Big Think

Patriot Follows the Money and Exposes Foreign Agents

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official."-Theodore RooseveltPatriot and author, Grant F. Smith, Director for the Institute of Research Middle East Policy publication, Foreign Agents: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee from the 1963 Fulbright Hearings to the 2005 Espionage Scandal, exposes how US Middle East policy has been formulated and thrives due to the dearth of relevant reporting on AIPAC's activities. This book should be read by every American tax payer, Congress and foreign policy maker.It begins with Senator Fulbright's on target questions to Jewish-Agency-funded US foreign agents who did not register with the Justice Department or disclose their true financing, funding flows and covert activities and illuminates how AIPAC: the American Israel Public Affairs Committee operates "within a murky nexus regulated by four important but seldom enforced US laws." [1] The lax enforcement of The Logan Act, The Foreign Agents Registration Act/FARA, the 1917 Espionage Act, Thompson Memorandum guidelines for prosecuting corporate crime coupled with the fear of being labeled anti-Semitic and a media who have failed at their commission to seek and report the truth have all colluded to exert an undue influence over Congress and thus; we the people of America to be "under the de facto influence of a powerful foreign interest." [2]Smith documents how AIPAC-a constellation of individuals and organizations that make up the "Israel lobby" continue to actively steer USA foreign policy in a militant and pro-Israel only direction.Senator Fulbright's concerns over activities of unregistered foreign agents who worked to influence public opinion and policy resulted in the 1963 Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings to investigate the Jewish Agency and uncovered the "conduit" operation run by the American Zionist Council. In 1959, The American Zionist Council was renamed AIPAC. Within eight years, the Council received over a half a million "from the Jewish Agency to create a favorable opinion in this country for Israeli government policies. The Senate investigation closed down the conduit, but the extensive propaganda activities still go on…[and] by 1998, "US aid to Israel exceeded $3 billion a year, the highest amount of US aid given to any country." [3] "AIPAC's illegal tactics harm America…[and] corporate crime inflicts far more damage on society than all street crime combined…Harvard economist Thomas Stauffer estimated the total cost of [the] prolonged conflict in the Middle East at $3 trillion [in 2002 USA dollars and he] lays a good deal of the blame for this at the doorstep of AIPAC." [4] On George Washington's birth date, his Farewell Address has been read aloud in Congress ever since 1896. However, his warning has not yet seeped into the consciousness of our elected officials, to "Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all...and passionate attachments for others should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave...a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate justification."It has been said that the root of all evil is the love of money, and most nefarious are the consequences of nearly two-trillion American dollars which have reaped "special trade advantages, and preferential contracts. U.S. aid to Israel cost some 275,000 American jobs each year...Additional known items include loan guarantees-which the U.S. most probably will be forced to cover-special contracts for Israeli firms, legal and illegal transfers of marketable U.S. military technology, de facto exemption from U.S. trade protection provisions, and discounted sales or free transfers of U.S. military equipment…net purchases by U.S. parties of Israel Bonds, adds at least $40 billion to the total…U.S. jobs and exports have been affected, adding to costs and losses…As U.S. relations with Mid East countries deteriorated, trade was lost. Worsening political relations resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs…thanks to the Israel lobby." [5]Smith's epic public service tome also illuminates how money laundering of over 50 billion US dollars to "charitable" organizations and massive covert activities has enabled the ongoing building of the illegal and apartheid Israeli settlements which have expropriated legally owned Palestinian land. Today, a quarter of a million Jewish settlers, most all of which have no historical tie to the Holy Land, have created facts on the ground to disable a viable contiguous Palestinian state.On November 21, 2005, top U.S. law enforcement officials attended a briefing organized by the Council for the National Interest regarding how charities "such as B'nai B'rith and Hadassah were in direct control of the World Zionist Organization and directly linked to a massive