WAR OF PERCEPTION

Obama Hosts First Passover Dinner At White House

President Barack Obama hosted close friends and staff at a private White House meal Thursday evening to mark Passover. It's part of the new president's effort to reach out to Jewish voters.

The White House said the Seder meal was traditional, including matzo, bitter herbs, a roasted egg and greens in the family dining room in the executive mansion. The evening also featured the reading of the Haggadah, the religious text of the holiday.

Passover began at sundown Wednesday. It celebrates the Jewish exodus from Egypt after 400 years of slavery.

Among those invited was Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama's closest advisers, and family friend Eric Whitaker, who was visiting from Chicago and attended a Seder last year with the campaign. First lady Michelle Obama and the family's two daughters also planned to attend.

The staff guest list included aides from the campaign trail who marked last year's Passover at the Sheraton hotel in Harrisburg, Pa. Obama's personal aide, Reggie Love; Michelle Obama's deputy chief of staff, Melissa Winter; personal aide Dana Lewis and associate social secretary Samantha Tubman all received invitations.

Also on the guest list were Eric Lesser, a personal aide to senior adviser David Axelrod, and his family. Lesser worked during the New Hampshire primary and later handled baggage for traveling reporters. White House videographer Arun Chaudhary-a constant presence on the trail-landed invitations for his family.

Others in the exclusive group included Michelle Obama's counsel and friend Susan Sher; Herbie Ziskend, a staff assistant to Vice President Joe Biden's policy and economic advisers; and White House deputy director of advance and special events Lisa Kohnke.

White House aides said they believe it was the first president-hosted Seder at the White House.

Week In Review

S.E.C. Denies That It "Stood Down" on Stanford Group Investigation

    The Securities and Exchange Commission (S.E.C.) has been under fire for failing to protect shareholders from fraud in the wake of the $50 billion Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme. Revelations stemming from the Madoff debacle showed the S.E.C. failed to properly examine Madoff's dealings and ignored warnings about Madoff for years.

    In February, the S.E.C. announced it would take action against the Stanford Group for defrauding investors out of up to $8 billion. Allen Stanford has denied the charges and legal action is ongoing.

    On February 17, The New York Times reported "The current S.E.C. charges stem from an inquiry opened in October 2006 after a routine exam of Stanford Group, according to Stephen J. Korotash, an associate regional director of enforcement with the agency's Fort Worth office. He said the S.E.C. 'stood down' on its investigation at the time at the request of another federal agency, which he declined to name, but resumed the inquiry in December 2008."

    This revelation caught the eye of Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), who sent a letter to the new S.E.C. Chairwoman Mary Schapiro. In the letter, Kucinich sought to identify who asked the S.E.C. to back off and why.

    According to an official with direct knowledge of Kucinich's investigation, the "government agency" which asked the S.E.C. to stand down on the probe was the Department of Justice (DOJ). The official asked not to be named because of the sensitive nature of the information.

    It is standard procedure, according to the source, for the DOJ to ask other agencies to hold off when investigations overlap so as not to interfere.

    However, a spokesperson for the S.E.C. seems to dispute The New York Times report that the agency "stood down" in the first place.

    "The S.E.C.'s investigation was initiated in the spring of 2005 based on information we developed in the course of an examination," an S.E.C. spokesman told Truthout on Monday, adding "The investigation has been active ever since, and has included cooperation with other federal agencies."

    While these two versions of the story do not square perfectly, it is clear that the investigation was begun under a Bush administration DOJ and S.E.C., which had a track record of bending to the will of Wall Street. The case was brought to court only after the Obama administration took over and changed the leadership at both agencies.

    The lack of aggressive prosecution for white collar crimes has been cited by experts as one most glaring examples of deference to the financial titans which contributed to the ongoing meltdown.

    Bill Moyers's recent interview with financial regulation expert William K. Black sheds new light on the level of corruption and fraud that may be involved in the ongoing financial bailouts. It can be viewed here.

    Progressive Democrats Try to "Complexify" Debate on Afghanistan Occupation

    The left wing of the Democratic Party, which coalesced around opposition to the war policy of the Bush administration, is holding a six-part forum for the public and for Congressional staffers on President Obama's plan for the occupation of Afghanistan.

    The 77-member Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) has so far held two public discussion panels, which brought together Afghanistan experts in diplomatic service, military, academia and on-the-ground nongovernmental aid organizations.

