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al-Ahram's Khaled Amayreh reports on the impending reconciliation talks between Hamas and Fatah, preparations for which have seen the previously-unlikely release of a number of Hamas supporters from Palestinian jails or the custody of Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority. Most significant in this attempted rapprochement is the likelihood that any joint statement of agreement issued by the two factions will be based on the so-called Prisoners' Statement of 2006, which originally called for a release of all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and Israel's full retreat from lands occupied in 1967.

Ilan Pappe, now at Exeter, offers to the Inter-Press service some general thoughts on the current state of Israeli-Palestinian affairs, the 2008 election in the US, and the prospective role of Islam in the daily lives of Palestinians.

Patrick Cockburn fills in some details of a new Iraqi-American security agreement. George Bush wants it signed by 31 July; Moqtada al-Sadr sees in it a ploy to put "an American in every house."

As reported earlier this week, John McCain and Barack Obama find themselves both supporting the FISA amendment, which would not only legalize the Bush administrations warrantless wiretaps but would obscure entirely the breadth and scope of the program since it was instituted after 11 September. This constitutes a stark reversal of position for both men. Michael Ratner, the president of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, speaks to The Real News's Zaa Nkweta.

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Of note in Israel this week was a remark by Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai, in which he threatened a 'shoah' in Gaza if Qassam rocket attacks do not cease; the word is rarely used other than to refer, of course, to the Holocaust. The situation in Gaza worsens, with nearly 40 Palestinians--including civilians, and, of those, nine were children--dead in the past few days. The physical attenuation of Gaza's population continues. Electronic Intifada's Ali Abunimah with reaction.

An interesting article from former Israeli journalist Yonatan Mendel on the coextensiveness between the Israeli press and the Zionist project. Mendel looks in particular at the curiosities and double-standards of language that are scattered throughout Israeli journalism.

America's Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell, noted Thursday that the security situation in Afghanistan is worsening, with President Karzai controlling not even a third of the country. Karzai, the Guardian notes, denies the American intelligence assessment (which itself echoes earlier, more critical reports by various think-tanks), claiming that his government in fact controls a vast majority of the country. Declan Walsh finds the explanations given by Nato commanders curious. Those commanders claim that the steady increase in suicide bombings is evidence that the Taliban is being "worn down." This claim--which hints at the fact that suicide bombing is an act marked significantly by desperation--is one never heard with regard to suicide bombings in Israel, which are discursively framed as proof of a larger looming (pan-) Arab threat. Walsh also credits the safe haven offered to Taliban fighters in Pakistan with playing a huge role in the Taliban's resurgence.

In his latest piece for Counterpunch, Patrick Cockburn discusses Turkey's bold-faced invasion of Northern Iraq (the only part of the country, he notes, that was at peace until last week), comparing Turkey in their hunt for PKK Turkish Kurd Gorillas to Israel in their repeated incursions into Gaza. He points out that this most recent development in Iraq weakens the state of the Kurdish Regional Government, which, according to Cockburn, was "one of the few concrete achievements of the US and British invasion of Iraq five years ago." Cockburn goes on to provide another useful counter-narrative to the relatively cheery reporting on the "surge" offered by the Times and its cohorts.

'Can it be we are not free? It might be worth looking into.'**

Though we're currently down on Alexander Cockburn, his brother Andrew does not disappoint with his latest piece for Counterpunch, critique of the politics surrounding 'official' estimates/reporting on the downright horrifying number of Iraqi civilian casualties since the 2003 invasion. In contrast to the most recent Johns Hopkins findings, placing the number of Iraqi murders at 665,000, the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) (which, we should point out, excludes many of the country's most dangerous destinations--Baghdad, Anbar province, and two other areas deemed too unsafe to visit) recently published a far lower number: 151,000. Despite the fact that the two estimates quantify totally different death tolls (the NEJM report is interesting strictly in civilian casualties, while the Hopkins report compares death rates since the invasion with years before), the NEJM estimate has been touted by everyone from George Bush to The New York Times as the more accurate of the two; however, Cockburn draws attention to sloppy reporting and misleading statistical rhetoric in NEJM report, rightly taking the journal to task for lending a hand in attempts to downplay the devastating effects of the American invasion.