money-laundering operation…[and the settlements are] an indirect generator of terrorism against the United States…[also] Israel never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty [which prohibits] U.S. assistance to any country trafficking in nuclear enrichments equipment or technology outside of international safeguards." [6]Every American politician is aware of Israel's clandestine nuclear weapons development, stockpile, and launch capabilities, but due to the influence of AIPAC "it is business as usual in Washington: criminal wrongdoing continues to corrupt America's core values, rule of law, and Middle East policy, as the Israel lobby's crosshairs shift almost completely to Iran." [7] On July 3, 2008, former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul stated, "I hear members of Congress saying 'if we could only nuke them' and that the atmosphere in Congress indicates that a military strike on Iran has already been condoned." [8] Referring to House Congressional Resolution 362 Paul called the 'Virtual Iran War Resolution', "an absolute blockade of the entire country of Iran, [that will] punish any country or any business group around the world if they trade with Iran." [9] In 1976, the Symington Amendment was adopted to fortify and extend the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It prohibited US assistance to any country trafficking in nuclear enrichment equipment or technology outside of international safeguards. The world learned about Israel's secret underground nuclear weapons facility in 1986 due to Mordechai Vanunu's photographic evidence, but the American government ignores this elephant in the world and has refused to insist Israel allow international inspection of their nuclear weapons facilities.The American government's double standards and Israel's negation of international law, UN resolutions, and denial of equal human rights for Palestinians have all contributed to the instability in the Middle East.Beginning in the 1990's and even more so after 9/11, US politicians blind allegiance to Israel has been furthered by the claim that both states are threatened by Arab terrorist groups and rogue states bent on acquiring weapons of mass destruction. Many Americans see Israel as an ally and Iran and Syria as our mutual enemies. The "war on terror" has become a tactic to infuse fear while it ignores that much of the anger in the Arab world is in response to Israel's 40+ years of military occupation of Palestine and the concrete wall and electrified fence built on legally owned Palestinian property which is "financed with U.S. aid at a cost of $1.5 million per mile. The Israeli wall prevents residents from receiving health care and emergency medical services. In other areas, the barrier separates farmers from their olive groves which have been their families' sole livelihood for generations." [10] William Fulbright warned, "The age of warrior kings and of warrior presidents has passed. The nuclear age calls for a different kind of leadership....a leadership of intellect, judgment, tolerance and rationality, a leadership committed to human values, to world peace, and to the improvement of the human condition. The attributes upon which we must draw are the human attributes of compassion and common sense, of intellect and creative imagination, and of empathy and understanding between cultures."  Yet, America's 'leaders' continue to cower and pander to an "illegal foreign lobby that has long flouted US law and suborned the national interest as a foreign agent." [11] Foreign Agents: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee from the 1963 Fulbright Hearings to the 2005 Espionage Scandal could put the starch in their spine to put America first and then these United States would indeed observe good faith and justice towards all nations; [and]  cultivate peace and harmony with all.1.    Grant F. Smith, Foreign Agents: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee from the 1963 Fulbright Hearings to the 2005 Espionage Scandal, Page 15. Published 2007 by the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, Washington D.C.2.    IBID3.    Page 20, 224.    Page 149-1505.    Page 150-1516.    Page 1587.   Page 1558.   http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=62812§ionid=3510201049.   IBID10. Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Page 43, Jan/Feb. 200711. Grant F. Smith, Page 168  published first http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=959&Itemid=202  … Read More

July 7, 2008   | 

July 8, 2008 in Jerusalem and what the MSM has Failed to Report

