Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

Libyan Rebels Inspired by Globalization

By Tony Cartalucci – BLN – May 13, 2011

As NATO gloats over another assassination attempt against Colonel Moammar Qaddafi, resulting in the death of several workers, but again missing the embattled Libyan leader, the Libyan rebels are being lent ever increasing support from their long-time backers in the West.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague announced the approval of more “non-lethal” aid to the rebels including uniforms, bullet-proof vests, and communication gear. The UK also invited the rebels to open up a mission in London – an easy task as most of the opposition’s leadership have already lived in London and Washington for years. In fact the very call for the Libyan rebels’ February 17th “Day of Rage” was made by the NCLO out of London. Days later, Ibrahim Sahad, a co-founder of the NCLO and NFSL, would call for an international military intervention sitting directly in front of the White House.

Ibrahim Sahad of the National Front for the Salvation of Libya set the rhetorical groundwork for the US/UK/French military intervention in Libya. To this day his claims remain either unverified or in fact, verified lies.

….

Added to the mix of air strikes and “non-lethal” military aid, the West is also sending in “security contractor” firms to negotiate deals with the rebels in Benghazi. Of course “security contractors” in reality are armed mercenaries. One such firm, Secopex of France, was negotiating with rebels in Benghazi when the head of the firm, Pierre Marziali according to the New York Times, was shot in the stomach and later died. Secopex had done work in Somalia and boasts on its website that one of its specialties is the “training of national armies.”

While the governments leading this imperial adventure into Libya attempt to cling to the last vestiges of their legitimacy by denying recent attacks on Qaddafi’s family were assassination attempts, and while they claim ground troops are not part of the equation, Secopex’s presence in Benghazi is evidence that tacit support for a secret war has already been given. By claiming buildings, not people are the targets, and mercenaries from private companies, not soldiers define the current operations in Libya, the US, UK, and France make a mockery out of the supposed moral high-ground they claim to be fighting this war from.

Globalist Inspired Rebel Leader

According to US-educated Mahmoud Gibril Elwarfally, interim prime minister of the contrived “Libyan Transitional National Council,” in a May 12, 2011 talk before the Brookings Institution, “what’s taking place is a natural product of the globalizational process that started in the mid-80′s.”


Mahmoud Elwarfally, self-proclaimed leader of the Libyan “Transitional National Council” speaks before the corporate-financier funded Brookings Institution, moderated by former CIA analyst Kenneth Pollack. Elwarfally maintains that the rebellion against Qaddafi was a natural product of the “globalizational process.”He still claims the rebellion is “peaceful.”

….

Elwarfally talks about a “new global cultural paradigm,” “new global values,” common values, shared by many “young people.” These young people, he says, are calling for human dignity, democracy, and inclusion at all levels of national government, repeating verbatim statements coming from geopolitical meddler Zbigniew Brzezinski and the myriad of US-funded NGOs that promote these “new global values.”

Deriding 30 years of documented history showing that the current armed uprising is but the latest campaign in a long war of foreign-funded armed sedition against Qaddafi, and recent admissions by rebel leaders themselves of having direct ties to Al Qaeda, Elwarfally claims such accusations are merely “Qaddafi projecting fears” onto the Libyan people and the world abroad. Elwarfally, rewriting history in mid-sentence, claims that armed struggle was forced upon them – despite 30 years of history saying otherwise. He proposes that current fighting is merely defensive and that the rebel is still peaceful. When asked about comments he made just minutes before regarding “marching on Tripoli,” Elwarfally maintains it was merely rhetorical.

Libya 2025

When asked by an audience member what Libya will look like in 2025, it turns out conveniently he was part of a study by Libya professors and “Libyan practitioners” in 2007-2008 titled “Libya: Vision 2025.” Not surprisingly, this project was conducted with input from the IMF and involved Libya’s placement within the “global scene.”  Elwarfally laments that Libya’s oil reserves are limited and that the solution is a transition to a service economy. He also claims Vision 2025′s conclusion included an education shift, turning Libya into “a lake” to develop the skills of Africans to serve the needs of the European Union.

