From his insider vantage point, McClellan cited the White House’s 'carefully orchestrated campaign to shape and manipulate sources of public approval' – and he called the Washington press corps 'complicit enablers'. The newly discovered documents in Raymond’s files at the Reagan Library offer a glimpse at how these manipulative techniques took root, notes Robert Parry.

A chorus of the usual suspects, Washington’s warrior-pundits and 'warrior journalists', are singing ever louder versions of a song warning of that greatest of all dangers: premature withdrawal. Why must we stay in Iraq, given our abysmal record there? After our invasion, the Iraqis did descend into a monumental bloodbath. It happened in our presence, on our watch, and in significant part thanks to us, notes Tom Engelhardt.

If employing less experienced staff and producing lower-quality news continues, it will turn more readers away from newspapers, hastening their decline. If the media is going to provide real social benefits, its future must not depend on how much profit it brings owners, nor on the outcome of a duel between Murdoch and Google, notes Marie Bénilde.

Given all these signs of obvious weakness and bias in the US position, why does Washington persist in playing the mediating role between Israel and the Palestinians? Asks Rami G. Khouri.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have a growing political and financial power since their founding by Khomeini -- and even more through their ties to Ahmadinejad. There is no doubt that the future of Iran will be influenced by the power of the Guards, write Behrouz Aref and Behrouz Farahany.

Media educates - providing knowledge, information and the facts we need to prosper and improve our lives and make informed choices. Media inspires - building understanding, breaking down barriers, and forging connections, says Mohammed Khalaf Al Mazrouei

It is noted that the only Gulf state that has implemented the project of counting qualified workers is the United Arab Emirates, and this underlines the need for human resources management and development of information-gathering, says Nada Al-Mutawa.

Americans, whose elected representatives give Israel uniquely gargantuan sums of our tax money (a situation also not covered by the media), want and need all the facts, not just those that Israel’s family members decree reportable. We’re not getting them, notes Alison Weir.

In another little-noticed news item, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs has recommended that the US Government develop a strategy to make religion 'integral' to American foreign policy. The Chicago Council is a powerful organization that was formed in the 1920s to influence and shape American foreign policy, notes Howard Bess.

The problem with Rove’s account is that not only did Bush oversee the twisting of intelligence to justify invading Iraq in March 2003 but he subsequently lied – and lied repeatedly – about how Iraq had responded to United Nations inspection demands, notes Robert Parry.

It would be a flagrant violation of a supreme law of the land, the Senate-ratified United Nations Charter, for the United States to join in an unprovoked assault on Iran without the approval of the UN Security Council, which surely would not go along, notes Ray McGovern.

Worse still, the deplorable conditions in Gaza, owing to the persistence of a suffocating blockade, continue to be ignored, as if what is happening to 40% of the Palestinian people doesn’t matter, says James Zogby.

Instead of grasping the Holocaust as a universal message against racism or oppression of any kind, Mossad chief Meir Dagan’s and his Jewish State interpret the Holocaust as a license to execute, notes Gilad Atzmon.

In the 'era of colorblindness' there’s a nearly fanatical desire to cling to the myth that we as a nation have 'moved beyond' race. Here are a few facts that run counter to that triumphant racial narrative, writes Michelle Alexander.

The idea the United States has some sort of ties to Jundallah and other groups considered 'terrorists' by most Iranians seems to be widely accepted in Tehran as a 'social fact', at least. And Iranian officials are not the only sources claiming that US intelligence is linked to groups carrying out terrorist operations inside the Islamic Republic, note Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett.

In the 2002 the election year the Republicans first used the public's 'fear' of terrorism and attendant homeland insecurities as a campaign issue. The current election cycle has featured a steady stream of attack and insinuation from Republicans that Democrats in Congress and this time, the Obama administration, have been soft on terrorism, says Michael Winship.

Unique labour market characteristics of GCC countries could affect return-on-investment analyses. We need to tailor the analyses accordingly by examining the role of specific variables, such as gender and age, says Gabriella Gonzalez.

Using holy sites to justify conquest and massacres is by no means an Israeli, or Jewish, invention. One of the most abominable examples is the First Crusade. Pope Urban II called upon the Christians of Europe to rise and liberate the Holy Sepulcher - the grave where, according to Christian tradition, the body of Jesus lay before his resurrection, notes Uri Avnery.

Rima Merhi wrote this post in reference to a post published on the Huffington Post about Martin Kramer last week by MJ Rosenberg titled "Is Harvard professor advocating Palestinian genocide?" We need to move beyond this futile argument and shed light on the real issues that need to be addressed by Harvard.