[East Jerusalem] On July 8, 2008, the final act in Mordechai Vanunu's current trials plays out, when Israel either puts Vanunu behind bars for six more months, or "something else" as Vanunu wrote.  Mordechai Vanunu's historic freedom of speech trial began in January 2006. In July 2007, Israel convicted him on 14 [out of over a hundred interviews with foreign journalists] counts of violating the court order prohibiting him from speaking to any foreigners since his 2004 release from 18 years in prison for exposing Israel's secret nuclear weapons program in 1986.A possible something else that had been hoped for, was that Israel would be led by true friends to accept the Norwegians offer of asylum http://www.vanunu.org/ and allow Vanunu to leave the state which is all he has wanted to do since he emerged from Ashkelon prison on April 21, 2004.On July 1, 2008 I received the following email reply from Norway:Subject:  Reply on your email concerning Vanunu Dear Ms FlemingThank you for your email dated 12 July 2008 addressed to Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre concerning Mordechai Vanunu.The Norwegian authorities have been following Mr Vanunu's case for many years, and will continue to do so.Norway has on several occasions raised the case of Mr Vanunu in bilateral talks with Israel and has emphasised that he must not be subject to any form of injury or insulting behaviour. We have also stressed that his human rights, including his rights of speech and movement, must be respected.When Mr Vanunu was released from prison in 2005, a number of restrictions were placed upon him following decisions by Israeli judges. Norway recognises the Israeli juridical system and will act in accordance with their decisions.Mr Vanunu's application for asylum to Norway was sent by letter from Israel. As it is not possible to apply for asylum from abroad, his application was turned down on 21 May 2008 on formal grounds.There are no restrictions on the part of Norway that prevent Mr Vanunu from visiting the country if it should be appropriate for him to do so.Yours sincerelyThomas Rem BerdalMiddle East SectionNorwegian Ministry of Foreign AffairsThe first time I crossed paths with Vanunu was in the courtyard of St. Georges Cathedral in June 2005, during my first of five trips to Israel Palestine. The last time I crossed paths with Vanunu was July 2007, nearby St. Stephen's Dominican Church on Nablus Road. Vanunu smiled when he told me," This is the spot where they stoned to death the first Christian martyr for freedom of speech." It had been two weeks since Vanunu received the bad news of a six month sentence for speaking to foreign media –he is allowed to speak to Israeli journalists- but he wasn't talking to any media because, "All the interviews I have given haven't helped me."In 2005, the first of my three video interviews with Vanunu addressed the fact that President Bush could find WMD's in Israel and not Iraq and how his faith helped him endure 18 years in jail for telling the truth.Vanunu also told me stories that I wrote down about his childhood in an orthodox Jewish home in Morocco, adolescent rejection of the faith, the misery he saw as a sergeant in the IDF, university activism for Palestinian human rights, and how he happened to be baptized a Christian just days before being kidnapped, clubbed, drugged and locked up for 18 years because of the photographic evidence he provided of Israel's secret underground nuclear weapons program in the Negev. [1] Vanunu can be articulate, funny, and patient and a moment later; detached, distant and withdrawn. It is an honor to me that he continues to respond to my questions and what follows are his replies from June 2008. E: Now that North Korea seems serious about foregoing its nuclear weapons what do you say in light of Israel's secret nuclear activities?V:  The time is now for the US and the entire world to speak very clear and loudly about Israel's 'secret' nuclear weapons. They locked me up for 18 years for exposing them, but they get away with nuclear ambiguity because the world is afraid they will be accused of anti-Semitism.But any movement such as North Korea is doing is good news, because now, Israel must be led by the international community to follow the same world policies, the IAEA inspections and regulations and human rights and international law.Also the Dimona is ancient and last week, the Israeli Ambassador visited the office of IAEA, Mohamed Elbaraede and the news reports that he complained about Iran. So, maybe now, Israel will also report in secret to the IAEA, about the future of Dimona?Also Isreal wants to build or have Reactors for energy so they must accept and adhere to the NPT and all IAEA authorization and inspections.The world is waiting for Israel to move as Korea is and South Africa did. If Israel claims they don't have nuclear weapons, then they must open up the Dimona or destroy it. Israel's atomic weapons cause every state in the M E to want them and the only way out is for Israel to sign the NPT or close down the Dimona.