A penny for your thoughts? It could cost you $1,200
by Jesse Kline
National Post
September 12, 2012
The Canadian penny may be going the way of the Dodo bird, but that hasn’t stopped the Royal Canadian Mint from trying to make a mint off the design.
The Mint recently issued a warning to Halifax-based folk music singer Dave Gunning — whose upcoming album depicts pennies on both the front and back cover — that he has violated the government’s copyright on the currency. Most of us have probably never thought of inspecting our money in great detail, but Canadian bills do indeed contain a copyright notice in the lower right corner, and coins are covered under the same provisions.
The album, entitled No More Pennies, includes lyrics about the coin and features a man sitting in a coffee shop with a bunch of pennies strewn across the counter on its front cover. On the back is a picture of a giant penny falling below the horizon like a sunset.
The Mint says it will not charge Mr. Gunning a fee for the first 2,000 albums he produces, but will levy a charge of $1,200 for the next 2,000 copies — a cost this struggling artist says he cannot afford. According to one government bureaucrat, however, the Mint is helping “this guy out by giving him a break.” How nice of them, especially considering Ottawa is in the process of withdrawing the penny from circulation, which means it will soon disappear in any case.
It’s one thing to try and protect the currency from counterfeiting, but that is not what we’re talking about here. No one is going to cut the pennies off the album cover and trying to pass them off as the real thing. The government is simply trying to get a cut of the action by demanding royalties — a process that is generally referred to as taxation.
[hat tip: Stefan Wesche]
Schett: Libya’s Destabilization Serves Western Political Agenda [video]
Global Research TV
September 12, 2012
Washington continues to support militant Islamist groups as long as it’s politically expedient to do so, says global affairs researcher Benjamin Schett.
US military adventurism, and the war crimes committed by the country’s forces, impoverish the entire region and ultimately lead to a rise in the number of Islamic militant groups, he told RT. Such groups, he says, can end up posing a threat to US citizens.
Schett spoke to RT about the killing of American Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other embassy staff in Libya.
Originally aired on RT, September 12, 2012
http://rt.com/news/us-ambassador-libya-killed-995/
MPs elect Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as new Somali president
PressTV
September 10, 2012
MPs meeting in Mogadishu have elected Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as the new president of Somalia with a big majority.
The 56-year-old university lecturer garnered 190 votes against 79 for former President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed in a second round run-off in the presidential election, which was held on Monday, AFP reported.
The two men were close in the first round of voting but no candidate secured the required two-thirds majority.
After the first round, two other candidates, outgoing Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali and Abdikadir Osoble, withdrew.
“Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is the winner for today’s presidency,” Parliament Speaker Mohamed Osman Jawari announced after the MPs voted.
In a speech after the results were announced, the new president said, “What has happened today will be written on a golden page in Somalia’s history and my friend Sheikh Sharif will always be credited for his role in this development.”
“I hope that Somalia will from now on start heading towards better days and that all problems we have undergone will be history,” Hassan Sheikh stated.
The outgoing president conceded defeat to the little known academic.
“I am congratulating my brother Hassan Mohamud for his victory, which is fair, and I’m very much pleased with it,” Sheikh Sharif said.
“I’m ready to work with him as I would have liked people to work with me had I won the election,” he added.
Somalia has not had an effective central government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
The weak Western-backed transitional government in Mogadishu has been battling al-Shabab fighters for the past five years and is propped up by a 10,000-strong African Union force from Uganda, Burundi, and Djibouti.
GJH/HGL
[hat tip: Alexander Higgins]
Iran and Syria: Now I’m Worried [video]
The Truther Girls
September 12, 2012
I wasn’t overly worried about the possibility of Iran getting attacked until recently. Iranian diplomats have been expelled, someone is now accusing Iran of being behind 9/11 and these look to me like very bad signs. Meanwhile, Syria is still as prominent as ever on the hit list and the NWO seems to be using their usual sneaky tactics to get into a war rather than try to come to some kind of peaceful accord.
