The Ruthless Truth blog

WND POLL
Be afraid … Be very afraid
Should identities of citizens signing petitions, ballot initiatives be made public?
–WND

WND RADIO
WorldNetDaily Exclusive
‘Gay’-marriage decision ‘a horrible precedent’
Maryland delegate pushes to impeach state’s AG for changing law
–WND

WorldNetDaily
Clergy could face the law over same-sex ceremonies
Warning comes after amendment to allow churches to hold events
–WND

DEALS OF THE DAY
Mark Levin’s ‘Liberty and Tyranny’ – $4.95 today only!
Save $20 on No. 1 NYT best seller by talk radio’s fastest growing superstar
–WND

‘Finest American freedom video’ – $4.95 today only!
Save $20! ‘A Nation Adrift’ masterfully chronicles U.S. history from Columbus to present
–WND

---

BRAVE NEW SCHOOLS
WorldNetDaily
‘Hate’ laws could label 5-year-olds ‘offenders’
Government procedures demand paperwork on playground spats
–WND

---

HEAT OF THE MOMENT
WorldNetDaily Exclusive
Clash over ‘global warming’ ratcheted up another degree
Congressman wants funding stopped; scientists plan retaliation campaign
–WND

Darwin foes add global warming to targets
‘Scientists being persecuted for findings that are not in keeping with the orthodoxy’
–New York Times

PHOTONETDAILY
Enviros’ pic of polar bears adrift … taken in August
Newly released image said to show arctic animals ‘trapped,’ ‘distressed’
–London Daily Mail

WHISTLEBLOWER CLASSIC
HIJACKING SCIENCE
From global warming to evolution, psychology to sociology, corruption runs rampant
–WND

---

DOCTOR’S ORDERS
WorldNetDaily
White House adviser: ‘Heavier people’ bad for economy
Rahm Emanuel’s bioethicist brother suggests government intervene in eating habits
–WND

WND POLL
Would you like fries with that?
Sound off on Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D.’s, claim ‘heavier people’ are bad for economy
–WND

WND RADIO
WorldNetDaily Exclusive
Obama ‘obsessed’ with health care
GOP’s Brady: ‘A whole lot of backroom wheeling and dealing right now’
–WND

WND RADIO
WorldNetDaily Exclusive
‘Simple math’ dooms Obamacare?
John Gizzi: Pro-life Democrats will spark House defeat of Senate bill
–WND

WND RADIO
WorldNetDaily Exclusive
Pro-life Democrats ‘tricked’ by Obama?
Phil Kerpen: ‘No guarantees Senate will do anything to improve or fix the bill’
–WND

WND POLL
We will remember in November
If Congress passes health-care bill, how do you think voters will respond next election?
–WND

Obamacare on air falls flat on its face
Liberal caller campaign makes for unintentional talk radio comedy
–WND Diversions

PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM
Barack Obama and the date-rape of America
Exclusive: David Kupelian explains unprecedented spectacle unfolding in Washington
–WND

WorldNetDaily
‘How Evil Works’ called ‘life-transforming’
Kupelian’s new book ‘turns blowtorch of good’ on widespread deception
–WND

WorldNetDaily Exclusive
See who signed Declaration of Health Care Independence
Bachmann: ‘I’m not shocked that so many people believe in this document’
–WND

Contact members of Congress now!
Find your lawmakers, tell them what you think of health-care overhaul
–Congress.org

---

SPECIAL OFFERS
Your family depends on you
Protect them with Term Life Insurance. Save up to 75%
–Matrix Direct, Inc

Becoming a 1-share millionaire’
U.S. Postal secret could earn $1000s per month on just a single share of stock
–StansberryResearch.com

---

NUCLEAR WAR-FEAR
Tehran developing massive launch site with N. Korea’s help
‘This … could mean that the Iranians are on their way to obtaining an ICBM’
–Jerusalem Post

‘Islamic nations will back Iran strike’
Israel deputy minister says messages from Muslim leaders conveyed to Netanyahu
–Jerusalem Post

Ahmadinejad calls 9/11 ‘big fabrication’
‘Complicated intelligence scenario and act’ used to justify U.S. war on terrorism
–Reuters

---

SPECIAL OFFERS
‘Survival Seed Bank’ plants full-acre crisis garden!
New! More valuable than silver or gold in a real meltdown
–SurvivalSeedBank.com

Heart attack survival secret!
Little-known symptom that so many people tragically ignore …
–BottomLineSecrets.com

