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Google Alert - Palestine news


26 01 2012


Palestinian president: Talks with Israel over
USA TODAY
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) – A low-level dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians about a future border has ended without any breakthrough, the Palestinian president said Wednesday, reflecting the impasse plaguing the negotiations for at least three ...
See all stories on this topic »
USA TODAY
Pro-Palestinian hackers bring down Haaretz Hebrew website
Haaretz
By Oded Yaron, Dan Even and DPA Pro-Palestinian hackers brought down Haaretz's Hebrew website on Wednesday, after several Israeli websites were targeted earlier in the day. Haaretz Hebrew website was brought down in a distributed denial-of-service ...
See all stories on this topic »
Haaretz
'Palestinian state' will end Mideast crisis – Jailed Palestinian leader in ...
Kuwait Times
JERUSALEM: The Middle East conflict will end only when Israel withdraws to the pre-1967 lines and a Palestinian state is established, jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghuti said yesterday in a rare court appearance. “The conflict will be finished the ...
See all stories on this topic »
Kuwait Times
Tour Company Provides Israeli and Palestinian Perspectives
Forward
And then he will step aside and a Palestinian tour guide will step forward and explain how his people see this spot, what this view means to them. “You see that flag in the distance?” he might say. “That is a small settlement.” And he will explain what ...
See all stories on this topic »
Palestinian student councils condemn UK Labour Students for breaking BDS ...
The Electronic Intifada (blog)
A open letter from a huge coalition of Palestinian student groups published today, condemns the UK Labour party student officers who went on a recent propaganda tour of Israel and illegal Israeli settlements, for crossing “a picket line established by ...
See all stories on this topic »
Palestinian Woman Locked in Bathroom for 10 Years
AllMediaNY
On Saturday, Palestinian police were led to a home in the West Bank city of Qalqilya by an anonymous tip. Inside, they found 21-year-old Baraa Melhem locked in a bathroom. Her father began locking her in the bathroom, which only measures 1.5 meters ...
See all stories on this topic »
AllMediaNY
Lady Mustangs get through Palestine, Fairfield
Madisonville Meteor
17 at the home court of District 20-3A opponent Palestine. Palestine was a point shy of Madisonville after playing one quarter, but the Lady Mustangs stepped up their game and went ahead by nine at halftime. After a close third quarter, ...
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SL reassures continued support & solidarity to Palestinian people
IEWY News
Sri Lanka's position with regard to the inalienable rights of the Palestinian People has been unswerving, says Palitha Kohona, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN adding that “We have always supported a peaceful negotiated settlement to the ...
See all stories on this topic »
Hamas: Wishful Thinking is No Basis for Policy Making
Huffington Post UK (blog)
He added, "The fact that Hamas, at one stage or another, accepts the goal of gradual liberation - of Gaza, of the West Bank, or of Jerusalem - is not at the expense of our strategic vision with regard to the land of Palestine.
See all stories on this topic »


 


The Israeli Occupation Archive has posted 1 new item(s):

* Palestinian leader Barghuti demands 1967 borders

_______________

Palestinian leader Barghuti demands 1967 borders
http://www.israeli-occupation.org/2012-01-25/palestinian-leader-barghuti-demands-1967-borders/

Marwan Barghuti: "The conflict will be finished the moment the Israeli
occupation ends, and there is a full withdrawal to the 1967 borders and a
Palestinian state is established... I call on the great Palestinian people to
embrace unity and cohesion and to establish a national unity government and also
to embrace popular, peaceful resistance to end the occupation."

_______________


To the Israeli Occupation Archive homepage where you can see all recent news
stories, commentaries, and editor's comments: www.Israeli-Occupation.org

 



Free speech attacked at US & Israeli campuses |

Egypt revolution's hip-hop soundtrack |

PLUS latest from our blogs!

_______________________________

UPDATE FROM THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA

http://electronicIntifada.net
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***********************************************************

LATEST FEATURES FROM THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA

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California professor under attack for opposing "study in Israel" scheme

By Nora Barrows-Friedman, Berkeley, 25 January 2012

The well-funded Israel lobby continues to wage attacks
against university faculty, staff and students who engage
in Palestine solidarity activism. One professor talks
about why he refuses to be silent despite the threats
against him, and why he thinks the tide is turning.

http://electronicintifada.net/content/california-professor-under-attack-opposing-study-israel-scheme/10859

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"We won't be silenced," say students arrested over Peres boycott call

By Yara Sa'adi, 24 January 2012

Three Palestinian students at the College of Engineering
in Jerusalem have been put under house arrest for a week
after calling for a boycott of a speech by Israeli
President Shimon Peres.

http://electronicintifada.net/content/we-wont-be-silenced-say-students-arrested-over-peres-boycott-call/10853

--

Interview: rapper Sphinx on why Egypt uprising had a hip-hop soundtrack

By Alexander Billet, 24 January 2012

Hesham Alofoq (aka Sphinx) of the Egyptian hip-hop group
Arabian Knightz speaks to The Electronic Intifada about
the history of hip-hop in Egypt and the Middle East, the
future of the Egyptian uprising, and the role that music
plays in the revolt.

http://electronicintifada.net/content/interview-rapper-sphinx-why-egypt-uprising-had-hip-hop-soundtrack/10852


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THE LATEST FROM THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA BLOGS

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US alleges "terrorism" convict plotted to have FBI informants murdered

Maureen Clare Murphy's blog, 25 January 2012

A domestic terrorism case in the US state of North
Carolina that I have scrutinized because of the vague
nature of the conspiracy charges, and the use of paid
undercover FBI informants, has taken a new twist as the
government now alleges one of those convicted attempted to
hire someone to kill those who testified against him.

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen/us-alleges-terrorism-convict-plotted-have-fbi-informants-murdered

--

Israeli "satire" show Latma TV represents Africans as dancing, banana-eating baboons

Ali Abunimah's blog, 25 January 2012

The Israeli "satire" show Latma TV produces an animated
cartoon that represents African people as apes. Latma TV
has become notorious for its racist videos, including one
which spread a libel that Muslim men were responsible for
a "rape epidemic" in Norway.

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israeli-satire-show-latma-tv-represents-africans-dancing-banana-eating-baboons

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A salute to the revolution

Jalal Abukhater's blog, 24 January 2012

Tomorrow marks the first anniversary for the start of the
Egyptian uprising which succeeded in toppling Hosni
Mubarak's 30 years rule on February 11th the same year,
yet the revolution is not done. The streets of the Arab
world haven't settled down, and not for one minute. The
people are holding on to their demand for justice and
dignified living.

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/jalal-abukhater/salute-revolution

--

Open letter to Moldovan punk band Zdob si Zdub: Stand in solidarity with Palestinians!

Nora Barrows-Friedman's blog, 24 January 2012

Punks Against Apartheid, the punk rock collective working
to educate and mobilize musicians and fans in support of
the BDS movement, has posted an open letter to Moldovan
hardcore band Zdob si Zdub encouraging them to cancel
their show in Tel Aviv and respect the global boycott
call.

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora/open-letter-moldovan-punk-band-zdob-si-zdub-stand-solidarity-palestinians

--

Does this look like "incitement" to you? Zionist fabrications, smears intensify ahead of Penn BDS conference

Ali Abunimah's blog, 24 January 2012

In the run-up to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
(BDS) conference at the University of Pennsylvania in
early February, at which I will be speaking, the
defamation and fabrication machines of anti-Palestinian
groups have gone into over-drive.

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/does-look-incitement-you-zionist-fabrications-smears-intensify-ahead-penn-bds

--

Palestinian student councils condemn UK Labour Students for breaking BDS picket line

Asa Winstanley's blog, 24 January 2012

A open letter from a huge coalition of Palestinian student
groups published today, condemns the UK Labour party
student officers who went on a recent propaganda tour of
Israel and illegal Israeli settlements, for crossing "a
picket line established by the entirety of the Palestinian
civil society".

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/palestinian-student-councils-condemn-uk-labour-students-breaking-bds-picket

--

New Sabra hummus ad uses images of Arabs, Africans to cover up Israel army connection

Ali Abunimah's blog, 24 January 2012

The Strauss Group, the company that openly supports the
Israeli army and makes Sabra brand hummus, is trying a new
advertising strategy to hide its Israeli connections and
combat a growing boycott movement. It is to depict Arabs
and Muslims in its ads as a form of cover. Should we call
this "Arabwashing?"

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/new-sabra-hummus-ad-uses-images-arabs-africans-cover-israel-army-connection

--

Veolia must stop assisting the occupier and leave Jerusalem, says Hamas spokesperson

Adri Nieuwhof's blog, 24 January 2012

Hamas spokesperson Mushir al-Masri condems the Jerusalem
Light Rail project and calls on French companies Veolia
and Alstom to stop assisting the occupier and leave
Jerusalem. Meanwhile Veolia Israel's CEO says the company
"won't stop the train" if Israeli authorities do not
approve Veolia's deal with Egged to sell its shares in the
light rail.