In other news, Gabriel Piterberg has written a fascinating article for the New Left Review, in which he analyzes and, in a sense, unearths, Hannah Arendt's political opposition to the Zionist project in Palestine. Recognizing the real danger of anti-Semitism, Arendt rejects the notion of a racially-exclusive Jewish state and attempts to find other solutions to the infamous 'Jewish question'. And finally, if you can get past the awful new layout at one of our go-to websites, ZNet Communications, you'll find a recent interview, conducted by Stephen Shalom, with our friend Bashir Abu-Manneh, in which the latter touches on the significance of 2007 and 2008 being, respectively, the 40th and 60th anniversaries of the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and the establishment of the State of Israel. Bashir also speaks about congruity between present-day Hamas and pre-1982 Fatah, as well as the history and current state of the Left in Palestine.

**Samuel Beckett, Molloy, 1955

oh

and, um, happy new year.

in commemoration of the event, take a look at this article by Alexander Cockburn on political events of the past year, from the death of Gerald Ford (whom Cockburn considers the best American president of the twentieth century) , to troop escalations in Iraq, the (attempted) character assassination of Jimmy Carter, the indictment of Michael Vick, and, of course, the recent surge in popularity of Republican presidential nominee Mike Huckabee.

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Here's another article from Frank Rich from a few days ago and stillworth the read. Rich compares the recent controversy (or lack thereof) surrounding Michael B. Mukasey's nomination for attorney generalto the current situation in Pakistan; particularly interesting to NEreaders in the face of upcoming presidential nominations, however, isone of Chuck Schumer's main arguments regarding his role in ensuringMukasey's nomination: simply that hes not as frightful as Gonzalez orthe acting attorney general who might otherwise be in line for theposition. Rich points out that in this statement and elsewhere,democrats like Schumer "sounded whipped." The democrats' impotency,of course, is old news, but more importantly, such comments remind usthat the democrats' pathetic "anybody but Bush" strategy from the lastpresidential election still quite miraculously figures in theircurrent strategy.

Also, may we direct you to an ongoing series from Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair on the history/candidacy of Hillary Clinton, in (thus far) parts one and two (of three).

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For the NLR, Alex Cockburn has expanded a piece from Le Monde Diplomatique--which we linked to several weeks back--on the state of the American anti-war movement. Cockburn writes on the recent history of anti-war and left groups in America, both popular and marginal, and details the ineptitude of the splintered coalitions opposing the Iraq war, finding much fault with the mainstream anti-war movement's "occasionally petulant subservience" to the Democratic party since 2003.

Also, tacked onto a piece for Counterpunch on Nuri al-Maliki is a reaction to Cockburn's criticism of the anti-war movement from the Institute for Policy Studies' Phyllis Bennis. Bennis takes issue in particular with the notion, proposed by Cockburn in his original piece, that it would behoove the left in the US to humanize Iraq's multifaceted resistance. Bennis complains that because the Iraqi resistance lacks a cohesive and demonstrable central authority (unlike the FMLN, or the African National Congress), it lacks accountability to the population of Iraq (who bear the brunt of the America's aggression, as well as of the resistance) and so does not deserve the support of anti-war sympathizers in America. It's puzzling, if not plain stupid, that Bennis could possibly expect an El Salvadorean-style resistance authority after six years of the Bush administration doing everything in its power to exploit deep-seated ethnic tension in Iraq. Bennis also makes the point that, because some actions taken by the resistance are morally reprehensible, no further attempt at humanizing the resistance are necessary, or even warranted. Cockburn then responds. Read on.

