Media is filled with reports about the January 18th death of Alberto Nisman, an Argentine prosecutor scheduled to testify the following day to a congressional committee about the role of president Cristina Fernandez Kirschner & foreign minister Hector Timerman in covering up the role of Iran & Hezbollah in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center (AMIA). Nisman alleged the cover-up was brokered in exchange for favorable oil deals with Iran.

Throughout this story one has to keep in mind that 85 people were killed & 250 injured. Two years earlier, the Israeli embassy was bombed, killing 29 & injuring 242. After the AMIA bombing, Israel immediately sent teams of Mossad agents, IDF personnel, & a forensic team & Argentina’s intelligence service went on red alert, sealing up the borders against terrorists. After that initial info we need a squad of forensic detectives, legal eagles, & masters of espionage to figure out what the hell happened.

It’s almost impossible to find a coherent narrative of how the Argentine government mangled the investigation & prosecution of this crime. The government has been accused of incompetence but accusations of cover-up are much more likely. The mangling was so egregious that in 2005 then president Nestor Kirschner called the investigation a “national disgrace.” The confusion compounds with Zionist accounts competing with nut-job & antisemitic libertarian conspiracy theories. And unfortunately, it’s possible Nisman’s allegations are also dubious.

Early on, Argentina, Israel, & the US claimed Hezbollah executed the attack master-minded by Iran officials, though both of course denied it. Nisman, a federal prosecutor who worked on the investigation, formally accused Iran & Hezbollah in 2006 (during the term of Nestor Kirschner) & in January 2015 came up with a 300 page indictment against president Cristina Fernandez (widow of Nestor Kirschner) & foreign minister Hector Timerman, alleging the oil deal. That is what Nisman was scheduled to testify about when he died from a gunshot wound. What the current protests are about is suspicion that he did not commit suicide but was taken out to prevent his testifying. Not improbable at all.

The problem is that Nisman does not appear to be a disinterested party. Santiago O’Donnell, an Argentine journalist, alleges that Wikileaks documents show Nisman colluded with the US State Department to charge Iran & Hezbollah with the bombing. That, combined with the framework of Israel’s conflicts with both Iran & Hezbollah, gives serious cause for doubt about Nisman’s allegations. Israel & Zionist media are involved in whipping up protests in Argentina alleging Nisman was murdered. That does not make Nisman a Zionist stooge but colluding with the US does.

We’re not likely to learn the truth about who bombed the community center because vested interests have big stakes in controlling the evidence. But it should be said that while Iran & Hezbollah do not have a history of terrorist acts outside the Middle East, Mossad & the CIA do. That’s not an allegation but Nisman would have to explain the anomaly & the motive of Iran & Hezbollah bombing a community center in Buenos Aires.

Behind all this espionage, double-dealing, & treachery, there are those who died & were injured in the bombings. Whoever did it should be hunted down & prosecuted but regrettably that won’t be done under the corrupt regime of president Cristina Fernandez Kirschner. The death of Nisman should also be investigated & not by the Argentine government, which is tainted. Human rights groups in Argentina are calling for commissions independent of the regime to do just that because those who were murdered & their families have a right to justice & for the perpetrators to be held accountable.

The photo is from a 2006 protest in Buenos Aires marking the anniversary of the 1994 bombing & demanding justice. The photos are those who died & their images will haunt justice until it is delivered.

(Photo by Natacha Pisarenko/AP)

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) hired these naked models to stand outside London’s Fashion Week to protest the use of fur in garments. At some point PETA decided misogyny was the best tactic to oppose animal abuse & that has been their schtick ever since.

Protests to PETA by feminists & potential donors are swatted away like gnats & considerable arrogance. That’s because misogyny pays off for PETA. They have solid connections with media, giving them regular coverage in all the big papers & magazines; they are the favorite nonprofit of many high-profile celebrities, musicians, & athletes; & they have many lucrative marketing partnerships with corporations.