---

WAR ON TERROR
American-born al Qaida spokesman nabbed in Pakistan
Arrest comes same day he posted video urging more Ft. Hood attacks
–Associated Press

Russia says Islamist rebel leader killed in raid
Accused of plotting bomb attack on Moscow-to-St. Petersburg train that killed 26
–Reuters

Leading Pakistani Taliban deputy believed killed
About 2 dozen insurgents died after helicopter gunships dispatched to compound
–Associated Press

---

WorldNetDaily Exclusive
Leben tells it like it really was
Feisty Christian history magazine won’t let faith’s great heritage be forgotten
–WND

---

Muslim paper: ‘Jewish lobby behind U.S. Armenia genocide vote’
London publication says pro-Israel activists manipulated Congress to damage Turkey
–Haaretz

---

GLOBAL INSECURITY
U.K. Muslim leader: Islam not a religion of peace
‘Nothing else is mentioned more [in the Quran] than the topic of fighting’
–CBN

Iraqis brave bomb blasts to vote
‘We came to participate this national day, we don’t care about explosions’
–Fox News

Wilders creates stir in U.K.
Dutch anti-Islam politician takes cinematic assault on Quran to House of Lords
–YNetNews

FROM JOSEPH FARAH’S G2 BULLETIN
WorldNetDaily Exclusive
Memo to Saudis: Please stop terror
But request over Pakistani activities ignores Wahhabi work
–WND

WorldNetDaily Exclusive
WND beat CAIR, but legal fees mount
Help defray costs of defending free speech, exposing Muslim Mafia
–WND

---

SPECIAL OFFERS
Controversial gov’t move releases ‘free money’
You can grab it now without being a ‘welfare moocher’
–LeagueofPower.com

Gold kicks Wall St. butt!
Ignore pinstriped-suit advice. Ride the real 2010 bull market instead
–Swiss America

---

FAITH UNDER FIRE
City agency halts church services at public housing unit
Official says worship activities going on for 14 years violate Constitution
–Associated Press

Egyptian court acquits Muslim who beheaded Christian
Killers fired 31 bullets into victim’s head before decapitating him
–AINA

---

SUDDEN DEATH
6 killed in bus rollover south of Phoenix
Mexico-to-Los-Angeles transporter had been denied U.S. license to operate
–Arizona Star

---

SPECIAL OFFER
Coming hyperinflation disaster to shatter U.S. dollar
Read this exposé to save your retirement and protect your assets
–PersonalLiberty.com

---

---

TROUBLE IN THE HOLY LAND
Hamas military commander: We’re losing control over Gaza Strip
Warns ’security anarchy is extensive,’ ‘men are being killed’
–Jerusalem Post

‘They need to be liberated from their God’
‘Son of Hamas’ author on conversion to Christ, spying for Israel, shaming family
–Wall Street Journal

WorldNetDaily Exclusive
It’s here … ‘Son of Hamas’
Terror leader’s son offers ‘gripping account of betrayal, political intrigue, unthinkable choices’
–WND

SPECIAL OFFER
Once a Muslim always a Muslim? Not necessarily
Those who have thrown off the oppressive yoke of Islam tell why they left
–Shop.WND.com

---

WND ON THE AIR
WorldNetDaily Exclusive
Aaron Klein gets WABC show
‘Investigative radio’ to air Sundays on nation’s top talk station
–WND

---

INTERNET NEWS
Facebook founder accused of hacking into e-mails
Allegedly accessed accounts of rivals, journalists’ by viewing mistyped passwords
–London Daily Mail

---

SPECIAL OFFER
Glucose spiking? We’ll get you back on track guaranteed!
Our tea lowers blood sugar levels the 1st week
–Type2solution.com

---

MEDIA MATTERS
WorldNetDaily
‘SNL’ star: ‘A communist living in the White House’
Watch Victoria Jackson unload on Obama with biting comic video
–WND

WND BEST-SELLERS
WorldNetDaily Exclusive
New life infused into Constitution
Campaign sparks interest in founding document
–WND

---

BACK ON THE AIR
Miss your favorite talk radio program?
Read a recap of last week’s hottest, smartest, funniest broadcasts
–WND Diversions

WorldNetDaily Exclusive
Have you seen WorldNetWEEKLY yet?
WND makes it easier for you to get the news you’re missing
–WND

---

SPECIAL OFFERS
Secrets most men will never know about self-defense
Discover what martial artists and the military don’t want you to know
–CloseCombatTraining.com

How to survive the coming martial law in America
Red Alert Warning! Bombshell new manual reveals how to understand the times
–MartialLawSurvival.com