George Bush has recently likened the situation in Iraq, and the consequences of a troop withdrawal, to the fate suffered by millions of Vietnamese following the end of the war there. The New York Times claims that "Mr. Bush is challenging the historical memory that the pullout from Vietnam had few negative repercussions for the United States and its allies." Bush mentions the Khmer Rouge and the "killing fields" of Pol Pot, but neglects the fact--pesky historical memory! motherfucker!--that, had Richard Nixon heeded the antiwar movement, the war would've ended in 1969, and the "secret" war in Cambodia, which paved the way for Pol Pot by completely destroying the country, would've never taken place.

Munir Chalabi has written a crucial piece of analysis of the Iraqi oil law, which remains stillborn.

Here's a trio dealing with fallout from the recent Hamas putsch/Fatah coup, and it seems that Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad combined may yet outflank post-Oslo Arafat's desperate ineffectivity and enslavement to US-Israeli diktats. Amira Hass, an NE hero and an Israeli woman who has lived in and reported from Gaza for over a decade, gives us the latest from Israel's wet-dream of a "Palestinian state." Amira is characteristically even-handed in reporting the Palestinian political civil war, faulting

Israel, the occupier that shirks its obligation as an occupying power; the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, which is abandoning its citizens while continuing to try to ostracize the majority movement and make it fail; Hamas, which boasted about "liberating" Gaza and uses Qassam fire and declarations of "resistance" to escape its political and economic failures; the donor states, which use (generous) donations to cover up political powerlessness; and the United States, which is leading the boycott campaign [against Hamas] and supports Israel.

Exiled ex-Israeli MK Azmi Bishara, writing for al-Ahram Weekly, draws historical, political, and moral parallels between apartheid South Africa and the occupied Palestinian territories. This is a concern, of course, pursued in recent decades by Maxime Rodinson, Edward Said, Norman Finkelstein, Nelson Mandela, Ramzy Baroud, Jennifer Loewenstein, and others. Bishara remains under threat of arrest, were he to return to Israel, due to accusations that he provided tactical support to Hezbollah during last summer's Lebanon war, charges with both Bishara and Hezbollah have stringently denied.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article8962.shtml

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Europe

Loose directs us to a missive from Terry Eagleton, on the Guardian's blog, calling curtains on Britain's centuries-old tradition of subversive/contrarian writers--making an exception for Harold Pinter, who, Eagleton admits, may only be offering a form of "champagne socialism." Unsurprisingly, TE's examples are overwhelmingly male, though he does toss in the obligatory Virginia Woolf/"Three Guineas" reference, and notes the brief flashes of Iris Murdoch and Doris Lessing. Still, Eagleton's contemporary targets (Larkin, Hare, Rushdie, Amis the Younger, et al.) are worthy ones.

The "War on Terror"

Some of the most "well-behaved" prisoners at Guantanamo, many of whom have been slated for release for upwards of a year, have recently been awarded new freedoms including access to select films once a week and limited access to tv. This and other "concessions" to detainees, rather than softening the image of the atrocious conditions at Guantanamo, highlight the absolute horror that is the system, and the dangerous paranoia that prevents detainees from doing just about anything. Read Andy Worthington on these new developments here.

Near East/ The "Muslim World"

No Empires admits to our own lack of analytical depth re: the situation obtaining in Pakistan since the military coup that put Gen. Pervez Musharraf in (increasingly shaky and dubious) power in 1999. It is, without a doubt, a country that has, for ideologically nefarious reasons, found itself swirling in the politics of George Bush's "War on Terror." But this month's seige at the "Red Mosque" in Islamabad, which had been brewing for months, certainly helps us place things in some perspective, at least as much as the previous crisis over the Pakistani judiciary did. We defer, for the moment, to Tariq Ali, who finds that the Pakistani electorate is hesitant to side with either of the groups--in Ali's words, "the Judges or the jihadis"--that have drawn the ire of Musharraf's authoritarian regime.

