month, at Stanford University, Dr. Uri Davis, a dual citizen of the State of Israel and the UK, criticized Israel’s unrelenting efforts to dispossess Palestinians of their land and resources. Davis concluded that the overall strategy is clear - make life so unbearable for the Palestinians that they will choose to leave or rebel. Rebellions will then be countered with overwhelming brute force until all the land will become part of a larger Jewish state. Davis was an early critic of Israel and became the first academic to use the term apartheid to describe Israel's conduct toward Palestinians in his 1987 book 'Israel: An Apartheid State'. The London Economist further exposed Israel’s apartheid policies in its May 10 issue, describing the systematic effort to revoke citizenship to Palestinians living in Jerusalem – a staggering 1,363 lost their right to live in the city - a six-fold increase from the prior year. The Economist reported “a systematic under-funding of municipal services in the east drove many Palestinians to live in nearby Ramallah or Bethlehem, in the West Bank.” Arbitrary denial of “permanent resident” status will reduce the Palestinians to poverty and utter despair. Sadly, the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous inhabitants continues not unlike the Native American Indians in our own country. The blatant partiality of the US towards Israel is fueling much of the resentment in the Arab world and makes a complete mockery of our claim to be promoting human rights and democracy in the world at large (see Amnesty International blistering criticism of Israel and the US for their gross human rights violations). I urge readers to write to their lawmakers and demand an immediate halt to US aid to Israel 

ISRAEL Academics Speak out 5-22-2007

22, May 2007 ISRAEL Academics Speak out

It is encouraging that more and more high profile politicians, such as President Jimmy Carter, and renowned scholar, Dr. Paul Finkelstein are voicing their concerns over the appalling plight of the Palestinians. Earlier this month, at Stanford University, Dr. Uri Davis, a dual citizen of the State of Israel and the UK, described Israel’s unrelenting efforts to dispossess Palestinians of their land and resources. The overall strategy is to make life so unbearable that Palestinians will choose to leave or rebel. Rebellions will then be countered with brute force until all the land will become part of a larger Jewish state. 

Davis, was an early critic of Israel and became the first academic to use the term apartheid to describe Israel's conduct toward Palestinians in his 1987 book 'Israel: An Apartheid State'. The London Economist further exposed Israel’s apartheid policies in its May 10 issue, describing the systematic effort to revoke citizenship to Palestinians living in Jerusalem – a staggering 1,363 lost their right to live in the city - a six-fold increase from the prior year. The Economist reported “a systematic under-funding of municipal services in the east drove many Palestinians to live in nearby Ramallah or Bethlehem, in the West Bank.” Arbitrary denial of “permanent resident” status will reduce the hapless Palestinians to poverty and utter despair. Thus, the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous inhabitants continues not unlike the native American Indians in our own country. 

Israel - Response to local letter writers 5-13-2007

13 May, 2007 Israel - Response to local letter writers 

It is a pity that Sheree Roth and Norman Licht (letters May 8, 07) try to silence critics of Israel’s war of terror on the indigenous people of that region. They falsely claim Israelis to be victims rather than aggressors in this ongoing conflict. Roth and Licht carefully tip toe around legitimate charges of racism and apartheid.

The Israeli state, established exclusively for Jews, commenced a terror program of ethnic cleansing Palestinians from their land and replacing them with Jewish only settlements in complete violation of international law. More than 20 laws were passed granting explicit privileges to Jews over non-Jews. For example, the Law of Return grants automatic citizenship to Jews anywhere in the world, a right denied to the Palestinians.  Israel’s Basic Law of Human Dignity and Liberty Israel's "Bill of Rights" defines the state as "Jewish" rather than a state for all its citizens. It is a pity Roth and Norman Licht continue to remain silent on Palestinian home demolitions, the destruction of thousands of priceless olive trees and the wholesale terror imposed by IDF soldiers at military checkpoints.  I would urge readers to go to the following link to view the terrified looks of Palestinian children at these checkpoints.(http://www.elmandjra.org/School_in_Palestine_030706.htm)

Paul Wolfowitz 5-13-2007

13, May 2007 Paul Wolfowitz

President Bush continues to seek refuge in his tight bubble refusing to acknowledge the indefensible behavior of his appointees. No sooner had Alberto Gonzalez completed his lamentable “I don’t recall” testimony at the growing scandal of the firing of federal prosecutors, the nation was confronted with the inexcusable behavior of ‘big, bad Paul Wolfowitz’.   