---

Oscar night features David-and-Goliath matchup
Will Best Picture go to ‘the bomb squad’ or ‘the blue blockbuster?’
–Wall Street Journal

---

WEAPONS OF CHOICE
WorldNetDaily Exclusive
Questions about guns? Here are all the answers
The ultimate searchable research guide to firearms, ammo on DVD
–WND

SPECIAL OFFER
New manual reveals how to ‘Hide Your Guns’ from criminals
Hard-core tactics now needed as bad guys get desperate
–HideYourGuns.com

---

INVESTOR INSIGHTS
Stocking up on meds and ammo, NOW!
Exclusive: Porter Stansberry says his job is family’s safety
–WND

---

SOMETHING IN THE AIR
WorldNetDaily Exclusive
You asked for it! The big-spender scorecard
Find out right now which ‘bums’ supported bailouts, cap and trade, health ‘reform’
–WND

WorldNetDaily Exclusive
It’s time to stop Obama, congressional circus
WND’s ‘Taking America Back!’ event set for Miami this September
–WND

WorldNeyDaily Exclusive
Don’t talk about Constitution, send one!
Want to limit powers of Obama, Pelosi, Reid? ‘This is their Kryptonite’
–WND

MAGNETIC MESSAGE
WorldNetDaily Exclusive
In the spirit of the Sons of Liberty …
Show your neighbors where you stand on nation’s direction
–Shop.WND.com

---

YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK
WorldNetDaily Exclusive
Lawmakers review ‘male mutilation’
Bill before legislature would ban circumcision
–WND

WND RADIO
WorldNetDaily Exclusive
Congressman admits ’salty language’ with staffers
Journalist: ‘The ethics committee is looking into it to see exactly what happened’
–WND

WorldNetDaily
Look who’s targeted on billboards now!
Americans get ‘personal’ with feelings of outrage
–WND

WHISTLEBLOWER MAGAZINE
WorldNetDaily Exclusive
How Team Obama plans to steal 2010 election
From amnesty to universal registration, see Democrat strategy for maintaining power
–WND

---

WorldNetDaily Exclusive
U.S. czar in Cold War: Smack in the USSR
Obama chief part of group whose founders allegedly helped Soviets build atomic bomb
–WND

WorldNetDaily
Obama czar’s shocking communist connections
Edited publication whose founders allegedly fed secrets to Soviet Union
–WND

Obama appoints president of purple shirts to deficit panel
Critics charge SEIU labor chief is political radical, lobbyist
–Fox News

SPECIAL OFFER
‘Help! Mom! Radicals Are Ruining My Country!’
Will kids’ swing-set business stay afloat despite 246 czars, regulations, huge taxes?
–WND Superstore

---

WorldNetDaily Exclusive
Obamaville specials! I can get that for just 99 cents?
Superstore bargain bin open for incredible savings
–WND

---

BORN IN THE USA?
WorldNetDaily
New move cancels even valid birth certificates
Native Puerto Ricans left wondering what to do now
–WND

WND AT THE WHITE HOUSE
WorldNetDaily Exclusive
Arizona lawmakers a joke to prez?
Gibbs: Obama not paying attention to push for eligibility document
–WND

MR. PRESIDENT!
Ask Obama your own question
WND is Internet’s only place where you have direct access to commander in chief
–WND

THE FULL STORY
WorldNetDaily Exclusive
Is Obama constitutionally eligible to serve?
WND’s complete archive of news reports on the issue
–WND

WorldNetDaily Exclusive
Want to send Barack Obama a message?
‘Where’s the birth certificate?’ postcards available now
–WND

WorldNetDaily Exclusive
Will you be No. 500,000 seeking eligibility proof?
Americans petitioning Obama, Congress, courts to live up to U.S. Constitution
–WND

---

FROM JEROME CORSI’S RED ALERT
WorldNetDaily Exclusive
What a boomer! Car sales continue plunge
Industry expected to languish for decades due to generation’s retirement
–WND

WND RADIO
WorldNetDaily Exclusive
Why isn’t economy creating jobs?
Diana Furchgott-Roth: GDP growth suggests numbers should be better
–WND

WND RADIO
WorldNetDaily Exclusive
Job numbers ‘more proof’ stimulus failed
GOP’s Olson: ‘The greatness of America is in our free-enterprise system’
–WND

---

WND MONEY
‘$11 trillion looted from U.S. economy’
‘Soros wanted somebody that hates the traditional America … so he chose Obama’
–World Tribune