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/adri-nieuwhof/veolia-must-stop-assisting-occupier-and-leave-jerusalem-says-hamas-spokesperson

--

"Anti-Semitism" smear is about targeting MK Haneen Zoabi, even though it uses me

Ben White's blog, 23 January 2012

Today I was surprised to find myself being used in the
campaign to threaten Zoabi, with Israeli newspaper Yediot
Ahronot running a pathetic smear piece.

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ben-white/anti-semitism-smear-about-targeting-mk-haneen-zoabi-even-though-it-uses-me


--
ABOUT US: The Electronic Intifada (EI), found at http://electronicIntifada.net, publishes news, commentary, analysis, and reference materials about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a Palestinian perspective. EI is the leading Palestinian portal for information about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its depiction in the media. More information about our work can be found at http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/aboutEI.shtml

To find out about other EI/eIraq lists available, see: http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi

SUPPORT OUR PROJECT: Our work needs funding. We accept donations via credit card and cheque. U.S. donations are tax deductible. More information can be found at: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2162.shtml


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1507 E. 53rd Street, #500
Chicago, IL 60615, USA
http://electronicIntifada.net

 


U.S. Probe of Border Attack Hardened Pakistani Suspicions
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
25pakistan-6777.jpg

January 25, 2012 - The Pakistani military leadership's response to the U.S. report on its helicopter attack on two Pakistani border posts Nov. 26 assailed the credibility of the investigation by Air Force Brig. Gen. Steven Clark and expressed doubt that the attack could have been "accidental". The long-expected rejoinder, made public Monday, charged that 28 of its soldiers at two border bases were killed one by one long after the U.S. military had been told about the attack on a Pakistani base...

  continua / continued avanti - next    [85152] [ 26-jan-2012 19:48 ECT ]
Bahraini police clash with protesters
AFP + Videos
25bahrain-riots2.jpg

January 25, 2012 - Bahraini police and anti-government protesters clashed in Shiite villages, leaving dozens of officers and several demonstrators injured, officials and the opposition said Wednesday. The interior ministry accused protesters of "orchestrated attacks on police forces... across the kingdom" that caused "significant injuries" to 41 officers, two of them requiring "critical care" at Bahrain's military hospital. An opposition figure said protesters clashed with security forces in at least four Shiite villages, leaving several of them injured, including one seriously after being hit on the head with a tear gas canister. Earlier, Public Security Chief Major General Tariq al-Hassan said that "vandals blocked roads" and threw petrol bombs during the clashes on Tuesday night....

  continua / continued avanti - next    [85148] [ 26-jan-2012 19:26 ECT ]
In Bahrain, Worries Grow of Violent Shiite-Sunni Confrontation
SOUAD MEKHENNET

January 25, 2012 - Mr. Ibrahim belongs to the 14th of February movement, a group that started with peaceful protests but that in recent weeks has seen some members calling on the Internet for violent protests to overthrow the government — and especially the ruling family... "We have to become strong, like some groups in Iraq who are defending the rights of Shiites," said his friend Salah, 22, who would only give his first name... Each Friday, before heading to protests, Mr. Ibrahim, like many other young Shiites, drives to Diraz, a village on the northwest coast, to listen to the kingdom’s most influential Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Issa Qassim. On a Friday this month, the mosque was packed to overflowing with worshipers. Nearby hung a large banner portraying Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Until recently, Ayatollah Qassim preached peaceful protest, but last Friday his language changed....Jawad Fairooz, secretary general of Wefaq and a former member of Parliament in Bahrain, acknowledged that there had been contacts with Ahmed. Chalabi. "Mr Chalabi has helped us with contacts in Washington like other people have done and we thank them," Mr. Fairooz said. ...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85150] [ 26-jan-2012 19:26 ECT ]
Israeli Terrorism – Demolitions & Army run over a man who tries to stop a demolition in Palestine – Jan 25, 2012 – in pictures
Occupied Palestine
25army-terror-jan25-2012-hebron-1.jpg

January 25, 2012 - An injured Palestinian construction worker screams in pain after an Israeli army driver drove a trailer hooked to a tractor over his legs, as he tried to block him when Israeli forces stopped workers on January 25, 2012 from building a house in al-Dirat village, south of Yatta in the southern Bank town Hebron region. The Israeli forces were seizing the equipment and trailer from the construction workers as the site falls in the occupied zone C in which Israel prevents Palestinians from building on their land....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85145] [ 26-jan-2012 17:50 ECT ]
AP Interview: Saudi warns of Mideast nuclear race
EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press

January 25, 2012 – An influential member of the Saudi royal family warned Wednesday that unless the Middle East becomes a nuclear weapon-free zone, a nuclear arms race is inevitable and could include his own country, Iraq, Egypt and even Turkey. Prince Turki Al Faisal said the five permanent U.N. Security Council members should guarantee a nuclear security umbrella for Mideast countries that join a nuclear-free zone — and impose "military sanctions" against countries seen to be developing nuclear weapons... Turki's proposal could impose sanctions against Iran if there is evidence it is pursuing weapons of mass destruction, which include nuclear as well as chemical and biological weapons. But it could also put Israel under sanctions if it doesn't come clean on its suspected nuclear arsenal...Asked whether Saudi Arabia would maintain its commitment against acquiring WMD, Turki said: "What I suggest for Saudi Arabia and for the other Gulf states ... is that we must study carefully all the options, including the option of acquiring weapons of mass destruction. We can't simply leave it for somebody else to decide for us."...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85144] [ 26-jan-2012 17:46 ECT ]
Whistling Past the Graveyard
by Stephen Lendman

January 25, 2012 - On January 23, Naked Capitalism posted Yves Smith's article headlined, "Obama to Use Pension Funds of Ordinary Americans to Pay for Bank Mortgage 'Settlement,' " saying: His chicanery never ends. This one involves federal regulators using pension theft to settle mortgages. "It's yet another (pre-election) gambit," assuring a bad problem gets worse. Obama's agenda sustains criminal elitism. "What he misses is that" coverups no longer work and may even blow up before November....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85143] [ 26-jan-2012 17:39 ECT ]
Marwan Barghouti: Conflict ends after Israeli withdrawal
Ma'an news
25mb162617_345x230.jpg

January 25, 2012 -- The Palestinian-Israeli conflict will come to an end only when the occupation comes to an end and Israel withdraws to the pre-1967 borders, jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti said Wednesday. Barghouti, former secretary-general of Fatah in the West Bank, on Wednesday testified in court in Jerusalem in a case filed by Israeli Kleinman family against the Palestinian Authority. Asked by reporters whether he intends to run for a parliamentary seat in the upcoming elections, Barghouti said: "The PA has yet to set a date ... Once they do, we'll see what happens."....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85142] [ 26-jan-2012 17:29 ECT ]
State won’t prosecute officer responsible for shooting of Firas Qasqas
B'Tselem

January 25, 2012 - Firas Qasqas, an unarmed Palestinian civilian, was killed on 2 February 2007 by soldiers' gunfire, in Ramallah District. On 18 August 2011, in response to a petition filed by B'Tselem, the State Attorney's Office informed the High Court of Justice that the officer responsible for the shooting would be prosecuted, pending a hearing. In mid-January 2012, the State informed the Court that, following the hearing given the officer, no indictment would be filed against him...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85140] [ 26-jan-2012 17:21 ECT ]
Iraq snapshot - January 20, 2012
The Common Ills

January 25, 2012. Chaos and violence continue, the political crisis continues, Nouri launches another verbal attack on Turkey's prime minister, Talabani tries to keep the peace from a sickbed, US President Barack Obama gives a speech dubbed State of the Union, and more... Yesterday, Iraq was slammed with bombings. Dan Morse (Washington Post via San Francisco Chronicle) notes "at least 19 people were killed in Iraq" yesterday with at least eighty injured....Violence continues today. Deng Shahsa (Xinhua) notes Sahwa leader Mulla Nadhim al-Jubouri was shot dead Tuesday night in Dhuluiyah...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85138] [ 26-jan-2012 17:11 ECT ]
Syria Protests January 25, 2012 : A Video Roundup
25students-syria2.jpg


  continua / continued avanti - next    [85136] [ 26-jan-2012 13:50 ECT ]
Syria Protests January 25, 2012 : A Video Roundup
25students-syria2.jpg


  continua / continued avanti - next    [85137] [ 26-jan-2012 13:50 ECT ]
No prison time for Marine charged in Haditha massacre
By Naomi Spencer

January 25, 2012 - ...Documents found in an Iraqi dump, retrieved by the New York Times last month as they were being burned, bear out Bargewell’s findings. Among the papers were statements given by military personnel on the Haditha massacre. "I mean, whether it’s a result of our action or other action, you know, discovering 20 bodies, throats slit, 20 bodies, you know, beheaded, 20 bodies here, 20 bodies there," Col. Thomas Cariker, a commander in Anbar Province told investigators, describing the scope of the carnage. Major General Steve Johnson, who was commander of US forces in Anbar Province at the time, stated dismissively that "it happened all the time … it was just the cost of doing business on that particular engagement." Civilians were routinely shot down at checkpoints, other officers explained, when the men stationed as guards got edgy or confused. "I had Marines shoot children in cars and deal with the Marines individually one on one about it because they have a hard time dealing with that," one officer testified....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85135] [ 26-jan-2012 05:47 ECT ]
Occupying Libido: Negotiating a Landscape of Hypocrisy and Hungry Ghosts
By Phil Rockstroh