Last week, Muslim cleric Muhammad Tahir ul-Qadri, issued a fatwa, or religious edict, against terrorism in general, and suicide terrorism in particular. His is not the first, just the latest -- comprehensive and powerful, says Hesham Hassaballa.

'Gender' is a concept most people still have trouble with, even though it’s been in circulation for nearly 20 years. By contrast, everyone knows what a woman is. Understanding and addressing gender roles can lead to true partnership and equality of rights and responsibilities, notes Nadia Hijab.

Over the last several decades, with US bases built cheek-by-jowl in the most heavily populated parts of the island, Okinawans have endured air, water, and noise pollution. Wherever the US military puts down its foot overseas, movements have sprung up to protest the military, social, and environmental consequences of its military bases, notes John Feffer.

For Iraq’s average citizen, however, his is not a political dream but one involving a down to earth hope that turns to reality: the return to those pre-invasion days when you could depend on having an adequate amount of electricity and water as you lived through the day, notes Ben Tanosborn.

While domestic politics in Muslim countries, the presence of foreign troops and the impact Western foreign policies remain primary drivers in radicalization, a major, comprehensive fatwa like this -- along with less-sweeping fatwas issued by other religious authorities -- does constitute a major challenge to the legitimacy of al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, notes John L. Esposito.

Lifelong learning promotes additional training to decrease initial skill gaps, to keep workers competence up-to-date, promote informal learning in the workplace; and facilitate retraining of workers facing skills obsolescence, says Andries de Grip.

A software engineer launched a suicide attack against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). After setting his home on fire, Joseph Stack flew a small plane into an IRS building. Experts will debate if this incident was a tax revolt or a domestic act of terrorism. Just like the current War on Terror, they will more than likely ignore the root causes, notes Dallas Darling.

Israel must sooner than later choose between either continued occupation, which is bound to explode time and again and paradoxically undermine Israel's national security interests or peace with security with the Arab states, stresses Alon Ben-Meir.

The attacks on Richard Falk and Richard Goldstone are hard for the two men to bear. And they tear at the very fabric of international law and the mechanisms put in place to uphold it, says Nadia Hijab.

The fact that active opposition to Israeli policy, say, on college campuses, has spread beyond the Arab-Muslim core towards the mainstream, whereas active support for Israel has shrunk to a fraction of the ethnic Jewish core, is a telling indicator of where things are headed. It is not so much that Israel’s behavior is worse than it was before, but rather that the record of that behavior has, finally, caught up with it, notes Norman Finkelstein.

The war in Afghanistan has turned into find-an-objective-as-you-go military march to nowhere. It behooves those democracy-inspired, nation-building enthusiasts to remember that Washington has done much to stifle genuine democracy movements around the world since its occupation of Afghanistan in 2001. Palestine and Lebanon remain the most obvious examples, notes Ramzy Baroud.

If we were to accept the American Zionists’ argument that any leading opponent of Israel, who travels without an army of bodyguards, is 'putting himself at risk', then we must acknowledge that ours is a lawless world where Israeli hit squads are free to commit murder anywhere, anytime, notes James Petras.

The big lie is simple, that there really is a global war on terror. The truth is more realistically that there is a global war of terror. Those self-righteous countries that proclaim against terror are themselves the greatest sources of terror around the world, notes Jim Miles.

There is at least a chance that the recent polarization of the electorate, sparked by the purge of candidates by an Iranian-backed commission headed by Ahmed Chalabi, the former darling of the neocons, might backfire, says Robert Dreyfuss.

Divisions among Muslims, especially between Sunni and Shiites, have consigned the Muslim Middle East to almost a century of Western control. Muslim disunity has made it possible for Israel to dispossess the Palestinians, and for the US to invade Iraq, threaten Iran and rule much of the region, notes Paul Craig Roberts.

Religion matters and is worth studying, but policy is far more important for promoting normal and friendly ties between Americans and the citizens of Muslim-majority countries. Policy, not faith, is the issue and the problem, stresses Rami G. Khouri.

Many friendly critics of Israel have grown increasingly alarmed at Zionist extremists seizing Palestinian lands on the basis of Biblical mandates in which God supposedly grants all the territory to the Israelites. But to the Washington Post, you are a 'racist' if you reject the Zionist vision of a Greater Israel, notes Robert Parry.

There’s reason to worry, especially since the lessons of both Iraq and Afghanistan are clear: it takes years after a war has been launched for the US military to develop tactics that lead to stasis. 'Victory' is a word that has gone out of fashion, notes Tom Engelhardt.