---

WND DIVERSIONS
Templar ‘crucifixion nail’ a fantasy, says archaeologist
‘Pure imagination, without accuracy, scientific credibility’
–Examiner

---

THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS
Did you miss us?
Click for recap of latest WorldNetDaily stories
–WND

A Free Press for a Free People

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

uan Cole
AlterNet
Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:19 EST

© Creative Commons

At a recent conference, Prof. Martin Kramer called for population growth in the Muslim world to be restrained and made a series of other outrageous claims.
Martin Kramer revealed his true colors at the Herzliya Conference, wherein he blamed political violence in the Muslim world on population growth, called for that growth to be restrained, and praised the illegal and unconscionable Israeli blockade of civilian Gazans for its effect on reducing the number of Gazans.
[Commentator] M. J. Rosenberg argued that Kramer’s speech is equivalent to a call for genocide. It certainly is a call for eugenics.
It is shocking that Kramer, who has made a decade-long career of attacking social science understanding of the Middle East and demonizing anyone who departs even slightly from his rightwing Israeli-nationalist political line, should be given a cushy office at Harvard as a ‘fellow’ while spewing the most vile justifications for war crimes like the collective punishment of Gazan children.
Kramer is after all not nobody. He was an adviser to the Giuliani presidential campaign. He is listed as an associate of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the influential think tank in Washington of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. He is associated with Daniel Pipe’s ‘Middle East Forum,’ a neo-McCarthyite organization dedicated to harassing American academics who do not toe the political line of Israel’s ruling Likud Party.
Kramer’s remarks are wrong, offensive and racist by implication. He is driven to them by his nationalist ideology, which cannot recognize the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians by Israelis in 1948, cannot see that most Palestinians have been deprived by Israeli policies of citizenship rights (what Warren Burger called ‘the right to have rights’, as Margaret Somers pointed out), and that Palestinians are even at this moment being deprived of basic property and other rights by Israeli occupation. To admit that any of these actions produces a backlash is to acknowledge the Palestinian movements as forms of national liberation activism, and to legitimize Palestinian aspirations. Rightwing Zionism is all about erasing the Palestinians from history. And now Kramer wants to make it about erasing future Palestinian children!
Where have we seen the picture Kramer draws before? It is just a recycled form of Malthusianism, where the population growth rates of "some people" is seen as dangerous to society. Barbara Brown wrote of Apartheid South Africa:

‘ [White] South Africans who express a [concern with Black population growth] perceive a close relationship between population growth rates and political instability. There are two variants of this approach. The first holds that a growing black and unemployed population will mean increased poverty which will in turn lead to a black revolt. . .
In an opening address to a major private sector conference on ‘population dynamics’ in South Africa, the president of the 1820 Foundation argued that ‘Rapid population growth translates into a steadily worsening employment future, massive city growth . . . and an increase in the number of poor and disadvantaged. All are rightly viewed as threats to social stability and orderly change.’
A second, but smaller, group believes the black threat arises simply out of the changing ratio of white to black. This group sees that ‘THE WHITES ARE A DWINDLING MINORITY IN THE COUNTRY’ and argues that this situation will lead to a ’similar reduction of white political authority’.
Some argue for birth control on even more overtly racist grounds, but few people in leadership positions do so, at least publicly. Debates in the House of Assembly have included remarks to the effect that blacks are unable to make a contribution to South African society and so should be encouraged to limit their numbers. The organiser of a ‘Population Explosion’ conference, a medical doctor who is deputy director of the Verwoerd Hospital, argued that whites must organise a family planning programme for blacks because the latter group is biologically incapable of exercising foresight.’

