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  • InI 09:25 on November 22, 2009 Permalink | Reply
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    Award Winning Movie: "SUPERPOWER" By Barbara-Anne Steegmuller 

    28 November, 2009 — Global Research

    Ms. Steegmuller won The Director Award for Superpower at the August Sun Film & TV Film Festival where Superpower was also nominated for Best Feature Documentary and The Grand Peace Award.  Superpower also received Honorable Mention in the Route 66 Film Festival, Best Feature Documentary from Moving Pictures Film & TV Contest, and was nominated for the Best North American Feature Documentary in the El Sawy, Egypt Film Festival.

    A comprehensive film that asks tough questions and goes behind the scenes of America’s national security apparatus and military actions.

    AVAILABLE TO ORDER THROUGH GLOBAL RESEARCH: (Special Offer of $22.00):

    more about “Award Winning Movie: “SUPERPOWER”:“, posted with vodpod
    Synopsis
    Superpower: Far from a conspiracy film about the dangers of government secrets and regime change, this well-balanced film straddles the philosophical divide and allows viewers to understand the US quest for global dominance through economic and military strategy that is exposed through review of historical events, personal interviews, and analysis of US foreign policy.

    The heart of Superpower lies in the analysis produced from a re-examination of history through a series of interviews with historians, documentarians, and academians such as Bill Blum, Chalmers Johnson, Michel Chossudovsky, and Noam Chomsky, and others with expertise in this subject such as the Executive Producer of The Unit, Command Sergeant (Ret.) Eric Haney; former Chief Economist for the US Department of Labor, Morgan Reynolds; three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Kathy Kelly; and Lt. Col. (Ret) Karen Kwiatkowski. Examining key moments in America’s history elicits a more consistent and plausible set of motives for US foreign policy actions guided by global expansion and military dominance, rather than the hyperbolic calls for democracy and totalitarian regime change that we have become so accustomed to hearing.

    Should citizens trust that their government will keep them safe, a government that keeps secrets, and lies, in the name of national security? Does the simple act of withholding information lead to a world of eroding civil liberties and corruption? Superpower presents a view of US foreign policy, which lies in stark contrast to that depicted by corporate media, popular pundits, and US heads of state. With the fall of the Soviet Union, the US has emerged as the preeminent superpower of the world. Superpower illustrates how the United States has chosen to leverage that position to pursue a grand strategy which will ensure itself unilateral world domination through absolute economic and military superiority. It shows a consistent pattern of government deception.

    The United States emerged from World War II with its industrial base still intact and the only nation with the atomic bomb. It was without question the most powerful country on earth. What was done with this unprecedented power, the effects it’s had on our Republic and the rest of the world is the story of Superpower.

    TO ORDER (Special Offer of $22.00), click here to go to our Online Store.

     

  • InI 08:17 on November 22, 2009 Permalink | Reply
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    Re the Poll: Percent of what? By Harry Feldman 

    21 November, 2009 — bureauofcounterpropaganda.blogspot.com/

    You may have come across a new ‘poll’ ‘Transfer’ Tops Solutions to Arab-Israeli Problem’ that’s doing the rounds.

    According to Yaniv Reich, reproduced at Information Clearing House, ‘53% of Israelis think ethnic cleansing is the solution to the conflict’.

    The actual question was ‘What’s the best solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict?’, and the response options were:

    Two states for two peoples 30.8%
    Transfer of Palestinians to another Arab country 53.2%
    Maintain status quo 1.3%
    Give Palestinians Jordanian citizenship 14.5%

    As I’ve often pointed out before, if the response options don’t exhaust all the possibilities, if only by offering an ‘other’ option, it inevitably distorts the results. In most cases, as in this one, failure to include other possibilities, like extending Israeli citizenship to everyone in the area Israel currently controls, or federation with neighbouring countries, for example, means that the poll is actually more an exercise in propaganda than research —an attempt to form rather than to measure respondents’ views.

    But in this case, that hardly matters. To his credit, Reich disclaims of Israel National News (Arutz 7) ‘its a right-wing rag’. As far as I’m aware, its principal audience is settlers, presumably, hard core English speaking olim. So the population ‘sampled’ is already heavily skewed to the extreme right.

