Video: Kanye West’s “Power” – The Occult Meaning of its Symbols

(VigilantCitizen) – Kanye West’s “Power” is a short, almost stationary video that manages to tell a profound story in symbolic language. By decoding the occult meaning of the symbols present in this moving tableau, the viewer discovers who really holds the “power” in the world and understands the story of Kanye West’s initiation. We will look at the meaning of those symbols as they appear in the video.

Rapper and producer Kanye West has always found a way to stand out from the crowd. His video Power is no exception. It differs from the MTV norm in many regards, whether you look at the content or the form. The duration of the video, the filming style and the subject matter are quite distinct from today’s typical rap videos as it is short (1:43), filmed in a single shot (compared to the one-shot-per-second standard of music videos) and is very rich in archetypal symbolism.

Director Marco Brambilla sought to depict the concept of power in the form of a “video tableau”, a moving painting that slowly reveals itself to the viewer with a continuous camera movement. The director seem to have perfected this technique in his previous creation, Civilization, a video mural created for the new Standard Hotel in New-York city. The symbolism present there is simply overwhelming. Here it is: View More Here

Warning of Famine in West Africa

See Also: (PressTV) – UN warns of humanitarian crisis in DRC – Read More Here

Also: (MSNBC) – Nigeria lead poisoning crisis ‘unprecedented’ – Read More Here

(WSWS) – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warns that 10 million people across the Sahel region of West Africa could face famine over the next few months. According to the charity Oxfam, eight million in Niger could be affected and two million in Chad. Some 80 percent of Chad’s population depends on subsistence agriculture.

The threat of famine is growing across the region. Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and even Northern Nigeria are already experiencing food shortages. The strategic grain reserve in Nigeria is 65,000 tonnes short. There are reports of people crossing the Niger border into Nigeria in search of food. This is an area that has experienced communal clashes over resources.

“The Sahel is one of the most destitute regions in the world, and the spectre of hunger is pushing increasing numbers of people from the countryside into the cities, where they are searching for food to feed their families”, said Thomas Yanga of the WFP.

World War

(RussiaToday) – Video: Predator Drones – Joking over innocent deaths?

(KurtNimmo) – Israeli Official Threatens to Kill Turkish PM

Uzi Dayan, former deputy Chief of General Staff in Israel, says the Jewish state should consider a possible Turkish military escort of Gaza aid ships an act of war. “If the Turkish prime minister joins such a flotilla,” Dayan told Israeli army radio, according to the Jerusalem Post, “we should make clear beforehand this would be an act of war, and we would not try to take over the ship he was on, but would sink it.” Read More Here

(Haaretz) – Israel and Obama Hail UN Sanctions as Defiant Iran Vows to Keep Enriching Uranium

Ahmadinejad says resolution should be ‘thrown in waste bin’ as world powers extol UN vote; EU says ready to restart negotiations. Read More Here

(TheFreeGazaMovement) – Survivor Testimonies From Flotilla 31 May 2010

For three days as they were held in captivity and unable to speak on their own behalf, Israel presented the massacre against civilian passengers on the Mavi Marmara as self defense against a “lynching.” Now that the passengers are returning to their home nations, the global community is hearing a much different story, not just regarding the incident but also their treatment afterwards once in custody. Read More Here

(GlobalResearch) – Israel’s Cult of Victimhood – ‘Barefoot’ soldiers on the high seas – Jonathan Cook – Read More Here

(STOPNATO) – The US-NATO “Arc of War” Stretches From Afghanistan to the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus – Rick Rozoff – Read More Here

(Blumenthal) – Israel Military Admits It Doctored Gaza Freedom Flotilla Audio Clip

The IDF admitted today in a press release that it doctored audio footage from its exchanges with the Gaza flotilla in order to paint the flotilla passengers as anti-Semites. I am beginning to wonder if the Israeli military hired James O’Keefe to handle its press shop.