– Barbara B. Brown, "Facing the ‘Black Peril’: The Politics of Population Control in South Africa," Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 13, No. 2(Jan., 1987), pp. 256-273, this quote pp. 263-64.
There are other notorious examples of this sort of argument, including eugenics theorist Madison Grant, who warned in the early 20th century that white Americans were being swamped by inferior eastern and southern Europeans such as Poles, Italians, and Jews.
How ironic, that Kramer should now resort to the very kind of arguments Grant used to condemn Martin Kramer’s ancestors being allowed to come to the United States.
As usual, Kramer, a notorious anti-intellectual opposed to the mainstream academic study of the Middle East, is wrong as a matter of social science.
Population growth in and of itself explains nothing, and certainly not terrorism. Between 1800 and 1900, Great Britain’s population tripled, whereas France underwent a demographic transition and grew very slowly. Yet Britain experienced no revolution, no great social upheavals in that period. France, in contrast, lurched from war to war, from empire to monarchy to empire to Republic, and saw the rise of a plethora of radical social movements, including the Paris Commune.
High population growth can be a problem for development, and can contribute to internal conflict over resources, but it is only one factor. If economic growth outstrips population growth (say the economy grows 7 percent and population grows 3 per year), then on a per capita basis that is the same as 4 percent economic growth per capita per annum, which would be good for most countries. Or if a place is thinly populated and rich in resources, population growth may not be socially disruptive. Most countries in the world have grown enormously in population during the past century, yet they display vastly different rates of social violence.
Although under some circumstances, rapid population growth can contribute to internal social instability, it is irrelevant to international terrorism as a political tactic. The deployment of terror, which the US Federal Code defines as the use of violence against civilians for political purposes by a non-state actor, is always a form of politics. The Zionist terrorists who blew up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in 1946, which killed 91 persons and wounded 46, did not act because Jewish Irgun members had too many brothers and sisters. (And if you think about who exactly might have made an argument of that form in the 1940s, it becomes clear how smelly Kramer’s is.) Irgun blew the hotel up because British Mandate intelligence had offices there, and because these Zionist activists did not care if they killed dozens of civilians.
Studies of groups that deploy violence against civilians for political purposes show that [pdf link] they are characterized by higher than average education and income, which correlate with smaller family size.
Political violence is about grievances, land, resources and politics. Palestinians were no more violent than any other group in the Middle East until they were ethnically cleansed and their property was stolen by Jewish colonists in their homeland, for which they never received compensation. As Robert Pape has shown, suicide bombings cluster in the area in and around Israel, in Iraq and Afghanistan/ Northern Pakistan, places where people feel militarily occupied. But there are none in Mali or Benin, countries with among the highest population growth rates in the world.
Kramer’s argument is implicitly racist because he applies the population-growth calculus mainly to Arabs, whose family size he minds in ways that he does not others. Belize and the Cameroons have higher population growth rates than Libya. Is Kramer afraid of those two countries? Why is it only Arab children he marks as a danger?
If population growth rates were the independent variable in predicting a turn to terrorism, moreover, the fast-growing ultra-Orthodox or Haredi Jewish population of Israel would be a concern. But in fact they refuse to serve in the Israeli army and so are the least violent part of the population (though there have been occasional Haredi attacks on Palestinians.)
Kramer will find, in his new role as the Madison Grant of the twenty-first century, that his arguments are a double-edged sword that even more unsavory persons than he will gleefully wield against groups other than Arabs.

Comment: If Israel is so worried about population growth, then they ought to be reining in the growth of their Ultra Orthodox sects. Families in this demographic tend to have eight to ten children. Israel is quite happy to use this group as a wedge to claim more Palestinian land for Zionism’s "natural growth". The hypocrisy stuns.
See: The Changing Face of Israel

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/204017-Harvard-Professor-s-Shocking-Proposal-Starve-the-Palestinians-in-Gaza-into-Having-Fewer-Babies

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Glenn Greenwald
Salon
Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:01 EST

Yesterday, Joseph Stack deliberately flew an airplane into a building housing IRS offices in Austin, Texas, in order to advance the political grievances he outlined in a perfectly cogent suicide-manifesto. Stack’s worldview contained elements of the tea party’s anti-government anger along with substantial populist complaints generally associated with "the Left" (rage over bailouts, the suffering of America’s poor, and the pilfering of the middle class by a corrupt economic elite and their government-servants). All of that was accompanied by an argument as to why violence was justified (indeed necessary) to protest those injustices:

I remember reading about the stock market crash before the "great" depression and how there were wealthy bankers and businessmen jumping out of windows when they realized they screwed up and lost everything. Isn’t it ironic how far we’ve come in 60 years in this country that they now know how to fix that little economic problem; they just steal from the middle class (who doesn’t have any say in it, elections are a joke) to cover their asses and it’s "business-as-usual" . . . . Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer.

