'Ivory Queen of Soul,' Teena Marie dies

Teena Marie's last album, "Congo Square," was titled after a historical meeting place for slaves in New Orleans, featured a tribute to Martin Luther King's widow and also song "Black Cool," written for President Barack Obama.No matter that Marie, 54, was white. The R&B legend revered and fully immersed herself in black culture — and in turn was respected and adored by black audiences, not only for her immense soulful talents, but for her inner soul as well.
"Overall my race hasn't been a problem. I'm a Black artist with White skin. At the end of the day you have to sing what's in your own soul," she told Essence.com in an interview last year while promoting "Congo Square." That album would turn out to be her last.
The self-proclaimed "Ivory Queen of Soul," whose many classic hits included "Lovergirl," Square Biz" and the scorching duet "Fire and Desire" with mentor Rick James, was found dead in her Pasadena home on Sunday at the age of 54. Authorities said her death appeared to be of natural causes.
In an interview with The Associated Press last year, Teena Marie said she had successfully battled an addiction to prescription drugs; she had been performing over the last year.
"The enduring influence of Teena's inspirational, trailblazing career, could only have been made possible through her brilliant song-writing, showmanship and high energy passion which laid the ground work for the future generations of R&B, hip-hop, and soul," said Concord Music Group chief label officer, Gene Rumsey; Concord's Stax Records released her last album.
"We feel extremely fortunate to have worked with a visionary who changed music in indelible ways. Our deepest sympathies go out to her family, friends and of course, millions of fans around the world."
Marie certainly wasn't the first white act to sing soul music, but she was arguably among the most gifted and respected, and was thoroughly embraced by black audiences, and beyond.
Even before she started her musical career, she had a strong bond with the black community, which she credited to her godmother. She gravitated to soul music and in her youth decided to make it her career.
Marie made her debut on the legendary Motown label back in 1979, becoming one of the very few white acts to break the race barrier of the groundbreaking black-owned record label that had been a haven for black artists like Stevie Wonder, the Jackson Five, the Supremes and Marvin Gaye.
The cover of her debut album, "Wild and Peaceful," did not feature her image, with Motown apparently fearing black audiences might not buy it if they found out the songstress with the dynamic, gospel-inflected voice was white.
"(Motown founder Berry) Gordy) said that is was so soulful that he wanted to give the music an opportunity to stand on its own merit. Instead of my face, they put a seascape, so by the time my second album came out people were like, Lady T is White?" she told Essence.com.
Marie was the protege of the masterful funk wizard James, with whom she would have long, turbulent but musically magical relationship.
Marie notched her first hit, "I'm A Sucker for Your Love," with the help of James on that album. But the time her second album was released, her face was known — and on the cover of the record. But there was not a backlash — she would only get more popular on her way to becoming one of R&B's most revered queens. During her tenure with Motown, the singer-songwriter and musician produced passionate love songs and funk jam songs like "Need Your Lovin'," "Behind the Groove."
Marie's voice was the main draw of her music: Pitch-perfect, piercing in its clarity and wrought with emotion, whether it was drawing from the highs of romance or the mournful moments of a love lost. But her songs, most of which she had a hand in writing, were the other major component of her success.
Tunes like "Cassanova Brown" "Portuguese Love" and "Deja Vu (I've Been Here Before)" featured more than typical platitudes on love and life, but complex thoughts with rich lyricism. "Deja vu" was a song about reincarnation.
And "Fire and Desire," a duet with James about a former couple musing about their past love, was considered a musical masterpiece and a staple of the romance block on radio stations across the country.
Marie left Motown in 1982 and her split became historic: She sued the label and the legal battle led to a law preventing record labels from holding an artist without releasing any of their music.
She went to Epic in the 1980s and had hits like "Lovergirl" and "Ooo La La La" but her lasting musical legacy would be her Motown years.
Still, she continued to record music and perform. In 2004 and 2006 she put out two well-received albums on the traditional rap label Cash Money Records, "La Dona" and "Sapphire."
James, who had a romantic relationship with Marie but also a long friendship, died in 2004. His death shook her so she said she became addicted to Vicodin, which she had been taking for pain, for about a year.
But Marie said she successfully battled that addiction.In 2008, she talked about her excitement of being honored by the R&B Foundation.
Marie was the mother of a teenage daughter who was budding singer; she would sometimes bring her daughter onstage to sing during her shows.
In 2009, she celebrated 30 years in the recording industry, and planned for many more.
"All in all, it's been a wonderful, wonderful ride," she told The Associated Press in 2008. "I don't