    CPC co-chair Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona) described the forum as "the beginning of a conversation," which is intended to "complexify" the current discussion about the future involvement of the US in Afghanistan and Pakistan by adding nuance and looking at the military, political and social dynamics of the region.

    Reports from some of the Capitol Hill newspapers indicate that members of the CPC are split over the ongoing occupation of Afghanistan and Obama's strategy.

    Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (D-California), one of the most outspoken opponents of the occupation of Iraq and co-chair of the CPC, told Roll Call that she is "universally opposed to war. Period."

    Her fellow co-chair Raul Grijalva authored an op-ed with Congressman Mike Honda (D-California) embracing much of Obama's strategy to add more troops to the region and become more aggressive militarily. Grijalva and Honda would augment the military buildup with additional infrastructure improvement and economic opportunity building for the citizens of Afghanistan.

    The structure of the forum so far fits the varied opinions of the members of the Democratic caucus. Only one of the panelists has advocated an immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan. The others said the country may be able to be stabilized if the Obama administration is willing to spend the money and blood it is going to take, but none were optimistic.

    None of the panelists in favor of continuing the occupation could give a timeline or lay out goals or benchmarks that could be achieved which would signal the possibility of withdrawal.

    "This budget is a plan that authorizes the expansion of the war. I simply cannot endorse a budget or a plan that sends more of our brave men and women to Afghanistan, a conflict which has the potential to become this generation's Vietnam," Kucinich said in a statement last week after voting against the budget in the House.

    Kucinich and Woolsey are the only two members of the CPC who sat through the first panel and asked questions of the experts.

By Matt Renner / Truthout

U.S. Officials Confirm Israel Air Force Bombed Sudan Convoy

(IsraelNN.com) United States officials have confirmed that Israel Air Force warplanes bombed a truck convoy in Sudan in January. The trucks were carrying arms that would be smuggled into Gaza for use against Israel, the officials said, according to a report in the New York Times.

Israel has refused to confirm or deny the attack, but Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made a statement, after the reports of the attack surfaced, that Israel has been striking at terror targets “near and far,” and warned enemies, “there is no place that Israel can't reach.”

Israel strikes terrorists “in the north and in the south... There's no need to mention details; people can use their imaginations,” Olmert said.

The American officials said Israel hit the convoy in order to prevent weapons from reaching Gaza during Operation Cast Lead.

The Times describes the sources as two American officials “who are privy to classified intelligence assessments.” The sources said that Iran had been involved in the effort to smuggle weapons to Gaza. According to intelligence reports, they added, an agent for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards was in Sudan, coordinating the smuggling operation.

Iran funds, arms and trains two proxy armies on Israel’s borders: Hizbullah in the north and Hamas in the south.

Payback for International Court?
Sudanese officials made news of the strike public on Thursday, when they claimed that “American fighters” bombed a convoy of trucks in eastern Sudan.

According to the Times, there was a possibility that the reason Sudan came out with the accusation now, two months after the alleged attack, was that it was reacting to a decision by the International Criminal Court to issue a warrant for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, on war-crimes charges.

While other accounts said the death toll was fewer than 40, a Sudanese spokesman claimed that “more than 100 people” had been killed in the air raid, which he termed “a genocide, committed by U.S. forces.”

When asked how he knew the attackers were American, the spokesman said: “We don’t differentiate between the U.S. and Israel. They are all one.”

A spokesman for the United States Africa Command said U.S. forces had not attacked in Sudan. “The U.S. military has not conducted any airstrikes, fired any missiles or undertaken any combat operations in or around Sudan since October 2008, when U.S. Africa Command formally became responsible for U.S. military action in Africa,” he said.

Jews Created Opium Trade

Hong Kong and The Sassoon Opium Wars

The 99 year British lease on Hong Kong expired in July allowing the Red Chinese to take over. Hundreds of newspaper stories and TV reports have covered this event but not one revealed how England first gained control of Hong Kong! The truth lies buried in the family line of David Sassoon, "The Rothschilds of The Far East," and their monopoly over the opium trade. Britain won Hong Kong by launching the opium Wars to give the Sassoons exclusive rights to drug an entire nation!

