Today's Stories

July 14, 2008

Uri Avnery
Will Israel and / or the US Attack Iran?

Paul Craig Roberts
Enabling Tyranny

July 12 / 13, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Lock and Load--It's the Law!

Jeffrey St. Clair
The Origins of the Western Greens

James Abourezk
Talking World War III Blues: From Dylan to Iran

Nicole Colson
The Ethanol Scam

Stan Cox
Fixing a Broken Agriculture

Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
Is There an Oil Shortage?

Wajahat Ali /
Omid Safi
The Future of Iran: an Interview with Iranian Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi

John Stauber
There May be a Left, But is it Moving? An Interview with David Sirota

Alan Farago
The Crash of the King of Liquidity

Missy Beattie
Dark Neighborhoods

Robert Fantina
Bush's Last Yes Man: Canada, Guantanamo and Yankee Poodles

Rannie Amiri
Mubarak Hires the Mosque

Gregory Kafoury
After the Obama Betrayal

Fran Shor
The Audacity of Hype

Martha Rosenberg
Why Heifer International is Rolling in Dung

David Macaray
Will There be an Actors Strike?

Andrew Wimmer
No Lies! No War!

Ron Jacobs
They Call Me the Seeker

Farzana Versey
The Kashmir Chiaroscuro

Kim Nicolini
Angelina Jolie's Wanted: Taking the M-Fers Down with Guns and Exploding Rats

Poets' Basement
Wright, Fleming, Solomon and Birnbaum

Website of the Weekend
Parsing Jesse Ventura

July 11, 2008

Kevin Alexander Gray
Why Does Barack Obama Hate My Family?

Sasan Fayazmanesh
Historical Amnesia and the Shoot Down of Iran Air Flight 655

Peter Morici
Breaking Down the Trade Deficit

Mike Whitney
Worse Than McCain?

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Oiling the War Machine

Robert Weissman
Crime, Punishment and ExxonMobil

Ramzy Baroud
The Not-So-Historic Barak-Talabani Handshake

Kelly Overton
If There is a Chimp Heaven

Adrian Burgos
In Praise of Jules Tygiel

Website of the Day
Wendell Berry on Mountaintop Removal

July 10, 2008

Brian McKenna
McCain's Melanoma Cover-Up

Paul Craig Roberts
Watching Greed Murder the Economy

Saul Landau
Mississippi River Blues

Ron Jacobs
Who Will Leave Iraq First?

Joshua Frank
Cutting Deals with Big Timber's Darth Vader

Peter Morici
What's Driving the Wall Street Rout

Alan Maass
Jesse Helms Finally Does the Right Thing

Robert Weissman
Humanitarian Failure at the G8

William Blum
Dr. Strangelove

Alan Farago
Coral Reef Meltdown

Website of the Day
Lieberman Must Go!

July 9, 2008

Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
Are They Really Oil Wars?

Luis Rodriguez
The Deadly Fallout from Gang Injunctions

Sheldon Richman
What's Wrong with Selling Your Vote?

Fatemeh Keshavarz
Lessons from Sa'di of Shiraz on "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques"

Chad Hanson
Blowing Smoke: Logging Industry Lies on Forest Fires and Climate Change

Sen. Russ Feingold
The Problems with the FISA Bill

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Defining Deviancy Down with FISA

Dave Lindorff
Paul Krugman's Blind Spot

Stanley Heller
A Damned Good Assembly

Philip Rizk
Sick at the Gaza Crossing

Website of the Day
Mumia on Nader

July 8, 2008

Nikolas Kozloff
Riding the Colombia Gravy Train

Laura Carlsen
North America Doesn't Exist: the New Geography of Trade

Mike Whitney
Bush's Rampage in Somalia

Andy Worthington
Scandal at Diego Garcia

Patrick Irelan
The Empire Goes to the Movies

Chellis Glendinning
The Un-tied States of America

David Macaray
A Union Story

Dave Lindorff
Mumia's Long-Shot Appeal

John Chuckman
The Myths of Independence Day

Phillip Doe
FISA and the Decline of America

Website of the Day
Daniel Ellsberg on Warrantless Wiretap Bill

July 7, 2008

Patrick Bond
Can Reparations for Apartheid Profits be Won in US Courts?

Kathy Kelly
Cold Shoulders

Andy Worthington
Repatriation as Russian Roulette

Clifton Ross
A Rescue Staged for the Screen

Elizabeth Schulte
Obama's War Room

Ralph Nader
The Patriotism of Deeds

Dave Lindorff
Keeping Count

Binoy Kampmark
The World According to Jesse Helms

Stephen Fleischman
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Change

Website of the Day
Time for a Change

July 5 / 6, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Could Anyone be "Worse" Than Bush?