The Dangers Posed by Black Hair Products

by AFRO Staff
Black women with finely primped hair may be jeopardizing their health, according to a recent report by NBC’s TheGrio.com.

Some environmental justice advocates and scientists say the unnatural chemicals found in many hair care products, especially those on the Black hair care market such as relaxers, hair grease and oil sheen, can cause cancer, infertility or early puberty.

Hazardous chemicals including lye can cause visual burns and blindness, while others interfere with natural processes inside the body. Phthalates, for example, commonly described as a ‘fragrance’ on some product ingredient lists, is linked to endometriosis, a painful condition that causes the uterine lining tissue to grow outside the uterus, according to the report.

These additives—labeled hormone disruptors by endocrinologists—don’t only affect Black women or even just beauty products. Over 85 percent of recent man-made chemicals have not been tested by the FDA for their health effects, according to a health report released last year from the Collaborative on Health and the Environment. A large percentage that have been tested do increase health risks and can be found in every day products like plastic containers, baby bottles or electric appliances.

But scientists say some products in the multi-billion dollar Black hair industry may expose Black women to a high risk of ill-health effects. .

“African-American women, compared to their white counterparts, have higher levels of phthalates and they have higher levels of BPA,” Dr. Ami Zota, an environmental health researcher at the University of California San Francisco, told TheGrio.com. Bisphenol A, or BPA, is a plastic chemical often linked to heart disease, diabetes and cancer. "Nobody has really figured out why," Zota added. "But I think the hair care products are part of that story."

In a 1998 study, four Black girls between the ages of 1 and 8 developed breasts and pubic hair after using hair products with estrogen and placenta—a disruptive that mimics hormones—over a two-month span. When the children discontinued use of the products, the premature development stopped.

Almost a quarter of Black girls and 15 percent of Latina girls are developing breasts by age 8, according to a study released this summer, thegrio.com says. Hazardous chemicals, fatty foods and heavy body weight are the likely causes, say scientists.

“Lifetime exposure to estrogen increases your risk of breast cancer,” Zota said. “If you're getting your menstruation earlier, that's increasing the natural estrogen that you're exposed to.”

A bill called the Safe Cosmetics Act, has been passed by both chambers of Congress and would outlaw products with known dangerous chemicals and require evaluations to ensure products are safe before they are sold in stores. The differences between House and Senate versions of the measure are still to be ironed out in a conference committee and observers say the chances of enactment are dim in both the 111th and 112th congresses.

Cherisse Scott of the Chicago-based non-profit Black Women for Reproductive Justice told thegrio.com, “It’s a deep-seeded problem (for Black women). “Environmental justice for us means tackling some of these deep-seeded generational issues

Will Wikileak's Julian Assange be Killed?

What will happen to Julian Assange? He is now in British Government custody. His activist work has put the entire world leadership on edge (and on notice). Some have even said he should be assassinated.

NY Times distorts Wikileaks cables on Iran, Arab States

By Gareth Porter and Jim Lobe
Cables Belie Gulf States' Backing for Strikes on Iran

WASHINGTON, Dec 6 (IPS) - The dominant theme that emerged in U.S. media coverage of the first round of Wikileaks diplomatic cables last week was that Arab regimes in the Gulf - led by Saudi Arabia - shared Israel's view that Iran's nuclear programme had to be stopped by military force, if necessary.
The New York Times generated that narrative with a front- page story featuring an alleged quote by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia urging the United States to "cut off the head of the snake", as well as other statements by Gulf Arab leaders suggesting support for military action.