January 25, 2012 - ...Still, both major U.S. political parties remain unmoved by the opinions of their constituents and unresponsive to their needs. By having the right to vote under present day, political duopoly, one is granted the right to co-sign the ongoing fraud that the nation is a democratic republic. To vote for either a Democratic or Republican candidate (i.e., the well vetted stooges of the 1%) is to cast a vote in favor of the only political party allowed in the rigged process--The Big Money, Perpetual War Party. Believing that replacing one of these candidates with the other…is in any way propitious is analogous to believing that the hanging of new wallpaper within a house with a rotted-out foundation constitutes renovating the structure...

  continua / continued avanti - next    [85134] [ 26-jan-2012 05:36 ECT ]
Activists resisting Palestinian home demolitions face ‘IDF Price Tag’ attack
Jeff Halper
25salim620.jpg

January 25, 2012 - It has become commonplace among violent West Bank settlers to randomly attack Palestinian mosques, homes, olive orchards and individuals in order to send a message to other Israelis. They are called "Price Tag" attacks, after the "signature" the settlers leave scrawled on the walls of the burnt-out buildings. In the dark of night this past Monday, January 23, the IDF carried out its own Price Tag assault on ICAHD, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. At 11:30 p.m. on that cold, rainy night, I got a panicky phone call from Salim Shawamreh, a Palestinian man from the West Bank town of Anata whose home has been demolished by the Israeli authorities four times and rebuilt as an act of resistance each time by ICAHD. "Army bulldozers are approaching my home," he cried. "Now they’re beginning to demolish it!"
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85133] [ 26-jan-2012 05:29 ECT ]
Interim Libyan government a protest magnet
UPI

January 25, 2012 -- Protests are mounting against the council that replaced Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, with one critic calling the National Transitional Council "a monster." Those unhappy with the regime include Libyans still loyal to the slain leader, those who say the NTC is not moving fast enough to establish a democracy and those who fear the Muslim Brotherhood is gaining too much power, The Washington Times reported...."The Libyan people have identified the NTC as the root of all problems in Libya," said Mohamed Benrasali, a spokesman for the Misrata city council. "The NTC has become a monster and a corrupt one at that due to the lack of transparency. And, ultimately, these protests may lead to the fall of the government."..
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85132] [ 26-jan-2012 05:10 ECT ]
In Iraq, Haditha case is reminder of justice denied
By Raheem Salman and Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times

January 25, 2012 - The teacher still keeps family photos of the dead, visual mementos of lives cut short in an unremitting hail of gunfire. "The Americans killed children who were hiding inside the cupboards or under the beds," said Rafid Abdul Majeed Hadithi, 43, a teacher in the city of Haditha who says he witnessed the 2005 assault by U.S. Marines that took the lives of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians. "Was this Marine charged with dereliction of duty because he didn't kill more? Is Iraqi blood so cheap?" In the United States, the brutal saga of Haditha — among the dead were seven children, including a toddler, three women, and a 76-year-old man in a wheelchair — may have concluded Monday with Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich's guilty plea to negligent dereliction of duty. A military judge said Tuesday that Wuterich will serve no time in the brig under the terms of his plea bargain. Charges were previously dropped against six others involved in the Euphrates Valley incident; a seventh Marine was acquitted....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85131] [ 26-jan-2012 01:37 ECT ]
Testimonies from the Heart of Darkness
By Tamar Fleishman – The West Bank
33boy_arrested_tamar.jpg

January 25, 2012 - 'This place is the carbuncle on the ass of the occupation,' said Dalit Baum as the gates of Ofer prison closed behind us. The Palestinian residents of the West Bank, who had been living under occupation for over forty years and are deprived of their basic rights, are brought to justice in military courts. This entire legal system- investigators, prosecutors and judges- is comprised of men and women, in uniform, who are subordinated to and serve, not the principles of justice and law, but the mechanism of the occupation. Ofer prison/detention center/court sits on Palestinian lands that had been confiscated from their owners....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85130] [ 26-jan-2012 01:22 ECT ]
Israeli "satire" show Latma TV represents Africans as dancing, banana-eating baboons
Ali Abunimah

January 25, 2012 - The Israeli "satire" show Latma TV produces an animated cartoon that depicts African people as apes. Latma TV – a tax-exempt project of the US-based Center for Security Policy – has become notorious for its racist videos, including one which spread a libel that Muslim men were responsible for a "rape epidemic" in Norway. The main character of the Latma TV cartoons is a baboon called "Professor Na’or Lobongelo" who is described as a "lecturer in political science at the University of Tel-Zanav, a small corner of light and intelligence in the jungle that surrounds us."...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85129] [ 26-jan-2012 00:42 ECT ]
Libya: Growing Discontent, Military On Alert In Tripoli
MISNA

January 25, 2012 - "The military presence in Tripoli has become more evident by the hour. There are no checkpoints, but the troops are on alert to sedate any possible unrest. There has also been an increase in exchanges of fire of various nature over the past days, as the wave of protests that erupted in Benghazi approaches also this part of Libya", said MISNA missionary sources contacted in the Libyan capital. The protests come amid growing criticism against the National Transition Council (NTC), accused of bad-administration of the transition phase and failing to keep promises....

  continua / continued avanti - next    [85128] [ 26-jan-2012 00:32 ECT ]
The US Military: A Global Force, But Not For Good
Bruce A. Dixon
25us_war_crimes.jpg

January 25, 2012 - In official folklore, the US armed forces are the virtuous repositories of honor, probity and moral virtue. But the real history and culture of the US military, from invading Spanish Florida to prevent its being a refuge for escaped slaves, to Wounded Knee, to massacres in Haiti and Central America, to Fallujah and marines pissing on Afghan corpses, are something else altogether...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85127] [ 26-jan-2012 00:20 ECT ]
California professor under attack for opposing "study in Israel" scheme
Nora Barrows-Friedman

January 25, 2012 - A mathematics professor at the California State University at Northridge is the target of an attack campaign by various pro-Israel lobby groups and individuals because he maintains a website that supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, and for his outspoken criticism of Israeli policies. Recently, Dr. David Klein has come under fire for organizing in opposition to the 23-campus-wide California State University (CSU) system’s resumption of a study abroad program in Israel, which was discontinued in 2002 because of a US State Department warning on travel to the region during the second Palestinian intifada....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85126] [ 25-jan-2012 23:58 ECT ]
Detainees held by Libya rebels still tortured-UN
Reuters

January 25, 2012 - Detainees from Libya's civil war held by revolutionary brigades continue to be subjected to torture despite efforts by the provisional government to address the issue, the U.N. human rights chief said on Wednesday. Navi Pillay told the U.N. Security Council she was extremely concerned about thousands of prisoners, most of them accused of being loyalists of the toppled government of Muammar Gaddafi and many from sub-Saharan Africa. "The lack of oversight by the central authorities creates an environment conducive to torture and ill-treatment," Pillay said. "My staff have received alarming reports that this is happening in places of detention that they have visited."...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85125] [ 25-jan-2012 23:32 ECT ]
Institute: Jewish extremists destroy Palestinian graves
Ma'an news
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January 25, 2012 -- Jewish extremists destroyed Palestinian tombstones on Wednesday in the northern Israeli town of Beisan, the Al-Aqsa Institute for Waqf and Heritage said. A delegation from the institute visited the cemetery in the town, known in Israel as Beit Shean, and found a large number of graves destroyed and vandalized, official PA news agency Wafa reported. "Extremist Jews seek to obliterate what is left of Islamic landmarks in the city," said Sami Rizqallah, a deputy in the institute....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85124] [ 25-jan-2012 22:51 ECT ]
Video: Tunisian Freed from Guantánamo Calls for the Return of His Compatriots
Andy Worthington

January 25, 2012 - To mark the 10th anniversary of the opening of the "war on terror" prison at Guantánamo Bay, both Al-Jazeera and the Guardian turned their attention to the fate of the five Tunisians still held in Guantánamo, who I wrote about almost exactly a year ago, after the unexpected fall of the dictator Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, and the beginning of the revolutionary movements in the Middle East. At the time, seven Tunisians had left Guantánamo, to face a variety of fates. Two had been repatriated in 2007, although both had then been imprisoned following show trials, two others were in Italy, where they had been delivered from Guantánamo to face trials in November 2009, and three others had been resettled in early 2010 in three other countries — namely, Slovakia, Albania and Georgia....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85123] [ 25-jan-2012 20:58 ECT ]
Iraq’s execution of 34 people in one day ‘shocking’ – UN human rights chief
UN News Centre