Richard Falk takes on the difficult, and often morally/politically dubious, task of drawing parallels between the approach of Israel and the "international community" toward Gaza, and the record of "collective atrocity" left in the wake of the Third Reich. There is, of course, nothing that galls Israel's supporters more than equivalences of this sort, which Falk is extremely careful in drawing out; what is preferred, of course, is an Israeli monopoly on the legacy and moral resonance of the Holocaust, which is cynically used to justify Israel's deplorable behavior. For more on what has been called "The Holocaust Industry", see the work of Norman Finkelstein.

The Independent has published a downright horrifying preview of interviews with American veterans of the War in Iraq, conducted by the Nation magazine. It's all here: utterly racist disregard for the lives of Iraqi civilians; hackneyed "information-gathering" techniques; unencumbered bloodlust; and psychological destruction of both civilians and G.I.'s. Harrowing reading ahead, but is anyone all that surprised?

An IRIN report reveals that the Iraqi Ministry of Finanace is now offering life insurance, as well as bodyguards, to Iraq's university professors. Iraq's education system was once the envy of the Near East; a decade-plus of UN-sponsored economic sanctions--not to mention Saddam Hussein's well-documented paranoia and anti-intellectualism--irrevocably changed this situation. George Bush's war has brought the death of more than 200 professors, and the flight of thousands more.

In a charged piece for Al-Ahram Weekly, reprinted at the Electronic Intifada, Columbia's Joseph Massad rails against the subversion of Palestinian democracy that has been taking place over the past year-and-a-half.

Following her death on March 16, 2003, the parents of Rachel Corrie (subject of one of the best plays in recent memory, finally brought to the Minetta Lane theater last winter) filed a civil suit against Caterpillar, Inc. the American company that has a contract with Israel and provides it with the bulldozers that are regularly used to destroy Palestinian homes, a particularly long-standing and odious instance of illegal collective punishment. A judge dismissed the case in 2005, but Corrie's parents have moved to have the case reopened, citing the spuriousness of Caterpillar's original argument that they just couldn't possbily have known, and therefore have taken responsibility for, what Israel intended to do with their bulldozers.

The U.S.

The New York Times reports on the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, which would see the installment of hundreds of cameras to monitor car (and, presumably, foot) traffic from the East River to the Hudson, to the tune of $90 million.

In a piece for Le Monde Diplomatique, Alex Cockburn writes on the sluggishness of the American anti-war movement, and points out that, for an anti-war demonstration to be "memorable and effective," it has to be "edgy, not comfortable"--something No Empires has grappled with recently, in the wake of our attending in June the first-ever protest specifically directed against the Israeli occupation.

Rudy Giuliani's campaign takes a hit in the South, as Rep. David Vitter becomes ensconced in his own hypocrisy. Sinner! No Empires isn't sure who we'd like to see drop out, or drop dead, first: Giuliani, or John McCain.

On elitism, and complacency

You can talk about the doltishness of our president all you want, but you have to acknowledge his power and influence, and that your snarky comments aren't going to change anything when no one is listening. Rather than ignore (with more than a tinge of self-righteousness and elitism) the idiocy and dogmatism of Washington at this completely formative moment in US history, try and be engaged. Rather than throw up your hands and drop out completely as soon as you recognize the emptiness of "official" Washington language, and realize that emptiness does not translate into impotence--parse the rhetoric and recognize its destructiveness. Decades from now, when historians are doing the difficult and vital work of figuring out just what the fuck went wrong with American foreign and domestic policies at the beginning of the 21st century, where do you think they will turn? Just because contributors to a website like Counterpunch, or intrepid journalists like Patrick Cockburn and Robert Fisk, seem to be telling the "right" story in their current work, doesn't mean we can just leave it at that.

