Chomsky | Australia | Hiroshima | Afghanistan | China and Africa

Rob sent these links to videos of Chomsky’s talk at Peking University:
乔姆斯基教授北大百年讲堂讲演 – intro, main talk, Q&A (Youku)

张传文: 当乔姆斯基遭遇中国 (南方都市报)
Excerpts in English can be found here:
Andy Yee: Noam Chomsky in China (Global Voices)

K. wrote: Oz is a colonial backwater like Canada…I remember when the CIA got rid of Whitlam i believe…Billiton (aka Broken Hill) is the largest mining corp in the world about to take over potashcorp, world’s largest potash producer and the second and third largest producer of nitrogen and phosphate.
Rachel Pannett: Shadow of Ouster Hangs Over Australian Vote (Wall Street Journal)

K. also sent these two links:
Ameen Izzadeen: Hiroshima: the humbug and the hypocrisy (Daily Mirror)
Tim Kennelly: Afghanistan Crisis Deepens: US, Canada and NATO Threaten to Extend War (The Bullet)
K.’s comment: Bob [Rae]‘s brother is the main man for the head of the biggest corporation in Canada (Power Corp) which is a front for Rockefeller’s SO. All if not 99.9% of Canadan prime ministers have bin former employees of Power Corp.

Deborah Brautigam: Is China Sending Prisoners to Work Overseas? (China in Africa: The Real Story)
Barry Sautman, Yan Hairong: Stirring up trouble: Claims that China sends convicts to labour in Africa are unfounded (China in Africa: The Real Story)

 

Wikileaks | Football | Haiti | Australia | Korea

Paul Street: Revealing Moments: Obama, WikiLeaks, the “Good War” Myth, and Silly Liberal Faith in the Emperor (MRzine)

War crime whistleblower in Obama’s sights, war criminals not.

Alexander Cockburn: Do Disclosures of Atrocities Change Anything? (CounterPunch)

The important constituency here is liberals, who duly rise to the challenge of unpleasant disclosures of imperial crimes. In the wake of scandals such as those revealed at Abu Ghraib, or in the Wikileaks files, they are particularly eager to proclaim that they “can take it” – i.e., endure convincing accounts of monstrous tortures, targeted assassinations by US forces, obliteration of wedding parties or entire villages, and emerge with ringing affirmations of the fundamental overall morality of the imperial enterprise. This was very common in the Vietnam war and repeated in subsequent imperial ventures such the sanctions and ensuing attack on Iraq, and now the war in Afghanistan. Of course in the case of Israel it’s an entire way of life for a handsome slice of America’s liberals.
What does end wars? One side is annihilated, the money runs out, the troops mutiny, the government falls, or fears it will. With the U.S. war in Afghanistan none of these conditions has yet been met.

May sent this article on football:
May de Silva: The Better Half of the World Game (The Island)

Kris sent these two links on Haiti and Australia:
Charlie Hinton, Kiilu Nyasha: Wyclef Jean For President Of Haiti? Look Beyond The Hype (Before It’s News)

To cut to the chase, no election in Haiti, and no candidate in those elections, will be considered legitimate by the majority of Haiti’s population, unless it includes the full and fair participation of the Fanmi Lavalas Party of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Fanmi Lavalas is unquestionably the most popular party in the country, yet the “international community,” led by the United States, France, and Canada, has done everything possible to undermine Aristide and Lavalas, overthrowing him twice by military coups in 1991 and 2004, and banishing Aristide, who now lives in South Africa with his family, from the Americas.

John Pilger: Julia Gillard, the new warlord of Oz (New Statesman)

The rise to power of Australia’s first female prime minister led to hopes for political change. But early signs indicate that Gillard will do little more than protect vested big-business interests.

Puerto Rican nationalist Lolita Lebron dies at 89 (AP/Guardian)
Lolita Lebrón (Wikipedia)

Hilary Keenan: Shock wave and bubble: the untruth about the Cheonan (21st Century Socialism)
Gregory Elich: Doubts Persist: The Sinking of the Cheonan and Its Political Uses (CounterPunch)
Lee Yeong-in: Government protests Russia’s Conflicting Cheonan findings (Hankoryeh)

[South Korean] 1st Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Shin Kak-soo summoned Russian Ambassador to South Korea Konstantin Vnukov to the Foreign Ministry on July 4 to express “astonishment” at Russia’s investigation findings because the findings were a complete contradiction to the South Korean government’s announcement.