Feminists who object to exhibitionism as a political method are taunted as blue-nosed & “sex-negative” anachronisms from 1970s feminism who’ve aged out of relevance. It’s hard to deal with misogyny & stupidity at the same time but still it must be repeated that using sex to sell is a capitalist cliche. Feminists are not opposed to female sexuality; no movement did more to liberate it from exploitation, degradation, & violence. PETA just doesn’t see the money in that.

Who are the “protesters” talking to here? The fashion industry, where nudity is an everyday banality? Or the passersby grateful for a free peepshow? FEMEN’s exhibitionism gained them 15 minutes of fame; Slut Walks was another flash-in-the-pan spectacle–both done in by racism & by demeaning the struggle for women’s rights.

Naked women are vulnerable women in a society intoxicated with female hatred. Power is what feminists are after & that requires involving women who won’t leave the house without their makeup as much as those who won’t leave the house without their niqabs. If you can only come to the revolution naked or in your underwear, there won’t be no revolution.

PETA doesn’t have to worry about all that; they’ve got corporate & media power on their side with movie stars as shills.

(Photo by Will Oliver/EPA)

They’re now marketing hyperbaric oxygen chambers & will soon be marketing drones for personal use. What could go wrong with that!?

Anyone confused about the political character of Zionism should check out their umpteen sites on Facebook. There is such disassociation from reality, such belligerence, racism, & hatred that what at first can seem amusing becomes deeply troubling.

Most are convinced the US betrays Israel; they’re fixated on & demonize Hamas; & they repeat Israeli military claims like they come from scripture. It is laughable when they claim Hamas strapped explosives to a donkey to attack Israeli troops in Gaza during Israel’s carpet bombing last summer. The military claimed it opened fire, killing the donkey & detonating the explosives. That becomes more odious when they liken that to the Israeli claim that Palestinians use their children as human shields to justify targeting children in Gaza.

What’s disturbing about all this & not one whit funny is that Zionism has so twisted people psychologically, intellectually, morally, & politically that paranoia is their normal state of mind, that they believe crazy-assed ideas as though they were rational, that they hate so irrationally as they do.

If this assessment is wrong, please suggest a Zionist Facebook site where the theoretical & political level doesn’t look like farce on the surface, folly in the commitments, & tragedy in the corruption of young people.

The US Justice Department (JD) is running two investigations related to the police murder of Michael Brown last August. One is whether the cop violated Brown’s civil rights during the summary execution. Because, so it’s claimed, it’s difficult to prove willful intent beyond a reasonable doubt, no one expects civil rights charges will be filed against the cop. Didn’t someone once say, “the law is an ass”? Shouldn’t those who parse law to turkey trot around justice be thrown out of the practice on their ears?

There are also reports the JD will file a lawsuit against the Ferguson Police Department for discrimination against Blacks. Future prosecutors take note: any trial will be a real study in legal maneuvering.

Just a reminder that the JD is still investigating civil rights violations in the vigilante murder of Trayvon Martin in February 2012. What’s that mantra about ‘justice delayed’?

These are some of the young men who survived the horrific crossing from Libya to the island of Lampedusa where there is an immigrant processing center. The survivors are from the Ivory Coast, Senegal, Gambia, Niger, Mali, & Mauritania, according to a UN immigration agency. They didn’t just survive the crossing but unlike 29 of their fellow countrymen, they survived the rescue by the Italian coast guard who use boats too small to accommodate people below deck.

The death of 29 immigrants rescued by the coast guard & forced to stay on upper decks in brutal weather for 18 hours has to be among the most horrific human rights crimes ever committed under EU immigration policy.

None of the damn officials from Italy, the EU, or the UN look anything but criminally stupid, incompetent, & vicious. But there are those in this otherwise bleak story who stand out for having some humanity. And not for the first time. In October 2013, when a boat carrying 364 immigrants mostly from Eritrea, Somalia, & Ghana sank off the coast of Lampedusa, local fishermen blew the whistle on the the Italian coast guard for intentionally bungling the rescue. When the Italian government moved the bodies of the drowned to Sicily for burial in scattered, unmarked graves, survivors were unable to attend the memorial service or hold funerals for their own loved ones. Residents of Lampedusa joined human rights activists, survivors of the accident, & detainees at the Lampedusa refugee center in protest.