As former deputy secretary of Defense, Wolfowitz, testified before the US Congress, that the occupation of Iraq wouldn’t cost the American taxpayer a single penny. He assured Congress, "There's a lot of money to pay for this that doesn't have to be U.S. taxpayer money .  .  . ." revenues of that country could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the next two or three years."  After guiding the ship of state towards the quick sands of an Iraqi quagmire, Bush appointed Wolfowitz to become head of the World Bank, where his autocratic style caused a mass exodus of many of  its senior professional staff. It is ironic that Wolfowitz should be caught with his hands in the Word Bank cookie jar attempting to grant his long time girlfriend, Ms. Riza, a huge raise at about the same time he launched an aggressive campaign to rid third world counties of corruption.

Hillary Clinton 5-7-2007

7, May 2007 Hillary Clinton 

It is sad to see so many Indo-Americans groveling before the sad crop of President Wannabes, hungry for quickie photo-ops. Few of these politicians had the moral backbone to oppose the Iraq war and most can be seen pandering to the powerful Jewish lobby to pledge their unwavering support to Israel, ignoring the enormous human rights violations committed by Israel against the Palestinians and Lebanese. The Iraq war and the apartheid policies of Israel has plunged the Middle East into utter chaos.  The current front runner, Hillary Clinton, is an extremely poor choice. 
She has yet to apologize for her initial support for the Iraq war and conveniently ignored repeated warnings from UN weapons inspectors that Saddam Hussein did not possess WMDs and there was no credible Al-Qaeda link to 9/11. Even a cursory glance at Clinton’s bio-data reveals a politician who is obsessed with wealth and power but sadly lacks moral judgment and integrity. Perhaps, readers are not aware that Clinton served on the board of directors of WAL-MART for 6 years. 

Wal-Mart is off course best known as the largest corporation in the world which does not allow unionization of its workers, and out sources 100% of its manufacturing to sweat shops throughout the world including several prison facilities in China. In 1994, Hillary was instrumental in cooking up a scheme to generate quick cash, $10,000 for a cup of coffee with her husband and $100,000 for a sleep-over at the Lincoln bedroom. One shadowy company that generated enormous profits from access to the Clinton’s was Entergy International. Entergy was able to successfully defend itself against charges of price hikes by Hillary’s law firm. As a junior law partner of Attorney General Webster Hubbell, Hillary was again embroiled in scandal. Hubbell was found guilty of a felony crime for inflating his legal bills. Hillary’s own billing records, which were crucial evidence in the trial, mysteriously disappeared. Despite the passage of time, the Hillary – Entergy connection remains strong. When Entergy encountered fierce opposition, by Code Pink and other environmentalist to its continued operation of Indian Point nuclear plant close to New York City, they were able to draw on the support of Hillary Clinton. Hillary’s checkered past makes her an unsuitable candidate as the new occupant of the White House in ’08.  

Somalia 5-1-2007

1, May  2007 Somalia

America’s dirty proxy war in Somalia, which has largely been ignored by the media, has resulted in the displacement of 350,000 Somalia’s in the past three months creating a massive refugee crisis. US-backed Ethiopian forces followed the US model in Iraq by attacking neighboring Somalia in order to install a puppet government acceptable to Washington. Hundreds of civilians are facing imminent death caused by a severe lack of food and fresh drinking water. US media networks, ABC, NBC and CBS have devoted a scant three sentences covering the war triggering charges of racism in media coverage. The unprovoked attacks from Ethiopia, is causing seething resentment. 

There is little doubt that the people of Somalia will resist the invaders and plunge the country into another long and bloody conflict. The authors of a British think tank, Chatham House, issued a scathing criticism of interference in Somalia’s internal affairs, stating “In an uncomfortably familiar pattern, general multilateral concern to support the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Somalia has been hijacked by unilateral actors, especially Ethiopia and the United States.” Unless international pressure can be applied on Washington, another humanitarian crisis is inevitable. This is yet another sad and tragic example of how our tax dollars are squandered, bringing so much misery to Africa’s poor and voiceless people. I urge readers to contact their lawmakers and demand an immediate pullout of Ethiopian forces from Somalia and to support humanitarian aid to resettle the refugees.