Many of the present conflicts in the world take place in the former colonial territories that Britain abandoned, exhausted and impoverished, in the years after the second world war. This disastrous imperial legacy is still highly visible, and it is one of the reasons why the British empire continues to provoke such harsh debate. If Britain made such a success of its colonies, why are so many in an unholy mess half a century later, major sources of violence and unrest?

…It seems that the story of the empire is being re-enacted over much of the globe, bringing violence and destruction on a scale barely envisaged in the imperial era. How fortunate we would be to have a government in Britain that would help to bind up the wounds of the past, by at least recognising what really happened, rather than to have one that endlessly pours petrol on the flames.
guardian.co.uk

…For example, from the review we have carried out, 60 percent of the total number of 130,788 voting records have “arithmetical errors,” in quotes, that is to say there are thousands of voting control records where the total vote plus the unused ballots is greater or less than the number of votes received, thousands of voting control records where the total vote is greater or less than the number of ballots deposited and thousands of voting control records where the total vote plus the unused ballots is greater or less than the nominal list, by 10.

I can clarify further: there are more than a million and a half votes that are not based on electoral ballot papers or, put another way, the voting control records do not reflect the true vote because they add up to more or to fewer votes than the votes actually deposited in the ballot boxes.

From our point of view, this explains, in good measure, why, when it was permitted to open some electoral packets and do a recount in the District Councils, cases appeared where the candidate of the Right, fraudulently, had 100 to 200 votes more than they should and ourselves up to 100 votes fewer than we should, according to the box.
axisoflogic.com

Family ordered to flee were targeted because they were driving minivan

The ambulanceman gave Ali the job of keeping his mother alive. The 12-year-old did what he could. “Mama, mama, don’t go to sleep,” he sobbed, gently patting her face beneath her chin. Behind her black veil, her eyelids were slowly sinking. “I’m going to die,” she sighed. “Don’t say that, mama,” Ali begged, and then slid to the ground in tears.

On the pavement around mother and son were the other members of the Sha’ita family, their faces spattered with each other’s blood. All were in varying shades of shock and injury. A tourniquet was tied on Ali’s mother’s arm. A few metres away, his aunt lay motionless, the white T-shirt beneath her abaya stained red. Two sisters hugged each other and wept, oblivious to the medics tending their wounds. “Let them take me, let them take me,” one screamed.
guardian.co.uk

The brutal and indiscriminate attack upon the people and infrastructure of Lebanon by the Zionist State “Israel” is a crime against all basic standards of decency and humanity.

The excuse given for this murderous invasion was the attack by Hezbollah on the IDF. What this might have to do with the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese innocent men, women and children, who are subjected to an ongoing living hell, is beyond comprehension.

Indeed, this current aggression is only the second chapter of the recent viciousness; the first being the furious reinvasion of Gaza and the onslaught on its civilians and the ruination of its basic human services.

Of course, voices may be heard that the IDF are simply responding. This, of course, ignores the question of the evil, implicit in punishing blameless people for the deeds of others. And it totally ignores the root of the problem, the dispossession and subjugation of the Palestinian people which began in 1948, was expanded in 1967 and continues unabated to this day. The crux of the matter is that beyond the immorality of the Zionist treatment of the Palestinians is the ultimate fact — the ideology of Zionism and ensuing establishment of the Zionist state conflicts with the basic teachings of Judaism.
Jews United Against Zionism

JERUSALEM, July 23 For decades, Arab, particularly Palestinian, leaders have sought international intervention in their conflicts with Israel, while Israeli leaders spurned foreign forces as unreliable and likely to be biased against Israeli interests.

Now, in a sudden turnabout, Israel is embracing the possibility of an aggressive international force on its northern border with Lebanon to bolster its security in its struggle with Hezbollah.

‘In a way, we’re playing an old Palestine Liberation Organization game,’ said Michael Oren of the center-right Shalem Center, a research institute in Jerusalem,’to precipitate regional instability and then try to bring in international intervention. We fought against it in the past, but Israel now realizes it can’t do things alone. And Israel feels here it has a friend in America and some greater understanding in Europe.’

There are a number of reasons for the shift, he and other regional analysts say. Israel realizes that Hezbollah’s rocket attacks cannot be stopped over the long term without troops on the ground confronting guerrillas. Israel, with no desire to reoccupy Lebanon, no longer wants those troops to be Israeli and believes a large, multinational force, working with the Lebanese Army, will have a greater chance of curbing Hezbollah.
nytimes.com

What a bunch of swill.

BAGHDAD (AFP) – Iraq’s parliament speaker Mahmud Mashhadani bitterly criticized US forces in Iraq, accusing them of “butchery” and demanded that they pull out of the country.

Mashhadani was speaking at a UN-sponsored conference on transitional justice and reconciliation in Baghdad, and his strongly worded attack appeared to embarrass his international hosts, who grimaced on the podium.

