PDF-Version: selected 4.10.2019
Selected articles (October 04, 2019)
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1)
Dangerous Detentions: Julian Assange and Remaining in Belmarsh
By Binoy Kampmark
September 30, 2019
https://dissidentvoice.org/2019/09/dangerous-detentions-julian-assange-and-remaining-in-belmarsh/
„[…] At the Westminster Magistrates court hearing on September 13, District Judge Vanessa Baraitser was short and sharp. “You have been produced today because your sentence of imprisonment is about to come to an end. When that happens your remand status changes from serving prisoner to a person facing extradition.”[…]“
„[…]The UN Special Rapporteur, Nils Melzer, has also issued stirring assessments of Assange’s detention, with its compounding cruelties. “In 20 years of work with victims of war, violence and political prosecution, I have never seen a group of democratic states gang up to deliberately isolate, demonise and abuse a single individual for such a long time and with so little regard for human dignity and the rule of law. The collective punishment of Julian Assange must end here and now.” Sadly, and depressingly for publishers, the process continues, wearingly and destructively.[…]“
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2)
The Plunder of the Commons – A Manifesto for Sharing Public Wealth (Guy Standing)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZCJBUAVhSk&feature=youtu.be
“[…]Watch Social Europe Editor-in-Chief Henning Meyer in conversation with Guy Standing. They discuss the plunder of the commons and ways to share public wealth, the topic of Guy Standing’s most recent book published by Pelican Books.Guy Standing is a British professor of Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and co-founder of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN).[…]”
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3a)
One Year After Khashoggi’s Brutal Murder: Business as Usual?
Who is more evil—the maniacal Saudi crown prince responsible for the journalist’s gruesome assassination and the murder of tens of thousands of Yemenis, or the mendacious world leaders and businesspeople who continue to give MbS their support?
By Medea Benjamin
October 01, 2019
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/10/01/one-year-after-khashoggis-brutal-murder-business-usual
3b)
Why Saudi Arabia Can’t Escape Jamal Khashoggi
(Stratfor)
October 2, 2019
3c)
MBS must shelve his vicious war in Yemen
By Pepe Escobar
October 02, 2019
http://thesaker.is/mbs-must-shelve-his-vicious-war-in-yemen/
3d)
A Generation Deleted: American Bombs in Yemen Are Costing an Entire Generation Their Future
By Ahmed Abdulkareem
October 03, 2019
As a new school year begins in Yemen, Ahmed AbdulKareem investigates the impact that American weapons have had on the war-torn country’s schoolchildren.
https://www.mintpressnews.com/american-bombs-yemen-cost-children-future/262184/
3e)
Saudi Crown Prince Is Suddenly Keen on Peace in Yemen and Dialogue with Iran
Riyadh on the Retreat?
By Abdel Bari Atwan
October 02 ,2019
https://ahtribune.com/world/north-africa-south-west-asia/al-saud/3533-riyadh-on-the-retreat.html
“The interview with Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin-Salman aired by the American CBS channel on Sunday was noteworthy in three respects.
First, he spoke and behaved like Saudi Arabia’s absolute ruler. He barely mentioned his father King Salman and accepted responsibility for the murder of Jamal Kashoggi in his capacity as the country’s chief executive in charge of its three million state employees.
Second, he was unusually conciliatory towards Iran and its allies, completely abandoning the hawkish escalatory tone that has characterized most if not all his previous interviews.
Third, the man who launched the Yemen war and pledged to continue waging it in the name of ‘legitimacy’ insisted he was open to any effort to bring it to a peaceful end, and that he prefers a political solution to a military one.[…]”
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4)
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to questions during the Valdai International Discussion Club’s panel on Russia’s policy in the Middle East, Sochi, October 2, 2019
http://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/-/asset_publisher/cKNonkJE02Bw/content/id/3826083
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5a)
Central Bankers Go Green… Why?
By Matthew Ehret
October 2, 2019
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/10/02/central-bankers-go-green-why/
5b)
Global Warming and the Ozone Layer: What’s More Dangerous, CO2 or Nuclear War?
An Overview
By Prof Michel Chossudovsky
September 29, 2019
5c)
Prominent scientists warn UN Secretary-General Guterres
https://clintel.nl/prominent-scientists-warn-un-secretary-general-guterres/
https://clintel.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/ecd-press-briefing.pdf
https://clintel.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/ecd-letter-to-un.pdf
5d)
Dear True Environmentalists: Fight Corporate Criminality, not Atmospheric Gases
By Denis Rancourt
(Denis G. Rancourt is a former tenured full professor of physics at the University of Ottawa, Canada)
October 3, 2019
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6)
Syria in a Week (24 – 30 September 2019)
By Syria in a Week Editors
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7)
Understanding China’s Belt and Road infrastructure projects in Africa
By David Dollar
(The Brookings Institution)
September 2019
full text:
https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/FP_20190930_china_bri_dollar.pdf
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8a)
The Africa-Palestine Conference: Why South Africa Must Lead the Way
By Ramzy Baroud
October 03, 2019
8b)
RESOLUTION ADOPTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
[on the report of the Third Committee (A/10320)]
3379 (XXX). Elimination of all forms of racial discrimination
https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/761C1063530766A7052566A2005B74D1
The General Assembly,
Recalling its resolution 1904 (XVIII) of 20 November 1963, proclaiming the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and in particular its affirmation that „any doctrine of racial differentiation or superiority is scientifically false, morally condemnable, socially unjust and dangerous“ and its expression of alarm at „the manifestations of racial discrimination still in evidence in some areas in the world, some of which are imposed by certain Governments by means of legislative, administrative or other measures“,
Recalling also that, in its resolution 3151 G (XXVIII) of 14 December 1973, the General Assembly condemned, inter alia, the unholy alliance between South African racism and zionism,
Taking note of the Declaration of Mexico on the Equality of Women and Their Contribution to Development and Peace, 1/ proclaimed by the World Conference of the International Women’s Year, held at Mexico City from 19 June to 2 July 1975, which promulgated the principle that „international co-operation and peace require the achievement of national liberation and independence, the elimination of colonialism and neo-colonialism, foreign occupation, zionism, apartheid and racial discrimination in all its forms, as well as the recognition of the dignity of peoples and their right to self-determination“,
Taking note also of resolution 77 (XII) adopted by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity at its twelfth ordinary session,2/ hold at Kampala from 28 July to 1 August 1975, which considered „that the racist regime in occupied Palestine and the racist regimes in Zimbabwe and South Africa have a common imperialist origin, forming a whole and having the same racist structure and being organically linked in their policy aimed at repression of the dignity and integrity of the human being“,
Taking note also of the Political Declaration and Strategy to Strengthen International Peace and Security and to Intensify Solidarity and Mutual Assistance among Non-Aligned Countries,3/ adopted at the Conference of Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Non-Aligned Countries held at Lima from 25 to 30 August 1975, which most severely condemned zionism as a threat to world peace and security and called upon all countries to oppose this racist and imperialist ideology,
Determines that zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.
