22 January, 2009
From Baghdad, Leila Fadel joins Gareth Porter to discuss Obama’s inaugural message for Middle East ears
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Day: January 22, 2009
Video: The Real News Network – Obama, hope and expectations Pt.2
Bill Fletcher Jr. on the ‘heresy’ of critiquing Obama and what he wants Obama to do
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PCHR: A Heartfelt Message of Thanks to All Our Friends & Supporters
[I thought I would pass on this email I got today from PCHR as I’m sure many of you have been following events in Gaza and reading their informative press releases. The Ed]
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights LTD (non profit)
Press Release
Dear Friends and Supporters,
Greetings from the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) wants to express its heartfelt thanks and gratitude to so many of you who have supported us in Gaza during these last few weeks with your wonderful letters and messages of support and concern.
These letters and messages have made a tremendous difference to our moral during this painful and frightening time. Thank-you for your concern for our personal safety, and your concern for the safety of all our families, our communities, and the people of the Gaza Strip.
Because of your steadfast commitment to us, we are still able to fulfill our commitments to monitor the human rights situation here in the Gaza Strip. These letters and messages have constantly reminded us that we are not alone, which has meant a tremendous amount to every one of us at the Centre.
We will stay in contact with you, and keep you informed of our work. We ask each of you in turn to please stay in touch with us, as we need all our friends and supporters to continue standing by our side.
Salamat from Gaza
Kind Regards,
PCHR
Gaza, 21 January 2009
Public Document
For more information please call PCHR office in Gaza, Gaza Strip, on +972 8 2824776 – 2825893
PCHR, 29 Omer El Mukhtar St., El Remal, PO Box 1328 Gaza, Gaza Strip. E-mail: pchr@pchrgaza.org, Webpage http://www.pchrgaza.org
Global Energy War: Washington's New Kissinger African Plans
Prepared by Rick Rozoff, Chicago, Illinois
Lost amid the national, and international, fanfare accompanying the inauguration of the 44th president of the United States today is attention to the person who is slated to be the latter’s major foreign policy architect and executor, retired US Marine General James Jones.
In nearly identical phraseology that cannot be construed as either fortuitous or without foundation, the Washington Post of November 22, 2008 referred to the then pending selection of Jones as US National Security Adviser in these terms: “Sources familiar with the discussions said Obama is considering expanding the scope of the job to give the adviser the kind of authority once wielded by powerful figures such as Henry A. Kissinger.”
PCHR: IOF Offensive on the Gaza Strip Makes it Like Earthquake Zone and Claims Civilian Lives and Property
22 January, 2009
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights LTD (non profit)
Press Release Ref: 19/2009
Entire Families Pass Away
Children and Women Constitute More Than 43% of the Total Number of Victims
Entire Features of Many Areas Disappear
Infrastructures Services completely Collapse
Hundreds of Families Become Homeless While Dozens of Others Are Still Displaced
The offensive launched by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on the Gaza Strip, between 27 December and 18 January 2009, has caused total destruction in many parts of the Gaza Strip, making these parts look like earthquake zones. In its offensive on Gaza, IOF employed its full-fledged arsenal and used its air, ground and sea forces. Some areas were almost completely razed, while many houses and civilian establishments became hills of dust. IOF offensive claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent unarmed civilians, including a large number of children and women. The casualties included entire families (for more information, please see press releases[1] that had been published by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) during IOF offensive on the Gaza Strip).
British Capitalism – the Worm Ouroboros By William Bowles
22 January 2009
The other day I happened to hear an interview on the BBC with a US investor who had some pretty awful things to say about the UK economy, and why he wouldn’t invest a red cent in this country.
To paraphrase, ‘you don’t manufacture anything, your banks, from which you make most of your wealth, are bankrupt, and all your North Sea Oil has gone, so what do you have to offer an investor?’
The BBC interviewer, in a futile attempt to head him off at the pass, accused him of creating a panic to which he replied, ‘I don’t have any investments in the UK so I have nothing to gain’, in other words it’s not his problem, nor his fault that the UK economy is broke. What it reveals to me is a decrepit and worn-out capitalism, one whose ruling class have lived off interest for far too long.
The Gaza Bombshell By David Rose
After failing to anticipate Hamas’s victory over Fatah in the 2006 Palestinian election, the White House cooked up yet another scandalously covert and self-defeating Middle East debacle: part Iran-contra, part Bay of Pigs. With confidential documents, corroborated by outraged former and current U.S. officials, the author reveals how President Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Deputy National-Security Adviser Elliott Abrams backed an armed force under Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan, touching off a bloody civil war in Gaza and leaving Hamas stronger than ever.
‘Vanity Fair’, April 2008 – The Al Deira Hotel, in Gaza City, is a haven of calm in a land beset by poverty, fear, and violence. In the middle of December 2007, I sit in the hotel’s airy restaurant, its windows open to the Mediterranean, and listen to a slight, bearded man named Mazen Asad abu Dan describe the suffering he endured 11 months before at the hands of his fellow Palestinians. Abu Dan, 28, is a member of Hamas, the Iranian-backed Islamist organization that has been designated a terrorist group by the United States, but I have a good reason for taking him at his word: I’ve seen the video.
Israel's Message to Iran By Shourideh C. Molavi
On January 17, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced a unilateral ceasefire, where Israel will stop its attacks but continue its military presence. ‘We have met and even surpassed our goals,’ declared Olmert, as he thanked the Israeli public for their continued support of the 22-day onslaught in Gaza.
To those paying even minimal attention to the developments of this war, this is a perplexing statement. It is evident that Israel’s declared objectives in this war have yet to be realized. Rockets are still being fired from Gaza and the goal of ‘sustained and durable quiet in the south’ has not been attained. Hamas remains in operation in the Strip and, as it stands, does not appear to have lost significant backing from its Palestinian constituency. Further, while Hamas has changed its political treatment of Israel during the past 3 years, it has not altered significantly its platform during the 3-week war in Gaza. Granted, Israel managed to pummel a number of underground tunnels in the northern and southern tips of Gaza – and with it countless densely-populated civilian neighborhoods – but so long as there is a siege on the Strip there are no assurances that they will not reopen. Worse yet, Israel’s international reputation has suffered where millions of outraged communities around the world have taken their disgust with the brutal onslaught to the streets, demanding their governments cut diplomatic ties with and exert political pressure on the Zionist establishment.
The New Dark Age 