    At the same time, apparently picking up on Arutz 7’s claim of ‘more than 6,400 people surveyed’, he gives Arutz Sheva too much credit in describing the number of votes as ‘sample size “more than 6,400?’. In reality, the poll was not a survey as usually understood, where respondents are selected at random from identified ‘strata’ of a population to ensure that the sample reflects demographic characteristics of the whole population, like sex, age, location, etc. The ‘sample’ was entirely self selecting. We have no way of knowing whether respondents corresponded in any way even with the population of Arutz Sheva readers, much less with Israeli Jews, much less with Israelis in general.

    Based on this thoroughly bogus online vote, it is not possible to say, as Reich does, that ‘53.2% of surveyed Israelis say the “solution” to the conflict was the ethnic cleansing (”transfer”) of Palestinians out of occupied Palestine and into other neighboring Arab countries’. Because there was no proper sampling, we can’t calculate the ‘margin of error — for all we know, it’s 90%, or 3%.

    As for the other results, Arutz Sheva is actually more honest than Reich in claiming, ‘The “two-states for two peoples” solution being pushed by the United States and the international community received 30.8 percent support’, where Reich writes, ‘only 30.8% of Israelis support the “two-states for two peoples” framework for peace’. It’s not 30.8% of Israelis — it’s just 30.8% of those who voted in the poll, since they don’t represent anyone else. Bear in mind that this was an online poll, so anyone at all can vote, Israeli or not, Jewish or not.

    According to Tel Aviv University’s October War and Peace Index, however, which does purport to be based on a genuine sample of 514, with a margin of error of 4.5%,

    …the distribution of views among the Jewish public is quite clear : the majority, about two-thirds (64%), favor the principle [of “two states for two peoples”] compared to a third who oppose it.

    So it’s highly probable that the proportion of Israeli Jews who support ‘two states for two peoples’ is actually more than double what this poll claims.

    It’s worth reiterating that for Israeli Jews, ‘two states for two peoples’ does not necessarily mean The International Consensus. As I pointed out in July, 60% of Israeli Jews say withdrawal to the Green Line is ‘unacceptable’, and 53% consider evacuation of the settlements unacceptable, while 45% insist that it’s ‘essential’ for all of Jerusalem with its expanded boundaries, to remain annexed to Israel, etc. October’s War and Peace Index found that 54% of the two state supporters ‘thinks continued construction in the settlements will not ultimately detract from the realization of the two-state solution’.

    Real opinion polls, for all their legion faults, provide us with at least a gross indication of the level of unabashed and unalloyed racism among Israeli Jews, whether they support establishing a Palestinian bantustan, and what form they want it to take, among other things. And we can use that information in countering the perennial hasbara onslaught about ‘Israel’s quest for peace’, but wherever you may read about it, this Arutz Sheva poll tells us squat and it is self defeating to pretend that it does.

    In solidarity,
    Harry
    http://bureauofcounterpropaganda.blogspot.com

     

  • InI 16:25 on November 21, 2009 Permalink | Reply
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    Finance, Class and Politics in the European Economic Crisis: Was the German Election a Turning Point? 

    13 November, 2009 — Left Streamed

    Toronto Facilitator: Leo Panitch.

    • Frederick Peters – Political Science, York,
    • Ingar Solty – Political Science, York,
    • Jan Fichter – Frankfurt University,
    • Roger Keil – York Centre for German and European Studies,
    • Sabah Alnasseri – Political Science, York.

    Resources

    CDU SPD FDP The Left
    Party    		 Greens
    Share of total vote in % 33.8 23.0 14.6 11.9 10.7
    Gains and losses of the total vote in % -1.4 -11.2 +4.8 +3.2 +2.6
    Seats 239 146 93 76 68
     

  • InI 14:15 on November 21, 2009 Permalink | Reply
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    Poll: ‘Transfer’ Tops Solutions to Arab-Israeli Problem 

    19 November 2009 — Israelnationalnews.com

    Transfer of Arabs from the Palestinian Authority to actual Arab countries was the most popular solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, according to a poll this week by Israel National News. Of the more than 6,400 people surveyed, 53.2 said ‘Transfer of Palestinians to another Arab country’ when asked, “What’s the best solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict?”

    The “two-states for two peoples” solution being pushed by the United States and the international community received 30.8 percent support, while the idea of giving Palestinians Jordanian citizenship was approved by 14.5 percent. Maintaining the status quo received 1.3 percent of the vote.

