Tears of Gaza is a Norwegian anti-war movie from 2010 concerning the Gaza War as seen through the eyes of a group of Palestinian children. The documentary was directed by Vibeke L�kkeberg.

The film is based on the imagery taken by people themselves in Gaza while the war continued, with some additional material from the few foreign journalists who were present while the conflict unfolded. L�kkeberg was not present in Gaza during the war.

The film was met with strong reactions from Israel and the pro-Israeli organization "Israel For Peace" (MIFF) because the film is seen as a propaganda film for Palestine. It has been argued that the film was only created to defame Israel, and that it has been produced to portray Israel as the world's most brutal military power. Regardless of the motives of the directors, the documentary uses authentic footage from Gaza.

Bill Maher's excellent movie about religion in the world.

Those terrorists that once were "friends" of United States

U.S. President Barack Obama is set to meet with leaders and senior security officials from many other countries at a summit in Washington on Thursday, in an attempt to address the aggravating terrorist violence across the world.

This summit, themed "Summit on Countering Violent Extremism," will be attended by security experts and government officials from Britain and dozens of other countries in light of recent terrorist attacks in Canada, Australia, France and Nigeria.

While the United States would like to consider itself as the leader of the anti-terrorism alliance, its relationship with many extremist groups and individuals is intricate and even questionable.

Among many perilous and brutal terrorist groups in the world which have been backed by the U.S. government, Al Qaeda is the one particularly "exemplary" to show that the U.S. foreign policy is based on realpolitik and the short-term pursuit of narrow interests.

In order to battle against the Soviet's invasion in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, U.S. intelligence agencies had backed many Islamic fundamentalist groups in the land-locked country as well as in other Islamic countries.

And soon, one Arabian businessman emerged as the best protege of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States in the surrogate war between the two super powers. His name is Osama bin Laden.

Al-Qaeda, the terrorist group with many of its founders trained by the U.S. government, has become the world's largest and most notorious terrorist group. And its franchises reach almost all war-torn Islamic countries.

As for the Islamic State (IS), which is even "too extreme" in the eyes of regular al-Qaeda fighters, its key members were trained by the CIA and the Special Forces command at a secret camp in Jordan in 2012, according to RT, citing informed Jordanian officials.

What's more, the footsteps of U.S. intelligence agencies are not limited in the Islamic world.

In the 1990s, U.S. special forces and Drug Enforcement Administration worked with a Colombian vigilante group -- Los Pepes -- to track down and kill drug lord Pablo Escobar. The two main leaders of Los Pepes were Don Berna and Fidel Castano, both former employees of Escobar.

In 1997, some of Los Pepes' leaders co-founded the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, more commonly known as AUC which was responsible for numerous massacres and political assassinations in Colombia.

In the 1960s, the CIA also trained and harbored two terrorists trying to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro and to topple the communist government in the country.

Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban citizen who fled to the United States after the Cuban Revolution, helped organize the Bay of Pigs invasion, and after it failed, he became an agent for the CIA.

He was trained at Fort Benning, a U.S. Army post outside Colubus, Georgia. From 1964 to 1968, he was involved in a series of bombings and other anti-Castro covert activities.

Posada was found guilty by a court of Panama as one of the perpetrators behind the 1967 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. But he lived in the United States as a refugee and was never convicted with any criminal activity there.

Posada's accomplice Orlando Bosch Avila, also a Cuban exile, was granted shelter by the U.S. government as well, though former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh called him an "unrepentant terrorist."

As the United States upholds the flag of anti-terrorism once again, it may have to abandon its selfish and short-sighted interests first.

Great one Taike. Actually, our governments are not terrorist. We are. We support all this, we turn our heads the other way, we pretend we don't know. When we send our idiots to other countries to bomb, rape, kill and ravage all country we are peace keepers and supporters of democracy even though we don't have one here. But when they send their idiots here to kill inoccent people for some reason we are shocked by it. We are all ISIS,and we all work for the same organization. That is what is wrong with the world.

America Created Al-Qaeda and the ISIS Terror Group

Much like Al Qaeda, the Islamic State (ISIS) is made-in-the-USA, an instrument of terror designed to divide and conquer the oil-rich Middle East and to counter Iran�s growing influence in the region.

The fact that the United States has a long and torrid history of backing terrorist groups will surprise only those who watch the news and ignore history.

The CIA first aligned itself with extremist Islam during the Cold War era. Back then, America saw the world in rather simple terms: on one side, the Soviet Union and Third World nationalism, which America regarded as a Soviet tool; on the other side, Western nations and militant political Islam, which America considered an ally in the struggle against the Soviet Union.

The director of the National Security Agency under Ronald Reagan, General William Odom recently remarked, �by any measure the U.S. has long used terrorism. In 1978-79 the Senate was trying to pass a law against international terrorism � in every version they produced, the lawyers said the U.S. would be in violation.�

During the 1970′s the CIA used the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt as a barrier, both to thwart Soviet expansion and prevent the spread of Marxist ideology among the Arab masses. The United States also openly supported Sarekat Islam against Sukarno in Indonesia, and supported the Jamaat-e-Islami terror group against Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in Pakistan. Last but certainly not least, there is Al Qaeda.