TrutherGirl’s T-Shirt: http://thetruthergirls.spreadshirt.com
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/canada-severs-diplomatic-ties-with-iran-citing-s…
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/08/08/libya-diplomats-expelled-canada_n_921…
http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News/Article.aspx?id=284682
http://www.rttnews.com/1962195/clinton-russia-proposed-un-resolution-on-syria…
http://www.globalresearch.ca/syria-disinformation-campaign-social-media-circu…
http://www.globalresearch.ca/iran-accused-of-being-behind-9-11-attacks/
Netanyahu exploded over US hesitancy towards Iran – Republican congressman
End the Lie – Independent News
September 7, 2012
The rift between the US and Israel over Iran now seems more like a chasm, as a senior US politician confirmed that he witnessed an “unprecedented” row between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and America’s ambassador to Israel.
Although previously denied by both sides, the heated argument was recounted in a radio interview by Republican congressman Mike Rogers, who is the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee- and was present at a bilateral meeting in Israel on August 24.
The discussion centred on ways to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions, whom both countries believe is trying to develop a nuclear weapon. Amidst the talks Netanyahu is said to have suddenly lost his temper with US ambassador, Dan Shapiro.
“We’ve had sharp exchanges with other heads of state and in intelligence services,” Rogers said, “but nothing at that level that I’ve seen in all my time, where people were clearly that agitated, clearly that worked up about a particular issue where there was a very sharp exchange.”
Rogers says Netanyahu chastised Obama’s administration for failing to draw “a red line”, a clear indication of what Tehran would have to do before the US took action to stop Iran’s atomic development, and that this ambiguity is making it difficult for Israel to decide on its own strategy.
Shapiro paraphrased the Prime Minister’s argument: “This Administration’s been saying, you’ve gotta wait, you’ve gotta wait, you’ve gotta wait… but then you’ve gotta tell us when is the red line, so we can make our own decisions about should we or shouldn’t we stop this particular program.”
In turn, Shapiro, who is considered Obama’s close policy adviser and not just a symbolic figure, broke diplomatic protocol, forcefully telling Netanyahu that the administration is determined to combat Iran, even if it takes an air strike on its nuclear facilities, a step that has been discussed by both sides for months.
But Rogers recalls that Netanyahu was not convinced, and believes that Iran could manufacture a working nuclear weapon in 4 to 8 weeks.
“Right now the Israelis don’t believe that the Administration is serious when they say that all options are on the table, and more importantly neither do the Iranians. That’s why the program is progressing,” summed up Rogers.
“At this point they’re very frustrated because they don’t’ know what happens after the election and their window for impacting the program they believe is starting to close.”
Reports of the tumultuous meeting first surfaced last week in the Israeli press, only to be refuted by both parties.
“The report is incorrect and we have nothing more to add,” Netanyahu’s spokesman Liran Dan reiterated after the latest revelations. Shapiro also insists that no such argument took place.
Domestic discord
An outspoken critic of Barack Obama’s foreign policy throughout the current term, the congressman used the exchange to score points with the domestic audience. While taking the unusual step of revealing the details of a private meeting with a close ally, he emphasized repeatedly that “Israel had lost their patience with the Obama Administration.”
Ahead of November’s presidential face- off between the incumbent Obama and Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, the two parties have diverged on their stance on Iran. Romney has promised “unilateral support” for an airstrike, while Obama has followed a more cautious policy of sanctions and incentives and is unlikely to risk the massive diplomatic fallout over an air strike and potential regional war in the dying months of his term.
Meanwhile, Tehran continues to deny it plans to build a nuclear bomb.
Earlier this week, the International Atomic Energy Agency, released a series a satellite pictures showing that Iran had “sanitized” Pashtun, one of its military bases, by demolishing buildings and removing the earth from potential nuclear test explosion sites. The Vienna-based watchdog also claimed that since May Iran has doubled the amount of uranium-enriching centrifuges at Fordo, the underground facility that is the likely target of any air strike.
Source: http://rt.com/news/netanyahu-rogers-shapiro-iran-618/
Iran Accused of Being Behind the 9/11 Attacks
by Julie Lévesque
Global Research
May 11, 2012
Global Research Editor’s Note
We bring to the attention of our readers a carefully documented study by Global Research’s Julie Levesque published in May 2012 pertaining to a high profile Manhattan lawsuit launched in 2004 against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The Havlish v. Iran lawsuit accuses Iran of having supported the 9/11 hijackers.
