A New Openness to Discussing Allied War Crimes in World War II
Der Spiegel (Germany)
... Allied soldiers committed war crimes in Normandy to a much greater extent than was previously realized. Beevor extensively quotes reports and memoirs of those who took part in the invasion, many of whom state that American, British and Canadian troops killed German POWs and wounded soldiers ... Near one village, Audouville-la-Hubert, they massacred 30 captured Wehrmacht soldiers in a single killing spree ... It would seem that no shadows were to be cast on the war that gave the Americans, in particular, the moral right to have a say in shaping Europe's postwar future as well as creating the practical conditions for it to do so.
The Soviet Union Came Close to Defeat in 1941, Marshal Zhukov Acknowledged
The Telegraph (Britain)
An interview in which a Soviet commander admitted how close Moscow came to defeat by Germany during the Second World War has been broadcast in Russia for the first time. The Soviet Union nearly lost the war in 1941 and suffered from poor planning, according to Marshal Georgy Zhukov in the frank television interview that has been banned since it was recorded in 1966. Zhukov, the most decorated general in the history of both Russia and the Soviet Union, admitted that Soviet generals were not confident that they could hold the German forces at the Mozhaisk defence line outside Moscow.
The Revenger's Tragedy: Denial and Reality of British WWII Bombing
Leo McKinstry -- New Statesman (Britain)
The British government has long denied that wartime air raids on German cities were intended to kill as many civilians as possible. In fact, the raids, led by Arthur Harris, were motivated largely by a desire to hit back and destroy indiscriminately / ... "The aim of [Britain's] Bomber Command should be unambiguously and publicly stated," he [Harris] wrote in 1943. "That aim is the destruction of German cities, the killing of German workers and the disruption of civilised life throughout Germany." He wanted the government to declare its commitment to "the creation of a refugee problem on an unprecedented scale", and he expressed his contempt of the official eagerness "to downplay the obliteration of German cities and their inhabitants".
The Bogus Mythology of World War II
Eric Margolis
... History is the propaganda of the victors. Few photographs of the gulag have survived, evidence was destroyed, and witnesses have died. Churchill and Roosevelt could not admit they were allied to the greatest mass killer since Genghis Khan, and complicit in his crimes. Or reveal that Communist agents of influence had shaped White House policy. The feeble-minded Roosevelt even hailed Stalin as "Uncle Joe." ... Those who considered the Jewish Holocaust a unique historical crime were not eager to bring attention to Stalin's genocide lest it diminish or dilute their own people's suffering.
A Timetable For War
Philip Giraldi
... The principal advocates of war in the United States are not in the White House. They continue to belong to the Israeli lobby as given voice through its acolytes in Congress and the media ... That is precisely the reason why I think a new war in the Middle East is inevitable and will take place this year, probably by August.
Blackberry Predicted a Century Ago by Nikola Tesla
The Telegraph (Britain)
The Blackberry was first predicted more than a century ago, by Nikola Tesla, the electrical engineer, it has been claimed. Tesla, a pioneering American physicist, made the prediction about the portable messaging service in the Popular Mechanics magazine in 1909. Tesla, whose name lives on at Tesla Motors, the electric car manufacturer, saw wireless energy as the only way to make electricity thrive. He wrote in the magazine that, one day it would be possible to transmit wireless messages all over the world. Tesla, who [was born in Europe and] spent most of his adult life in America before his death in New York in 1943, imagined such a hand-held device would be simple to use and that, one day, everyone in the world would communicate to friends using it. This, he added, would usher in a new era of technology.
U.S. Nuclear Option on Iran Linked to Israeli Attack Threat
Gareth Porter - Inter Press Service
The Barack Obama administration's declaration in its Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) that it is reserving the right to use nuclear weapons against Iran represents a new element in a strategy of persuading Tehran that an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites is a serious possibility if Iran does not bow to the demand that it cease uranium enrichment. Although administration officials have carefully refrained from drawing any direct connection between the new nuclear option and the Israeli threat, the NPR broadens the range of contingencies in which nuclear weapons might play a role so as to include an Iranian military response to an Israeli attack. A war involving Iran that begins with an Israeli attack is the only plausible scenario that would fit the category of contingencies in the document.
False Virtue: The Politics of Lying About History
Thomas J. DiLorenzo
... A major theme of [Warren's] The Legacy of the Civil War is that the war left the North (which is to say, the U.S. government) with "a treasury of virtue." This is the "psychological heritage" left to the North, and it is an insidious heritage, wrote [Pulitzer-Prize winning poet and novelist] Robert Penn Warren. "The Northerner, with his Treasury of Virtue, feels redeemed by history." ... Warren called this "moral narcissism." It is "a poor basis for national policy," he wrote, but is the "justification" for "our crusades of 1917-1918 and 1941-1945 and our diplomacy of righteousness, with the slogan of unconditional surrender and universal spiritual rehabilitation for others."
Engaging Speakers Highlight Successful IHR Meeting
Institute for Historical Review
Life and death in World War Two Poland and Germany and the battle for Internet free speech were the topics tackled by three stimulating speakers at the packed IHR meeting on Saturday evening, April 17, 2010. Paul Fromm, Canadian free speech activist, reviewed major assaults against on-line freedom of expression, and recent legal victories against groups that seek to impose "politically correct" censorship on the Internet. Dana Alvi spoke graphically of privation, suffering and death in Poland during World War Two. She recounted numerous moving personal anecdotes, including grim memories from the bloody Warsaw Rising of 1944. And Gretel Hines spoke vividly about day-to-day life in the Third Reich.
