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There is no good in much of their secret conferences save (in) whosoever enjoineth charity and fairness and peace-making among the people and whoso doeth that, seeking the good pleasure of God, We shall bestow on him a vast reward.
(Al-Nisa, 4:114).

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Saturday, February 15, 2014

Geneva 2 failed - Lebanon needs peace & stability!

Lebanon announces new coalition government | Al Jazeera's Stefanie Dekker reports from Beirut.

Published on 15 Feb 2014/Lebanon has announced its new government, ending almost eleven months of political deadlock. The cabinet involves rival factions, including Shia group Hezbollah and the Future Movement led by former Prime Minister Saad Harriri.




Among the top posts announced, former Energy Minister Gebran Bassil, from the March 8 bloc, becomes foreign minister. Former Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, also from March 8, takes the finance portfolio. Nouhad Machnouk, a March 14 legislator, was named interior minister. 


from haaretz More here <<






This is it? When America is your teacher!

Abducted Pakistani drone activist freed

Published on Feb 14, 2014 | 
A Pakistani anti-drone activist who went missing over a week ago, has reappeared. Karim Khan says he was abducted days before he was due to speak to European politicians about the US drone strikes. He was also in the process of suing both the CIA and Pakistani government, after his brother and son were killed by a drone attack. Al Jazeera's Osama bin Javeid went to talk to him about his ordeal.




AJE reporting : Syria rivals declare impasse in peace talks

Published on 14 Feb 2014 | Talks aimed at finding a political solution to the fighting in Syria seem a long way off any kind of agreement. An attempt to get the US and Russia to use their influence to push things forward seems to have backfired. Al Jazeera's diplomatic editor James Bays reports from Geneva.




Thursday, February 13, 2014

AJE reprorted? Putin backs Sisi to be president of Egypt

Hiding under the Amrikan's mentality & rhetoric of the Cold War! AJE is promoting Gen Sisi (the Egypt coup leader) as the legitimate President!



Published on 13 Feb 2014 : Egypt's military chief Abdelfattah el-Sisi has concluded a
hugely symbolic visit to Russia. (Partial original caption)

Turkey - Good/Bad depends on your (political) worldview?

Turkish PM granted greater role over military

Published on 13 Feb 2014 | Turkey's parliament has approved legislation granting the government more power over the military. The move is causing controversy,with many saying it's aimed at covering up a major corruption scandal .Al Jazeera's Omar Al Saleh reports.

EDITOR's Comment : According to AJE - The move is causing controversy,...But the news hinted out nuances that AJE wants a more 'political military'. Let us see how AJE will twist this (move) in future?

Nelson Mandela (RIP) was a blue eyed boy of world's bankers & corporations?

Published on Feb 12, 2014 | Unlike Charvez (RIP), Mandela (RIP) & the ANC bowed down to world's bankers & corporations?



Extreme Inequality Retards South Africa's Economic Growth
Published on Jan 27, 2014 | Leonce Ndikumana: 47 percent of South Africans live in poor conditions, inevitably leading to a drag on growth in the economy


Mandela and Neo-Liberal Economics in South Africa
Published on 12 Feb 2014 | Mr. Schechter tells Paul Jay that under tremendous external pressure, the ANC gave up its plans to nationalize the mining sector



Wednesday, February 12, 2014

A historical narrative: Correcting the Mainstream Distortions of Iran's 1979 Revolution

Published on 12 Feb 2014 | Scholar Hamid Dabashi explains why even though a diverse set of forces overthrew the brutal, CIA-backed Shah of Iran, in the end theocracy dominated, leaving Iran in the hands of plutocrats.




Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Sectarian Warfare and America’s New Colonialism