January 24, 2012 – The United Nations human rights chief said today she was shocked at reports that 34 people were executed in Iraq in a single day last week and called on the country to institute an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty. "Even if the most scrupulous fair trial standards were observed, this would be a terrifying number of executions to take place in a single day," High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay stated in a news release. "Given the lack of transparency in court proceedings, major concerns about due process and fairness of trials, and the very wide range of offences for which the death penalty can be imposed in Iraq, it is a truly shocking figure," she added...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85122] [ 25-jan-2012 20:06 ECT ]
Yemen’s Saleh Leaving; Country Sees Hope
Hakim Almasmari

January 24, 2012 - Being forced to leave the country, deeply inside Saleh knows he was degraded. He is not expected to come back to Yemen anytime soon, as Yemenis will continue demanding his prosecution as long as he lives. Though he received the immunity he long seeked, it means nothing in front of the international law. Families of over 1500 youth activists killed during the Yemeni revolution have not forgave him, and to them, justice must prevail. Three years ago, during the peak of Saleh’s power, no one ever thought that he would be leaving in such a way...

  continua / continued avanti - next    [85121] [ 25-jan-2012 19:52 ECT ]
On the 4th. Anniversary of the passing of Al-Hakim George Habash
Adib S. Kawar
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January 24, 2012 - Al-Hakim George Habash was a born leader, the respect of whom was inevitable and willingly accepted by the people around him without demand on his part… generations of young and old Palestinians and other Arabs in complete devotion and dedication to the Arab cause in general and the Palestinian one in particular, which is in its core… Al-Hakim (doctor and wise man) George Habash, made irreplaceable and unforgettable favors to all those who accompanied and worked with the beginning of the Arab nationalist movement and Palestinian Arab struggle on the road of return to the stolen and occupied homeland, Palestine and its neighborhood, that is ours in the past, present and future....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85120] [ 25-jan-2012 19:39 ECT ]
Video: Pro-Gaddafi forces strike back, 'Libya out of control'
RussiaToday

January 24, 2012 - Fighting has broken out in Libya between supporters of former leader Muammar Gaddafi and forces loyal to the new government. The head of the National Transitional Council has warned that the country is on the verge of returning to a state of civil war. Our correspondent Maria Finoshina says the NTC doesn't control the situation in Libya...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85119] [ 25-jan-2012 19:32 ECT ]
Israel confiscates 350 acres in occupied Jerusalem in just three weeks
Middle East Monitor

January 24, 2012 - The Israeli occupation authorities have confiscated 350 acres of land in the occupied city of Jerusalem and the surrounding area in the past three weeks. Details of the land grab have been given in a report prepared by the Department of International Relations at the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), which described the illegal settlement operations in East Jerusalem as a "war crime" and "state terrorism". The ongoing theft of Palestinian land is, claims the PLO, "undertaken by the right-wing extremist government in Israel for the purpose of the Judaisation of the city and its annexation, so as to make the implementation of any political solution possible."...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85118] [ 25-jan-2012 19:19 ECT ]
Syria News - January 24, 2012 (Warning: Graphic Videos)
Local Coordination Committees of Syria + Videos
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January 24, 2012 - The number of martyrs increased to 68 including 5 defected recruits. 47 martyrs in Homs, 18 of them fell in the shelling of the two buildings in Bab Tadmur and 12 others in the shelling at Karm Al-Zayton neighborhood four of them were torn into pieces and couldn't be identified. 7 martyrs in Hama, 4 in Daraa, 2 in Idlib and one in each of Raqqa, Damascus and Douma in Damascus suburbs...Homs: Martyrdom of several civilians in Karm Zaytoun neighborhood due to a mortar shelling without warning that led to the collapse of houses on the heads of their inhabitants...Homs: At least 18 martyrs were reported in Bab Tadmur neighborhood due to the shelling by Assad's forces that destroyed two inhabitated buildings while the residents in their homes....Hama : Abdulrazak Mahmoud Aljomaa (31 years old), an elementary school teacher, was martyred under torture. His body was delivered to his parents today after being detained 13 days ago...Hama: Martyrdom of a child Amr Abdullah Tayfour, 6 years old, after he was shot by snipers in the head while he was inside hiw house in Sheikh Anbar neighborhood...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85117] [ 25-jan-2012 18:51 ECT ]
US/Israel: Iran NOT Building Nukes
By Ray McGovern

January 24, 2012 - ... However, a consensus seems to be emerging among the intelligence and military agencies of the United States – and Israel – that Iran has NOT made a decision to build a nuclear weapon. In recent days, that judgment has been expressed by high-profile figures in the defense establishments of the two countries – U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak...on Jan. 8, Defense Secretary Panetta told Bob Schieffer on "Face the Nation" that "the responsible thing to do right now is to keep putting diplomatic and economic pressure on them [the Iranians] … and to make sure that they do not make the decision to proceed with the development of a nuclear weapon." Panetta was making the implicit point that the Iranians had not made that decision, but just in case someone might miss his meaning, Panetta posed the direct question to himself: "Are they [the Iranians] trying to develop a nuclear weapon? No."...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85115] [ 25-jan-2012 18:10 ECT ]
In Palestine, to exist is to resist
by Melinda Tuhus
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January 24, 2012 - On November 15, Mazin Qumsiyeh and other Palestinian activists boarded public bus number 148, an Israelis-only bus that normally takes Jews from the Israeli West Bank settlement of Ariel to Jerusalem. The bus took the group to the Hizma checkpoint, just outside the northern entrance of Jerusalem, where activists resisted authorities’ efforts to remove them. Eventually, as a camera broadcast the action online, eight people were pulled from the bus and arrested. They were charged with "illegal entry to Jerusalem" and "obstructing police business."...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85114] [ 25-jan-2012 18:04 ECT ]
ICAHD Peace Center ‘Beit Arabiya’ Demolished for the Fifth Time
ICAHD - Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions

January 24, 2012 - Israeli authorities demolished Beit Arabiya ("Arabiya’s House") last night (Monday, January 23rd) for the fifth time, along with structures in the East Anata Bedouin compound. Beit Arabiya, Located in the West Bank town of Anata (Area C) just to the northeast of Jerusalem, is a living symbol of resistance to Occupation and the desire for justice and peace. As its name suggests, Beit Arabiya is a home belonging to Arabiya Shawamreh, her husband Salim and their seven children, a Palestinian family whose home has been demolished four times by the Israeli authorities and rebuilt each time by ICAHD's Palestinian, Israeli and international peace activists, before being demolished again last night...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85113] [ 25-jan-2012 17:54 ECT ]
US steps outside the law as the war on terror drones on
Justin Randle

January 24, 2012 - The CIA recently launched its first drone attack of 2012. Three people in North Waziristan were killed. If you haven't yet heard of these Terminator-style US drones, it is likely you will soon. Their usage in surveillance, modern warfare and covert ''counter-terrorism'' measures is rapidly expanding. Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, are the new face of the war on terror and the latest attempt by the United States to circumvent international law in pursuit of its alleged enemies. After failing to fulfil his promise to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, President Barack Obama spent New Year's Eve signing the National Defense Authorisation Act (NDAA). The NDAA codifies the indefinite detention, without trial, of US citizens. The third part of this trinity is the increase in a multi-agency network of drones carrying out secret extrajudicial assassinations of suspected militants. In his inauguration speech, Obama said: ''As for our common defence, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.'' Yet these policies enshrine just such a false dichotomy...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85112] [ 25-jan-2012 17:35 ECT ]
Syria Protests January 24, 2012 : A Video Roundup
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  continua / continued avanti - next    [85111] [ 25-jan-2012 17:28 ECT ]
Thoughts on Palestinian conference
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD

January 24, 2012 - The conference in Jericho was on changing course; some papers presented were excellent and most comments were exactly on target. I had heard similar comments from Palestinians in exile in the USA, Holland, Belgium, and Italy. But our block is not in diagnosis nor is it in the prognosis but it is in actually in administering the therapy or medicine which might be bitter at first. Everyone talks about creating an alternative political faction to the existing ones, dismantling the Palestinian Authority and returning to the liberation struggle, and/or changing the self-destructive direction of two-states to the winning strategy of one-state advocacy. People are finally ready for these. The question remains: who will do it? It definetly will not come from any of the existing aging leaders who like the limelight and who enjoy the status quo while TALKING (!) about "a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital"...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85110] [ 25-jan-2012 17:22 ECT ]
Iraq snapshot - January 24, 2012
The Common Ills

January 24, 2011. Chaos and violence continue, Baghdad is slammed with bombings, Nouri goes after Turkey (again), the political crisis continues, executions in Iraq continue, and more... Today bombs slammed Baghdad. Aswat al-Iraq states, "These explosions remind the people of the 2006-2007 events." Alsumaria TV quotes an unidentified police source stating of the aftermath of a Sadr City car bombing, "Ambulance cars rushed to the incident site and transported wounded to a nearby hospital for treatment and the corpse to the department of forensic medicine...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85109] [ 25-jan-2012 16:54 ECT ]
Rules of American justice: a tale of three cases
Glenn Greenwald
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January 24, 2012 - Developments in three legal cases, just from the last 24 hours, potently illuminate the Rules of American Justice. First, the Justice Department yesterday charged a former CIA agent, John Kiriakou, with four felony counts for having allegedly disclosed classified information to reporters about the CIA’s interrogation program. Included among those charges are two counts under the Espionage Act of 1917, based on the allegation that he disclosed information which he "had reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States and to the advantage of any foreign nation." Kiriakou made news in 2007 when he told ABC News that he led the team that captured accused Terrorist Abu Zubaydah and that the techniques to which Zubaydah was subjected, including waterboarding, clearly constituted "torture," though he claimed they were effective and arguably justifiable. He’s also accused of being the source for a 2008 New York Times article that disclosed the name of one of Zubaydah’s CIA interrogators. What’s most notable here is that this is now the sixth prosecution by the Obama administration of an accused leaker, and all six have been charged under the draconian, World-War-I era Espionage Act...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85108] [ 25-jan-2012 16:26 ECT ]
The Torture of Mumia Abu-Jamal Continues off Death Row
Supporters Demand Transfer to General Population
Hans Bennett