At this historical juncture, with Iran being the object of numerous threats both byTel Aviv and Washington, The Havlish v. Iran judgment could be used as a justification for a waging a preemptive attack on Iran.
In the context of the commemoration of 9/11, the issue of Iran’s alleged role as a “state sponsor” of terrorism is likely to surface in media coverage as well as in the commemoration speeches off both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.
The investigation into Tehran’s alleged role in the 9/11 attacks was launched by the Havlish lawyers in 2004, pursuant to a recommendation of the 9/11 Commission “regarding an apparent link between Iran, Hezbollah, and the 9/11 hijackers”. The 91/11 Commission’s recommendation was that the this “apparent link” required “further investigation by the U.S. government.” (9/11 Commission Report , p. 241). (See Iran 911 Case ).
The Havlish lawyers built their case against Iran using the testimonies of “expert witnesses” as well as “evidence”, which was in large part fabricated. In the December 2011 court judgment (Havlish v. Iran) “U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels ruled that Iran and Hezbollah materially and directly supported al Qaeda in the September 11, 2001 attacks and are legally responsible for damages to hundreds of family members of 9/11 victims who are plaintiffs in the case”.
According to the plaintiffs attorneys “Iran, Hezbollah, and al Qaeda formed a terror alliance in the early 1990s. Citing their national security and intelligence experts, the attorneys explained “how the pragmatic terror leaders overcame the Sunni-Shi’a divide in order to confront the U.S. (the “Great Satan”) and Israel (the “Lesser Satan”)”. Iran and Hezbollah allegedly provided “training to members of al Qaeda in, among other things, the use of explosives to destroy large buildings.” (See Iran 911 Case ).
Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, September 10, 2012
Canada: Selling Its Soul to America
By Stephen Lendman, Contributor
theintelhub.com
September 10, 2012
Canada is more colony than sovereign state. Canadians perhaps wonder when it’ll grow up, act like an adult, and regain its rightful independence.
They’re also worried about a country junior partnering with imperial America, Israel, and other rogue NATO allies.
A previous article said the following:
On September 7, Foreign Minister John Baird said Canada closed its Tehran embassy. It expelled Iranian diplomats in Ottawa. They have five days to leave. He claimed a nonexistent Iranian threat. He took a page from AIPAC’s playbook. He bogusly called Tehran the gravest threat to global security.
He accused Iran of “providing increasing military assistance to the Assad regime.” He ignored Washington’s war Syria. He said nothing about Canada’s role.
He didn’t explain how America, rogue NATO partners, and regional allies recruit, arm, fund, train, and direct ravaging death squads. He was silent on what matters most.
He recited a litany of lies about Iran. He unconscionably pointed fingers the wrong way. Canada is a committed imperial partner. It’s one of 28 NATO countries. It supports the worst of Israel’s crimes.
It’s on the same slippery slope as America. It’s fast-tracking toward fascism. Sleeping with the devil rubs off.
Unless stopped, it’s just a matter of time before Canada crosses a rubicon of no return. It’s perilously close to full-blown imperial/ neoliberal/police state dark age harshness.
In her book “Holding the Bully’s Coat: Canada and the US Empire,” Linda McQuaig discussed Canada’s sacrificial subservience. It abandoned its traditions. It sold its soul to Washington. It became submissive junior partner.
Conservative and Liberal parties allied with America’s “war on terrorism.” They stopped short of participating in its Iraq “coalition of the willing.” They willingly marched in lockstep with its illegal Afghan war of aggression and occupation.
In February 2004, they partnered with America and France against Haiti’s Jean-Bertrand Aristide. They ousted a democratically elected leader. They crushed his popular movement. They ended his progressive reforms. They installed fascist harshness. They had unchallenged pillaging in mind.
Canada today operates as an appendage of imperial America. It abandoned its traditional commitment to equality, inclusiveness, and rule of law inviolability.