This is the IDF’s “clarification:” Read More Here

(GlobalResearch) – Iran’s Disappeared Nuclear Scientist: Video Points to Unlawful US Abduction – Finian Cunningham – Read More Here

REPOST – Video: Nobel Peace Prize Winner shot by Israeli army in Palestine

Footage showing Irish Noble Peace Prize recipient, Mairead Maguire getting shot by Israeli army who opened fire at peaceful demonstrators in the West Bank village of Bilin on April 20, 2007, following the international conference on popular resistance (April 18-20, 2007). Maguire was shot by a rubber-coated-metal bullet in the leg. Maguire speaks after she received first aid. – Video Link Here

REPOST – Video: UK Jewish MP – Israel acting like Nazis in Gaza

(Uruknet) – Nailed Again: IDF Description of Suspicious Photo It Distributed Is Retracted

On May 31, the IDF Spokesman’s Office distributed a photo of a bearded Muslim man with a knife surrounded by reporters. Daylight was pouring in from a window or door behind the reporters. Offered without context or explanation, the photo played up a classic Orientalist stereotype of violent, fanatical, and even suicidal Muslims determined to kill Jews. It was included in an article based on testimony from anonymous commandos with the following title: “Israeli Navy Commandos: Gaza flotilla activists tried to lynch us.” – Read More Here

(AlethoNews) – Israeli Troops Issue 10-day Eviction Orders To Palestinians In Jordan Valley

Five Palestinian families in the Jordan Valley, in the eastern part of the West Bank, received eviction orders from the Israeli military on Sunday, just days after Israeli settlers set up an illegal outpost on the families’ land and took over a water well in the area. The eviction orders told the families to vacate their homes and land within ten days so that Israeli troops could occupy it. Read More Here

(RussiaToday) – Video: Israel’s deadly attack on U.S.S. Liberty emerges from the past

Before Israeli commandos shot 9 peace activists to death aboard the Mavi Marmara, 34 American military men were killed by Israeli jet fighter planes. It happened in 1967 during the 6 day war and it became an event these men and women would live with for the rest of their lives. For 40 years survivors of the USS Liberty — sworn under oath — were forbidden to tell their stories. But today, the surviving crewmen talk candidly about the dreadful day their nearly lost their lives. They gathered at the Arlington National Cemetery for the somber memorial service.

World War

(Aljazeera) – Video: Israel’s Gaza PR offensive

While boats battle to get through the siege of Gaza, Gazans can eat out in fancy restaurants and have no need of aid. That’s what Israel has been telling journalists, at least. Sherine Tadros picks apart the media campaign.

(LewRockwell) – Is the U.S. Government Planning War to Quell the Tide of Economic Unrest?

In my opinion and in a word: Yes! Read More Here

(KurtNimmo) – Paul Craig Roberts: Government Abandoned Vietnam POWs

Appearing on the Alex Jones Show today, Paul Craig Roberts talked about the shameful abandonment of POWs by the U.S. government. Roberts mentioned an article by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Sydney Schanberg posted on the American Conservative website entitled McCain and the POW Cover-Up. Read More Here

(AFP) – Russia wants ‘100% proof’ N.Korea sunk ship

Russia will not support efforts to punish North Korea for sinking a South Korean warship until it is fully convinced Pyongyang was behind the incident, a foreign ministry spokesman said Thursday. Read More Here

(AmericanConservative) – Hundreds Of POW’s Left To Die In Vietnam, Abandoned By Their Government – Read More Here

(Gowans) – The sinking of the Cheonan: Another Gulf of Tonkin incident

While the South Korean government announced on May 20 that it has overwhelming evidence that one of its warships was sunk by a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine, there is, in fact, no direct link between North Korea and the sunken ship. And it seems very unlikely that North Korea had anything to do with it. Read More Here

Video: Ron Paul – Video Update – Military Spending

Congressman Paul discusses upcoming military expenditures, foreign policy and our economy. Recorded Tuesday May 25, 2010 – View Video Here

(Redress) – Framing Pakistan: how the pro-Israel media enables India’s surrogate warfare – Read More Here

(SouthLebanon) – Proximity Talks Hide a Reality of Failure and Land Theft

Headlines last week that the Palestinian Authority (PA) was offering bigger than expected concessions on land to Israel might give the uninformed reader the impression that Palestinians are the ones occupying Israeli territory from which they are being asked to withdraw. Read More Here

