America must now apologise to the German citizen, a victim of mistaken identity who was kidnapped and beaten by the CIA.

The much-maligned European court of human rights has this week shown itself at its very best: standing up for the rights of an individual who has been denied justice for almost nine years since he was abducted, secretly detained, and tortured under the CIA's rendition program.

Khaled El-Masri, a German national, was seized by Macedonian security officers on 31 December 2003, at a border crossing, because he had been mistaken for an al-Qaida suspect. He was held incommunicado and abused in Macedonian custody for 23 days, after which he was handcuffed, blindfolded, and driven to Skopje airport, where he was handed over to the CIA and severely beaten.

The CIA stripped, hooded, shackled, and sodomized el-Masri with a suppository - in CIA parlance, subjected him to "capture shock" - as Macedonian officials stood by. The CIA drugged him and flew him to Kabul to be locked up in a secret prison known as the "Salt Pit", where he was slammed into walls, kicked, beaten, and subjected to other forms of abuse. Held at the Salt Pit for four months, el-Masri was never charged, brought before a judge, or given access to his family or German government representatives.

The CIA ultimately realised that it had mistaken el-Masri for an al-Qaida suspect with a similar name. But it held on to him for weeks after that. It was not until 24 May 2004, that he was flown, blindfolded, earmuffed, and chained to his seat, to Albania, where he was dumped on the side of the road without explanation.

We've seen these tricks before and the images they conjure for the unwary. Not only are these supposed "massive tunnel networks" they're screaming about "secret and hidden", but like stories about the big ogre we only hear about but never see, these fake "intelligence reports" can paint any illusory monster they want with their bombardment of misinformation and propaganda.

Where did we hear about this "tunnel" scheme before? Oh yeah, the massive underground bunkers in Afghanistan. With this and other false allegations they bombed the hell out of that innocent country in order to find the Osama bin Ogre. Of course he was hidden in his plush tunnel network from whence he masterminded and bamboozled, by cell phone no less, the entire western megalomilitary machine. And of course these massive, heavily armed, elaborate and sophisticated hideouts were never found, nor were any weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq. But who needs proof once you've got the excuse and the war is under way?

You don't need to provide any evidence in today's "mediotic" world, just a big enough microphone, as in the Zionist controlled mass-hysteria media. Just look at this nonsense propaganda being passed on as reliable information that clearly indicates and attempts to justify their "need" to bomb Gaza until it's one massive crater to "really get the job done" in order to destroy this "massive tunnel system" located under every inch of "terrorist" Gaza.

The Obama administration and the IRS is NOW able to reach across the world to spy, track, tax, and potentially confiscate U.S. dollars from anyone, across the world. This is not just another tax. This has real implications, take the time to read it and warn others.

In an attempt to generate more tax revenue, the Obama administration and the IRS have angered and encouraged all world banks to drop their U.S. dollar holding clients by October 1st, and systematically usher the collapse of the U.S. Dollar.

It's no secret, China, Iran, Russia, India, Brazil, Japan, and other nations have started bilateral agreements to trade with one another, OUTSIDE the use of U.S. dollars.

The implementation of Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), will go down in history as the biggest blunder in Obama's presidency. FATCA will now force all world (foreign) banks to comply and follow IRS guidelines "IF" they transact in "the almighty" world reserve currency, the U.S. dollar; even if it means breaking their own nations' privacy laws.

As of July 1st. 2014, foreign financial institutions ("FFI") have agreed to file Quarterly Reports directly to the IRS-the first report is due October 1st. The reports include, ALL financial accounts assets, bank accounts, securities accounts, annuity contracts, rental properties, insurance contracts, pension plans, trusts and private investments in companies and partnerships.

Guilty, until proven innocent: Foreign nations and financial institutions will need to prove they 're not concealing U.S. clients (including green card holders). They will have to provide the IRS access to ALL their clients, including their own citizens. Foreign nations and financial institutions are infuriated at the overreaching of the U.S. "Empire."

FATCA notices are being sent out. Foreign banks are notifying their clients to get ready to pay huge back taxes, or close/transfer their accounts, BEFORE the first quarterly report is due, October 1st 2014.

October 1st, could set off a new stock market crash- the New BLACK October! Food for thought: Every major stock market crash has started in October; hence the name: Black October

Much like the Roman Empire, the U.S. Empire's overreaching will have dire consequences. With tensions running high between Obama and Putin over the Ukraine, do you think Putin will comply with the IRS,.. OR!.. sell-off U.S. dollar reserves? The new rules leave some financial officials fuming in places such as Australia, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Back when the warmongers had hopes of ginning up a war between the United States and Iran during the Bush administration, one of their propaganda talking points was the Iran had "threatened to wipe Israel off the map."