Despite all that, The New York Times’ Brian Stelter documents the deep reluctance of cable news chatterers and government officials to label the incident an act of "terrorism," even though — as Dave Neiwert ably documents — it perfectly fits, indeed is a classic illustration of, every official definition of that term. The issue isn’t whether Stack’s grievances are real or his responses just; it is that the act unquestionably comports with the official definition. But as NBC’s Pete Williams said of the official insistence that this was not an act of Terrorism: there are "a couple of reasons to say that . . . One is he’s an American citizen." Fox News’ Megan Kelley asked Catherine Herridge about these denials: "I take it that they mean terrorism in the larger sense that most of us are used to?," to which Herridge replied: "they mean terrorism in that capital T way."
All of this underscores, yet again, that Terrorism is simultaneously the single most meaningless and most manipulated word in the American political lexicon. The term now has virtually nothing to do with the act itself and everything to do with the identity of the actor, especially his or her religious identity. It has really come to mean: "a Muslim who fights against or even expresses hostility towards the United States, Israel and their allies." That’s why all of this confusion and doubt arose yesterday over whether a person who perpetrated a classic act of Terrorism should, in fact, be called a Terrorist: he’s not a Muslim and isn’t acting on behalf of standard Muslim grievances against the U.S. or Israel, and thus does not fit the "definition." One might concede that perhaps there’s some technical sense in which term might apply to Stack, but as Fox News emphasized: it’s not "terrorism in the larger sense that most of us are used to . . . terrorism in that capital T way." We all know who commits terrorism in "that capital T way," and it’s not people named Joseph Stack.
Contrast the collective hesitance to call Stack a Terrorist with the extremely dubious circumstances under which that term is reflexively applied to Muslims. If a Muslim attacks a military base preparing to deploy soldiers to a war zone, that person is a Terrorist. If an American Muslim argues that violence against the U.S. (particularly when aimed at military targets) is justified due to American violence aimed at the Muslim world, that person is a Terrorist who deserves assassination. And if the U.S. military invades a Muslim country, Muslims who live in the invaded and occupied country and who fight back against the invading American army — by attacking nothing but military targets — are also Terrorists. Indeed, large numbers of detainees at Guantanamo were accused of being Terrorists for nothing more than attacking members of an invading foreign army in their country, including 14-year-old Mohamed Jawad, who spent many years in Guantanamo, accused (almost certainly falsely) of throwing a grenade at two American troops in Afghanistan who were part of an invading force in that country. Obviously, plots targeting civilians for death — the 9/11 attacks and attempts to blow up civilian aircraft — are pure terrorism, but a huge portion of the acts committed by Muslims that receive that label are not.
In sum: a Muslim who attacks military targets, including in war zones or even in their own countries that have been invaded by a foreign army, are Terrorists. A non-Muslim who flies an airplane into a government building in pursuit of a political agenda is not, or at least is not a Real Terrorist with a capital T — not the kind who should be tortured and thrown in a cage with no charges and assassinated with no due process. Nor are Christians who stand outside abortion clinics and murder doctors and clinic workers. Nor are acts undertaken by us or our favored allies designed to kill large numbers of civilians or which will recklessly cause such deaths as a means of terrorizing the population into desired behavioral change — the Glorious Shock and Awe campaign and the pummeling of Gaza. Except as a means for demonizing Muslims, the word is used so inconsistently and manipulatively that it is impoverished of any discernible meaning.
All of this would be an interesting though not terribly important semantic matter if not for the fact that the term Terrorist plays a central role in our political debates. It is the all-justifying term for anything the U.S. Government does. Invasions, torture, due-process-free detentions, military commissions, drone attacks, warrantless surveillance, obsessive secrecy, and even assassinations of American citizens are all justified by the claim that it’s only being done to "Terrorists," who, by definition, have no rights. Even worse, one becomes a "Terrorist" not through any judicial adjudication or other formal process, but solely by virtue of the untested, unchecked say-so of the Executive Branch. The President decrees someone to be a Terrorist and that’s the end of that: uncritical followers of both political parties immediately justify anything done to the person on the ground that he’s a Terrorist (by which they actually mean: he’s been accused of being one, though that distinction — between presidential accusations and proof — is not one they recognize).
If we’re really going to vest virtually unlimited power in the Government to do anything it wants to people they call "Terrorists," we ought at least to have a common understanding of what the term means. But there is none. It’s just become a malleable, all-justifying term to allow the U.S. Government carte blanche to do whatever it wants to Muslims it does not like or who do not like it (i.e., The Terrorists). It’s really more of a hypnotic mantra than an actual word: its mere utterance causes the nation blindly to cheer on whatever is done against the Muslims who are so labeled.
UPDATE: I want to add one point: the immediate official and media reaction was to avoid, even deny, the term "terrorist" because the perpetrator of the violence wasn’t Muslim. But if Stack’s manifesto begins to attract serious attention, I think it’s likely the term Terrorist will be decisively applied to him in order to discredit what he wrote. His message is a sharply anti-establishment and populist grievance of the type that transcends ideological and partisan divisions — the complaints which Stack passionately voices are found as common threads in the tea party movement and among citizens on both the Left and on the Right — and thus tend to be the type which the establishment (which benefits from high levels of partisan distractions and divisions) finds most threatening and in need of demonization. Nothing is more effective at demonizing something than slapping the Terrorist label onto it.

