Thought Provocation

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Iran And US Finalize Interim Nuclear Deal
By Keith Jones

http://www.countercurrents.org/jones130114.htm

Washington and Tehran announced yesterday that the interim nuclear agreement Iran reached with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany seven weeks ago will come into effect January 20


Nuclear Deal, Nuclear Imperialism or Nuclear Apartheid?
By Dr. M. Mohibul Haque

http://www.countercurrents.org/haque130114.htm

The much publicized nuclear deal between the isolated and under-pressure (domestic as well as international)Iran and the global nuclear hegemons once again establishes the fact that decisions in the international arena are taken on the governing principle of ‘might is right’


Paying Tribute To A Genocidaire
By Prof. Francis A. Boyle

http://www.countercurrents.org/boyle130114.htm

The United Nations General Assembly condemned the 1982 Massacre at Sabra and Shatilla as “genocide.” So what the world is witnessing now are innumerable government leaders, politicians, pundits, professors, intellectuals, media figures and the State of Israel pay formal tribute to a genocidaire--one who has committed genocide. Obviously, in their opinion the slogan “Never again!” does not apply to protect the Palestinians


Ariel Sharon: Buddha Of Middle East or Butcher Of Beirut?
By Gul Jammas Hussain

http://www.countercurrents.org/hussain130114.htm

Voltaire once said, "Men use thought only to justify their wrong-doings, and words only to conceal their thoughts." With former Israeli general and prime minister Ariel Sharon’s long-anticipated death, the Western media has gone to great lengths to paint him as the Buddha of the Middle East. The whole world knows that he achieved his nirvana in Beirut in September 1982 at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps when Lebanese mercenaries backed by Israeli forces slaughtered thousands of innocent Palestinian and Lebanese Muslims


The Bulldozer Of Israel: Ariel Sharon's Legacy
By Shakeel Anjum

http://www.countercurrents.org/anjum130114.htm

The eulogization of Sharon as hero, warrior and peacemaker by the west speaks of hypocrisy, double standards and silence over the gruesome war crimes and injustice to the Palestinians


Life's Little Ironies
By Niranjan Ramakrishnan

http://www.countercurrents.org/rkrishnan130114.htm

This particular 'surge' in Al Qaeda's Iraqi fortunes has been facilitated by the turmoil in Syria, with which Iraq shares a long and largely uncontrolled border. NPR had a report yesterday on how Al Qaeda in Syria has proven to be too much even for the Syrian rebels, though neither would yield anything to the other in the matter of its ostensible enthusiasm for getting rid of the common enemy, the government of Bashar al Assad. According to National Public Radio, eastern Syria and western Iraq are now a kind of Al Qaeda administered territory


Syrian Christians: "If We Do Not Help These People Then Who Will?"
By Hussein Al-alak

http://www.countercurrents.org/alalak130114.htm

More and more Syrian Christians are leaving the war torn country and seeking refuge in Europe


Embarking On The Journey Of Consciousness: Staying On The Train
By Carolyn Baker

http://www.countercurrents.org/baker130114.htm

Nearly every day I speak with people who are confused, bewildered, disoriented, or conversely, extraordinarily clear about what is happening to them. A few years, months, or weeks earlier, they began waking up to the predicament of earth and its plethora of species. I often ask them to tell me their story—not so much their personal story, but the story of their awakening to the collapse of industrial civilization or peak oil or catastrophic climate change. As they unpack their story, we often begin speaking of it as a journey—a journey of epiphany, of awakening, of coming to consciousness


Time For Black Pride
By Timothy Dwight Smith

http://www.countercurrents.org/smith130114.htm

Since arriving as slaves, blacks have endured the worst of what America has had to offer, some have risen from the ashes and achieved incredible contributions that have served to enhance society. If black people are to collectively transcend their present position, religious myths have to be disposed. It must be resolved that god does not need money. Black people do not need a savior, we need only ourselves, but we must shed the myths that have haunted us since the slave ship


A Moral Outrage: Albert Woodfox's 41 Years In Solitary Confinement,
Despite Three Overturned Convictions
By Angola 3 News

http://www.countercurrents.org/bates130114.htm

An Interview With Rev. Dr. Patricia Teel Bates


Sentencing Israel Of Genocide
By Dr. Elias Akleh

http://www.countercurrents.org/akleh130114.htm

While the so-called international legal bodies such as ICC, UN and Security Council lack the guts to face up to the Zionist global terrorism, the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal (KLWCT) has demonstrated unequivocal courage for prosecuting the terrorist state of Israel and its military generals for their crimes. After listening to eyewitness testimonies and examining the voluminous documented evidence the Tribunal found the state of Israel guilty of genocide, and the Israeli retired army general Amos Yaron guilty of crimes against humanity and of genocide


You Can't Opt Out : 10 NSA Myths Debunked
By Peter Van Buren

http://www.countercurrents.org/buren130114.htm

What exactly are we protecting from what? If, instead of spending trillions of dollars on spying and domestic surveillance, we had spent that same money on repairing our infrastructure and improving our schools, wouldn't we now have a safer, stronger America? Remember that famously absurd Vietnam War quote from an American officer talking about brutal attack on Ben Tre, "It became necessary to destroy the town to save it"? How can anyone say we are protecting our liberty and freedom by taking it away?


