Political crackdown
A Voltaire Network collaborator jailed in Berlin

10 June 2008 | Voltaire, édition internationale | Repression against the Voltaire Network keeps on. Jürgen Cain Külbel has been jailed in Berlin. The weak legal pretexts used to condemn him cannot hide the political motive behind this decision: our collaborator had shown that the Commissioner of the UN International Independent Investigation Commission into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri had financial binds with the perpetrators, and that his main aide is a CIA agent involved in the ongoing wave of kidnappings in Europe.

Interview with Thierry Meyssan about the Electoral Process in the United States
2008 Presidential Campaign USA: An Anti-Democratic Show

By Sandro Cruz | Geneva (Switzerland) | 6 June 2008 | Voltaire, édition internationale | Every four years, the election of the President of the United States takes a big media show that keeps the world in tenterhooks. The US electoral system, which is extremely complex and controlled by the oligarchy, offers a popular sovereignty image, despite the fact that it was created to counter such sovereignty. Thierry Meyssan answers our questions about the hidden operations of «democracy» made in the U.S.A.

Military or Market-Driven Empire Building: 1950-2008

By James Petras | 3 May 2008 | Voltaire, édition internationale | As the U.S. presidential campaign predictably displays a competition in militarism and allegiance to Zionist interests, the militaristic model of governance, which has largely prevailed so far in this century within the power circles, has nonetheless failed in terms of empire building. James Petras takes a historical look at the competition between this military powered empire building model, and the market powered one, to point out that eventually, while the inefficient military colonial policy crippled the U.S. economy, it was paving the way for economic competitors to reap the benefits of globalization.

Learning about the Past to Understand the Present
US secret services in between China and Tibet

By Comandante Fidel Castro | La Havane (Cuba) | 2 April 2008 | Voltaire, édition internationale | The Tibet images published by the CNN are simplistic: on the one hand they show the Chinese as the bad guys because they are communist; on the other hand we have the Tibet people, the Buddhists. But Comandante Fidel Castro warns that all that is but mere propaganda. The history of that Asian region discloses the truth, the old causes and disputes between the United States and China: the adhesion of Tibet to the Kuomintang to fight Mao and the Buddhist guerrilla under the command of the CIA.

George Bush will play all he’s got
The resignation of Admiral Fallon will provoke renewed fighting in Iraq

By Thierry Meyssan | Beirut (Lebanon) | 15 March 2008 | Voltaire, édition internationale | Contrary to what has been written so far in the mainstream media, Admiral William Fallon was not removed because he was opposing President Bush on an attack against Iran. He resigned from his own initiative after the agreement he had negotiated and concluded with Tehran, Moscow and Peking was sabotaged by the White House. This decision by the Bush administration will provoke renewed fighting in Iraq and exposes gravely the GI’s to a new Resistance this time supported without restraints from the outside.

Project Censored 2008: Top 25 Censored Stories of last year
No Hard Evidence Connecting Bin Laden to 9/11

By Ed Haas  | 14 March 2008 | Voltaire, édition internationale | Osama bin Laden’s role in the events of September 11, 2001 is not mentioned on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” poster. On June 5, 2006, author Ed Haas contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters to ask why, while claiming that bin Laden is wanted in connection with the August 1998 bombings of US Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, the poster does not indicate that he is wanted in connection with the events of 9/11.

An Interview with Aharon Shabtaï
Israel, “guest of honour” in Paris and Turin, does not deserve to be invited

By Silvia Cattori | Tel-Aviv (Israël) | 27 February 2008 | Voltaire, édition internationale | When the announcement that Israel would attend the "Fiera del libro" of Turin, (*) came out, an immediate wave of protest arose in Italy; and many personalities supported the boycott call, made by the Palestinian, Jordanian and Egyptian Writers’ Associations. In France, strangely enough, the same invitation, to the "Salon du livre" of Paris, did not make much noise. Alone, the Israeli poet Aharon Shabtaï has refused to participate in these events, contrary to the 39 Israeli writers who accepted to be part of the Israeli delegation to these two exhibitions. Aharon Shabtaï explains here why these events –which he qualifies as "promotion of propaganda" for Israel-, must be boycotted, as well as any cultural event where this apartheid State is celebrated.