When we look at Gaza's before and after pictures (below) it becomes clear that the charge is more appropriate to Israel itself.

The late Christopher Hitchens, who went off the deep end at the end of his life, joining with the Neoconservatives in hoping for Iran to be so targeted, was furious with me for questioning this underpinning of the war effort.

I pointed out that there is no such idiom in Persian and that the phrase was a quotation from Imam Khomeini in the 1980s, quoted by then president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. What Khomeini had said was "This Occupation regime over Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time." Ahmadinejad said he hoped the Zionist enterprise would collapse just as had the rule of the shah in Iran or that of the Soviet Union. Iran's then president (who is not head of the armed forces) had no authority to order tanks to roll on Israel. There were several countries in between, so Iran cannot attack Israel militarily even if it wanted to. Israeli fighter jets would make mince meat of a conventional Iranian invasion, and anyway Israel has several hundred atomic bombs, which are rather a deterrent.

Update, 2 August: Israel acknowledges soldier is dead

On Saturday evening, the Israeli army stated that Hadar Goldin, the soldier it claimed Hamas had captured on Friday morning, is dead:

IDF ✔
@IDFSpokesperson
A special IDF committee has concluded that Lt. Hadar Goldin was killed in combat in Gaza on Friday. May his memory be a blessing.

It was on the pretext of searching for the missing soldier that Israel slaughtered at least 110 of people in the southern Gaza town of Rafah since Friday morning, destroying what was supposed to be a 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire. But the toll is rising as more bodies are found.

"Such was the savagery of Israel's bombardment in Rafah, such was the quantity of dead bodies, that there was simply no other option but to use vegetable refrigerators as makeshift morgues," journalist Mohammed Omer, who hails from Rafah, reports.

In one such freezer, Omer saw "the corpses of children, young men and women lying on top of one another, soaked in blood. Many were impossible to identify and only a few have been placed in white burial shrouds."

One wonders whether US President Barack Obama will now retract his hasty statement - no doubt based on misinformation from Israel - blaming Hamas for capturing the soldier and demanding that he be "unconditionally" released.

Now that Israel has, like Hamas, concluded that Goldin is dead, the question remains whether someone in the Israeli army gave the order to shell Rafah to kill him and prevent Hamas taking a live prisoner.

Israel is strong, mighty, invincible. Israel has truckloads of nuclear weapons. Israel has cluster bombs, DIME munitions, white phosphorous, and other illegal or experimental weapons with which it can kill and maim as many Palestinian civilians as it likes.
Israel is especially proficient at mass-murdering children. Israel constantly reminds us that it can exercise the "Samson option" and drop nuclear weapons on the capitals of Europe and the Middle East. Israel has even colonized America, the world's most powerful nation, exacting billions of dollars a year in tribute. What a stunningly prepotent entity! The world stands in awe of the great and terrible Israel.

That, at least, is what the Israelis would have us believe.

But it is just an illusion. Israel is not behaving like a confidently powerful nation. Instead, it is desperately lashing out like a cornered rat in the final throes of rabies.

Israel's genocide against the people of Gaza is sparking a seismic shift in world public opinion. Former New York Times journalist Philip Weiss, a noted Jewish critic of Israel, recently wrote: "There are more signs today that what the Israeli assault on Gaza in 2008-2009 did for the left, the latest assault is doing for the mainstream: solidifying a perception that Israeli leadership has lost its moorings, opening the floodgates of criticism."



© Roman Boed/Wikipedia CommonsA makeshift memorial at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, Netherlands for victims of flight MH17.

"Recent history has repeatedly proven that nothing said by Washington and its officials should be accepted at face value. No other government in the world has been implicated in so many egregious lies as the United States."
- Bill Van Auken, "US lies and hypocrisy on Gaza and Ukraine", World Socialist Web Site

"Mendaci neque quum vera dicit, creditor."
- Cicero ("A liar is not to be believed even when he speaks the truth.")

Without a shred of public evidence to support their claim that Moscow was involved in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, the United States and Europe have levied a new round of sanctions on Russia. The sanctions, which are designed to restrict Russia's access to both capital and technology, will be imposed as soon as August 1, despite the fact that Moscow has repeatedly denied either involvement in the incident or of providing material support for the militants fighting in east Ukraine.