Banning someone from wearing a veil is not respecting a woman’s rights. It is exactly the opposite: It is a blatant act of disrespecting her right to choose what to wear. It is not an attempt to protect the dignity but is legal enforcement of an outdated and oppressive ideology that does not respect the fundamental freedom to express one’s religious identity in public, notes Reuven Firestone.

Turkey has become more democratic, with a more open political and social system, a more broad-based electorate and leadership, and a greater emphasis on rule of law that includes the accountability of all institutions, including the military, notes John L. Esposito.

The GCC national workforce is concentrated in the government sector because of the privileges given to nationals such as good salaries and job stability. However, the expatriate workforce is concentrated in the private sector, notes Faisal Mohamed Al-Imadi.

Iran is no match for Israel, whose security and military needs are all but guaranteed by US taxpayers, most of whom are not even aware of this fact. Iran is surrounded on all sides by the US Navy and American bases. Iran has not invaded or threatened any country for two and a half centuries, notes Debbie Menon.

The need for the French government to treat religious minorities with respect is bolstered by its own history. Modern France would do well to follow its own admirable example and truly treat Muslim citizens as equal participants in society. Foregoing the burqa ban would be a sensible first step, notes Joshua M. Z. Stanton.

In the world of neocon propaganda, Iran – a treaty signatory that has no nuclear weapons and insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes – must be endlessly badgered, but Israel – an undeclared rogue nuclear state with a vast arsenal – must be shielded from similar criticism and pressure, Robert Parry.

One of these wars (in Iraq and Afghanistan) was designed to depose and punish those who cruelly attacked us on 9/11 murdering 3,000 innocents. The other was based on a series of fabricated motives none of which could be construed as playing a role in making America safer or defending the Constitution, says James Zogby.

As hundreds of Israeli soldiers lay siege to the al-Aqsa Mosque, and as Palestinian youth use the minarets to call for prayers and support, can Pastor Niemoller's 'First they came...' poem be applicable to Palestinians and their sacred heritage sites? Asks Dallas Darling.

Sanctions aren't likely to work, but the United States is pushing hard anyway. But it isn't at all clear what the United States thinks it can achieve. You'd think that the United States would avoid a confrontation over Iran. You'd be wrong, notes Robert Dreyfuss.

Even though the majority of the doomed soldiers did not actually lose their lives, most of those who survived physically were still wounded in one way or another. Many lost their souls or their sanity. Many came home suicidal, losing trust in their society, their churches and their patriotic families. Alienation from previous 'friends' was the norm, notes Gary G. Kohls.

Despite what you may have read in the New York Times and the Washington Post, the available evidence is that Ahmadinejad did win last June’s presidential election and that efforts – embraced by nearly the entire US news media – to oust him amount to yet another case of seeking the removal of a democratically chosen leader, notes Robert Parry.

According to the official doctrine, the State of Israel cannot recognize an 'Israeli' nation because it is the state of the 'Jewish' nation. Messy? Indeed. There was a problem: a Jewish nation did not exist, says Uri Avnery.

A CNN poll last week indicated that 70 percent of Americans are in the same indicative mood, believing that Iran already has a nuclear weapon. That’s downright eerie — a flashback to Iraq.If memory serves, that’s about the same percentage of Americans who were convinced that Saddam Hussein had WMD on the eve of the invasion of Iraq, notes Ray McGovern.

If the 2011 budget and its projections proceed as planned, a great many Americans will be hungrier and still jobless in a harsher, meaner world, while what budgetary savings are achieved on the backs of the poorest Americans will be gobbled up by wars, weapons, and other 'security' needs, notes Jo Comerford.

A situation exists in which it may be in the interests of the United States to seek a 'cold war' situation with Russia and China as a pretext for defaulting on its external debt, attacking Iran, taking direct control of all Middle Eastern oilfields and effective control of Europe, notes Christopher King.

Dubai itself is the hub of trade, logistics, hospitality and leisure in the MENA region and beyond. The city enjoys a built infrastructure – including the region’s first fully automated metro – on par with its global peers, Ahmed Humaid Al Tayer.

The modern-day cultural movements of a society, in its broader sense of different generations, should safeguard its historical heritage. This heritage should be seen as a collective framework that is valued, and society should be proud of it and ensure that it is both safeguarded and promoted, says Zaki Anwar Nusseibeh.

It might be useful to pair work experience with schooling and education should be more employment-specific. The burden should not be solely on the role of education but must also be shared with those of other social institutions, says Alexander W. Wiseman.

The Obama administration policy toward Middle East regimes like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Syria must express more concern about human rights, not less. Washington’s diplomatic engagement with Damascus should not come at the expense of democracy and human rights activists, says Mohamad Bazzi.

