Historian Stephen Ambrose Accused of Faking Eisenhower Interviews
Yahoo News
Was one of America's most revered popular historians fabricating his own material? That's the explosive charge now levied at Stephen Ambrose, author of numerous bestselling military and presidential histories. The author of "D-Day" and "Band of Brothers" died in 2002, but several authorities have recently questioned the writer's accounts of his research for "Supreme Commander," a massive two-volume biography of Dwight D. Eisenhower. At a minimum, Ambrose's critics say, he had vastly exaggerated the amount of time he spent interviewing the former president; and at worst, they suggest, he simply made up long stretches of the book.
Defense Spending Is Much Greater than You Think
Robert Higgs -- The Independent Institute
... For fiscal 2010, which is still in progress, the president's budget estimates that the Pentagon's spending will run more than $50 billion above the previous year's total. Any supplemental appropriations made before September 30 will push the total for fiscal 2010 even farther above the trillion-dollar mark ... The government is currently spending at a rate well in excess of $1 trillion per year for all defense-related purposes. Owing to the financial debacle and the ongoing recession, millions are out of work, millions are losing their homes, and private earnings remain well below their previous peak, but in the military-industrial complex, the gravy train speeds along the track faster and faster.
`Dear Uncle Adolf': Documentary on Fan Mail to Hitler
The Telegraph (Britain)
Fan letters written to Adolf Hitler during the Second World War were the subject of a new documentary in Germany last night. / 'Dear Uncle Adolf' was the first documentary detailing the tens of thousands of surviving fan letters Hitler received while in power which were seized by the Soviets when they conquered Berlin in 1945. For years these love notes, advice letters, gifts and health-tips lay undiscovered in Russian archives. Discovered in 2007, they formed the basis of a German book called 'Letters to Hitler'. Last night the Svengali-like grip that the Austrian-born Hitler exerted over Germany was unveiled as actors read out the letters that would fill a truck. They were letters that often accompanied gifts ...
Lies and Wars
William Pfaff
... Injustice and lies in the Middle East were responsible for unnecessary new wars in the new century, in which the United States took the lead ... Once more the threat is a polemical invention, intended to frighten American, Israeli (and European) voters, and prompt a preemptive attack on Iran. The reason Mr. Gates reports his uncertainties to the president is that he too recognizes that the conflict with Iran is constructed from fictions - which, as with the lies about Iraq, may turn into another war, whose consequences are sure to be worse for all concerned than the fiasco and tragedy of America's invasion of Iraq.
In Britain, 1930s Books Revived to Teach Traditional History
The Telegraph (Britain)
... Currently, pupils study topics such as the Nazis, Soviet Russia, slavery or the Victorians, often taught in isolation and repeated in different years. According to the publishers, the 1930s books are needed to address a "crisis" in the teaching of the traditional narrative of British history. "For more than half a century most intelligent youngsters in Britain have grown up to live in the half-darkness of historical ignorance," said Tom Stacey ... He said that traditional history had "all but vanished" in schools, replaced by a diet of "projects on slavery, Victorian slums, the labour movement or, again and again, the Second World War".
Women in the US Now Match Men in Advanced Degrees
The Associated Press
Women are now just as likely as men to have completed college and to hold an advanced degree, part of an accelerating trend of educational gains that have shielded women from recent job losses. Yet they continue to lag behind men in pay. Among adults 25 and older, 29 percent of women in the U.S. have at least a bachelor's degree, compared with 30 percent of men, according to 2009 census figures released Tuesday. Measured by raw numbers, women already surpass men in undergraduate degrees by roughly 1.2 million. Women also have drawn even with men in holding advanced degrees. Women represented roughly half of those in the U.S. with a master's degree or higher ...
Amnesty Bill Provisions
Lou Dobbs - CNN
Lou Dobbs reviews remarkable provisions of an immigration "reform" bill under consideration by Congress in 2007, which was backed by President George W. Bush, and Senator McCain. Runtime: 3:32 mins.
Global Views of US Improve While Other Countries Decline
BBC News
Global views of the United States have improved markedly over the last year while views of many countries have become more negative, according to the latest BBC World Service poll across 28 countries. For the first time since the BBC started tracking in 2005, views of the United States' influence in the world are now more positive than negative on average ... Germany is the most favourably viewed nation (an average of 59% positive), followed by Japan (53%), the United Kingdom (52%), Canada (51%), and France (49%). The European Union is viewed positively by 53 per cent. In contrast, Iran is the least favourably viewed nation (15%), followed by Pakistan (16%), North Korea (17%), Israel (19%), and Russia (30%).
