Political leanings

[geezer]

Schools that are being built today are being burned down by the Taliban as they only allow religious schools and if your a female your shit out of luck if you want an education. Yes the west made a mistake by turning it's back on Afghanistan after the Soviet Invasion but I'm not sure if building a few schools would have stopped the Anarchy after the Soviet retreat and the following civil war. And the Madrassas you talk about are in Pakistan not Afghanistan so there was not really much that could have been done about that.

[Torurot]

Peace Group Targets Settlement's Charitable Status
How US Tax Breaks Fund Israeli Settlers
http://counterpunch.org/cook09152009.html
By JONATHAN COOK in Nazareth. September 15, 2009

Israeli peace activists are planning to ratchet up their campaign against groups in the United States that raise money for settlers by highlighting how tax exemptions are helping to fund the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank.

Gush Shalom, a small peace group that advocates Israel€™s withdrawal from the occupied territories, is preparing to send details to the US tax authorities questioning the charitable status of several organisations.

Adam Keller, a spokesman, said these operations€™ tax-exempt status meant that €œsettlement expansion is effectively being subsidised out of the pockets of the US taxpayer and government€.

The campaign is designed to increase pressure on Barack Obama, the US president, to demand action from Israel on his repeated calls -- so far largely ignored -- to end settlement building. Last week, Israel announced plans to build 455 new homes in West Bank settlements and 500 apartments in East Jerusalem.

Mr Obama is expected to unveil a Middle East peace plan this month.

In a related move, Gush Shalom is encouraging Palestinians who have suffered from settler violence to file lawsuits in the United States that would redefine the settlers€™ fund-raising work as support for €œterrorist activity€.

The peace group has accelerated the pace of its campaign, according to a €œconfidential memo€ it issued on July 29 that was leaked to the Israeli media, after the Israeli government heavily criticised human rights groups over the summer for receiving funds from foreign donors, particularly European governments.

In particular, the foreign ministry lambasted Breaking the Silence, a group of army veterans, for publishing testimonials from 26 Israeli combat soldiers suggesting the army committed war crimes during its assault on Gaza last winter.

Mr Keller said: €œIt€™s the height of chutzpah for the foreign ministry to be hounding Breaking the Silence, which is doing something entirely legal and transparent, while keeping quiet about the settler organisations€™ dependence on foreign income for their illegal activities.€

Gush Shalom said it was not divulging details of the organisations it will target next month to ensure an element of surprise. But Mr Keller said all of the 120 main settlements, which are illegal under international law, benefit from fundraising operations in the US.

Gush Shalom has already accused one organisation, Shuva Israel, which is registered as a charity in Austin, Texas, of channelling funds to the Shomron Liaison Office, located in the West Bank settlement of Revava, south of the Palestinian city of Nablus.

According to Shuva Israel€™s website, donations are used to support several outposts close to Revava, such as El Matan, Havat Gilad and Havat Yair, which are illegal under Israeli law.

The 100 or so outposts, satellites of the main settlements, have been the settlers€™ most effective method of extending their control over Palestinian territory in the West Bank. Israel has repeatedly promised the United States it will dismantle the outposts -- so far to no effect.

Shuva Israel also funds Yitzhar, a settlement that hit the headlines last year when its inhabitants rampaged through the neighbouring Palestinian village of Asira al Kibliyeh in what the prime minister at the time, Ehud Olmert, called a €œpogrom€.

Referring to Shuva Israel and the Shomron Liaison Office, Mr Keller said: €œFrom our investigations it is unclear whether these are actually two organisations with close links or two faces of the same organisation.€

David Halevy, the head of Shuva Israel, told the Jerusalem Post that donations subsidised projects in West Bank settlements and outposts such as schools, libraries, youth centres and empowerment training for women.

Mr Keller said most of the organisations were quite open about their fundraising activities, but that donations in support of the settlements almost certainly broke the terms of the US tax-exemption laws.