A Look at Costs of Afghan War to US Taxpayers
Reuters
... Obama has asked for $33 billion more to help fund 30,000 extra U.S. soldiers being sent to Afghanistan this year. He wants another $4.5 billion for beefed-up foreign aid and civilian operations in Iraq and Afghanistan this year; about $2 billion of this amount is dedicated to Afghanistan ... Congress has approved $345 billion so far for the war in Afghanistan, where the United States invaded to fight al Qaeda and topple the Taliban after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. This figure is from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which says that about $22 billion has gone for Afghan-war-related activities in other countries. About twice as much money -- $708 billion -- has gone to the war in Iraq so far, CBO says.
A US Supreme Court Without Protestant Christians?
CNN
... Roughly half of all Americans identify themselves as Protestant today. But since John Paul Stevens announced his retirement last month, legal and religious scholars have begun entertaining the unprecedented prospect of a Supreme Court without a single Protestant justice. Besides Stevens, who is Protestant, the current Supreme Court counts six Catholics and two Jews ... Of the three candidates who are reported to lead Obama's short list, two -- Solicitor General Elena Kagan and federal appeals judge Merrick Garland -- are Jewish, while one, federal appeals judge Diane Wood, is a Protestant.
The Future of Palestine
John J. Mearsheimer
... .From the start, Zionism envisioned an Israeli state that controlled all of Mandatory Palestine. There was no place for a Palestinian state in the original Zionist vision of Israel ... No American president can put meaningful pressure on Israel to force it to change its policies toward the Palestinians. The main reason is the Israel lobby, a remarkably powerful interest group that has a profound influence on U.S. Middle East policy ... In short President Obama is no match for the lobby ... In sum, there are great dangers ahead for the Palestinians, who will continue to suffer terribly at the hands of the Israelis for some years to come. But it does look like the Palestinians will eventually get their own state, mainly because Israel seems bent on self-destruction.
Nuking the Mullahs
Philip Giraldi
... Israel is fast becoming a pariah nation, like South Africa before the final collapse of apartheid, because no one any longer accepts the legitimacy of its settlement growth and occupation policies ... If the US refuses to cooperate in bombing Iran conventionally, Israel might well accept the view that the Iranian nuclear program can only be destroyed by using other nuclear weapons. Tel Aviv, controlling its own nuclear arsenal and the means to deliver the bombs on target, would be able to stage such an attack unilaterally. An increasingly isolated Israel headed by reactionary and irrational politicians who are influenced by their own sense of racial superiority just might decide that the gamble is worth it. It would be a very bad decision for Israel, Iran, and for the United States.
More Hype About Iran?
Stephen M. Walt
Back when I started writing this blog, I warned that the idea of preventive war against Iran wasn't going to go away just because Barack Obama was president. ... One of the more remarkable features about the endless drumbeat of alarm about Iran is that it pays virtually no attention to Iran's actual capabilities, and rests on all sorts of worst case assumptions about Iranian behavior ... Indeed, Iran is significantly weaker than Israel, which has roughly the same total of regular plus reserve military personnel and vastly superior training. Israel also has more numerous and modern armored and air capabilities and a sizeable nuclear weapons stockpile of its own.
Arizona Legislature Votes to Ban Ethnic-Studies Programs
Yahoo News
Just a week after signing the country's toughest immigration bill into law, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer now must decide whether to endorse another bill passed by her state legislature -- one that outlaws ethnic-studies programs in public schools. The bill forbids Arizona schools from using any curriculum that promotes "the overthrow of the United States government" or "resentment toward a race or class of people." It also disallows any curriculum that's "designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group" or that seeks to "advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals." Arizona's superintendent for public instruction, Tom Horne, has said he's backing the measure because ethnic-studies programs encourage "ethnic chauvinism."
Six Largest US Banks Total 63 Percent of GDP
The New Republic
... As a result of the crisis and various government rescue efforts, the largest six banks in our economy now have total assets in excess of 63 percent of GDP (based on the latest available data). This is a significant increase from even 2006, when the same banks' assets were around 55 percent of GDP, and a complete transformation compared with the situation in the United States just 15 years ago, when the six largest banks had combined assets of only around 17 percent of GDP. If the status quo persists, we are set up for another round of the boom-bailout-bust cycle that the head of financial stability at the Bank of England now terms a "doom loop."
Mexico's Illegals Laws Tougher Than Arizona's
The Washington Times
... Under the Mexican law, illegal immigration is a felony, punishable by up to two years in prison. Immigrants who are deported and attempt to re-enter can be imprisoned for 10 years. Visa violators can be sentenced to six-year terms. Mexicans who help illegal immigrants are considered criminals. The law also says Mexico can deport foreigners who are deemed detrimental to "economic or national interests," violate Mexican law, are not "physically or mentally healthy" or lack the "necessary funds for their sustenance" and for their dependents.
In the Name of Zionism
Uri Avnery (Israel)
... The leaders of the "Zionist State" depend to a large extent upon the Diaspora and use it for their own purposes. The Exile-Jewish AIPAC ensures the subjection of the US Congress to the will of the Israeli government. The "Anti-Defamation League" (which should more properly be called the "Defamation League") is terrorizing the American media in order to prevent any criticism of Israeli policy. In the past, the United Jewish Appeal was essential for the economic wellbeing of Israel ... If one speaks in Israel of "Zionism", one means "not Arab". A "Zionist" state means a state in which non-Jewish citizens cannot be full partners. Eighty percent of Israel's citizens (the Jews) are telling the other twenty percent (the Arabs): the state belongs to us, not to you. ...
