RENEE PARSONS—While the Founding Fathers did not specify in Article VI that any elected member of Congress should not ‘be bound…’ to another country, any Court in the land will validate that Constitutional intent was that loyalty ‘be bound by oath or affirmation’ solely to the United States.According to Supreme Court Associate Justice Joseph Story (1812-1845) that those sworn in were “conscientiously bound to refrain from all acts inconsistent”. During the American Revolution, General George Washington required all officers to subscribe to an oath renouncing any allegiance to King George III and pledging their fidelity to the United States.
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Attacking Iran
PHILIP GIRALDI—As an ex-CIA case officer who worked on the Iran target for a number of years, I was shocked when I read the Times’ article, primarily because it sounded like a repeat of the fabricated intelligence that was used against both Iraq and Iran in 2001 through 2003. It is based on the premise that war with Iran is desirable for the United States and, acting behind the scenes, Israel, so it is therefore necessary to come up with an excuse to start it. As the threat of terrorism is always a good tactic to convince the American public that something must be done, that is what the article tries to do and it is particularly discouraging to read as it appears to reflect opinion in the White House.As I have been writing quite critically about the CIA and the Middle East for a number of years, I am accustomed to considerable push-back from former colleagues. But in this case, the calls and emails I received from former intelligence officers who shared my experience of the Middle East and had read the article went strongly the other way, condemning the use of both fake and contrived intelligence to start another unnecessary war.
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Anti-semitism vigilantes are feeding the far-right
JONATHAN COOK—What’s most obvious about this new supposed outbreak of bigotry among wide sections of western public opinion is that for the first time in history anti-semitism apparently has little or nothing to do with Jews – except in the minds of those making the accusation. It is barely fanciful nowadays to imagine a time soon – after Israel and Saudi Arabia go public with their new love affair and their continual plotting against Iran – when it will be judged anti-semitic to criticise Riyadh for chopping off heads or the oil industry for setting the planet on fire. This degrading of political language to the point of absurdity isn’t accidental. While those claiming to worry about anti-semitism are busy defaming every leftwing argument made against the current neoliberal order, real anti-semitism – the rightwing kind that actually targets and sometimes kills Jews – mostly gets a free pass.
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Democratic Party leadership, in bed with AIPAC, condemns Ilhan Omar for ‘anti-Semitic… accusations’
PHILIP WEISS—It did not take long for the other shoe to drop. The six official leaders of the Democratic House have condemned Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota for “anti-Semitism” and “hatred” because she tweeted last night that the Israel lobby group AIPAC has influence over the Congress “because of the Benjamins” — the money AIPAC helps funnel to Congress to support Israel.
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