Why this common tendency and double standard towards Islam and Muslims post-9/11? We judge the religion and majority of mainstream Muslims by the acts of an individual or an aberrant minority of extremists. Yet, when Jewish fundamentalists kill a prime minister or innocent Palestinians or Christian extremists blow up abortion clinics or assassinate their physicians, somehow the media is capable of sticking to all the facts and distinguishing between the use and abuse of a religion, notes John L. Esposito.

Obama began a test of strength with Israel over that country's policy of illegal settlements, an expansion of its occupation of the West Bank driven by extremist, right-wing settlers who are fanatical, Bible-believing cultists who think that Israel has some God-given right to that territory, notes Robert Dreyfuss.

No one knew on Thursday whether stress, fear, anger over mistreatment, mental illness or a warped understanding of his religion might have motivated Major Hasan. But there is a rush to judgment regarding not just this one Muslim but all Muslims, notes notes John Nichols.

Some American analysts have argued that Iran is quite right to be suspicious of US intensions and have identified a pattern of recent events that undermine the credibility of the Obama administration since the Presidents June 'open hand-clinched fist' speech in Cairo, notes Franklin Lamb.

In Egypt, the 28-year rule of US-backed president Hosni Mubarak has been most notable for political intimidation of opponents, suppression of dissent, and silencing any and all who dare challenge his authority, notes Rannie Amiri.

For opportunistic reasons, the Greens are now accusing Ahmadinejad of selling out Iran's nuclear rights. That very fact explains why it's wrong for the United States to try to game Iranian internal politics, notes Robert Dreyfuss.

A little publicized US-taxpayer-funded infrastructure boom has been underway in Afghanistan -- the construction boom is military in nature. The US military is digging in for an even longer haul, notes Nick Turse.

From the start, the Jewish nationalist movement’s objective was to open Palestine to unlimited immigration, colonize it and rob it of its independence. Labour did not review the old doctrine of territorial conquest when it was in power in 1967-77 or in the 1990s, notes Zeev Sternhell.

There is little relief in prospect for Obama from his Afpak nightmare. Hamid Karzai is back in power and it seems highly unrealistic to expect him to root out nepotism and corruption. Meanwhile, the United States' policies grow more unpopular in Pakistan, says Patrick Seale.

By withholding its support for the House (anti-Goldstone) resolution, J Street is sending a clear message that it intends to offer alternatives to initiatives that it perceives as bad for the United States and bad for Israel, notes M.J. Rosenberg.

In many ways, Obama's election was a referendum on an extremist conservatism that has guided (and deformed) American politics and society since the 1980s. But Obama failed to end the excesses and abuses associated with the Bush/Cheney national security apparatus, notes Katrina vanden Heuvel.

Isn’t it about time for the UK government to stand for its moral obligations towards the Palestinians and start to act in support of justice? Churchill said that creating a Jewish state on the Palestinian land 'is of the interests of the British Empire’. But ones interests do not justify injustice, notes Iqbal Tamimi.

For the past sixty years the invaders have systematically undertaken the ethnic cleansing of Palestine to make way for new Israelis. For this purpose the invaders have constructed a narrative the central theme of which is 'God gave this land to us', notes Terrell E. Arnold.

There is a need, to uphold justice, a need for the people including the leaders who launch the wars to be made accountable for the death and destruction resulting from their decision, their instruction and their command. It does not matter whether the aggressors win or not, says Mahathir Bin Mohamad

Kipling may have been Poet to the Empire and its best apologist (or worst?), but he knew the redlines that were not to be crossed. And Afghanistan and most of today’s Pakistan constituted the forbidden territory the English poet epeatedly warned his fellow Westerners against. Kipling who famously justified the Western colonization and European imperialism in the now infamous poem, The White Man’s Burden, was nothing if not a pragmatist. He knew the limits of the imperialism project, notes Aijaz Zaka Syed.

Veteran analyst William P. Polk writes that the US war in Afghanistan, and the Karzai government it has set up there, accurately replicate the situation in Vietnam in the early 1960s. The Obama administration can only lose more casualties, more treasure and, in the end, the conflict.

Washington needs a different lens to see Lebanon and Hezbollah or its strategy to weaken Hezbollah will cripple Lebanon and add fuel to a burning Middle East, stresses Rima Merhi.

It is worth reminding ourselves from time to time what started the trouble all those years ago. Arabs know the details only too well, but you would be surprised how the British people are kept in ignorance, notes Stuart Littlewood.

Why don't church leaders forbid Catholics from joining the military with the same fervor they tell Catholics to stay away from abortion clinics? Asks William Blum.

The West Bank and the Gaza Strip are internationally recognized as one integral territory. I’m not a lawyer, but it would be nice to hear a legal expert explain what authority Israel has for its bloody-minded and cruel conduct towards hard-working students, notes Stuart Littlewood.

The campaign to fight female genital mutilation is meeting new resistance not only in traditional societies but among Western anthropologists, says Barbara Crossette.

The United States no longer believes that its technological supremacy can dominate Afghanistan. And that’s right. Now it stresses cultural clichés about tribal traditions and Islamic honor -- or bizarre aspects of Taliban jihad -- as impervious to modern thought. And that's all wrong, notes Patrick Porter.

Rather than being subject to an idolatry of an untouchable past, we better start to be concerned with the here and now, with the genocides that are committed in our names and under our nose by Israel and its supporters around the world, notes Gilad Atzmon.

The Karzai crisis is the key to unlock the Afghan exit door. Politically, it gives Obama the excuse he needs to pack up and leave, says Robert Dreyfuss.

Some Arab governments spend twice, if not three times more on their military budget than invest in education. Arab governments must rethink and reconsider their current priorities and course of action. They must think and act individually, but collectively as well, before the crisis turns into a catastrophe, says Ramzy Baroud.

Are we ready to abandon faith-based medicine of both the individual and US public health variety? Faith in private enterprise and the market has now left us open to a swine flu epidemic; faith alone does not kill viruses or cancer cells. On the public health front, we need to socialize vaccine manufacture and its distribution, says Barbara Ehrenreich.

These three moves by the United States are more about domestic politics than Middle East diplomacy, but they augur badly for peace-making prospects if they point the way to future American positions. The ninth month of the Obama administration has been a bad month for Arab-Israeli peace-making, says Rami G. Khouri.

Whatever credibility the P.A. may once have had has been largely exhausted, partly because, during the Bush era, the parties spent years at the negotiating table while Israel continued to colonize Palestinian land. And now the Obama team has eroded much of its credibility by spending nine months just trying to get back to where the Bush administration left off, says Nadia Hijab.

The Afghan War is unwinnable due to the erroneous assumption that social development can be combined with military operations in a country where it is impossible to distinguish between insurgents and civilians. It is rarely possible to secure happiness by bombing the people, notes Serge Halimi.