England is the `Least Patriotic' Country in Europe, New Survey Shows
The Telegraph (Britain)
... Political correctness and a fear of appearing racist were said to be the main factors in the apparent lack of patriotism in England, along with the increasing influence of the European Union ... Twenty percent blamed a broken society for their lack of patriotism, while half said they had been patriotic in the past. ... One in four English adults said 'political correctness' had left them feeling ashamed to be English, while forty per cent said they felt England had completely lost its national identity. Just ten per cent said they would happily fly the national flag on their house or in their garden, compared to more than a third of Dutch people, with more than a quarter saying they feared being called racist if they did so.
US Holocaust Museum Yearly Budget -- More Than $50 Million
Sara J. Bloomfield - US Holocaust Memorial Museum
... The Museum's budget request for [fiscal year] FY 2011 is $50,520,500. The proposed budget increase over FY 2010 is $1.4 million for pay raises and inflation. The request level will provide for the continuation of current Museum operations. The Museum was built to do more than just teach the Holocaust - it was built to inspire people, including our leaders, to act on the lessons learned from the Holocaust. As a living memorial to the Holocaust, the Museum seeks to inspire leaders and citizens worldwide to confront hate, prevent genocide and promote human dignity.
Major US Jewish Organizations Defend Israel's Humiliation of America
James Petras
When Israel announced a major new Jews-only building project of 1600 homes in occupied East Jerusalem, it was not only "spitting in the face" of visiting Vice President Biden, it was demonstrating its power to humiliate America and Americans. Netanyahu was sending a message to world: Israel backed by its billionaire-financed Presidents of the 51 Major American Jewish Organizations, leads the US by the nose ... At the center of power in America, there is an influential group of power-brokers willing to exploit and humiliate the American people in the service of a foreign power. In the past, patriots would have called them 'traitors'.
Talk by Supposed Auschwitz Camp Survivor Cancelled Amid Fraud Accusations
Wausau Daily Herald (Wisconsin)
A public presentation in Wausau by a man who claimed to have survived Auschwitz has been canceled as family members have come forward disputing the veracity of his story. Gunther Skaletz was scheduled to speak publicly Tuesday evening at Wausau East High School, hosted by a Wausau group A Walk in Their Shoes. In a statement Monday morning, the group said it could not verify or confirm allegations that Skaletz was lying, but that it was canceling the event due to a "cloud of controversy." Skaletz, who lives in Manitowoc and is a frequent speaker for schools, churches and other Wisconsin organizations, claimed in his book that he was sent to and later released from the Nazi death camp Auschwitz ...
Eruption on the Nile: Oppression and Discontent in Egypt
Eric Margolis
... Washington's powerful Israel Lobby dominates Congress and thus US food aid to Egypt. Sadat and Mubarak gave Israel decisive influence over Egypt's policies in exchange for food aid and billions of dollars, a fact that enrages Egypt's Islamists and nationalists ... While Washington fulminates against Iran and China over human rights, it says nothing about client Egypt, where all elections are rigged, regime opponents brutally tortured, and political opposition liquidated. Washington could quickly impose real democracy to Egypt, where it pulls all the strings, if it wanted.
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.
The Return of Hitler
Macleans (Canada)
... Almost 65 years later to the day, the man and the totalitarian regime he established continue to fascinate us. In just the last few years, Mein Kampf (My Struggle), Hitler's poorly written, 700-page magnum opus, "turgid, verbose, shapeless," to borrow from Winston Churchill, has earned bestseller status in some unlikely markets: India, Turkey and the Palestinian territories. His paintings are fetching record-setting prices, and trade in anything the Third Reich leader touched, or might have touched, is thriving. ... The 65 years that have passed since Hitler's death have not dulled the allure of the Führer, or his ideology, for the now-burgeoning extreme right.
Noam Chomsky Has 'Never Seen Anything Like This'
Chris Hedges -- Truthdig
... He enters his 81st year warning us that we have little time left to save our anemic democracy. "It is very similar to late Weimar Germany," Chomsky told me when I called him at his office in Cambridge, Mass. "The parallels are striking. There was also tremendous disillusionment with the parliamentary system." ... Chomsky reserves his fiercest venom for the liberal elite in the press, the universities and the political system who serve as a smoke screen for the cruelty of unchecked capitalism and imperial war. He exposes their moral and intellectual posturing as a fraud.
The `Military Industrial Complex' Danger: A Presidential Warning
Dwight Eisenhower
In his farewell address, delivered to the American people on national television, Jan. 17, 1961, President Eisenhower spoke firmly, and in carefully chosen words, to warn against the dangers in the years to come of the great "military-industrial complex." Excerpt. Runtime: 1:54 mins. "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
Is Elie Wiesel an Imposter?
Carlo Mattogno -- Inconvenient History
... Taking all these aspects into account, one can see that the description given by Elie Wiesel for the journey from Gleiwitz to Buchenwald cannot be true. In short, Elie Wiesel was never interned at Birkenau, nor at Auschwitz, nor at Monowitz, nor at Buchenwald ... The interpretation that the face of the person shown on this photograph is Elie Wiesel's is based solely on his own statement to the effect that he recognized himself. As to "his" ID number - 123565 - that number belonged to Lázár Wiesel.