 

Kosovo | Korea | Venezuela | Unions | Iran …

Peter Beaumont: Kosovo breakaway from Serbia was legal, world court rules (Guardian)

Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia was legal under international law, the world court said today in a groundbreaking ruling with implications for separatist movements around the world and for Belgrade’s stalled EU membership talks.
The ruling – taken up by the international court of justice after a complaint from Serbia – is likely to lead more countries to recognise Kosovo’s independence. The tiny state is backed by 69 countries but needs 100 to join the UN.

Edward S. Herman: Srebrenica 15 Years After: The Politicization of “Genocide” (MRzine)

John sent this link:
Eva Golinger: Documents reveal multimillion-dollar funding to journalists and media in Venezuela (venezuelanalysis.com)

US State Department documents declassified under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) evidence more than $4 million USD in funding to journalists and private media in Venezuela during the last three years. This funding is part of the more than $40 million USD international agencies are investing annually in anti-Chavez groups in Venezuela in an attempt to provoke regime change.

Wang Lixin: Workers want real unions and that’s the problem (Shanghai Daily)

Greg Miller, Thomas Erdbrink: U.S. paid Iranian nuclear scientist $5 million for aid to CIA, officials say (Washintgon Post)
Flynt Leverett, Hillary Mann Leverett: Desperately Seeking “Defectors” to Make a Case for an Iran War (MRzine)

Coverage of Shahram Amiri’s departure from the United States and his return to Iran has focused, rather superficially, on the question of whether he was kidnapped or defected and then changed his mind. Frankly, we are more interested in what reports that the CIA tried to pay Amiri $5 million say about the current political and policy environment in Washington with regard to Iran-related issues. [...] Indeed, the CIA and the rest of the Intelligence Community seem sufficiently desperate to make their case that they will pay taxpayer dollars to gotten-up defectors who might be prepared to say—for the right price—what Washington elites want to hear.

Sanghyuk S Shin, Ricky Y Choi, Thomas E Novotny: Economic sanctions towards North Korea: A violation of the right to health and a call to action (British Medical Journal)

In light of the grave implications for the health of the North Korean people, the health community must oppose the use of economic sanctions. Through purposeful health diplomacy, US and other health professionals should use their expertise and commitment to human rights to contribute to meaningful engagement. With regard to health, humanity has more in common across political divides than differences, even in North Korea; it is time to work with those commonalities in the pursuit of peace.

Gideon Levy: Tricky Bibi / תחמניהו (Ha’aretz)

Enough of the claims that the Palestinians are to blame for the failure of Oslo. In the settlement of Ofra, Netanyahu revealed the naked truth: He himself scuppered the Oslo Accords, and even boasts about it.
הקץ לטענות שהפלסטינים אשמים בכישלון הסכמי אוסלו. נתניהו חשף בפני מארחיו בעופרה את האמת העירומה: במו ידיו ומעשיו הוא חיסל את הסכמי אוסלו, והוא אפילו מתגאה בכך

Anshel Pfeffer: Lethal joysticks / רואות ויורות. לפגוע במחבלים מהכיסא בחמ”ל (Ha’aretz)

With the press of a button the dome opens to reveal a heavy machine gun. Small tweaks of the joystick aim the barrel. To the right of the gun is a camera, which transmits a clear picture of the target onto a screen opposite the soldier. A press of the button and the figure in the crosshairs is hit by a 0.5-inch bullet.
בלחיצת כפתור נפתחת הכיפה ומתגלה מקלע כבד. לחיצות קטנות על הג’ויסטיק מכוונות את הקנה. לימין המקלע מותקן מצלמה שמעבירה את תמונת המטרה בבירור למסך מול החיילת. לחיצה על הכפתור והדמות שעל הצלב חוטפת קליע בקוטר 0.5 אינץ’

Jonathan Cook: Israel’s video game killing technology (Electronic Intifada)

Spot and Shoot, as it is called by the Israeli military, may look like a video game but the figures on the screen are real people—Palestinians in Gaza—who can be killed with the press of a button on the joystick.
The female soldiers, located far away in an operations room, are responsible for aiming and firing remote-controlled machine-guns mounted on watch-towers every few hundred meters along an electronic fence that surrounds Gaza.