Nota bene: despite the repeated use of the second-person pronoun in this post, this really isn't directed toward one person/group of people in particular. Rather, it bemoans a general trend that helps no one understand what is happening in the world around us.

Of course, it's not easy. If you're declaring yourself to be "above" paying attention to a Bush press conference, you're not better off turning to the major American print news outlets.

Coverage in the mainstream media of George Bush's press conference yesterday only serves to highlight, in our opinion, the absolute complicity of the American press in the criminal invasion and occupation of Iraq. In a typically muddled piece of "analysis" printed today, the New York Times's David E. Sanger and Thom Shanker--politely--lend their voices to the growing chorus of those who think that, in the end, George Bush must inhabit an ideologically perverse and analytically barren alternate universe. That this is, at this point, far too easy to suggest, seems not to matter. By sticking, albeit tepidly, to Bush's executive war-speak about what shape the American "mission" will take in a "post-surge" scenario, Sanger and Shanker not only serve to legitimize and reinforce Bush's corrupt Near East agenda; they also (purposely?) obscure their own paper's role in selling the public an unmitigated atrocity. On top of this, their piece ends with a move that could have come from Bush, Cheney, Rice, Hillary Clinton, or Barack Obama themselves: namely, to blame the occupied for the crimes of the occupiers. To say that the government of Nuri al-Maliki just simply won't have the wherewithal, or even the desire, to perform the difficult task of political reconciliation among Shia and Sunnis in Iraq, is to absolve the U.S. government of all wrongdoing in bringing unthinkable death and destruction through an illegal invasion, and a military occupation that is almost five years old.

Yesterday, the editors of the Washington Post accused, it seems, everyone but themselves of "wishful thinking" on Iraq, saying that if Bush seems over-optimistic about the likelihood of the situation in Iraq changing by mid-September, then Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Hillary Clinton are, at best, guilty of the same as regarding the consequences of a troop "withdrawal." Borrowing a tactic, it would seem, from Bush's own speechwriters, they stoop even lower than the execrable Times and offer the trillionth repetition of a "stay the course" mantra.

This comes hot on the heels of a Times editorial on Saturday demanding an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Nevermind that whenever ANYONE in the White House, Congress (excepting Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul), or mainstream media talks about "withdrawal," they are being disingenuous, for what they really mean is "redeployment," and a contuining presence of US troops in the Near East and Gulf states. Anthony DiMaggio sees right through the Times' and other mainstream US news publications recent "anti-war" turn on their editorial pages, and asks why it's come about 50 months too late--though this hypocritical about-face did prompt the Washington Times and Wall Street Journal to condemn the Times' "appeasement." The best we can say about these two latter publications is that, hey, at least they're consistent in their support of unbridled aggression to protect U.S. "interests."

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No Empires was lazy this weekend--

though did manage to take in Garth Jennings' Son of Rambow, Jeoffrey Blitz's Rocket Science, David Gordon Green's Snow Angels, Tom DeCillo's Delirious, and 5 new shorts from Sundance*--and may or may not have been hit on by Kieran Culkin--

so some of this may be "old news."

Middle East

• A recently-made video of Alan Johnston in captivity has been circulating, purportedly leaked by the group "Army of Islam". The video features Johnston half-heartedly running through a list of pro-Palestinian talking points; the BBC, of course, was quick to assume that these couldn't possibly reflect Johnston's own opinions on the conflict in Palestine/Israel.
• Fuoad Siniora is salivating at the chance to "prove himself" to his handlers in Washington and London, and so the Lebanese army is poised to sow further destruction at the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp in Tripoli, and has taken the time to publicize that they will not be distinguishing between "Islamist" combatants and innocent residents of the camp.
• Patrick Cockburn explores the state of Iraq's militias during Washington's failing "surge."
• In Jerusalem, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has warned her British doppelganger, Margaret Beckett, that calls in the UK for an academic boycott of Israel is in conflict with "good Israeli-British relations." Also, a 20-year old settler from Nahniel, West Bank, has been acquitted of attempted murder charges stemming from his near-lynching of a Palestinian in Gush Katif in 2005.

