Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

Broadcasting Israel-friendly “democratic values” to the Middle East (with American taxpayers’ money)

By Maidhc Ó Cathail | The Passionate Attachment | April 23, 2011

Norman J. Pattiz, American radio mogul and chairman of the U.S. government’s Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) Middle East Committee, founded Radio Sawa, which successfully “used music as a tool to attract a younger audience” — it’s listened to by over 42% of youth in a number of Arab countries, including Egypt. But how many of the 75% of Radio Sawa listeners who consider its news “reliable and credible” know this about its “founding father”?

Pattiz is also on the national board of the Israel Policy Forum, which is “committed to a strong and enduring U.S.-Israel relationship and to advancing the shared interests of the United States and the State of Israel.” Its Israeli Advisory Council is comprised of prominent figures from Israel’s military and intelligence establishment, mostly notably David Kimche, who was once described as “Israel’s leading spy and would-be Mossad chief.” According to a Washington Report profile, “The ‘man with the suitcase,’ as Kimche became known by colleagues in Israel, would appear in an African country a day or two before a major coup, and leave a week later after the new regime was firmly in control, often with the aid of Israeli security teams.”

While Pattiz’s efforts helped foster a more positive attitude toward the the United States among the region’s youth, former BBG Chairman Jim Glassman, later appointed Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy, was responsible for the “subtle work” of promoting “democratic change” through the use of social media networking.

Walter Issacson, Glassman’s successor as BBG chairman, commends its efforts to promote “a more hopeful, democratic world.” In a Feb 8, 2011 piece in Foreign Policy entitled “From Samizdat to Twitter,” Issacson writes:

Alhurra TV, the U.S.-funded international broadcaster, has also come of age during the crisis. Daily visits to Alhurra.com increased 540 percent between Jan. 23 and Jan. 30. Over the past few days, leaders of Egyptian opposition parties –Wafd, Ghad, and the Movement for Change (Kefaya) — have sought out the station to bring their messages to its viewers.

The United States finances Alhurra and other international broadcasters to support exactly the long-term goals of democracy and respect for civil society that are at the heart of protesters’ demands across the Middle East. It’s what the United States has been doing for 70 years, and what it needs to keep doing.

Issacson is also president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, whose board of trustees not only includes a close-knit network of advocates of democracy promotion in the Middle East such as Madeleine Albright, Condoleeza Rice and Vin Weber, but also staunch supporters of Israel, including major Obama backers James Crown and Margot Pritzker.

April 23, 2011 Posted by | Full Spectrum Dominance, Timeless or most popular, Video | Leave a comment

New America Foundation facilitating Iran’s Green Movement

March 16, 2010


New America Foundation’s American Strategy Program Director Steve Clemons and Former Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs James K. Glassman

April 23, 2011 Posted by | Full Spectrum Dominance, Timeless or most popular, Video | Leave a comment

Israeli Apartheid and The Nakba

By alawson911 | March 16, 2010


There can be absolutely no doubt that Israel has created an inhuman, illegal and utterly disgraceful Apartheid state, and the international community will never be able to excuse itself if it takes no action against this blatant, ongoing and in-plain-sight crime against humanity.

April 22, 2011 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, Video | Leave a comment

Bruce Cockburn “Call it democracy”

Canadian singer / songwriter Bruce Cockburn performs his classic song “Call It Democracy” live on Canadian Television. In it, he characterizes the International Monetary Fund as a global parasitic banking oligarchy bent on reducing the 3rd world to poverty stricken heaps.

April 20, 2011 Posted by | Timeless or most popular, Video | Leave a comment

ISM confirms the death of Vittorio Arrigoni

International Solidarity Movement | April 15, 20121


The International Solidarity Movement is shocked and deeply saddened by the killing of our friend and colleague Vittorio Arrigoni. Vik was an inspiring activist and generous soul. Please keep his family and friends in your thoughts.

April 15, 2011 Posted by | Solidarity and Activism, Timeless or most popular, Video | Leave a comment

Egyptian Revolution-News Analysis

Press TV | April 13, 2011

Part 1

Part 2

April 14, 2011 Posted by | Solidarity and Activism, Video | Leave a comment

Birth defect weapons used in Libya

Uploaded by 91177info on Apr 13, 2011

April 13, 2011 Posted by | Militarism, Timeless or most popular, Video | Leave a comment

Netanyahu (Feb-2001) A secure peace and not just peace

“Their time is running out”

Uploaded by argonium79 on Apr 12, 2011

Ronald Reagan Banquet
February 16th 2001
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/ReaganBa

April 12, 2011 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Militarism, Timeless or most popular, Video | Leave a comment

Apartheid and steadfastness in Nuaman

Alternative Information Center | 12 April 2011

Al Nuaman is a Palestinian village in southeast Jerusalem. Israel annexed it to Jerusalem in 1967, yet its people weren’t given Jerusalem residency rights. Today, the residents of Al Nuaman continue to fight for the right to remain on their lands.