    To take the latest poll and see results of other surveys, go to the Arutz Sheva/IsraelNationalNews.com home page and scroll/page down below “More Headlines.”

    http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com

    © Copyright IsraelNationalNe

    See Harry Feldman’s response to the ‘poll’


     

  • InI 12:13 on November 21, 2009 Permalink | Reply
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    Heroic Human Rights Lawyer Lynne Stewart is Jailed By Stephen Lendman 

    20 November, 2009 – Mathaba.net

    lynne-stewart.jpgReaders from around the world are asked to please write to Lynne Stewart at the prison address within this article

    On November 20, New York Times writer Colin Moynihan broke the news headlining:

    ‘Radical Lawyer Convicted of Aiding Terrorist Is Jailed,’ then saying:

    ‘Defiant to the end as she embraced supporters outside the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan, Lynne F. Stewart, the radical lawyer known for defending unpopular clients, surrendered on Thursday to begin serving her 28-month sentence for assisting terrorism.’

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  • InI 09:37 on November 21, 2009 Permalink | Reply
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    Shlomo Sand: "The Invention of the Jewish People" 

    20 November, 2009 — MRZine – Monthly Review

    Introduction to Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People by Bertell Ollman

    The Invention of the Jewish People is divided into two parts. The first is a long section on the theory of nationalism, whose main characteristic, according to Sand, is the tendency to invent a past that suits the current needs and goals of the people in question. This is not a new idea (Benedict Anderson and Ernest Gellner have presented versions of it), but this is the best account of it that I have read. Second, there follows a much longer section on Zionism, Judaism, and Israel in light of the earlier discussion of nationalism. Most of this long book is devoted to showing with a great deal of evidence and arguments from several different disciplines that most of Jewish history has been invented. Continue reading this post...

     

  • InI 09:35 on November 21, 2009 Permalink | Reply
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    Socialists, the Environment and Ecosocialism By Trevor Ngwane 

    20 November, 2009 – MRZine – Monthly Review

    Paper presented at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation conference “The Global Crisis and Africa: Struggles for Alternatives,” Randburg, 19 November 2009

    There is an ecological crisis in the world and this crisis can be traced to capitalism. There is deforestation due to the trade in timber. There is climate change due to unsafe production methods.

    The working class is the class that suffers the most from the ecological crisis. Working class people are in the majority and their life conditions make them more vulnerable. Workers live in flimsy houses and shacks that are easily washed or swept away by strong rains and winds. When workers are sick or injured there is always not enough medical help for them.

    Over the years not enough attention has been paid to this problem by socialists. What is worse is that some people who call themselves socialists have added to the ecological crisis, for example, the Soviet Union was responsible for one of the biggest nuclear accidents in human history in Chernobyl. The Chinese Communist Party continues to supervise the destruction of nature through its single-minded and ruthless adoption of capitalist production methods.

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  • InI 09:18 on November 21, 2009 Permalink | Reply
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    Canada: The Killer H1N1 Vaccine? By Michel Chossudovsky 

    20 November, 2009 — Global Research

    “It is a serious thing [vaccine] that has the potential to kill” according to Dr. Neil Rau, an infectious disease expert, in a CTV interview, but do not worry: “leading experts insist, the benefits of the H1N1 vaccine vastly outweigh the risks” (Swine Flu Support Center, emphasis added)

    A new development in the H1N1 Vaccine Saga is unfolding in Canada.

    Whereas health officials are pushing for an acceleration of the vaccination program,  there is evidence of  so-called “unusual adverse reactions” including three recently recorded deaths directly resulting from the vaccine.

    In the meantime, health authorities have called for the withdrawal of 170,000 (higher risk) doses of the vaccine produced by GlaxoSmithKline. The initiative, of which the importance is being downplayed, is said to have come from the manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline, which expressed concern on higher than normal adverse reactions to the vaccine.

    “Canada’s H1N1 flu vaccine manufacturer has asked the provinces to temporarily discontinue vaccinating Canadians from a lot of vaccine shipped in October due to a higher risk of adverse reactions, says a Manitoba health official.

    Dr. Joel Kettner, Manitoba’s chief public health officer, said Thursday that GlaxoSmithKline has asked that the October batch be taken out of circulation because it produced serious and immediate anaphylactic reactions in one out of 20,000 vaccinations, compared with one out of 100,000 in other shipments.

