THE HEADLINES

African immigrants protest racist Israeli government policies (Photo courtesy Electronic Intifada)

AFRICANS IN ISRAEL POSE “A CONCRETE THREAT TO THE JEWISH AND DEMOCRATIC CHARACTER OF ISRAEL.”

(Electronic Intifada)

This 2010 statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu epitomizes the current spate of violence against African refugees (mostly from Sudan and Eritrea) in Israel. The verbal violence of right wing voices, including some of those who serve in the Knesset, is being matched in street violence perpetrated against Africans who, denied the privileges of work in the country even as they are given legal protection, take economic refuge in odd jobs and poor homes for a life style that enrages many Jewish Israelis.

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CHILDREN USED (LITERALLY) AS HUMAN SHIELDS IN SYRIA.

(BBC News)

This news is reported by a UN special agency to investigate child abuse in the current Syrian conflict. In reporting the “facts” from the report (compiled largely from hearsay reports from children themselves), the BBC headlines the story as an indication of abusive behavior by the Syrian government in trying to quell the current insurgency. Government troops are even “said” to force children to ride on top of their armored tanks so the rebels will not fire on the tanks. As if the BBC had a “fair and balanced” afterthought, it reports in one short sentence that children are also being deployed by rebels in the fighting.

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FROM THE RAF TO THE GREEN BERETS TO CURRENT DRONE STRIKES: “PRECISION” AND CLANDESTINE MILITARY FORCES ARE ALWAYS GLORIFIED AS THE WAY TO WIN MODERN WARS.

(Counterpunch)

Recent war strateges, from Churchill to Kennedy to Obama, have been enamored of illusion that their “special forces” provide a way of waging wars in a “guerilla” type situation in which battles are not fought on singular battlefields but in the scattered places where “enemy” forces operate. Patrick Cockburn de-constructs the myth of the “success” of these strategies, noting how remotely launched weapons are always based on intelligence about appropriate targets from those on the “ground.” For example, the Pakistani intelligence agency has been relied on to furnish the information about potential drone-strike targets on the basis of which the drone strike “decider,” Obama, makes his personal decisions about strikes. Often as not, that intelligence will target an enemy of the Pakistani government rather than one which is necessarily the enemy of the U.S. But never mind, the same “successful” drone strategy is now being considered for anti-government operations in Syria, and those much-admired “rebels” will furnish the intelligence for drone strikes there.

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HIGH-TECH SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS AT TRAIN STATIONS: WILL THEY DETECT DANGEROUS BEHAVIOR OR “SAN FRANCISCO WACKINESS?”

(San Francisco Examiner)

The SF Transportation Authority unveils new system of 300 cameras designed to detect “unusual” behavior like a bag left alone on a platform, someone doing an impromptu dance or a small crowd of people gathered in one place. Critics wonder whether the “Big Brother” will have so much “abnormal” behavior to observe in the train stations that it will provide no real enhancement of safety even it serves to inhibit free-style expressions of feelings in public places.

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HEAD OF TAMPA DIVISION OF FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION THOUGHT HE WAS JUST DOING HIS JOB IN PROTECTING BUSINESSES ACCUSED OF POLLUTION.

Quote of the day…