Lampedusa’s mayor, Giusi Nicolini, has more than once publicly criticized the EU & Italian government for their immigration policies, including comparing them to organized crime & asserting that none of them cares if immigrants live or die.

These young survivors have just been put through hell & what’s remarkable to note is the air of defiance & dignity they still hold. Unless we rally to their defense as brothers & sisters, we should hang our heads in shame.

Immigration is a human right! No ifs, ands, or buts.

(Photo by Antonio Parrinello/Reuters)

Monstrous crimes are being committed against millions of undocumented immigrants around the world, crimes so barbarous that those responsible need to be prosecuted & exiled to some remote island & denied contact with animal or human civilization. Nothing could be more horrific than the treatment immigrants from Africa, Syria, Palestine, & elsewhere receive trying to enter Europe through the Mediterranean Sea. In the past two decades, a staggering estimate of 25,000 African immigrants have drowned trying to cross. If we want to know the weight racism carries in immigration policy, that estimate alone speaks volumes of condemnation.

They enter from different routes up & down the north African coast, mostly traveling in rafts & overcrowded boats, hoping to get a toehold in Europe. There are women, infants & children, elderly, not just young men. The trauma they endure must create massive PTSD, life-long psychological loss & grief. But that means nothing to the European Union & its component regimes who employ the most expensive & up-to-date surveillance equipment in the world to keep them out.

Many of these drownings are mass in just one crossing: 365, 700, 500, 200 people die in one incident & this horror goes on year after year. Several days ago 330 people drowned trying to get to the island of Lampedusa off the coast of Tunisia where there is a refugee processing center. Media explains this atrocity by the conflict between Italy & the European Union over who is responsible for search & rescue. Of course, if human life was the primary concern both would have fleets out there & they’d have ferries transporting immigrants with dignity.

Another scapegoat alibi is blaming “human traffickers,” those who help immigrants cross. There’s no question some are predatory & in it for the dough, but many are former immigrants providing a service. The occupation wouldn’t even exist if the human rights of immigrants were honored by opening up the damn borders.

Perhaps one of the most ignominious crimes was on February 9th, when 29 immigrants died from hypothermia after being picked up by an Italian coast guard vessel from an inflatable boat that went adrift. Hypothermia is a gruesome, terrifying way to die. They had spent 18 hours on the decks of the boat taking them to Lampedusa in rough seas & high winds. Is the Italian coast guard that stupid & inept or is it more likely executing EU immigration policy with a criminal reckless disregard for human life?

Working people have a vested interest in defending the human rights of immigrants & demanding the borders be opened up. Racism compounds the crimes against African immigrants but as we know from the IMF-EU austerity programs, especially in the poorer European countries ringing the Mediterranean, they hold European workers in no more esteem than they do immigrants. We need to choose our allies wisely. We need to oppose those criminal regimes & stand with immigrants as brothers & sisters. Period.

Take a look at these young men rescued from the same boats where the 330 died & 29 froze to death. Horror is written in every single one of those faces. Justice demands we respond by saying, Immigration is a human right! Open the damn borders! Down with Fortress Europe! And let’s start looking for a suitable island where the criminally insane who run this world can contemplate their crimes against humanity for all eternity.

(Photo by Antonio Parrinello/Reuters)

For the first time in my life I’ve received a fund appeal from an outright eugenics organization named Pathfinder International. Like all those creepy racist groups, they pose as defenders & providers of birth control for women in the plundered countries but most of what they provide is forced sterilization.

They sent me free address stickers to make me feel obliged but I feel more obliged to abuse them for mistaking me for one of them. Any suggestions for how I can deliver the message, “stick your fund appeal where the sun don’t shine.”

A testimony to privilege in US politics is that a third Bush is running for president. Never has the English language been so mangled as by the first two & from an interview it appears the third is just as brain-scrambled. All those high-paid advisers & he still can’t put a coherent sentence together without a teleprompter.

Scott Pelley, the CBS newsreader actually asked: “How many people have to be beheaded before mainstream imams speak out” against Islamic terrorism? He was echoing Obama in a recent speech. McCarthy witch-hunt redux.