The Palestinians’ conflict with Israel has lasted this long only because of their unwillingness to accept injustice, and their refusal to submit to oppression. Israel’s lethal weapons might have changed the landscape of Gaza and Palestine, but the will of Gazans and Palestinians are what have shaped the landscape of Palestine’s history. The notion of ‘people’s history’ can be powerful because it extends beyond boundaries, and expands beyond ideologies and prejudices, notes Ramzy Baroud.

Do you have to be jewish to report on Israel for the New York Times? That is why you will not read anything in the NYT questioning the idea that Israel is a democratic state or see coverage suggesting that Israel is acting in bad faith in the peace process, notes Jonathan Cook.

Like William the Conqueror who ignored the English battlefield dead, the US government has not identified – nor even made a good-faith effort to estimate – the number of Iraqis and Afghanis who have been killed. By suppressing the human toll, the war still can be sold as benefiting the Iraqi people. The reality of their intense suffering, however, is much different from the generally positive image that US propagandists seek to present, notes Douglas Valentine.

The strategy of Mubarak’s regime has always been to make people believe they have only two choices: the NDP (re: Mubarak) or the Muslim Brotherhood (which is banned). The last independent challenger to Mubarak, Ayman Nour, was thrown in jail on trumped up charges. Mubarak and the NDP have effectively left citizens with no real alternative, says Rannie Amiri.

Operation Northwoods was a plot drawn up by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff for the CIA to commit acts of terrorism in American cities and fabricate evidence blaming Castro so that the US could gain domestic and international support for regime change in Cuba. The secret plan was nixed by President John F. Kennedy and was declassified by the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board, says Paul Craig Roberts.

Haig was one of a very few members of the Reagan administration to understand that the Israeli offensive was going to reach Beirut, in violation of Israeli assurances not to threaten Arab capitals. He was in a position to warn the Israelis against such a disastrous military adventure and its obvious consequences, but chose not to do so, says Melvin A. Goodman.

Bahrain suffers from a high rate of unemployment, which has no connection with the issue of education. In recent years we have been able to control this problem; so much so that its rate is now only 4 percent. In fact, Bahrain is the only country in the Arab World, and perhaps in the whole world, which has a fund for insurance against unemployment, says Majeed bin Mohsen Al-Alawi.

There is no doubt that General McCrystal has good intentions. But his gamble rests on mistaken assumptions, says Patrick Seale.

Every major scientific body in the world has produced reports confirming the peril. Somehow, though, the onslaught against the science of climate change has never been stronger, and its effects, at least in the US, never more obvious: fewer Americans believe humans are warming the planet, notes Bill McKibben.

Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia have a common culture and cuisine, an oversupply of educated young people, and an undersupply of capital investment. Together, they would prosper, but their governments don’t see it that way, says Francis Ghiles.

How can real jobs be found for the thousands of young people who survive by dealing and scheming? How can the informal sector be regularized, so it respects the law, creates the businesses and jobs so needed, and serves local development? Only the government in Algiers, 500km away, can provide the answer, says Jean-Pierre Séréni.

NATO forces have met strong resistance in Afghanistan’s Marjah as their onslaught enters its second week. But Marjah is really just a microcosm for what the US is doing at this moment around the globe - in Iraq, Pakistan, expanding into Yemen, Somalia, and Iran, notes Eric Walberg.

GCC countries are engaged in reforming education and labor market structures and institutions. They can benefit from a better understanding of the outcomes of reforms, and how these outcomes can be influenced, says Lynn Karoly.

Half of Americans still don't realize that a third building also came down that day, and it wasn't hit by an airplane. There is a long list of federal investigators who say they were not allowed to do their jobs or complete the investigation, says Tim King.

Typically, the European press has been obsessing over the forged passports and fake IDs, ignoring the real issue at the heart of this unfolding crisis: another coldblooded murder of a top Palestinian leader by Israel, notes Aijaz Zaka Syed.

The US government and its propaganda ministry do not want to call Joseph Stack a terrorist. 'Terrorist' is a term the government reserves for Muslims. But Stack experienced the same frustrations and emotions as Muslims who can’t take it any longer, notes Paul Craig Roberts.

Michael T. Klare could help James Cameron with a “prequel” to Avatar: a harrowing tale of environmental degradation, resource scarcity, and perennial conflict in the twilight years of humanity’s decline - Avatar: Earth's Last Stand.

Israeli actions in recent weeks clarify the futility of trying to negotiate peace with an Israeli state while it wars against the idea that Palestinians have national rights in the same land that Israel claims as its exclusive patrimony, says Rami G. Khouri.