"The cables reveal how Iran's ascent has unified Israel and many longtime Arab adversaries -notably the Saudis - in a common cause," the Times asserted.

The notion that these leaders, like Israel, favour a military solution to Iran's nuclear programme has become widely accepted by the news media in the past week. In a curtain-raiser to this week's talks in Geneva between Iran and the world's most powerful nations, for example, the Washington Post Monday asserted that the Wikileaks disclosure "show[ed] that Persian Gulf leaders have pressed for a military attack on Iran's nuclear facilities…"

But a careful reading of all the diplomatic cables reporting the views of Saudi and other Gulf Arab regimes on Iran shows that the Times' account seriously distorted the content - and in the case of the Saudis, ignored the context - of the cables released by Wikileaks.

The original Times story, headlined "From Arabs and Israelis, Sharp Distress Over a Nuclear Iran", referred to "a largely silent front of Arab states whose position on sanctions and force looked much like the Israelis".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his U.S. neo- conservative backers immediately seized on the story as confirmation of what Israel has been saying all along.

In fact, the cables show that most Gulf Arab regimes - including Saudi Arabia itself - have been seriously concerned about the consequences of a strike against Iran for their own security, in sharp contrast to Israel's open advocacy of such a strike. They also show the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait expressing that concern with greater urgency in the past two years than previously.

Those facts were completely ignored, however, in the Times' account.

The Abdullah Quote

The most widely cited quote in support of the Times' thesis since the story's publication one week ago has been Abdullah's appeals to "cut off the head of the snake", referring to Iran. The story asserted that the Saudi ambassador in Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, had recalled the king's "frequent exhortations to the U.S. to attack Iran" during an April 2008 meeting with Gen. David Petraeus, the incoming chief of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).

The implication was that al-Jubeir had made that statement during the Petraeus-Abdullah meeting. But the reporting cable makes clear that the Saudi ambassador made the remark two days later, in a conversation with the U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission in Riyadh, Michael Gfoeller.

In his meeting with Petraeus, in fact, Abdullah had not spoken about Iran's nuclear programme but focused instead on the importance of "resisting and rolling back Iranian influence and subversion in Iraq", according to the cable.

The cable actually draws a contrast between al-Jubeir's remarks and those made by Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal and director general of intelligence Prince Muqrin during Petraeus's visit. "On the other hand," it states after citing al-Jubeir's position, the foreign minister "called instead for much more severe U.S. and international sanctions on Iran, including a travel ban and further restrictions on bank lending." Prince Muqrin "echoed these views", according to the cable.

The foreign minister would only say that "the use of military pressure against Iran should not be ruled out," the cable said.

That statement mirrored precisely the official position of the George W. Bush administration at the time.

Even if Abdullah had in fact offered explicit support for a military attack against Iran in the meeting with Petraeus, however, that would not be a reliable indicator of Saudi policy toward the issue, according to Chas Freeman, a veteran diplomat who served as Washington's ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1989 to 1992 and maintains contact with top Saudi officials.

Freeman told IPS that such a statement would "fit a pattern of communication with the United States of ingratiating themselves with their protector".

Significantly, in that respect, the Abdullah-Petraeus meeting came three months after President Bush had visited Riyadh seeking support for a more confrontational stance against Iran; five weeks after Petraeus's predecessor at CENTCOM, Adm. William Fallon, had been fired in part for public statements that there would be no war against Iran; and less than a month after Vice President Dick Cheney had reportedly sought support for military action during his own visit to the kingdom.

Thomas Lippman, former Washington Post Middle East bureau chief and an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute, who has written a book on Saudi-U.S. relations, also said that the Abdullah quote would have been in line with the usual Saudi pattern of "telling the Americans what they wanted to hear".

"They wanted to be assured that they would be under the protection of the U.S.," Lippman told IPS.

In fact, the cables covering the period since President Barack Obama took office suggest that Saudi views have given even greater emphasis to political and economic strategies in dealing with Iran than was the case in 2008.