    “We’ve been asked by the manufacturer GSK to not use this vaccine at this time pending further investigation,” he said. (Winnipeg Free Press, 20 November 2009)

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  • InI 08:57 on November 21, 2009 Permalink | Reply
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    Joe Bageant: Buddy, can you spare me a lek? 

    21 November, 2009 — Joe Bageant.com

    Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico

    People often comment on the intelligence and insight, the humor and sincerity, of the letters Ken and I receive on joebageant.com. And they say that the readers write as if we have known each other all our lives. I respond that yes, we have, but just did not know each other’s names. And that many of us have been pretty much invisible and voiceless except to each other. And that, yes, my friends out there are indeed intelligent and clear eyed citizens. The American populace is often underestimated.

    The fact is that America’s finest minds and souls have no voice in this chilling new corporate state that has evolved. And if we are not allowed a voice, if our monolithic system ignores us, pretends we do not exist, then for all practical purposes we do not exist. Therefore it does not have to offer us political candidates representing our views or change laws to reflect them. Nevertheless, we are out there — millions of us.

    One of my biggest regrets regarding this site is that the success of Deer Hunting With Jesus: Dispatches from America’s Class War increased the volume of email to the point where I cannot answer it all like I used to do. I do however, read every one, and answer as many as is feasible these days.

    This morning’s mailbox was the usual wonderful variety of letters, mostly responding to the current post, ‘Shoot the fat guys, hang the smokers.’ Many offered heartfelt smoking cessation advice, all of it from personal experience, honest and eminently more sensible than anything I’ve read elsewhere.

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  • InI 08:33 on November 21, 2009 Permalink | Reply
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    Zionist Control of Britain’s Government: 1940-2009 By William A. Cook 

    19 November, 2009 — The Palestine Chronicle

    ‘After so many years of setting the tone, bribing UK politicians and controlling the BBC they (Zionists) are used to being untouchable.’ (Gilad Atzmon, ‘Britain Must de-Zionist Itself Immediately,’ Nov. 17, 2009, MWC News).

    This week the British people listened to the Daily Mail’s Peter Oborne present, on Channel 4, his devastating account of the Jewish lobby’s control of their government. Now we know that virtually all the principal politicians in the UK of both parties, like their brothers across the lake in our House and Senate, take ‘contributions’ from the Israeli lobby machine ensuring that the Anglo-American mid-east policies follow the dictates of the Israeli government. Gilad Atzmon responded to this report in his article ‘Britain must de-Zionise itself immediately,’ noting that this control has been in place for so many years the lobby feels ‘untouchable.’

    How many years are ‘many’ one might ask? In 1941, the High Commissioner of Palestine, Harold MacMichael, Senior Palestine Mandate officer for the British Mandate forces in Palestine, sent the following ‘Top Secret’ ‘Memorandum on the Participation of the Jewish National Institutions in Palestine in Acts of Lawlessness and Violence’ to the Secretary of State, dated October 16th, a report prepared by The Palestine Police, Criminal Investigation Department:

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  • InI 16:45 on November 20, 2009 Permalink | Reply
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    UK Judge Approves Use of Secret Evidence in Guantánamo Case by Andy Worthington 

    19 November, 2009 — Dandelion Salad – http://www.andyworthington.co.uk

    Those of us who have been aware that the principles of open justice in the UK are being threatened in an unprecedented manner have, to date, focused largely on the use of secret evidence in cases related to terrorism — widely ignored by the general public, and by much of the media — and on the use of ‘super-injunctions,’ which recently broke into the mainstream with the Twitter-storm over the Trafigura case.

    The use of secret evidence in cases related to terrorism involves prisoners held on control orders (a form of house arrest), or imprisoned on deportation bail, who are assigned special advocates to speak on their behalf in closed sessions of the Special Immigrations Appeal Court (SIAC), but who are then prohibited from speaking to the special advocates about what took place in these closed sessions. This regime is now under threat, after the Law Lords ruled in June that imposing control orders breaches Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the right to a fair trial, because a suspect held under a control order is not given ‘sufficient information about the allegations against him to enable him to give effective instructions to the special advocate assigned to him.’