(LockheedMartin) – DARPA Awards Lockheed Martin $3.9M Contract to Develop Advanced Rifle Scope for Soldiers

The Dynamic Image Gunsight Optic or DInGO system will enable soldiers to accurately view targets at varying distances without changing scopes or suffering a decrease in optical resolution. The system will enhance soldiers’ ability to accurately hit targets at a range of between three and 600 meters. Read More Here

(SouthLebanon) – End the Blockade in Gaza

Normally, such a goodwill mission would seem entirely innocuous. But in this case the crisis afflicting Palestinian civilians has been created by foreign policy: It is a product of Israel’s decision to besiege Gaza in defiance of international law and of United States support for this blockade. Read More Here

(SouthLebanon) – Dangerous Emulations

Perhaps, the worst punishment besides death meted out against the Palestinian population by Israel is the demolition of their homes. It is cruel, inhumane and humiliating. We have seen far too many pictures of wailing women and distraught men standing beside a heap of rubble and mangled steel, a book caught between two bricks or a dolly’s arm stretching out grotesquely from between iron bars. Read More Here

(Ning) – Israel: Aiding Gaza provocative act

A top Israeli official has described launching an international convoy to carry humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip as an act of provocation.
“The sail is a provocative act that is unnecessary in light of the figures, which indicate that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is good and stable,” AFP quoted Colonel Moshe Levy, who heads the Gaza coordination and liaison office, as saying on Wednesday.
This is while a survey conducted by the United Nations Development Program showed that the continued Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip has been the main cause of the slow pace of reconstruction and aid relief. Read More Here

(RiaNov) – UPDATE: Russia sends its mightiest warships for drills in Far East

Flagships of three Russian fleets have united in Russia’s Far East for the large-scale naval exercises in the Sea of Japan in June, a Pacific Fleet spokesman said on Wednesday. Read More Here

(HuffingtonPost) – Israeli Warplanes Strike Gaza – Read More Here

(Independent) – US to launch covert strikes on terror targets

The US has authorised a sweeping expansion of covert military operations in the Middle East and Africa, aimed at destroying terrorist networks in the region, and preparing the ground ahead of any presidential decision to attack Iran. Read More Here

(Kuna) – Israeli troops demolish biggest UNRWA summer camp in Gaza

Israeli armed troops Sunday attacked one of the largest camps set up by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) on the shores of Gaza Strip.
An agency spokesman, Adnan Abu Hasna, told KUNA that the attack on the camp took place in Sheikh Al-Ajlan area in eastern Gaza.
“The destroyed camp was among camps that organize ‘summer games’ for Palestinian school children,” he added. The UNRWA camps also offer educational programs, music, art, and physical education activities, he noted.
The UNRWA organizes coastal summer camps to help alleviate some of the tension Palestinian children have to suffer due to their living conditions. – Source; Kuna

(AlManar) – Gaza Mission Activist: It’s Just Like Facing Nazis

Eight ships are already making their way through the Mediterranean towards the Gaza Strip in the framework of a European aid mission – with activists aboard the vessels likening their work to the anti-Nazi effort during World War II. Read More Here

(DesertPeace) – An American Jew In Israel Who Refuses To Keep Quiet

Attorney Emily Schaeffer immigrated to Israel to defend the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank. ‘I guess most Israelis would view me as a traitor,’ she says, ‘but I don’t intend to keep quiet just because I came from afar’

MSM: Obama Pledges “International Order”

(WashingtonPost) – President Obama on Saturday pledged to shape a new “international order” as part of a national security strategy that emphasizes his belief in global institutions and America’s role in promoting Democratic values around the world.

Speaking to the graduating class at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point — the ninth wartime commencement in a row, he said — the commander in chief who is leading two foreign wars expressed his faith in cooperation and partnerships to confront the economic, military and environmental challenges of the future.