A Feb. 10, 2010 cable from Riyadh, for example, reported that Abdullah, disillusioned with U.S. blunders in Iraq that have given Iran the upper hand there, "had concluded that he needs to proceed with his strategy to counter Iranian influence in the region".

The new Saudi strategy, according to the cable, features promoting reconciliation between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority combined with expanding relations with Russia, China and India to create "diplomatic and economic pressure[s] on Iran that do not directly depend on U.S. help".

UAE Worries About a "Preemptive Strike"

As for the UAE, the Times' account of the cables suggested an evolution in its thinking from earlier warnings that a U.S. or Israeli military strike would be "catastrophic" to a far more hawkish position. In February 2007, a cable quotes Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, as saying that the Iranian nuclear programme "must be stopped by all means available".

That exhortation, however, was put in a different context by the diplomat who reported on his conversation with bin Zayed, who also serves as deputy supreme commander of the UAE armed forces.

The diplomat noted that such "tough talk on Iran" should be "taken in the context of strong UAE interest in acquiring advanced military technology". Indeed, the UAE at the time was negotiating agreements to buy a record $17 billion in U.S. arms over the next several years.

Despite bin Zayed's bluster, the U.S. diplomat wrote in the Feb. 7, 2007 cable, the UAE "is clearly nervous about any U.S. actions that could upset their much larger and militarily superior neighbor".

Indeed, two years later, the crown prince told visiting U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke that a "military solution would only delay [Iran's nuclear] program, not derail it" and that "war with Iran would only harm the UAE". He also said he was "deeply concerned" over a possible Israeli military strike which, he added, "would have little impact on Iran's capabilities," according to an Apr. 5, 2009 cable.

He repeated his concerns about an Israeli attack to other high-ranking U.S. visitors three months later. After a Jul. 15 meeting between bin Zayed and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the embassy reported, "Without timely and decisive action by the United States, MbZ believes Israel will strike Iran, causing Iran to launch missile attacks - including hits on the UAE - and to unleash terror attacks worldwide." He then suggested that "the key to containing Iran revolves around progress in the Israel/Palestine issue."

According to a Jul. 23, 2009 cable, the prince subsequently declared to visiting senior State Department officials that "[Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad is Hitler" – a remark highlighted in the Times' account that has also gained widespread media attention.

But the cable reported further expressions of alarm over the prospect and possible consequences of an Israeli pre-emptive strike. The prince called for Washington to immediately begin "joint planning" with the UAE to address such a "worst-case scenario".

Most recently, a Feb. 22, 2010 cable has the UAE's foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nayan, warning a visiting delegation headed by Rep. Nita Lowey, a strong supporter of Israel in Congress, that any "crisis or confrontation in the region [over Iran's nuclear programme] would create oil supply problems world wide."

According to the cable, the minister ended the meeting with a "soliloquy on the importance of a successful peace process between Israel and its neighbors as perhaps the best way of reducing Iran's regional influence."

"Iran Has Not Bothered Us"

While confirming growing Arab fears about Iran's regional clout and nuclear ambitions, the cables suggest that other Gulf Arab leaders - with the possible exception of Bahrain's King Hamad, the only regional leader with a majority Shi'a population - have little or no appetite for military action against Iran.

"A year or two ago, many in Kuwait hoped a silent, targeted strike would take out the troublesome reactor and leave the region more relaxed," a cable quotes a senior foreign ministry official who also happens to be the son of Kuwait's prime minister as recalling to his U.S. interlocutor last February.

"Now, however, they feared that any effort to disrupt the nuclear program, either military or through tough sanctions 'would go badly for the West,'" according to the cable, which quotes another official as saying that, while the emirate was worried about Iran's nuclear programme, it was "equally concerned about military preemption" and the retaliation that was likely to follow.

Qatar, meanwhile, is unwilling to "provoke a fight" with Iran, according to the emir of Qatar, as reported in a February 2010 cable on a meeting between the emir and Senator John Kerry. The emir explained that Doha would not "provoke a fight" with Iran, because its primary interest was a natural-gas field it shared with Tehran. He added that Iran "has not bothered us" during the history of relations between the two states.