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/203322-Terrorism-The-most-meaningless-and-manipulated-word

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Rehmat’s World
Fri, 19 Feb 2010 23:45 EST

"Imperialist powers have always labeled as terrorists the people who fight for their right. Irishmen were terrorists until they signed an agreement. Abbas was a terrorist. Now, he is a friend," Mohamed Hassan, a Marxist author and former Ethiopian diplomat in Washington, Beijing and Brussels.
"Israel sees Islam as the greatest danger to its dominance over the Middle East, itself built on cruelty, violation and oppression"
Professor Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi (Haifa University).
On December 23, 2009 – the UN Security Council imposed sanctions (Resolution 1907/2009) against Eritrean government based on Zionists’ cooked-up allegation of supporting Islamic Resistance in Somalia. The sanctions include an arms embargo, travel ban and asset freezes of both officials and individuals. One of the other crime for which Eritrea was punished is – the border dispute with the US-Israel supported Ethiopean regime. To protest against the shameful Zionist anti-Muslim crusade against Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan – the Eritrean communities in Geneva, San Francisco, Washington DC, Melbourne, Bonn and several other cities – are holding peaceful demonstrations on February 22, 2010 against these illegal sanctions.
Pro-Israeli Jewish lobby groups – just like in case of Khartoum Islamic regime and Islamic resistance in Somalia - are very upset on Eritrean president Isais Afwerki’s support for Islamic Iran’s right to carry-on its nuclear program in his speech at the conference of Non-Aligned countries in November 2007. His foreign minister Osman Saleh repeated his government’s support for all countries to "develop or use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes as enshrined in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in his May 2009 interview. Saleh, in June 2009, repeated his conviction by saying: "Iran’s nuclear program is a source of pride for us and we support the country’s stand in this regard….. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Western nations do not have the authority to interfere with Iran’s nuclear development". In May 2008, president Isais Afwerki meet his Iranian counterpart, Dr. Ahmadinejad, in Tehran. The later agreed to help Eritrea in agricultural, educational and trade sectors.
Refuting silly Zionist propaganda that Eritrea is sending Iranian ammunition on donkeys through Ethiopia – Professor Dr. Muhammad Shumsaddin Megalommatis 53, an Orientalist, author of 15 books and a Greek Christian Orthodox who converted to Islam at the age of 36, wrote in November 2007 under the title How to damage US interests in Africa – demonizing Eritrea saying that Eritrean president doesn’t support "Islamists in Eritrea but the National Somali insurgence, which is a most rightful act that perfectly abide by the Principle and Ideals of America’s Founding Fathers". ….. There is no parallelism between Hamas or Hezbollah and the Somali Islamic Courts, which have been marginalized since November 2007 …."
Once upon a time, the Israeli Hasbara’s current "evil dictator", Isaia Afwerki, who was called a "renaissance leader" by former US president Bill Clinton, used to be a close African ally of the Zionist regime. He was flown to Israel on an American plane for medical treatment in 1993. This was followed by opening of an Israeli embassy in Asmara on March 15, 1993. During the same time, Israeli prime minister Yitzhalk Rabin and Afwerki signed an agreement, which allowed the Zionist entity to establish its military bases on Dahlak islands and in the Mahel Agar mountains near the Sudanese border.
Zionist entity’s collaboration with anti-Muslim Ethiopian regimes go back to King Haile Selassie rule. King’s 3100-strong ‘Emergency Police’ was trained and supplied with arms by the Israeli forces and Mossad. It was in 1971 when Gen. Haim Bar-Lev visited Ethiopia; two strategic islands (Halep and Fatima) were opened for the Israeli Navy. Gen. Matityahu Peled had admitted that it was Israeli protection which saved the King from three assassination attempts. When Haile Selassie was overthrown by a Marxist coup lead by Mengistu in 1974, Israel changed its loyalties to continue their genocide of Muslims in both Ethiopia and Eritrea. With the collapse of the USSR, in 1991, the opposition led by Isaias and Meles overthrew the communists government and as the result on a referendum on April 25, 1993, Eritrea ceased to be a part of Ethiopia after a 30-year resistance against Ethiopia resulting in the death of over 60,000 people. However, Isaiac with the help of Israeli anti-Muslim support continued the Marxist-regime’s policy against his own people.
Both Eritrea and Yemen are very important to the Zionist entity because between the two of them they can block Israel’s Sea link to the outside world via the Red Sea.
Eritrea has a population of 4.4 million with a Muslim majority (60%).