€œOn the public relations side they say they are involved in humanitarian and non-political work, but to their supporters they play up their assistance for the settlers€™ nationalist and expansionist activities. This is the way we hope to catch them out.€

A recent report by the International Crisis Group (ICG), a group of academics and former diplomats, identified several other settler organisations fund-raising in the United States.

It noted that the settlement of Sussya in the South Hebron Hills raised funds through a tax-exempt US organisation called PEF Israel Endowment Funds, registered in Manhattan. In 2007, Forbes, the business magazine, ranked PEF as one of the 200 largest charities in the US.

Other US tax-exempt charities named were the One Israel Fund, which raises money for projects in outposts, and the Hebron Fund, which raises an average of $1.5 million a year on behalf of a few hundred extremist Jewish settlers encamped in the middle of Hebron.

The One Israel Fund claims on its website to be €œthe largest North American charity whose efforts are dedicated solely to the citizens and communities of Yesha€, a Hebrew acronym for the West Bank.

According to the ICG report, Christian Zionist groups also raise significant sums for the settlements. One website, Christian Friends of Israeli Communities, lists dozens of youth and community projects in the settlements it funds.

An investigation last month by the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz revealed that a group called American Friends of Ateret Cohanim had received tax-exempt status by claiming to fund educational institutes in Israel. In reality, however, it had transferred $1.6m to Ateret Cohanim, an extremist settler group, which buys Palestinian land and homes in East Jerusalem, especially in the Muslim quarter of the Old City.

Gush Shalom also hopes to increase pressure on the funding of organisations by encouraging civil litigation in the United States from Palestinian victims of settler violence in a bid to characterise the attacks as €œterror activity€.

Court rulings would then be sought to shut down the settlers€™ US fund-raising arms on the grounds that they support terrorism, in an echo of legal action by right-wing Jewish groups in the US against Muslim charities.

Two additional campaigns are mentioned in the memo.

In the coming months the group plans to highlight the links between the settlements and such large international Zionist organisations as the Jewish National Fund and the World Zionist Organisation.

The JNF funds Canada Park, established on three Palestinian villages in the West Bank, and the WZO is widely regarded as being implicated in the establishment of the outposts. In July the WZO announced that it would spend $5.5 million this year on agricultural projects for the settlers.

Gush Shalom also suggests exposing the Israeli government€™s support for US lobby groups, such as Stand With Us and the Israel Project, that are engaged in what it calls €œpropaganda€ on behalf of the settlements.

Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest books are €œIsrael and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East€ (Pluto Press) and €œDisappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair€ (Zed Books). His website is www.jkcook.net.

A version of this article originally appeared in The National (www.thenational.ae), published in Abu Dhabi.

[Torurot]

I keep being sent these links by a European member.  Any of it true, that's ANY of it?  Seems a lot of rambling on first glance.  

A Financial terrorist working from within
Devious financial crook exposed by the man who bought his freedom
http://www.worldreports.org/news...._within
Wednesday 16 September 2009 12:00

[Torurot]

Alan, see what you think of this stuff.
I posted the fourth link in the "the health care story" (Fish Box) but it's worth posting links to the entire phenomenon of the "Tea baggers" or as I like to think of them "Dumb and Dumber", because not only do they not know what they stand for, they have ZERO knowledge of history, even really recent stuff like the past eight years under stupid. Inevitably they will vote (again) against their own best interest. Take a look and see what you think. It's similar to the current beat up over ACORN. Same backers behind the beat. I'll post some more on that later.

Tea Baggers Party

Part One
http://www.mrdestructo.com/2009/04/l...ericas_17.html

Part Two
http://www.mrdestructo.com/2009/04/l...-americas.html

Part Three
http://www.mrdestructo.com/2009....um.html

Part Four
http://www.mrdestructo.com/2009....um.html

[alan1chef]

I'll check this out and get back to you.  So what do you think about the possibility that Rush Limbaugh will become part owner of the St. Louis Rams?

[El_hefe]

Doesn't the NFL have enough image issues without having a drug addict actually own a team?

