By Esam Al-Amin.
On April 12, 2010, President Barack Obama hosted a forty-seven nation Nuclear Security Summit in Washington. He met with dozens of heads of state making his case for a fourth set of crippling sanctions on Iran because of its intransigence on the nuclear issue. His main argument was the refusal of Iran to accept the proposal by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of transferring the bulk of Iran’s low enriched uranium outside the country in exchange for medical nuclear isotopes.
The following …

By Terry Morrone.
I feel guilty and inferior about my unconventional views and about my affliction. I’ll tell you about it later. But I’m reminded of the history of Christianity. There were different versions during the first few centuries of the Christian era. The early church argued about the nature of Christ. Was he divine? Was he subordinate to the father? Was the God of the Old Testament the same as the God of the New Testament, etc., etc.? The version of Christianity of the Roman church eventually won out, and …

Kevin Ovenden, a representative of Viva Palestina, was on the main ship of the Freedom Flotilla when Israeli soldiers descended onto the deck – he spoke from Turkey to Siân Ruddick.
“We knew the Israelis were going to attack, or intercept us in some way. At 11pm we had the first contact. A visual warning was that two Israeli warships were approaching us, followed by a third.
“We were 90 miles north of the Israeli coast, and 22 miles away from the buffer zone that Israel …

By Ghassan Hage.
I don’t write poems but, in any case, poems are not poems.
Long ago, I was made to understand that Palestine was not Palestine; I was also informed that Palestinians were not Palestinians; They also explained to me that ethnic cleansing was not ethnic cleansing. And when naive old me saw freedom fighters they patiently showed me that they were not freedom fighters, and that resistance was not resistance. And when, stupidly, I noticed arrogance, oppression and humiliation they benevolently enlightened me so I can see that …

By Ray McGovern
A chief lesson to learn from President Barack Obama’s recent unwillingness to stand up to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud Lobby is that such timidity can get people killed.
Casualty figures are still arriving in the wake of Israel’s Sunday night-Monday morning commando attack on an unarmed flotilla trying to bring relief supplies to the 1.5 million Palestinians crowded into Gaza. Already, at least nine civilian passengers are reported killed, and dozens wounded.
Seldom has an act of aggression been so …

By the Editor.
Media coverage of the Flotilla Massacre has been a disgrace.  In confiscating cameras and imprisoning the aid workers travelling on the ships, Israel has succeeded in enacting a media blackout after its killing of 10 unarmed civilians in international waters.
In unsurprising sycophancy, the Western press has shamefully reserved the majority of its page space and airtime to the Israeli government point of view.  This has consisted of propaganda and lies – some laughable, but some dangerously believable.  Comments and assertions have ranged from claims that the aid workers …

By the Editor.
Several news agencies including the UK Guardian, the UK Independent, the Washington Post, and The Financial Times today reported that senior US officials are pointing the finger at the Pakistani Taliban for the recent Times Square bomb plot. This notion might not seem out of the ordinary to the uninitiated, but it doesn’t sit well with those knowledgeable about The Taliban. Historically, the Taliban has only had domestic intentions and aspirations; not seeking to exert influence beyond its own borders.
Al-Qaeda on the other hand, quite clearly …

Explosives used in London bombings ‘originated in the Balkans’
By Sue O’Reilly.
THE BALKANS were last night being named as the possible source of the explosive material used in the London bombings.
French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy told the emergency meeting of EU justice ministers in Brussels that there was strong suspicion the explosives used in the bombings came from the Balkans or Eastern Europe, where it is possible to buy the material on the black market after the Balkan wars.
However, British Home Secretary Charles Clarke said he was bewildered by the comments.
Determining …

Advanced bombs were so powerful that none of dead have been identified
LONDON — Al Qaida employed light but advanced bombs detonated by timers in last week’s bloody strike on London’s mass transit system.
Officials said the bombs were so powerful that none of the 49 known dead had been identified over the weekend. They said the four bombs were detonated within 50 seconds.
British officials said authorities have determined that the four bombs that blew up in subways and a bus in London on July 7 were composed of less than 4.5 …