“The international order we seek is one that can resolve the challenges of our times,’” he said in prepared remarks. “Countering violent extremism and insurgency; stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and securing nuclear materials; combating a changing climate and sustaining global growth; helping countries feed themselves and care for their sick; preventing conflict and healing its wounds.” Read entire article

Gulf Oil Catastrophe

(Examiner) – Oil slick enters Gulf loop current, tar balls found in Florida Keys

NASA satellite imagery on Monday shows that the rapidly expanding oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico has entered a powerful current known as the Loop Current, which flows through the straits of Florida and along the eastern seaboard as far north as North Carolina before heading out into the Atlantic. The entrance of the oil slick into the Gulf Loop Current is what officials fear will be a catastrophic event. Read More Here

(NCoal) – Officials Find Tarballs Along Key West Shores

Yesterday Coast Guard personnel discovered two dozen tarballs on Key West shores. They’re in the process of testing them to see if they came from the Gulf of Mexico’s growing oil disaster.

If so, it could determine the oil has been in the gulf’s loop current for at least the last several days. Scientists have feared that once the oil gets into the loop current that it could gravely damage South Florida’s coral reefs and wildlife. Read More Here

(WashingtonsBlog) – The Responses to the Gulf Oil Spill and to the Financial Crisis Are Remarkably Similar … And Have Made Both Crises Much Worse

The Gulf oil spill and the financial crisis were both caused by excessive risk-taking by industry giants and the “capture” of politicians and regulators by the corporate behemoths.

Moreover, the response to the Gulf oil spill and the financial crisis are remarkably similar. Read More Here

(AP) – Video: Politicians, Scientists Fear Spreading Oil Slick

New video released by BP shows oil and gas erupting from its crippled blowout preventer safety device on the ocean floor. Meantime Interior Secretary Ken Salazar acknowledged his agency had been lax in overseeing offshore drilling activities.

Video: Norman Finkelstein – Israel being exposed and feels threatened

(RussiaToday) – Israel has refused to permit Noam Chomsky, the linguist and icon of the American left, to enter the occupied West Bank from Jordan. Some argue that Chomsky, an 81-year-old professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, could pose a risk to Israel. Norman Finkelstein says that Israel has been exposed to the world during the Gaza conflict and now feels threatened.

Oil Spill

(OilPrice) – The Cover-up: BP’s Crude Politics and the Looming Environmental Mega-Disaster – Wayne Madsen

WMR has been informed by sources in the US Army Corps of Engineers, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and Florida Department of Environmental Protection that the Obama White House and British Petroleum (BP), which pumped $71,000 into Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign — more than John McCain or Hillary Clinton–, are covering up the magnitude of the volcanic-level oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and working together to limit BP’s liability for damage caused by what can be called a “mega-disaster.” Read More Here

(Independent) – Million gallons of oil a day gush into Gulf of Mexico

Interviews with surviving Deepwater Horizon rig workers show how explosions led to what may be the world’s worst oil spill Read More Here

(MiamiHerald) – Officials prepare for oil spill reaching Florida’s west coast – Read More Here

(MiamiHerald) – As oil wells went deeper, safety measures didn’t get tougher

As companies ventured into deeper and deeper water to drill for crude, they employed the same safeguards that had failed under far less stressful conditions at lesser depths. Read More Here

(BrassCheckTV) – Video: Oil company business as usual: Shell Oil – corporate criminals – Video Link Here

(Uruknet) – British Petroleum’s oil spill is latest crime in a criminal history

BP reaps huge profits from its global plunder Read More Here

(RevPolitics) – Video: Big oil controlling Obama

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is uncovering some dirty details, plans are underway to try and cap the spill. There are new allegations surfacing that say President Barack Obama and oil company British Petroleum are masking the severity of the oil spill. Wayne Madsen says that President Barack Obama is just helping out the same people that contributed to his campaign in 2008. View Video Here

(EarthObservatory) – Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Observed From the International Space Station – View Pic Here

(Inquirer) – New scale of disaster looms in Gulf of Mexico

Concern grew Sunday that the US Gulf coast is facing a whole new level of environmental disaster after the best short-term fix for a massive oil spill ran into serious trouble. Read More Here