I wouldn't mind knowing whether on the unreleased visitors' lists for these last months lurked Andrew Witty, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline, or Novartis CEO Daniel Vasella (or their lobbyists), not to speak of other Big Pharma types. Did they make it to the White House, and if so, how many times? I'm curious because their companies are identified as the ones screwing up the production of the swine flu vaccine, says Tom Engelhardt.

The Geneva Conventions apply to Israel because Israel is a state and a signatory while post-WWII Nuremberg Law provides the appropriate legal framework for resistance movements like Hamas, notes Karin Friedemann.

It may be right to argue that there is just one living person on this planet with more blood on his hands than Tony Blair. His name is George Bush. With more than one million fatalities in Iraq, he is not far behind Hitler and Stalin, notes Gilad Atzmon.

Despite the iron-fist policies of unpopular Arab leaders—buttressed by imperial Western nations—the popular outbursts witnessed in the aftermath of the sacrilegious storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque once again symbolized a very much living spirit, says Ali Jawad.

One way and another, a resurgent Turkey is rewriting the rules of the power game in the Middle East, in a positive and non-confrontational manner. This is one of the few bright spots in a turbulent and highly-inflammable Middle East, says Patrick Seale.

At Madison Square Garden, NBA officials set an example for how American politicians should behave vis-à-vis Israel: They applied the rules consistently and required Israel to comply, comments Adam Shapiro.

‘A culture of impunity in the region has existed for too long. The lack of accountability for war crimes and possible crimes against humanity has reached a crisis point…’ -- Richard Goldstone.

Have you noticed that the worse Afghanistan gets, the more the pundits find themselves stumbling helplessly into Vietnam? Analogies to that old counterinsurgency catastrophe are now a dime a dozen. Why is it that, facing such wars, Washington's response is the bailout? As things go from bad to worse and the odds grow grimmer, our leaders, like the worst of gamblers, wager ever more, notes Tom Engelhardt.

America, on account of its unconditional support for the Zionist state and its contempt for international law, has made enemies of many if not most of the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims, says Alan Hart.

The war in Afghanistan is a war in which whatever the United States does now, or that President Obama does now, both the United States and Obama will lose. The country and its president are in a situation of perfect lockjaw, notes Immanuel Wallerstein.

The rise of political Islam is part of Muslim modernization and the West has no alternative but to reach a compromise with it, starting with Hamas in Palestine and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The longer this is delayed the stronger the conservative side of the movement will become, notes Terry Lacey.

Rabin's memorial rally will be held next week at the very place where we witnessed his murder, 14 years ago. The main speakers will be the gravediggers of the Oslo agreement, who belonged to the forces that created the climate for the murder. Rabin, I assume, will turn in his grave, says Uri Avnery.

While some are trying to sabotage efforts at removing US troops from Iraq, President Obama appears to be committed to the initial withdrawal plan, notes Dallas Darling.

We need Nick Griffin to save us from looking in the mirror. It is us the collective that is complicit in genocidal crimes and institutional intolerance. We are implicated in the death of millions of brown-skinned foreigners in remote lands - as we endorse killing in the name of democracy, universalism, and ‘women’s rights’ (even as we drop bombs on women), notes Sarah Gillespie

Yesterday, on his web site, Mousavi issued a militant criticism of Ahmadinejad's diplomacy. Mousavi bitterly denounced the plan, supported by Ahmadinejad, to ship the bulk of Iran's enriched uranium to Russia and France for use in fabricating fuel for a medical-use reactor, says Robert Dreyfuss.

The military involvement in the war on terrorism has started to take a heavy toll on the Pakistani population and threatens to destabilize the country if insurgents continue to bring the fight to Pakistan’s major cities, notes Louay Safi.

The foundation is being laid for the emergence of a Russia-Iran-China diplomatic triad in the not-too-distant future, while Washington remains stuck in an old groove of imposing "punishing" sanctions against Tehran for its nuclear program, says Dilip Hiro.

Israeli military law treats Palestinians as adults as soon as they reach 16, a flagrant violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Palestinians are dealt with by Israeli military courts, even when it's a civil matter. These courts ignore international laws and conventions, notes Stuart Littlewood.

The Latest surmise - a gut feeling or assumption based on emotion instead of facts, and which often leads to erroneous and fatal conclusions - concerns Iran’s peaceful quest to develop nuclear power, says Dallas Darling.

The real story here is that where the US goes, the drug trade soon follows, and the leading role in developing and nurturing that trade appears to be played by the Central Intelligence Agency, notes Dave Lindorff.

The influence the Israel Lobby wields in Washington has ensured that the United States has long been complicit in Israel’s barbarism. And if the Lobby gets it way in Brussels, so too will the European Union, notes Maidhc Ó Cathail.

Al-Qaeda got the better of George Bush and the neocons by bogging the US down in Iraq. It seems that Official Washington can’t face up to its disastrous misjudgments over the past eight years, says Robert Parry.

By dispelling stereotypes and misconceptions, 'Seen and Not Heard' study demonstrates that young Muslims in the UK have a lot of potential but their potential needs to be recognised and respected, notes Hena Ashraf.

Palestinian citizens do not enjoy full equality. In comparison to their Jewish counterparts, Arab schools receive half the per capita budget. It has become more urgent than ever to consider alternative educational models, says Catherine Rottenberg and Neve Gordon.

Everyone, it seems, has a party line about who the good Muslims and bad Muslims are. Sadly, many of the dichotomies distort as much as they reveal, and use simple labels based on superficial preconceptions and over-simplifications, says Meena Sharify-Funk.

The world is a jungle of squabbling and competing states, each one of them intent above all on protecting its national interests, with little regard for the common good. How the world is to be governed remains one of the greatest puzzles of our time, says Patrick Seale.

The resignation of Matthew Hoh -- decorated Marine and a senior officer for the State Department in Afghanistan -- has highlighted the troubles the United States is having in Afghanistan, notes John Nichols.

The message that the leaders and activists from Arab American and American Jewish community organizations who gathered hoped to send, via this summit, was that despite their different starting points, both agree on the goal of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and are supportive of President Obama’s peace making efforts, to date, says James Zogby.

The maligning of the Prophet Muhammad is nothing new. Ever since the beginning of his ministry, his enemies had attacked and smeared the Prophet. Yet, never did he react violently or ask his followers to do so. The Prophet constantly forgave those who wronged him and encouraged us to do the same, notes Hesham A. Hassaballa.

Some politicians and their pettiness, belonging to both of the two main political camps, represent nothing more than intransigence; habitually shifting from one ineffective, transient set of conveniences, opportunities, or alliances, to another, says Rannie Amiri.