-vmjc Previously Vanunu told me, "The Dimona is 46 years old; reactors last 25 to 30 years. The Dimona has never been inspected and Israel has never signed the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty but all the Arab states have...Twenty years ago when I worked there they only produced when the air was blowing towards Jordan ten miles away. No one knows what is happening now. "The Israelis have 200 atomic weapons and they accuse the Palestinians and Muslims of terrorism. The world needs to wake up and see the real terrorism is the occupation and the Palestinians have lived under that terror regime for 40 years."Israel propaganda portrays all Palestinians as Muslim extremists and Hamas terrorists and neglect that Palestinian Christians are following the true message of Jesus Christ with nonviolent resistance. We need all Christians to come and see the truth for themselves.  "I really had no clue what I was doing by getting baptized a Christian; I just felt like I had to do it. It was my way to become a new being. It wasn't until after my trial that I started to read the New Testament. While I was in prison, I would read aloud for a half hour, twice a day. I would read the entire New Testament and begin it again when I finished the Book of Revelation. I did this for myself, as well as for my captors--not so much the prison guards, but the ones who watched me on camera twenty-four hours a day. Once I covered up the camera that spied on me and was punished with one month in solitary, without any books or radio; no contact with anyone anywhere was allowed. It was just them, the Shen Beet, you know, like the FBI and the Mossad, like your CIA— they were watching me."They tortured me by keeping a light on in my cell constantly for two years. They told me it was because they were afraid I would commit suicide, and the oppressive camera was for my safety. They recruited the guards and other prisoners to irritate me. They would deprive me of sleep by making loud noises near my cell all night long.  "I chose to read them 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8, instead: Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with THE TRUTH! It always protects, it always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails. "For the first five years, twice a day I would loudly pray by reading Bible verses. I would also read the Anglican service from the Book of Common Prayer. I did it twice a day, everyday, for five years. I began to see I had become like a machine. I knew if I continued I would lose my mind. So after that, I only prayed in silence. Although I knew I was driving them nuts with my loud praying, it was driving me nuts, too. I changed my routine. I was allowed outside every day for two hours; I had been jogging around in circles for the two hours, but now I changed my routine. I began to alter that and all my routines so I would not be like a machine. I refused to eat when they brought my food in. I would decide everyday what time I would eat and what I would eat. I chose a different time everyday to do anything. The camera was there to learn my behavior so they could manipulate me. I knew I had to constantly change my routine. I began reading more books about health, nutrition, history, philosophy, and literature, and kept my prayer life quiet." [IBID] From a June 2008 email:E: On April 19, 1995, you wrote:"The real reason for this solitary is to make me into a fundamentalist religious man…Peres and Rabin want to silence me by engaging me with religious prayers…They portray them [Arabs] as religious fundamentalists, while the truth is that the Jews here in Israel are the real religious fundamentalists. They still believe that they are a superior race here in Israel, and that the Arabs are second class. The Arabs don't have equal rights. This is the reason why. Israel doesn't want a real peace, because they don't want to give equal rights to the Arab peoples. That is the reason for Israel wanting to keep its racial superiority by force over all the Arabs. And to justify it they need Islamic fundamentalism."[3] Can you comment on why people choose fundamentalism other than a lack of hope and cultural influences?V: When people lose all hope to be free and liberated, but are under occupation, they have no power to change the situation. Israel keeps putting them under increasing pressures, so many cling to a connection with God. It is like a conspiracy; a conspiracy of hopelessness and poverty that conspire to attract people to fundamentalism.E: Do you see connections between fundamental Jews and Muslims and the judgmental and escapist theology promoted in Christian Zionism?V: Without fundamentalist religion in the government, the Jews could live in real peace.  