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  • InI 11:14 on November 20, 2009 Permalink | Reply
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    GUEST MEDIA ALERT: A COMPARATIVE REVIEW OF FLAT EARTH NEWS AND NEWSPEAK – PART 2 By Jonathan Cook 

    20 November, 2009 — MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media

    News As A Science

    To Davies’ credit, he does not fall back on the conventional defence for journalistic conformity, one that might account for the media’s failures even in cases like the Iraq death toll and climate change. Many modern journalists try to insinuate that the strangely consensual worldview of our media reflects the fact that it is now a professional media. The professional journalist, they suggest, is trained to seek out facts from which he or she constructs an “objective” news report. On this view, journalists select facts in the same way that, adopting an analogy used by Edwards and Cromwell, a geologist collects rocks for research. “Geologists have no emotional attachment to their rocks – journalists should be similarly disinterested.” This view of journalism has become increasingly prevalent both inside and outside the trade.

    Rightly, however, Davies joins Edwards and Cromwell in dismissing the idea of journalistic objectivity as nonsense. He points out the obvious truth that all reporting involves selection – of the subject matter of a report, of the tone in which it is narrated, of the values that inform the reporter’s research, as well as of the facts included, the people interviewed, and the quotes used. The process of selection is governed not by objective criteria but by the assumptions a journalist or his news organisation brings to a story. Davies usefully illustrates this point with several examples of consensual wisdom from other periods of history, including sympathetic reports from mainstream US newspapers about Ku Klux Klan activities in the pre-civil rights era.

    But if journalism is not about objectivity, but rather about adopting a viewpoint, then newspapers ought to be a cacophony of competing and conflicting views. Davies tries to explain the stultifying atmosphere of consensus with his 10 rules of production. He is helped by the fact that he has so many different rules that it is easy to find at least one that covers every example of mis-reporting he unearths. But how plausible is it that these rules are solely responsible for distorting media coverage?

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  • InI 09:14 on November 20, 2009 Permalink | Reply
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    Explosions of Unrest Mark Puerto Rico's Economic Crisis By Juan A. Ocasio Rivera 

    18 November, 2009 — North American Congress on Latin America

    The unsuspecting governor, smack in the middle of an important press conference, missed being hit by a projectile by mere inches. The projectile? Not a bullet, but an egg. An outraged citizen calling himself ‘the Common Guy’ (el tipo común) interrupted the press conference by screaming in outrage at Puerto Rico’s governor, Luis Fortuño, and throwing a slider that landed on a sign highlighting a new development project the governor was announcing. As officers locked the man in a bear hug and carted him off, and as the press swarmed this Common Guy, it became clear that his public display of resistance was not only transcendental for its raw expression of pain and anger, but was also symbolic and representative of everyone’s frustration and open outrage at the turn of events on the island.

    Puerto Rico is witnessing the kind of social, economic, and political upheaval not seen in decades. Declaring a fiscal emergency, the pro-statehood Fortuño administration recently passed a Fiscal Emergency Law, which, among other measures, implemented the layoff of over 20,000 government workers—nearly 10% of the total. In addition to huge cuts in budgets and services, the layoffs caused immediate shock and outrage due to its massive breadth and potential effects. Government officials contend that they inherited a bankrupt government from previous administrations along with a huge debt load. They are scrambling to prevent their credit ratings to be classified in the lowest of categories—the junk rating—and contend that the measures were necessary.

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  • InI 08:44 on November 20, 2009 Permalink | Reply
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    GET HIP, LEARN TO FEAR THE DOUBLE-DIP—BARACK OBAMA DOES! By Danny Schechter 

    20 November, 2009 – Media Channel

    WHY THE PRESIDENT WARNS OF A DEEPER DROP, NOT A RECOVERY

    When I was a kid, a “double dip” was an ice cream cone with two scoops. Yummy.

    Today, the same expression is being used to warn us that the recession we are still struggling with could, and is supposedly posed for recovery could fall even deeper into another dip. That d word seems to be a substitute for another—a depression.

    What’s going wrong? Isn’t the stock market sailing high? Hasn’t GM managed to cut its losses to only a billion? Isn’t Goldman Sachs setting aside “ a half a billion dollars to help small business and show how sorry it is for its role in the financial meltdown? (That pay out is over ten years—just 2.6% of its bonus pile, but who’s counting. A half a billion still sounds like real money.