Statistics demonstrate a notable increase in the number of schools and students in the UAE; there are 269,000 students in public schools and 85,000 students in private schools. There are major approaches required for developing the education system, says Humaid Mohamed Obaid Al-Qutami.

If despotism in Iran is to end, it must be ended by the people of Iran, without any help or appeal to those countries who are interested in Iran only insofar as their colonial aims are concerned, notes Sasan Fayazmanesh.

Craig Murray was the only British Ambassador to speak out against the invasion of Iraq. And Murray had good reason for skepticism about George W. Bush’s 'war on terror' and its bloody offshoots. Like any moment in history, there is a back story to the 'war on terror' and its merger with the invasion of Iraq, notes Richard L. Fricker.

The reality of Iraq: Iran has the upper hand by virtue of its alliance with a network of Shiite religious politicians, from Ahmad Chalabi and his partner Ali al-Lami, to the Hakims, to Muqtada al-Sadr, to Prime Minister Maliki himself, says Robert Dreyfuss.

The Mossad openly stated that Mabhouh was a high priority target who had survived three previous assassination attempts. Israel’s policy of overseas assassination raises profound issues that threaten the basis of the modern state: sovereignty, rule of law and national and personal security, notes James Petras.

Even if there’s to be no punishment, what happened in Dubai has been deeply damaging to Israel’s already badly tarnished image in the world (of so-called ordinary people if not that of their governments), notes Alan Hart.

While the images from Abu Ghraib may have faded in the US, not so in the Arab World. In a way, the entire enterprise resembled a hate crime, in that while the targets of the degrading treatment may have been individual men, the impact and the humiliation was deeply felt region-wide, says James Zogby.

Why are the representatives of Washington, civilian and military, always so tone deaf when it comes to other peoples and other cultures? Why is it so hard for them to imagine what it might be like to be in someone else’s shoes (or boots or sandals)? Asks Tom Engelhardt.

The people who have been pushing a sectarian agenda have been a handful of Middle East dictators and monarchs. One is left to wonder whether these leaders believe it best to conjure up fictitious crescents, lest it unmask their own incompetence in real governance, notes Rannie Amiri.

The purging of Sunni candidates from the March 7 elections raises the specter of civil conflict, warns Robert Dreyfuss.

If those who currently mistrust Syria, Iran, Hamas and Hizbullah were to actually embrace serious diplomatic negotiations based on the normal diplomatic toolkit of incentives and disincentives, progress is likely to happen, stresses Rami G. Khouri.

The current status quo, so beloved by Netanyahu, may not prove as stable or as enduring as he would like, notes Patrick Seale.

Yukiya Amano found huge shoes to fill when he took over from the widely respected Mohamed ElBaradei on Dec. 1. ElBaradei had the courage to call a spade a spade and, when necessary, a forgery a forgery — like the documents alleging that Iraq had sought yellowcake uranium in Niger, notes Ray McGovern.

While the new standards are being developed in Abu Dhabi, we must also be concerned about its positioning in a global market by creating a better overall system of education, says Jim Mienczakowski.

One might at least have hoped that the death and destruction in Iraq would have taught these media figures a painful lesson: that sometimes loose talk about foreign 'enemies' can contribute to horrendous human suffering. Journalists might also recall the old principles of the profession: fairness, commitment to facts, and objectivity, notes Robert Parry.

If American arms exports sweep the world, bringing in multi-billions, you’re lucky to find out about it deep inside your ever-thinning daily newspaper (and such stories seldom even make it onto the TV news). If we sell weaponry repeatedly to the Indonesians or the Saudis or the Qataris or the Israelis, it’s a ho-hum matter, notes Tom Engelhardt.

The American military’s fascination with German military methods and modes of thinking raises many questions. The US military swallowed the Clausewitzian/German notion of war as a dialectical or creative art, one in which well-trained and highly-motivated leaders can impose their will on events, notes William J. Astore.

The Dubai affair is reinforcing the image of Israel as a bully state, a rogue nation that treats world public opinion with contempt, a country that conducts gang warfare, that sends mafia-like death squads abroad, a pariah nation to be avoided by right-minded people, notes Uri Avnery.

Our government is not broken; it's been bought out from under us, and on the right and the left and smack across the vast middle more and more Americans doubt representative democracy can survive the corruption of money, note Bill Moyers and Michael Winship.

What, in 1991, 2001, and 2003 was the swift claim of total victory is now a long-haul campaign, according to American military sources. The story of how Pentagon strategists and the US military went from being the masters of war to a force of would-be long-haul city-builders, notes Tom Engelhardt.