The Chosen at work : Darfur aid dollars funding West Bank settlements

(IraqWar) – Persons working with aid organizations assisting the victims of the Darfur conflict have passed on the news that they have confirmed through their contacts in the so called “Save Darfur Coalition” that millions of dollars raised to help the Darfur refugees have ended up in Israeli bank accounts. These accounts help fund programs that include illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

World War

(Aletho) – China Reiterates Opposition to Iran Sanctions… Again – Read More Here

(Aletho) – America’s Loose Nukes in Israel – Read More Here

(WSJ) – Syria Gave Scuds to Hezbollah, U.S. Says

Syria has transferred long-range Scud missiles to the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, Israeli and U.S. officials alleged, in a move that threatens to alter the Middle East’s military balance and sets back a major diplomatic outreach effort to Damascus by the Obama administration. Read More Here

(BusinessWeek) – Iran’s Ahmadinejad Says U.S. Is Practicing ‘Nuclear Blackmail’

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told United Nations leaders that the U.S. was attempting “nuclear blackmail” by retaining the option of using atomic weapons against his country. Read More Here

FLASHBACK – (Bloomberg) – German Spy Agency Says Iran Bomb Years Off, Plays Down Report

Germany’s top spy agency said Iran could have an atomic bomb within four to six years, playing down a report in Stern magazine that the government in Tehran could detonate a nuclear device within six months. Read More Here

(AP) – US officials say Iran could get bomb in year

U.S. officials say Iran’s accelerated nuclear program could produce one weapon in roughly a year, if the country decided to go that route. Read More Here

(JPost) – ‘Iran to go nuclear within month’

Iran will join the global nuclear club within one month, according to the deputy research chief of the Islamic Republic’s Atomic Energy of Iran (AEOI). Read More Here

(Haaretz) – Turkey: World is turning a blind eye to Israel’s nuclear weapons – Read More Here

(Aletho) – The West Bank expulsion order is merely the latest step in a long process

The Israeli army order that permits Israel to ethnically purge the West Bank of non-Jews (Palestinians and foreigners who are not Jewish) is the next rational step in the evolution of the Jewish state. Read More Here

(KennyBlog) – Setting Us Up?

The farce of the nuclear summit is apparent. Even some of the controlled media are reporting on the foreign press being treated as a protest group designated to a ‘free speech zone.’ It still doesn’t repress the reports about the most dangerous, along with the U.S., nuclear threat … Israel. Read More Here

(EconomicTimes) – China slaps import duties on US, Russian steel

China said on Tuesday it has imposed duties on common electrical steel made in the United States and Russia, in apparent retaliation for Washington’s recent decision to slap tariffs on Chinese pipes. Read More Here

(Haaretz) – Fayyad: New IDF orders threaten to empty West Bank of Palestinians

The Palestinian leadership on Monday protested against Israeli military orders that could see tens of thousands of Palestinians deported from the West Bank. Read More Here

(Haaretz) – Sarkozy: Israel strike against Iran would be disastrous

French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the American news network CBS on Tuesday that an Israeli military attack against Iran would be “disastrous” and that Israel must understand that “we are determined to ensure its security.” Read More Here

(WATimes) – Obama admin hyping terrorist nuclear risk

The Obama administration is warning that the danger of a terrorist attack with nuclear weapons is increasing, but U.S. officials say the claim is not based on new intelligence and questioned whether the threat is being overstated. Read More Here

(KurtNimmo) – Video: McCain Wants to “Pull Trigger” On Iran

Tea Party Sarah’s favorite senator, John McCain, wants to “pull the trigger” on Iran.

Palestinians face more ethnic cleansing – (Updated)

(PressTV) – The Israeli military has issued a new ruling that would allow the mass deportation of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank.

According to the Israeli media, the new order considers anyone caught in the West Bank who does not hold an Israeli permit to enter and reside in the area as an “infiltrator.”

Karzai steps up attack against US war policy

‘The tensions between the West and Karzai exposed publicly last Thursday, when he accused “foreigners” of perpetrating fraud in the August presidential elections. ‘
(PressTV) – Afghan President Hamid karzai says there will be no military operation in the southern province of Kandahar unless the Afghan people support it.