January 24, 2012 - On December 7, following the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to consider the Philadelphia District Attorney's final avenue of appeal, current DA Seth Williams announced that he would no longer be seeking a death sentence for the world-renowned death row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal – on death row following his conviction at a 1982 trial deemed unfair by Amnesty International, the European Parliament, the Japanese Diet, Nelson Mandela, and many others. Abu-Jamal's sentence of execution was first "overturned" by a federal court in December 2001, and during the next ten years, he was never transferred from death row at the level five supermax prison, SCI Greene, in rural western Pennsylvania. Shortly after the DA's announcement in early December, Mumia Abu-Jamal, now 57 years old, was transferred to SCI Mahanoy in Frackville, PA, 100 miles from Philadelphia. Once there, it was expected that he would be released from solitary confinement and transferred into general population where he would finally have contact visits and generally less onerous conditions. However, he was immediately placed in "Administrative Custody," in SCI Mahanoy's "Restrictive Housing Unit" where his conditions of isolation and repression are now in many ways more extreme than they were on death row....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85107] [ 25-jan-2012 16:09 ECT ]
Confessions of a Recovering Weapons Addict
Tom Engelhardt & William Astore

January 24, 2012 - ... Of course, in any situation there are always winners and losers, but it is striking that our losing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have proven a gold mine for a small set of crony corporations and weapon-makers, producing a group of real winners at home with names like Lockheed Martin, KBR, and General Dynamics. TomDispatch regular and retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel William Astore points, for instance, to the end results of our debacle in Iraq: the new Iraqi government is planning to purchase $11 billion in American weapons (and training), including F-16 fighter jets. A little history of American dreams for the Iraqi Air Force might be in order. When the Bush administration launched its invasion in 2003, it imagined an American-garrisoned Iraq for decades to come and a reconstituted Iraqi military "lite," a force of perhaps 40,000 lightly armed troops "without an air force," who would patrol the borders of their part of an American-dominated Middle East. In those halcyon days, there were no plans to recreate an Iraqi Air Force (though Saddam Hussein’s had once been one of the biggest in the world). Or rather, U.S. planners saw no need to do so because the "Iraqi Air Force" already existed and was settling into Balad Air Base north of Baghdad. It was, of course, the U.S. Air Force...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85106] [ 25-jan-2012 15:53 ECT ]
Egypt : One Year On, Labor Revolution Stalling
by Jano Charbel
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January 24, 2012 - On 30 January 2011, only five days into the revolution, the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions was born, the first such federation to be established in since the union movement was monopolized by the state-controlled Egyptian Trade Union Federation in 1957. Since then, some three hundred independent unions have been established nationwide, with a reported membership of nearly two million workers. But nearly one year later, these unions remain unrecognized by the interim government. Many workers say they have yet to see conditions change, despite their critical role in the protests that forced former President Hosni Mubarak from office. "Workers continue to feel marginalized, just like they did under the Mubarak regime," says Mahmoud Rihan, a leading organizer of the recently established Federation of Transport Workers....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85105] [ 25-jan-2012 15:44 ECT ]
Does this look like "incitement" to you? Zionist fabrications, smears intensify ahead of Penn BDS conference
Ali Abunimah

January 24, 2012 - In the run-up to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) conference at the University of Pennsylvania in early February, at which I will be speaking, the defamation and fabrication machines of anti-Palestinian groups have gone into over-drive. In December, StandWithUS attempted to smear me as an "anti-Semite" with fabricated quotes. And just yesterday, my colleague Ben White was subjected to prominent smears that he is an "anti-Semite" in the Israeli press. That in turn is part of an escalating campaign against human rights and equality champion Haneen Zoabi...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85104] [ 25-jan-2012 14:46 ECT ]
Tale of Sodomy and Torture in Occupation Prison
Richard Silverstein

January 24, 2012 - Haaretz this week noted that the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel has brought suit before the Israeli Supreme Court on behalf of a Palestinian torture victim. Two police officers allegedly brutally abused their client in a prolonged police interrogation in 2007. After arresting him early one morning near al-Izarwiya, they stripped him naked, repeatedly beat him on every part of his body, kicked him, deafened him by firing a gun next to his ear, shoved a metal key into his eye, pushed his face into a substance smelling like insecticide, urinated on his face and the rest of his body, and for the torture piece de la resistance–sodomized him not once, but twice with a blunt instrument...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85103] [ 25-jan-2012 14:39 ECT ]
Western justice and transparency
Glenn Greenwald
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January 24, 2012 - On Saturday in Somalia, the U.S. fired missiles from a drone and killed the 27-year-old Lebanon-born, ex-British citizen Bilal el-Berjawi. His wife had given birth 24 hours earlier and the speculation is that the U.S. located him when his wife called to give him the news. Roughly one year ago, El-Berjawi was stripped of his British citizenship, obtained when his family moved to that country when he was an infant, through the use of a 2006 British anti-Terrorism law — passed after the London subway bombing — that the current government is using with increasing frequency to strip alleged Terrorists with dual nationality of their British citizenship (while providing no explanation for that act). El-Berjawi’s family vehemently denies that he is involved with Terrorism, but he was never able to appeal the decree against him for this reason: Berjawi is understood to have sought to appeal against the order, but lawyers representing his family were unable to take instructions from him amid concerns that any telephone contact could precipitate a drone attack. Obviously, those concerns were valid...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85102] [ 25-jan-2012 11:18 ECT ]
"We won’t be silenced," say students arrested over Peres boycott call
Yara Sa’di

January 24, 2012 - Three Palestinian students at the College of Engineering in Jerusalem (JCE) have been put under house arrest for a week and instructed not to contact any of their peers for using the social media website Facebook to urge a boycott of a speech by Israeli President Shimon Peres. A couple of weeks ago, students received a message from the college authorities, notifying them of a visit by Peres scheduled for 10 January. The message emphasized that attendance during Peres’ speech was "compulsory."...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85101] [ 25-jan-2012 10:59 ECT ]
Marine Involved In Haditha Massacre To Serve No Time ‎
Associated Press
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January 24, 2012 — A Marine sergeant who led a squad that killed 24 unarmed Iraqis will spend no time in confinement, despite a military judge's recommendation Tuesday that he spend three months in the brig...In Iraq, residents of the Euphrates river town of Haditha were angered by the fact that not one of the eight Marines initially charged will be convicted of manslaughter. A survivor of the killings, Awis Fahmi Hussein, showed his scars from being hit by a bullet in the back. "I was expecting that the American judiciary would sentence this person to life in prison...

  continua / continued avanti - next    [85099] [ 25-jan-2012 02:28 ECT ]
Anger in Iraq After Plea Bargain Over 2005 Massacre
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT

January 24, 2012 — Iraqis were outraged Tuesday to learn that the Marine considered the ringleader of a 2005 massacre that left 24 of their countrymen dead in 2005 had pleaded guilty Monday to a reduced charge and faced a maximum of three months in jail and a reduction in rank. "That soldier would be sent to prison for more than three months if he had thrown trash on the streets in America," said Khalid Salman, 45, whose cousin was killed by the Marines in the massacre, which occurred in the town of Haditha in November 2005. "This is not new and it’s not new for the American courts that already did little about Abu Ghraib and other crimes in Iraq."....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85100] [ 25-jan-2012 02:34 ECT ]
The Puzzling Matter of the Israeli Liberals
By Ramzy Baroud

January 24, 2012 - Regardless of who may rule Israel, little change ever occurs in the country's foreign policy. Winning parties remain obsessed with demographics and retaining absolute military dominance. They also remain unfailingly focused on their quest to initiate racist laws against non-Jewish residents of the state, and continue to hone the art of speaking of peace, while actually maintaining a permanent state of war....To hold hope in the new election cycle in Israel is like waiting for false messiahs. No salvation will be heralded by some imagined center-left party that will bring "an end to the ultra-rightist frenzy," as hoped by Avnery. The task will not be easy, but a true shift in Israeli politics can only occur at the foundational level by confronting the country’s apartheid-like political institutions....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85098] [ 25-jan-2012 02:04 ECT ]
GCC pulls out of Syria mission
By GHAZANFAR ALI KHAN