One year ago, in a report entitled Global Trends 2025, the CIA’s National Intelligence Council predicted that America's global preeminence would gradually disappear over the next 15 years -- with the rise of new global powerhouses, especially China and India. For all practical purposes, it's already 2025, argues Michael T. Klare.

The basic fact remains that, as US forces draw down, Iraq is perched on the brink of renewed civil war, says Robert Dreyfuss.

Drone surveillance is fast becoming the excuse for an extended American presence over Iraq and Afghanistan, if not on the ground, making the spoken objective of state-building a canard, notes Priya Satia.

Boys and girls who come in close contacts with each other is something that runs against the grain of Saudi culture. The conservative Kingdom is not yet ready for the King's fast forward march towards modernization, notes Syed Neaz Ahmad.

Hamas still attracts nationalists in the West Bank alongside Islamic support and is not as extremist as projected by Israel and the West, notes Terry Lacey.

The tenacity of the Taliban insurgency is rooted in opposition to a foreign occupation that is particularly distasteful to the Pashtuns, notes Selig S. Harrison.

As Afghans go to the polls, Western democracies would do well to question the state of their own secular democratic institutions, notes Dallas Darling.

Peering into its analytic crystal ball in a report entitled Global Trends 2025, it predicted that America's global preeminence would gradually disappear over the next 15 years -- in conjunction with the rise of new global powerhouses, especially China and India, notes Michael T. Klare.

Israeli extremism continues unabated even as Tel Aviv insists that its neighbors accept it as a 'Jewish state'. As Israel’s protector and apologist, the US bears the brunt of the anger as Israeli extremism continues to enrage Muslims and radicalize the Islamic body politic, notes Jeff Gates.

Israeli governments have avoided dealing with Hamas not because they fear that engaging the organization might not produce a peace agreement, but because they know they could not manipulate Hamas the way they have been able to manipulate Mahmoud Abbas, notes Henry Siegman.

Christopher King argues that the US-led invasion of Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks was a means of taking over NATO and consolidating the US beachhead in Europe, and that the only way forward in Afghanistan is through negotiations and development.

I am totally against Holocaust denial. I clearly resent those who deny the genocides that are taking place in the name of the Holocaust. Palestine is one example, Iraq is another and the one that is set for Iran, is probably too scary to contemplate, notes Gilad Atzmon.

The more trapped the Zionist project becomes in its own logic, the greater the destruction it becomes willing to wreak. It chooses destruction in order to delay coming to terms with, and making amends for, the tragedy it has spawned, notes M. Shahid Alam.

Perhaps Israel receives more attention from HRW than its neighbors because it does indeed have the worst human rights record in the region. For over forty years it has been a belligerent occupier, constantly threatening its neighbors and attacking them at will, notes Max Kantar.

Dealing with Iran in the short and longer terms is going to require mutual respect and understanding. As with China, improved relations with the Middle East’s powerhouse can also offer real benefits for the average American and Westerner, Reza Esfandiari.

Is Pakistan really in danger of falling into the hands of the Taliban? Asks Manan Ahmed.

It appears that the Obama administration has deserted Afghan women to a harsh inhumane fate, says Ann Jones.

It has been exactly nine months since Obama took office with a pledge to personally work for a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace, and the scorecard of results on that pledge looks rather thin, says Rami G. Khouri.

The cruel siege of Gaza continues. The Arab states are unable to pull their weight; Israel is relentless; the EU is preoccupied with its own problems, and Obama’s aroused expectations are evaporating, says Patrick Seale.

The first step for Washington must be to abandon the idea of a decades-long counterinsurgency, fire its advocates -- including Gen. Stanley McChrystal and Gen. David Petraeus, notes Robert Dreyfuss.

No one in the Israeli establishment – no one at all! – has raised the real question: Perhaps Goldstone is right? Except for the usual suspects, no one in the media, the Knesset or the government has asked: Perhaps war crimes have indeed been committed? Notes Uri Avnery.

Therein lies the perils of an entangled alliance that induced the US to invade Iraq and now seeks war with Iran; By allowing foreign agents to operate as a domestic lobby, the US was induced to confuse Zionist interests with its own, notes Jeff Gates.

Much of Turkey's animosity towards Israel is likely out of frustration, after Israel's failure to deliver an initial agreement with Syria from negotiations Turkey so painstakingly mediated throughout 2008, stresses Alon Ben-Meir.

The political system remains somewhat unpredictable, as political alliances change with the seasons. The elections scheduled for January 2010 hold many uncertainties, from the type of electoral law to whether Prime Minister Maliki will be reelected, say Ellen Laipson and Mokhtar Lamani.

On the central issue, racism, for which Griffin and the BNP have been so roughly chastised, nothing has changed. Mainstream Israel-huggers continue to preach the sins of racism while nourishing support for it in the Holy Land. The hypocrites continue to rule the Westminster roost, notes Stuart Littlewood.

Tunisia's success in development does not just focus on what has been achieved, but also on the way forward, says Haitham El-Zobaidi.

From Korea, Vietnam, and Cambodia to Iraq and Afghanistan, enemy fighters and unfortunate civilians, military base camps and people's homes have been laid waste by US forces in decade after decade of conflict, notes Nick Turse.

Jewish leaders of the 'Judenrate' had collaborated with the Nazis on the Holocaust; they had organised mass deportation of European Jews from the ghettos to the camps. Today's Israeli leadership wants Palestinian leaders to make similar decisions, argues Gilad Atzmon.

US strategy remains the real problem, and not just part of it. This strategy has pursued self-defeating goals, namely to empower a pro-US regime that has proved powerless in fending off the overwhelming rejection of the US occupation, notes Nicola Nasser.

The United States should rally its friends and allies -- and even its opponents -- in a bold attempt at a political settlement. This, of course, must rule out sending in any more troops, says Patrick Seale.

While peace has been slowing taking hold in Darfur, in the Ogaden, Ethiopian death squads, funded by western 'aid' have spent the better part of the past decade spreading murder and mayhem across the countryside, notes Tom Mountain.

While people might not otherwise find a simple exposure of Iran's innumerable historical, architectural, and archeological sites in the national media, Press TV commendably acquaints its global audience with the priceless heritage of Iranian civilization, says Kourosh Ziabari.

Out of 4.5 million, only 459 children are in government care. About 800 orphans at the time of this report were being held in Iraqi prisons, 100 of these in American prisons, charged as terrorists, notes Dennis Loo.

Civil society will have to take the lead in delegitimizing Zionism and pointing the way toward a better future for all concerned - and, like it or not, everyone on this planet is concerned, says John Whitbeck.

There are reports of a dramatic increase in the incidence of deformed babies being born in the city of Fallujah, where DU weapons were in wide use during the November 2004 assault on that city by US Marines, notes Dave Lindorff.