Jeffrey St. Clair /
Joshua Frank
Preliminary Notes from No Man's Land

Patrick Cockburn
Blowback from a Strike on Iran

Mike Whitney
Hunkering Down in Afghanistan with Field Marshall Obama

Robert Fantina
Obama, Iraq and Change

Binoy Kampmark
The Anwar Case: Snitching and Sodomizing

Rannie Amiri
Can Nasrallah Unite Lebanon?

Eric Ruder
Hidden Casualties

Brian Cloughley
Israel Flexes Its Muscles

William Blum
Some Thoughts on Patriotism

Frank Barat
The One-Word Solution

Christopher Brauchli
Bush's Phony Pollution Accounting

David Yearsley
Rubbert Shines, as US Envoy Puts Foot in His Mouth

Ron Jacobs
U.S. Blues

Karim Makdisi
On Soccer and Politics in Lebanon

Wendy Thompson /
Chris Kutalik
What Can We Learn from the American Axle Strike?

N.D. Jayaprakash
The NPT as a Roadblock to Disarmament

Ramzy Baroud
Journalistic Imperatives

Kelly Overton
Animal Rights and Obama

Richard Neville
Bitch Fights and Tomorrow's Top Model

Poets' Basement
Anderson, Gibbons, Matson and Buknatski

Website of the Weekend
Ginsberg and Cassady on "Extremists"

July 4, 2008

Kathy Kelly
Istiklal

Dave Lindorff
My War Story

Paul Krassner
Confessions of a Barista

Jackie Corr
In the Footsteps of Evel Knievel: Obama Heads Back to Butte

Laray Polk
Military-Industrial Convergence

Dan Bacher
Dead Runs: Salmon Fishing Banned in Central Valley Rivers

Walter Brasch
The Rocket's Red Glare--May be Chinese

Charles Modiano
Hall of Fame Hypocrisy

Website of the Day
Springsteen: Independence Day

July 3, 2008

Sharon Smith
Exxon's Legal Guardians

Andy Worthington
Another Torture Victim Gets Charged

Laura Carlsen
NAFTA and the Elephant in the Room

Peter Morici
Crisis Grips the Jobs Market

Ramzi Kysia
Breaking Into a Prison

Martha Rosenberg
Mandatory School Milk and the Early Death of Football Players

Anne Landman
Who Really Benefits From Voluntary Codes of Corporate Conduct?

Dave Zirin
Grand Theft Hoops

Kristin Bricker
US Contractor Leads Torture Training in Mexico

Website of the Day
Bush Tours America to Survey Damage from His Presidency

July 2, 2008

Patrick Irelan
Holy Obama

Vijay Prashad
Lunch with Karzai

Brian Cloughley
Sense of Honor, French and US Style

Ralph Nader
Economic Domino Theory

Robert Fantina
General Stupidity: McCain, Obama and Clark

Dave Lindorff
What's So Special About Veterans?

Parvez Ahmed
Obama and Those Pesky Muslim Rumors

Robert Bryce
The Democrats and Off-Shore Drilling

Website of the Day
King Corn: Q&A

July 1, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Two Months Later, Seymour Hersh Strains to Catch Up With CounterPunch

Mike Whitney
Getting to the Heart of America's Economic Crisis: an Interview with Michael Hudson

Douglas Macgregor
Obama's General?

Steven Higgs
Fighting the NAFTA Super-Highway

Andy Worthington
Guantánamo as Alice in Wonderland

Binoy Kampmark
The Global Seed Police

Dave Lindorff
Blood Money Democrats

Roger Burbach
Fighting Food Fascism

Richard W. Behan
The Story Behind George Bush's Lies

Gary Leupp
The McCain Edge Among Voters on Iraq

Website of the Day
Mountaintop Removal and the Fight for Coalfield Justice

June 30, 2008

Peter Lee
Did a Plutonium Generator End Up in the Ganges?

Jeff Sommers
Burying the Bloody Shirt; A New Age for Latvia Dawns? "Astatu Loskutovu!"