January 24, 2012 - The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) said on Tuesday that it had decided to withdraw its monitors deployed in Syria within the framework of an Arab League peace plan. The decision follows the announcement made by Saudi Arabia about its plan for withdrawal, and a call made by the Arab League to Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down over his bloody crackdown on a 10-month-old revolt in which thousands of Syrians have been killed and hundreds of thousands injured so far....

  continua / continued avanti - next    [85097] [ 25-jan-2012 01:50 ECT ]
Eyewitness to Israel's ethnic cleansing
Bill Mullen
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January 24, 2012 - AT 4:45 a.m. on the morning of August 2, 2009, the family of Miraym Al-Ghawi was awakened by pounding on the door of their home in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem. A small bomb was detonated, throwing open the door. Through it walked masked and armed Israeli commandoes, who dragged the Al-Ghawis, including the six Al-Ghawi children, into the night. They collected the family's belongings in trucks and dumped them outside the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, where they were ransacked. The Al-Ghawi's youngest child, age 4, stood and watched as commandoes set fire to her bed and her playthings. The daughter still cannot sleep without her mother. Medical experts have diagnosed her ailment as "settler trauma."....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85096] [ 25-jan-2012 01:43 ECT ]
Israel demolishes Palestinian bedouin homes, again
Al-Akhbar

January 24, 2012 - Israeli forces overnight demolished the home of a Bedouin family near Jerusalem for the fifth time, an Israeli NGO said, as Israel's uprooting of Palestinians from their native lands intensify. Israel's Civil Administration, the military body that oversees the West Bank, confirmed the demolitions. "During the night, there were five demolitions of illegal structures that were occupied by Bedouin populations. We're talking about illegal structures that were built without the permission needed," Civil Administration spokesman Guy Inbar said....

  continua / continued avanti - next    [85094] [ 25-jan-2012 00:59 ECT ]
Official: Israel to demolish school, homes near Hebron
Ma'an news

January 24, 2012 -- Israeli forces on Tuesday issued demolition orders to a school and homes near Hebron in the southern West Bank, local officials said. Bani Naim spokesman Imad Amer said forces handed notices to Shuhada al-Haram school and three homes east of the village. The municipality condemned Israel's continuous demolitions in the area which aimed to force residents to leave, Amer said in a statement...

  continua / continued avanti - next    [85092] [ 25-jan-2012 01:00 ECT ]
Gaddafi's green flag raised in Libyan town after bloody uprising... as civil war fears rise
By Lee Moran
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January 24, 2012 - Libya's ramshackle government lost control of a former Gaddafi stronghold today after locals staged an armed uprising. Forces loyal to ousted, and now dead, leader Muammar Gaddafi seized control of Bani Walid and then raised in celebration the deposed regime's green flag on hundreds of buildings. The re-taking of the town, which saw elders driven out in a lengthy bloody gunbattle which killed four people and left 25 others wounded, raises the spectre that the country will descend into civil war....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85091] [ 25-jan-2012 00:50 ECT ]
Military Resistance 10A 20 : Advance Friend and Be Recognized
Thomas F Barton

January 23, 2012 - Hundreds of people took to the streets in a town in northeastern Afghanistan Thursday in protest over a night raid by Afghan and U.S. forces that killed six civilians, an official said. A woman and two children were among the dead in the air and ground raid on Dewa Gul Vally, a Taliban stronghold in the Chawki district of Kunar province, on Monday night, provincial governor Fazlullah Wahidi told AFP. "The raid was not coordinated with us. Those killed were civilians," Wahidi said. "Now the people are demanding justice."...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85090] [ 25-jan-2012 00:35 ECT ]
Syria News - January 23, 2012 (Warning: Graphic Videos)
Local Coordination Committees of Syria + Videos
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January 23, 2012 Number of martyrs rose to 36 in Syria today including 3 children and 2 defected recruits and 2 men who died under turture: 12 martyrs in Homs,11 martyrs in Idlib,6 martyrs in Daraa,3 in Damascus Suburbs and a martyr in each of BoKamal, Raqqa,Damascus and HasakehHoms: Martyrdom of child Obaida Al-Shamy (13 years old) from random shelling and heavy shooting in Deir Baalba neighborhood... Daraa: The Free Syrian Army is conducting a large operation across the entire city, and is targeting security checkpoints in Daraa proper, including checkpoints at the Post Office, Al-Kazieh (gas station), and others. In addition, the FSA targeted checkpoints at Daraa Al-Mahata, Al-Sadd Road, Panorama, and Al-Souk, as well as the checkpoints in the suburb of Yarmook Daraa. Clashes continue, and the regime's army has surrounded the area and is conducting a campaign of random arrests.
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85089] [ 24-jan-2012 18:53 ECT ]
Connect with the Palestinian Students’ Campaign for Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI)
US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel

January 23, 2012 - A collective of students in Gaza has formed Palestinian Students Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI). These students are seeking to expand their collaboration and participation in events and activities with solidarity activists at international universities. PSCABI members participate in many activities here in Gaza and are heavily involved in supporting the international student solidarity movements, especially with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaigns. PSCABI members frequently write letters out of Gaza, some of which we have listed below, encouraging people to participate in the boycott and thanking people who have supported the Palestinian cause....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85088] [ 24-jan-2012 16:36 ECT ]
US Media Iraq Reporting: See No Evil
Dave Lindorff
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January 23, 2012 - The Iraq war may be over, at least for US troops, but the cover-up of the atrocities committed there by American forces goes on, even in retrospectives about the war. A prime example is reporting on the destroyed city of Fallujah, where some of the heaviest fighting of the war took place... According to a widely published article written for the Associated Press by Jim Krane, however, all males of "combat age," defined as being from 15 to 55, were turned back from those checkpoints to await their fate in the city. This despite an estimate by the Pentagon that there were only some 3-4000 insurgents in the city... Easy to say but hard to do when some 10,000 buildings are being flattened. Over 6000 residents of Fallujah were reportedly killed in the nine-day sacking of the city which followed, beginning on November 7. Given that the Pentagon concedes that many of the insurgents managed to slip out of the city before the attack, or to hide out until it was over, this means that thousands of civilians, including boys -- many of whom had tried to leave before the attack -- were slaughtered by invading American and British troops...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85087] [ 24-jan-2012 16:01 ECT ]
Taliban statement
Fundamental facets of the Afghan puzzle
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

January 23, 2012 - Just like any other problem, the one in Afghanistan also has different facets or sides of which the two most important and fundamental are the foreign and internal ones. The foreign facet is important because our beloved country (Afghanistan) is occupied by one hundred and fifty thousand foreign invaders. Thousands of its real sons are languishing in Guantanamo, Bagram and the other secret and disclosed prisons of the invaders. The occupying forces, without any legal permit martyr innocent Afghans and raid their homes at night. Neither does or can the stooge Kabul administration halt this and nor does the rest of the world. So it becomes clear that the solution to this problem lies in this starting point meaning the bringing about the end of the foreign occupation...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85086] [ 24-jan-2012 15:53 ECT ]
Pakistan Rejects US Self-Defense Claim on Strikes
By SEBASTIAN ABBOT Associated Press

January 23, 2012 - Pakistan's army on Monday formally rejected a U.S. claim that American airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani troops last year were justified as self-defense, a stance that could complicate efforts to repair the troubled but vital relationship between the two countries. In a detailed report, the army said that Pakistani troops did not trigger the Nov. 26 incident at two posts along the Afghan border by firing at American and Afghan forces, as the U.S. has alleged. Pakistan's army said its troops shot at suspected militants who were nowhere near coalition troops...

  continua / continued avanti - next    [85085] [ 24-jan-2012 15:44 ECT ]
Syria Protests January 23 , 2012 : A Video Roundup
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  continua / continued avanti - next    [85084] [ 24-jan-2012 15:37 ECT ]
Iraq snapshot - January 23, 2012
The Common Ills

January 23, 2012. Chaos and violence continue, we explore the silence on the political crisis and the connection to the silence on Iraqi women, and more. Actions do have consequences and the decision by the White House to back Nouri al-Maliki as prime minister in 2010 has had very serious consequences for Iraq and that becomes more obvious each day.... While some people were sounding alarms about Nouri's attempt to remain prime minister, others were excusing Nouri. In 2010, ahead of the elections, Nir Rosen was declaring that it really didn't matter and the Iraqi people didn't really care....


  continua / continued avanti - next    [85083] [ 24-jan-2012 06:52 ECT ]
Iraq bans visiting Saddam Hussein’s grave
Mohan Ramraj
23saddam-grave_468x286.jpg

January 23, 2012 - The Iraqi government has banned individuals’ visit to the grave of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in Salahudin province ... The Iraqi government prevented visits to the tombs either from the individuals or governmental establishments for two years. "The Iraqi cabinet directed authorities of Salahudin province to take all necessary measures to prevent any visit to Saddam Hussein’s grave," Xinhua quoted a source from the provincial operations. Sheikh Falah al-Nada, Head of one of ex-president Saddam Hussein’s tribe confirmed that the graveyard that contains Hussein’s body, sons and some of his assistants was closed before ten days by police force...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85082] [ 24-jan-2012 06:37 ECT ]
Julian Assange: The Rolling Stone Interview
by: Michael Hastings

