WASHINGTON – January 23 – It began with a bulletin from the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles (1/4/06) accusing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of invoking an old anti-Semitic slur. In a Christmas Eve speech, the Center said, Chavez declared that “the world has wealth for all, but some minorities, the descendants of the same people that crucified Christ, have taken over all the wealth of the world.”

The Voice of America (1/5/06) covered the charge immediately. Then opinion journals on the right took up the issue. “On Christmas Eve, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez’s Christian-socialist cant drifted into anti-Semitism,” wrote the Daily Standard, the Weekly Standard’s Web-only edition. The American Spectator (1/6/06) was so excited about the quote, which it called “the standard populist hatemongering of Latin America’s new left leaders,” that it presented it as coming from two different speeches:

Venezuela’s Chavez in his 2005 Christmas address couldn’t resist commenting that “the descendants of those who crucified Christ” own the riches of the world. And on a Dec. 24 visit to the Venezuelan countryside, Chavez stirred up the peasants by claiming that “the world offers riches to all. However, minorities such as the descendants of those who crucified Christ” have become “the owners of the riches of the world.”

Then more mainstream outlets began to pick up the story. “Chavez lambasted Jews (in a televised Christmas Eve speech, no less) as ‘descendants of those who crucified Christ’ and ‘a minority [who] took the world’s riches for themselves,'” the New York Daily News’ Lloyd Grove reported (1/13/06). A column in the Los Angeles Times (1/14/06) used the quote to label Chavez “a jerk and a friend of tyranny.” The Wall Street Journal’s “Americas” columnist, Mary Anastasia O’Grady (1/16/06), called Chavez’s words “an ugly anti-Semitic swipe.”

One can see why the words attributed to Chavez provoked outrage. After all, descriptions of the Jews as a wealthy minority that “crucified Christ” have been an anti-Semitic stock in trade for centuries. But the criticisms of Chavez almost uniformly used selective, even deceptive editing to remove material that put his words in a different context.

Here’s a translation of the full passage from Chavez’s speech (VoltaireNet, 1/18/06):

The world has an offer for everybody but it turned out that a few minorities–the descendants of those who crucified Christ, the descendants of those who expelled Bolivar from here and also those who in a certain way crucified him in Santa Marta, there in Colombia–they took possession of the riches of the world, a minority took possession of the planet’s gold, the silver, the minerals, the water, the good lands, the oil, and they have concentrated all the riches in the hands of a few; less than 10 percent of the world population owns more than half of the riches of the world.

The biggest problem with depicting Chavez’s speech as an anti-Semitic attack is that Chavez clearly suggested that “the descendants of those who crucified Christ” are the same people as “the descendants of those who expelled Bolivar from here.” As American Rabbi Arthur Waskow, who questioned the charge, told the Associated Press (1/5/06), “I know of no one who accuses the Jews of fighting against Bolivar.” Bolivar, in fact, fought against the government of King Ferdinand VII of Spain, who reinstituted the anti-Semitic Spanish Inquisition when he took power in 1813. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, a Jewish sympathizer in Curacao provided refuge to Bolivar and his family when he fled from Venezuela.

Most of the accounts attacking Chavez (the Daily Standard was an exception) left the reference to Bolivar out entirely; the Wiesenthal Center deleted that clause from the speech without even offering an ellipses, which is tantamount to fabrication.

…That Chavez’s comments were part of some anti-Semitic campaign is directly contradicted by a letter sent by the Confederation of Jewish Associations of Venezuela to the Wiesenthal Center (AP, 1/14/06). “We believe the president was not talking about Jews,” the letter stated, complaining that “you have acted on your own, without consulting us, on issues that you don’t know or understand.” The American Jewish Committee and the American Jewish Congress agreed with the Venezuelan group’s view that Chavez was not referring to Jews in his speech (Inter Press Service, 1/13/06).
commondreams.org

“President George W. Bush] lied to the people of this nation, distorted the truth, declared war on a nation who had not attacked us . . . put Americas sons and daughters in harm’s way . . . and destroyed the lives of tens of thousands of [Iraqi] women and children who had nothing to do with it. It was an act of terror.”
Harry Belafonte, Amsterdam News, January 25, 2006, Page 1, 30

Harry Belafonte did more than speak truth to a President who lied to justify an invasion that has taken the lives of more than 2,000 Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis. He became part of a proud African American tradition Frederick Douglass started in 1848.