Christian Zionist are being used to fight Islam and the Muslim are holding onto God as their last hope while fundamentalist Jews, cling to Zionism. E: You wrote in 1995 that you "stopped being interested in religion and stopped reading religious books" but you continued to identify with Jesus. How do you relate to Jesus in 2008? V: Since my release from jail in 2004, my religion has also become my political statement. I am living among Palestinian Christians; they are real Christians living under military occupation, just like Jesus did. Church is a place for social meetings and for sharing political experiences.E: Do you think 21st century man understands JC any better than in the first century? V: If they have adopted his ideas to support the poor and not make wars, and understand there is no super race, no people who are more chosen than any other.E: What do you think about the fact that JC was never a Christian, but that he was born, lived and died a Palestinian Jew under military occupation, and do you identify with him that way?V: Yes, it is same today here in Jerusalem but with a different army.  I once wrote an Op-ed and called Vanunu a prophet. When he read the piece, he emailed me and in bold letters wrote: "DON'T CALL ME THAT!" I won't to his face, but in the spirit of freedom of speech, I cannot help myself. Prophets do NOT predict the future-as much as they point out impending doom. Vanunu pointed the way to the weapons of mass destruction program underground in the Negev desert, and yet, not one IAEA inspection has been allowed, nor demanded by the USA. The Hebrew prophet Jeremiah also spent much of his life under house arrest in Jerusalem, for being a truth teller. We know more about the personal life and struggles of Jeremiah than any other Hebrew prophet. Jeremiah, which translates as "The Lord throws"-as in hurling, had few friends and is considered primarily a prophet of doom. Jeremiah was intensely introspective, self-critical, timid by nature but honest and open about his feelings. Jeremiah never married and began prophesying in Judah from 604-586, a time of storm and stress when the doom of entire nations-including Judah itself-was being sealed. Jeremiah had been the king's friend and confident, but the prophet soon entered a dreary round of persecution and imprisonment, alternating with only brief periods of freedom, and lived under virtual house arrest. Jeremiah was also labeled a traitor by many for speaking the brutal truth, "I cannot keep silent…Disaster follows disaster; the land lies in ruins…My people are fools; they do not know me."-Jeremiah 4:19. 1.    Memoirs of a Nice Irish-American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory, Chapter 7: Brother V, Eileen Fleming2.    IBID3.    Letters From Prison to Father Dave, available in PDF by email from Fr. Dave @ < dave@fatherdave.org This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it >   From an email received from Maried, on July 1, 2008: TIME TO LET VANUNU GO NOW.  By MAIREAD MAGUIRE, NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE http://www.peacepeople.com  4th July, 2008In l986 a young Israeli man, called Mordechai Vanunu, followed his conscious and told the World that Israel had a nuclear weapons’ programme.   He was convicted of espionage and treason and given an 18 years sentence.  After serving this (12 of which were in solitary confinement) Mordechai Vanunu was released.   In April 2004 about 80 people from around the world went to welcome him out of prison.  Unbelievably, upon his release Mordechai was served with severe restrictions, which forbade him many basic civil liberties including his right to leave Israel, to speak to foreigners and foreign media and his travel within Israel restricted. Each year  around  the 2lst April, he receives a letter from the Prime Minister renewing  restrictions, and  Mordechai  starts, yet again, the process of appealing these restrictions through the Israeli court.   Most recently he has been charged with breaking the restrictions, by talking to foreign media, and given a 6 months prison sentence which when he appealed was set as community service.   On 8th July, 2008, he will appear before an Israeli court regarding this service and his case.Four years since leaving Ashkelon prison, (and 22 years since he told about Israeli nuclear weapons) Mordechai Vanunu lives in modest accommodation in East Jerusalem, confined within a few miles radius, unable to earn a living, unaware of what to do to gain his freedom, unable to leave Israel, his life in danger, and left wondering if the Israeli Security will ever agree to let him leave the country. They say he is a threat to National Security, but everyone know that it is 22 years since Mordechai worked in Dimona Nuclear Plant, and the Nuclear industry has moved on.   A well-known   Israeli Nuclear scientist has testified that Mordechai can know nothing after such a long period, yet Israeli Security insists he is a risk to National Security, and Israeli Court and Government, refuse to let him go thereby compounding an injustice, and breaking international laws.Governments around the World have let Mordechai Vanunu down.  