    To hear Joe Biden tell Jon Stewart how many jobs were created or saved, you would almost think it’s all under control. That’s what they want is to believe: we are on the way back, baby because the big dicks are swinging on Wall Street again.

    And yet, when you read between the lines and figure out how to decode the lies and cheerleading, another picture emerges.

    A Double Dip is not that remote.

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  • InI 16:27 on November 19, 2009 Permalink | Reply
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    GAZA UPDATES: UK Aid to Gaza 

    19 November, 2009 — Gaza Friends

    The Convoy will be taking much needed aid to Gaza – Please note that the overwhelming majority of the aid will be medical – however, there are also a number of humanitarian and educational needs that we are asking people to buy, along with specialist equipment needed in Education and agricultural sectors.

    URGENTLY NEEDED: SPACE ON VEHICLES TO LOAD AID. If you are coming on the convoy to Gaza and have yet to fill your vehicle with aid please get in touch with us ASAP by emailing aid@vivapalestina.org

    Humanitarian needs include:

    New double heavy blankets; Single heavy blankets; Children winter clothes; Men’s winter clothes; Women’s winter clothes; Nylon Reel/Plastic Sheeting; Milk Powder – under 2; Milk Powder – over 2; Coats and plastic jackets; Toys and Puzzles; Shoes and boots; Sports equipment (All clothes/shoes must be new).

    Educational needs include:

    English / Arabic dictionaries; Notebooks; Flip sheet paper; Chalk (white and coloured); School bags; Printer ink; School Stationery; Story books (English and Arabic); Educational CDs (English and Arabic); Educational games (Primary and preparatory schools); Digital cameras; Transparent sheets for overhead-projectors; Perkins Brailler machines; Braille Sense Plus; Jot A Dot: Talking Scientific calculators; LCD projectors; Laboratory equipment, A4 paper – all kinds but mainly white.

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  • InI 12:06 on November 19, 2009 Permalink | Reply
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    GUEST MEDIA ALERT: A COMPARATIVE REVIEW OF FLAT EARTH NEWS AND NEWSPEAK – PART 1 By Jonathan Cook 

    18 November, 2009 — MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media

    Introduction

    Jonathan Cook has been covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from Nazareth, Israel, as a freelance reporter for the past eight years. Before that he was a staff journalist at the Guardian and Observer newspapers. His latest books on the conflict are ‘Israel and the Clash of Civilisations’ (Pluto, 2008) and ‘Disappearing Palestine’ (Zed, 2008). His website is http://www.jkcook.net

    In the two-part Guest Media Alert that follows, Cook attempts the truly Herculean task of dissecting and comparing the key arguments in Nick Davies’s book ‘Flat Earth News’ and our own recently published ‘Newspeak in the 21st Century.’ The results are enthralling but demanding – even hardened media analysts will require a plentiful supply of tea and biscuits throughout.

    Please do not underestimate the unique nature of the analysis Cook is offering. While Davies’s book was discussed, reviewed, and applauded, far and wide in both print and broadcast media, our own book (published in September) has so far limped to just two, largely dismissive, reviews in mainstream outlets, in the Guardian and Times Higher Education (THE), totalling exactly 1,000 words. Our previous book, Guardians of Power (2006), has never been mentioned, let alone reviewed, in any mainstream national UK newspaper.

    The truth is that dissident media analyses are consistently ignored in this way – it is not just us. And so Cook’s comparison of Davies’s mainstream view of the media with an analysis based on Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky’s “propaganda model of media control” is a vanishingly rare event. As ever, Cook’s experience as a professional journalist adds a fascinating additional dimension to his analysis.

    Cook produced this mega-review – nearly 10,000 words of it – completely free of charge. It is an extraordinary act of generosity from a fine and thoughtful journalist. We would like to express our sincere thanks to him. If you would like to thank him or otherwise comment, you can write to him here: mail@jkcook.net

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  • InI 11:35 on November 19, 2009 Permalink | Reply
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    Welcome Home, War! Creating the “Domestic Surveillance State” By Prof. Alfred W. McCoy 

    16 November, 2009 — Global Research – Tom Dispatch – 2009-11-12

    How America’s Wars Are Systematically Destroying Our Liberties

    In his approach to National Security Agency surveillance, as well as CIA renditions, drone assassinations, and military detention, President Obama has to a surprising extent embraced the expanded executive powers championed by his conservative predecessor, George W. Bush. This bipartisan affirmation of the imperial executive could “reverberate for generations,” warns Jack Balkin, a specialist on First Amendment freedoms at Yale Law School. And consider these but some of the early fruits from the hybrid seeds that the Global War on Terror has planted on American soil. Yet surprisingly few Americans seem aware of the toll that this already endless war has taken on our civil liberties.