Frederick Douglass excoriated President Polk’s administration for “grasping ambition, atrocious aggression, and wholesale murder of an unoffending people” in “a disgraceful, cruel, and iniquitous war,” and demanded “the instant recall of U.S. forces from Mexico.” President Polk lied to justify a U.S. invasion that seized land stretching from Texas to California for new slave states. “I would not care if tomorrow, I should hear of the death of every man who engaged in that bloody war,” said Douglass. (Congressman Abraham Lincoln also reviled Polk for ordering an invasion of an innocent neighbor based on a lie.)
counterpunch.org

The overwhelmingly Black New Orleans diaspora is returning in large numbers to resist relentless efforts to bully and bulldoze them out of the city’s future. “Struggle on the ground has intensified enormously. A number of groups are in motion, moving against the mayor’s commission,” said Mtangulizi Sanyika, spokesman for the African American Leadership Project (AALP). “Increasing numbers of people are coming back into the city. You can feel the political rhythm.”

Mayor Ray Nagin’s commission has presented residents of flood-battered, mostly African American neighborhoods with a Catch-22, carefully crafted to preclude New Orleans from ever again becoming the more than two- thirds Black city it was before Hurricane Katrina breached the levees. Authored by Nagin crony, real estate development mogul and George Bush fundraiser Joseph Canizaro, the plan would impose a four-month moratorium on building in devastated neighborhoods like the lower Ninth Ward and New Orleans East. During that period, the neighborhoods would be required to come up with a plan to show how they would become “viable” by reaching an undefined “critical mass” of residents.

But the moratorium, itself, discourages people from rebuilding their neighborhoods — just as it is intended to do — thus creating a fait accompli: residents will be hard pressed to prove that a “critical mass” of habitation can be achieved.

“It’s circular reasoning,” said the AALP’s Sanyika. They talk about “some level of neighborhood viability, but no one knows what that means. What constitutes viable plans? What kinds of neighborhoods are viable? Everywhere you turn people are trying to rebuild, but there is this constraint.”

The commission is empowered only to make recommendations, but with the help of corporate media, pretends their plan is set in stone. “They keep pushing their recommendations as though they are the gospel truth,” said Sanyika, who along with tens of thousands of other evacuees has been dispersed to Houston, five hours away. “There is confusion as to all of these recommendations, issued as if they are policy. The Times-Picayune contributes to that confusion. None of this is a given.”

Activists believe the way to play this situation is for residents to forge ahead on their own. “Trying to figure out the logic of that illogical proposal is a wasted effort — all you’re going to do is wind up going in circles,” said Sanyika. He emphasizes that the commission’s recommendations are not binding on anyone — certainly not on the majority Black city council, which claims authority in city planning matters. They’re not buying the nonsense. “The city council has rejected it. Nagin says ignore it.’ I think it’s dead in the water,” said Sanyika.

The city council has attempted to block Nagin’s collaboration with corporate developers — a hallmark of his tenure — voting to give itself authority over where to place FEMA trailers. (Only about 5,000 of a projected 25,000 trailers arrived, say community activists.) Nagin vetoed the bill, but the council overrode him. The council has also endorsed equitable development of neighborhoods, rather than shrinking the city. “We [the African American Leadership Project] are developing a resolution to that effect,” said Sanyika. Odds are that it will pass — but the question is, who wields power in post-Katrina New Orleans, where only one-third of the city’s previous population of nearly half a million has returned?

It is in this context that one must view Mayor Nagin’s statement to a mostly Black crowd gathered at City Hall for a Martin Luther King Day march, on Monday: “I don’t care what people will say — uptown, or wherever they are. At the end of the day, this city will be chocolate. This city will be a majority African American city. It’s the way God wants it to be. You can’t have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn’t be New Orleans.”

Ray Nagin is probably the most disoriented person in the country, these days — the fruit of his own venality, sleeziness, and opportunism. A corporate executive, sports entrepreneur and nominal Democrat, he contributed to the Bush campaign in 2000 (Democrats dubbed him “Ray Reagan”) and endorsed a Republican candidate for governor in 2003 (see BC November 20, 2003). Now he doesn’t have a clue as to where the power lies or where his base is centered. “Nagin is playing a game, trying to have it both ways,” says the AALP’s Sanyika — but his options are shrinking as fast as the city envisioned by his buddy, Joe Canizaro, with whom he habitually worked hand in hand, but whom he now tells Blacks to “ignore.”
zmag.org

Interview with Anthony Fenton

…We want to continue our Haiti coverage leading up to the election by looking at the activities of a government-funded organization that is pouring millions of dollars into trying to influence the country’s political future. The National Endowment for Democracy is one of a handful of state-funded groups that have played a pivotal role in the internal politics of several Latin American and Caribbean countries in the service of the US government.

The NED operates with an annual budget of $80 million dollars from U.S. Congress and the State Department. In Venezuela, it’s given money to several political opponents of President Hugo Chavez. With elections underway in Haiti, it’s reportedly doing the same to groups linked to the country’s tiny elite and former military.

