by Barry Grey

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released a report Monday forecasting a further slowdown in the world’s largest economies. The Paris-based group comprises 34 countries, nearly all the major industrialized countries, but excluding China, Brazil and India.

The OECD’s survey of composite leading indicators (CLIs) for September, which predicts economic trends some six months in advance, shows economic activity slowing in North America, Europe, major parts of South America and most of Asia, including China.

Looking to heap pressure on Iran over its suspect nuclear program, a top US senator on Thursday introduced legislation aimed at collapsing the country’s central bank.

“This, in my judgment, is one of the few remaining actions short of an embargo of Iranian shipping and military intervention to slow or end the Iranian nuclear program,” said Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The measure, crafted by Republican Senator Mark Kirk, would empower President Barack Obama to cut off any foreign financial institution that does business with Iran’s central bank from the US economy and to freeze its US assets.

by Tom Burghardt

In a further blow to online privacy rights and press freedom, the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. ordered the microblogging site Twitter to hand over account information on three activists under investigation by the Justice Department for their links to the whistleblowing web site WikiLeaks.

Under “transparency president” Barack Obama, the U.S. government initiated a criminal probe of the organization after the site began releasing a virtual tsunami of confidential military and State Department files.

In the last two years alone, WikiLeaks revealed that the United States had committed grave war crimes in Afghanistan, Iraq and other global hot-spots of interest to America’s resource-grabbing corporate masters.

by Denisova Olga

In an exclusive interview with the Voice of Russia aired on Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Alexander Lukashevich warned against a military strike on Iran.

by Devon DB

It was reported a week ago that the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released a report that argued that Iran may have been attempting to build nuclear weapons based on the fact that it had computer models of a nuclear warhead, in addition with other information. On the matter, the report itself states Iran conducted computer model studies and the like, but gives no conclusive damning evidence. [1]

French president called Israeli PM a liar in exchange with US president inadvertently shared with journalists

Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem and Angelique Chrisafis in Paris

The Guardian

The French president Nicolas Sarkozy reportedly said he could not stand Binyamin Netanyahu. Photograph: Alfred/Witt/Sipa/Rex Features The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, described the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, as a “liar” in a private exchange with Barack Obama at last week’s G20 summit in Cannes that was inadvertently broadcast to journalists.

“I cannot stand him. He’s a liar,” Sarkozy told Obama. The US president responded by saying: “You’re fed up with him? I have to deal with him every day.”

by William Bowles

‘The streets are our brushes, the squares our palettes’ — Vladimir Mayakovsky[1]

If only…

What are Lefties to make of OWS? Is it ‘ours’? Where is it headed? Is it socialist? And what is it with occupations anyway?

“The global Occupy movement has put the spotlight on the real source of society?s problems ? the 1% ? and many people are sympathetic to its message.

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“Given the huge scale of the problems that need addressing ? centuries worth of environmental damage, including dangerous climate change; an economy on the verge of collapse and chronic social problems linked to inequality and alienation ? a democratically planned approach, using all resources available, will be vital.

by John Stanton

“Rivers are political systems. Management of rivers is political and management of international rivers is very political. The Chinese got it right long ago: River + Dyke = Political Order.”

Dr. Abdul Malak Ouda, writing for the Egypt State Information Service in 2002, foresaw the economic and military competition that would come to pass on the African continent between the G20 powers. Once again, the countries of Africa find themselves serving as sort of a soccer pitch for the matchup between the world’s most powerful countries. United States’ political, economic and military strategists have set their sights on the Nile River Basin (and Nile River) and the 11 countries of Central and Eastern Africa (and Egypt to North). The US instruments of national power (finance, military, intelligence, diplomacy) will be applied heavily on the countries and the people of the Nile River Basin.

by Prof. James Petras

After nearly 3 years in deep pursuit of the colonial wars initiated by ex-President Bush, the Obama regime has finally recognized the catastrophic domestic and foreign consequences. As a result the “reality principle” has taken hold; the maintenance of the US Empire requires modification of tactics and strategies, to cut political, military and diplomatic losses[1].

In response to major military and political losses as well as new opportunity, the White House is fashioning a new doctrine of imperial conquest based on intensified aerial warfare, greater extra-territorial intervention, and, when circumstances allow, alliances with collaborators. This includes the arming and financial backing of retrograde despotic regimes in the Gulf city-states, fundamentalists, opportunist defectors, mercenaries , academic exiles gangsters and other rabble willing to serve the empire for a price.

The last few days have seen tensions over Iran take a sharp turn for the worse. Some feel that the US and Israel should combine to strike at Iranian nuclear facilities. This is reminiscent of those who encouraged NATO to hit Syria a few weeks ago.

Other countries that take an anti-Western stance, like North Korea, have also faced similar threats before. Even with bigger countries like China and Russia, elements in the US have also clamored for an attack to eliminate their nuclear power once and for all.