useuflags
The strategy is to divide and turn societies against themselves using sectarianism, tribalism, religion, by any and every means to prevent the emergence of steadfast and organized political alternatives
The displacement of millions in Syria , victims of the sectarian warfare of salafists and mercenaries directly supported by the USA, UK, France and  most NATO powers assisted on the ground actively by  the governments of Saudi Arabia , Turkey , Jordan among others in the region has resulted in once again a serioius humanitarian crisis including for the Palestinian people in refugee camps in Syria and Lebanon ,  who are the oldest refugees in the Arab world , traumatized for more than half a century whose living conditions were already abysmal . Today they face destitution , hunger and starvation  along with others similarly displaced .
Niloufur Bhagwat right
While the sectarian war rages in Syria and has spread to Lebanon , the Egyptian military government along with Israel has laid siege to Gaza , demolishing tunnels which were essential supply routes to the Palestinian people in Gaza,  already facing a serious humanitarian crisis as evidenced by the report submitted by the UN  Human Rights Commission Special rapporteur.
There is no justification for the  crack down now announced by the Egyptian government with a turn out of only  28 % of the Egyptian electorate  in the referendum on the Constitution drawn up by the military , n on Hamas one of the Palestinian liberation organizations , which has been elected in Gaza , recalling similar anti-Palestinian strategies of the earlier dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak which also had the support of the military . It is time that the  Arab street  understands  that some governments in the region are in fact collaborating with Israel against their own people, the Palestinian people and their national liberation struggle .
Sectarian warfare is a strategy for destroying the Arab and their homelands, by those who seek to pillage the resources of the Arab peoples using as surrogates and agents  some governments of  the region , who are old and new collaborators of  NATO , which is a military pact with openly announced colonial objectives for control of resource rich strategic regions of the world . This is colonial policy for restructuring and re-division of several regions of Asia , Africa and Latin America with  governments having over powering ambitions to impose regional hegemony adjuncts to NATO policy in these regions .
The ideological justification for the ” New Colonialism ” commenced with the Project for the New American Century and  the justification for revival of  the new  “Anglosphere ” Empire furnished by ideologues of the New Labour Party  headed by Tony Blair,  and by  the French elite among others in Europe , faced with one of the most serious financial collapses in world history.
This Imperial alliance has manipulated  International politics for more than four hundred years .” Its companies , empires , states and nations colonized and industrialized large swathes of the planet and moved millions of inhabitants often by force . They also acted as the market and lender of last resort , the guardian of the reserve currency and the bulkwark against various revisionists and revolutions .”(  Srdjan Vucet –The Anglosphere: A Geneology of a Racial Identity in International Relations)
The strategy is to divide and turn societies against themselves using sectarianism, tribalism, religion, by  any and every means to prevent the emergence of steadfast and organized  political alternatives,   with the capacity to  retain the surpluses of their own societies for the development of their wokring people  and for their society as a whole . The strategy is   to enable powers external to the region to mop and seize  the  resources surpluses and markets ,  which is what we are witnessing in Iraq, in Syria, in Lebanon, in Egypt, in  Palestine, in Africa among other regions, which is the ” New Colonization ” .
In the context of the aforesaid  Geneva Conference II , does not seek to address the real issue , or the issue of the starvation and destitution of millions of Syrians and Palestinians , even as the United Nations is guilty of using the organization as a cover for what is naked aggression by some NATO powers  in Africa, Asia and Latin America, individually or in partnerships , with secret pacts for resource seizure , even as these continents are targeted for occupation , aggression and destruction of its nation states and societies for the  new colonial partitioning and restructuring by NATO and the G 7 ,  of which the erstwhile  Partition of India was an example , and  a manipulated  religious divide was fostered by the very colonial power who benefited from the division of the Indian subcontinent in Imperial interests .
Without  a serious political dialogue in the Arab world among other regions targeted for colonial seizure , to isolate all political elements allied with Imperial interests and their adjuncts in the region , the lives of millions are at stake. Organizations floated by Western funding and foundations are no substitute for political organizations of the working people of regions targeted for colonization . In the meanwhile  Citizens of NATO governments and the G 7 powers   face loss  their livelihoods and of every social security,  even as they are indifferent to these projects for colonization , as NATO garrisons and the G 7  will need their national finances and budgets for these continous wars , including for the control and  laundering of the drug trade into collapsing  North American and European banks and financial institutions .
Every country in Asia , Latin America and Africa  and in former East Europe  will be targeted it its own turn , and this includes the emerging powers and members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The International political, economic and social order has collapsed,  and a new one is not in sight .
Original here >> by : Niloufer Bhagwat, is Professor of Comparative Constitutional Law at University of Mumbai. Vice President of the Indian Lawyers Association — Mumbai. She served as a Judge with the Tokyo International Tribunal for War Crimes in Afghanistan. Niloufer Bhagwat is member of the Patrons Committee of the Iraq-Commission.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Progress...? the evolution of a slur!