‘US debt-based money printing biggest theft in history’

(PressTV) – Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asserts that the lingering global financial crisis has exposed the dark side of the capitalist economic system in the West, adding that the US will go down in history as the biggest thief ever.

MSM: Demint – White House land grab

(WashingtonTimes) – You’d think the Obama administration is busy enough controlling the banks, insurance companies and automakers, but thanks to whistleblowers at the Department of the Interior, we now learn they’re planning to increase their control over energy-rich land in the West. Read More Here

A Revolution Without Guns – Non-Violent Resistance

“Non-Violence is a powerful weapon that can and will weaken the iron fist of the Occupation”
What is Non-Violent Resistance?
Non-Violence is an alternative to either armed resistance or passive acceptance of the status quo. It is both a strategy and a philosophy which rejects violence as a means to promote change, and instead aims to change power relations through assertive acts of omission (refusal to do something) or commission (actively challenging the status quo). It is a method by which to change the minds of both the oppressor and oppressed so that a new reality can be built upon different perceptions of the ‘other’.

Dem Sen. Rockefeller On Obama: “He’s Beginning To Be Not Believable To Me”

“He says ‘I’m for clean coal,’ and then he says it in his speeches, but he doesn’t say it in here,” said Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia. “And he doesn’t say it in the minds of my own people. And he’s beginning to not be believable to me.”

Israel’s war on protest – Army used to deport activists against the Wall

(GlobalResearch) – The Israeli courts ordered the release this week of two foreign women arrested by the army in the West Bank in what human-rights lawyers warn has become a wide-ranging clampdown by Israel on non-violent protest from international, Israeli and Palestinian activists.

Video: Freeway Ricky Ross on Alex Jones Tv – How The CIA Supply, Control, Operate The Drug Business

Ricky Donnell Ross (aka Freeway Ricky Ross), the convicted drug dealer who was featured in a Gary Webb expose on CIA involvement in the drug business.

Secret Report: Iran will Have Nuclear Bomb This Year

(IsraelNationalNews) – A secret intelligence dossier currently being reviewed by US, Israeli, German, and Austrian governments reveals secret Iranian tests and hierarchies of power dedicated to the successful development of a nuclear bomb, and predicts that Iran will have a primitive nuclear bomb by year’s end.

Iran is united, Ahmadinejad tells West

(TehranTimes) – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned the West that it must not assume that Iran is a divided society as the country faced some demonstrations following the June presidential election.
“The Western politicians think something happening in Iran and Iran has become weakened. That is a mistake. They do not know Iran. The people of Iran are united and they would certainly defend rights and interests,” Ahmadinejad explained.

Our Murderers in the Sky – Scott Ritter

War is hell, as the saying goes. Murder, on the other hand, is a crime. In this age of the “long war” pitting the United States against the forces of global terror, it is critical that the American people be able to distinguish between the two. The legitimate application of military power to a problem that manifests itself, directly or indirectly, as a threat to the legitimate national security interests of the United States, while horrible in terms of its consequences, is not only defensible but mandatory.

Obama Declares War On Pakistan – Webster G. Tarpley

Obama’s West Point speech of December 1 represents far more than the obvious brutal escalation in Afghanistan — it is nothing less than a declaration of all-out war by the United States against Pakistan . This is a brand-new war, a much wider war now targeting Pakistan , a country of 160 million people armed with nuclear weapons. In the process, Afghanistan is scheduled to be broken up. This is no longer the Bush Cheney Afghan war we have known in the past. This is something immensely bigger: the attempt to destroy the Pakistani central government in Islamabad and to sink that country into a chaos of civil war, Balkanization, subdivision and general mayhem.

Video: Webster Tarpley – Obama Declares War On Pakistan

(WorldCrisisRadio) – Webster talks about the on going secret war in Pakistan and the controlled opposition other wise known as the anti war movement..

Loose Cannon And Nuclear Submarines: West Prepares For Arctic Warfare

(GlobalResearch) – The Arctic Ocean, in particular that part of it under the ice cap, is Russia’s last retaliatory refuge, that spot on the earth where any element of its strategic forces is comparatively safe from a Western first strike and least targetable by interceptor missiles after such an attack.

