18 May 2011 — Statewatch
European Parliament to revisit the definition of a “document” and adopt its report on the changes to Regulation on access to EU documents
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2011/may/05eu-access-reg-impasse-broken.htm
Day: May 20, 2011
Video: Mass rally in Lisbon over bailout and austerity cuts
20 May 2011 — The Real News Network
EuroNews: A lack of jobs and the bite of austerity measures prompted thousands of people to take to the streets of Lisbon on Thursday
The serious questions raised by the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair By David North and David Walsh
19 May 2011 — The Greanville Post
The official family face of Strauss-Kahn.
The arrest of French financier and politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn in New York City on sexual assault charges and his continued imprisonment is a disturbing event with far-reaching implications.
Strauss-Kahn is the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), perhaps the most powerful global capitalist financial institution, and a prominent figure in the French Socialist Party, one of that country’s leading big business parties. He was expected to announce soon his candidacy for the presidency in 2012, and polls in France had him leading his rivals, President Nicolas Sarkozy and extreme right-winger Martine Le Pen of the National Front.
Updates on Libyan war 20 May 2011: Libya: Under Western Military, Media Siege
20 May 2011 Stop NATO
- Russia Condemns NATO Strikes, Urges Peacekeeping Force In Libya
- NATO Warplanes Attack Libyan Ships In Three Ports
- NATO Bombs Eight Libyan Naval Vessels
- Libya: Under Western Military, Media Siege
- NATO Targets Libyan Telecommunications: $1.2 Billion In Damages
Video: Palestinian Activist Says Obama Speech “Irrelevant”
20 May 2011 — The Real News Network
Omar Barghouti: The US continues to oppose Palestinian basic rights, Arabs will make their own democracy
Pirates of the Mediterranean By William Bowles
20 May 2011
“The media rush to glorify Obama the ‘warrior president’ is symptomatic of a Western society that has come to view war as entirely normal… It is by now almost impossible to imagine that the West would not always be attacking, or targeting for attack, some defenceless nation or other.” — ‘You Cannot Kill An Ideology With A Gun‘ By Media Lens
All things being equal, which undoubtedly they are not, and surely that’s point, the long overdue arrival of a truly socialized, globalized planet would have been able to tackle the mess capitalism has made of things. After all, our disasters are now planetary in scale and thus can now only be handled by the planet as a whole. That means all of us, not just a privileged few.
The Middle East Revolution: The Empire Strikes Back: Libya Attacked by the US and NATO By Asad Ismi
18 May 2011 — The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Monitor
No sooner had the popular revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia overthrown corrupt and repressive U.S.-backed dictatorships than Washington and NATO (led by a Canadian general) attacked Libya on March 19 with jet fighters and hundreds of missiles and bombs. The reason given by this coalition of the U.S., Britain, France, Italy and Canada (among others) for the attack was that they were protecting civilians from Libya’s leader, Muammar Gaddafi. Considering that the U.S. has killed two million civilians in Iraq, 70,000 in Afghanistan, and about 2,000 in Pakistan, it strains credulity to believe that this was the real reason for its intervention in Libya.
Libya Newslinks 19-20 May 2011
20 May 2011 — williambowles.info
20 May 2011
- Amnesty UK: Obama speech: USA must `learn from mistakes of past` in Middle East and North Africa
- BBC: Libyan troops ‘shot photographer’ alleges family
- BBC: VIDEO: Footage of air strikes on Libyan warships
- SCF: Will NATO Forces Under the UN Flag Take the Jamahiriya’s Place in Libya (II)?
- MRZine: Rory Suchet, “Tariq Ali on Syria and Libya: ‘Whenever the West Intervenes, It’s a Disaster'”
- SCF: EU to tighten sanctions on Libya
- Stop Nato: Africa: Battleground For NATO’s 21st Century Strategic Concept
- MRZine: Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett, “Obama on the Middle East: Sticking with a Failed Script”
19 May 2011
VTJP Palestine/Israel Newslinks 19 May, 2011: Obama Not Expected To Make Significant Announcement On Peace Process
19 May, 2011 — VTJP
News
International Middle East Media Center
Obama To Announce Us Aid Plan For Democratizing Arab States
IMEMC – Thursday May 19, 2011 – 15:30, Rumours continue to circulate regarding the content of US President Obama’s speech on his administration’s foreign policy in the Middle East, later today. Maan news agency has reported that Obama was planning to unveil an extensive framework of aid to democratising Middle Eastern countries in the awaited speech.
Germany and the Eurozone Sovereign Debt Crisis: the Lessons of History By Hugo Radice
20 May 2011 — The Bullet – Socialist Project • E-Bulletin No. 504
“The eurozone has decided that the losses of private sector creditors should be socialized and the ultimate burden fall on the taxpayers of deficit countries. The latter will then suffer first a slump and then years of fiscal austerity.” — Martin Wolf, “The eurozone after Strauss-Kahn,” Financial Times, 18 May 2011.
Information Clearing House Newsletter 19 May, 2011: Ron Paul: We'll Occupy Pakistan, Too
19 May, 2011 — Information Clearing House
Ron Paul: We’ll Occupy Pakistan, Too
By JUANA SUMMERS
The helicopters that landed in Abbottabad won’t be the last to put American troops on the ground in Pakistan, says Rep. Ron Paul.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28130.htm
Regime Change at the IMF: The Frame-Up of Dominique Strauss-Kahn? By Prof. Michel Chossudovsky
19 May 2011 — Global Research
The arrest of IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn has all the appearances of a frame-up ordered by powerful members of the financial establishment, in liaison with France’s Nicolas Sarkozy, whose presidency has served the interests of the US at the expense of those of France and the European Union. While there is for the moment no proof of a plot, the unusual circumstances of his arrest and imprisonment require careful examination.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn Was Trying to Torpedo the Dollar By Mike Whitney
19 May 2011 — Information Clearing House
It’s all about perception management. The media is trying to dig up as much dirt as they can on Dominique Strauss-Kahn so they can hang the man before he ever sees the inside of a courthouse. It reminds me of the Terry Schiavo case, where devoted-husband Michael was pegged as an insensitive slimeball for carrying out the explicit wishes of his brain-dead wife. Do you remember how the media conducted their disgraceful 24 hour-a-day Blitzkrieg with the endless coverage of weepy Christian fanatics on the front lawn of the hospital while Hannity, Limbaugh and O’ Reilly fired away with their sanctimonious claptrap?
Africa: Battleground For NATO’s 21st Century Strategic Concept BY Rick Rozoff
20 May, 2011 — Stop NATO
Africa: Battleground For NATO’s 21st Century Strategic Concept
The war by major North Atlantic Treaty Organization member states against Libya is in its third month and has been conducted under the official auspices of NATO for the past fifty days.
The New Dark Age 