Last week Democracy Now! interviewed Anthony Fenton about NED’s activities in Haiti and across the Caribbean and Latin America. Fenton is an independent journalist and co-author of the book “Canada in Haiti: Waging War On The Poor Majority.” He has interviewed several top governmental and non-governmental officials dealing with Haiti as well as leading members of Haiti’s business community. Last month, he helped expose an NED-funded journalist who was filing stories for the Associated Press from Haiti. The Associated Press subsequently terminated its relationship with the journalist.
democracynow.org

A Port au Prince Neighborhood Organizes for Peace
…Some individuals living in Gran Ravin who retain arms are resistant to the idea of giving them up and, thus far, have opposed the disarmament camp. According to Sason, some of these people want to retain weapons for community protection from further politically motivated attack from the police or anti-Lavalas groups like “Lame Ti Manchet”. Others, he says, retain weapons for criminal use, and there are those who maintain a firearm for personal protection as is allowed by law and that these people may disregard the disarmament plea. Nevertheless, according to lawyer Evel Fanfan, President of the Haitian human rights group AUMOHD (who also presented to the group), all of the residents in attendance December 18 were supportive of the general peace initiative being presented. Those at the meeting who have arms agreed to turn in their weapons with two conditions: 1. that AUMOHD facilitate the process instead of the UN whom several commented they didn’t trust in general or felt betrayed by in their previous involvement with the UN’s DDR (Disarmament Demobilization Reintegration) program and 2. that the other civilian armed groups in the area who could attack them agree to disarm as well.

Iran will immediately retaliate if referred to the U.N. Security Council next week by forging ahead with developing a full-scale uranium enrichment program, a senior envoy said Monday.

The comments by Ali Asghar Soltaniyeh, a senior envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, reflected Iran’s defiance in the face of growing international pressure over its nuclear program. Enrichment can be used in electricity production but it also is needed in making uranium-based nuclear weapons.

Separately, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator planned to travel to Moscow on Tuesday for a high-level session as talks intensified surrounding a proposal to have Iran’s uranium enriched in Russia, then returned to Iran for use in the country’s reactors _ a compromise that would provide more oversight and ease tensions.
breitbart.com

Ukraine admits withholding gas from Europe
Ukraine has been withholding some Russian natural gas exports meant for customers in Europe, where several countries have reported falls in gas supplies amid a severe cold weather snap, an official with Ukraine’s state-owned energy firm told AFP.

“We have in fact allowed the withholding of gas in excess of the contract during the past day,” a Naftogaz official said on the condition of anonymity.

The official declined to say how much gas Ukraine — which transports the vast majority of Russian gas exports to Europe — was using over and above its agreed contract with Moscow.

“But we are certain that according to monthly totals, Ukraine will withhold exactly the volume agreed with Gazprom,” the official said.

Earlier, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yury Yekhanurov denied charges by Russia’s state-owned Gazprom giant that Kiev was withholding European supplies.

Although gas consumption in Ukraine has risen to record levels because of a severe cold snap gripping the country, “the increase of gas use in Ukraine has not at all affected the carrying out of our transport obligations,” spokesman Valentin Mondrievsky told AFP.

Earlier on Monday, Russia’s state-owned Gazprom monopoly admitted for the first time that it was not entirely fulfilling its contractual obligations to clients abroad because Ukraine was retaining some of the exports.

“You can call it withholding or taking, legal or illegal — call it whatever you like,” Gazprom’s deputy chief Alexander Medvedev said in an interview with Russian television networks, extracts of which were broadcast Monday evening.

“But what is happening is that gas is remaining in Ukraine at higher volumes than envisioned. This prevents us from fully fulfilling our obligations to our foreign customers,” he said.

Around 80 percent of Gazprom’s exports to Europe pass through a pipeline network located on Ukrainian territory.

Senator Hillary Clinton Takes Money from Pro-Regime Iranians
Senator Hillary Clinton yesterday accused President George W. Bush of mishandling the threat from Iran while she’s been accepting money from supporters of the renegade Iranian regime.

Wealthy businessmen Hassan Nemazee and Faraj Aalaei who are associated with the American Iranian Council, a pro-regime, anti-sanctions group, are vocal Clinton supporters and contributors. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Namazee has contributed $4,000 to Clinton’s reelection while Aalaei contributed $1,000.

Insight Magazine, published by the Washington Times, describes their lobby this way: “the American-Iranian Council [AIC], a pro-regime lobbying group [are] trying to get Congress and the Bush administration to lift the trade embargo on Iran.”

According to reports in Hillary Clinton’s home state, she’s also raising money from Gati Kashani, another figure linked with the Iranian Mullahs and who also supports the regime.

On its website, the Iranian American Political Action Committee (PAC) noted, “On Friday, June 3rd [2005], Iranian-American friends of the Hillary Clinton Senate re-election campaign hosted a fundraising event in honor of Senator Clinton. The event took place at the home of Gita and Behzad Kashani in Los Altos Hills, California.”

