Israel attack on US Navy ship, history or story

Although 45 years have passed since Israel attacked a US Navy ship in international waters, the US government still maintains silence on the incident.

USS Liberty after Israel's attack on June 8, 1967

June 8 marks the day when Israel’s air and naval forces attacked the US Navy intelligence ship USS Liberty killing 34 crew members and wounding 174 others.

At that time, USS Liberty was the most advanced spy ship in the US navy and was totally destroyed in the powerful attack by Israeli forces.

Although Israeli surveillance recognized the vessel as an American ship many hours before the attack, Israeli officials lied afterwards by claiming that the attack was just an accident.

US media have been banned during the past 46 years from saying anything about the incident.

The attack came on June 8, 1967, when Israel was engaged with Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian armies in its third war with Arab countries.

Washington was concerned that Israel might carry out an attack against Soviet Union’s close ally, Syria and thus bring about a confrontation between the two superpowers.

Washington dispatched USS Liberty, which could monitor all kinds of communication to a radius of 500 miles, to make sure about Israel’s intent to engage with Syria.

Knowing about the ship’s mission, the then Israeli Minister of War Moshe Dayan ordered Israeli forces to target the American vessel.

“After surveilling USS Liberty for more than nine hours with almost hourly aircraft overflights and radar tracking, the air and naval forces of Israel attacked our ship in international waters without warning,” an unnamed former crew member said.

"The Israeli forces attacked without warning and without attempting to contact us. Thirty four Americans were killed in the attack and another 174 were wounded. The ship, a $40-million dollar state-of-the-art signals intelligence platform, was later declared unsalvageable and sold for scrap," the crew member added.

Despite a near-universal consensus that the Israeli attack was conducted with the full knowledge that USS Liberty was a US Navy ship, the Johnson administration began an immediate cover-up of this fact.

Though administration officers continued individually to characterize the attack as deliberate, the Johnson administration never sought the prosecution of the guilty parties or otherwise attempted to seek justice for the victims.

“Americans who volunteer for military service effectively write a blank check, payable to the United States of America for an amount ‘up to and including my life’. The United States, in turn, promises … to protect them and to seek retribution against anyone who harms them. In the case of USS Liberty, the United States has failed to keep its end of the bargain,” the former crew member concluded.

BANK OF THE SOUTH: Options for confronting the crisis

                                                                                                 Mario Esquivel

THE Bank of the South, an initiative launched in December 2007 by seven South American countries, can be described today as a viable and real alternative to face the onslaughts of the international financial crisis.

The Bank of the South is to operate with  a start up sum of $7 billion.

The mission of the institution, designed as an alternative to multilaterals of the stature of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is to promote activities to strengthen economic integration.

In this context, the ratification of the Bank of the South’s constitutional agreement by five of its members (Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador and Uruguay), paved the way for its physical creation.

It is expected that a similar step will be taken by the Paraguayan and Brazilian Parliaments.

The first meeting of the Bank of the South’s Council of Ministers, the body responsible for moving forward the new financial entity’s operational activities, is planned to take place shortly.

With its headquarters in Caracas, Venezuela, the Bank of the South has two branch offices in Buenos Aires and La Paz, and an initial capital of seven billion dollars. This sum is to be contributed in accordance with economic strength; Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela are providing six billion dollars (two billion each). Ecuador and Uruguay are depositing $400 million each, while Paraguay and Bolivia will both add $100 million.

Experts say that the bank’s funds could reach $20 billion, taking into account its members’ potential and the strength of Brazil, among the world elite given its international hard currency reserves of $359 billion.

An innovative element in the constitution is that each member has the right to a vote, at a far remove from existing distortions in the World Bank, where – for example – one single country (the U.S.) holds 16.3% of the total votes, and in contrast, 24 African nations jointly hold 2.85%.

According to Nobel Economy Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, the advantages of a project of this kind include the capacity of reflecting the perspectives of the South. The Bank of the South also provides the conditions to create a new regional financial architecture, capable of promoting development projects of a social nature in order to overcome poverty.