In Germany, Case Dissolves Against 'Hitler' Snowman
DPA
German prosecutors said Friday they have dropped an investigation into who built a snowman that bore an uncanny resemblance to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. A group opposed to right-wing activities filed a complaint at the end of January that the snowman violated German laws, which ban the reproduction of Nazi symbols or slogans. The snowman, with a distinctive Hitler moustache and an arm raised in a Nazi salute, was built outside a pub frequented by right-wing extremists in Schorndorf, near the southern city of Stuttgart. The case was dropped this week after police were unable to find the culprit, a spokeswoman for the Stuttgart prosecutor's office said.
Irving, Weber Speak on Hitler's Place in History
Institute for Historical Review (2005)
British historian David Irving and IHR director Mark Weber tackled the emotion-laden topic of Hitler's place in history at an IHR meeting on Sunday evening, April 17, 2005. Some 70 men and women packed a hotel meeting room in Orange County, southern California, for the event. Weber began his 45-minute address, entitled "Is an Objective View of Hitler Possible?," by telling about John F. Kennedy's visit to defeated and war-ravaged Germany in the summer of 1945.
Most Americans Distrust the US Government
Reuters
Nearly 80 percent of Americans say they do not trust the U.S. government to do what is right, expressing the highest level of distrust in Washington in half a century, according to a public opinion survey. Only 22 percent of Americans say they trust the government "just about always" or "most of the time," according to the Pew Research Center survey released on Sunday. Americans' trust in the federal government has been on a steady decline from a high of 73 percent during the Eisenhower administration in 1958, when the "trust" question was first posed in a national survey, the research center said.
Ill Fares the Land
Tony Judt - The New York Review of Books
Something is profoundly wrong with the way we live today. For thirty years we have made a virtue out of the pursuit of material self-interest: indeed, this very pursuit now constitutes whatever remains of our sense of collective purpose. We know what things cost but have no idea what they are worth ... We have entered an age of insecurity -- economic insecurity, physical insecurity, political insecurity. The fact that we are largely unaware of this is small comfort: few in 1914 predicted the utter collapse of their world and the economic and political catastrophes that followed. Insecurity breeds fear. And fear -- fear of change, fear of decline, fear of strangers and an unfamiliar world -- is corroding the trust and interdependence on which civil societies rest.
The US Is At a Precipice
Tim Gatto
We are at a precipice. This is the end of one era and the beginning of another ... We are not "invincible". We are not "exceptional". We must abide by the same financial tenants that rest of the world must obey. We cannot spend above our means. We cannot spend 1.4 Trillion dollars on the military and get nothing back. We cannot give trillions in fiat money to prop up the bankers and financiers on Wall Street ... All I can say is that we had better start treating what is happening to this country with all the seriousness that we can muster. We don't have much time; in fact, we may already be out of time.
The Anat Kamm Affair: The Dark Underbelly of Israel's Security State
Jonathan Cook
Next week 23-year-old Anat Kamm is due to stand trial for her life -- or rather the state's demand that she serve a life sentence for passing secret documents to an Israeli reporter, Uri Blau, of the liberal Haaretz daily. She is charged with spying. Blau himself is in hiding in London, facing, if not a Mossad hit squad, at least the stringent efforts of Israel's security services to get him back to Israel over the opposition of his editors, who fear he will be put away too ... Blau's crime is that he published a series of scoops based on her leaked information that have highly embarrassed senior Israeli officers by showing their contempt for the rule of law.
A New Look at Hitler's Mistress Eva Braun
Der Spiegel (Germany)
Historians have long portrayed Adolf Hitler's mistress Eva Braun as little more than an apolitical accoutrement to the dictator. But a new biography of the woman who was Hitler's wife for a mere 40 hours casts doubt on that image ... And if he had had his way, Braun would also have survived the demise of the German Reich. He repeatedly asked her to leave Berlin in the final days of the war and fly to Bavaria. But Braun refused. Until the very end, Hitler spoke of her "with great respect and inner devotion," Albert Speer, Hitler's crown prince, said in his first statements to the Allies in 1945.
Behind the Balfour Declaration
Robert John -- Institute for Historical Review
The Balfour Declaration may be the most extraordinary document produced by any government in world history. It took the form of a letter from the government of His Britannic Majesty King George the Fifth, the Government of the largest empire the world has even known, on which -- once upon a time -- the sun never set; a letter to an international financier of the banking house of Rothschild who had been made a peer of the realm ... Malcolm's belief in the Balfour Declaration as a means of bringing the United States into the war was confirmed by Samuel Landman, secretary to the Zionist leaders Weizmann and Sokolow, and later secretary of the World Zionist Organization.
U.S. Military Confidence Sinks on Winning Afghan War, Poll Finds
David Wood -- Politics Daily
The military's confidence that it will win the Afghan war is declining, according to a new tracking poll showing only 60 percent of active-duty military personnel believe the U.S. can triumph. The poll, conducted by the Military Times newspapers, which are not affiliated with the Defense Department, showed the percentage of respondents who believe the United States is likely to win in Afghanistan has dropped from 77 in 2008 to 68 in 2009 to 60 percent in late January and early February of this year. The poll findings come as casualties are rising and as President Obama is boosting combat forces there.
Jews Invented Hollywood
Greenpolitics
While Thomas Edison invented the motion picture camera, immigrant Jewish entrepreneurs (like Sam Goldwyn, Jack and Harry Warner, Louis B. Mayer) created Hollywood. Jews created the three major American television networks, William Paley's CBS, David Sarnoff's NBC and Leonard Goldenson's ABC. Today about two-thirds of leading TV and movie producers are Jewish. Jewish domination of entertainment is little discussed in the mainstream media, which is also dominated by Jews, out of fears of arousing hatred of Jews ... Although fiercely competitive, the Hollywood Jews worked closely together to build a close-knit empire that shamelessly imitated the social hierarchy of the very East Coast society that they felt alienated and patronized them.