Surely Africans are eager to once again be in the service of wealthy Europeans, who at one point owned tremendous swaths of their continent, some tycoons naming entire nations after themselves in the ultimate expression of imperial megalomania. Elwarfally, a man educated in Pittsburgh, and apparently a lifelong fan of globalization, stuns us with his frank comments and his disturbing vision for the future of not only Libya, but the role it will play in directing Africa’s efforts and resources into the American and European corporate-financier interests. It is almost as disturbing as his breathtaking mis-characterization of the men who fight under him in what is most certainly not a “peaceful” rebellion.

Elwarfally concludes his talk by mentioning the “diminishing of the sense of the state” in Libya, due, he claims to a lack of “institutions” and “rule of law.” Kenneth Pollack, former CIA analyst and National Security Council member, chimes in declaring he hopes Elwarfally’s globalist dream becomes a reality even before 2025. Pollack, of course, is one of several contributors to the “Which Path to Persia?” report, within which open talk of funding terrorists, foreign-funded street protests, augmented with forms of US military support is made in regards to overthrowing Iran’s government. Quite obviously Pollack’s stratagems articulated in this treacherous report have already been applied to Iran as well as Libya, Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, and beyond.

If there was any doubt in the minds of those watching the “Arab Spring” unfold, doubts that haven’t been laid to rest by open admissions by the US that it was a plot of their own design, Mahmoud Gibril Elwarfally of the Libyan “Transitional National Committee” himself declares fealty to the globalist agenda and his commitment to propagating the interdependency and exploitation of the developing world by the global corporate-financier oligarchy. When similar calls for “democracy” and “dignity” are made by similar revolutions now festering in Eastern Europe along Russia’s border, and throughout China’s “String of Pearls” in South and Southeast Asia, remember Elwarfally’s words spoken before the globalist Brookings Institution.

Download the entire audio file from Brookings Institution here.

May 13, 2011 Posted by | Economics, Video | 4 Comments

Villagers of Jaloud protest their electricity being cut

13 May 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

Today the village of Jaloud held a non-violent demonstration against the decision of Israel to cut off the electricity of seven families living on the outskirts of the village. The villagers and several international organisations marched from the village to the aforementioned houses carrying banners protesting the theft of their land and electricity. Jaloud, which is home to nearly 1,000 villagers is, according to the plan of the District Coordinating Office located in area B. However a small number of properties fall into area C outside of this plan, despite being inhabited for over 80 years and have recently been served with notices that they will have their electricity cut off. They have been given a court date of 19th May, where they will be able to object to this decision. Village Mayor Abdullah Haj Mohamd says that he doesn’t know what the families will do if their power is cut as they are reliant on electricity for their everyday life and farm work.

Jaloud, which has been inhabited for over 6,000 years is now surrounded by seven illegal Israeli settlements and a military base. Since the beginning of the occupation the village has lost 80% of it’s land to settlements and it suffers from frequent attacks by the settlers, often at night. The village has also been targeted by the Israeli military who three months ago uprooted and removed 200 olive trees the villagers had planted on their land. This most recent move from the state of Israel can be seen as an attempt to prevent the expansion of the village and force families back into the centre, all the while facilitating the expansion of the surrounding settlements.

May 13, 2011 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | 1 Comment

Italy’s Great Nuclear Swindle

The Radioactive Dictatorship of Silvio Berlusconi

By MICHAEL LEONARDI – CounterPunch – May 13, 2011

Italy’s democracy is in tatters as Silvio Berlusconi and his ruling right-wing coalition work to block a citizen’s referendum that would repeal the decision of the Berlusconi government to return to nuclear energy production on the peninsula. Italy has not produced nuclear energy since 1990 and recent polls indicate that more than 75 % of Italians are opposed to nuclear energy production. The referendum in question is on the ballot for the 12th and 13th of June, although a recent call by the Berlusconi government for a one year moratorium on the relaunch of nuclear energy in Italy threatens to push the referendum off the ballot through a last minute legal ruling. The campaign to bring this referendum to a vote was spearheaded by opposition political party Italia Dei Valori (Italy of Values) which led a broad based coalition of citizen and environmental groups to gather the 500,000 signatures needed to get the referendum on the ballot.

Italy is the only G8 country that does not produce nuclear energy. It has been free of functioning nuclear power plants since 1990 but does receive around 10% of its electricity from nuclear energy generated in France and Germany. Citizens successfully passed a referendum in 1987, one year after the catastrophic Chernobyl accident, that called for the phasing out and suspension of nuclear energy production. In 1987 Italy had two operating nuclear plants and has had four operational reactors in its history. In 2007 while campaigning for his third election, Berlusconi announced his intentions to return to nuclear energy production in Italy as a strategic part of a national energy policy.