Gideon Levy: He impersonated a human / התחזה לבנאדם (Ha’aretz)

Sabbar Kashur wanted to be a person, a person like everybody else. But as luck would have it, he was born Palestinian. It happens. His chances of being accepted as a human being in Israel are nil.
סבאר קאשור רצה להיות בנאדם, סתם בנאדם, כמו כולם. אלא שאיתרע מזלו והוא נולד פלסטיני. קורה. סיכוייו להתקבל כבן אדם בישראל אפסו.

John Sexton: US finds bullying a tough habit to kick (China.org.cn)
John Sexton: Fallujah genetic damage “worse than Hiroshima” (China.org.cn)
John Sexton: UK deputy PM says Iraq war was illegal (China.org.cn)
John Sexton: US expert challenges myths about China in Africa (China.org.cn)

 

Kyrgyzstan | BP | Korea

F. William Engdahl: Washington, Moscow, Beijing and the Geopolitics of Central Asia (GlobalResearch)
Part I: Kyrgyzstan as a Geopolitical Pivot in Great Power Rivalries.
Part II: Kyrgyzstan’s “Rose Revolution”.
Part III: Kyrgyzstan’s “Roza Revolution”: Russia and the Future of Kyrgyzstan.

Khadija Sharife (or Sherife): Oil Makes Its Own Laws: Self-regulation and Flags of Convenience (MRzine / Le monde diplomatique)*

If you’re interested in further details about the sinking of the south Korean ship, you should find these two long articles very useful:

John McGlynn: Politics in Command: The “International” Investigation into the Sinking of the Cheonan and the Risk of a New Korean War (Japan Focus)

While the South Korean and US governments seek to cloak the JIG’s 5-page document with the legitimacy of an international investigation, this is an unsigned South Korean statement that draws on anonymous expert opinion from the US, UK, Australia, Canada and Sweden. There are five reasons why the 5-page statement cannot be considered scientific and objective, nor does it meet the test of being international in the sense that a single government has not controlled or strongly influenced the statement’s contents.

Seunghun Lee, Jae-Jung Suh: Rush to Judgment: Inconsistencies in South Korea’s Cheonan Report (Japan Focus)

While we emphatically note that our findings do not prove that North Korean did not do it, we conclude that the JIG has failed to prove that it did. The seriousness of the inconsistencies in fact casts doubt not only on the validity of the JIG conclusions but also on the integrity of its investigation. We suspect that at least some of the EDS data was fabricated, and recommend that an impartial board be formed to verify the integrity of the JIG data.

And here’s more (if you’re really into this issue):

S.-H. Lee, P. Yang: Was the “Critical Evidence” presented in the South Korean Official Cheonan Report Fabricated? (arxiv.org)
Tanaka Sakai 田中 宇: 韓国軍艦「天安」沈没の深層 (田中宇の国際ニュース解説)
English translation by Kyoko Selden: Who Sank the South Korean Warship Cheonan? A New Stage in the US-Korean War and US-China Relations (Japan Focus)
S. C. Shin: Letter to Hillary Clinton (PDF; Seoprise)

Bruce Cumings: US Stance on Korea Ignores Tensions Rooted in 65-Year-Old Conflict; North Korea Sinking Could Be Response to November ’09 South Korea Attack (Democracy Now)
Paul Liem: Honor the Cheonan Dead with Peace (Znet)

Urging China to support punitive actions against North Korea for the sinking of a South Korean naval war ship, the Cheonan, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton implored China last week to read a 400 page report concluding that a North Korean midget submarine torpedoed the Cheonan on March 26, 2010 in the West Sea, killing 46 sailors. Yet the South Korean government has failed to release the full 400 page report to the National Assembly and has sought to silence dissenting opinions.