DAMASCUS: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has caused outrage by accusing Israel of assassinating former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, whose death 14 months ago remains a mystery.

“Of the many assassinations that Israel carried out in a methodical and organised way, the most dangerous thing that Israel did was the assassination of president Yasser Arafat,” Mr Assad told a gathering of Arab lawyers in what was billed as a speech on democratic reform.

“This was under the world’s gaze and its silence, and not one state dared to issue a statement or stance towards this, as though nothing happened.”
theaustralian.news.com

U.S. tells Israel it will shun PA gov’t that includes Hamas
The American administration has promised Israel that the United States will not recognize any Palestinian government in which Hamas participates, government sources in Jerusalem have said.

The sources said that American envoys who visited here about 10 days ago told Israeli officials that recognizing such a government would violate American law.

Israel has also received similar messages from Javier Solana, the European Union’s top foreign policy official, and Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos, who visited Israel last week, the sources said.

…In America, as in most places, the party of Davos is bipartisan. It includes Bill Clinton and Dick Cheney, Robert Rubin and Don Rumsfeld, Madeleine Albright and Condoleezza Rice. (George Bush is also a member, but he doesn’t like to travel). John Kerry is quoted as having called himself a “Davos” man.

Indeed, without reference to economic class it is impossible to explain why Democratic elites championed NAFTA, the WTO and the other instruments of corporate protectionism, which traded away the interests of its blue-collar industrial base in favor of the GOP constituencies in Wall Street and red-state agri-business. Nor is it possible to explain why Washington is indifferent to a relentlessly rising trade deficit, and the resulting foreign debt that has put the country’s future in the hands of the central bank of China, while the Pentagon simulates war games with China as the enemy.

The media language we use to talk to each other about globalization hides its class structure. The press consistently talks about national “interest” without defining who exactly is getting what. Thus, American workers are told that the “Chinese” are taking their jobs. But the China threat is in fact another global business partnership – this one between commissars who supply the cheap labor and the United States and other foreign capitalists who supply the technology and two-thirds of the capital used to finance China’s exports. The rest of the world calls this “neo-liberalism,” a term unknown among America’s media “internationalists.”

The politics of the global marketplace are a one-party system.
commondreams.org

Iraqi and visiting doctors, and a number of news reports, have reported that birth defects and cancers in Iraqi children have increased five- to 10-fold since the 1991 Gulf War and continue to increase sharply, to over 30-fold in some areas in southern Iraq. Currently, more than 50 percent of Iraqi cancer patients are children under the age of 5, up from 13 percent. Children are especially vulnerable because they tend to play in areas that are heavily polluted by depleted uranium.

The Pentagon has been using radiooactive weapons for at least a decade and a half with full complicity of at least three White House administrations and Republican and Democratic congressional legislators. Conservatively, at least 300 tons and 1,700 tons of depleted uranium were used in the Gulf War and the current Iraq War, resectively. This is about 70 grams of depleted uranium per Iraqi citizen, and if inhaled or ingested, it is enough to kill them all.

Is this not radioactive genocide, especially when our troops used and continue to use most of the depleted uranium munitions in densely populated areas such as Baghdad and Fallujah? Depleted uranium has a half-life of billions of years. Consequently, Iraq will be a wasteland forever and essentially uninhabitable for anyone.
globalresearch.ca

Iraqi security officials have discovered the bodies of 23 police volunteers kidnapped last Monday.

The men were found shot dead on open land north of the capital Baghdad, the officials said.

The victims were part of a group of 35 men seized by insurgents as they travelled home to the northern city of Samarra by bus last Monday evening.

They were returning home after they had failed to be accepted into a police training school.

Militants stopped the bus at a checkpoint. The men had received an armed escort on their way down to the capital, but not on their return.

The 12 other bodies are said to have been found last week.

The incident is the latest in a series in which insurgents have targeted recruits to the security forces.
bbc.co.uk

washingtonpost.com

For Bolivian Majority, a New Promise
LA PAZ, Bolivia, Jan. 22 — The streets of this colonial city erupted in song and fireworks Sunday to celebrate the inauguration of Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first Indian president, who promised to begin reversing centuries of social injustice, shield the country from U.S. influence and reclaim natural resources that he says have been exploited by international capitalism.

Morales, 46, broke into tears before addressing Bolivia’s Congress and the presidents of many neighboring South American countries, a gathering that illustrated the region’s ongoing political shift toward socialism. The former coca grower likened his historic rise to power in Bolivia, where people of Indian descent make up more than 60 percent of the population, to the end of apartheid in South Africa.

“This morning I was very happy to see my brothers and sisters singing in the historical Plaza Murillo and Plaza San Francisco,” Morales said, referring to the celebrations attended by thousands of indigenous citizens in the city’s main squares. “Forty or 50 years ago, we didn’t even have the right to enter the Plaza San Francisco or the Plaza Murillo.”