Rating Agency Warning Raises Fears of Social Unrest in US and Other Countries
The Telegraph (Britain)
The world's five biggest AAA-rated states are all at risk of soaring debt costs and will have to implement austerity plans that threaten "social cohesion", according to a report on sovereign debt by Moody's. The US rating agency said the US, the UK, Germany, France, and Spain are walking a tightrope as they try to bring public finances under control without nipping recovery in the bud. It warned of "substantial execution risk" in withdrawal of stimulus. "Growth alone will not resolve an increasingly complicated debt equation. Preserving debt affordability at levels consistent with AAA ratings will invariably require fiscal adjustments of a magnitude that, in some cases, will test social cohesion," said Pierre Cailleteau, the chief author.
British Bishop Convicted of `Holocaust Denial' by German Court
The Associated Press
A German court convicted ultraconservative British Bishop Richard Williamson on Friday of denying the Holocaust in a television interview. A court in the Bavarian city of Regensburg found Williamson guilty of incitement for saying in a 2008 interview with Swedish television that he did not believe Jews were killed in gas chambers during World War II. The court ordered Williamson to pay a fine of euro 10,000 ($13,544). The Roman Catholic bishop was barred by his order from attending Friday's proceedings or making statements to the media. His lawyer, Matthias Lossmann, told The Associated Press after the court ruling that Williamson has yet to decide whether he would appeal. Denying the Holocaust is a criminal offense in Germany.
Bishop Williamson and `Holocaust Denial': Why the Uproar?
Mark Weber -- Institute for Historical Review
The furor over the "Holocaust denial" remarks of Bishop Richard Williamson is not a controversy about historical truth, the role of history in society, anti-Semitism or "hate." This affair is really about power -- about those who really wield it in our culture, as well as about how and why that power is used ... A society's real hierarchy of values, and of power, is shown by what it prohibits. The Williamson affair underscores a well-entrenched Jewish-Zionist bias in the cultural life of modern Western society, and reminds us, once again, of the power behind that bias.
The Holocaust Won't Protect Israel Forever
Nehemia Shtrasler - Haaretz (Israel)
... Time is working against us. Support for Israel and for bolstering the power of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] can no longer be taken for granted. The world's guilt feelings are gradually becoming dulled, making it possible for the global criticism of the occupation of Palestinian territories to strengthen. And because in the West it is public opinion that ultimately determines how governments act, we must reach an agreement that will get us out of those territories and make Israel a moral and just country once again. This is because the Holocaust flak jacket won't last forever. It is cracking as we watch, and soon it will no longer be able to protect us.
Shanghai's Infamous 'No Dogs or Chinese' Sign: Another Historical Fable
Institute for Historical Review
For many years it has endured as a particularly striking example of the demeaning, racist way that Chinese were treated in their own country during the early decades of this century. At a time when Europeans, and especially the British, dominated much of China, a sign at the entrance to the Huangpu Park in Shanghai supposedly announced: "No Dogs or Chinese Allowed." For decades this story has been widely repeated. It is cited in numerous books ...
Lawsuit Challenges Israel's Discriminatory Citizenship Definition
Jonathan Cook
A group of Jews and Arabs are fighting in the Israeli courts to be recognized as "Israelis," a nationality currently denied them, in a case that officials fear may threaten the country's self-declared status as a Jewish state. ... Although all Israelis qualify as "citizens of Israel," the state is defined as belonging to the "Jewish nation," meaning not only the 5.6 million Israeli Jews but also more than seven million Jews in the diaspora. Critics say the special status of Jewish nationality has been a way to undermine the citizenship rights of non-Jews in Israel, especially the fifth of the population who are Arab. Some 30 laws in Israel specifically privilege Jews, including in the areas of immigration rights, naturalization, access to land and employment.
John Demjanjuk Tells Court He is a Victim of Hitler
BBC News
John Demjanjuk, accused of helping to murder nearly 28,000 Jews at a Nazi death camp, has told a German court he is "one of Hitler's victims". Mr Demjanjuk was "forcibly deported to Germany" and used as "slave labour" he said in a statement read out in court. The family of the Ukrainian-born former US carworker says he is in poor health and is unlikely to survive the trial. Mr Demjanjuk, who is 89, denies being a camp guard at Sobibor, in Nazi-occupied Poland. "I find it an unbearable injustice that Germany is trying to make me, a prisoner of war, into a war criminal with this trial," Mr Demjanjuk said in a statement ...
Demjanjuk Case Presents German Law With Difficult Issues
Deutsche Welle (Germany)
The trial of John Demjanjuk, a Ukrainian former prisoner-of-war turned concentration camp guard, has once again lifted the lid on questions about how the German justice system has dealt with the murderers of the Holocaust. Not least among these questions is: 'why now?' ... But the rest of the evidence against Demjanjuk is either circumstantial or mitigating. Most of the 35 plaintiffs are simply relatives of those killed at Sobibor, and the four actual survivors of the camp are too old to have a reliable memory of him or his immediate actions. The defense lawyer Ulrich Busch has repeatedly argued that Demjanjuk is also a victim of the Nazi regime ...