The Yemenis in Saada – and I say Yemenis, because regardless of whether they are called Zaidis, Houthis, or Shias, they are still Yemenis – are trapped between the forces of their own government to the south, and a country denying them refuge to the north, says Rannie Amiri.

There are millions of 'Westerners' who are peace-loving, some of whom are ardent advocates of human rights, anti-war campaigners, including the thousands who have repeatedly broken the siege on Gaza, and previous to that Iraq, notes Ramzy Baroud.

The US-led nation-building occupation in Afghanistan is fueling the Taliban resurgence. If you follow the timelines, increases in Western forces have brought about the Taliban renaissance, notes Ivan Eland.

Palestinian babies were being shot in the head. People burned to the bone by Israeli white phosphorus, nail bombs causing brutal injuries and micro-pellets that leave no entry wound but cause fatal internal injuries. In self-defence? Asks Paul J. Balles.

Israel, the United States, and others who voted against the report’s adoption by the UNHRC last week missed the opportunity to bring the rule of law and impartial juridical accountability to bear upon the apparently criminal actions, notes Rami G. Khouri.

How embarrassing must it be to praise an election thief for grudgingly accepting that he didn't get away with it? Well, one can now ask that of Barack Obama, regarding Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai, notes John Nichols.

Who would have accepted Nazi Germany's assertion that its brutal reprisal against the Czechs was an exercise in self-defense? No one and no one should accept Israel's claim, either, says Alan Sabrosky.

The real problem for Israel’s leaders is that Iran’s possession of a nuclear bomb or two or several would greatly restrict their freedom to impose Zionism’s will on the region by brute force of all kinds, Alan Hart.

The preface and last chapter of Lawrence Freedman's book expresses this same double standard of how the US explains itself in association with whatever action it takes on a given issue. But the rest of the book, surprisingly, works, notes Jim Miles.

How can a journalist become a traitor to his country should he defends the human rights of a nation under occupation somewhere thousands of miles away? This is another example of how Zionists are seeking to ignite hatred, notes Iqbal Tamimi.

$915.1 billion in total Iraq and Afghanistan war spending to date has been a no-brainer, even if it could, theoretically, have been traded in for the annual salaries of 15 million teachers or 20 million police officers or for 171 million Pell Grants, notes Jo Comerford.

Only this truth will protect the lives of Lebanese soldiers, the victims of Nahr al Bared, and the security of Lebanon, stresses Rima Merhi.

It is the fact that those making the most noise about the Report have, I fear, either not read it or are deliberately distorting its contents for political advantage, says James Zogby.

One doesn’t need to agree to the entire programme of Hamas, but one is obligated to recognise that they are entirely different from the image that they have been straightjacketed into, notes Mary Rizzo.

Thirty Republican US senators voted to safeguard corporations from lawsuits in rape cases. It is a sign of our moral confusion that Americans are forced to have a conversation about whether a woman who has been gang-raped can go to court against her assailants, notes Glenn W. Smith.

Tel Aviv’s mafia are busy creating a rash of loud-mouthed propaganda cells, in many cases just a one-man lying machine belching religious-flavoured poison from a computer in their fly-blown kitchen, notes Stuart Littlewood.

As the IDF drops White Phosphorous on Palestinians or starves others, Israeli artists travel the world stating a 1960’s message of ‘Sex, Love and Peace’. Needless to say, the people around me didn’t really buy it, says Gilad Atzmon.

The United States, NATO, and (hopefully) a new Afghan government can seek a deal with the top- and mid-ranking Taliban leaders, in part by getting Pakistan's army and the ISI on board, says Robert Dreyfuss.

The fact that the majority of Muslims speak against violence and terrorism, regardless of its origins or the identity of its perpetrators, cuts no ice with these confirmed Islamophobes and political opportunists, notes Yasir Suleiman.

The siege against Gaza, which began years ago, tightened to an almost total lockdown in June 2007 and continues to this day. And though the United States, Egypt, the EU and the UN move slowly - if at all - international groups and activists are working to end it, says Nadia Hijab.

As we call a contentious era in European history the Hundred Years' War, so our war in 'the Greater Middle East' has already gone on for 30 years, give or take a few, notes Tom Engelhardt.

While the December-January assault on Gaza is widely judged to have been a criminal enterprise, Israel’s cruel siege of Gaza is an equal scandal, notes Patrick Seale.

The sequential destruction of Muslim nations - Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, (and Iran is on the list) - may or may not be a conspiracy hatched in Washington D.C., but it is becoming an international reality, says Ali Khan.

Today Hamas does not offer any real alternative in practice, since they, too, are observing a cease-fire with Israel. Yet the hope that Abbas could bring peace is fading, notes Uri Avnery.

Erdogan's courageous stance has a good chance of not only bringing the Goldstone Report dramatically into view, but also opening the political sewer that is Israel's oppression of the Palestinians for the American public to see, says Alan Sabrosky.

Perhaps US presidents simply cannot be expected to give back powers gained by the executive branch, but shouldn't we expect Congress to work to take them back on our behalf? Asks David Swanson.

After 9/11, Taliban authorities, including tribal leaders, had offered to work with the US in bringing Osama bin Laden and suspected al-Qaeda terrorists to justice, notes Dallas Darling.

Hundreds of Palestinian children are imprisoned in Israeli jails every year. Palestinian child prisoners remain nameless and their rights repeatedly disregarded. Their stories reveal the depths of horror in the subjugation to the Israeli occupation, notes Andrea D'Cruz.

If President Obama wanted to authentically honor the Nobel Peace Prize-reducing standing armies, he would give it to conscientious objectors and sign an executive order granting amnesty to all deserters, says Dallas Darling.

I wonder whether one should remind hardliner Lieberman, who happens to be an enthusiastic ethnic cleanser and a proud Judeo supremacist racist, that the reality on the ground last January was ‘connected enough’ to establish a genocidal war crime inquiry and a crime against humanity, says Gilad Atzmon.

The admiration which Israel's early state-building once aroused in many parts of the world has turned into angry impatience, outrage, even contempt, says Patrick Seale.

The Goldstone report is the most comprehensive, and transparent investigation as of yet into what happened in Gaza during the 23-day war. A new war might be awaiting besieged Gaza. Time is running out, notes Ramzy Baroud.

Obama takes the insulting Israeli rebuffs in public silence, reaffirms his support of Israel, fends off its critics, and continues to send it aid, just as if nothing had happened, notes Alan Sabrosky.

Why does al-Qaeda, halfway across the world, focus their attacks on the United States? Osama bin Laden has repeatedly given us his reasons — US occupation of Muslim lands and support for corrupt Middle Eastern dictators, notes Ivan Eland.