David Sassoon was born in Baghdad, Iran in 1792. His father, Saleh Sassoon, was a wealthy banker and the treasurer to Ahmet Pasha, the governor of Baghdad. (Thus making him the "court Jew" - a highly influential position.) In 1829 Ahmet was
overthrown due to corruption and the Sassoon family fled to Bombay, India. This was the strategic trade route to interior India and the gateway to the Far East. In a brief time the British government granted Sassoon "monopoly rights" to all manufacture of cotton goods, silk and most important of all - Opium - then the most addictive drug in the world!

The Jewish Encyclopedia of 1905, states that Sassoon expanded his opium trade into China and Japan. He placed his eight sons in charge of the various major opium exchanges in China. According to the 1944 Jewish Encyclopedia: "He employed only Jews in his business, and wherever he sent them he built synagogues and schools for them. He imported whole families of fellow Jews. . . and put them to work."

Sassoon's sons were busy pushing this mind-destroying drug in Canton, China. Between 1830 - 1831 they trafficked 18,956 chests of opium earning millions of dollars. Part of the profits went to Queen Victoria and the British government. In the year 1836 the trade increased to over 30,000 chests and drug addiction in coastal cities became endemic.

In 1839, the Manchu Emperor ordered that it be stopped. He named the Commissioner of Canton, Lin Tse-hsu, to lead a campaign against opium. Lin seized 2,000 chests of Sassoon opium and threw it into the river. An outraged David Sassoon demanded that Great Britain retaliate. Thus, the Opium Wars began with the British Army fighting as mercenaries of the Sassoons. They attacked cities and blockaded ports. The Chinese Army, decimated by 10 years of rampant opium addiction, proved no match for the British Army. The war ended in 1839 with the signing of "The Treaty of Nanking." This included provisions especially designed to guarantee the Sassoons the right to enslave an entire population with opium.

The "peace treaty" included these provisions: "1) Full legalization of the opium trade in China, 2) compensation from the opium stockpiles confiscated by Lin of 2 million pounds, 3) territorial sovereignty for the British Crown over several designated offshore islands.

Sassoon's Use British Army to Drug An Entire Nation

British Prime Minister Palmerston wrote Crown Commissiner Captain Charles Elliot that the treaty didn't go far enough. He said it should have been rejected out of hand because: "After all, our naval power is so strong that we can tell the Emperor what we mean to hold rather than what he would cede. We must demand the admission of opium into interior China as an article of lawful commerce and increase the indemnity payments and British access to several additional Chinese ports." Thus, China not only had to pay Sassoon the cost of his dumped opium but reimburse England an unheard sum of 21 million pounds for the cost of the war!

This gave the Sassoon's monopoly rights to distribute opium in port cities. However, even this was not good enough and Sassoon demanded the right to sell opium throughout the nation. The Manchus resisted and the British Army again attacked in the "Second Opium War fought 1858 - 1860. Palmerston declared that all of interior China must be open for uninterrupted opium traffic. The British suffered a defeat at the Taku Forts in June 1859 when sailors, ordered to seize the forts, were run aground in the mud-choked harbor. Several hundred were killed or captured.

An enraged Palmerston said: "We shall teach such a lesson to these perfidious hordes that the name of Europe will hereeafter be a passport of fear."

In October, the British besieged Peking. When the city fell, British commander Lord Elgin, ordered the temples and other sacred shrines in the city sacked and burned to the ground as a show of Britain's absolute comtempt for the Chinese. In the new "Peace Treaty" of Oct.25, 1860, the British were assigned rights to vastly expanded opium trade covering seven-eights of China, which brought in over 20 million pounds in 1864 alone. In that year, the Sassoons imported 58,681 chests of opium and by 1880 it had skyrocketed to 105,508 chests making the Sassoons the richest Jews in the world. England was given the Hong Kong peninsula as a colony and large sections of Amoy, Canton, Foochow, Ningpo and Shanghai. The Sassoons were now licensing opium dens in each British occupied area with large fees being collected by their Jewish agents. Sassoon would not allow any other race to engage in "the Jews' business."

However, the British government would not allow any opium to be imported into Europe!

Sassoon "Monopoly Rights" Wrecked Lancashire - England's Textile Industry - Made Roosevelt Wealthy

Sir Albert Sassoon, the eldest of David Sassoon's sons took over the family "business" empire. He constructed huge textile mills in Bombay to pay slave labor wages. This expansion continued after World War One and ended up putting mills in Lancashire, England out of business with thousands losing their jobs. This did not stop Queen Victoria from having Albert knighted in 1872.