Watching TV is Bad for Children, Say Experts
BBC News
Children under two should not be allowed to watch any TV, experts say. Older children should watch no more than two hours a day, the researchers at the Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Centre in Seattle said. Each hour in front of the TV increased a child's chances of attention deficit disorder by ten percent, their research in the Pediatrics journal showed. The study of 1,345 children showed three hours TV a day made children 30 percent more likely to have the disorder. ... Children who were exposed to the unrealistic levels of stimulation at a young age continued to expect this in later life, leading to difficulty dealing with the slower pace of school and homework ...
Violent Video Game Play Makes More Aggressive, Anti-Social Youths
Iowa State University
Iowa State University Distinguished Professor of Psychology Craig Anderson has made much of his life's work studying how violent video game play affects youth behavior. And he says a new study he led, analyzing 130 research reports on more than 130,000 subjects worldwide, proves conclusively that exposure to violent video games makes more aggressive, less caring kids -- regardless of their age, sex or culture. The study was published today in the March 2010 issue of the Psychological Bulletin, an American Psychological Association journal. It reports that exposure to violent video games is a causal risk factor for increased aggressive thoughts and behavior, and decreased empathy and pro-social behavior in youths.
Why Do Finland's Schools Get the Best Results?
Tom Burridge -- BBC News
Finland's schools score consistently at the top of world rankings, yet the pupils have the fewest number of class hours in the developed world. / ... Finnish parents obviously claim some credit for the impressive school results. There is a culture of reading with the kids at home and families have regular contact with their children's teachers. Teaching is a prestigious career in Finland. Teachers are highly valued and teaching standards are high. The educational system's success in Finland seems to be part cultural. Pupils study in a relaxed and informal atmosphere. Finland also has low levels of immigration. So when pupils start school the majority have Finnish as their native language, eliminating an obstacle that other societies often face.
In Mexico, 23,000 Killed in Drug War Since 2006
Agence France Presse
Almost 23,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico since the launch of a government crackdown on drug gangs at the end of 2006, a parliamentary source has said. The new figure of 22,743 deaths was given to lawmakers on Monday during a congressional debate on the controversial use of the army in Mexico's battle against its powerful drug gangs, the source said, declining to be named. It was a rise of more than 7,000 compared with previous official estimates, and showed 3,365 murders between January and March this year, they added.
Animal Welfare in Nazi Germany
Wikipedia
There was widespread support for animal welfare in Nazi Germany, and the Nazis took several measures to ensure protection of animals, Many Nazi leaders, including Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goering, were supporters of animal protection. Several Nazis were environmentalists, and species protection and animal welfare were significant issues in the Nazi regime. Heinrich Himmler made efforts to ban the hunting of animals. Goering was an animal lover and conservationist. The current animal welfare laws in Germany are more or less modifications of the laws introduced by the Nazis.
Long-Term US Unemployment At 65-Year High
The Pew Charitable Trusts
The federal government defines "long-term unemployment" as a jobless period of six months or longer. In March 2010, over 44 percent of unemployed Americans met or exceeded that standard -- the highest rate since World War II. In contrast, during the severe recession of the early 1980s, the percentage of workers unemployed for six months or longer peaked at 26 percent in 1983. The media have reported the historically high six-month unemployment figure, but a new study by the Pew Fiscal Analysis Initiative goes further by calculating the percentage of people who have been unemployed for a year or more.
New Israeli Order Will Permit Mass Deportation of Palestinians
BBC News
Israel is set to impose a military order which rights groups say could see tens of thousands of Palestinians deported from the occupied West Bank. The order, which comes into force on Tuesday, could have "severe ramifications" for people in the West Bank, human rights groups say. It classifies people without the right Israeli paperwork as "infiltrators". Many people in the West Bank have ID cards from neighbouring countries, or papers that list Gaza as their home. Many others are married to other Palestinians who at one time lived in refugee camps in neighbouring Jordan, Egypt, Syria or Lebanon, and may not have Israeli-approved ID cards.
In Hungary, Nationalist Jobbik Party Scores Major Gains
The Telegraph (Britain)
The far-Right has taken more parliamentary seats in Hungary's national elections than at any time since the Second World War. Fidesz, Hungary's centre-Right party, won 52.77 per cent of the vote, based on 99 percent of votes counted, in a blow to the Socialist government. Jobbik, a far-Right party, gained entry into parliament for the first time after winning 16.71 per cent of votes, behind the ruling Socialists who took 19.29 percent ... Last month, French regional elections, dominated by debates over immigration, saw electoral revival for the National Front. In June, Dutch elections could propel Geert Wilders, whose anti-Islamic, hard-right Freedom Party leads the polls, into power.
Zionism Laid Bare
Kathleen Christison
... Until recent years, the notion that Zionism was a benign, indeed a humanitarian, political movement designed for the noble purpose of creating a homeland and refuge for the world's stateless, persecuted Jews was a virtually universal assumption ... Jewish dispersion across the Western world -- and Jewish influence in the economies, the film industries, the media, and academia in key Western countries -- are what enabled the Zionist movement to survive and thrive in the dark years of the early twentieth century; and Zionist lobbying and molding of public discourse are what has maintained Israel's favored place in the hearts and minds of Americans and the policy councils of America's politicians.
In Italy, Man Sentenced for 'Jewish Lobby' List
JTA
A Rome court has sentenced a man to six months in jail for having posted a list of 162 academics on his blog and describing them as members of an alleged "Jewish lobby." In a verdict handed down April 8, Paolo Munzi, 42, was convicted of defamation. But he was acquitted of having violated privacy laws and a law against instigating racial hatred. In February 2008, Munzi posted a list of 162 people, most of them university professors, and described them in negative terms as members of a Jewish lobby supporting Israel. Some of the professors on the list were not Jewish but had signed pro-Israel petitions.