Back in 2007 Berlusconi wasn’t the only one who supported a return to nuclear energy. Important elements of the newly formed Democratic Party also voiced their support for a return to nuclear power. A wikileaks cable 07ROME2438 revealed that Pier Luigi Bersani, the current secretary of the Italian Democratic Party who in 2007 was serving as Economic Development Minister for the Romano Prodi led Center Left coalition government, opened the door for Italy’s return to atomic energy by forging the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership agreement with then US energy secretary Samuel Bodman. At that time Bersani stated that “a return to nuclear energy was not excluded by the 1987 referendum” and that it was his hope that the agreement forged between the Prodi and Bush administrations would “help lead to a change in attitude from the Italian people toward nuclear energy.” Walter Veltroni, the ex-mayor of Rome who was the newly formed Democratic Party’s first candidate for president against Berlusconi in 2008, also voiced his openness to the idea of returning to Nuclear Energy production.

Since Fukushima Bersani and his fellow Democrats have been much more subdued about their support for Nuclear Energy and they have voiced strong opposition to the current government’s plan for the construction of new reactors. The Democrats have joined the chorus of the Green Party, Italia Dei Valori and scores of citizens groups in calling Berlusconi’s attempts to block the referendum a “theft” and a “deceptive attempt to hinder the democratic process.” Fukushima has inspired renewed vigor in the antinuclear movement and worked to sway public opinion in opposition to nuclear power that had become increasingly split over the past few years.

Following Berlusconi’s election victory in 2008 and his return to power for the third time since 1994, Italy’s new minister of economic development Claudio Scajola — before being forced out of office by a corruption scandal involving bribery and fraud in 2010 — announced that the government had scheduled the start of construction for the first new Italian nuclear power plant by 2013. On February the 24th of 2009, an agreement between France and Italy was signed allowing Italy to share in France’s expertise in the area of nuclear power station design. On July 9th 2009 the Italian legislature passed an energy bill covering the establishment of a Nuclear Regulatory Agency and giving the government six months to select sites for new plants. These sites have never been finalized. On the 3rd of August 2009, Italy’s energy giant Enel and Eletricite de France established a joint venture Sviluppo Nucleare Italia Srl for studying the feasibility of building at least four reactors using a design of French reactor builder Areva — the worlds largest nuclear energy company. These energy oligarchs, with Berlusconi as their champion, are doing everything in their power to preserve their multi-billion dollar investment in a nuclear future.

To this end Berlusconi’s council of ministers announced a one year moratorium on all questions relating to the research and activation of sites for new nuclear plants in Italy on the 24rd of March 2011, less than two weeks from the earthquake in Japan and subsequent Fukushima nuclear disaster. This move was immediately met with skepticism from Italy’s antinuclear movement and opposition political parties and was seen as a poorly veiled attempt to block the June referendum. On April 26th, the 25th anniversary of the catastrophic Chernobyl accident, Berlusconi held a press conference with French president Nikolay Sarkozy in Rome. At this press conference Berlusconi made his radioactive intentions clear for all. “We are absolutely convinced that nuclear energy is the future for the whole world,” he said. He went on to detail how recent polls showed that the referendum to block nuclear power for decades to come could pass at this time and that by temporarily suspending Italy’s return to nuclear program the issue would be revisited when the Italian voters had been “calmed down” and returned to the realization that Nuclear Energy was the most viable and safe way to produce electricity. He went on to explain how the “leftists and ecologists” had manipulated the emotions of the Italian voters after Chernobyl and penalized the Italian people who have to pay higher electric rates than France that operates 58 nuclear power plants. Berlusconi explained that the “situation in Japan had scared the Italian voters” and that the “inevitable return to nuclear power in Italy” would not be abandoned nor would the collaborations between Enel and Eletricite de France.

Now with Germany and Japan announcing the phasing out of their Nuclear programs and the scrapping of plans for the construction of new reactors, it would seem like political suicide to barge full steam ahead with a pro nuclear stance, but this is Italy and Berlusconi is still at the command. Berlusconi is now in control of all the major television outlets, including the state owned RAI, so getting the word out to the voters that there will be a vote on the 12th and 13th of June is proving difficult, and the heavy hand of State censorship has been wielded. At the annual May Day concert in Rome, sponsored by Italy’s two largest labor unions and televised on the state run RAI, the performing artists were required to sign a waiver agreeing not to speak about the upcoming referendums or risk a fine of over ten thousand euros. This left a bitter taste in the mouths of many of the attendees of this May Day celebration as news surfaced almost immediately that the state media outlet had censored the event.