An Act Of War: Sanctions Against Iran
Rep. Ron Paul
... I object to this entire push for war on Iran, however it is disguised. Listening to the debate on the Floor on this motion and the underlying bill it feels as if we are back in 2002 all over again: the same falsehoods and distortions used to push the United States into a disastrous and unnecessary one trillion dollar war on Iraq are being trotted out again to lead us to what will likely be an even more disastrous and costly war on Iran. The parallels are astonishing. We hear war advocates today on the Floor scare-mongering about reports that in one year Iran will have missiles that can hit the United States. Where have we heard this bombast before?
Israel, the US and Iran: `Hold Me Back!'
Uri Avnery
... An Israeli attack on Iran would cause a military, political and economic disaster for the United States of America. Since the Iranians, too, realize that Israel could not attack without American consent, they would react accordingly ... Whatever the rantings of Ahmadinejad, the real rulers of the country, the clerics, conduct a cautious and sober policy, and have never attacked another country. They have many important interests, and Israel is not among them. The idea that they would sacrifice their own glorious homeland in order to destroy Israel is ludicrous.
Ernst Zundel Speaks Out: Testing the Limits of Freedom of Speech
Foreign Policy Journal (Interview)
... My entire treatment these past seven years by those arresting me, trying and convicting me, and keeping me in prison has been in brutal breach of international conventions. I was arrested in broad daylight on American soil by officials of the U.S. government who acted as hit squads for a nefarious lobby ... My so-called trial in Mannheim was a political show trial in the Stalinist mode in that my guilt was a foregone conclusion ... As we later found out through various freedom of information requests in various countries, there was in place for years a deliberate, convoluted plan to arrest and detain me under false pretenses so as to take me out and put me behind bars.
America's Malaise, Zundel's Ordeal, Criticism and Sacrifice
Mark Weber -- Institute for Historical Review - Audio
Weber speaks about America's growing social-political malaise, its origins, and what it means for us. He also reviews the ordeal of Ernst Zundel, a "prisoner of conscience" who was recently released from a German prison after years behind bars. The IHR director recalls his relationship of more than 20 years with Zundel. In this address at an IHR meeting, March 6, 2010, Weber also talks about smears by hostile groups such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center. These attacks, he says, should be regarded as a "badge of honor." Finally, Weber speaks about sacrifice, comparing the attitude of Americans today with the idealism and suffering of so many Americans of past generations.
Illegal Immigration: Is An Amnesty the Answer?
Daniel Sandford -- BBC News
... Amnesties have been tried before. Researchers at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society at the University of Oxford have looked at previous studies, in particular ones of a United States amnesty in 1986. They found that "almost all show that the large-scale amnesty implemented in 1986 has not reduced, and has in fact increased, undocumented migration to the US, since it established new migration flows due to networks and family ties". A total of 2.7 million qualified for the amnesty in 1986. By 2000 there were an estimated 9.3 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. Meanwhile, Spain had six amnesties in 20 years. In that time the illegal population rose from 44,000 to 700,000 - a 15-fold increase.
Russia Posts Katyn Massacre Documents Online
The Associated Press
Russia's state archives posted documents on the Internet for the first time Wednesday about the Soviet Union's World War II massacre of more than 20,000 Polish officers and other prominent citizens ... The documents also include the minutes of the Politburo meeting on March 5, 1940, at which Beria's proposal was approved, and a note from the head of the Soviet secret police in 1959 to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev advising that the Katyn files be destroyed. For 50 years, the Soviet Union blamed the massacres on the Nazi German forces who invaded in 1941.
Puritan Values or MBA Values?
Kenneth Hopper and William Hopper -- The Christian Science Monitor
... It was our falling away from Puritan values in the 1970s that sowed the seeds of destruction. This [Puritan] migration endowed the Bay Colony of Massachusetts with four core beliefs: (1) a conviction that the purpose of life, however vaguely conceived, was to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth; (2) an aptitude for the exercise of mechanical skills; (3) a moral outlook that subordinated the interests of the individual to the group; and (4) an ability to assemble and use financial, material, and human resources to a single purpose, on a massive or a lesser scale. These four beliefs created a powerhouse.