The Big Lie
September 11, 2001 attacks: the Japanese parliament asks Thierry Meyssan’s questions

Tokyo (Japan)  | 8 February 2008 | Voltaire, édition internationale | Some Japanese TV viewers had the privilege, on January 11th, 2008 to watch a surprising live Senate Commission broadcast: one of the parliamentary commissions’ chairman turned to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Finance and Defense to have them acknowledge that 6 years after the September 11th attacks, they are still unable to explain the facts and confirm that the attacks were organized from an Afghan cave. Our readers can find the full transcript of this lèse-majesté crime below.

The Testimony of a US ex-marine, who went to fight in Iraq
Jimmy Massey: «I have been a psychopathic murderer»

By Rosa Miriam Elizalde | Caracas (Venezuela) | 31 January 2008 | Voltaire, édition internationale | For nearly 12 years, staff sergeant Jimmy Massey was a hard-hearted US marine. He arrived in Iraq in March 2003 as part of US invasion troops with 45 men under his command; they did not hesitate at killing innocent civilians. Massey attended the most recent Caracas Book Fair, where he presented his book «Cowboys of Hell,» a crude testimony about the genocide being committed every day by the United States against the Iraqi people. The ex-marine gave an interview to Cuban journalist Rosa Mirian Elizalde.

The Assassination of Benazir Bhutto, according to an Indian General
Why is the situation in Pakistan irremediable?

By General Vinod Saighal | New Delhi (Inde) | 21 January 2008 | Voltaire, édition internationale | The murder of the popular Pakistani politician Benzir Bhutto has to do with pricise logics. For decades the United States has financed the Pakistani military regime. Washington has supported the most extremist radical elements and has given sofisticated weapons to a government made up of an alliance of the military and the religious fundamentalists so that they back US interests. US-controllled Pakistani Secret Services (ISI), for instance, were involved in 9/11, which is no longer a secret

Israeli Terror Tactics
The Slow Agony of Palestinian Detainees

By Yesh Din - Volunteers for Human Rights, Friends of Humanity International | 17 January 2008 | Voltaire, édition internationale | By the means of intense and constant psychological pressure, bad treatment and mock trials, the Israeli military occupation authorities try to break the will of Palestinian detainees and discourage the resistance movement as a whole. Although the “War on Terror” considerably extended its range, until recently very little documentation existed on this “slow death” machine operating outside the realm of international human rights law. Two NGOs, Friends of Humanity International and Yesh Din, start to fill the gap.

See an exceptional and interesting documentary on what is really brewing in Latin American continent
In order to have a united Latin America, let´s defend our interests democratically

27 December 2007 | Voltaire, édition internationale | The following documentary was made by the «Calle y Media» audiovisual cooperative and it shows in the most objective and sincere way the causes and reasons of what is really happening in Latin America, and particularly the social encouraging machine that Venezuela has become itself. Our societies are moving in the 21st century.

No to the apartheid 2 states solution
Omar Barghouti: « No State Has the Right to Exist as a Racist State »

By Silvia Cattori | Rome (Italie) | 7 December 2007 | Voltaire, édition internationale | Omar Barghouti belongs to a new generation of Palestinians who never adhered to the solution of « Two States, Two peoples ». They are advocating, instead, the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) of Israel as well as a «secular, democratic state» solution, where Palestinians and Israelis would share equal rights, after historic injustices are redressed and the refugees are allowed to return.

The Neoconservative Agenda to Sacrifice the Fifth Fleet – The New Pearl Harbor

By Michael Salla | 19 November 2007 | Voltaire, édition internationale | The U.S. plans for an attack on Iran envision to sacrifice the Fifth Fleet in order to justify a nuclear retaliation. This is not a hypothetical scenario, but a real option being discussed within the U.S. Joint Chief of Staff cabinet. According to our sources, admiral William Fallon made clear that if such an order was given, he would refuse to follow it and would hand in his resignation along with the entire Centcom headquarter’s. So far only the Navy and Army’s superior officers’ resistance has prevented the neoconservatives and the Air Force to launch the operations.

The Contradictions of Washington’s Middle East Policy
Who’s Behind the PKK? In a word: Washington

By Justin Raimondo | 3 November 2007 | Voltaire, édition internationale | Early last August – that is way before the subject was mentioned in mainstream media -, Thierry Meyssan revealed in our columns the project for a US-Turkey joint military intervention against the PKK. However, the Pentagon’s right hand ignoring what its left hand is doing, the plan was soon to face a new reality described here by Antiwar’s Justin Raimondo: the PKK itself is armed by the Pentagon!