Hitler Artworks Fetch High Prices at British Auction
Deutsche Welle (Germany)
Adolf Hitler never made it as an artist, but his drawings and paintings have garnered increasingly high bids at auction. Apparently it's not neo-Nazis who are buying, but history buffs and art collectors. It's no surprise when works by famous artists sell for prices in the tens of thousands. Perhaps more surprising is the fact that drawings and watercolors by Adolf Hitler have commanded similar prices at recent auctions. The British auction house Mullock's offered 15 pieces by Hitler in an auction last April, drawing a sales total of about 140,000 euros ($187,000). Next week, Mullock's will host another auction featuring 22 pieces by Hitler ...
President Obama Marks Holocaust Remembrance Day
AFP
US President Barack Obama on Sunday marked Holocaust Remembrance Day, saying the world must honor victims of Nazi horror by renewing a commitment to prevent genocide and anti-Semitism. "We must never tolerate the hateful stereotypes and prejudice against the Jewish people that tragically continues to this day," Obama said in a written statement.
Black Boomerang: Britain's World War II `Black' Radio Propaganda
Seftondelmer.co.uk Website
... With the dramatic launch of Soldatensender Calais came a move to 24 hour broadcasting on medium wave, with a softening up operation in preparation for the invasion of France. The stories that went out over Soldatensender were re-used for the production of a daily newspaper bombed in to Germany, Nachrichten fur die Truppe. From its earliest days black propaganda with its own master forger had used printed matter as part of its output. Everything from forged ration books. identity cards to official German documents -- anything that they could put a subtle and insidious black twist upon.
Shoah Week on PBS: More Holocaust Television Broadcasting
JTA
The Public Broadcasting Service will offer U.S. television viewers a concentrated history lesson during Holocaust Remembrance Week, with seven films and documentaries on Jewish death and defiance in the past and on the genocides of the present. Four main films will be aired in prime time by 365 member stations, starting April 11 with a broadcast of the British version of "The Diary of Anne Frank" at 9 p.m., sponsored in part by the Jewish Federations of North America.
Holocaust Remembrance: What's Behind the Campaign?
Mark Weber
... Holocaust remembrance is not, as its supporters claim, a noble effort motivated by sincere concern for humanity. Instead, this relentless campaign is an expression of Jewish-Zionist power, and is designed to further Jewish-Zionist interests ... Jewish death and suffering do not deserve to be venerated more than the death and suffering of non-Jews. The Holocaust remembrance campaign deserves scorn, not support, because it is a one-sided effort that serves narrow Jewish and Israeli interests and bolsters Jewish-Zionist power.
Israel's Deadly Cluster Bomb Legacy Still Lurks In Lebanon
AFP
... Israel left a deadly legacy: the United Nations estimates that Israeli jets dropped more than four million cluster bombs in southern Lebanon in the summer battles. Ninety percent of the bombs were dropped in the final 72 hours before the ceasefire after Resolution 1701 was adopted, the United Nations says. Around 40 percent of the munitions failed to detonate on impact, rendering them de facto anti personnel mines. The munitions have killed 46 and maimed over 300 civilians since 2006, according to Lebanese army and UN figures.
Historical Myth Justifies Israel's Golan Heights Occupation
Institute for Historical Review
For decades Israel has cited vital security concerns to justify its seizure of the Golan Heights. Israelis have claimed that from 1948 to June 1967, Syrian military forces repeatedly used the Heights to shell Jewish settlements and installations below. These artillery bombardments, in the widely accepted Israeli and American view, justified Israel's conquest of the Heights in 1967, and its occupation ever since. Actually, Israel's seizure and occupation of this territory is based on a historical lie. This was frankly acknowledged by Israel General and cabinet minister Moshe Dayan in an interview given in 1976, but which was not made public until April 1997. Dayan, who died in 1981, was a key organizer of Israel's victory in the June 1967 Israel-Arab war.
Hitler's `Mein Kampf' Banned in Russia
Daily Mail (Britain)
Russia banned Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf today in an attempt to combat the growing number of Nazi-sympathisers in the country. The 1925 diatribe, which outlines the former German dictator's vision of racial supremacy, has been championed by far-Right groups despite anti-Russian tracts. Now, joining Germany, where the book has been illegal since the country's defeat in World War II, Russian prosecutors have defined it as 'extremist' and outlawed it.
Hitler as 'Enlightenment Intellectual'
Mark Weber
A specter is haunting the world -- the specter of Hitlerism. That, in short, is the stern warning of this provocative book, Hitler as Philosophe: Remnants of the Enlightenment in National Socialism, by Lawrence Birken... In spite of decades of vehement vilification, says author Birken, Hitler's views have enduring and dangerous appeal -- not because they are bizarre and alien, but precisely because they are rational and well grounded in Western thought.
Good-Bye: Truth Has Fallen and Has Taken Liberty With It
Paul Craig Roberts
... For years I was a mainstay at the Washington Times, producing credibility for the Moony newspaper as a Business Week columnist, former Wall Street Journal editor, and former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury. But when I began criticizing Bush's wars of aggression, the order came down to Mary Lou Forbes to cancel my column. The American media does not serve the truth. It serves the government and the interest groups that empower the government ... The militarism of the U.S. and Israeli states, and Wall Street and corporate greed, will now run their course. As the pen is censored and its might extinguished, I am signing off.