As of now the referendum to block Nuclear Power is still on the ballot. Only a last minute ruling by the Supreme Court could remove it, and the Berlusconi government is banking on this decision as a result of their so-called nuclear moratorium. The antinuclear referendum is accompanied on the June ballot by two other referendums, one to repeal the Berlusconi government’s attempts to privatize water and the other to repeal a law called “legittimo impedimento” which was passed by the Right wing majority in order to protect Berlusconi from prosecution by giving him and members of parliament immunity from prosecution while serving in office. Each of these referendums required the gathering of half a million valid signatures and will need the high participation of 50 % plus 1 eligible voters to reach the mandated quorum in order to be considered valid. No legislative referendum has been able to reach this quorum in over a decade. Now the Berlusconi government is also trying to block the vote to keep water publicly owned. In recent legislation they created a new Water Authority in an attempt to legally block this referendum as well. While it is evident to the engaged and politically active citizenry that the Berlusconi government is pulling out all the stops to block the democratic process, the masses who get their information from Berlusconi’s private and state run television empire are being kept in the dark. No news on the referendums is reported unless it is it is very late at night or the early hours of the morning.

To publicize these referendums the citizens are taking to the streets, leafleting, using creative direct action and social networking on the internet to spread the news and get out the vote. On May 9th Greenpeace activists unfurled a large banner from Mussolini’s balcony on Palazzo Venezia in Rome. The banner includes a caricature of Berlusconi saying “Italians, I decide your future” and a call for Italians to vote on the Nuclear Referndum. Angelo Bonelli, President of the Italian Green Party, summed it up like this: “The referendums will be voted on anyway, despite the fact that the thieves of democracy have returned to action. The attempts of the government to steal the democratic rights of the Italian people to vote against nuclear energy and the privatization of water will not succeed.” On the 12th and 13th of June, the Italian people can change the course of their future by voting yes to say no to nuclear energy and the privatization of their water resources.

~

Michael Leonardi splits his time between Ohio and Italy. He can be reached at mikeleonardi@hotmail.com

May 13, 2011 Posted by | Corruption, Economics, Full Spectrum Dominance, Nuclear Power | 1 Comment

22 Wounded One Critically in The Weekly Nonviolent Protest in Nabi Saleh

By George Rishmawi – IMEMC & Agencies – May 13, 2011

A large march started after the Friday prayers midday towards the construction site of the new settlement Israel is building on the land of the villagers of Nabi Saleh near the central West Bank city of Ramallah.

Israeli soldiers fired a number of tear gas bombs and rubber-coated steel bullets at the nonviolent protesters wounding at least 22 civilians.

One American protester was wounded in the head when he was hit with a tear gas canister. He was moved to the hospital for treatment and his wounds were described as critical.

Israeli troops also kidnapped two women identified as Nida and Iqbal Tamimi. Eyewitnesses said they were handcuffed and blind-folded and were taken to unknown destination. Troops also arrested two Israelis from the site. Dozens other were treated for gas inhalation and for being beaten by the Israeli soldiers.

Israeli soldiers also assaulted photojournalist Hilmi Tamimi, and broke his camera during the protest.

May 13, 2011 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

Italian, Malaysian, Activists Arrive In Gaza

By Saed Bannoura – IMEMC & Agencies – May 13, 2011

Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip reported Thursday that Italian and Malaysian human rights activists arrived in the Gaza Strip through the Rafah Border Terminal between Gaza and Egypt.

The “Vittorio” convoy includes nearly 50 activists, including friends of Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni, who was kidnapped and killed by extremist outlaws in Gaza in mid-April.

Arrigoni was a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM); he arrived in Gaza in August 2008 aboard the first ship that challenged the illegal Israeli siege on Gaza, and decided to stay in the coastal region.

During the illegal three-week Israeli war on Gaza between December 2008 and January 2009, Arrigoni accompanied Palestinian ambulances and helped medics in their rescue operations.