Solomon Sassoon moved to Hong Kong and ran the family business there until his death in 1894. Later, the entire family moved to England because with modern communications they could operate their financial empire from their luxurious estates in London. They socialized with royalty and Edward Albert. Sassoon married Aline Caroline de Rothschild in 1887 which linked their fortune with that of the Rothschilds. The Queen also had Edward knighted. All 14 of the grandsons of David Sassoon were made officers during World War One and thus most were able to avoid combat.

Franklin D. Roosevelt's fortune was inherited from his maternal grandfather Warren Delano. In 1830 he was a senior partner of Russell & Company. It was their merchant fleet which carried Sassoon's opium to China and returned with tea.

Warren Delano moved to Newburgh, N.Y. In 1851 his daughter Sara Married a well born neighbor, James Roosevelt - the father of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He always knew the origin of the family fortune but refused to discuss it.

The Sassoon opium trade brought death and destruction to millions and still plagues Asia to this day. Their company was totally operated by Jews ONLY! The corrupt British monarchy honored them with privilege and knighthood - to the disgrace of the Crown! To this day the Sassoons are in the history books as "great developers" of India but the source of their vast wealth is never mentioned!

NEWS FROM THE WEST

Vatican: Holocaust Denier Must Recant

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican on Wednesday demanded that a prelate who denied the Holocaust recant his positions before being fully admitted as a bishop into the Roman Catholic Church.

It also said Pope Benedict XVI had not known about Bishop Richard Williamson's views when he agreed to lift his excommunication and that of three other ultraconservative bishops Jan. 21.

The Vatican's Secretariat of State issued the statement a day after German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged the pope to make a clearer rejection of Holocaust denials, saying there had not been adequate clarification from the church.

The Holy See on Jan. 24 announced the rehabilitation of four bishops excommunicated in 1988 after being consecrated without papal consent.

Just days before, Williamson had been shown on Swedish state television saying historical evidence "is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed" during World War II.

Williamson has since apologized to the German-born pope for having stirred controversy, but he did not repudiate his comments, in which he also said only 200,000 to 300,000 Jews were killed during World War II and none were gassed.

Though the Vatican said it did not share Williamson's views, Jewish groups voiced outrage at his rehabilitation and demanded the prelate recant.

Williamson and the three other bishops were consecrated by the late ultraconservative Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who in 1969 founded the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X opposed to the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council, including its outreach to Jews.

The Vatican said Wednesday that, while Williamson's excommunication had been lifted, he still had no canonical function in the church because he was consecrated illegitimately.

"Bishop Williamson, in order to be admitted to episcopal functions within the church, will have to take his distance, in an absolutely unequivocal and public fashion, from his position on the Shoah, which the Holy Father was not aware of when the excommunication was lifted," the statement said. The Shoah is the Hebrew term for the Holocaust.

Jewish groups welcomed the Vatican statement, saying it satisfied their key demand.

"This was the sign the Jewish world has been waiting for," said Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress.

Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, thanked Merkel for her "righteous comments" and said the process to heal the "deep wound that this crisis caused to the Catholic-Jewish dialogue" could now begin.

Williamson's interview on Swedish state TV was aired Jan. 21. The decree lifting his excommunication bore the same date, although it was not announced until three days later. The broadcaster said the timing was a coincidence, but Williamson has expressed his views about the Holocaust previously.

Wednesday's statement was a remarkable turnabout by the Vatican, which had considered the Williamson case "closed" after Benedict issued a lengthy denunciation of Holocaust deniers last week and the society itself distanced itself from Williamson's views.

On Jan. 28, the pope said he felt "full and indisputable solidarity" with Jews, and warned against any denial of the full horror of the Nazi genocide.

The Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, cited those comments Tuesday in telling the newspaper of the Italian bishops' conference Avvenire that, as far as he was concerned, "the question can be considered closed."

Yet the pressure continued, including from Roman Catholic leaders in Benedict's native Germany and Merkel's comments Tuesday.

It was not immediately clear if the Vatican's newest statement Wednesday satisfied Merkel.

"The chancellor has spoken and has nothing to add to her comments from yesterday," her spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm told reporters in Berlin.

In addition to its demand of Williamson, the Vatican also said society as a whole must fully recognize the teachings of Vatican II and of all popes who came during and after it in order to have a legitimate canonical function in the church.

There was no answer to several calls placed Wednesday to Williamson's home in La Reja, Argentina.

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer Nicole Winfield, Associated Press Writer