Maybe the real Barbarians are already within the gate. Perhaps the real Barbarians are civilian leaders who expand their wealth and power by turning Republics into Empires, notes Dallas Darling.

The Zionist state came into being mainly as a consequence of pre-planned ethnic cleansing. In international law only the Palestinians could give Israel the legitimacy it craved, notes Alan Hart.

In the 1980s, Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch expanded his news empire into the US. And Right-wing money went into attack groups targeting mainstream journalists who refused to toe the Reagan propaganda lines, notes Robert Parry.

Once the DOJ’s hate crime unit us up and running, 'self-hating Jews', such as leaders of the Israeli peace movement, can expect to be indicted for anti-semitic hate crimes in US courts, notes Paul Craig Roberts.

The Palestinians lived peacefully and in total harmony with people of different faiths and political affiliations before the state of Israel was created. Freedom of choice and democracy is a good platform to build a society on, says Iqbal Tamimi.

What if, from an Afghan point of view, the United States military forces really are the Martians of H.G.Wells' The War of the Worlds? The only thing the Martians could effectively do is destroy -- or leave, says Tom Engelhardt.

The prize does not honor Obama’s achievements, because he has few to date. It honors America’s starting to come to its senses, to reconcile its values with its domestic and foreign policy, and to make peace with itself, above all, notes Rami G. Khouri.

The ongoing US talks with Iran, if they make progress, could create space for Iran and the United States to work together on stabilizing Iraq in 2010, when at least 70,000 US troops are scheduled to leave Iraq, says Robert Dreyfuss.

If - by some miracle - Obama is able to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict, granting a state to the Palestinians and restoring the Golan Heights to Syria, while creating a stable and working democracy in Iraq - then he should deserve another Nobel, says Sami Moubayed.

If the women's movement was such a big downer, you'd expect the saddest women to be those who had some direct exposure to the noxious effects of second wave feminism. But what this study shows is that neither marriage nor children make women happy, notes Barbara Ehrenreich.

The manipulation of consensus beliefs discredited the US when it went to war on fixed intelligence. Anyone paying attention knows that pro-Israelis manipulated the intelligence that induced the US to invade Iraq. That same source is now hoping to expand this war to Iran, notes Jeff Gates.

The talks in Geneva have the potential to break new and important ground. As history has shown, military action and confrontation in the Middle East is self-defeating and creates more problems than it solves, note Reza Esfandiari and Yousef Bozorgmehr.

While Americans enjoy the freedom of unfettered Internet access and ample educational opportunities, the majority choose to remain deliberately ignorant of the law and an all but forgotten value system. It is time International Humanitarian Law be made an educational requirement in our public schools, says Tammy Obeidallah.

Think of this year's Nobel Peace Prize as a strategic Nobel strengthening Obama's resolve to work for a nuclear weapons free world, his engagement with Iran and North Korea, and his momentum to end the Afghanistan war, says Katrina vanden Heuvel.

As during the Kennedy era, Tel Aviv remains focused on a single goal: ensuring that its ally and patron (the US) continues a six-decade policy ensuring that Israel is not held accountable—for anything, notes Jeff Gates.

The hard-line Israeli government is refusing to commit to peace. A joint sponsorship of the peace process between Turkey and the US is what the region needs today — the wisdom, brains, passion, and credibility of two forceful men like Barack Obama and Recep Tayyip Erdogan combined, notes Sami Moubayed.

The American occupation of Iraq might have gone quite differently, but the neocons were unwilling to budge on their ideological certainties. The results included an estimated price tag of $1 trillion-plus, and more than 4,300 American soldiers dead along with uncounted thousands and thousands of dead Iraqis, notes Bruce P. Cameron.

The Bush administration’s misuse of the intelligence community to make a phony case for war was matched by the politicization of virtually every agency in the national security arena. In addition to politicizing intelligence to make the case for war, the Central Intelligence Agency was brought into a world of secret prisons, torture and abuse, and extraordinary renditions, notes Melvin A. Goodman.

Palestinians are undergoing ever increasing levels of persecution and mistreatment from a rightwing Israeli regime that is being enabled and emboldened by the Obama administration’s abject failure to exert any real pressure, note Bill Christison and Kathleen Christison.

As a country whose national institutions have been utterly destroyed and almost all threads that once wove its society together have been unraveled, Islam is the only thread that remains intact. But can lawless Somalia be governed by Shariah? Short answer: It depends on which type, notes Abukar Arman.

Newspapers spent much of the past decade amplifying the distortions of the Bush administration - and the decade before that parroting attacks on Bill Clinton - and the decade before that praising the genius of... well, you get the picture, says Eric Alterman.

There is one great reason for giving Barack Obama the 2009 prize. Obama threw out Bush Republicans, the biggest band of warmongers in recent American history, from power in Washington. This must surely count as a signal contribution to world peace, says M.J. Akbar.

Doesn't anyone ever ask why we keep indulging those with a perverse hunger to destroy? When is the American public going to see through these nasty Islamophobic attempts to arouse hostility? Asks Paul J. Balles.

Does anyone seriously believe that a President John McCain or a President Hillary Clinton would have promoted peace as much as Barack Obama has? But the lesser-evil argument should not spare Obama from criticism when he falls short on his promises, notes Robert Parry.

Israeli archeologists who care for the integrity of their profession (there still are some) protested this week that the Jerusalem digging is proceeding in a thoroughly unprofessional way. For Arabs, who see with their own eyes the daily effort to 'Judaize' the Eastern city and to push them out, their fear is genuine, notes Uri Avnery.

It would be a mistake to jump to conclusions and assume that the Obama Middle East policy is quickly reverting to the traditional American default position of being in Israel’s pocket. We should not make the mistake of passing judgment on a policy that is still in the making, stresses Rami G. Khouri.

If Sarkozy remains deaf to President Gül’s message, it is certainly being heard in the Arab world, where Turkish influence is very much on the rise, together with a certain nostalgia for the Ottoman Empire, says Patrick Seale.

By winning the Nobel Peace Prize, US President Barack Obama got a nice vote of confidence from the Norwegians for his promises. But now, he has to actually earn the Nobel with his deeds, notes Richard Kim.

Palestinians are the victims of the worst sort of oppression and war. They have the right to mobilise themselves, to speak their minds against not only the Israelis, but also against the 'House Arabs' who sell them out, notes Mary Rizzo.

Divided or not, Americans elected Barack Obama as their president, and by so doing, and this charismatic leader’s cry for change, in both domestic and foreign policy, a signal was sent to the rest of the world: a message of hope, a call for renewed efforts for peace, says Ben Tanosborn.

The failure of Obama to merge the ‘Brand’ and the ‘President’ into a continuous ethical reality is indeed a colossal tragedy. If I read it correctly, the Nobel Peace Prize is there to help ‘Obama the Brand’ withstand the pressure posed on ‘Obama the President’ by his Ziocon ring, notes Gilad Atzmon.