Are Pakistani Generals really Mad or do they merely Feign Insanity ?

By General Vinod Saighal | New Delhi (Inde) | 30 October 2007 | Voltaire, édition internationale | General Musharraf thought about using the atomic bomb, when provoking the « Glaciers War », in Kargil, 1999. The release of an investigative work containing this - and other worrisome revelations – has been shaking the Indian sub-continent. But the man, who was then only occupying the position of Joint Chief of Staff, has since then seized power and is exerting it with the support of radical Islamic militants. According to General Vinod Saighal, it is urgent that the Pakistanese people overthrew an administration whose policy can bring about a regional nuclear war at any moment.

9/11 is an inside job
The Empire and its lies

By Fidel Castro Ruz | La Havane (Cuba) | 14 September 2007 | Voltaire, édition internationale | On the 6th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, the Cuban television has broadcast a Venezuelan documentary about Thierry Meyssan’s work. During the following debate, a message from President Fidel Castro was read to the audience. As Hugo Chavez had done the year before, he points the incoherencies of the Bushians’ story around the events. Furthermore, explaining how a U.S. lobby had attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan, he explains how such crimes and lies are rife within the Empire. Fidel Castro Ruz is the fifth current head of state to take this stand.

Censored by « Foreign Affairs » magazine
Sergey Lavrov « Containing Russia: Back to the Future? »

By Serguei V. Lavrov | Moscow (Russia) | 25 July 2007 | Voltaire, édition internationale | Despite modern Russia being an open State, well integrated onto the world stage, atlantists insist in considering it as the former Soviet Union and try to isolate it. Following this logic, Washington is proceeding with the enlargement of NATO in spite of its own commitments, and undertaking the deployment of new missile systems in Europe. In this article, drafted specially for Foreign Affairs magazine but later rejected by its editorial board, Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov calls on United Staters to renounce the Cold War renewal and suggests finding new regulation mechanisms within a USA-Russia-EU tripolar world. Here is the full, uncensored paper.

International Law
Interview with UN Special Rapporteur Martin Scheinin

By Sandro Cruz | Genève (Suisse) | 10 July 2007 | Voltaire, édition internationale | The locking up of individuals on the US base of Guantanamo, Cuba, is an arbitrary form of dentention part of the CIA secret prisons program discreetly refered to as "proxy detentions". Contrary to the claims of certain governments, there is no such thing as a global war against terror, and Al Qaeda is but a metaphor. Martin Scheinin is a Finnish Law professor and was recently appointed as UN Special Rapporteur on the protection and promotion of Human Rights. He’s interviewed by Sandro Cruz for the Voltaire Network.

Is the United States Killing 10,000 Iraqis Every Month? Or Is It More?

By Michael Schwartz | New York (États-Unis) | 9 July 2007 | Voltaire, édition internationale | While the atlantist media is reporting more than 3 000 GI’s killed in Iraq and many civilian victims of inter-confessional violences, it looks away from the daily slaughter of civilians by US patrols conducting their search operations for suspects. Professor Michael Schwartz estimates that their number reached 10 000 a month in the first 3 years of occupation. And much more since Bush ordered his surge of operations.

An Interview with Greta Berlin
Sailing to Gaza

By Silvia Cattori | Lausanne (Suisse) | 7 June 2007 | Voltaire, édition internationale | Greta Berlin, 66 years old, is a businesswoman from Los Angeles, CA. She is the mother of two Palestinian-American children and has been to the occupied territories twice in the past four years with the International Solidarity Movement. She is also a member of Women in Black Los Angeles. She is one of many other people, who have organized an unusual project, sailing a boat to Gaza. They intend to challenge Israel’s claim that they no longer occupy Gaza. Talking to her, she explains why she and the other courageous people are going.

Dick Marty: "Does one have to fight tyranny with the instruments of the tyrants?"

By Dick Marty | 18 May 2007 | Voltaire, édition internationale | After a lot of research into the CIA abductions and the CIA secret flights in Europe, Dick Marty has proven at length, that it is not about the individual cases, because generally, they have become the norm. The President of the Commitee on Legal Affairs of the Council of Europe has concluded, in the end, that an organized system acts in public- if not in fact with an active agreement from the European states.