2400th plenary meeting
10 November 1975
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1/ E/5725, part one, sect. I.
2/ See A/10297, annex II.
3/ A/10217 and Corr.1, annex, p. 3.
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9a)
Iran Is China’s Secret Weapon for Killing off the US Dollar’s Global Reserve Status
By Federico Pieraccini
October 3, 2019
“[…] Between Obama and Trump there have been the Arab Spring, wars threatened and carried out, economic destabilization, financial terrorism, threats to allies, the sale of obsolete military hardware, and a change in strategy (“Pivot to Asia”) occasioned by the transition from a unipolar to a multipolar order. In such a changing world, the US dollar will inevitably be replaced with a basket of currencies, which will in turn wipe out the unlimited spending power that enabled Washington to become the superpower it is today.
Beijing understood this mechanism years ago, and now sees Iran as the catalyst for effecting epochal change. Iran is useful not only because the BRI transits through its territory, but because it also offers the economic checkmate to America’s petrodollar hegemon, offering itself as a stalking horse for approaching Saudi Arabia and bringing this kingdom into the multipolar fold.[…]”
9b)
Please, Mr. President, We Don’t Want To Win Anymore
By Derek Davison
September 26, 2019
https://lobelog.com/please-mr-president-we-dont-want-to-win-anymore/
„[…] The obvious assumption is that the maximum pressure campaign is meant to provoke a war with Iran. But, despite surrounding himself with long-standing advocates for such a war (Pompeo, his now-former National Security Advisor Bolton, and hanger-on Rudy Giuliani to name but three); outsourcing much of his Middle East policy to Iran foes Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates; and accepting considerable financial support from Iran war advocate Sheldon Adelson, Trump himself continues to insist that he doesn’t want a military conflict.
So, then, what does he want, and how does he imagine that staying the course on a dismally failed policy will achieve it? Whether intentional or not, what now seems clear is that the maximum pressure campaign is both means and end. Cruelty has become the goal. And this isn’t just true with respect to Iran. In case after case—from North Korea to the Palestinian people to Venezuela to the southern U.S. border and inside the U.S. itself—the Trump administration has adopted policies marked by what can at best be described as callous indifference to the tremendous suffering it has caused.[…]“
9c)
Iran’s Counter-Discourse of Hope
October 3, 2019
By Kaveh L. Afrasiabi
https://lobelog.com/irans-counter-discourse-of-hope/
“[…] Centered on the idea of peaceful cooperation among the eight littoral Gulf states—Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—the initiative carries the potential to break significant ice between Iran and its Arab rivals in the region. Several foreign leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, have expressed interest in Rouhani’s peace initiative, with Lavrov stating that he finds it in sync, and parallel with, Russia’s recent idea for collective security in the Persian Gulf.
Rouhani left it to his foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, to elaborate on the details of the HOPE initiative. Zarif, who has been conferring with diplomats from Gulf states such as Qatar and Kuwait, and was given an opportunity to present a detailed outline of the initiative at the UN Security Council on September 27. According to Zarif, “Dialogue, Confidence-building, Freedom of navigation, Energy security, Non-aggression, and Non-intervention” form HOPE’s key components. This runs contrary to the logic of intensifying U.S. military presence in the region. Emphasizing security self-reliance instead of foreign dependence, HOPE rests on the premise that foreign (military) presence in the region is a security minus and brings only insecurity.[…]”
9d)
How US sanctions are crippling science in Iran
Besieged researchers say that currency collapse, scientific isolation and psychological strain are hindering almost every aspect of their work.
By Declan Butler
24 September 2019
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02795-y
9e)
Iran Builds $1.8B Oil Pipeline To Bypass Strait Of Hormuz
By Tsvetana Paraskova
October 01, 2019
9f)
No, the Saudi Oil Attacks Were Not ‚False Flag‘
By David Macilwain
October 01, 2019
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10a)
Just as Iraq Begins to Find Peace, It Once Again Becomes the Battleground for an American Proxy War
By Patrick Cockburn
October 2, 2019
10b)
Iraqi PM says ready to meet protesters, pledges change
October 4, 2019
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/10/04/607811/Iraq-Prime-Minister-Abdul-Mahdi-protests
Amir Mortasawi (alias Afsane Bahar) (امیر مرتضوی (افسانه بهار 