Kim Myong Chol: Pyongyang sees US role in Cheonan sinking (Asia Times)
Kim Myong Chol: South Korea in the line of friendly fire (Asia Times)
Stephen Gowans: The sinking of the Cheonan: Another Gulf of Tonkin incident (what’s left blog; if you can’t access this article, I can send it by e-mail)
Verification of the Cheonan investigation at the National Assembly (Hankoryeh)
China proposes UN Military Armistice Commission convene for reinvestigation into Cheonan (Hankoryeh)
Selig S. Harrison: What Seoul should do despite the Cheonan (Hankoryeh)

I don’t know whether North Korea torpedoed the Cheonan, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it did. Lee Myung Bak has invited retaliation by repudiating the commitment to coexistence and eventual confederation enshrined in the two summit declarations negotiated with Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun.

Georgy Toloraya: Peace or War? Do we have to choose? A Russian Perspective (38north)
David Cyranoski: Controversy over South Korea’s sunken ship (Nature)
Ben Richardson, Saeromi Shin: South Korea Faces Domestic Skeptics Over Evidence Against North (Bloomberg Businessweek)

* The article on BP is available in several other languages.
Esperanto: Kiel BP spitas la leĝon
Deutsch: BP, das Loch und die Machenschaften
Polski: Jak BP tworzy sobie prawo
Norsk: Slik unndrar oljeselskapene seg ansvar

 

State building | Iran | Chomsky

Isabel alerted us to this article:
Alex de Waal: “Dollarised: The Political Marketplace”. In: London Review of Books 32.12:38–43 (June 24, 2010). Online version here (subscription only). The article is based on this lecture:
Fixing the Political Marketplace: How can we make peace without functioning state institutions? (PDF file; Christen Michelsen Institute)

Shamus Cooke: Dangerous Crossroads in World History: Obama’s New Iran Sanctions: An Act of War (GlobalResearch.ca)

When the UN refused to agree to the severe sanctions that the U.S. wanted, Obama responded with typical Bush flair and went solo. The new U.S. sanctions against Iran — signed into law by Obama on July 1st — are an unmistakable act of war.
If fully enforced, Iran’s economy will be potentially destroyed. The New York Times outlines the central parts of the sanctions:
“The law signed by Mr. Obama imposes penalties on foreign entities that sell refined petroleum to Iran or assist Iran with its domestic refining capacity. It also requires that American and foreign businesses that seek contracts with the United States government certify that they do not engage in prohibited business with Iran.” (July 1, 2010).
Iran must import a large part of its refined oil from foreign corporations and nations, since it does not have the technology needed to refine all the fuel that it pumps from its soil. By cutting this refined oil off, the U.S. will be causing massive, irreparable damage to the Iranian economy — equaling an act of war.

David Tresilian: Noam Chomsky: speaking of truth and power (Al-Ahram Weekly)
German translation by Andrea Noll: Die wahre Gefahr an Bord der „Freedom Flotilla“ (ZMag)

Israel is becoming extremely paranoid, overtaken by ultra-nationalist sentiments, and is acting pretty irrationally, from its own point of view. They are harming their own interests. My own denial of entry was a minor example of that. If they had just let me in to give a talk at Bir Zeit, that would have been the end of the story. In fact I wasn’t even talking about the Middle East. I was talking about the United States, and they knew it of course.

 

Iran | Korea | G20 | McChrystal

Noam Chomsky: The Iranian Threat (ZSpace)

[An ISS] study makes it clear that the Iranian threat is not military. Iran’s military spending is “relatively low compared to the rest of the region,” and less than 2% that of the US. Iranian military doctrine is strictly “defensive,… designed to slow an invasion and force a diplomatic solution to hostilities.” Iran has only “a limited capability to project force beyond its borders.” With regard to the nuclear option, “Iran’s nuclear program and its willingness to keep open the possibility of developing nuclear weapons is a central part of its deterrent strategy.”
Though the Iranian threat is not military, that does not mean that it might be tolerable to Washington. Iranian deterrent capacity is an illegitimate exercise of sovereignty that interferes with US global designs. [...]
Iran is also supporting terrorism, the study continues: by backing Hezbollah and Hamas, the major political forces in Lebanon and in Palestine – if elections matter. The Hezbollah-based coalition handily won the popular vote in Lebanon’s latest (2009) election. Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian election, compelling the US and Israel to institute the harsh and brutal siege of Gaza to punish the miscreants for voting the wrong way in a free election. These have been the only relatively free elections in the Arab world.