They remain silent when they should be demanding the Israeli Government uphold it obligations under UNDHR, and allow Vanunu to leave. (Everyone has the right to leave any country including their own and to return to their country – Article 13 – 2 UNDHR).   So will Mordechai remain in Israel until he dies, or can anything be done to gain his freedom?  I believe now Mordechai Vanunu’s freedom rests in the hands of the Israeli people themselves.  Some years ago I asked a young Israeli friend why she though Israel was holding Mordechai.   She replied simply ‘because our Government does not trust its own people’ and she added ‘if the Israeli people would demand his release, it might be possible that he would be free to leave Israel and get on with his life’.  I don’t know if she is right or wrong, I don’t know the Israeli mind or politics well enough to guess, but what I do know is that in the Jewish faith and tradition, there is a great deal of emphasis put on justice and doing what is right.   I can now only hope and pray that on 8th July, 2008, that some Israeli  voices will be raised to call for justice for Mordechai Vanunu, who has paid the high price of 22 years of his life for following his conscious, and whether you hate or love Mordechai Vanunu, to be fair you have got to admit that he has suffered enough and it’s  time to let him go NOW. … Read More

July 7, 2008   | 

'Christianity' has messed up more than western culture

 I'll prove my point beginning with the chords to "All Along the Watchtower" by U 2:All I've got is a red guitar, Three chords and The Truth. All I've got is my bleedin' heart, and a voice cryin' out of the wilderness to youI see there is a way out of here, a way to get some relief... I AM very small, I AM so very very small,So small as to indwell the heart of every atom, and I AM beyond your comprehension... I hear Wisdom calling from the highest point of the city;*'Wisdom has built her house and She calls to all; "Come, eat my food and drink my wine and you will live abundant life and walk in the ways of understanding." [*Proverbs 9: 4-6]Wisdom calls; "I have built it; will you come? Do you have eyes to see and ears to hear?Holy Wisdom, the Feminine Divinity: Hokema, Who was with The Word from the very beginning, She is One with Him and He with Her; Pure Being; One God; One Creator; One Lover of All the Human Family...I see you lookin' at me like you think I've skated off the edge -But let me tell a little story to illuminate you-if you haven't heard The one about the Rabbi Hillel, Who lived 100 years before The Christ walked the earth as a maleThat wise Rabbi knew that the Hebrew understanding of Hokema; Holy Wisdom; The Feminine Divinty Was the same as the Greek understanding of The Logos: The Word. It was Saint's Paul and John who first understood The Word was good and The Word was The Logos The Word is The ChristIt was John on Rubber Soul who intuitively knew:"The Word is just The Way and The Word is Love"Use your imagination and you will see that before Christ walked the earth a man, He was already a She: Hokema, Holy Wisdom; the Feminine Divinityand isn't that good news? The God Head is One Pure Being; as much male as female as much mommy as daddy.And we are all children of Her Universe;And **He is the oldest personality because He is the origin of everything; and everything is born of Him. He is the supreme controller of the universe, the maintainer and instructor of humanity.He is smaller than the smallest.[**Bhagavad-Gita] He indwells the heart of every atom and She is beyond the Universe.Wisdom is calling, She is rattling your windows and shaking your wallsWith some more good news of the three witnesses, and three always beats one and not just that, I've got a fourth. Get out your Good Book sisters and brothers and chew on this; Matthew 12:31-32, Mark 3:28-29, and Luke 12:10 are simpatico with gnostic Thomas saying 44: 'Jesus said: "Whoever blasphemes against the father will be forgiven, whoever blasphemes against the son will be forgiven, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven either on earth or in heaven." Which means, God is within every sister, brother and all Creation, wake up to your own divinity andGet a clue Christian: His ways are not your ways and Her thoughts are not your thoughtsDominion never meant to rape and plunder, but to nurture, care and loveAnd if you have not love, you have nothing at allAnd on that final day we all will stand naked before The Creator And we have been warned that there will be much wailing and gnashing of teethby those who were so sure they were in, because they are the ones left out.WAKE UP Christian!Hear the wind begin to howl. copyright eileen fleming, excerpted "KEEP HOPE ALIVE"    … Read More

June 3, 2008   |