Obama orders 30-35,000 more troops for Afghanistan, surge to begin by Christmas

(RawStory) – After months of debate, President Barack Obama will spell out a costly Afghanistan war expansion to a skeptical public Tuesday night, coupling an infusion of as many as 35,000 more troops with a vow that there will be no endless U.S. commitment. His first orders have already been made: at least one group of Marines who will be in place by Christmas.

What festive cheer will the West bring to the Holy Land this Christmas?

Stuart Littlewood views the weasel words of Britain’s politicians who pretend to care for the Gaza Strip’s civilian population while supporting Israel’s criminal, genocidal policies, and the rank hypocrisy of its churchmen whose silence over the plight of the Strip’s Christian and Muslim communities speaks volumes about their lack of principles.

Israel Plans To Deport More Than 20,000 Palestinians From Jerusalem

(PoliticalTheatrics) – The Jerusalem center for social and economic rights (JCSER) warned of Israeli intentions to deport more than 20,000 Palestinians from the West Bank who married from Jerusalemite women at the pretext that their residence in the holy city is illegal.

Video: Palestinian farmers denied access to water in disputed West Bank

(Aljazeera) – Claiming Palestinian farmers are stealing water from the central source shared by both Israelis and Palestinians, Israel has implemented water restrictions on Palestinians in the disputed West Bank.

MSM: Saudis drop WTI oil contract

(FinancialTimes) – Saudi Arabia yesterday decided to drop the widely used West Texas Intermediate oil contract as the benchmark for pricing its oil, dealing a serious blow to the New York Mercantile Exchange.

MSM: Israel ‘cuts Palestinian water’

(BBC) – Israel is denying Palestinians access to even the basic minimum of clean, safe water, Amnesty International says.

MSM: Iran ignores U.N. nuclear deadline

(Reuters) – Iran ignored a U.N. deadline on Friday to respond to an international draft deal for it to cut an atomic stockpile the West fears could be used for weapons, and challenged the basis of the pact.

Video: Israel is nuclear elephant in the room capable of wiping out Iran

(RussiaToday) – Iran’s tentative deal with the West to upgrade its uranium outside the country is in the news spotlight. RT talks on latest developments with journalist and novelist Afshin Rattansi.

MSM: Russia pledges to continue arms supplies to Iran

(Google) – Russia on Thursday said it would continue military cooperation with Iran amid widespread unease in the West over Moscow’s controversial contract to sell advanced anti-aircraft missiles to Tehran.

MSM: Russia’s Leaders See China as Template for Ruling

(New York Times) – MOSCOW — Nearly two decades after the collapse of the Communist Party, Russia’s rulers have hit upon a model for future success: the Communist Party.

Obama Served 9/11 Truth in San Francisco

9/11 Truth activists came out in force today to welcome of Obama to San Francisco and to demand that he look into the most important issue of the century — 9/11, the false flag event that has promised Americans and the world never ending war and curtailment of our civil rights.

MSM: Israeli youths reject army call-up

(Aljazeera) – More than 80 Israeli students have announced their refusal to serve in the Israeli military because of what they call their nation’s track-record of oppression in the occupied territories.

MSM: Marching to world domination – Why the West should be worried about China

(DailyMail) – Beneath today’s orgy of celebrations that marks the anniversary lurks a disturbing reality. Mao’s successors may have embraced cut-throat capitalism to a degree that makes even Western economists blanch. But the arrangements for the parade are a reminder that China remains a deeply authoritarian society.

Weekly Report: On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

This report on Israeli human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) coincides with the 9th anniversary of the al-Aqsa Intifada, which erupted following the former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s provocative visit to the al-Aqsa Mosque (the Holy Sanctuary) in occupied Jerusalem.

Russia hints it will support Iran, not oil embargo

(Canada) – Russia on Thursday threw a wrench into U.S. President Barack Obama’s plans to corner Iran over its nuclear program, ruling out new sanctions against the Islamic republic.

Video: Israeli Soldiers Fire on Al Jazeera Correspondent

(Al Jazeera) – Israeli soldiers have fired tear gas on Palestinians protesting against the Israeli separation barrier which cuts through their West Bank village.