He also wrote dozens of reports and feature stories documenting the Israeli violations against the residents in Gaza. During his presence in Gaza, Arrigoni was also granted Palestinian citizenship handed to him by Prime Minister of the Hamas-led government, Ismail Haniyya.

May 13, 2011 Posted by | Solidarity and Activism | 1 Comment

Israeli Police deploy in preparation for Nakba Day

Ma’an – 13/05/2011

BETHLEHEM — Israeli police will limit the number of Muslim worshipers in Jerusalem on Friday, in accordance with special deployment in preparation for Nakba Day.

Only men aged 45 and older with Israeli ID cards will be allowed to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, police announced. No restrictions will be placed on women, they said.

Israeli Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch told public radio that police would “thin out the number of worshipers at the Temple Mount” — Israel’s term for the compound inside the walled Old City which houses the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

The move to limit access to what is the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina, came as the Palestinians were poised to begin a series of marches and demonstrations in the run up to Nakba Day, which will be commemorated on Sunday.

Activists behind a website called “The Third Intifada” have also called for a new uprising, which would see thousands of Palestinians march towards Israeli checkpoints, and refugees towards homes from which they fled or were forced out of when Israel was created in 1948.

Palestinian refugees are also expected to stage rallies and demonstrations in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld confirmed that some restrictions would be in force during the Friday prayers but he was not immediately able to give details.

Israel on Tuesday celebrated the 63rd anniversary of its creation, marking the date according to the Hebrew calendar.

Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel and abroad, who mourn the day as the “Nakba” or “catastrophe,” are to stage three days of rallies and protests starting on Friday.

But Aharonovitch told the radio he believed the anniversary would pass quietly, and Israeli news website Ynet quoted him as saying he had instructed the security forces “to exercise restraint and avoid using force.”

More than 760,000 Palestinians — estimated today to number 4.8 million with their descendants — were pushed into exile or driven out of their homes in the conflict surrounding Israel’s creation.

Around 160,000 Palestinians, who remained in Israel after 1948, now number around 1.36 million people, or 20 percent of the country’s population.

Successive Israeli governments have refused to allow the Palestinian refugees to return to homes they fled from or were forced out of in 1948 for fear that a massive influx would threaten the Jewish majority in Israel, which now counts some 5.8 million Jewish citizens.

May 13, 2011 Posted by | Full Spectrum Dominance, Illegal Occupation | Leave a comment

Israeli revenue freeze is “a warning” to the Palestinians

MEMO |12 May 2011

Israel’s finance minister has said that the Israeli decision to freeze the tax revenue transfer to the Palestinian Authority is a “punishment”. Yuval Steinitz said that the “warning” move by Israel was a response to Fatah signed a reconciliation agreement with Hamas.

Speaking to Radio Israel, Steinitz said, “The delay in transferring funds is a yellow card for the Palestinian Authority after the signing of the agreement with Hamas.” At the moment, it is a delay of a week to ten days, but it could become a “red card”, depending on “clarifications” from the Palestinians.

Annually, Israel collects taxes totaling between $55 – 62 million at border crossings and ports on behalf of the PA and transfers it to the Palestinians under an economic deal agreed alongside the Oslo autonomy accords.

May 13, 2011 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

Political Communiqué for “The Return to Palestine March-May 15th”

The Return to Palestine March

The Organizing Committee for the “Return to Palestine March” issued the following political communiqué on its blog marking 63 years since 1948 Nakba Day (catastrophe):

From the suffering caused by the Nakba, from our aspirations for return and liberation, from the inspiration brought about by the Arab people’s revolutions, and from our longing to return to the land and the skies of Palestine, we rise.

Marking the 1948 Nakba and restating our commitment to the Right of Return of all Palestinians to historical Palestine, the Palestinian people and all the free men and women who support the Palestinian cause will rally on May 15, 2011 in various countries around the world to commemorate the day in a massive Palestinian, Arab and global revolution.

In Lebanon the Return to Palestine March will set out towards the Palestinian/Lebanese borders on Sunday May 15, 2011, on the day commemorating the 1948 Nakba. The March will include various Palestinian and Lebanese civil and popular organizations and associations, professional associations, federations, NGOs, political parties and groups, in addition to independent activists from different regions and refugee camps around Lebanon.

This March will take place in order to affirm the right of all Palestinians to return to their homeland and their properties, from which they were forcibly uprooted in 1948 by Zionist terrorism and violence.