[whore]

I just read Tourets links. I cant believe there is so many dumb shit racists in the US

[strocube]

(whore @ Oct. 13 2009,12:30) I just read Tourets links. I cant believe there is so many dumb shit racists in the US

Dude, this is the land of dumb-shit racists.
They're bigger and dumber here than anywhere else on the planet, and there are more of them as well.
They even have their own propaganda instrument--Faux News.
We're so fucked.

[alan1chef]

Torurot, hopefully your memory is long enough to remember similarly absurd protests funded by the Democrats when the Republicans were in power. It happens all the time; even back into the 1960's; stupid protests funded by special interest groups. I laugh every time someone mentions "Faux" News because CNN and MSNBC used to do the exact same thing years ago...only from the liberal viewpoint. Both parties stage demonstrations all the time and have for years. Even the radicals on the far left and the right wingers on the far right employ staging in their public protests for maximum media coverage.

As for mrdestructo....I found his response equally as absurd as the purported tax protestors.

The unfortunate side note to these special interest group funded events is the number of naive Americans who actually believe what is being said...on both sides of the aisle. It is no wonder that half of the electorate chooses not to vote or get involved.

[Torurot]

Alan, I don't think many non Americans realise what kind of influence lobbyists have on the US political system. An objective person looking at it without knowing it was the USA would declare it no less 'corrupt' than we think of "third" world countries politics. Look at the "health" lobby working hard against the interests of Dumb & Dumber.. Follow the money..

Moving on.....

This is a long but thorough article on the US and it's making and support of the "taliban".

What, Exactly, is Being Fought in Afghanistan?
Fighting the Taliban
http://counterpunch.org/pirbhai10142009.html
By M. REZA PIRBHAI October 14, 2009

[Tomcat]

The problem is that if the west pulled out 100% of the troops tomorrow within two years or less the place would revert back to being a big club for the same clowns that took the trade towers down.

And we would have to go all the way back again. Might as well finish the job off..

Personally i hope McCrystal gets his way

[BlueBallz]

Tomcat has a valid point. Until someone has a plan/strategy for this in a couple of years, there is no good answer. IMHO thats not a great reason to pour troops in there indefinitely....

BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!!

[Torurot]

For those of the "WTF" persuasion, Luis Posada Carriles is a terrorist who blew up a flying plane with 73 people on it. However the USA in contradiction to all international treaties, many of which it proposed, has refused to have him prosecuted, or even held in custody. He currently lives in luxury under USA government protection. Does the hypocrisy [of the USA] sound familiar?


The Untold Story of the Cuban Five
Without Any Exception Whatsoever?
http://counterpunch.org/alarcon10232009.html
By RICARDO ALARCÓN de QUESADA Weekend Edition October 23-25, 2009

Venezuela€™s formal request for the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles was well founded. There is an Extradition Treaty between Venezuela and the United States, ratified by both countries in 1922, which has been implemented for a century.

Venezuela followed the letter of the law, with its Supreme Court issuing an arrest warrant for the fugitive who had absconded from a Venezuelan prison in 1985. The Venezuelan government formally transmitted its extradition request to the United States government on June 15, 2005.

According to the Treaty, Washington should have immediately detained Posada and submitted his case to a federal court for an extradition process in which the Secretary of State would have the final word. That€™s how Montesquieu's idea of €œseparation of powers€ allegedly works in America.

But nothing of the sort has happened. The US government has instead chosen not to detain Posada Carriles or to submit the case to a federal court for extradition.

The US could have also detained Posada under its own Patriot Act, which gives the Attorney General the authority to detain a terrorist until his ultimate removal from the United States. The Patriot Act obviates the need to consult with the courts in order to detain someone the federal government considers a terrorist. The Attorney General need only certify the person as a terrorist. (See Section 1226 (A) of Title 8 of the United States Code). By deciding not to certify Posada as a terrorist and allow him to roam free, the United States is in clear violation of its own Patriot Act. And by ignoring the extradition treaty with Venezuela and several international conventions on terrorism, Washington grossly violated the US Constitution, specifically Article VI which establishes that such international treaties €œshall be the supreme law of the land.€

Bush decided that Posada's mendacity to a bureaucrat was a more serious offense than 73 counts of first-degree murder. And instead of abiding by the US constitutional and treaty obligations, Bush preferred to try and convince other governments to help him shelter and protect Posada. No other government, however, was prepared to do that.