MLK: Also A Victim Of NSA Surveillance
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali

http://www.countercurrents.org/ghazali130114.htm

Martin Luther King Jr. day is being celebrated on January 20th 2014 amid heated debate on massive dragnet surveillance by the National Security Agency (NSA). Ironically, he was himself a victim of NSA surveillance as unveiled by the declassified documents in September last year. Dr. King's status as an NSA target has been known since the 1970s; nevertheless, this was probably the first time that the U.S. government had declassified it


Book Review: Why Israel? The Anatomy of Zionist Apartheid
By Jim Miles

http://www.countercurrents.org/miles130114.htm

Why Israel? is a large work of enormous value for the study of events within Israel and the Middle east. The title question is answered relatively easy, as it is one of the many counters that Israeli supporters use to try and divert attention away from their transgressions. Yes, there are many other states in the world where racism is evident, where oppression and some form of apartheid is applied


Truth Prevails, Even If The Whistleblower Is Silenced
By Kourosh Ziabari

http://www.countercurrents.org/ziabari130114.htm

Like the story of all those freedom fighters and conscientious people who struggle for realizing true democracy and freedom in the United States but are punished because they purportedly threaten the “national security,” the story of Jeremy Hammond is a painful and moving one


Small Business Persons And Egalitarianism
By John Spritzler

http://www.countercurrents.org/spritzler130114.htm

Small business persons have every reason in the world to desire an egalitarian revolution in the United States. Their lives in an egalitarian society would be improved in terms of both their material standard of living and their emotional well-being. Here's why


130 Million Americans
By John Spritzler

http://www.countercurrents.org/spritzler130114A.htm

The problem (that we live in a dictatorship of the rich) can only be solved by lots and lots (130 or more million) people deciding to remove the rich from power (which they could certainly do, by the way, because they'd have support from members of the military forces.) But in order for this to happen, these 130 million people need to know that THEY ARE NOT ALONE, that there are 130 million of them (not a hopelessly small and powerless number) who want to remove the rich from power. To let these 130 million people learn that they are not alone is the purpose of the www.PDRBoston.org "Ring the Bells of Revolution" campaign. Maybe you'd like to help out?


Fat Man Talking – Governor Christie Sinks
By Joel S. Hirschhorn

http://www.countercurrents.org/joel130114.htm

After having many positive views of New Jersey Governor Christie mainly because he seemed like a better kind of politician, maybe being someone the public could actually trust, I now see him as just another untrustworthy, dishonest politician


Pakistan, A Victim Of Ideological Colonization
By Ismail Salami

http://www.countercurrents.org/salami130114.htm

What is happening in Pakistan is an ideological product of the House of Saud and their ignoramus adherents. Sadly, Pakistani politicians frequently turn a blind eye to the myriad crimes committed by the Takfiri groups whom they use as political leverage to achieve their own malicious goals such as winning the elections in the country. So, instead of curbing the cruel current of extremism, they sit back and watch silently. Aitizaz Hasan is the personification of innocence and the crystallization of a far-fetched hope on the dark horizons of the Pakistani community


Indo - Pak Dialogue: Reasons For Failure
By Abdul Majid Zargar

http://www.countercurrents.org/zargar130114.htm

In the context of Indo-Pak dialogue, there are three parties to the dispute-India, Pakistan & People of Jammu and Kashmir and the international community represented by UN is the Umpire . The role of two countries, India & Pakistan is limited to talking & making atmosphere conducive to determining the wish of the people of J&K. Even If any of the two parties out of these three like India & Pakistan decide to put the dispute beneath the carpet or work out some other formula, it will not have any enduring effect over the main issue


Contemporary Political Ferment: Aam Aadmi Party
By Ram Puniyani

http://www.countercurrents.org/puniyani130413.htm

The spectacular performance of Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi Assembly elections (November 2013) has changed the perceptions and anticipations about the forthcoming general elections to be held in 2014. It has also led to rethink about the equations of electoral politics in general. While BJP emerged as the single largest party and could have staked claim to form the Government, it refrained from that. AAP, after an initial hesitation, went in for opinion taking exercise, and decided to cross the obstacles of being a bit short of majority and formed the Government


Condemn The Arrest Of Yugal Kishore Sharan Shstri
By All India Secular Forum

http://www.countercurrents.org/aisf130114.htm

The UP police arrested Yugal Kishore Sharan Shstri on 11th January. He had planned to organize a People’s Panchayat on the issue of attack on Shrine of Sheesh Paighambar, which was attacked on 20 December 13. In this attack a student Zeeshan was killed. The police arrest of Shastriji has been made on the ground that he is ‘threat to peace and order’ in the city


Welcome Back Ms Khobragade, Now I Can Read My Newspaper In Peace!
By Madhumita Dutta

http://www.countercurrents.org/dutta130114.htm

So Ms Devyani Khobragade is back home. What a relief! India’s ‘pride’ has finally been restored. I swear I do feel relieved. Because now I will hopefully be spared of any further embarrassment of reading every morning the latest diplomatic shenanigans to protect a person who is accused of over-working and under-paying her domestic worker