Friday 11 March 2011

This is not a non-violent protest movement as in Egypt and Tunisia. Conditions in Libya are fundamentally different. The armed insurgency in Eastern Libya is directly supported by foreign powers. Of significance: the insurrection in Benghazi immediately hoisted the red, black and green banner with the crescent and star: the flag of the monarchy of King Idris, which symbolized the rule of the former colonial powers. (See  Manlio Dinucci, Libya-When historical memory is erased, Global Research, Febraury 28, 2011)

US and NATO military advisers and special forces are already on the ground. The operation was planned to coincide with the protest movement in neighbouring Arab countries. Public opinion was led to believe that the protest movement had spread spontaneously from Tunisia and Egypt to Libya. The Obama administration in consultation with its allies is assisting an armed rebellion, namely an attempted coup d'Etat: — 1,926 words.

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	Cartoon by Steve Benson, Comics.com, 11 March 2011.

 

 

 

The reports that the Obama administration has told the Russians certain British nuclear secrets in order to secure a New START promotes him from being a mere irritant for the Special Relationship to a downright menace. It is bad enough the president arrogating to himself the decision as to who should rule in Egypt, but it is completely unacceptable for him to undermine the whole basis of the British nuclear deterrent, which has always been to keep the Russians guessing about how many warheads the United Kingdom has. — 990 words.

 

Vol. 6, No. 9 (267)

Friday, March 11, 2011

Guest Editorial

NDP not holding its breath

waiting for Harper's phone call

Now that Commons Speaker Peter Milliken has found the Conservatives guilty of contempt of Parliament, all roads in the House of Commons seem to lead to a spring federal election.

To understand why, consider the following: If the Prime Minister wants to extend the life of his minority regime beyond this month’s make-or-break budget, his best and likely only option is to throw himself at the mercy of the NDP.

As Stephen Harper knows, Jack Layton and his party have overlooked ethical transgressions on the part of a governing party in the past . . . but only for a policy price.— 630 words.

 

 

 

8 March 2011 — A move by farmers in developing countries to ecological agriculture, away from chemical fertilisers and pesticides, could double food production within a decade, a UN report says.

Insect-trapping plants in Kenya and ducks eating weeds in Bangladesh's rice paddies are among examples of recommendations for feeding the world's 7 million people, which the UN says will become about 9 billion by 2050.

"Agriculture is at a crossroads," says the study by Olivier de Schutter, the UN special reporter on the right to food, in a drive to depress record food prices and avoid the costly oil-dependent model of industrial farming. — 545 words.

 

 

 

Alberte Villeneuve-Sinclair is the author of The Neglected Garden and two French novels. Visit her website to learn more www.albertevilleneuve.ca.

11 March 2011 — Attack Ads on Attack Ads: it is to me the most responsible of all political electioneering at this time, even if an election writ has not yet  been dropped.

 

 

Frances Sedgwick's keen eye and ear for the human condition reveals the heart and soul of Parkdale in southwest Toronto, one of the country's most turbulent urban areas where the best traditions of human kindness prevail against powerful forces that would grind them down. True North Perspective proudly presents a column by writer Frances Sedgwick. Her critical observation combined with a tender sense of humour will provide you with something to think about ... and something to talk about.

 

The other half of the Motorcycle Diaries

Alberto Granado obituary

Travelling companion of Che Guevara during their trip around Latin America in 1951-52

Alberto Granado Jiménez, scientist, born 8 August 1922; died 5 March 2011

Alberto Granado was taken on as an adviser by Walter Salles, the director of the 2004 film The Motorcycle Diaries, based on his and Guervara's journey. Photograph: Photos 12/Alamy

of Posada Carriles, former CIA asset

08 March 2011 EL PASO Texas — Through the powerful testimony of the Cuban forensic pathologist, Yleana Vizcaíno Dimé, the prosecution proved to the jury—today—that the death in Havana of Fabio Di Celmo on September 4, 1997 was a homicide.

WikiLeaks:

Latin American women make electoral headway

as Laura Chinchilla is voted Costa Rica President

 

11 March 2011 — I am baffled by the argument that the United States can incur big savings by ending the war in Afghanistan and, more generally, by cutting bloated defense budgets. I’ve mostly been hearing this from liberals, and indeed this is a variation of a debate that has continued for years.

Now, I am not endorsing our current levels of defense spending. The nation’s military buildup following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was outrageous. The United States was hit by a handful of men wielding box-cutters (or something similar — I am aware that’s not certain), and we responded by buying a lot of heavy tanks and later invading a country that had nothing to do with the attack.

So, yes, the United States spends a lot of money, unnecessarily, on defense. In fact, this is almost surely the most wasteful part of the federal budget, mainly because politicians are afraid to say no to the military for fear of being called unpatriotic. Aside from the question of whether the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are too expensive to fight — invading Afghanistan made sense in 2001, but I have no idea what we’re doing there now — it has long been clear that the United States military is still warding off threats that haven’t existed since the fall of the Soviet Union. — 441 words.