April 12, 2011 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Timeless or most popular, Video | Leave a comment

Students Shutdown Carleton Board of Governors

saiacarleton on April 8, 2011

On 29 March 2011, students at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, shut down the scheduled Board of Governors (BoG) meeting after the body refused to consider a motion calling for divestment of pension stock from four companies implicated in Israel’s occupation of Palestine.

The direct action was led by Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA), and received the support and participation of 25 allied campus student groups, as well as faculty, staff and community members.

For more information on SAIA, please see: http://carleton.saia.ca

For more information on the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, please see: http://bdsmovement.net

Voiceover for this video was provided by the Five O’Clock Train, a radio program on CHUO 89.1 FM (Ottawa) hosted by Denis Rancourt. The full interview with SAIA members is provided here: http://trainradio.blogspot.com/2011/03/students-against-israeli-apartheid.html

Special thanks to Sigur Ros (http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/sigur-ros/id73720797) and David Rovics (http://itunes.apple.com/ca/artist/david-rovics/id15370164) for the music.

Special thanks as well to the Active Stills collective (ActiveStills.org) for photography from Palestine.

April 9, 2011 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Solidarity and Activism, Timeless or most popular, Video, War Crimes | Leave a comment

Samouni Family Responds to Goldstone

1worldcitizen on Apr 4, 2011

During Operation Cast Lead Israel committed massive war crimes for all the world to see. Among these crimes the use of White Phosphorus in densely populated areas, use of Depleted Uranium, bombing civilian targets of all sorts without military necessity, destroying civilian infrastructure with no military justification and the infamous massacre of the Samouni family… among many other crimes.

In the aftermath of Cast Lead, Justice Richard Goldstone, a Zionist Jew, was commissioned by the United Nations to write a report on the alleged war crimes. Although the report did not go nearly far enough in exposing the brutality of all the crimes committed, crimes committed by the fourth largest military in the world against a essentially defenceless and captive population, it did allege that Israel (and Hamas) was almost undoubtedly guilty of war crimes and possibly, crimes against humanity.

But on April 1st, 2011 Justice Goldstone had an apparent change of heart and effectively said that he was wrong. With regard to the Samouni family he said, Israel simply made a mistake. It seems that the world in which we live in, a world of impunity for the favoured Israeli state, is set to continue. Unless of course we the people decide enough is enough. — Ken O’Keefe

http://SamouniProject.net

April 5, 2011 Posted by | Timeless or most popular, Video, War Crimes | Leave a comment

Israeli troops attack Jewish peace protesters

Joseph Dana | April 3, 2011

Yesterday’s unprovoked attack on Israeli peace activists falls in line with the army’s strategy of repression of nonviolent resistance by Israelis or Palestinians against Israel’s increasingly violent occupation in the West Bank.

Beit Ummar has been holding weekly demonstrations against the occupation and the confiscation of its lands by neighboring Jewish-only settlements for the past several years. The demonstrations have ranged from calm to deadly with hundreds injured and jailed. Some have even been killed in settler rampages through the village.

Yesterday, a group of Ta’ayush activists were returning to Jerusalem after spending the morning with Palestinian farmers in the South Hebron Hills. They made the quick decision to check on the closure of Beit Ummar on the drive home.

“Within five minutes of arriving at a series of concrete barriers in front of the village, we were surrounded by soldiers. We walked to a large gate [which the army had installed two months prior in order to seal the village] at another entrance to the village only to find that it was locked shut” Kurz recalled, “At this point there were a lot of soldiers, many of whom were officers. So we decided to have an impromptu nonviolent protest against the closure of the village.” Speaking to one Israeli activist present at the demonstration, the commander in charge threatened that “every time you do this (demonstrate), I will close the village.”

The commander in charge pronounced the area a ‘closed military zone’, after which one member of the Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity group asked the commander to see the closed military zone warrant. Being a stout guy, soldiers felt threated by his presence and attacked him. This set off a chain of violent events as soldiers attacked anyone bold enough to look them in the eye. Virtually everyone was arrested. According to activists, the commander never showed them the closed military zone warrant, a legal right afforded by Israeli law.

~

Ynet News uses the term “clashes” in describing the event.

April 3, 2011 Posted by | Solidarity and Activism, Timeless or most popular, Video | Leave a comment