Iran: The threat of a nuclear war

By Léonid Ivashov | 6 April 2007 | Voltaire, édition internationale | Strongly convinced that a US nuclear strike on Iran is imminent, General Ivashov analysis the probable outcomes of a United-Stator-Irani war. He confirms, for example, that such a conflict will lead to a military one between Tel Aviv and Tehran which will immediately evolve into a religious one, between Islam and Judaism. He raises his doubts about the real reasons behind the US operation, and points out to the reader that Bush administartion and its allies have already started their psychological readying for the likelihood of utilizing tactical nuclear weapons against Iran. Yet, is it possible to avert the bombing ? One of the questions, among others, to which General Ivashov brings an answer in this article.

Interview with Count Hans-Christof von Sponeck
United Nations implications in war crimes

By Silvia Cattori | 23 March 2007 | Voltaire, édition internationale | For Hans Christof von Sponeck, the former assistant secretary-general of the UN, the United Nations, far from garding the respect for international law and the consolidation of peace, have themselves become a factor of injustice. Thus, the sanctions imposed on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq caused a human disaster, whereas treaties such as the nuclear non-proliferation treaty are used to ensure the domination of certain powers and to threaten others. It is time to change the system completely.

The 2007 French Presidential election
Nicolas Dupont-Aignan : "France must withdraw from NATO"

By Silvia Cattori | Paris (France) | 16 March 2007 | Voltaire, édition internationale | The merger between the main French right-wing parties permitted to the Atlanticists to gain the upper hand over the Gaullists and to their champion, Nicolas Sarkozy, to become the UMP candidate. Getting in resistance, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan resigned from the only party of the right and announced his candidacy in the presidential election. He replies below to the questions of the Swiss weekly paper Horizons et débats.

The Human Rights Council Report
Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories

By John Dugard | Genève (Suisse) | 23 February 2007 | Voltaire, édition internationale | In a report handed over to the United Nations Human Rights Council, John Dugard draws up a detailed balance sheet of Human Rights conditions in the Palestinian territories. The famous South African jurist concludes that this situation is comparable to that of the South African apartheid and that its peristence places in jeopardy the International community’s capacity to promote Human Rights. We republish below the complete text.

The first half of 2007
Angela Merkel, a Neocon as President of the European Union

By Thierry Meyssan | Paris (France) | 16 February 2007 | Voltaire, édition internationale | As Angela Merkel now assumes the presidency of the European Union for the first half of 2007, Thierry Meyssan looks back on the amazing career of this communist propagandist in the former German Democratic Republic who made it to Chancellor of the reunified Germany. He emphasises her links with the neo-conservatives and her idea of US leadership in Europe.

Russia breaks away from the ultraliberalism
Evgueni Primakov: The second stage of the Russian recovery has started

By Evgueni Primakov | Moscow (Russia) | 12 February 2007 | Voltaire, édition internationale | The Russian former Prime Minister, Evgueni Primakov, indicates that Russia got into the second stage of its recovery during 2006. Having attempted to take back the control of natural resources and to restore the military power, Vladimir V. Poutin broke away from the ultraliberal theories. Henceforth, the state interfere again in the economy to organize the territory development, the Federation’s Asian part included. Receipts resulting from the hydrocarbons’ export are injected in the internal economy to fight poverty, without refueling inflation fears. However, this policy has to face new dangers: The rising chauvinism inside, and the United States’ military adventurism outside.

In view of political deadlock
What should U.S. do in Lebanon?

By Marlin Dick | 1 February 2007 | Voltaire, édition internationale | For Marlin Dick, the former editor in chief of Beirut Daily Star, the United States are wrong to envisage the Lebanese policy as an opposition between pro and anti-Syrian groups. The fundamental problem is of a socio-political nature: No solution can be found as long as the Shiite majority will not be properly represented by the institutions.

The Strategy of Tension
NATO’s Hidden Terrorism

By Silvia Cattori | Zurich (Suisse) | 22 January 2007 | Voltaire, édition internationale | Daniele Ganser, professor of contemporary history at Bale University (Switzerland) and chairman of the ASPO - Switzerland, published a landmark book about "NATO’s Secret Armies." According to him, during the last 50 years the United States have organized bombings in Western Europe that they have falsely attributed to the left and the extreme left with the purpose of discrediting them in the eyes of their voters. This strategy is still present today, inspiring fear for the Islam and justifying wars on oil.