Not surprisingly, Russia will not be given a chance to defend itself in court or present its case before an independent tribunal. Due process and the presumption of innocence are breezily jettisoned whenever US interests are involved. Instead, Washington will act as judge, jury and lord high executioner arbitrarily imposing penalties on the country that has provided hard evidence of what actually transpired prior to the crash using data it compiled from radar and satellite imagery. In contrast, the US hasn't lifted a finger to help the investigation even though it has the most advanced, state-of-the-art surveillance systems in the world and even though it had a satellite - capable of reading a license plate from outer space - hovering directly overhead at the time the aircraft blew up. And here's something else to consider from blogger Moon of Alabama:

"Pentagon officials told CNN (on Tuesday) that the Ukrainian government fired three ballistic missiles towards the federalists during the last 48 hours." (Moon of Alabama)

If the Pentagon picked up the ballistic missile launches on their radar, they certainly saw the surface-to-air missiles that brought down MH17. Case closed.

Al-Shifa hospital has received a phone call telling them a building of the hospital will be bombed.

At 16:30, the hospital received a call from an unlisted number, stating a building needed to be evacuated immediately.

The building is being used for overflow patients, and is directly across the road from the main hospital building. It is part of the hospital site, but building work has yet to be completed.

The hospital is now in the process of evacuating all staff and patients inside.

"I'd like to say that Israel's threats to bomb Gaza's largest hospital have reached a new low, but in light of its relentless atrocities and civilian massacres over the last 25 days, it's hardly unexpected," stated Joe Catron, U.S. International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activist now in al-Shifa hospital.

Washington-- As lawmakers on Capitol Hill scrambled to approve increased military funding for Israel this week, a little-noted federal agency across town prepared to spend as much as $84 million to compensate an American company for losses sustained in the Israeli bombardment of a Gaza power plant.

The money would come from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, which helps U.S. companies expand business abroad in ways that, to quote OPIC's website, "help solve critical development challenges and in doing so, [it] advances U.S. foreign policy." The agency does all this in part by offering insurance policies designed to protect companies from political risk, a broad term that includes "war, civil strife, coups," and "terrorism."

An OPIC spokesman told The Huffington Post on Tuesday that a "U.S. investor in the power plant whose investment is covered by OPIC political risk insurance ... notified OPIC that the facility in question has been damaged."

That investor is likely Morganti Development LLC, a Delaware-based corporation that owns a stake in the only power plant in the Gaza Strip. As of Wednesday, OPIC said the company had yet to file a claim for the losses.

The Huffington Post was not able to contact Morganti Development LLC directly, and a representative for Morganti Group Inc., an affiliated company, did not respond to a request for comment.

Given his background, what American Jewish leader Henry Siegman has to say about Israel's founding in 1948 through the current assault on Gaza may surprise you. From 1978 to 1994, Siegman served as executive director of the American Jewish Congress, long described as one of the nation's "big three" Jewish organizations along with the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League. Born in Germany three years before the Nazis came to power in 1933, Siegman's family eventually moved to the United States. His father was a leader of the European Zionist movement that pushed for the creation of a Jewish state. In New York, Siegman studied the religion and was ordained as an Orthodox rabbi by Yeshiva Torah Vodaas, later becoming head of the Synagogue Council of America. After his time at the American Jewish Congress, Siegman became a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He now serves as president of the U.S./Middle East Project. In the first of our two-part interview, Siegman discusses the assault on Gaza, the myths surrounding Israel's founding in 1948, and his own background as a German-Jewish refugee who fled Nazi occupation to later become a leading American Jewish voice and now vocal critic of Israel's policies in the Occupied Territories.

"When one thinks that this is what is necessary for Israel to survive, that the Zionist dream is based on the repeated slaughter of innocents on a scale that we're watching these days on television, that is really a profound, profound crisis - and should be a profound crisis in the thinking of all of us who were committed to the establishment of the state and to its success," Siegman says. Responding to Israel's U.S.-backed claim that its assault on Gaza is necessary because no country would tolerate the rocket fire from militants in Gaza, Siegman says: "What undermines this principle is that no country and no people would live the way that Gazans have been made to live. ... The question of the morality of Israel's action depends, in the first instance, on the question, couldn't Israel be doing something [to prevent] this disaster that is playing out now, in terms of the destruction of human life? Couldn't they have done something that did not require that cost? And the answer is, sure, they could have ended the occupation."