    Don’t be too surprised, then, when, in the midst of some future crisis, advanced surveillance methods and other techniques developed in our recent counterinsurgency wars migrate from Baghdad, Falluja, and Kandahar to your hometown or urban neighborhood. And don’t ever claim that nobody told you this could happen — at least not if you care to read on.

    Think of our counterinsurgency wars abroad as so many living laboratories for the undermining of a democratic society at home, a process historians of such American wars can tell you has been going on for a long, long time. Counterintelligence innovations like centralized data, covert penetration, and disinformation developed during the Army’s first protracted pacification campaign in a foreign land — the Philippines from 1898 to 1913 — were repatriated to the United States during World War I, becoming the blueprint for an invasive internal security apparatus that persisted for the next half century.

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  • InI 10:31 on November 19, 2009 Permalink | Reply
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    Channel 4 Dispatches investigates The pro-Israel lobby in Britain 

    16 November, 2009 – Middle East Monitor

    The pro-Israel lobby in Britain: FULL TEXT

    Dispatches investigates the pro-Israel lobby in Britain which is working in support of the interests of the State of Israel. We have obtained a full copy of this by Peter Oborne and James Jones.

    Here are some extracts of the 27 page document – The pro-Israel lobby in Britain: full text Click Here to download the full document.

    Chapter Two: The Pro-Israel Lobby at Westminster

    The senior Tory MP David Amess recently put down a question in the House of Commons to enquire what the British government was doing to improve British relations with Israel. The reply came from Ivan Lewis, foreign office minister with special responsibility for the Middle East: ‘Israel is a close ally of the United Kingdom and we have regular warm and productive exchanges at all levels… We shall continue to foster a close relationship with Israel.’

    This conversation was not quite the simple public exchange that it seemed. Neither politician mentioned that both of them had very close links to pro-Israel organizations. David Amess is the secretary of the Conservative Friends of Israel, which has been described by the famous Conservative Party politician and historian Robert Rhodes James as ‘the largest organization in Western Europe dedicated to the cause of the people of Israel.’

    The Conservative Prime Minister Harold MacMillan once remarked that ‘there are three bodies no sensible man ever directly challenges: the Roman Catholic Church, the Brigade of Guards and the National Union of Mineworkers.’ It is tempting to speculate that today he might have added the Conservative Friends of Israel to that list.

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  • InI 08:54 on November 19, 2009 Permalink | Reply
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    Biggest State Party to Obama: Get Out of Afghanistan By Norman Solomon 

    16 November 2009 — t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

    obama-solomon.jpgThe California Democratic Party has called for withdrawal from Afghanistan. (Photo: WikiMedia)

    This week begins with a significant new straw in the political wind for President Obama to consider. The California Democratic Party has just sent him a formal and clear message: Stop making war in Afghanistan.

    Overwhelmingly approved on Sunday by the California Democratic Party’s 300-member statewide executive board, the resolution is titled “End the US Occupation and Air War in Afghanistan.”

    The resolution supports “a timetable for withdrawal of our military personnel” and calls for “an end to the use of mercenary contractors as well as an end to air strikes that cause heavy civilian casualties.” Advocating multiparty talks inside Afghanistan, the resolution also urges Obama “to oversee a redirection of our funding and resources to include an increase in humanitarian and developmental aid.”

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  • InI 10:07 on November 18, 2009 Permalink | Reply
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    The BNP and bridging the gulf of disbelief By William Bowles 

    18 November, 2009 — williambowles.info

    By now it must surely be obvious to everyone that a vast gulf exists between the rulers and the ruled, so much so that the ruled have all but given up listening. The ruling elite are now so desperate that hardly a day goes by without some political dinosaur telling us that ‘we have to reestablish the trust of the people, a trust that has completely broken down’. But it ain’t ain’t working and with good reason.

    Enter the British National Party (BNP).

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