The activation of the Bank of the South is arriving at an opportune moment, given that Latin America and the Caribbean are faced with the possibility of a downturn in the region’s rate of economic expansion within an unfavorable scenario.

Uncertainty, volatility and deceleration are characteristic terms of forecasts for the current period, in which estimates point to an increase of 3.7% in the region’s GDP, as opposed to the 4.3% growth in 2011. The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean has stated that pressure on the world economy and turbulence in international financial markets will have an impact on the area’s development.

United States: judging others

                                                     By Dalia González Delgada

 IN terms of human rights, the United States acts like the judge and executioner every time that it attempts to accuse virtually the entire planet, when its own criminal record makes it a prime example of human rights abuses.

Once again, the U.S. Department of State has sent to Congress its annual report on human rights in the world and, once again, expresses concern about what is taking place in many other countries, including Cuba, where the report states, "the systemic repression of fundamental freedoms" continues.

It would seem that the opinions of many public figures, such as Elías Carranza, director of the UN Latin American Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, who stated, "Cuba is the safest country in the region," go unheard or are not seen as important. It is not the first time that the United States has ignored UN criteria.

The world is changing; Cuba is changing, updating its economic model. However, U.S. rhetoric toward the Revolution remains the same. It insists on including the country on its blacklists in order to justify the blockade, which is doubtless a massive and systematic violation of human rights. In fact, the Geneva Convention of 1948 classifies it as an act of genocide.

According to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the 2011 report makes it clear that governments all over the world are being watched and will be held responsible.
The Department of State is looking everywhere except inward.

With the largest prison population in the world, the United States is the only country where minors can receive a life sentence without the right to conditional liberty. Approximately 10,000 minors are incarcerated in adult penitentiaries.

What is taking place in the U.S. prison camp on the illegally occupied Guantánamo base is a violation of human rights. What is happening to immigrants in the United States is a violation. Is it not a fact that the country is one of the most racist on earth? The same divine right allows it to judge everyone, gives it the freedom to decide upon others’ lives and frequently kill civilian populations with drones and preventive wars.

It is outrageous to accuse Cuba, a country which is making every effort to promote, in practice rather than rhetoric, the most fundamental right of human beings: the right to life.
This is evident to any visitor and most likely the reason for the Cuban travel ban in place for U.S. citizens.

Speaking in Cannes before the screening of the film 7 Days in Havana, Benicio del Toro, who directed one section of the movie, affirmed that the difficulties the U.S. imposes on its own citizens who wish to travel to Cuba could be considered a form of censorship.
Another of the directors, Spaniard Julio Medem, who emphasized that the film "talks of the suffering of the situation and of survival," but also of the optimism of Cubans, "beautiful, talented, close, cordial…"

One could continue with examples but the list would be endless. Besides, it is clear now: the United States needs to play the judge, to avoid being judged as the executioner.

Africa to split into two and drift away

By Anton Yevseev

Australian scientists stated that Africa may split into two in the future. The scientists explored the Rukwa rift (the border between two lithospheric plates) in Tanzania and realized that the tectonic activity in the region was still high. Interestingly enough, all the processes that take place in the region bear a striking resemblance to the start of the split of the continent.

Africa did not exist as a continent 180 million years ago. Africa used to be a part of Gondwana supercontinent together with South America, Australia, the Antarctic, Hindustan, Arabia, Madagascar and New Zealand. In some 30 million years, the supercontinent split and broke into two parts. One of them included Africa and South America, whereas the other one included all the rest. 

Afterwards, all other parts of Gondwana separated from each other.

The continents went quiet afterwards, and it seems that none of them is going to split again. Africa can be an exception from this trend, though. Scientists discovered a long time ago that the eastern rift valley in Africa was a zone of a potential split. The tectonic activity in the region is still higher than anywhere else. In addition, the region is the place, where different lithospheric plates meet.

A group of scientists from James Cook University and Ohio University decided to study the processes that take place in the region. The scientists paid attention to the Rukwa rift in Tanzania. There are no active volcanoes there, which makes the work easier, because the observed phenomena do not depend on the volcanic activity.