This popular and peaceful March will include thousands of Returnees from various refugee camps and their partners and supporters from diverse groups representing the Lebanese political and social spectra.

This popular March aims at the following:

• Affirming the Right of Return of the Palestinians to their homeland, possessions and villages from which they were coercively driven out, and refusing any compromises or concessions vis-à-vis this inalienable Right, while at the same time also refusing all forms of Zionist settlement and displacement programs.
• Affirming the Right of Return as a sacred, historical, legitimate, legal, humane and political right. It is both an individual and collective right and will continue to be applicable to successive generations.
• Affirming that the Right of Return is a permanent, unconditional, non-negotiable and irrevocable right.
• Emphasizing the right to resistance in all its forms in order to liberate all the Palestinian lands, from the sea to the river.
• Underscoring and asserting Palestinian national unity and putting an end to all divisions and discord by returning to respecting popular will on the basis of endorsing resistance and the total liberation of all Palestinian lands.
• Supporting the freedom of the Arab people as a guarantee for the continuation of resistance for the liberation of Palestine.
• Affirming that Palestine is an Arab country, and that every Arab has the right to return to this land and a duty to seek its liberation.
• Asserting the role of both the Arab and the Islamic nations in supporting the Palestinian cause and the Right of Return of Palestinian refugees; a dignified, unconstrained and comprehensive return.

This March in Lebanon will be taking place concurrently with several other Marches being organized towards the Palestinian borders with other surrounding Arab countries (Egypt, Syria, Jordan). Demonstrations targeting Israeli embassies are also planned in a number of Western cities to protest the occupation of Palestine and the Zionist apartheid regime.

May 13, 2011 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Solidarity and Activism | Leave a comment

Netanyahu asks the Palestinian Authority to regulate Nakba anniversary rallies

MEMO | 13 May 2011

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed the Palestinian Authority and its security apparatuses to regulate Palestinian rallies commemorating the 63rd anniversary of the Nakba (catastrophe), the name given by Palestinians to the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.

The PA should also, insists Netanyahu, prevent the rallies from crossing the Separation Wall established on Palestinian territory in the West Bank and clashing with Israeli occupation forces.

Reports on Radio Israel added that according to Israeli security sources, “The Nakba commemoration rallies will not develop into violent confrontations, but will mostly take place inside Palestinian cities.”

The rallies are expected to begin after Friday prayers on 13th May and reach a peak on Sunday 15th, the exact anniversary of the declaration of independence of the state of Israel. That event took place in an orgy of ethnic cleansing which created the Palestinian refugee problem which persists to this day.

May 13, 2011 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Solidarity and Activism | Leave a comment

TEPCO now confirms nuclear meltdown in Fukushima reactor No. 1

By Mike Adams | NaturalNews | May 12, 2011

TEPCO has now publicly admitted it wasn’t telling the truth about the severity of the damage to Fukushima reactor No. 1. We’re now being told what we’ve suspected all along — that nuclear fuel rods in that reactor are totally exposed and have suffered a nuclear meltdown, releasing vast amounts of radiation comparable to Chernobyl. As Bloomberg now reports, the water level in reactor No. 4 is one meter below the fuel assembly itself. This means, of course, that the water isn’t high enough to cover the fuel rods, which is why those fuel rods have suffered a nuclear meltdown. (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-…)

The Associated Press is also reporting that “other fuel has slumped to the bottom of the pressure vessel and is thought to be covered in water.” This statement is astonishing all by itself because it means the fuel rods were in a total meltdown hot enough to cause their metal containment cylinders to “slump” and melt their way down to the lower levels of the coolant pools. Notably, AP carefully avoids using the term “melt” and instead says the fuel rods “slumped.” This is all part of the AP’s determined downplaying of the Fukushima catastrophe (see below).

Not surprisingly, as AP now reports, “The findings also indicate a greater-than-expected leak in that vessel.” But the laws of nuclear physics don’t care what you “expect,” you see. They don’t care about media spin or power company B.S. The laws of physics simply follow their natural course, regardless of what you hope they do.

And in the case of Fukushima, the laws of physics led directly to a core fuel meltdown that now even the mainstream media cannot deny (although they still aren’t calling it a “nuclear meltdown”). As AP reports:

Nuclear Industrial and Safety Agency officials said the new data indicates that it is likely that partially melted fuel had fallen to the bottom of the pressurized vessel that holds the reactor core together and possibly leached down into the drywell soon after the March 11 quake and tsunami that struck Japan’s northeastern coast.