A Feb. 2, 2010 cable makes it clear that the sultan of Oman, who has given the U.S. access to three military bases on its territory, is determined to maintain balance between Washington and Tehran. The cable reported that Muscat had twice rejected official U.S. offers to include it in a collective missile defence system aimed at Iran in 2009.

As for Bahrain, the Gulf's only Shi'a-majority sheikhdom and host of the U.S. 5th Fleet, the Times quoted a November 2009 cable in which King Hamad al-Khalifa declares that Iran's nuclear "programme must be stopped" and warns that "[t]he danger of letting it go on is greater than the danger of stopping it."

No other cable from Manama elaborates, however, on what means the U.S. or other countries should use to halt the programme.

Scientist has Cancer Cure Breakthrough

A local scientist, intent on finding a cure for cancer, believes he's on the brink of a breakthrough as he and his counterparts in Germany have been able to produce the anti-cancer compound, dibenzyl trisulphide (DTS), from guinea hen weed (petivera alliacea), which grows wild across Jamaica.

According to zoologist Dr Lawrence Williams, a research consultant with the Scientific Research Council, he is now ready to take his research to the next level - the use of the compound on mice induced with cancer and an investigation into the side effects, including DTS's impact on the kidneys and the liver. The work is to cost an estimated US$150,000.

Dr Lawrence Williams examines a guinea hen weed plant on the compound of the Scientific Research Council in Kingston.

And while human testing may be between three and five years away, Dr Williams said he was confident that he would have no problems getting volunteers.

In the last few months, he said, he has been receiving inquiries from people who have heard of the healing properties of the guinea hen weed and who have indicated an interest in participating in any clinical trial that may be set up.

At least five of them have been taking the DTS compound, which Williams said was also synthetically produced by the German firm Aldrich Chemical. The reports filtering in from those people, he added, have been positive.

There is one man with skin cancer, he said, who has been using the plant leaves to make tea and the extract as a salve for his lesions with encouraging results.


"The lesions are gone and he is feeling much better," an enthusiastic and smiling Williams said of the man, who could not be reached for comment on Friday.

The DTS compound, produced through three years of work at the University of Hohenheim in Germany, has, when applied to cancer cells in vitro (outside a living organism), been found effective in the cure of various types of cancer. Among them:


. brain (neuro blastoma),
. bladder (primary bladder carcinoma),
. breast (mammary carcinoma),
. fibrous (sarcoma),
. skin (melanoma), and
. small cell lung cancer.

"Despite the fact that people are using it, we still need to do the toxicological work on the pure compound to validate safety," said Dr Williams. "Also, in terms of patenting the data, we would need to have that data too.

Dr Williams's counterparts in Germany are professors Harold Rosner and Wolfgang Kraus. They intend, Williams said, to create DTS tablets for the human testing phase of the research.


"It is a promising project," said Williams. "I am very positive about the work and I think also that one day it will come off as a curative agent for cancer. It may be that we should look at the effects of DTS in combination with radiation therapy and see if they can enhance each other."

Williams's positive outlook is based in large part, he said, on the fact that the compound was drawn from a plant and that there was need for a cancer drug with limited side effects, if any.


"Cancer is one of the most challenging diseases to mankind, and anything that can work against cancer with minimum side effects is worth the while developing," he said. "Most of the drugs they use to treat cancer now have too many side effects. We are hoping that because the compound is natural, it will have less side effects. That is one of the beliefs."

Cancer is among the leading causes of death in Jamaica and the Caribbean. According to data received from the Cancer Registry at the University of the West Indies, in 1999 there were 2,697 cancer deaths in Jamaica, representing 17.7 per cent of deaths in that year. Of that number, 1,466 were males and 1,231 were females.

Dr Williams told the Sunday Observer that his preliminary work has shown that the DTS compound does not affect healthy cells, which, he said, is a bonus.