When It Comes to Innovation, Is America Becoming a Third World Country?
Arianna Huffington
... Once upon a time, the United States was the world's dominant innovator -- partly because we didn't have much competition. As a result of the destruction wreaked by WWII, the massive migration of brainpower to the U.S. caused by the war, and huge amounts of government spending, America had the innovation playing field largely to itself. None of these factors exist as we enter the second decade of the 21st century ... Adding to the problem is the sense that America's best days may be behind us. Many economists and historians are warning that our current economic downturn has created a new normal. That the country will never be the same.
The Disemboweling of America
Patrick J. Buchanan
... The last decade was the first in history where government employed more workers than manufacturing, a stunning development to those of us who remember an America where nearly one-third of the U.S. labor force was producing almost all of our goods and much of the world's, as well ... No nation rose to world power on free trade. From Britain after 1860 to America after 1960, free trade has been the policy of powers that put consumption before production and today before tomorrow. Nations rise on economic nationalism; they descend on free trade.
Russia and Poland Remember Katyn Massacre
BBC News
The Russian and Polish prime ministers have together marked the 1940 Katyn massacre of 22,000 Polish troops, in an unprecedented move. Russia's Vladimir Putin had invited Poland's Donald Tusk to the ceremony commemorating the massacre. The Soviet secret police was responsible, but for half a century the Soviet Union blamed it on the Nazis. Both leaders spoke of reconciliation at Wednesday's ceremony, though their statements appeared qualified. "A lie was told for decades, but we cannot blame the Russian people for it," said Mr Putin.
Hungarians Not Happy With Democracy
Pew Global Attitudes Project
With Parliamentary elections approaching, Hungarians are in a funk. Nearly unanimously, they say the economy is in bad shape, and a stunning 72% say most Hungarians are actually worse off now economically than they were under communism. But Hungary's malaise is not all about economics -- most are frustrated with politics too. Overwhelmingly, Hungarians are dissatisfied with the way democracy is working and discontent with political elites, with about three-in-four saying political corruption is a major problem.
Israel is `Main Threat to Peace,' Says Turkish Prime Minister
BBC News
Turkey's Prime Minister has described Israel as the "main threat to peace" in the Middle East. Recep Tayyip Erdogan was speaking during a visit to Paris. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded saying he regretted Turkey's "repeated attacks" on Israel. Relations between the two countries have been worsening since the Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip in 2009, made worse by a recent diplomatic row. Mr Erdogan was speaking to journalists before meeting the French President Nicolas Sarkozy. "It is Israel that is the main threat to regional peace," he said. "If a country uses disproportionate force, in Palestine, in Gaza, uses phosphorus bombs we are not going to say 'well done.'"
On the Road To Canossa: Netanyahu and Obama
Uri Avnery
... This sheds light on a tried and tested Zionist method. When an unofficial consensus about the division of the land between Israel and Palestine is reached, the Israeli government says: OK, now that there is agreement about the land we are getting, let's talk about the rest of the land. Mine is mine, now let's negotiate about what is yours. The existing Jewish neighborhoods are ours already. There we are free to build without limitation. It remains only to decide upon the Arab neighborhoods, where we also intend to build ... That is not just a "crisis" anymore. It is something really momentous: a basic change in the policy of the US. The American ship in the Middle East is making a large turn, and this is taking a long time.
The `Jewish Soap' Fable
Mark Weber
One of the most lurid and slanderous Holocaust claims is the story that the Germans manufactured soap from the bodies of their victims. Although a similar charge during the First World War was exposed as a hoax almost immediately afterwards, it was nevertheless revived and widely believed during the Second. More important, this accusation was "proved" at the main Nuremberg trial of 1945-1946, and has been authoritatively endorsed by numerous historians in the decades since. In recent years, though, as part of a broad retreat from the most obviously untenable aspects of the "orthodox" extermination story, Holocaust historians have grudgingly conceded that the human soap tale is a wartime propaganda lie.
Entitlement Rip-Offs: Social Security and Medicare
John Stossel
... It wasn't the biggest [Ponzi scheme]. Social Security and Medicare are much bigger ones. These are trillion-dollar scams. Medicare has a $36 trillion unfunded liability. Social Security's is $8 trillion. There's no money to keep those promises. But Congress isn't investigating this scam. Congress runs it. That FICA money you thought government had saved for your retirement is gone. There's nothing left but IOUs backed by nothing. Your money was spent not only on current retirees but on wars, welfare, corporate bailouts, earmarks and all the other stuff Congress wants. For years, this was possible because the FICA tax brought in surpluses that allowed government to pay retirees more than they contributed and still help buy those other things.
California Public Pensions Underfunded by $500 Billion, Study Shows
The Associated Press
California's public pension funds are underfunded by as much as $500 billion, according to a Stanford University study that was commissioned by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and released Monday. The shortfall could create a major financial crisis for the state. And California is not alone: States around the country are facing massive shortfalls in their pension and retiree health care obligations. The estimated California shortfall applies to the retirement systems for its state and local government workers, teachers and University of California employees - about 2.6 million retirees.
--
Dalton's Holocaust Radio Debate on April 24, 2010:
http://www.americanfreedomradio.com/Barrett_10.html
Peace.
Michael Santomauro
Editorial Director
Call anytime: 917-974-6367
ReporterNotebook@Gmail.com
http://www.DebatingTheHolocaust.com
Amazon's: DEBATING THE HOLOCAUST: A New Look At Both Sides by Thomas Dalton