Did Egypt Start the 1967 War, As Israel Claimed?
Jews for Justice in The Middle East
"The former Commander of the Air Force, General Ezer Weizman, regarded as a hawk, stated that there was 'no threat of destruction' but that the attack on Egypt, Jordan and Syria was nevertheless justified so that Israel could 'exist according the scale, spirit, and quality she now embodies.'...Menahem Begin had the following remarks to make: 'In June 1967, we again had a choice. The Egyptian Army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him'." -- Noam Chomsky, The Fateful Triangle
Eighteen US Veterans Commit Suicide Each Day
Army Times (Springfield, Va.)
Troubling new data show there are an average of 950 suicide attempts each month by veterans who are receiving some type of treatment from the Veterans Affairs Department. Seven percent of the attempts are successful, and eleven percent of those who don't succeed on the first attempt try again within nine months. The numbers, which come at a time when VA is strengthening its suicide prevention programs, show about 18 veteran suicides a day, about five by veterans who are receiving VA care.
Tax Evader Who Blamed Holocaust is Sentenced to Prison
The Associated Press
A tax evader was sentenced Friday to ten months in federal prison after claiming his Jewish parents' experience fleeing the Nazi Holocaust drove him to compulsively hide more than $10 million in secret accounts at Swiss bank UBS AG and other offshore tax havens. U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan imposed the longest sentence to date for a UBS client against 65-year-old Jack Barouh, even after giving him credit for cooperating in the ongoing investigation and belatedly attempting to come clean with the Internal Revenue Service.
Mood is Dark as Israel Marks Anniversary
The New York Times
... There is something about the mood this year that feels darker than usual. It has a bipartisan quality to it. Both left and right are troubled, and both largely about the same things, especially the Iranian nuclear program combined with growing tensions with the Obama administration ... Per capita annual gross domestic product is nearly $30,000, double that of Russia and close to that of Germany. Israeli citizens live on average more than 80 years, on a par with life expectancy in Norway. The number of murders per capita is a third of that of the United States. Israel's population has passed 7.5 million, more than nine times what it was at its birth in 1948, and is growing at 1.8 percent a year, a rate no other developed country approaches.
Israel at 60: A Grim Balance Sheet
Mark Weber
... Contrary to claims made by American and Israeli political leaders, US support for Israel has never been in America's authentic national interest, nor has it been based on a commitment to democracy and freedom ... In spite of its impressive military arsenal, and virtually unlimited support from the United States, Israel's long-term prospects are not good ... Although Israel is a formidable military power, it is an aberrant, crisis-prone state, artificially kept alive with outside support, and based on an unworkable ideology.
Russia Publishes Katyn Archives
BBC News
... One of the documents is a March 5, 1940, letter from the then-head of the Soviet secret police or NKVD, Lavrenty Beria, to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, recommending the execution of Polish prisoners of war. Beria refers to them as "steadfast, incorrigible enemies of Soviet power". "Each of them is just waiting for liberation so as to actively join the struggle against Soviet power," it says. The letter bears Stalin's signature in blue pencil, with the comment "In favour".
Mexico Accused Over Migrant Abuse
BBC News
Migrants in Mexico are facing a "major human rights crisis" as the authorities fail to tackle widespread abuses, Amnesty International has warned. The human rights group said officials ignored or even played a part in the rape, kidnap, and murder of migrants, often carried out by criminal gangs. Tens of thousands of Central American migrants pass through Mexico every year to try to reach the US and find work ... Many here think that, when it comes to migration issues, Mexico first has to clean up its own act, our correspondent says.
Zionist Center in Israel Calls the IHR `Particularly Dangerous'
The Jabotinsky International Center (Israel)
... A particularly dangerous organization, the Institute for Historical Review presents itself as a legitimately researched body interested in historical truth, while spreading anti-Semitic propaganda. Unlike most other anti-Semitic websites, ihr.org presents itself with a professional layout and well written material.