“Just get your hands off Iraq and the Iraqi people and Muslim countries, and everything will be all right,” the conservative Sunni Islamist said, in a speech opening the conference.

“What has been done in Iraq is a kind of butchery of the Iraqi people.”
news.yahoo.com

Soldiers in murder case claim order to ‘kill all military age males’

Torture of detainees in Iraq authorized, routine, say US soldiers
The accounts reveal that detainee abuse was an established and apparently authorized part of the detention and interrogation processes in Iraq for much of 2003 through 2005. They also suggest that soldiers who sought to report abuse were rebuffed or ignored.

Death’s at the Door in Iraq
The massacre in Jihad was efficient. Someone in uniform with a list of names. A son taken. On the street, gunfire. At home, calls for help.

BAGHDAD The uniformed gunmen knocked politely on Hamid Shammari’s door.

They took away his 20-year-old son, promising to let him go the next day. He hasn’t been seen or heard from since that dreadful Sunday that changed the Jihad neighborhood of western Baghdad, and perhaps the rest of Iraq.

For several hours on the morning of July 9, Jihad became a place of unspeakable brutality, not so much for the wanton bloodshed that has become a daily part of Iraqi life, but for the systematic nature of the killings. At least 36 and possibly as many as 55 Sunni Arab men were executed in what appears to have been a revenge operation condoned or even overseen by law enforcement officials.

We’re composing it right now…

A new Osama bin Laden message from al Qaeda’s as-Sahab Institute for Media Production is to be released soon, according to IntelCenter, a private contractor providing counterterrorism support work to the intelligence community.

In his message, bin Laden will reportedly address events in Gaza and Lebanon. This message has been expected and is consistent with new efforts in 2006 by al Qaeda’s senior leadership to be responsive in their messages to current developments.
abcnews.com

One of Eli Lilly’s key objectives, when they were marketing Prozac in the early 1990s was to get employers to reimburse for anti-depressants. Some leaders of the National Association of Manufacturers had expressed reluctance to underwrite “mental health benefits” in the Clinton Health Plan; they had to be convinced that a workforce on Prozac would be in their interests. Lilly funded a study by an MIT economist that Tipper Gore and Fred Goodwin of the National Institute on Mental Health ballyhooed at a press conference (also funded by Lilly) and Daniel Goleman publicized in the New York Times in December ’94 (without mentioning Lilly). “Depression Costs Put at $43 Billion,” said the headline. “The cost of days lost from work is about $11.7 billion,” Goleman reported, “and impairment from the symptoms while people continue on the job costs $12.1 billion more.” Add to this “earnings lost to suicide… about $7.5 billion.”

To make Prozac a blockbuster, Lilly spread the word that clinical depression was abroad in the land. They enlisted the help of the NIMH (whose top officers retire and get hired by the drug companies the way Pentagon brass get hired by the arms makers) and the National Mental Health Association (a non-profit funded by pharmaceutical companies) and freelance opportunists like Dr. Peter Kramer (author of Listening to Prozac), and Dr. Douglas Jacobs, creator of National Depression Screening Day. The ultimate goal of all these promoters was to get the American people to take a simplistic test for depression -a test designed to convince almost any honest adult that he or she is a candidate for Prozac. The test is based on criteria set forth in the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual, the so-called “bible” of the American Psychiatric Association. The drug companies influenced the drafting of the DSM so that the definition of depression would apply to as many people as possible -i.e., would maximize the potential customers. See “The Drafting of DSM-III,” a great book by Kirk and Kutchens.

This is how doctors are taught to detect depression: “The presence of depressed mood (5) or loss of interest (6) and at least four other symptoms over a two-week period is required for the diagnosis of a major depressive episode. 1) Changes in appetite and weight 2) Disturbed sleep 3) Motor retardation or agitation 4) Fatigue and loss of energy 5) Depressed or irritable mood 6) Loss of interest or pleasure in usual activities. 7) Feelings of worthlessness, self-reproach, excessive guilt 8) Suicidal thinking or attempts 9) Difficulty thinking or concentrating.

Is there a single adult in America who could not qualify for a diagnosis of depression? The criteria are vague and all-embracing. Losing weight? You’re depressed. Gaining weight? You’re depressed. Sleeping too little? You’re depressed. Sleeping too much? You’re depressed. Going too slow? You’re depressed. Going too fast? You’re depressed…
counterpunch.org

…None of this is confirmed, or could be here and now. However, there are growing doubts that Israel might be using internationally forbidden weapons in its current aggression against Lebanon. News from “Southern Medical Center”, a hospital in Saida( in South Lebanon) are not good. Dr. Bashir Sham, member of “French Association of Cardiovascular Surgeons”, explains that the way the corps look when they reach the hospital, especially those of the air strikes in Doueir and Rmayleih, is very abnormal.” One might think they were burnt , but their colour is dark , they’re inflated, and they have a terrible smell” All this , and the hair is not burnt nor do the bodies bleed.