Don't we know that General McChrystal's strategic review was penned by a 'war-loving foreign policy community' in which the usual suspects were rounded up to argue for more troops and more war? Asks William J. Astore.

It has been understood for decades that Israel has a nuclear arsenal of an estimated couple hundred nuclear weapons, deliverable by plane, missile, and sub, notes Jim Miles.

The Obama Administration while acting as the proxy for Israel on Goldstone report has devastated whatever remained of Abbas’ credibility. Wide spread Arab and Palestinian anti–Americanism is US–made and not Arab–made; it is the product of US foreign policies in the region, notes Nicola Nasser.

Let's face it: everything about American thinking still stinks of the Vietnamese debacle, including the inability of our leaders to listen to a genuinely wide range of options, notes Tom Engelhardt.

The US President has neither achieved peace nor has he undertaken efforts to establish the foundations for world peace. On the contrary, he is a warmonger and a crusader who is spearheading America’s war against Islam and the Muslim world, says Abid Mustafa.

I encourage my friends and readers to calm down a little about having to prove Obama deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't, says Melissa Harris-Lacewell.

Americans are not stupid. We are, however, perilously misinformed. Yet that too traces to pro-Israelis in mainstream media. Iran is not about nuclear weapons. Iran is about the need for serial well-timed crises to advance Israel’s expansionist agenda, notes Jeff Gates.

By refusing to correct a long litany of errors – and to purge the incompetent journalists responsible – prestige news outlets are again herding Americans toward the slaughterhouse of unnecessary war and status-quo economics, notes Robert Parry.

Imagine that, after the next Katrina, Pakistani military helicopters based on a Pakistani aircraft carrier in the Gulf of Mexico are preparing to deliver supplies to New Orleans. What if, from an Afghan point of view, we really are Wells's Martians? Asks Tom Engelhardt.

In order to understand how these murderous Israeli practices emerged all we have to do is trace back and re-read the early Zionist ideologists. The history of Palestine, the Palestinians and the Nakba, was totally hidden from us, notes Gilad Atzmon.

Discipline, education, hard work, unity, pride in their ancient civilization, an enthusiastic embrace of modern technology, good governance, and above all nationalism, these are also virtues and values which the Arabs would do well to adopt, notes Patrick Seale.

Nothing could be more upsetting to Abbas than the Goldstone Report, which shows how indifferent he was to the winter war raging on Palestinian territory, and raises the popularity ratings of Hamas by exposing Israeli war crimes, notes Sami Moubayed.

Between Barack Obama’s anti-coup stance, and his own Department of State’s anti-Zelaya rhetoric (and Republican giddiness over the prospects of their country’s ‘return’ to Latin America), the US position lacks clarity, a dangerous notion, notes Ramzy Baroud.

The Jewish people need to become witnesses that the shoah shall not happen again to any other people on this world. It is a crime that the Jewish people need to lead the world away from, and not continually thrust it into everyone else's face as the sole owners of racist victimhood, notes Jim Miles.

A lack of empathy toward potential adversaries is as dangerous for a superpower as it is for any other country. The US should realize that even outlaws have security fears and are not just hostile to the United States because it is a relatively free country, notes Ivan Eland.

Have we learned anything in the 15-odd centuries since the fall of Rome? The oligarchs of Rome were poisoned by more than lead in their wine: selfishness and decadence, and disdain for common folk plebeians led to self-destruct, notes James J. Murtagh.

The Muslim world—a disparate grouping of nations and peoples—is united on only one issue: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Our role in the conflict, viewed as utterly one-sided, has seriously damaged America’s standing in every Muslim country in the world, notes M.J. Rosenberg.

The Israeli educational system is creating deep-seated and intentional ignorance about the history and politics of the region by imposing a severe form of censorship, notes Michal Haramati.

Separation of ethnicities is most apparent in how Israel and most of the world differ in regarding nationality. It’s not just separation. It’s a de facto apartheid, which the words ‘Jewish state’ will tend to reinforce, notes Dan Lieberman.

It's incredibly arrogant that after so long the United States argues that it knows what to do in Afghanistan while, at the same time, admitting in public that it has barely the faintest idea about how the country really works, says Robert Dreyfuss.

Abbas’ weakness, like Arafat’s before him in the latter’s last decade of life, has been an infatuation with two elements that are addictive but non-productive: the trappings of power, privilege and incumbency, and a direct line to the US president, stresses Rami G. Khouri.

Every time the US warns about Iran's nuclear program, it merely calls more attention in the region to Israel's ignored and unacknowledged nuclear arsenal. Then Arab leaders feel forced to take a tougher public stand against Israel's nukes because their people want to see Israel firmly contained, notes Ira Chernus.

In the midst of all the screaming headlines about an Iranian bomb which does not yet (and may never) exist, none of the acts the administration is demanding of the Iranians (and around which it is threatening to impose even stronger sanctions), have been put into practice by Israel, despite its perfectly real -- in fact, staggeringly large -- program. And no penalties have been imposed, notes Tom Engelhardt.

J Street wants to give American Jews who support a sane and reasonable peace with the Palestinians as much influence with the US presidency and Congress as powerful, hawkish lobbying organizations like AIPAC, says Eric Alterman.

To the surprise of some analysts, Obama is finding greater interest in a Mideast breakthrough from Russia, Iran and Hamas than among regular US 'friends' – Israel, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, says Robert Parry.

Contrary to media suggestions, Ahmadinejad has actually never come out on record with a single anti-Jewish 'hate- filled' attack. He is indeed extremely critical of the Jewish state and its raison d'etre. He is also highly critical of the crude and manipulative mobilization of the holocaust at the expense of the Palestinian people, says Gilad Atzmon.

Israel, bullying, threatened a tantrum and an end of the 'peace process' if the Geneva-based Human Rights Council Council had voted favorably on the report. The US urged the Palestinians to back off. And the Palestinian side, in the face of this pressure, agreed not to press for a vote on Goldstone, notes James Zogby.

October 6 is a National Day of Resistance, intended to deliver a powerful message to the world that day that the American people will no longer allow their government to commit war crimes in Afghanistan, says Dennis Loo.

President Obama and Israel have no chance of marginalizing Hamas through wars, blockades, diplomatic exclusion, or military and economic support for the Fatah. Their only hope is advancing the peace process and robbing Hamas of its cause to resist, says James Gundun.

Iran sent a strong conciliatory message to the United States in 2003, when it suspended its enrichment of uranium, but resumed its enrichment efforts two years later when the Bush administration not only failed to respond, but endorsed clandestine and military measures against Tehran, notes Melvin A. Goodman.

For $200 million of public money we can take a walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ himself, curing millions of leprosy. A truly inspiring future is, as always, easily within reach, if we choose it. Or we can just give Hank Paulson a tax break, notes Matt Bivens.

Netanyahu is not Hitler, but his mindset is much closer to Hitler's than anyone should find comfortable. Had Hitler not taken Germany out of the League of Nations, I could well imagine him giving a speech to the League much like Netanyahu's to the UN, notes Alan Sabrosky.

As with Iraq, there is no direct threat to the US from Iran. As with Iraq, mainstream US media focused not on Israel—the only nation in the region known to have nuclear weapons—but on Iran. The same network of government insiders and media proponents are now hyping Iran, notes Jeff Gates.

To make their position clear, AIPAC actually authored an anti-Goldstone letter which they circulated in the Senate seeking endorsement (there were 32 signatures). The letter calls on the Obama Administration to 'work very hard (!) to block and punitive action against Israel', notes James Zogby.

I do not know what will happen to change the trend we have experienced in recent years, defined by the dominance of our own militarism, the demagoguery and hero worship cult of our leaders, and the emptiness of our public life, says Rami G.Khouri.

UN Security Council Resolution 1888 is a welcome intervention against sexual violence and rape as weapons of war. But the phrase “women and children” -- long a patriarchal, disempowering categorization -- must be abandoned, argues Nadia Hijab.

France seems intent on becoming the dominant external power in Syria and Lebanon - commercially, politically and culturally, says Patrick Seale.

It may well be that one of the reasons for the prolongation of Gilad Shalit’s suffering lies in the hope of the Israeli army commanders to obtain intelligence about his whereabouts, so as to try to free him by force, notes Uri Avnery.

Whether the prospect of Iraqi relapse into violence will derail, or be used as an excuse to defer, the promised US withdrawal remains to be seen. But Osama bin Laden and other terrorists attack the US because of its meddling in and occupying of Islamic lands, notes Ivan Eland.

This charade (against Iran at the UN) was meant to distract from the nearly 600 page UN report, prepared by South Africa judge Richard Goldstone and others, dedicated mostly to Israeli war crimes in Gaza, notes Ramzy Baroud.

A peaceable, wide-ranging approach must be the American posture at the talks which the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany initiated with Iran on 1 October. If they think otherwise, they should have stayed at home, says Patrick Seale.

With the Pentagon's bases already creeping within a stone's throw of Southwest and Central Asia, it doesn't take a genius to imagine the role Bezmer might play in any future attack on Iran (something the Russian defense establishment has already taken careful note of), notes Pepe Escobar.

More often than not, being a print or radio journalist who is actually out there on a news story means financial disaster these days. You might be surprised at the sheer volume written by armchair journalists, notes Brenda Norrell.

Lies were repeated endlessly in the print and TV media despite reports from UN weapons inspectors, who had been sent to Iraq, that no WMD weapons existed. Now the whole process is repeating itself. This time the target is Iran, notes Paul Craig Roberts.

The circumstantial evidence suggests that Iran never intended to keep the Qom facility secret from the IAEA but was waiting to make it public at a moment that served its political-diplomatic objectives, notes Gareth Porter.

In Pittsburgh last week, an enormously expensive show of police and weaponry, simultaneously shut workers out of downtown jobs for two days, forced gasping students and residents back into their dormitories and homes, and turned journalists’ press passes into quaint, obsolete reminders of a bygone time, notes Mike Ferner.

The US had to abandon its missile shield in order to win Russia over in its battle with Iran. This shows how important Iran is. Meanwhile, Arab leaders imagine that the world might care about them because they are on good terms with this or that Western leader, or because this or that Western politician visited them or invited them to his office for fifteen minutes, notes Bouthaina Shaaban.

Publicly, at least, the United States wants an Iranian freeze on nuclear development. But there better be some flexibility behind the scenes, argues Robert Dreyfuss.

Are we on the verge of further sanctions on Iran? Or even more, of bombing Iran, either by the United States or by Israel with the tacit consent of the United States? Possibly, but I think that what is happening is a gigantic bluff by all and sundry, says Immanuel Wallerstein.

NATO will limp along much as the British and Soviet empires did after their misadventures in Central Asia. These were dead empires walking. NATO may be in this category as well. It just doesn't know it yet, says John Feffer.

The cumulative track record of foreign engagement in our region is thin, with few clear successes, many wasted efforts, and some counterproductive results. Here are eight clear principles for collaboration or partnership between foreign and Middle Eastern organizations, says Rami Khouri.

Israel is indeed a deadly marriage between Old Testament gross genocidal barbarism, Zionist fanaticism and a huge arsenal of WMD, chemical, biological and nuclear that has already been partially put into action, notes Gilad Atzmon.

It would not be surprising if the Iranian regime decided at some point - perhaps in the near future - that it needed to develop nuclear weapons to protect itself from the belligerent rhetoric and threats of the US and Israel, notes Anthony DiMaggio.

Nearly every offensive remark he makes about Iran and Palestine can be flung back in his face because Israel is no better and in most respects far worse. Netanyahu’s speech to the UN was the most hilarious example in history of the pot calling the kettle black, notes Stuart Littlewood.

It seems as if there are two Barack Obamas. And hopefully, the Obama who spoke today at the United Nations will win out in the end. Hopefully Obama will listen to other voices, and not just repeat what the Pentagon says, those same advisors of Bush, the war makers, says Hugo Chávez.

Obama declared, 'Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow'. The truth required him to say all nations 'with the exception of Israel'. Until an American President is prepared to abandon the double-standard at the heart of US policy, there can be no hope for peace in the Middle East and far beyond, says Alan Hart.

Recent US history shows that you can’t serve corporate interests at the same time you’re seeking reform – of healthcare or Wall Street or any other sector. Not when big corporations are the problem, and the major obstacles to change, notes Jeff Cohen.

The leaders of the G-20 countries, which account for 85% of the world’s income, cannot meet in an American city without 12,000 cops outfitted like the emperor’s storm troopers in Star Wars. And the US government complains about Iran, notes Paul Craig Roberts.

However much former CIA directors and other people at risk might wish to derail an investigation into possible war crimes, we believe the moral standing of our nation requires that we apply the same standards to offenses by US officials as we would to accusations of war crimes by those in other countries, write Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.

Obama spoke of “a Jewish State of Israel, with true security for all Israelis; and a viable, independent Palestinian state with contiguous territory that ends the occupation that began in 1967.” Instead of achieving justice, this outcome would actually undermine it, says Nadia Hijab.

The question here, really, is what have we done to democracy? What have we turned it into? What happens once democracy has been used up? When it has been hollowed out and emptied of meaning? Is it possible to reverse this process? Asks Arundhati Roy.

The Palestine issue has probably been the single most radicalizing and destabilizing force in the modern Arab World -- but UNRWA has been the most powerful force for moderation and sensibility among Palestinians who might otherwise have become disruptive and violent if they had been denied the basic services and dignity that UNRWA represents, says Rami G. Khouri.

Only a bold political plan which takes account of Afghanistan’s internal diversity as well as the interests of its neighbours can hope to bring this pointless, destructive and unwinnable war to an end, argues Patrick Seale.

A simple google search with the words 'Palestinian civil disobedience' generates only 47 pages – this despite the fact that for several years now Palestinians have been carrying out daily acts of civil disobedience against the Israeli occupation, notes Neve Gordon.

The US negotiating team urged—despite no sign of good faith by Tel Aviv—that those nations offer diplomatic gestures of goodwill. No reason was offered why, after enduring more than sixty years of nonstop duplicity, they should agree to do so, notes Jeff Gates.

For too long now the Middle East has been paying in blood for US experimental and contradictory foreign policies. Obama at the UN on Wednesday seemed poised to promise the Middle East more of the same, says Nicola Nasser.

In the words of the ancient proverb, a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Netanyahu has tripped Obama on his first step. The President of the United States has stumbled. For Netanyahu, the threat of peace has passed. At least for the time being, notes Uri Avnery.

Why is it that a Democratic candidate needs a war or threat of war to trash-talk about in order to prove his 'strength', when doing so is obviously a sign of weakness? The question is: will an already heavily militarized foreign policy geared to endless global war be surrendered to the generals? Asks Tom Engelhardt.

Palestinians have always relied for their very survival on the good will of the international community and world public opinion. Hence, should the world community go into a brief slumber, I have no doubt that Israel would seize the opportunity and embark on the unthinkable, says Khalid Amayreh.

The defenders of Israel at any cost choose to be blind to the siege, the bombs with white phosphorous, the slaughter and carnage of innocent civilians, infrastructure destroyed – all war crimes, notes Paul J. Balles.

The key within America is to challenge members of Congress who make this injustice possible by toadying to AIPAC and company. Hammer them in their home constituencies at their periodic 'town hall' meetings and speeches to local groups. The local media is largely unaffected by AIPAC and its cohorts, and will show or print what is said and done, says Alan Sabrosky.

Zionists, inside and outside Israel, should ask themselves if acknowledging the Palestinian plight in 1948 really is synonymous with full-scale return (of refugees to their homes), as the fearmongers argue, says Jonathan Freedland.

One would have to wait for the next miserable war, the next massacre to find out whether Israel has learned its lesson. Until then, thousands of starved, desperate yet resilient Palestinians in Gaza continue to live in their makeshift tents, atop the rubble, which was once called home, awaiting food, cement and international justice, notes Ramzy Baroud.

Let's love the people of the world and respect their rights. Rectify past behavior. This will benefit you and the human community. The Iranian people are prepared, along with other nations, to help you be rescued from your current situation and to establish peace and prosperity, says Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Goldstone Report was denunciated by Israel and ignored by the media, nonetheless, the nearly 600-page report will further diminish Israel's reputation and will probably strengthen the growing international boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, notes Roane Carey .

Foreign intelligence agencies have been holding back their liaison activities and their cooperation with the CIA because of the crimes associated with secret prisons, torture and abuse, and extraordinary renditions. The US needs to create a Truth Commission to understand the crimes that were committed, notes Melvin A. Goodman.

Distancing himself from the Bush administration's unilateralist approaches, US President Barack Obama addressed the United Nations Wednesday as a old-school liberal internationalist, says John Nichols.

Laurence Silberman to this day is a defender of the neocons’ foreign policy -- as witnessed by his September 11, 2009, ruling blocking civil lawsuits against US government contractors implicated in torturing Iraqis, notes Robert Parry.

Syria has plenty of reason to believe that Mehlis is guilty of fraud, especially that none of his findings were authenticated by any of the persecutors who succeeded him. Mehlis gave a lot of weight to accusations, without noting that all of them were made with a political purpose, notes Sami Moubayed.

Don't forget today's energy hotspots like Nigeria, the Middle East, and the Caspian Basin. In the Xtreme era to come, they are no less likely to generate conflicts of every sort over the ever more precious supplies of more easily accessible energy, says Michael T. Klare.

President Obama has put his own and his country’s credibility and name on the line in his repeated demand that Israel freeze settlements unconditionally. Netanyahu responded by rejecting this, and simultaneously expanding settlements. What next? Asks Rami G. Khouri.

It is worth remembering that the onslaught against Gaza was just the most recent incident in a long and ill-starred tale of Israeli brutality, against Palestinians and the Lebanon especially, notes Alan Sabrosky.

General Stanley McChrystal - commander on the ground in Afghanistan - could quit if Obama resists his troop increase request. But only a very complex diplomatic strategy will provide the United States an exit from Afghanistan, says Robert Dreyfuss.

Whereas Thomas Paine was writing about the possible birth of a more egalitarian society, President Bush was referring to how the United States would “not be defined” by the attacks that had occurred days earlier on Sept. 11, says Dallas Darling.

Let us thank them and expatriates of other faiths as well for the difficult sacrifices they are making daily in leaving their loved ones behind and coming to this country to help us forge a better life, says Tariq A. Al-Maeena.

What we need in Iraq to achieve peace is a truly comprehensive national reconciliation that really attempts to embrace all those who did not participate in Iraq’s political project and who were opposed to it on the condition that their hands had not been tainted with the blood of innocents, says Muhaned Habeeb Alsemawee.

One reason for Israeli worry stemming from the report, is the green light given to national courts throughout the world to enforce international criminal law against Israelis suspects should they travel abroad and be detained for prosecution or extradition in some third country. Such individuals could be charged with war crimes arising from their involvement in the Gaza War, notes Richard A. Falk.

The planned slaughter of 600 million civilians - 10 times the total death count in World War II, a hundred times the scale of the Holocaust - exposed a dizzying irrationality, madness, insanity, at the heart and soul of our nuclear planning and apparatus, notes Daniel Ellsberg.

There must be a one-state solution consistent with democratic principles of full equality. Informed Americans are no longer willing to support a theocratic state in which full citizenship is limited to those deemed 'Jewish' (whatever that means), says Jeff Gates.

No amount of American training, mentoring, or cash will determine who or what Afghans will fight for -- if indeed they fight at all. Yet the United States is training and counting on 400,000 soldiers and police to be the solution to its occupation, says Ann Jones.

A young, unnamed Afghan beaten an unknown number of days before being left overnight alone on this concrete floor in subfreezing temperatures. So, let’s not be hasty here. We do not know how he died. He might have died of too much cholesterol in his veins before he froze to death, says Dennis Loo.