"The anti-cancer action of dibenzyl trisulphide is linked to the molecule ability to disrupt the skeletal framework of cells, of which there are two - actin and microtubules," he explained. "Microtubles is the one responsible for cell division and that is the one that the dibenzyl trisulphide acts on. So we have found that with a normal cell, the dibenzyl trisulphide has no effect on it."

This is not the case with chemotherapy, for example, which does affect healthy cells that multiply quickly because the treatment is designed to kill faster growing cancer cells. Among those healthy cells likely to be affected are blood cells forming in the bone marrow and cells in the digestive tract, reproductive system, and hair follicles. Chemotherapy may also damage cells of the heart, kidney and lungs.

Williams' revelation of his work comes on the heels of an announcement by the pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline, of their intention to introduce to the local market next year a vaccine to prevent cervical cancer.

The vaccine, called Cervarix, was developed over the last five to 10 years at a cost of approximately £1.8-billion and has been proven to prevent the strains of the human papilloma virus (HPV), which is known to cause cervical cancer.

The vaccine is to be administered to people before they become sexually active.

The Manchester-based Northern Caribbean University is also enaged in cancer research, focussing on sorrel and garlic and their effects on cancer cells, as well as on over-the-counter substances that contain dismuth and their effects on cancer cells.


Dr Devon Gardener, a professor of physical chemistry at the institution, said last October that should funding become available, the expectation was that the scientists would make significant progress in a few years.

Last week, Dr Williams said he was not worried about the possibility of his research being stolen, as he has published works on his progress to date, even as he moves to secure a patent internationally for the biological activity of the DTS compound.

Among the journals in which his works have been published are Phytotherapy Research Journal in England, the Biochemica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) Journal and the Jamaica Journal of Science and Technology.

"The Germans and myself are trying to get a patent for the biological activity," Williams said. "The papers that have been published are copyright to the journals and as leading researcher I can write to the journal to get the patent for the biological activity."

Jamaican scientist lands blow in cancer fight

Dr Lawrence Williams, a research scientist at the Scientific Research Council (SRC), has been awarded an international patent on a compound isolated from the Guinea Hen Weed as a protein complex of dibenzyl trisulphide.

The SRC said the protein complex has the ability to kill a wide range of cancers.

The Jamaican's discovery has the potential to fight various kinds of cancers, a few of which are: melanoma, lung cancer and breast cancer. The molecule also has implications for the treatment of ageing diseases.

The SRC noted that, with more than 13 years dedicated to this research, Williams has revealed that the complex is superior in killing cancer cells relative to the pure compound found in the Guinea Hen Weed-dibenzyl trisulphide.

"This remarkable breakthrough comes at a time when the world is crippled by the effects of cancer, as it is one of the leading killers globally," the SRC asserted.

The SRC said it joined the remainder of the international medical fraternity in celebrating the scientific breakthrough.

"This is good news for Jamaica, given its ability to contribute to health, longevity and as a major foreign exchange earner. Williams' discovery could change the face of medicine as we now know it," the SRC declared.

Williams said that the next stage is conducting clinical trials of the compound and the development of a pharmaceutical agent.

The SRC, one of Jamaica's chief proponents of scientific research and development, commended its team member on his "outstanding contribution to science".

Rights to the patent are shared with Dr George Levy, a Jamaica-born medical doctor living in the United States.

Aretha Franklin is fighting pancreatic cancer

An outpouring of prayers continues for Detroit's legendary Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin as she battles cancer.

It has been confirmed that Franklin is suffering from pancreatic cancer.

According to a family member, the award-winning singer is recovering at Detroit's Sinai Grace Hospital, where she underwent surgery in late November.

The family member also said the surgery was successful and that Franklin was walking, talking, laughing and showing a sense of humor.

WATCH VIDEO: Aretha Franklin Has Pancreatic Cancer


“The surgery was highly successful," the family member said. "God is still in control. I had superb doctors and nurses whom were blessed by all the prayers of the city and the country. God bless you all for your prayers."

Those who know Franklin have shared stories about working and spending time with the singer.