Europe

• The head of the Church of England's education wing has declared that the teaching of intelligent design "has a place" in British curriculae.
• And here's some coverage of the ongoing debate between Alex Cockburn and George Monbiot on the science behind global warming. No Empires is eagerly keeping an eye on this.

*The only one that didn't disappoint

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• In November of 2006, Joseph Massad began drawing parallels between the United States's support of the Chilean military in the overthrow the Allende government, and the current aid being given to Fatah (or, to be more explicit, to the faction of security forces led by Mohammed Dahlan, the new US bulldog in Palestine), in ostensible preparation for a coup against the democratically-elected Hamas government. Tony Karon has picked up this thread in his blog, where he gives a lucid analysis of the recent disheartening violence in Gaza, and asks: is this the time for the "Palestinian Pinochet" to make his move?
• Israel's national infrastructure minister, meanwhile, has declared that all members of the Hamas government are potential assassination targets.
• "For years, Israel was proud of the democratic miracle of an obedient army that did not accumulate too much power and served the elected government loyally, even though the country was engaged in a continual existential war." A Haaretz editorial uses the example of the army's disregard for court decisions regarding the separation wall in the West Bank--as well as an ever-increasing (illegal) settlement rate there--to show why this is no longer the case.
• John Loose brushes us up on our Coleridge: 'In Xanadu did Kubla Khan/A stately pleasure dome decree'. The American embassy under construction in Baghdad is costing upwards of 700 million dollars, and is the size of the Vatican. One shouldn't be too given to wonder why this is the case.
• No Empires officially believes that no action of the US Army, sadly, can be too surprising. But a secret plot to kill the most popular Shia politician in Iraq? Is it the Americans taking a page out of the Israeli playbook? Regardless, for their aims, it is a remarkably short-sighted move. Patrick Cockburn reports.

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• No Empires will never understand why the US Army thinks this scheme will work.
• The ever-reliable, and brave, Patrick Cockburn interviews one of the most infamous "jackals" (Tariq Ali's phraseology) of the new Iraq, Ahmed Chalabi, who, incredibly, was left off of the original "NO EMPIRES HATES" list.
  
• Sorry to be blunt, Mr. Tenet, but fuck your book tour, and fuck you. Too little, too late.
• Ashley Dawson explains that "while the World Bank's official inquiry denounces the Goodfellas-style strong-arm tactics and scatological language he employed during his tenure as president, it fails to focus on the broader forms of corruption promoted by Wolfowitz. Nor does it allude to the disastrously wrong-headed lending policies that ensure that the Bank's baneful influence will linger long after Wolfowitz's exit." She cites "fundamentally corrupt and undemocratic" appointment procedures at the World Bank and points to a "cronyism at the top extends far beyond Wolfowitz's shady package for his girlfriend" before going on to discuss the Bank's disasterous energy lending policies, which, of course, are unlikely to change once the Bank drops Wolfowitz.
• Bill Fletcher is a former president and executive of the TransAfrica forum, and he's rightly skeptical about the Obama candidacy.
• Ali Abunimah, the indefatigable, continues to push for a one-state solution in Palestine/Israel.
• Yesterday, the NYPD released as-yet-classified internal documents regarding its (extensive/costly/downright fucking frightening) preparation for the actions taken against the Republican National Convention in 2004. The New York Times, apparently looking to flex its "social conscience" muscle behind the ACLU (Mr. Keller, No Empires is not buying it!) has some feedback.
• No Empires supports single-payer health insurance, though this may, for now, be a losing battle: "The US ranked last [among Australia, Britain, Canada, Germany, and New Zealand) in most areas, including access to health care, patient safety, timeliness of care, efficiency and equity. Americans were also last in terms of whether they had a regular physician."
• Regular contributor John Loose brings us an update on Washington's continuing and nefarious machinations in Venezuela.