It’s plagued by a militaristic/imperial/neoliberal culture. It’s no longer a fair arbiter and promoter of just causes. The conservative Harper government is fast-tracking toward fascism.
In the 1980s, Canada’s downward trajectory began in earnest. Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney bonded with Ronald Reagan.
Corporate America remembers his December 1984 address. He appeared at the New York Economic Club. Business heavyweights packed the house to hear him. He didn’t disappoint.
He said “Canada (was) open for business.” His meaning was unambiguous. US corporations were welcome. Economic integration would proceed. America’s sovereignty henceforth took precedence over Canada’s. It’s been downhill ever since.
Before Stephen Harper became prime minister in February 2006, Liberal leader Paul Martin tilted hard right. In 2003, he succeeded Jean Chretien.
His 2005 defense policy review stressed integrating Canada’s military with America’s. He approved redeploying Canadian Afghan peacekeepers as combatants. Harper maintains the same policy. Canadians have no say.
He governs in lockstep with Washington. He abandoned Canada’s traditional even-handed Israel/Palestine agenda. In 2006, he threw its democratically elected Hamas government under the bus. Doing so showed contempt for Palestinian rights.
He showed no concern for 50,000 Canadians in harm’s way during Israel’s war of aggression on Lebanon. He called its death and destruction campaign “measured.”
Post-WW II, things were different. Canada’s internationalism evolved. It supported rule of law principles, endorsed peacekeeping, spurned militarism and imperialism, and worked cooperatively with other nations. No longer.
Harper’s government, Canadian elites, its business community and military support imperial/neoliberal/anti-populist policies. Ottawa replicates Washington. Essential social programs are eroding. Egalitarianism is disappearing.
What corporate Canada wants, it gets. Militarism grows stronger. So does police state harshness. Pandering to Washington is policy. Tortured logic follows the same destructive path.
McQuaig calls Harper America’s “unctuous little sidekick.” She compared Canada’s government, corporate, and military officials to 19th century compradors.
Modern-day ones are subservient US junior partners. Canada’s soul went on the auction block for sale. Like Americans, Canadians are force-fed the worst of all possible worlds.
Ottawa allied with Washington’s war on Libya. It’s partnered against Syria and Iran. It shamelessly supports what it should renounce.
Doing so makes it complicit in the supreme crime against peace. It’s guilty of crimes of war, against humanity and genocide. It’s leaders are war criminals.
Iran responded to Canada suspending diplomatic ties. Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said:
“The decision by Canada showed that this country has sacrificed the interests of its nation for the sake of the Zionists by following their policies against Iran.”
He called Harper’s government “racist” and “hostile.” He added:
“The closure of the visa section of the Canadian Embassy in Tehran, freezing the bank accounts of Iranian nationals living in Canada, and prohibiting money transfers to Iranian students studying in that country are among the Canadian government’s numerous hostile measures against the Iranian nation and the Iranian community in Canada.”
Senior Iranian lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi accused Harper of “blindly” following Britain, saying:
“The British government certainly seeks to lead its friends to the same path that it had taken. Therefore, this decision was in fact blind acquiescence by the Canadian government.”
He added that Canada allied with Washington and Israel’s attempt to undermine a historic NAM summit in Tehran. It perhaps reacted to its success. He also called on Iran’s Foreign Ministry to respond in kind.
Mehmanparast said expect it to be swift.
Britain is part of a US/UK/Israeli troika. It’s an axis of evil. Canada supports it. It threatens humanity. It’s involved in North African/Middle East/Central Asian imperial wars. It plans more. Independent nonbelligerent countries are targeted. Syrian and Iranian sovereignty are threatened.
Almost half a million Iranians live in Canada. Many reside in Toronto. Tehran planned a consulate to serve them. They’ll have no representation now.
On Friday, Netanyahu congratulated Harper. He called his move “a bold decision, (a) “moral step,” (a) “clear message to Iran and to the entire world.”
Tehran’s successful NAM summit endorsed peace, mutual cooperation, Iran’s peaceful nuclear program, and national sovereignty.
Netanyahu called it “a show of anti-Semitism and hate in Tehran.”
Every time he opens his mouth, he puts his foot in it. He displays racist scorn for Muslims, imperial brazenness, contempt for anyone not Jewish, and hostile rage.