David Macaray
The AFL-CIO Votes to Endorse Obama

Martha Rosenberg
Sex Work is Different from Sex Slavery, aver Carnal Toilers

David Price
Blind Whistling Phreaks and the FBI's Historical Reliance on Phone Tap Criminality

Alexandra Early
Report from El Salvador: Why They All Keep Coming

June 28 / 29, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Guess What "Surprise" Republicans Yearn For

Jeffrey St. Clair
Nike's Bad Air

Joan P. Mencher
The Human Right to Eat

Nikolas Kozloff
Nader, Obama and White Talk

Jason Hribal
Tillie, Elephants and the Zoo

Alan Maass
Obama Swerves Right

Robert Fantina
Iraq and the New York Times

Bill Moyers /
Michael Winship
It Was Oil, All Along

Mike Whitney
A Glimmer of Light in Television Wasteland

Justin E. H. Smith
Collective Guilt and the Fate of Kosovo

Pham Binh
The Mendacity of Hope

David Yearsley
The Rest is Noise

Christopher Ketcham
19 Aphorisms

Jeremy R. Hammond
Bush and the Press vs. the Constitution

Kathleen M. Barry
An Open Letter to Barney Frank on Israel

Walter Brasch
Politics and Animal Cruelty in Pennsylvania

Brett Drugge
A Field Trip to the Reagan Library

Susie Day
Sex Sans the City

Website of the Day
How to Expose a Hypocritcal Politician

June 27, 2008

Franklin C. Spinney
The Defense Reform Trap

Jonathan Cook
Israel's Encaging of Gaza

Brian Cloughley
Chaos in Afghanistan

Saree Makdisi
Occupation by Bureaucracy

Liliana Segura
Reactionary Change: Obama and the Death Penalty

Paul Krassner
Remembering George Carlin

William S. Lind
The War and the Yellow Press

Candace Cohn
Embracing Big Brother

Ron Jacobs
What's a Voter to Do?

Binoy Kampmark
Beached in Chile

Website of the Day
Zoom Uganda

June 26, 2008

Patrick Cockburn
Who's Actually Winning in Iraq?

Nikolas Kozloff
Kinder and Gentler Assassination Techniques? Obama Waffles on School of the Americas

William P. O'Connor
The Drone of Experts

Saul Landau
McClellan's Mini Mea Culpa

Ashley Smith
Which Way Forward for the Antiwar Movement?

Dave Lindorff
Our Kids and Their Kids: Terrorists or Victims?

David Macaray
A Brief History of Union Negotiations

Binoy Kampmark
Warming Seats at the Hague: John Howard and War Crimes

Matt Reichel
There's No Hope at the Ballot Box

Remi Kenazi
You Don't Mess With the Racism!

Website of the Day
A Movement Afoot in the Heartlands

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"Any law which violates the inalienable rights of man is essentially unjust and tyrannical; it is not a law at all."

-- Maximilien Robespierre

Bastille Day Edition
July 14, 2008

An Interview with Morris Motamed

Talking to Iran's Only Jewish Member of Parliament

By TRISH SCHUH

Morris Motamed is the only Jewish member of Parliament in Iran's Majlis, and is the official representative of the largest (25,000) Jewish community in the Middle East diaspora outside of Israel.  The Persian Jewish community stretches back nearly 3000 years to around 680 BC when Jews fled King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and were freed from Babylonian captivity by Persia's King Cyrus the Great. Cyrus also underwrote the rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

But now those ties are under strain. President Ahmedinejad has repeatedly offended the Iranian Jewish community with his attacks on Israel and the Holocaust, and there is worry for the community's safety if Israel attacks  Iran. Concerns abound that the Jewish community could be pressured as they were during the Israel-Hezbollah War of 2006. After several synagogues in the southern city of Shiraz were attacked during the conflict, Jews held a pro-Hezbollah rally to prove their loyalty to the regime. In October, 2007 the Israeli press disclosed that "Danger!" letters had been sent to Iranian Jews by Jews in the diaspora warning them to flee ahead of an impending military attack on Iran.

Schuh: What is the condition of the Jewish community in Iran?

Motamed: Fortunately we have no problem in the Jewish community's living conditions. People often ask if there was any change after President Khatami's was succeeded by  President Ahmedinejad and if there was any change in conditions for religious minorities, especially Jews? We always answered that fortunately and happily, that there was no change, and we hope that there will be no change in a negative direction..

Do you ever consider emigrating to Israel or the USA?

Emigration? I haven't thought about it and haven't decided anything. For the time being all my family members are living in the United States.

What is most difficult about life in Iran?

There is no difference between the way of life of the minority communities and the main body of the society, which means the Muslims.

A couple of years ago, it was reported that the Iranian government was going to force Jews to wear a star or marking on their clothes. What was the truth behind this?