Waterboarding and some of the other measures, such as slamming detainees against walls and depriving them of sleep, have long been considered acts of torture and have been treated as war crimes in other circumstances. However, Yoo – working closely with Bush administration officials – claimed that the techniques did not violate US criminal laws and international treaties forbidding torture, notes Jason Leopold.

SANAD has played an important role in the process of employing Omani nationals and has funded about 1,552 projects up to 2008. The program has supported training of more than 6,000 individuals and played an important role in recruiting the national workforce in Oman in the private sector, says Obaid Al-Saeedi.

As much as Israelis and their supporters try to tell us that the diplomatic backlash is fuelled by merely technical matters such as ‘identity theft’, reading the British press conveys a far deeper resentment to Israel, what it stands for and the way it operates, says Gilad Atzmon.

With the dreadful threat of yet another Israeli war in the Middle East looming, Israeli propaganda machine is likely to go into full gear, argues Ramzy Baroud.

erhaps the most important feature of today's Iraq is that it is a country with an uncertain future, controlled by sectarian parties whose first loyalty, to varying degrees, is to Iran, on one side and the Kurdish parties, who knew very well how to serve their own interests, on the other side, writes Khairallah Khairallah.

Militaries are responsible for defending their citizens. They can now succeed in this mission simply by creating a Prevention Wing - a group of Invincible Defence Technology experts, note Maj Gen (Ret) Kulwant Singh and Dr David Leffler.

Google and Clinton claim they will no longer bow to Beijing’s and Iran’s army of internet censors. They might want to first un-bow to internalized and Americanized censors and learn more about China’s rich past, including Confucianism and Communism, and acquire more knowledge about Iran’s fascinating history, including Islam, the Ummah and jihad, says Dallas Darling.

Abu Mazen, president of the Palestinian Authority, must seize the initiative. If he does not -- if he meekly submits to the empty formula of ‘proximity talks’ -- the Palestinian cause will simply slip further down the slope into ultimate oblivion, warns Patrick Seale.

The Mossad operates in intimate proximity to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. Once the allegations are proved to be true, Israel's premier Binyamin Netanyahu should join the rapidly expanding list of 'prisoners of Zion', those Israeli leaders who cannot leave Israel for legal reasons, notes Gilad Atzmon.

Is the United States supplying all the weapons that sustain war on this planet? No, not quite. But it doesn’t take a PhD in economics to realize that 70% of market share is pretty close to a U.S. monopoly on the tools of warfare, says Frida Berrigan.

A secure, stable and democratic Iraq will have first to wait for an end to the raging power struggle over Iraq between the United States and Iran inside and outside the occupied Arab country, says Nicola Nasser.

Mrs. Clinton badly needs some more credible talking points than opposing military dictatorships. The United States has adored military dictatorships in the Arab world, especially states dominated by the shadowy world of intelligence services, notes Rami G. Khouri.

Don’t for a second think that the American global monopoly on weapons sales is accidental or unintentional. The constant and lucrative growth of this market for US weapons makers has been ensured by shrewd strategic planning. Washington is constantly thinking of new and inventive ways to flog its deadly wares throughout the world. It’s time to launch a 'war on weapons', says Frida Berrigan.

Appeals to anger using chauvinism, xenophobia and racism are their trademarks. We’ve seen similar efforts rise up in recent times with Jörg Haider in Austria, Jean-Marie Le Pen in France, Nick Griffin in the UK – and it has now come to America, notes James Zogby .

The White Rose group had seen the atrocities that were being committed (by Nazi Germany), the loss of freedom, the shredding of human rights and the fact that the war, following the carnage on the Eastern Front, had already been lost, notes Gary G. Kohls.

The Gulf states have allocated huge budgets to foreign scholarship programs. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for example, there are 80,000 students on study courses abroad. Also, branches of foreign universities have been opened in a number of GCC states, says Ahmed Al Eisa.

It is a state of mind where a society seeks its authorization in weapons, finds satisfaction in war, and takes its orders from militarism. The interconnectedness of humanity is not only broken but destroyed, notes Dallas Darling.

Erdogan is striving to restore Turkey to its rightful place amongst Arab and Muslim nations, and that by no means stops at the gates of Damascus. It is a policy that embraces Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, says Sami Moubayed.

Liberty, for which our military men and women are supposed to be fighting, should trump nationalism, faux patriotism, and militarism. All of these maladies, usually promoted by guilt-ridden expedient civilians, usually get military people killed in unnecessary wars, notes Ivan Eland.

In order to obscure Western Europe’s extensive debt to the Islamicate, they devalued the birth of new cultural formations in western Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, flowing from contacts with the Arabs in Spain, Sicily and the Levant, notes M. Shahid Alam.

