Glenn Greenwald
SalonThu, 21 Jun 2007 17:58 UTC
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| Norman Podhoretz
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Neoconservative icon Norman Podhoretz followed up his Commentary article titled "The case for bombing Iran" -- excerpts of which were re-published in The Wall St. Journal -- with an interview elaborating on why he "hopes and prays" that we bomb Iran and how he envisions the bombings. What Norman Podhoretz is advocating -- blowing Iran into "smithereens" -- is criminal and morally twisted for reasons that should require no elaboration. But the far more significant fact is that such advocacy does not relegate him to the fringes. Quite the contrary, the movement of which he is an integral part, on whose behalf he speaks, is well within the political mainstream as depicted by our political press. And it is doubtful that there is anything he (and his comrades) could do or say which would change that.
The slave scandal that has rocked China during the past week would not have been exposed, and in all likelihood would have continued untroubled, were it not for journalist Fu Zhenzhong and the Henan TV station for which he works.
About 1000 children as young as seven - along with many adults, some of whom were mentally impaired - had been held captive for months and years to work as slaves making bricks for 16 hours a day at kilns in China's dirt-poor northern Shanxi and Henan provinces.
The police did nothing. The state-controlled All China Federation of Trade Unions did nothing. The local Government did nothing.
"I read the news today oh boy." - The Beatles, A Day in the Life, 1967.
"The only enemy of Iraq is the occupation." - Muqtada al-Sadr, 2007.
Forty years ago down in sunny Monterey, California, an ultra-cool black cat from Seattle named James Marshall Hendrix set the world on fire. "Respect" by Aretha Franklin (written by Otis Redding) was the No 1 hit single in the US (to be replaced, a month later, by "Light My Fire" by The Doors). Hendrix and Otis in Monterey merged into the Summer of Love - the apotheosis of Make Love Not War, vinyl treasures and Indian mottoes dressed in caftans and granny dresses.
A previously unknown militant Islamic group claimed responsibility Monday for a weekend rocket attack on northern Israel.
The self-proclaimed ''Jihadi Badr Brigades - Lebanon branch,'' vowed in a statement faxed to The Associated Press in Beirut to continue attacks.
''We had promised our people jihad (holy war),'' the statement said. ''Here, we again strike the Zionists when a group from the Jihadi Badr Brigades struck the Zionists in the occupied Palestinian territory.''
At least two rockets fired from Lebanon landed Sunday in the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shemona, causing damage but no casualties. It was the first time rockets were fired from Lebanese territory at the Jewish state since last year's war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.
An explosion from a bomb-rigged car rocked Beirut's seafront Wednesday, killing an anti-Syrian lawmaker. Parliamentary Deputy Walid Eido, his son Khaled, and two bodyguards were killed, along with 6 others.
AFPTue, 12 Jun 2007 13:15 UTC
Kuwait, a staunch US ally, said on Monday it would not allow the United States to use its territory as a launch-pad for any attack on Iran over its nuclear programme.
"The United States did not ask (to use Kuwaiti military facilities for any attack) and even if it did, we will not allow anybody to use our territory," defence and interior minister Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Sabah told reporters.
APTue, 12 Jun 2007 03:25 UTC
U.S. forces mistakenly killed seven Afghan police and wounded four in an apparent friendly fire incident early Tuesday in eastern Afghanistan, Afghan officials said.
Police manning a remote checkpoint in Nangarhar province said an American convoy backed by helicopters approached and opened fire despite their protests and calls for them to stop.
A Dutch smoking ban will come into force in July next year for all restaurants and cafes -- including coffee shops where cannabis is the top attraction, the government decided on Friday.
"Coffee shops will be treated in the same manner as other catering businesses. They will be smoke-free," Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende told NOS television.
AFPWed, 06 Jun 2007 08:17 UTC
The four suspects in an alleged terror plot to bomb a New York airport were set up in an elaborate plan by the US Republican party to retain hold of the White House, the daughter of an arrested suspect claimed on Tuesday.
Huda Ibrahiim, daughter of Amir Kareem Ibrahiim, one of four men accused of plotting acts of terrorism against the United States, said US justice officials had engaged in entrapment in breaking up the alleged plot.
If you pop a vitamin C tablet in your mouth, it's a good bet it came from China. Indeed, many of the world's vitamins are now made in China.
In less than a decade, China has captured 90 percent of the U.S. market for vitamin C, driving almost everyone else out of business.
Chinese pharmaceutical companies also have taken over much of the world market in the production of antibiotics, analgesics, enzymes and primary amino acids. According to an industry group, China makes 70 percent of the world's penicillin, 50 percent of its aspirin and 35 percent of its acetaminophen (often sold under the brand name Tylenol), as well as the bulk of vitamins A, B12, C and E.
Comment: For more on the Hariri killing and the Mossad involvement read the article by Joe Quinn Mossad Murders Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri