Greenland, Israel and the Osama Bin Laden video

No doubt many among you have been wondering where I have been for the past couple of months (wrote the author to his imaginary audience of millions). Actually I have been wondering what to do with this blog. It's going no where. At present it's sole purpose is completely subjective. It helps El Gringo Rumbero cope. It needs to become an objective force in the world outside of my head.

But for the time being -- here's another self-indulgent tirade.

Greenland's Ice Sheet is Melting

The impact of this development will be much greater than the melting of the polar ice caps. What else can I say? Oh yeah, and two-thirds of the global polar bear population will disappear by 2050.

Israel or occupied Palestine

The story about which I wrote in April of this year has finally made its way into the main stream media -- dozens of youths in Israel have been carrying out violent antisemitic attacks against their fellow citizens. The culprits are all Russian immigrants who were permitted to immigrate under Israel's racist "Law of Return" which allows anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent to automatically become an Israeli citizen whether or not they themselves actually practice the Hebrew faith. Somehow most reporters have missed the bitter irony of the situation.

Osama Bin Laden Video

So the evil terrorist bogey man who supposedly planned the attacks of September 11, 2001 is actually part of that sect of radical militant Islam that's into making low budget videos.

Everyone should read the ABC News transcript (English of course) of what Bin Laden said in the latest video. Apparently he is not only into making low budget movies, but he's also into Noam Chomsky. He's also an ant-capitalist, anti-imperialist environmentalist. That is to say he's an independently wealthy, ant-establishment low-budget film-maker. He's boho chic.

The bulk of the transcript, after the usual praise of divinity which is always included in religious discourse, reads like a litany of the evils of capitalism and (especially) U.S. imperialism. The whole middle section is a fairly accurate criticism of the current situation right now. Hell! He even talks about the problems in Africa! But O.B.L.'s conclusion is that we ( U.S. citizens) should all become Muslims and build an Islamic theocracy here in the U.S.

I wonder who would benefit from making a video that equates anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist ideas with Islamic fanaticism?

Keep in mind that the source of the video was the SITE (Search for International Terrorist Entities) Website < http://siteinstitute.org/> which is run by Rita Katz who I suspect is an Israeli or U.S. intelligence agent (do a quick Google search on her and you'll see why). The video itself was then carried by pretty much every major U.S. news outlet complete with a full transcript in English from ABC.

Am I the only person who thinks this video is a complete fabrication designed to discredit any legitimate critique of the current world system and, worse, to equate it with "terrorism"?

If I were Noam Chomsky, who frankly isn't even that radical, I would seriously consider emigrating.

Why Turkey Will Never Be Allowed Into the European Union

In the wake of the recent elections in Turkey we've been hearing a lot in the news media about Turkey's aspirations for membership in the European Union (EU) as well as the challenges it faces in achieving this goal. Reporters have been especially great at reiterating a lot of Orientalist discourse about Turkey not being "European" or a lot of Neoliberal bullshit about Turkey's human rights record and we're told that these are the primary obstacles to Turkey's entry into the EU. But is this really what's going on?

Let's look at what Nicholas Sarkozy actually said about the issue in his debate with Segolene Royale before the French presidential elections:

"Ceux qui souhaitent l’entrée de la Turquie en Europe sont ceux qui ne croient pas à l’Europe politique. C’est la mort de l’Europe politique" (Those who hope for the entry of Turkey in the EU are those who do not believe in a political Europe. It's the death of a political Europe).

Politics is about power. What Sarkozy said was that Turkey's entry into the EU would mean the end of the latter as a world power. Why?

I'll start my answer to this question by looking at the most prominent party among those who are hoping for the entry of Turkey in the EU. That's right, you guessed it, the good old USA.

Turkey's entry in the EU is part of the US's plan for rendering Europe completely dependent on a US-dominated energy infrastructure stretching from the Caspian through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. Turkey's entry into the EU would also be the last nail in the coffin in which plans fo any independent European military force would be buried. The US-dominated North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), of which Turkey is a key member, would remain the sole guarantor of security on the continent and the EU would be nothing but a free-trade zone dominated by a hegemonic US in a unipolar New World Order.

Unfortunately for the US, like so many of the grandiose dreams of the US ruling class these days, this plan is all but dead. Russia has successfully secured all of the major gas and oil reserves in the Caspian (as of May 12, 2007) completely cutting out the US. In other words the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey pipeline is now empty. The EU's dependence on Russia for gas and oil is now solid and, unlike the US which seeks to weaken the EU and subordinate it to US interests, Russia supports a strong economic and political EU as a partner in its effort to push the US out of Eurasia.

Turkey could strengthen its economy and, more importantly, its sovereignty by looking eastwards to make strategic alliances -- Iran and Russia are two potential partners that come to mind. Otherwise, left out of the EU as well as the rapidly forming alliances in Asia (e.g. the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation), Turkey will be just another pawn in the US' losing play for global domination.

Free Sami Al Haj!

Five-and-a-half years ago -- on December 15, 2001 -- U.S. military personnel captured Al Jazeera cameraman Sami Al-Haj while he was en route to Afghanistan in Pakistan. He has since been held, with no criminal charges against him, as an "enemy combatant" in Guantanamo Bay. Sami, who is a Sudanese national with distinctly African features, reported to his attorney who was finally allowed to see him in December of 2005 that:

• he has been tortured (e.g. forced to remain seated, exposed to the tropical sun, deprived of sleep, subjected to sexual abuse, confined in rooms in which extremely loud music was played, etc.)
• he has been interrogated with the use of threats more than 130 times
• he has a throat cancer that is not being treated

Why are the imperialists doing this to a cameraman (besides the fact that he is Arabic, Black, and Muslim)? Here's a hint: according to the London-based Guardian newspaper -- on September 26, 2005 -- U.S. officials offered Sami his freedom if he would agree to spy on Al Jazeera.

In other words the U.S. government claims to support freedom of speech yet it is trying to destroy a news outlet because of its distinctly balanced approach to current events in Western Asia (in March 2003, Al Jazeera was awarded by Index on Censorship -- an international group which campaigns against censorship -- for its "courage in circumventing censorship and contributing to the free exchange of information in the Arab world"). This isn't the first time the U.S. military has struck violently against Al Jazeera:

• November 13, 2001 -- U.S. missles destroy the Kabul offices of Al Jazeera in Afghanistan.
• April 8, 2003 -- U.S. missles strike the Baghdad offices of Al Jazeera killing reporter Tarek Ayoub.
• November 22, 2005 -- The Daily Mirror (U.K.) leaks the infamous "Al Jazeera Bombing Memo" in which U.S. President Bush suggests to U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair the idea of bombing Al Jazeera.

The U.S. government claims to care about the genocide against Black Sudanese people yet it is torturing at least one Black Sudanese man as I write this.

The U.S. government claims to fight for Democracy and the rule of law yet it is currently holding countless prisoners without due process.

There is no Global Islamic Conspiracy! This is as much a work of racist fiction as was Hitler's Global Judeo-Bolshevist Conspiracy.

For more about Sami: http://www.prisoner345.net/
To sign a petition: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19079

Zionists Spread Anti-Semitism to Palestine

Last year I wrote an entry on Israel's racist (i.e. white supremacist) ideology regarding the definition of a Jewish person. I told the story of the Jin family who could prove that their family had been Jews for centuries and yet the Israeli Government still refuses to recognize them as Jews even after they underwent an Orthodox conversion in Israel. Moreover they are the only members of China's ancient Jewish community who have been allowed to immigrate to Israel (others have tried). I used the example to illustrate how the Zionists use a racist definition of a Jewish person to turn Palestine into a "White Man's Land".

Apparently, in a strange twist of fate that is giving me an evil kind of pleasure, the policy has backfired! Israeli citizens – even IDF soldiers – have been carrying out vicious anti-semitic attacks inside Israel! As I explained in my entry last year – White people (unlike people of color like the Jin family) need only produce a single Jewish parent or grandparent in order to fulfill the official definition of a "Jewish person" and thereby automatically become Israeli citizens. This policy has resulted in the immigration of over one million Russians to Israel since the 1990s. Unfortunately recent survey data reveal that at least 300,000 of these people do not even consider themselves to be Jewish! It's not surprising then that those responsible for all of these attacks have been "Russian Jews". In fact, according to the Dmir Centre which has been monitoring these attacks, there are now dozens of neo-Nazis in every city in Israel. Not surprisingly -- since the Zionist state's raison d'etre is to save Jews from anti-semitism -- the Israeli government is keeping this story under wraps. The authorities do not even record the attacks as instances of anti-semitism at all even though the attackers use anti-semitic epithets as they beat their victims and have swastikas tatooed on their arms. Thus, in its attempt to create a "White Man's Land" in the Middle East, the Zionist enterprise has actually spread old-fashioned European anti-semitism to Palestine!

Israel Is A Racist White Supremacist State

Chinese Jews?! Chinese food in the Holy Land! You'd think any Jew would be thrilled. Not so. Of the 600 or so families in Kaifeng who claim to have been Jews for generations, only one of them (the Jin family) has been able to make the so-called "return" (Aliyah) to the Holy Land. And they had to undergo an Orthodox conversion to do so. And even then they were not granted legal status as Jews by the State. You see the members of the ancient Jewish community of Kaifeng (established in at least the 10th Century), like the rest of the communities in the Jewish Diaspora, look like their neighbors (i.e. they look Chinese). Here's a picture.

In Israel, "Jew" clearly equals "White," although they can't say it. But this is ridiculous. According to Israeli law, I could make the Aliyah without a problem because I am White and can prove that all of my ancestors for many generations have been Jewish. Yet a recent DNA test my father took revealed that none of my paternal genetic markers can be traced to the Middle East. In fact on my father's side I have more in common with an Irishman or a Spaniard than an Ancient Hebrew. In other words, Judaism is not a race! It's a religion. And a Jew can be African, Arab, Chinese, European or what have you. But what the example of the Chinese Jews shows, as well as the experiences of all people of color in Israel, is that the Zionist State has nothing or very little to do with religion. The Jin family produced official Chinese documents showing that they were descendants of Jews. But that was not sufficient (as it would have been in say, my case). So they underwent an Orthodox ritual conversion. But that still wasn't sufficient. So if the Jew angle isn't about religion then what is it about? It's a con. How else do you justify the establishment of a new colonial entity based on White Supremacy after the whole world recognized the right of the formerly colonized people to independence after World War II? But that's another story.

Hezbollah Kicks Ass!

Okay now before you get all excited let me just say that I am strongly opposed to political Islam because it's basically a theocratic, neoliberal ideology that represents various elements of the ruling class who are out to to oppress and bleed the people (for an intelligent critique of political Islam, see this essay by Samir Amin). At the same time, I gotta recognize the outstanding performance of this small band of fighters against a larger, much better-equipped opponent. Just look at the numbers, according to the Associated Press, as of earlier this week: Lebanese dead total at least 642, including 558 civilians, 29 Lebanese soldiers and only 55 Hezbollah fighters while Israeli dead total 97, including 61 soldiers and only 36 civilians. So basically, the vast majority (86 percent) of Israeli kills have been civilians, mainly women and children, while soldiers account for almost two-thirds (63 percent) of Hezbollah kills. And keep in mind that Hezbollah's weapons, like the notorious Katyushas, are inaccurate while Israel's can hit very precise targets. People all across the region, even in the pro-U.S. strongholds of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia as well as the Lebanese Christian communities, are giving the Hezbollah guerrillas their props even if it's only because they're bringing it to the Zionist army hard core!