Every single attempt at terrorism by Muslims pointed to an anger sparked by geopolitical actions taken by Western governments. Whether it is the atrocities committed in the Gaza Strip or the invasion of Afghanistan, the perpetrators were driven by on-the-ground facts, not by a poisonous and twisted view of scripture. Their motives were far from theological, notes Steve Zhou.

The battle over Jerusalem’s Mamilla Cemetery -- a Muslim cemetery (Ma’man Allah) estimated to be over 800 years old and in continuous use until 1948 -- encapsulates many aspects of Israel’s approach to Palestinian rights, notes Nadia Hijab.

A worrying two-thirds of the Pentagon’s personnel in Afghanistan are private military contractors, unaccountable to military law or ethics, swaggeringly overbearing, and not in any hurry to help improve the poor security situation that assures their firms’ current and future profits, says Marie-Dominique Charlier.

Cancer is spreading like wildfire in Iraq. Thousands of infants are being born with deformities. Doctors say they are struggling to cope with the rise of cancer and birth defects, especially in cities subjected to heavy American and British bombardment, notes Jalal Ghazi.

In no previous death of a US citizen by the hands of the US government has the government claimed the right to kill Americans without arrest, trial, and conviction of a capital crime. What defines 'threat'? Who will make the decision? What it means is that the government will murder whomever it chooses, notes Paul Craig Roberts.

We need to rethink the current education system to go with this new consciousness that is beginning with Masdar. The idea of education that creates autonomist, utilitarian and productive workers has to end, says Jeremy Rifkin.

The belief in a unified, strong Europe gave birth to the European Union. By the same token, strong political will and a renewed belief in the mission of the AMU are required before any progress can be made towards a union, notes Mustafa Fetouri.

The activities of Zionists deserve the exposure that honest, truth-seeking writers can give it. The only hope left for ending the stranglehold of Zionism in the Middle East is full awareness of the shameless audacity of Zionist chutzpah, notes Paul J. Balles.

Al-Watan Daily issues apology to its readers for running ad by Jewish Anti-Defamation League.

Most 'correspondents for Arab affairs' are alumni of Israeli Army Intelligence, and consider themselves active members of the great propaganda enterprise against the Arabs. Many of them enjoy the generous assistance of certain institutions financed by US billionaires, whose sole function is to poison the wells of peace and understanding, notes Uri Avnery.

Much like the Bush administration’s Iraqi WMD claims, Mehlis’s Hariri case against the Syrians soon began to crumble. But the US news media, which had played the initial Mehlis accusations against Syria as front-page news, barely mentioned the shift in the UN probe. Editors relentlessly portray Muslim governments that are out of Washington’s favour as the 'bad guys', notes Robert Parry.

Why is Spain, not the United States, undertaking a criminal investigation of US government officials for torture? Because, as the Convention Against Torture contemplated, countries all too frequently seek to cover up their own acts of torture, says David Cole.

Yemen desperately needs a durable settlement - and a massive injection of development funds from its rich neighbours in the Gulf, writes Patrick Seale.

The Palestinians and Israelis will soon launch indirect negotiations (“proximity talks”) which mainly affirms the depressing state of play of the five primary actors in this long drama - Palestinians, Israelis, Americans, Arabs, and the UN, says Rami G. Khouri.

Had the inept Abdulmutallab actually succeeded, the death toll would not have equaled the 324 traffic fatalities in Nevada in 2008; while the destruction of four Flight 253s from terrorism would not have equaled New York State’s 2008 traffic death toll of 1,231, 341 of whom, or 51 more than those on Flight 253, were classified as 'alcohol-impaired fatalities', notes Tom Engelhardt.

If a leader of another country had called himself 'a big supporter of waterboarding', there would have been a clamor for his immediate arrest and trial at The Hague. That Cheney feels he can operate with such impunity is a damning commentary on the rule of law in the United States, at least when it comes to the nation’s elites, notes Robert Parry.

As much as humanists are united behind the Goldstone report, our democratically elected leaders are failing to confront Israel and its lobbies. But if we want to help Israelis recover from their nationalist racist fanatical dream, we must persuade them that the Goldstone report is their new Bible, says Gilad Atzmon.

Neither the US nor Israel can tolerate the continuation of Hezbollah in Lebanon, a powerful player independent from their control, which has effectively shattered the myth of Israeli military supremacy. The fact that the party is strongly represented in the Lebanese government and got its say on all crucial matters in Lebanese domestic affairs since 2006 only makes the reality harder to digest for the IDF, says Sami Moubayed.