Lest we forget, the CIA gave birth to Osama Bin Laden and breastfed his organization during the 1980′s. Former British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, told the House of Commons that Al Qaeda was unquestionably a product of Western intelligence agencies. Mr. Cook explained that Al Qaeda, which literally means an abbreviation of �the database� in Arabic, was originally the computer database of the thousands of Islamist extremists, who were trained by the CIA and funded by the Saudis, in order to defeat the Russians in Afghanistan.

America�s relationship with Al Qaeda has always been a love-hate affair. Depending on whether a particular Al Qaeda terrorist group in a given region furthers American interests or not, the U.S. State Department either funds or aggressively targets that terrorist group. Even as American foreign policy makers claim to oppose Muslim extremism, they knowingly foment it as a weapon of foreign policy.

The Islamic State is its latest weapon that, much like Al Qaeda, is certainly backfiring. ISIS recently rose to international prominence after its thugs began beheading American journalists. Now the terrorist group controls an area the size of the United Kingdom.

In order to understand why the Islamic State has grown and flourished so quickly, one has to take a look at the organization�s American-backed roots. The 2003 American invasion and occupation of Iraq created the pre-conditions for radical Sunni groups, like ISIS, to take root. America, rather unwisely, destroyed Saddam Hussein�s secular state machinery and replaced it with a predominantly Shiite administration. The U.S. occupation caused vast unemployment in Sunni areas, by rejecting socialism and closing down factories in the naive hope that the magical hand of the free market would create jobs. Under the new U.S.-backed Shiite regime, working class Sunni�s lost hundreds of thousands of jobs. Unlike the white Afrikaners in South Africa, who were allowed to keep their wealth after regime change, upper class Sunni�s were systematically dispossessed of their assets and lost their political influence. Rather than promoting religious integration and unity, American policy in Iraq exacerbated sectarian divisions and created a fertile breading ground for Sunni discontent, from which Al Qaeda in Iraq took root.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) used to have a different name: Al Qaeda in Iraq. After 2010 the group rebranded and refocused its efforts on Syria.

There are essentially three wars being waged in Syria: one between the government and the rebels, another between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and yet another between America and Russia. It is this third, neo-Cold War battle that made U.S. foreign policy makers decide to take the risk of arming Islamist rebels in Syria, because Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, is a key Russian ally. Rather embarrassingly, many of these Syrian rebels have now turned out to be ISIS thugs, who are openly brandishing American-made M16 Assault rifles.

America�s Middle East policy revolves around oil and Israel. The invasion of Iraq has partially satisfied Washington�s thirst for oil, but ongoing air strikes in Syria and economic sanctions on Iran have everything to do with Israel. The goal is to deprive Israel�s neighboring enemies, Lebanon�s Hezbollah and Palestine�s Hamas, of crucial Syrian and Iranian support.

ISIS is not merely an instrument of terror used by America to topple the Syrian government; it is also used to put pressure on Iran.

The last time Iran invaded another nation was in 1738. Since independence in 1776, the U.S. has been engaged in over 53 military invasions and expeditions. Despite what the Western media�s war cries would have you believe, Iran is clearly not the threat to regional security, Washington is. An Intelligence Report published in 2012, endorsed by all sixteen U.S. intelligence agencies, confirms that Iran ended its nuclear weapons program in 2003. Truth is, any Iranian nuclear ambition, real or imagined, is as a result of American hostility towards Iran, and not the other way around.

America is using ISIS in three ways: to attack its enemies in the Middle East, to serve as a pretext for U.S. military intervention abroad, and at home to foment a manufactured domestic threat, used to justify the unprecedented expansion of invasive domestic surveillance.

By rapidly increasing both government secrecy and surveillance, Mr. Obama�s government is increasing its power to watch its citizens, while diminishing its citizens� power to watch their government. Terrorism is an excuse to justify mass surveillance, in preparation for mass revolt.

The so-called �War on Terror� should be seen for what it really is: a pretext for maintaining a dangerously oversized U.S. military. The two most powerful groups in the U.S. foreign policy establishment are the Israel lobby, which directs U.S. Middle East policy, and the Military-Industrial-Complex, which profits from the former group�s actions. Since George W. Bush declared the �War on Terror� in October 2001, it has cost the American taxpayer approximately 6.6 trillion dollars and thousands of fallen sons and daughters; but, the wars have also raked in billions of dollars for Washington�s military elite.

In fact, more than seventy American companies and individuals have won up to $27 billion in contracts for work in postwar Iraq and Afghanistan over the last three years, according to a recent study by the Center for Public Integrity. According to the study, nearly 75 per cent of these private companies had employees or board members, who either served in, or had close ties to, the executive branch of the Republican and Democratic administrations, members of Congress, or the highest levels of the military.

In 1997, a U.S. Department of Defense report stated, �the data show a strong correlation between U.S. involvement abroad and an increase in terrorist attacks against the U.S.� Truth is, the only way America can win the �War On Terror� is if it stops giving terrorists the motivation and the resources to attack America. Terrorism is the symptom; American imperialism in the Middle East is the cancer. Put simply, the War on Terror is terrorism; only, it is conducted on a much larger scale by people with jets and missiles.

Garikai Chengu is a research scholar at Harvard University.

...or spend all day on Synthzone.