Persicus Maximus

“ His image as a man of peace and his image as a man who went from a 'hawk' to a 'dove' betrays a fundamental blind spot with regards to the experience of the Palestinians and others in the region under Israeli colonialism and the policies of displacement, exile, and occupation that Shimon Peres and others were instrumental in implementing." Ben White, Journalist Following the Death of Shimon Peres at the age of 93 after a recent stroke—much of the global mainstream press responded with adulation and mourning. At the same time, however, informed critics took the news as an opportunity to remind the world of the troubling and oppressive legacy of the former Israeli prime minister. Many were quick to point out that Peres joined the Haganah paramilitary group after he and his family moved from Belarus to British Mandate of Palestine in 1930. The Haganah was one of the principal forces behind the Nakba, or catastrophe, that left around 750,000 Pales...

“America’s strategic and economic interests in the Mideast and Muslim world are being threatened by the agony in Palestine, which inevitably invites terrorist attacks against US citizens and property.” Eric Margolis Sun Media Sept 2 2001 (nine days before the Sept 11 attacks against New York and Washington DC.) As Americans enter the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on their nation, they still have not understood the true cause of these dreadful attacks. Who can blame them? Our politicians and media have totally obscured the truth behind these and subsequent attacks that we call ‘terrorism.’ While we mourn 9/11, US B-52 heavy bombers are raining bombs on what’s left of Afghanistan in a futile attempt to crush tribal forces (aka Taliban) fighting western occupation. We did the same thing in Laos in the 1980’s, as President Barack Obama properly noted during his visit there last week. Laos has never recovered and Afghanistan won’t either. Since 2015, the US h...

  The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has finaly released the notorius “28 pages” from the 9/11 Report, which had been kept classified, and which detail more or less exclusively with the culpability of the Saudi Arabian government in the attacks. Though the White House claimed even after the release, that the pages “proved” the Saudis had nothing to do with it, they did anything but that, providing considerable evidence that the hijackers had contact with two probable Saudi intelligence officers in advance of the attacks, and had received support from those officers. The information centers on two men, Omar Bayouni and Osama Bassman. Bayouni was said to have provided “substantial assistance” to the hijackers in 2000, and had extensive contact with the Saudi government at the same time. Bayouni was nominally an employee of Ercan, a subsidiary of a company with substantial ties to the Saudi Defense Ministry, and was in frequent contact with a Defense Mi...

  In the 1980s, the Reagan administration pioneered “perception management” to get the American people to “kick the Vietnam Syndrome” and accept more U.S. interventionism, but that propaganda structure continues to this day getting the public to buy into endless war. To understand how the American people find themselves trapped in today’s Orwellian dystopia of endless warfare against an ever-shifting collection of “evil” enemies, you have to think back to the Vietnam War and the shock to the ruling elite caused by an unprecedented popular uprising against that war. While on the surface Official Washington pretended that the mass protests didn’t change policy, a panicky reality existed behind the scenes, a recognition that a major investment in domestic propaganda would be needed to ensure that future imperial adventures would have the public’s eager support or at least its confused acquiescence. This commitment to what the insiders called “perception man...

On May 27,Foreign Policy reported that the Obama administration has decided to block the sale of additional cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia. This is great news, but it’s long past overdue and still not enough. U.S. companies, including Textron Industries – the makers of cluster munitions sold to Saudi Arabia – have profited far too long off the death and destruction caused by their products placed in Saudi hands. Cluster bombs are WMDs. They randomly spray hundreds of “bomblets” across a wide area and, almost invariably, some kill innocent civilians. They are also not very reliable weapons as many of these bomblets do not explode upon impact. Often these unexploded bomblets are then picked up by children, who are seriously injured or killed when they set them off. Due to the indiscriminate killing caused by cluster bombs, there is an international treaty banning the use of these horrific weapons, signed by 119 nations signed by 119 nations. Predictably, neither Saudi Arabia no...