Eight of the victims of an air strike on Rmayleih bridge, near Saida, on the 15th of July, were transferred to Sham’s hospital.

Sham says that only chemical poisonous substances “lead to instant death without bleeding”.

And what indicates the power of these substances, is the high and unusual of number of dead victimes, compared to the number of injuries.

Sham thinks that whatever “abnormal ” substance causing these features might penetrate through the skin, or another explanation would be that the missiles contained toxic gas that stopped the proper functioning of the nervous system, and led to blood clotting.

These toxic materials cause immediate death, within two to thirty minutes, according to Sham, who admits that these doubts can’t be proven, not even by an autopsy.

The director of the same medical center, Ali Mansour, says that due to the strong smell of the corps, he couldn’t breath properly for at least 12 hours after the corps were handled.

He explains that the center received eight bodies from Rmeileh last Monday, and none of them was bleeding.

Mansour tells us the hospital wrote to both the commissioner of the European Union for Foreign Affaires Javier Solana, and the United Nations Secretary general Kofi Anan. He said that dr Sham will communicate his doubts to the Doctors Order in Lebanon.
axisoflogic.com

PHOTOS (Warning: horrific)

1.The Hariri assassination, immediately blamed on Syria (with no evidence other than the lies promoted by Mehlis), led directly to Syria being forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon. It is obvious that that step was a necessary precondition of Israeli involvement in Lebanon.

2. The huge mystery of the current Israeli adventures is why Israel is sacrificing so much international goodwill in murdering innocent Lebanese civilians, when its stated goal is ‘self-defense’ against Hezbollah. In fact, Israel is spending an inordinate amount of time destroying Lebanese infrastructure and making direct attacks against the Lebanese army, the latter particularly odd if Israel really wants the Lebanese army to disarm Hezbollah. Israel’s actions are actually strengthening the position of Hezbollah, which isn’t so odd when you consider the fact that Israel has long helped to create its own enemies in order to have an excuse for colonialist attacks against them. In this case, attacks against the central Lebanese government and army appear to be leading to an argument that Lebanon, newly destroyed Lebanon, is incapable of living up to its international obligations to disarm Hezbollah, leading directly to the necessity of Israel entering Lebanon to do the job itself.
Israel has another motive in wanting to destroy Lebanese civil society, as such destruction is part of the Zionist Plan for the Middle East. Ideally, Lebanon will end up fractured on ethnic lines, following the Yinon plan of breaking all of Israel’s potential enemies into tiny statelets. A peaceful and tolerant and wealthy Lebanon is bad publicity for the general Zionist line that Arabs are incapable of such progress.

3. Hariri was one of the main architects of the reconstruction of Lebanon, and would not have stood for its re-destruction. He had a lot of powerful friends around the world, and would probably have been able to prevent the current Israeli attacks. Even if the attacks had done damage, he would have been able to lead the re-reconstruction, thwarting Israeli long-term plans. It was thus necessary to remove him as a precondition of the current Israeli attacks.
The original Official Story of the Hariri assassination was that it was an underground explosion of a type that only the Syrian intelligence services could have handled. When it turned out that the evidence indicated a truck bomb, the propaganda machine turned 180 degrees and declared that it was the work of an ‘al Qaeda’ group hired by the Syrians (odd given the fact that the Syrian government is probably the biggest enemy of al Qaeda). We have recently seen that the Israeli spy ring in Lebanon had very curious connections to al Qaeda organizations in Lebanon. It is not difficult to see how Israel managed to cloak the Hariri assassination, now clearly part of the current attack on Lebanon, in such a way as to direct blame towards Syria, thus leading directly to the removal of Syrian troops.

4. Israel has a number of goals in its current attacks, the ultimate one being fooling the Americans into another war for Israel, this time against Syria. The most feasible goal, however, is water. With the connivance of the Americans, Israel is resisting calls for any kind of ceasefire or negotiated settlement, as that would prevent Israel from achieving its real goal of seizing southern Lebanon, including control over the water in the Litani river (some of which is already being stolen by the Israelis). UN peacekeepers would make such a goal impossible, and so UN involvement must be resisted. The plan is to take over southern Lebanon under the guise of creating a Hezbollah-free buffer zone to protect Israel from Hezbollah rocket attacks. Of course, we’re supposed to forget the fact that the dangerous rocket attacks ? the ones that haven’t been faked by the IDF, only occurred after the Israeli attack on Lebanon, and the fact that a buffer zone will have no effect on Hezbollah’s ability to send rockets into Israel. The real goal of the buffer zone will be to allow Israel to begin to siphon off greater quantities of Lebanese water.

5. It is only in the light of the ongoing crimes being committed by Israel in Lebanon that we can come to a full understanding of the real reason for the assassination of Rafik Hariri. Like Hollis Mulwray in the movie Chinatown, Hariri died so that water could be stolen.
xymphora.blogspot.com