Special Report: No Empires Does Not Support 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

Just when No Empires started to feel a bit bad for Rosie ODonnell after the Trump/Rosie debacle a few months back, she has to go and publicize her crazy, counterproductive ideas: see this New York Times article on Rosie's upcoming 9/11 conspiracy segment on The View. Be sure to scroll down to the third comment, a case in point for the Times' Mike Nizza. Then take a look at the inimitable Alex Cockburn's recent work on 9/11 conspiracy theories and the left in Le Monde Diplomatique.

Some choice quotations from the Cockburn article:

"What the 9/11 conspiracists want us to believe is that the Bush/Cheney gang represent a new breed of evil, which might be the most dangerous deception of all, for it fosters the fantasy that a new administration, a Hillary Clinton or Al Gore administration, would pursue more humane policies."

"I am therefore sure that the Bush gang, and all the real conspirators of Washington, are delighted at the obsessions of the 9/11 conspiracists. It’s a distraction from the 1,001 real plots of capitalism that demand exposure and political challenge. As Theodore Adorno wrote: 'The tendency to occultism is a symptom of regression in consciousness'."

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• "Liberal interventionist"? More like total failure: No Empires feels badly for directing all this animus toward self-described Tony Blair. But, really, hasn't he earned it? Avi Shlaim reminds us that "Blair failed to understand that America's really special relationship is with Israel, not Britain," and in so doing, gained little and lost much for his country. This article may prove that The Guardian has yet to--completely--go the way of the New York Times' woefully lapdoggish attitude toward Israel.

• "The United States' government's primary nuclear weapons research and design contractor" sees a hunger strike on its campus. No Empires, in solidarity.
• Jean Bricmont calls Sarko's victory "an undeniable victory for the United States and Israel." Are YOU a declinist?
• Crime-stopper Rudy Giuliani is a true aggressor, as well as a disloyal Queens restaurant patron, No Empires can attest. Jennifer Roesch feeds No Empires' long-standing animosity. Really, really, don't vote for this fuck. Not even if your mom promises $75.
• Alex Cockburn: crazy, or the most relentless critical force in independent media?

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to fuck with your weekend, and with love to moms:

• Patrick Cockburn--No Empires hopes that he will come to be seen as the pre-eminent journalist of the second Iraq war--puts paid to any positive assessment of George Bush and David Petraeus's (and Joe Lieberman's? and Christopher Hitchens's? and Hillary Clinton's? and Bill Keller's? and Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz's?) troop surge in Iraq.
• John Loose (much love!) directs No Empires to this Common Dreams article about a new hydrocarbon law being considered by the Iraqi Parliament.
• The improbably-named Steve Stalinksy--a rank-and-file member of the scum at the New York Sun, who so purposely supervened on issues of "academic freedom" in the MEALAC department at Columbia in 2005/6--purports a growing alliance between the "anti-global left" and Islamist movements in the Middle East.
• Kathleen Christison, a favorite at No Empires (along with her husband, Bill), on the "fake peace conference" taking place this week in New Mexico, to the tune of half of a million dollars.
• No consequences, it would seem, for the police who killed Jean Charles de Menezes in the London tube system in July of 2005

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• Azmi Bishara maintains both his innocence (of charges that committed treason last summer during Israel's invasion of Lebanon, while still a Knesset minister) and his standing as the most important--and most maligned--Palestinian intellectual in the world.
• Patrick Cockburn on the "Great Wall of Baghdad"
• Patrick's brother, Alex, reports on the self-implosion of John McCain (formally approved and applauded by us at No Empires), and laments the absence of a viable Third Party candidate in the 2008 Elections
• Judith Butler on the recently-published Jewish Writings of Hannah Arendt

Oh. And Alan Dershowitz is still a fucking piece of shit.