Undeniable meltdown

What AP is describing, of course, is a nuclear meltdown. It doesn’t get any more obvious than this: The fuel reached melting temperature and melted down. Along with this, there would have had to be a massive release of radiation into the containment vessel, which just happens to have numerous holes in it that allow highly radioactive water to leak directly into the environment. No wonder TEPCO discovered its radiation detectors had all maxed out there and become non-functional. No wonder TEPCO had to selectively stop reporting radiation releases — it was in the middle of a Chernobyl-like core fuel meltdown!

The Telegraph in the UK is refreshingly printing the truth on this story: “One of the reactors at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant did suffer a nuclear meltdown, Japanese officials admitted for the first time today, describing a pool of molten fuel at the bottom of the reactor’s containment vessel.” (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor…)

But the mainstream media in the U.S. has obviously been instructed by the White House to avoid using the term “nuclear meltdown” in describing what happened at Fukushima. There is a rather blatant downplaying of the facts going on behind the scenes at the media giants.

Some of this spin can only be called blatant lies, by the way. In the same story linked above, AP claims “Unit 4 contained no fuel rods at the time of the earthquake…”

Huh? No fuel rods in reactor No. 4? This what on Earth is this video showing? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKHW…

I love how the media admits it has been misreporting the truth of the situation all along, and then it comes up with new fairytale spin stories in practically the same sentence. They might as well just report, “There was no nuclear fuel in Fukushima at the time of the tsunami, and that’s why governments have stopped monitoring radiation levels.”

TEPCO once again meets Murphy’s Law

In any case, this sudden revelation that reactor No. 4 has already experienced a nuclear fuel meltdown is, not surprisingly, causing considerable setbacks to TEPCO’s plan to have the whole facility deactivated by Christmas. Just as NaturalNews publicly predicted, the Christmas shutdown plan was little more than a combination of fantasyland thinking and industry spin.

“What this means is this is probably going to be a much more difficult cleanup than they originally planned for,” said particle physicist Paul Padley in a Bloomberg story (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-…). The government and Tepco “have consistently appeared to be underestimating the severity of the situation.”

And that’s the story of modern science: Arrogant in its confidence over the laws of nature, yet utterly dishonest in reporting the truth when its Tower of Babel crumbles to the ground. No wonder the reputation of the conventional scientific community continues to plummet as people realize just how dangerous these people really are.

Sources for this story include:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie…

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-…

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor…

May 12, 2011 Posted by | Deception, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Nuclear Power, Science and Pseudo-Science | 4 Comments

The West is Trapped in its Own Propaganda

Hillary Clinton Needs a Mirror

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS | CounterPunch | May 12, 2011

One of the wishes that readers often express to me came true today (May 11). I was on the mainstream media. It was a program with a worldwide reach–the BBC World Service. There were others on the program as well, and the topic was Hillary Clinton’s remarks (May 10) about the lack of democracy and human rights in China.

I startled the program’s host when I compared Hillary’s remarks to the pot calling the kettle black. I was somewhat taken aback myself by the British BBC program host’s rush to America’s defense and wondered about it as the program continued. Surely, he had heard about Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo detainees, CIA secret torture prisons sprinkled around the world, invasion and destruction of Iraq on the basis of lies and deceptions, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya. Surely, he was aware of Hillary’s hypocrisy as she demonized China but turned a blind eye to Israel, Mubarak, Bahrain and the Saudis. China’s record is not perfect, but is it this bad? Why wasn’t the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs criticizing America’s human rights abuses and rigged elections? How come China minds its own business and we don’t?

These questions didn’t go down well. None of the other interviewees or guests thought that Hilary had made a good decision, but even the Chinese guests were not free of the common mindset that frames every issue from the standpoint that the West is the standard by which the rest of the world is judged. By pointing out our own shortcomings, I was challenging that standard. The host and other guests could not escape from the restraints imposed on thought by the role of the West as world standard.

What has happened to the West is that it can see itself and others only through the eyes of its own propaganda. There was a great deal of talk about China’s lack of democracy. As the BBC program was being broadcast, the news intruded that Greeks had again taken to the streets to protest the costs of the bailout of the banks and Wall Street–the rich–being imposed on ordinary people at the expense of their lives and aspirations. The Irish government announced that it was going to confiscate with a tax part of the Irish people’s pension accumulations. It simply did not occur to the host and other guests that these are not democratic outcomes.