Five Presidents `More Radical' Than Obama
John P. Avlon -- CNN
Newt Gingrich called President Obama "the most radical president in American history" at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference last week. The leader of the 1994 Republican Revolution is a smart man and a historian, so he must know better. But he's also exploring a run for president, an action that frequently suspends good judgment in pursuit of sound bites. Perspective is the first thing abandoned in hyper-partisan attacks. So here is a look at five presidents who, it could be argued, exceed Obama in the "radical" sweepstakes: Franklin D. Roosevelt, John Adams, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln and George W. Bush
American History: Right and Left
Jonathan Zimmerman
... That's how most liberals - and, I should add, most historians - see the world. Our heroes are the champions of social justice - Frederick Douglass, Jane Addams, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and so on - and the presidents who tried to put their ideas into practice: Abraham Lincoln, both Roosevelts, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson ... Most of this work proceeds from the basic assumption that the right was wrong: about religion, race, the economy and everything else.
Europe is Pledged to the 'Martyrized Jewish People,' Says French President
AFP-EJP
French president Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday that "Europe is at Israel's side because it took oath after World War II to give a State to the Jewish people so long martyrised", after meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris with his Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres.
A Deaf and Defiant Israel is Gambling With Its Future
Max Hastings - The Financial Times (Britain)
... Israel's tragedy is that it is an ever more inward-looking society: proud of its prosperity, deaf to foreign opinion, contemptuous of the Arabs. It willfully ignores the prospect that its Palestinian neighbours can never forge a viable society capable of responsible behaviour on lands chequered with Israeli settlements and strategic roads. Yet Israel's claim upon East Jerusalem is rooted in a sense of moral entitlement, which the rest of the world increasingly rejects. Some day Americans will awaken to the heavy strategic price their own nation pays for indulging Israeli excesses. Israel may be successful in securing all of Jerusalem within its own borders. But it runs the historic risk of making itself, by a ghastly irony, a pariah state.
Taking Sides: The U.S. and Israel
John Mearsheimer
... There will be more crises ahead, because a two-state solution is probably impossible at this point and 'greater Israel' is going to end up an apartheid state. The United States cannot support that outcome, however, partly for the strategic reasons that have been exposed by the present crisis, but also because apartheid is a morally reprehensible system that no decent American could openly embrace. Given its core values, how could the United States sustain a special relationship with an apartheid state? In short, America's remarkably close relationship with Israel is now in trouble and this situation will only get worse.
Hitler's Secret Indian Army
BBC News
... Thousands of Indian soldiers who had joined Britain in the fight against fascism swapped their oaths to the British king for others to Adolf Hitler - an astonishing tale of loyalty, despair and betrayal that threatened to rock British rule in India, known as the Raj. The story the German officers told their interrogators began in Berlin on 3 April 1941. This was the date that the left-wing Indian revolutionary leader, Subhas Chandra Bose, arrived in the German capital ... By the end of 1941, Hitler's regime officially recognised his provisional "Free India Government" in exile, and even agreed to help Chandra Bose raise an army to fight for his cause.
Subhas Chandra Bose, The Indian National Army, and The War of India's Liberation
Ranjan Borra -- Institute for Historical Review
The arrival of Subhas Chandra Bose in Germany in 1941 (during the turbulent period of World War II) and his anti-British activities in that country in co-operation with the German government, culminated in the formation of an Indian legion. This marks perhaps the most significant event in the annals of India's fight for independence.
Subhas Chandra Bose and India's Struggle for Independence
Andrew Montgomery - Institute for Historical Review
... Bose was favorably impressed with the discipline and organizational strength of fascism as early as 1930, when he first expressed support for a synthesis of fascism and socialism. During his stays in Europe during the 1930s, he was deeply moved by the dynamism of the two major "fascist" powers, Italy and Germany. After observing these regimes first-hand, he developed a political ideology of his own that, he was convinced, could bring about the liberation of India and the total reconstruction of Indian society along vaguely authoritarian-socialist lines.
Foreclosure Rates Surge, Biggest Jump in Five Years
The Associated Press
A record number of U.S. homes were lost to foreclosure in the first three months of this year, a sign banks are starting to wade through the backlog of troubled home loans at a faster pace, according to a new report. RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday that the number of U.S. homes taken over by banks jumped 35 percent in the first quarter from a year ago. In addition, households facing foreclosure grew 16 percent in the same period and seven percent from the last three months of 2009. More homes were taken over by banks and scheduled for a foreclosure sale than in any quarter going back to at least January 2005, when RealtyTrac began reporting the data, the firm said.
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