A Cameron Government would be led by Hawks

The Iraq war is widely discredited. George W Bush and Tony Blair are both out of office. Barack Obama has talked of a "new beginning" in his country's relationship with the Islamic world. Surely it's game over for the neocons, the small group of hardline hawks commonly held responsible for the US-led attack on Iraq in 2003?

Don't bet on it. If, as bookmakers believe, an overall majority for the Conservatives in the next election is a racing certainty, then the proponents of 'Shock and Awe' will once again be back in the corridors of power in Britain.

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Venezuelan, Cuban, and Nicaraguan Ambassadors to Honduras Kidnapped

Military personnel kidnapped the ambassadors of Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua in Honduras, along with the Honduran Foreign Relations Minister Patricia Rodas, according to Venezuela’s ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), Roy Chaderton.

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Demonising Iran conveniently hides Uncomfortable Truths for the West

Here's the nub of it. Iran opposes the US military presence in the region, and vigorously supports resistance to Israeli expansionism. On these two points, the Iranian regime is closer than any other to the true sentiments of Middle Easterners.

And this, fundamentally, is why Iran is imagined to be such a problem in the West: because it's a Venezuela or a Cuba of a country. Iran is troublesome not because it's any more obscurantist or dictatorial than its neighbours, but because it is less submissive.

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Iran & the Western Media

“Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play,” Joseph Goebbels once declared. In the case of the American media, it is hardly necessary for the government to play. The keyboard plays itself.

This is certainly true of the media’s treatment of the recent elections in Iran.

No sooner was the election over than the media settled on the desired interpretation of events: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was carrying out a “coup d’etat” through a “rigged” election. The opposition candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, enjoyed overwhelming support and was leading a “green revolution” for freedom and democracy.

This analysis has been presented without even the pretense of objectivity. The possibility that there might be different sides to the story, other interpretations of the election results, is completely ignored. Facts that contradict or call into question the desired conclusion are ignored.

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Saudi royals funded 9/11: Lawyers

Lawyers representing the families of the 9/11 victims, expose evidence allegedly proving the Saudi royal family's financial support for al-Qaeda (al CIA-duh). The lawyers provided The New York Times with excerpts of the material they had amassed by putting together the pieces from leaking American intelligence documents among other things, the daily reported on Tuesday.

The evidence recounts how the Saudi royalty would use middlemen and financial supply routes to bankroll militants based in Afghanistan and Bosnia. The family, which had strong ties with the Bush administration, is also suspected of having reinforced the militancy otherwise and enlisted militant agents using intermediaries including the Saudi High Commission for Aid to Bosnia.

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Not in My Name

The Nazi, Nick Griffin, recently won a seat in the European Parliament. It's a disgrace.

I've just signed a petition which says NOT IN MY NAME. The petition will be handed into the European Parliament on the day that BNP leader Nick Griffin takes his seat.

Please sign the petition - let's show the rest of the EU what we think of the racist BNP:

http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/notinmyname

Vote Rigging in Iran ... and the USA

Because (in 2000 and 2004) the American people did not take to the streets in the Iranian model, our democracy was subverted.

Thanks to Kerry and Gore, the public follow-up in Ohio and Florida was ineffective. As in Iran, the primary reporting has been largely limited to the Internet. The results---8 years of George W. Bush---speak for themselves.

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Washington and the Iran Protests: Would they be Allowed in the US?