January 23, 2012 - ...The creation of WikiLeaks was, in part, a response to Iraq. There were a number of whistle-blowers who came out in relation to Iraq, and it was clear to me that what the world was missing in the days of Iraq propaganda was a way for inside sources who knew what was really going on to communicate that information to the public. Quite a few who did ended up in very dire circumstances, including David Kelly, the British scientist who either committed suicide or was murdered over his revelations about weapons of mass destruction. The Iraq War was the biggest issue for people of my generation in the West. It was also the clearest case, in my living memory, of media manipulation and the creation of a war through ignorance...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85081] [ 24-jan-2012 04:45 ECT ]
America's Great Divide Between Rich and Poor
by Stephen Lendman

January 23, 2012 - ... Wrongheaded policies assure growing misery while America's rich never had it so good. That's the dilemma voters face in an election year when neither party offers solutions. Instead, they assure growing wealth disparity, greater poverty, and human misery. Only grassroots activism can change things. OWS protests show promise. Nothing will happen easily or quickly. The mother of all social justice struggles continues. It better because growing inequality and human need are too intolerable to accept..



  continua / continued avanti - next    [85080] [ 24-jan-2012 04:22 ECT ]
22 years behind bars for a 'crime of compassion'
Matthew Behrens
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January 23, 2012 - ...Clinton's Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, asked on the CBS program 60 Minutes if the sanctions-related deaths of a half million Iraqi children were worth it, famously replied, "We think the price is worth it." ... As Clinton rakes in $100,000-plus speaking fees for trotting out such tripe,New York oncologist Dr. Rafil Dhafir, who also believed no one should die before their time, especially in Iraq, remains behind bars in one of the most brutal of U.S. prisons, the Communication Management Unit in Terre Haute, Indiana (a.k.a., "Little Guantanamo"). The CMU has been "home" to dozens of Muslims arrested as part of post-9/11 racial profiling paranoia. Dhafir was sentenced to 22 years for consciously violating the sanctions against the people of Iraq...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85079] [ 24-jan-2012 04:02 ECT ]
Iran puts US and Israel on 'collision course'
By Uzi Mahnaimi

January 23, 2012 -- ISRAEL has warned the US's top general that it will give Washington just 12 hours' notice if it decides to launch a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities...Publicly the Americans and Israelis are playing down their differences. But Ron Ben-Yishai, a leading defence commentator, wrote last week on the Ynet website that "Israel and the US are on a head-on collision course unheard of in recent history." A large joint anti-missile exercise planned for April has already been cancelled, officially for "technical and logistical reasons". "All lies," said an Israeli defence official, who claimed that Washington had pulled out as an expression of its displeasure. "We were shocked," the official said. "It's been planned for the last two years"...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85078] [ 24-jan-2012 02:59 ECT ]
The Only Guilty Marine in the Haditha Massacre Faces Three Months in Jail
Adam Clark Estes

January 23, 2012 - In a Camp Pendleton courtroom, a judge finally sentenced the last of the eight Marines accused of murdering two dozen Iraqi civilians in Haditha, ten of whom were women and children. After striking a plea bargain that reduced the charge from murder to "voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and dereliction of duty stemming from the November 19, 2005" event, Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich pleaded guilty and now "faces a maximum sentence of three months of confinement, forfeiture of two-thirds of his pay for three months and a reduction in rank when he is sentenced on Tuesday," according to Reuters....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85077] [ 24-jan-2012 02:28 ECT ]
Medicines in Gaza are hostage to political rivalry that puts lives at risk
Rami Almeghari
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January 23, 2012 - Ahmad Dahman, 60, is one of hundreds of patients who come to Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital to receive life-saving kidney dialysis treatment each week. And like other patients, he is worried that his health and even his life are at risk because of persistent shortages in medicines and supplies needed for his treatment. Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza, along with other health facilities, continues to suffer shortages of medicines and equipment needed for dialysis and other treatments because of rivalry between Palestinian political parties, as well as the siege Israel has imposed on the Strip...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85076] [ 24-jan-2012 01:31 ECT ]
Hebron woman goes on hunger strike over settler attacks
By Mya Guarnieri

January 23, 2012 - - An elderly Palestinian woman spent last week on hunger strike to protest violent attacks by Israeli settlers. Hana Abu Heikel went on the hunger strike on behalf of her family after settlers burned the family car during the previous weekend. Since Israeli settlers moved into the houses surrounding the Abu Heikel family home in Hebron in 1984, the Abu Heikels have seen eight cars burned. Six vehicles were also smashed by settlers...

  continua / continued avanti - next    [85075] [ 24-jan-2012 01:19 ECT ]
US drone strike kills 4 in North Waziristan
International News Network

January 23, 2012 - At least four people were killed in a US drone strike in North Waziristan tribal region on Monday, security sources said. According to residents, one drone fired two missiles at a vehicle in Datta Khel of North Waziristan. The second U.S. drone launched two missile strikes at the house of a local tribesman man in the same area. There was no information about the identity of those killed in the strike...

  continua / continued avanti - next    [85074] [ 24-jan-2012 00:28 ECT ]
US-NATO war crimes in Libya
Barry Grey
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January 23, 2012- ... Based on interviews with victims of war crimes as well as with witnesses and Libyan officials in Tripoli, Zawiya, Sibrata, Khoms, Zliten, Misrata, Tawergha and Sirte, the report calls for the investigation of evidence that NATO targeted civilian sites, causing many deaths and injuries. Civilian facilities targeted by NATO bombs and missiles included schools, government buildings, at least one food warehouse, and private homes. The report also presents evidence of systematic murder, torture, expulsion and abuse of suspected Gaddafi loyalists by the NATO-backed "rebel" forces of the National Transitional Council (NTC). It describes the forced expulsion of the mostly black-skinned inhabitants of Tawergha and the ongoing persecution of sub-Saharan migrant workers by forces allied to the NTC and its transitional government...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85073] [ 23-jan-2012 23:34 ECT ]
PCHR is Concerned over Subjecting Him to Torture, IOF Arrest Patient at Beit Hanoun (Erez) Crossing in the Northern Gaza Strip
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)

January 23, 2012 -. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns arresting a Palestinian patient from the Gaza Strip by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) at Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing. The patient was heading to a hospital in the West Bank for medical treatment. PCHR is concerned that he may be subjected to torture, especially as he was supposed to undergo a surgery...
PCHR believes that the policy adopted by IOF to arrest patients is a serious violation of international humanitarian law. Furthermore, it is a form of cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, especially as it is part of the illegal closure imposed on the Gaza Strip that aggravates the suffering of patients whose treatment is not available in the Gaza Strip hospitals....

  continua / continued avanti - next    [85072] [ 23-jan-2012 23:20 ECT ]
Relocating Original Sin: The State Is Not Your Friend
Arthur Silber

January 23, 2012 - ...o, aw, gee, why would our nice government, a government solely committed to justice, fairness and proportionality in all matters, decide to make such a big deal about it? And why would our nice government do this especially when it leads to "tremendous collateral damage and chilling effects"? I could simply say, "Talk about the missing the point," and the comment would be entirely accurate. But I urge you to consider the premise underlying this approach. Most people -- and I dare say, many of you reading this -- commit the identical error in different forms. During the long nightmare of the Iraq occupation, one of my constant themes was the unforgivable inaccuracy and moral blindness of those who maintained that the United States had committed a terrible "blunder," that the invasion and occupation of Iraq represented a failure of judgment, or a monumental "mistake." It was none of those things. It was a hideous crime, in fact, an unending series of crimes. It still is...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85071] [ 23-jan-2012 23:15 ECT ]
Israeli forces seal off occupied West Bank town
Middle East Monitor
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January 23, 2012 - Israeli occupation forces sealed the entrances to the town of Azzun, east of Qalqilya in the northern West Bank, on Saturday, isolating it from the surrounding area for a short time. In a telephone interview with the local media, the Mayor of Azzun said that the closure was effected by several Israeli military vehicles. During the closure, said Mayor Ahmed Omran, the free movement of the town's residents was hindered...

  continua / continued avanti - next    [85070] [ 23-jan-2012 23:06 ECT ]
EU states agree gradual ban on Iran oil, sanctions on central bank
By Justyna Pawlak and David Brunnstrom, Reuters

January 23, 2012 - European Union governments agreed on Monday to an immediate ban on all new contracts to import, buy or transport Iranian crude oil, a move to put pressure on Tehran's disputed nuclear programme by shutting off its main source of foreign income. However, to protect Europe's economy as it battles to overcome a debt crisis, the governments agreed to phase in the embargo, giving countries with existing contracts with Iran until July 1, 2012 to end those deals...