It is a strange form of democracy that produces political outcomes that reward the few and punish the many, despite the energetic protests of the many.

Political scientists understand that US electoral outcomes are determined by powerful moneyed interests that finance the political campaigns and that the bills Congress passes and the President signs are written by these interest groups to serve their narrow interests. Such conclusions are dismissed as cynicism and do not alter the mindset.

While the program’s host and guests were indulging in the West’s democratic and human rights superiority, the American Civil Liberties Union was sending out a bulletin urging its members to oppose legislation now before Congress that would give the current and future Presidents of the United States expanded war authority to use, on their own initiative, military force anywhere in the world independently of the restraints imposed by the US Constitution and international law.

In other words, in the great American “democracy,” the president is to become a Caesar.

~

Paul Craig Roberts was an editor of the Wall Street Journal and an Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury.  His latest book, HOW THE ECONOMY WAS LOST, has just been published by CounterPunch/AK Press. He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com

May 12, 2011 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Timeless or most popular | 14 Comments

Extensive Human Rights Abuses noted in B’t Selem report

Middle East Online | May 12, 2011

JERUSALEM – Israel has systematically exploited the resources of the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank, favouring settlers over Palestinians, a report by Israeli rights group B’Tselem found on Thursday.

Entitled “Exploitation and Dispossession,” the report found Israel dominated the land, water resources and even tourist sites along the strip of land which runs along the eastern flank of the West Bank, in what appeared to be a prelude to a de facto annexation of territory.

“Israel has instituted a regime that massively exploits the resources of the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea, far more than elsewhere in the West Bank, demonstrating its intention: to de facto annex the area to the state of Israel,” the rights group said.

“Israel has taken over most of the water sources in the area, allocating almost all derived water to settlements,” it said, charging that such actions violated international law, which prohibits the exploitation of natural resources within an occupied territory.

B’Tselem said the 9,400 Jewish settlers living there were able to develop intensive agriculture because they received an annual water allocation of 45 million cubic metres — almost a third of the quantity accessible to the West Bank’s 2.5 million Palestinian residents.

“This generous water supply has enabled settlements to develop intensive-farming methods and to work the land all year round, with most of the produce being exported,” it said.

At the same time, Israel’s control of water sources in the area had depriving Palestinian farmers who had been forced to cut back.

“Due to the water shortage, Palestinians have been forced to neglect farm land that used to be cultivated and switch to growing less profitable crops,” the report’s authors wrote.

The study reviewed various measures used by Israel to take control of 77.5 percent of land in the Jordan Valley by declaring large swathes to be military firing zones, nature reserves or to be under state control.

Israel had also taken over most of the major tourist attractions in the area, such as the northern shores of the Dead Sea, the Qumran caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found and the springs on the Ein Fashkha reserve, allowing private Israeli businesses to profit from mineral extraction and tourism.

The report was hailed by Dr Shadad Attili, head of the Palestinian Water Authority who said the disparity in water allocation was a clear example of the “systemic inequalities” taking place under Israel’s occupation.

“The Jordan Valley serves as a microcosm of what is going on across the occupied Palestinian territory when it comes to Israel’s systematic exploitation of Palestinian water resources in violation of international law,” Attili said in a statement, accusing Israel of using water “as a weapon to target some of the most vulnerable” Palestinians.

“Restrictions imposed by Israel on the amount of water Palestinians can access are part of a deliberate policy designed to put additional pressure on struggling Palestinian communities to leave their land,” he charged.

The Jordan Valley, which was captured by Israel during the 1967 Six Day War along with the rest of the Palestinian territories, spans 1.6 million dunams and makes up 28.8 percent of the West Bank.

Statistics in the report show it is home to 65,000 Palestinians living in 29 communities, and around 15,000 Bedouins, while 9,400 settlers live in 37 settlements in the area (seven of them wildcat outposts).

Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told AFP the Jewish state would insist on maintaining troops in the Jordan Valley in any peace agreement with the Palestinians, saying it would be crucial for Israel’s future security.

But Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas completely rejected the idea, telling AFP last month that such a troop presence would torpedo the possibility of an independent state, and would effectively destroy his Palestinian Authority.

May 12, 2011 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries     Next Entries »