Shan Shan: Shanghai Power Politics: China Shuts Out Iran from SCO (Enduring America)
Jian Junbo: Iran vote shows China’s Western drift (Asia Times)

China voting for sanctions on Iran signals a change in [its] position on international affairs; it could be a shift caused by the increasing economic interdependence between China and the West.

Nathan Coombs: The excess of the left in Iran (Culture Wars)

Up until the formation of the guerrilla movements of the Fidayeen and Mujahideen in the 1970s, the central leftist organisation, the Tudeh Party, operating from outside the country, had renounced direct revolutionary activity and was tainted by its failure to oppose the CIA sponsored coup against the democratically-elected nationalist leader Dr Mossadeg in 1953. The Tudeh Party, owing a slavish allegiance to Joseph Stalin, initially opposed Mossadeg’s project of nationalising Iran’s oil companies, thanks to a bizarre interpretation of what the Soviets’ wishes would be about the balance of power between British and American imperialism. By the time they eventually realised an imperialist coup was underway and an alliance with the nationalist bourgeoisie was essential, they failed to act decisively, and thus the Pahlavi monarchy was imposed upon the country, until its fall in 1979.

Matthew Reiss: Jeju islanders want love, not war (Asia Times)

South Korean defense and intelligence officials initially said that the sinking of the Cheonan – with the loss of 46 lives – did not involve North Korea. An international investigation, however, blamed Pyongyang for the incident. It was followed by a crackdown against the report’s critics, and concerns persist that Seoul may be drifting toward rigid tendencies thought to have been abandoned when it ended one-party rule in 1987.
Civil investigator SC Shin, assigned by the Korean National Assembly to participate in the Cheonan investigation, found no evidence of damage to the interior of the ship, no burning of cable housings, nor any signs on sailors’ bodies of pressure, burns or shrapnel from the alleged torpedo explosion.
He reported that the ship radioed naval headquarters and the Coast Guard that it had been grounded. Shin also reported that four Aegis destroyers of between 6,800 and 9,600 tonnes were participating in a naval exercise 130 kilometers from the scene, and he described the 1,200 ton Cheonan being split in two as the likely result of a collision with a much larger ship. After he made his findings public, he was charged with defamation by defense officials who blamed the wreckage on a North Korean torpedo, and he was questioned by the Seoul Prosecutor’s office. A member of the National Assembly who contradicted the report’s conclusions was also charged with defamation.

The Mass Arrests, the Security State and the Toronto G20 Summit (Socialist Project)

Jonathan Owen, Brian Brady: The last post: McChrystal’s bleak outlook (Independent)

Sacked US General Stanley McChrystal issued a devastatingly critical assessment of the war against a “resilient and growing insurgency” just days before being forced out. [...] It was this briefing, according to informed sources, as much as the Rolling Stone article, which convinced Mr Obama to move against the former head of US Special Forces [...] General McChrystal’s presentation to Nato defence ministers and Isaf representatives provided an uncompromising obstacle to Mr Obama’s plan to bring troops home in time to give him a shot at a second term, according to senior military sources.

Rob: War is peace – government and media doublethink in Britain (Black and White Cat)

 

Turkey–Israel | Gaza | Jamaica | USA | Football

Ramzy Baroud: The Middle East is Changing: What Ankara Knows (CounterPunch)
Jonathan Cook: Punitive blockade still in force despite Israeli bait and switch (The National)
Jonathan Cook: Israeli foreign minister wants Palestinians stripped of citizenship and relocated (The National)

Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s far-right foreign minister, set out this week what he called a “blueprint for a resolution to the conflict” with the Palestinians that demands most of the country’s large Palestinian minority be stripped of citizenship and relocated outside Israel’s future borders.