Unfortunately, this was fake news published in a Canadian newspaper. I considered this news a big insult to the religious minorities of Iran. I refuted the story vigorously, , to the point that the source of the news and the Canadian government officially apologized to the Iranian government. The fake story was published in a newspaper following a resolution that was being talked about in Parliament on fashion and fabrics - and they twisted it.

Please comment on the alleged statement of Iranian President Ahmedinejad's threat to "wipe Israel off the map". What did he actually say in Persian? 

One of the basic principles of democracy is freedom of speech, so that a person can freely express his ideas and viewpointsas did  Mr. Ahmedinejad. So after his speech we observed that some Iranian political authorities talked in a different manner ad said that Iran doesn't seek the wiping out or destruction of any nation from the page of history or from the map.

What do you think of the Iranian nuclear program?

As a Jewish Iranian, I consider enrichment of peaceful nuclear technology the obvious right of Iranian society. What is sad here -- and I'm so sorry about it -- is that before the Islamic Revolution, we witnessed that western Europe and America pressuring  Iran to obtain nuclear technology and establish a nuclear power plant. Now the idea is brought up: "Why do you want nuclear technology? What is the point of nuclear technology for you when you have rich resources like fuel and gas and oil?" My question here is  why at that earlier time, the problem of natural resources was not brought up?

Please comment on Ahmedinejad's statement that the Holocaust was a myth.

About two years ago when Mr. Ahmedinejad denied the great tragedy of the Holocaust, I immediately, as the representative of the Jewish community of Iran, held a press conference and expressed my sadness about the statements of the Iranian President. I declared his words a very big insult to all Jewish communities all around the world.

Does Ahmedinejad actually believe that there were no Jews killed in the Holocaust?

Fortunately after what he said about the Holocaust the first time, we found in his next speeches, he became more moderate. But not to the extent that he apologized or withdrew his statement.

What about the Holocaust conference held recently here?

When the Holocaust conference was being held in Iran, I sent an official letter to the institute in charge of holding this conference. I expressed sadness about the holding such an event whose fubnction was to deny the greatest tragedy in human history, and to undermine the rights of victims of the terrible genocide. I complained about it. Fortunately and happily, we witnessed that this conference was not welcomed as the organizers had been expecting. Not in Iran or in the world.

Did you protest the attendance of the Jewish group Neturei Karta?

Neturei Karta has traveled to Iran many times for religious dialogues between faiths. It is natural that I meet with them.

Recently, an Israeli government official has threatened the Palestinians in Gaza with a "Holocaust". Could you comment on the use of this word in this context?

Because of what is going on nowadays in Gaza... where we are witnessing  the killing and injuring  of innocent people -- old men, children and women -- as a representative of the Jewish community, I'm very sorry. We have set forth our revulsion on this matter,  with a declaration.  'Holocaust means 'genocide'. Here’s a person who knows what occurred  during the second world war by Holocaust, and who now himself wants to bring up the specter of  another Holocaust. This kind of statment is  shameful and embarassing.

Haaretz has mentioned cash incentives for Iranian Jews to relocate to Israel?

Iranian Jews are free. But three months ago we published a declaration that the freedom of decision making for Iran's Jews is not for sale. Great numbers of Jews have been offered this infucement , but we don't want to leave our homeland. We prefer to be here.

While we have been talking today in Tehran, your answers have been very moderate. But if you did have serious problems here - would you really be free to discuss them with a foreign reporter? Or would you be punished when I leave?

Never. I have had many, many press conferences... I express my ideas. There have been  no contacts or punishments. I don't know what you mean.

For criticizing the President?

No fortunately, nothing has happened yet and I hope in future also nothing will happen.

Footnote: In recent weeks, President Ahmedinejad has amplified his criticism of Israel by calling it a "stinking corpse" doomed to annihilation.  Local authorities have burned down seven ancient synagogues in Tehran neighborhoods in the name of  neighborhood renovation. Clerics recently announced a plan to erase Iran's non-Islamic heritage by destroying the tomb of Cyrus the Great.

Morris Motamed is 63 years old, born in Hamadan, Iran and trained as an  engineer and cartographer in the field of Aerial mapping, field mapping, site mapping, satellite images. “This is my field of study and this is a consulting engineers company of which I am one of the owners of this company.”

Simultaneous translation by Meisam Jebelli, Iranian government interpreter.

Trish Schuh writes about Middle East issues and is a member of the UN Correspondents Association and Military Reporters and Editors.  She is at www.BloggingTheJihad.com                            

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