Over $1.6 billion of Iranian assets frozen in Britain & Iran to sue UK over $1bln Shah-era arms deal – report

A British made 1970 Chieftain tank belonging to the People's Mujahedeen takes position 26 April 2003. (AFP Photo / Philippe Desmazes)

Iran is to sue a UK firm over $1 billion of weapons that were purchased more than 30 years ago but never delivered. The deal was discontinued following the Iranian Revolution in 1979, and now Iran is calling for compensation.
The Iranian government is moving to take a weapons company owned by the UK government to the High Court this summer to settle the 35-year dispute, UK newspaper The Independent reports. The ongoing row was thought to have been settled in 2010 when Iranian negotiators met with the International Military Services (IMS) to iron out the conditions for a final agreement.
The Iranian government is now pushing for $657 million in compensation.
The court case pertains to an IMS weapons deal struck with the Shah of Iran between 1971 and 1976. As part of the agreement the then Iranian leader paid 650 million pounds ($1 billion) up front for 1,500 state-of-the-art Chieftain battle tanks and 250 repair vehicles. However, complications arose when Shah Pahlavi was deposed in 1979 and the Islamic Republic was created. As a result of the political upheaval only 185 tanks were delivered to Iran, prompting the government to ask for its money back.
London refused to reimburse the funds, forcing Tehran to pursue legal action and take the case to an international court in the Netherlands.
British Ministry of Defence officials told The Independent that they hoped a settlement could be reached with Iran before legal proceedings begin this year. Moreover, a MoD spokesperson told the paper that “no money will paid to Iran while EU sanctions remain in place. Settlement negotiations between International Military Services Ltd and the Iranian regime are ongoing and no agreement has yet been reached.”
If the funds are released they will be held in a trust account with independent trustees along with over $1.6 billion of Iranian assets frozen in Britain.
“EU sanctions will prevent the current Iranian regime from accessing funds resulting from this case and could be released only if sanctions are lifted,” the spokesperson said.
Iran reached a landmark preliminary deal with the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany on November 24 over its nuclear program. As part of the agreement, the US and Brussels have lifted some of the financial restrictions on Iran’s economy after Tehran ceased uranium enrichment to 20 percent. Iran has also pledged to dilute half of the stockpile of the already enriched material.
Diplomats from the P5+1 (US, China, Germany, Britain, France and Russia) are expected to meet with representatives from Iran in February to hammer out the terms for a permanent deal.
"It is our understanding that the first round of comprehensive negotiations will be in New York in mid-February with dates still being confirmed," US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in an email to Reuters.
While Washington has hailed the initial agreement as a great success, the American government said further negotiations will be complex.
Tehran continues to deny allegations that it was working towards the production of nuclear arms and maintains its atomic program was aimed at civilian ends.
pic above >> A British made 1970 Chieftain tank belonging to the People's Mujahedeen takes position 26 April 2003. (AFP Photo / Philippe Desmazes)


Protesters - Bosnia, initially erupted over the closure of several state-owned companies that were sold off and then collapsed under private ownership.

Published on 8 Feb 2014 | Thousands of people across Bosnia set fire to local government buildings and clashed with police. Hundreds have been injured in three days of protests in a state that's slipping into serious economic stagnation with around 40 per cent of the population out of work.

The capital Sarajevo, rioters set the Presidential building ablaze, along with police cars and tires. Authorities fired rubber bullets, water cannon and tear gas to disperse the crowds. In other parts of the country protesters hurled rocks at security forces and torched local government buildings.

The unrest initially erupted over the closure of several state-owned companies that were sold off and then collapsed under private ownership.




Saturday, February 8, 2014

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Pervez Musharraf served with arrest warrant at hospital


Former Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf, facing charges of high treason for imposing emergency in 2007, has been served with an arrest warrant by police at a military hospital.

A special court, constituted to try 70-year-old Musharraf on high treason charges, had issued the warrant on Friday, carrying a bail bond of Rs 2.5 million.
The court had also ordered the Islamabad police to submit a compliance report to the court on February 7.
Police were able to serve the warrant yesterday only after waiting for two-and-half hours at the reception of the medical facility, media reports said.
Musharraf's lawyers, who were also present at the hospital, provided the police with details about the surety bonds of Rs 2.5 million.
Since the start of the high treason trial against him, Musharraf has not appeared before the court.
Musharraf was admitted to the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology in Rawalpindi after he developed heart problems while being driven to the special court.
Musharraf is facing treason charges for suspending and abrogating the Constitution and imposing an emergency in November 2007.
This is the first time in Pakistan's history that a former military ruler has been put on trial for treason.
If convicted, he could get life imprisonment or the death penalty.

source >>