Asa Winstanley: Leaked documents show PA undermined Turkey’s push for UN flotilla probe (Electronic Intifada)

The Palestinian Authority attempted to neutralize a United Nations Human Rights Council resolution condemning Israel’s deadly attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla [...] [T]the Palestinian Authority (PA) stood with European Union (EU) countries against Turkey’s calls for robust action to hold Israel accountable. The PA’s apparent collusion to shield Israel will recall for many its efforts to undermine UN action on the Goldstone report last October.

Bettina Malter: „Krieg ist ein Muss“ (Die Zeit; Google translation into English)

Schimon Peres gilt als Friedenspolitiker. Die Historikerin Tamar Amar-Dahl beschreibt den israelischen Präsidenten jedoch als Nationalisten, für den Krieg unerlässlich ist. Shimon Peres is seen as a politician for peace. Historian Tamar Amar-Dahl however describes the Israeli president as a nationalist who regards war as essential.

Casey Gane-McCalla: How The CIA Created The Jamaican Shower Posse (NewsOne for Black America)
Nima Shirazi: World Cup Domination & Entertaining the Empire: One Aim Changes Everything (OpEdNews)

Chris McGreal: US supreme court: Nonviolent aid to banned groups tantamount to ‘terrorism’ (Guardian)

The US supreme court has upheld a broad-ranging law that allows Americans who offer advice to banned organisations, including legal assistance and information on conflict resolution, to be prosecuted as terrorists.
The case arose out of human rights advice given by a California group to Kurdish and Tamil organisations that are listed as terrorist groups in the US.
The supreme court upheld the Obama administration’s argument that even advice intended to be used for peaceful purposes amounted to “material support” for terrorism.

Tomás Rosa Bueno: Brazil and Iran: Our Motives and the Bullying Trio (MRzine)

Alex Main: USAID: The Bone of Contention in U.S.–Bolivia Relations (MRzine)

Declassified documents uncovered by investigative journalist Jeremy Bigwood through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) show that, as early as 2002, USAID funded a “Political Party Reform Project” designed to “serve as a counterweight to [Evo Morales’] radical MAS [party] or its successors.” Though USAID has refused to reveal which political organizations have received funding since Evo Morales’ election in 2006, the FOIA documents point to possible funding of opposition groups that engaged in violent tactics and sparked an explosive political crisis in September of 2008.

Robert Fisk: Fighting talk: The new propaganda (Independent)

 

Oil Spills | Korea | Gaza | Strikes

Maxwell Abbott: The Oil Spill the World Forgot (Center for Media and Democracy)

Rasika Sanjeewa Weerawickrama: Sinking of the ROKS Cheonan Korean naval vessel in the Yellow Sea of Pacific Ocean (Asian Human Rights Commission)
Kim Jae-hwan: South Korea hunts for clues to warship disaster (AFP/Google)
Yoichi Shimatsu: Did an American Mine Sink South Korean Ship? (New America Media)

In the recent U.S.-China strategic talks in Shanghai and Beijing, the Chinese side dismissed the official scenario presented by the Americans and their South Korean allies as not credible. This conclusion was based on an independent technical assessment by the Chinese military, according to a Beijing-based military affairs consultant to the People Liberation Army.

Barak Ravid: Abbas to Obama: I’m against lifting the Gaza naval blockade (Ha’aretz)

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is opposed to lifting the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip because this would bolster Hamas, according to what he told United States President Barack Obama during their meeting at the White House Wednesday. Egypt also supports this position.

Barak Ravid: Government announces let-up to Gaza siege – but only in English (Ha’aretz)

Amira Hass: Gazans get halva, but not cookies / (Ha’aretz)

Since May, Israel has permitted bringing some 100 items (out of some 4,000 before the blockade ) into Gaza. The Gisha human rights advocacy group has released a report saying a large Israeli supermarket holds 10,000-15,000 items.
The expanded list is Israel’s first tangible step to temper the uproar caused by last week’s raid, but little more than snack foods and spices were added.
It still does not permit the most sought after items, such as cement, steel and other materials needed to rebuild the war-devastated territory.