The Bush administration flatly ignored certain international conventions that are among the main pillars in the fight against international terrorism: the Montreal Convention for the Suppression of Illicit Acts Against Civil Aviation and the Protection of Passengers and the International Convention against Terrorist Acts Committed with the Use of Bombs.

Both Conventions introduced a very specific provision to make it impossible for any suspect of such crimes to escape prosecution. They established one alternative to extradition and only one. If any State does not comply with an extradition request, it shall be obligated to immediately prosecute and put on trial the alleged criminal for the same crime as if it had been committed in its own territory. That has to be done, according to both Conventions, €œwithout any exception whatsoever.€

In September 2001, a few days after 9/11, the Bush Administration urged the UN Security Council to adopt mandatory and concrete measures that every country must take, under the threat of force in case of non compliance. Security Council Resolution 1373, introduced by the US delegation and approved unanimously, made it an enforceable obligation for all member states to cooperate in prosecuting fugitive suspects, denying them shelter, condemning political excuses not to extradite and demanding the full application of all international agreements against terrorism, including the two Conventions cited above.

To ensure implementation of Resolution 1373, a special permanent UN Security Council committee was established. It meets regularly in its New York headquarters. At every meeting, the United States is denounced for being in clear violation of Resolution 1373 with its hypocritical double standard on terrorism, as reflected in its protection of Luis Posada Carriles and the incarceration of the Cuban Five.

The next round of the charade known as the Posada €œtrial€ is scheduled for March 1, 2010. Posada is to be €œtried€ on perjury charges. By then it will be five years of US adamant efforts in protecting a terrorist and not allowing him to be tried for his real crimes. By then, five anti-terrorist heroes will be in the middle of their 12th year of unjust, cruel punishment.

By not respecting its international treaty obligations, Washington is undermining the main legal instruments which were conceived to sustain the struggle against terrorism, which is supposed to be of a highest priority for the United States. The damage to US credibility may not be clearly perceived by many Americans because the big corporate media do not allow them to ascertain it. They are not permitted to know how the hypocrisy and arrogance permeating US policy is universally rejected. To imagine the possibility of the US playing any leadership role in the world, not to mention the idea of being respected, is to indulge in irrational, unfounded daydreaming.

Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada is president of the Cuban National Assembly.

[pacman]

(Torurot @ Oct. 24 2009,09:45) The damage to US credibility may not be clearly perceived by many Americans because the big corporate media do not allow them to ascertain it.
They are not permitted to know how the hypocrisy and arrogance permeating US policy is universally rejected.
To imagine the possibility of the US playing any leadership role in the world, not to mention the idea of being respected, is to indulge in irrational, unfounded daydreaming.

Does this mean the American public are kept in the dark?        

How could that happen?                What utter blasphemy...          

[JaiDee]

(BlueBallz @ Oct. 16 2009,18:02)  Until someone has a plan/strategy for this in a couple of years, there is no good answer.  IMHO thats not a great reason to pour troops in there indefinitely....

I'd agree with that..... sending in troops more troops now will only lead to a bigger quagmire in the Vietnam mode.... the Russians learned that lesson in the 70's..... actually Obama has a tough decision on this one, sending in more troops into a country that doesn't want us there has never worked in the past, but if we just let it sit it will once again become a training fround for terrorists.

Me thinks we need to focus more on our so-called "allies'' Pakistan; those assholes play both sides of the fence. And we send a lot less money into fighting the Taliban THERE, where they re-group and re-plan, than we do into Afghanistan.


One thing I know for sure; if you are about to get captured by the Taliban or any renegade Afghani group, better to kill yourself first! The Russians learned that the hard way 30 years ago; they are not very kind to their captors.