Peace can become the new horizon, the new platform for ideological debate and the new Zionism. There is indeed hope that an Israeli society engaged constructively in building an ideology of peace is an Israeli society that – united – will find the way to actually make peace, notes Alick Isaacs.

Whenever Western journalists visit Saudi Arabia, they meet Saudi women who are educated, employed, successful, prominent leaders in their communities. They ask them all kinds of questions and receive honest and transparent answers. However, these journalists often only report on the usual stereotypes – the hijab or niqab, says Maha Akeel.

British spy chief says UK agencies do not torture nor 'encourage others to torture on our behalf'.

Even those who dislike Hamas have a sneaking admiration for their courage and determination against impossible odds. How many of their critics could have emerged from what they have been through with colours still flying? We in Britain owe a duty to Palestinians to talk to Hamas as well as Fatah instead of welcoming onto our streets Israelis wanted for mega war crimes, notes Stuart Littlewood.

Arab states have no wish to see a nuclear-capable Iran, but they are far more frightened of an Iranian-Israeli war, which could have devastating consequences for the security and stability of the region and for Arab oil exports. The more Iran is threatened, the more defiant it becomes -- and the more remote the chance of an agreement, notes Patrick Seale.

Palestinians working for the Western media do not have anywhere near the same standing, or influence, as Jewish-Israeli reporters in Jerusalem. The revelation that the son of Ethan Bronner, the New York Times’ Jerusalem bureau chief, is serving in the Israeli military has highlighted an issue that should have been in the spotlight long ago, notes Jonathan Cook.

Turkey’ impresses not only for its flourishing democracy and its growing regional leadership role. It is addressing tough historical issues: establishing relations with Armenia, the Kurds, and the Greek Cypriots, says Wendy Kristianasen.

While the two countries have come a long way, hard work lies ahead if both Libya and the US are serious about final rapprochement. For Libya, it’s far more important to speed up the normalisation at the non-governmental level. Cultural exchanges and training programmes may be more effective in building trust than any official government efforts, notes Mustafa Fetouri.

Did Gazans starve less after 100 days of Obama's presidency? Do Palestinians care much for round numbers? I doubt it. Nor do Iraqis, Afghanis, and, now, Yemenis. Misery is misery, any day, every day; war is an inferno. The smell of death, the scenes of blood in Kabul and Baghdad and Gaza, will remain the same on a Friday, or a Tuesday, 100 day into Obama’s presidency or 514 days later, Ramzy Baroud.

Damascus secured the release of a French national under arrest in Iran last summer; talked Hamas into accepting the Arab peace initiative. Also, Syrian cooperation in the provincial elections of 2009 led to an impressive turnout for Iraqi Sunni voters, notes Sami Moubayed.

Would the Republican right and its tea-party populists - marginal, mockable political freaks less than a year ago - have enjoyed their current growth spasm if the administration hadn’t been committed to bailing out the very institutions most people considered the villains responsible for running this country into a ditch? Asks Steve Fraser.

One might think that with over a million people dead and almost five million others displaced in Iraq—and not a weapon of mass destruction to be found—that Netanyahu might be showing some remorse. Instead, he’s beating the drums loudest for an even more catastrophic war with Iran, notes Maidhc Ó Cathail.

What aggression did Iraq commit against the US and the UK that could have justified the war? How did the people of Iraq ever cause any harm to the people in the UK or the US? These are questions that should have been asked at toothless Chilcot Inquiry, notes Yamin Zakaria.

Turkey wants to expand its influence throughout its surrounding region, creating a peaceful, stable environment in which its economy can prosper. And as the country struggles internally to demilitarize and democratize, there is broad support for the AKP government’s bold aims abroad, says Wendy Kristianasen.

Raising troubling comparisons to tactics employed by Josef Stalin and right-wing Latin American dictatorships, the US government has created a 'hit list' of Americans abroad marked for murder, notes Sherwood Ross.

The phony intelligence that induced us to war in the Middle East was traceable to Israelis, pro-Israelis or assets developed for that purpose. Morality and conscience are of no concern to those who consider themselves 'The Chosen' — by a god of their own choosing, says Jeff Gates.

The mindset which led to this atrocity is that the victims were pre-designated as targets in a lawful manner. Soldiers told me that they were routinely sent out on missions to kill designated 'targets'. Their graphic descriptions included finding a shopkeeper and killing him in front of his wife and children. The target does not have the option to surrender, notes Stjepan Mestrovic.

The legendary CIA psy-war specialist told me about how he sold his propaganda message inside a target country. He said the goal wasn’t to plant a story in a publication that people knew to be under US control, because their defenses would be up, notes Robert Parry.