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/203327-Eritrea-From-Israel-s-ally-to-a-rogue-state

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Interview with Sarah Al-Massri
By Mohammed Omar Upsala, Sweden
Founder of Anti-Zionist Party, to be officially launched 23 of February.
Edit & Translation Hiyam Noir
February 17 – 2010
Sarah Al-Massri, Lund in Sweden, is an Arabic women, born and raised in Egypt and Lebanon. She is a social pedagog, a practising Muslim, Palestine supporter, and member of the Anti-Zionist party.
MO: Why are you anti-Zionist?

SA: Zionism is a xenophobic ideology which has created many problems in the world. Problems that unfortunately only a few of the world’s governments dare to admit. Zionism is the perfect example of systemic racism in its most repulsive form and the apartheid state of Israel came into being as a result of Zionism. Therefore, also Israel’s legitimacy as a state must seriously be taken into question. The Zionists have been terrorising the Palestinians for over 60 years, without the world doing anything to stop them. The truth is that to justify Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people, has deprived the Palestinians of the protection which they are entitled to and which is stated in International Law, Humanitarian Laws and Human Rights Law.It is appalling that it is seen as OK for Israeli occupation forces to be engaged and continue it’s eradication of the Palestinians.To the collective punishment of Palestinians by openly racially discriminate them, expel them from their land and homes by illegal settlements, and commit atrocities against them, it is pure madness.
MO: Do you have personal experience of the occupation?
SA: Even though I live in Sweden I am affected by the occupation. I follow my sisters and brothers constant struggle for survival and feel deep compassion for them. It is quite absurd how people there are denied access to obvious things such as health care, clean drinking water, electricity, education and so on. It is with great sadness I see how so many Palestinians still are forced to live their lives in refugee camps, and that so many Palestinian children have become orphans due to conflict.These realities are difficult emotions for me to handle.
MO: Do you feel as a Muslim that you have a special responsibility to engage in the Palestinian issue?
SA: Not just as a Muslim, but as fellow human being. I can not help thinking about it, if a European country would have to live and suffer under illegal occupation, It is quite obvious Europe and the rest of the world would have reacted immediately. Why then Palestinians, are the Arabs an exception? You can not ignore the fact that it was the Western powers who co-founded Israel and Zionism, without the help of these Western countries, the erection of the Zionist state Israel never would be able to emerge.Is it right that these countries should go free from responsibility? Is it not specifically their obligation to take the blame for what is going on in Palestine today. The Palestinian issue is therefore a global problem and for that reason it requires an international commitment.
MO: What should we do to combat Zionism?
SA: Restrict its power by actively increasing the resistance. By both local and global dissemination of knowledge and facts to others using the network, blogs, etc. Stopping the arms trade and military cooperation with Israel. Stop using Israeli products and call for a boycott of these products.
MO: What is the situation in the vicinity of Malmö? In response to the demonstration against Israel during the Davis World Cup, the tennis competition, did these activities increased the awareness of the Palestinian struggle, and the support of the Swedish and the international anti-Zionist movement?
SA: I think that more people now dare to protest publicly and demonstrate a clear solidarity with the Palestinian people. It is important not to stand passive!
MO: Do you think that Swedish Jews sufficiently have moved away from Zionism and terrorism carried out in their name?
SA: My understanding is that some Jews have actually been expelled from Israel for being critical and supportive of the Palestinians in combating Zionism, however,it is reprehensible that there are still so few Jews who does not condemn Israeli policies, taken a more critical stance regarding the occupation.The Jews are after all our fellow human beings together with the Arabs they should have a moral responsibility to support the Palestinians and condemn the occupation.
MO: Will Palestine be free one day? Are you hopeful?
SA: When the idea of justice and equal rights will take effect, only when the Palestinians and the "peace process" is based upon justice and equal rights for all, then Palestine will be free.
_____________________
"World Jewish Zionism, today, constitutes the last racist ideology still surviving and the Zionist’s state of Israel, the last outpost of "Apartheid" in the World. Israel constitutes by its mere existence a complete defiance to all international laws, rules and principles, and the open racism manifested in the Jewish State is a violation of all ethics and morals known to Mankind."
Anti-Sionistiska Partiet – Anti-Zionist Party – لا-للصهيونية

© PalestineFreeVoice Copyright reserved 2003 – 2011
Intellectual Rights Retained

palestinefreevoice: "Zionism is a xenophobic ideology"

Bookmark It

Hide Sites