Brian and Mark Pastoria run Harmonie Park Studios in Detroit and have recorded music with Franklin.

Inside the studio is the microphone she used to record her most recent albums.

Mark Pastoria was there during her recording sessions and won a couple of Grammys for his efforts.

"Sometimes you can't believe you're there, but then you have to realize you have a job to do so you get out of that mode," said Mark Pastoria.

He showed off a picture he took with Franklin and Burt Bacharach inside Franklin's home. The picture was taken in her foyer where they recorded a track for her "So Damn Happy" album.

Pastoria recalled what it was like to hear Franklin sing.

"After she did a take, we just turned and looked at each other and he looked and me and I think he was more in awe than I was," said Pastoria.

Pastoria made a music video out of Franklin’s song "Good News" using images of Detroit.

Brian Pastoria also worked with Franklin and said doing so was like an out-of-body experience.

"To know her as a person, just lifts you up. It really does. She's a very special lady," said Brian Pastoria.

"I hope Aretha feels well and my thoughts go out to here and her family," said Mark Pastoria.

"I feel good knowing that when that people I do talk to that know her, that everybody's being positive. And you know, I know that that's Aretha's nature, and that's her spirit," said Brian Pastoria.

Israeli leader lobbies America for war with Iran

WASHINGTON (IPS/GIN) - Less than a week after Republicans made major gains in the U.S. midterm elections, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called on President Barack Obama to “create a credible threat of military action” against Iran.

Initial official reaction was negative, with Defense Secretary Robert Gates insisting that Obama's preferred strategy of enhanced multilateral sanctions and negotiations, which may resume after a year's hiatus later this month, was working better than expected.

“I disagree that only a credible military threat can get Iran to take the actions that it needs, to end its nuclear weapons program,” Mr. Gates said when asked about Netanyahu's remarks during a visit in Australia.

According to diplomatic sources quoted in the Israeli and U.S. press, Mr. Netanyahu's appeal came during a Nov. 7 meeting with Vice President Joseph Biden in New Orleans. It suggests that his right-wing government and its allies here, including hawkish Republicans who will take control of the House of Representatives in January, are preparing to escalate pressure on Mr. Obama to adopt a more confrontational stance with Tehran.

Indeed, even as Mr. Netanyahu was telling Mr. Biden, according to the anonymous sources, that “only a real military threat against Iran can prevent the need to activate a real military force,” Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham, a leading national-security spokesman for his party, told an international conference in Halifax, Canada, that Mr. Obama would help his own re-election chances in 2012 if he made “abundantly clear that all options (to Iran) are on the table”—a phrase that is associated with taking military action.

And if Tehran actually developed a nuclear weapon, he said, Mr. Obama should act “not to just neutralize their nuclear program, …but to sink their navy, destroy their air force and deliver a decisive blow to the Revolutionary Guard. In other words, neuter that regime. Destroy their ability to fight back.”

The rhetorical escalation by both Mr. Netanyahu and his supporters here comes amid diplomatic jockeying between Iran and the so-called P5+1—the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany—over the site and agenda of a meeting that both sides have said they hope will take place later this month.

Along with Brazil, Turkey had secured Iran's agreement last spring to a proposal, originally put forward as a confidence-building measure by the P5+1 a year ago, to ship a substantial amount of its growing stockpile of low-enriched uranium outside the country for enrichment to the 20 percent level needed to fuel a nuclear plant in Tehran that produces medical isotopes.

The Turkey-Brazil deal, however, was summarily rejected by the Obama administration and its European allies on the grounds that Tehran had added significantly to its stockpile in the previous six months.

While Netanyahu and his supporters here are dismissing as insufficient Obama's strategy of sanctions and talks, two centrist think tanks urged the administration to place more emphasis on engaging the Islamic Republic.

In addition, a new paper released by the bipartisan Iran Task Force convened by the Atlantic Council on the evolution of internal Iranian politics, particularly since last year's disputed elections, called for Washington to pursue “strategic patience” with Tehran “and avoid overreactions that could set back Iran's political development.”