Norman Paech: Angriff auf Völkerrecht. »Free Gaza« – oder was die freie Welt unter Freiheit versteht (junge Welt) (English translation by Google)

Anita Chan: Labor unrest and role of unions (China Daily)
Martin Hart-Landsberg: Labor Struggles In China (Reports from the Economic Front)
John Chan: As Chinese premier urges “respect” for workers, police prepare crackdown (WSWS)

 

Gaza | Foxconn | Afghanistan

Paul Woodward: Ken O’Keefe: “All I saw in Israel was cowards with guns” (War in Context)
Henning Mankell: Flotilla raid diary: ‘A man is shot. I am seeing it happen’ (Guardian) /
Original: Dagbok över en resa (henningmankell.se)
Harriet Sherwood: Israel rejects multinational inquiry into flotilla attack (Guardian)

Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, was more explicit: “We are rejecting an international commission. We are discussing with the Obama administration a way in which our inquiry will take place,” he said.

Barak Ravid: Israel to appoint state panel to investigate Gaza flotilla raid (Ha’aretz)

Two international justices – at least one of them American – would be invited to participate as observers … [T]he panel would not be allowed to interrogate soldiers or officers who took part in the commando raid, which left nine Turkish activists dead and several people wounded.

Yanir Yagna, Jonathan Lis: Israeli Arab MKs face growing wave of death threats (Ha’aretz)

Lang Yan: Some thoughts on Foxconn and the Honda strike (China Study Group)

James Risen: U.S. Identifies Vast Mineral Riches in Afghanistan (New York Times)

 

Joan

Luis G. Jalandoni: NDFP renders highest honor to Comrade Joan Hinton, proletarian revolutionary heroine (Philippine Revolution Web Central)
William Grimes: Joan Hinton, Physicist Who Chose China Over Atom Bomb, Is Dead at 88 (New York Times)
Liu Shinan 刘式南: Ideals certainly make a difference / 中国人正在丧失信仰 (China Daily 《中国日报》)
William Grimes: US atom bomb scientist tended cows in China (The Age)
Valerie J. Nelson: Joan Hinton dies at 88 (Los Angeles Times)
Stephen Miller: U.S. Physicist Found Her True Home in Mao’s China (Wall Street Journal)
Matt Schudel: Joan Hinton, worked on Manhattan Project and became devoted Mao follower, dies at 88 (Washington Post)
Matt Schudel: Joan Hinton, American in China (Washington Post blog)
John Sexton: Joan Hinton, atomic scientist turned dairy farmer / 来自美国的奶牛专家寒春 (China.org.cn)
Charles W. Hayford: Joan Hinton (1921-2010) (China Beat)

Rob: Goodbye Joan Hinton (Black and White Cat)

There are many articles on Joan (all in Chinese) on the Utopia (乌有之乡) website.

宋玮: 牛虻作者孙女在京去世 曾获中国首张永久居留证 (《新民晚报》/《北京晚报》)
牛虻作者孫女在京去世 曾獲中國首張永久居留証 (香港新浪/《北京晚報》)
寒春 中国“绿卡第一人”逝世 她是《牛虻》作者伏尼契的孙女 (新浪/华龙网-《重庆晚报》)
中国“绿卡第一人”寒春在北京逝世 享年89岁 (《侨报》)
中国绿卡第一人辞世 (人民网)
长子眼中的寒春:她是普通人 (中国网)
寒春儿女将把父母骨灰撒向大漠 (千龙网)
宋玮: 寒春追思会举行 儿女决定父母骨灰撒在塞北大漠 (《北京晚报》/中国新闻网)
宋玮: “中国绿卡第一人”寒春追思会举行 骨灰将撒大漠 (中国网)
“一辈子都不愿意麻烦别人” 来自美国的奶牛专家寒春 (《工人日报》)
中国“绿卡”第一人寒春追思会在北京举行 (中国网/中国新闻网)
“中国绿卡第一人”去世 (中国网/《北京晚报》)