The researchers said that one may learn a lot about tectonic processes from changes in riverbeds. Rivers react sharply to such phenomena as mountain formation, crustal recoil and so on. The scientists started studying the flood-plain of the Congo River. At first, they analyzed the tracks of geomagnetic inversions (the changes in the directions of the magnetic field of the Earth) in river sediments. Afterwards, they established the age of the volcanic ash that covered the ancient banks of the Congo River.

Afterwards, they analyzed the depositions of the ancient river plain. Since rivers erode the rocks from different geological eras, it would be logic to presume the following. If the riverbed changes, the structure and composition of the rocks that stood in the way of the water change too. The analysis therefore gives a picture of the path of the riverbed in ancient times.

As a result, the scientists discovered that the Congo River was flowing to the north-west during the Cretaceous period. The river was carrying the rocks from the geological provinces of the south-east. In Oligocene (34-23 million years ago), the river changed its course abruptly and started flowing in the south-eastern direction. Such things usually happen during the mountain formation period.

However, the Congo currently flows to the north-west again. The last time, when the river changed its course, took place approximately 25 million years ago. The crust on the rift went up again, although it happened on the other side of the rift.

Crustal recoils take place prior to the beginning of splits. The split itself occurs when the Earth's mantle pushes substances out, and they come to the surface at the places where the crust is thinner. The upper layers of the crust form "wrinkles" - the mountains that is.

However, the newly formed wrinkles create an obstacle for the substances coming out from the mantle. To put it otherwise, mountains play the role or a cork in a bottle of champagne. The pressure underneath them grows, the crust burst at some moment, and the substance from the mantle comes out to the surface, pushing the plates aside. The rift breaks, and if the process takes place on land, then it creates two continents from one.

One may observe the initial stage of this process in modern-day Africa. The substance underneath the continent is looking for a place to come out on the surface, causing the crust to go up. The rift does not break because Africa, that used to be the very center of Gondwana, consists of super thick plates. However, nothing lasts forever, and there will be the time when the plates burst.

It is worthy of note that Eurasia starts to "crawl" underneath the African plates. This may exacerbate the situation. When the pressure in the crust reaches a critical point, the Black Continent will split on the line of the Rukwa rift. The waters of the Indian Ocean will rush into the crack, and the process will end with the creation of two Africas - the smaller (North-Western) and the bigger one (South-Eastern).

The fate of the two new parts of the continent will most likely be different too. The north-western piece will be drifting towards South America.  The south-western part will have a choice. It may move either towards Australia or the Antarctic.

Royal Festivities Hide Bitter Truth !

Celebrations marking the British Queen’s 60th year on the throne have officially begun in Britain while republican activists say this show cannot hide Britain’s “highly questionable constitutional arrangement.”

Anti-monarchy activists in Britain say the royal festivities are “a neat way of distracting” the public from the bitter reality that this is the Queen who has the supreme authority in Britain and her vast powers can never be challenged “in a court of law.”

This is the British monarch who calls the shots in Britain as the country’s unwritten constitution gives her the power to appoint ministers, sign treaties, change the law, and even declare wars. And she does exercise those powers on the instruction of her Prime Minister as the two meet on a weekly basis, with the meetings remaining strictly confidential.

This comes as the Republican movement in Britain which rejects inherited power and privilege and seeks democratic reforms not only gets almost no media coverage but also is somehow banned under the Treason Felony Act.

The act which was passed by the British parliament in 1848 and is still in force says punishment for advocacy of republicanism could be life imprisonment.

Even former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi referred to the vast powers of the British Queen in order to justify his own crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Libya last year.

“Why did no one question (the UK's) Queen Elizabeth for invading Iraq?” Gaddafi asked at a time reports said he had killed hundreds of protesters in Libya.

However, Gaddafi faced a very different fate. He was not clever enough to portray himself as a symbolic figure and exercise powers by holding confidential meetings with a prime minister, changing the law through a Privy Council, and at the same time remaining immune from any challenge at a court of law.