With sympathetic Republicans taking over the House of Representatives, the Israeli government appears confident it can press for more.

But war talk was denounced as “dangerous” Nov. 8 by the Atlantic Council's chairman, former Sen. Chuck Hagel, who also co-chairs Mr. Obama's Intelligence Advisory Board, as well as the Council's Iran task force. “If you're going to threaten war on any kind of consistent basis, then you'd better be prepared to follow through on that (threat),” he said.

“The United States of America is currently in two of the longest wars we've ever been in … at a very significant cost to this country. … I'm not sure the people of the United States want to do a third war,” he said.

A Must See Film "Night Catches Us"

In 1976, after years of mysterious absence, Marcus (Anthony Mackie, “The Hurt Locker”) returns to the Philadelphia neighborhood where he came of age in the midst of the Black Power movement. While his arrival raises suspicion among his family and former neighbors, he finds acceptance from his old friend Patricia (Kerry Washington, “Ray,” “Lift”) and her daughter. However, Marcus quickly finds himself at odds with the organization he once embraced, whose members suspect he orchestrated the slaying of their former comrade-in-arms. In a startling sequence of events, Marcus must protect a secret that could shatter everyone's beliefs as he rediscovers his forbidden passion for Patricia.


History
1960s was a time of social and political change around the world. Many colonial nations established their independence during the 60s, finding new political footing. Other nations experienced significant political strife. In the US, a battle raged between the government and bourgeoning political groups advocating mostly for under-represented citizens. Among these groups the Black Panther Party (BPP), a political organization grounded in Black Nationalism and advocating for social change for African-Americans. Considered to be one of the most significant social, political and cultural movements in US history, the Black Panther Party was established in 1966 but was all but disbanded by the early 1970s. Today, many continue to wonder how such a strong political organization could have experienced such a rapid demise. While debate lingers today about what factors led to that demise, many former Panthers and others contend that it was solely the result of a government conspiracy.
From the mid-1950s throughout the 1960s accusations abounded about a covert FBI program bent on disrupting political organizations in the US. The disruptions ranged from the trivial (reprints of articles forwarded to college administrators) to the degrading (coloring books distributed by the FBI in the name of BPP, advocating children to celebrate violence). Later, graver assertions arose: the FBI was feeding information to police departments which—knowingly and unknowingly—carried out assassination plots at its behest.

To many, these stories appeared circumspect and baseless, and the controversy went unnoticed. But the disturbances—aimed primarily at Black political organizations, most notably the Black Panther Party—continued and affected liberal and conservative organizations alike, from the Communist Party to the Ku Klux Klan. Only when activists broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania in 1971 was the truth confirmed about a secret program run by the FBI called COINTELPRO. Among the documents later discovered was a memo by the notoriously overzealous FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover, which said, “the purpose of the counterintelligence action is to disrupt the BPP and it is immaterial whether facts exist to substantiate the charge.”

The documents were damning and COINTELPRO was abandoned the same year. An investigation launched in 1976 by a subcommittee of the United States Senate, known as the Church Committee, concluded that, “the techniques [used by the FBI] would be intolerable in a democratic society, even if all of the targets had been involved in violent activity, but COINTELPRO went far beyond that…” Later, the committee deemed many of COINTELPRO’s actions to be illegal.

Today, opinions vary widely about how significantly the actions of COINTELPRO were in the demise of the BPP. Many blame COINTELPRO solely for creating distress and fomenting irreparable damage between community members and police. Others attribute the demise of the Panthers more to the strife within its ranks.

The fact remains that the assassination of BPP members like Bobby Hutton and Fred Hampton live on as examples of this tragic chapter in American history. Many believe today that as many as twenty BPP members were assassinated as part of the program, for which the FBI claims no part. The fact that Hoover and the FBI kept COINTELPRO hidden for so long only serves to foster plausibility in the conspiracy.

NIGHT CATCHES US endeavors to portray characters drawn into the violence and betrayal of this time and living in its aftermath.