Ottawa has had poor relations with Iran since the 1979 revolution. They became strained after former Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor helped rescue six Americans during the 1980 Tehran hostage crisis.
In 2003, they were further damaged after dual Canadian/Iranian citizen/freelance photographer Zahra Kazemi died in custody. He was arrested while taking photographs outside a Tehran prison.
Canada responded. It recalled its ambassador. Iran ordered him out after unsuccessfully trying to resolve the issue and agree on exchanging ambassadors.
Washington severed diplomatic relations in 1980. In November 2011, Britain recalled its entire diplomatic staff. It followed two days of protests.
Hundreds of Iranian students staged it outside London’s Tehran embassy. They pulled down Britain’s flag and demanded its envoy’s ouster.
Without justification, the Cameron government claimed Iranian leaders ordered it. It also expelled its diplomats from London.
Days earlier, Tehran downgraded ties to Britain. It was over London’s decision to impose sanctions on Iran’s Central Bank and false allegations about its nuclear program.
Washington, Britain and Israel target Iran for regime change. Top priority ahead is war. Not now, according to Time magazine.
On September 5, it headlined, “Worried About Israel Bombing Iran Before November? You Can Relax,” saying:
According to some Israeli analysts, Israel’s “war of choice” isn’t cancelled. It’s delayed. Internal opposition and public opinion are against it. Even Defense Minister Ehud Barak now wavers. He’s not called “Mr. Zigzag” for nothing.
Netanyahu wants Washington’s full commitment. In late September, he’ll meet Obama in New York. They’ll both address the UN General Assembly. Expect neither to sound benign.
Netanyahu’s saber-rattling bluster long ago wore thin, but not his hostile intent. He and Obama remain on the same page. Differences are mostly over timing and perhaps strategy.
“For now, the US looks likely to persuade Israel to sit on its hands.” Nonetheless, “it’s probably a safe bet that war talk will be revved up again come spring” or perhaps earlier post-election.
Canadian Foreign Minister Baird didn’t explain why he cut diplomatic ties now, not earlier. He denied perhaps knowing that war is more imminent than Time imagines.
“Unequivocally, we have no information about a military strike on Iran,” he said. In the fullness of time, we’ll know.
A Final Comment
In 1953, Chicago Tribune owner Colonel Robert McCormick called Canadian statesman/diplomat/later prime minister (1963-68)/Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1957) Lester Pearson “the most dangerous man in the English-speaking world.”
It was over Pearson’s refusal to cooperate with Senator Joe McCarthy’s witch-hunt communist hearings. They destroyed lives, ruined careers, accomplished nothing, and led to McCarthy’s own demise.
Pearson’s ideas were mirror opposite Harper’s and other imperial aggressors. He wanted NATO involved with economic and social issues as well as defense. He supported an alliance for Western free market alternatives to communism.
He opposed nuclear weapons. He challenged Washington on policies he believed dangerous, provocative and destructive. In 1955, as Secretary of State for External Affairs, he was the first Western official to visit Moscow.
He spoke forcefully against colonial domination. He endorsed sovereign rights for all nations. He supported internationalism, conciliation, and peace. He was a worthy Nobel laureate.
His lecture stressed hard facts. Countries have a choice. “Peace or extinction” is in their hands. He added that nations cannot “be conditioned by the force and will of a unit, however powerful, but by the consensus of a group, which must one day include all states.”
Predatory nations can’t be tolerated, he believed. At the same time, he opposed communism and backed efforts to contain it. He erred supporting Washington’s Vietnam War. A later Temple University address challenged America’s Southeast Asian role.
Overall, he supported peace and peacekeeping. His Nobel lecture named “four faces of peace: prosperity, power, diplomacy and people.”
As prime minister, peacekeeping was prioritized. Canada has none like him today. Neither do other Western countries. War, not peace, matters most. So does imperial dominance.
Ottawa’s on board with Washington. Its traditions long ago eroded and died. Some wonder what defines it as a nation. Riding shotgun for America and supporting the worst of Israeli lawlessness give them reason for pause.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book is titled How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/
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