  continua / continued avanti - next    [85069] [ 23-jan-2012 22:57 ECT ]
Read the Center for Constitutional Rights’ “Faces of Guantánamo” Reports
Andy Worthington
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January 23, 2012 - In December, I was privileged to work with the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights on three reports about Guantánamo that were published to mark the 10th anniversary of the opening of the prison on January 11, 2012, and released at a press conference in Washington D.C. that The three reports are entitled, "Faces of Guantánamo: Resettlement," "Faces of Guantánamo: Indefinite Detention," and "Faces of Guantánamo: Torture" (also available via this page) and they present a comprehensive analysis of Guantánamo’s history, President Obama’s failure to close the prison as he promised, and profiles of 20 of the 171 prisoners still held. The first report, "Faces of Guantánamo: Resettlement," focuses on the 89 prisoners still held who were cleared for release by President Obama’s Guantánamo Review Task Force, but who are still held either because they cannot be safely repatriated, and no country has volunteered to offer them a new home, or because they are Yemenis, and both the President and Congress have acted to prevent the release of any cleared Yemeni prisoners, even though this constitutes guilt by nationality, which is an indefensible generalization, and ought to be regarded as a profound shame....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85068] [ 23-jan-2012 22:48 ECT ]
Israel detains 2 more lawmakers
Ma'an news

January 23, 2012 -- Israeli forces on Monday detained two Palestinian MPs during a raid on the Jerusalem headquarters of the International Red Cross. Mohammad Tawtah and former Jerusalem affairs' minister Khalid Abu Arafa are being questioned by Israeli police on suspicion of conducting "Hamas activities inside Jerusalem," Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Ma'an. The elected officials took refuge at the Red Cross building in East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah in July 2010 along with lawmaker Ahmad Attoun after Israel revoked their residency permits...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85067] [ 23-jan-2012 22:40 ECT ]
Gaddafi loyalists seize control of Bani Walid
Reuters

January 23, 2012 - Supporters of ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi have seized control of the town of Bani Walid after clashes with a militia loyal to the new government in which four people were killed, witnesses told Reuters. A resident of Bani Walid, about 200 km south-east of Tripoli, said the sides fought using heavy weaponry, including 106 mm anti-tank weapons, and that 20 people were wounded. Another witness told Reuters the fighting had now stopped but that Gaddafi loyalists were in control of the town centre, where they were flying green flags, a symbol of allegiance to the ousted administration....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85066] [ 23-jan-2012 19:49 ECT ]
Syria News - January 22, 2012 (Warning: Graphic Videos)
Local Coordination Committees of Syria + Videos
22syria-prisoner2.jpg

January 22, 2012 - Number of martyrs rose to 12 up till this moment, 7 in Damascus Suburbs "5 Douma,1 Kesweh,1 Talfeta" 3 in Idlib and a martyr each in both of Homs and Hama Arab League Martyrs : One month since the Arab League Observers entered Syria and this has change nothing nor stoped the crime that the regime commite on the peaceful protesters, Number of martyrs reach 976 since the first day the observers got into the country as the Local Coordination Committees documented among them are 28 women, 54 children "41 male,13 female" and 14 students Most of the martyrs were killed in Homs (347), Idlib (166), Damascus and it’s Suburbs (131), Hama (111) ...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85065] [ 23-jan-2012 19:39 ECT ]
NATO's Libya Bombings Create "Regional" Africa Disaster, Zuma Says
Jacob Zuma

January 22, 2012 - ...As everybody is aware, the AU developed a political roadmap that would have assisted in resolving the political conflict in that country. The AU's plan was completely ignored in favour of bombing Libya by NATO forces. The consequences of actions that were carried out in Libya in the name of the UN Security Council have spilled over into other countries in the region. A problem which was confined to one country, Libya, has now grown to be a regional problem. Your Excellencies it is the view of the AU that the 1973 Resolution of the UN Security Council was largely abused in some specific respects. The lesson we should draw from the Libyan experience is that greater political coherence and a common vision between the AU and the UN are critical in the resolution of African conflicts....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85064] [ 23-jan-2012 19:28 ECT ]
Urgent Appeal - (UA - 3/11) - Settler Violence
Defence for Children International-Palestine Section

January 22, 2012 - Between 13 January 2011 and 8 January 2012, DCI-Palestine has documented 32 cases of children affected by settler violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, including one fatality. The nature of the violence reported by the children includes being shot at, beaten, pelted with stones and sprayed with gas....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85063] [ 23-jan-2012 19:17 ECT ]
Winters make survival hard for the poor people of Kabul (Photos)
RAWA
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January 22, 2012 - A couple of heavy snowfalls in Kabul guaranteeing that a drought won’t hit Kabul this year, made life all the more harder on its poor people. Already battered by war waged by the foreign forces and Taliban, poverty and cold mercilessly put people on a test for survival. The prices of fuels rose like every year but the prices of food items skyrocketed this year as Pakistan has closed the most used trade route. Even in the snowfall people are begging on roads. Most women are beggars from the 30 decades of war who have no other option but to beg in streets to feed their children....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85062] [ 23-jan-2012 19:04 ECT ]
Military Resistance 10A19: Body Count
Thomas F Barton

January 22, 2012 - American and other coalition forces here are being killed in increasing numbers by the very Afghan soldiers they fight alongside and train, in attacks motivated by deep-seated animosity between the supposedly allied forces, according to American and Afghan officers and a classified coalition report. A decade into the war in Afghanistan, the report makes clear that these killings have become the most visible symptom of a far deeper ailment plaguing the war effort: the contempt each side holds for the other, never mind the Taliban.
The ill will and mistrust run deep among civilians and militaries on both sides, raising questions about what future role the United States and its allies can expect to play in Afghanistan...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85061] [ 23-jan-2012 18:09 ECT ]
The FBI Spied on Me and Then Lied About It
by: Shakeel Syed with Farid Zakaria

January 22, 2012 - Five years ago, I joined a group of leaders of the Southern California Muslim community in an attempt to find out whether the government was conducting illegal surveillance at our mosques, our homes, our jobs, in public places and elsewhere. To do so, we filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) with the FBI, seeking any records relating to us and containing information about "monitoring, surveillance, observation, questioning, interrogation and/or infiltration."....

  continua / continued avanti - next    [85060] [ 23-jan-2012 17:54 ECT ]
Syria Protests January 22, 2012 : A Video Roundup
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  continua / continued avanti - next    [85059] [ 23-jan-2012 17:43 ECT ]
From Kabul to Doha in search of peace
Bassam Javed

January 22, 2012 - After a series of covert meetings with the Taliban exploring possible ways for Afghan political stability post-2014 withdrawal, US decided to look for convenient venues outside Afghanistan for two reasons one; to make the negotiations process a sustained effort with the Taliban and two; to avoid outside influence from the regional countries on the talks. Initially, Turkey and Saudi Arabia were considered ideal venues for such interaction but later on America chose Qatar for the purpose... Qatar is quoted to have spent $450 million in Libyan campaign and had deployed its air elements in Cyprus for the purpose in compliance with US strategy. Probably this was the reason Qatar was given priority over Saudi Arabia or Turkey for opening an office in Qatar...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85058] [ 23-jan-2012 17:09 ECT ]
Half a dollar a day: The life of a Gaza tunnel-digger
Nadezhda Kevorkova, RT
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January 22, 2012 - Did you know Gaza Strip has a Ministry of Tunnels? It’s an important ministry too, as tunnels are a lifeline bringing food and consumer goods to Palestinians. Without them, it’s doubtful that people here would survive the Israeli blockade. Tunnellers toiling in arduous conditions are happy workers – they earn a staggering $10 a day. Their cheerfulness persists despite having to do back-breaking work, under the ground, with no chance to stand up straight, without fresh air, constantly running the risk of being crushed in a collapse or dying of suffocation. The tunnels are bombed during air raids, so their entrances are disguised. The sand from the pit is removed under tents to keep the place inconspicuous. Until last year, almost all food and other items, except for limited supplies from the UN, were delivered via underground passages...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85057] [ 23-jan-2012 16:54 ECT ]
Arab League calls for Syrian president to hand off power
By Amro Hassan and Alexandra Zavis, Los Angeles Times

January 22, 2012 - Reporting from Cairo and Damascus, Syria— With no end to the bloodshed in Syria, the Arab League on Sunday called for President Bashar Assad to hand over power to his top deputy and sought the formation of a unity government to prepare for early elections. The league's demands seem certain to anger the Syrian government, which blames months of unrest on "foreign conspiracies" and has repeatedly rejected what it regards as attacks on its sovereignty. League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said the 22-member regional bloc would seek endorsement from the United Nations Security Council for its plan but did not say what it would do if Syria did not comply with its demands...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85056] [ 23-jan-2012 16:50 ECT ]
Libya Protests Spur Shake-Up in Interim Government
By LIAM STACK

January 22, 2012 - Libya’s post-Qaddafi transitional government faced a political crisis Sunday after protesters ransacked its offices in Benghazi, highlighting growing nationwide unease with its leadership and triggering a shake-up in which the governing council’s No. 2 official resigned and several members were suspended. For months, youth groups with a range of complaints have been protesting against the Transitional National Council in Benghazi, the eastern city whose protests sparked the nine-month revolt and which once served as the rebel capital. Protests have cropped up elsewhere, too, including in Tripoli, the capital, where activists have erected a small tent city across from the prime minister’s office....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85055] [ 23-jan-2012 16:45 ECT ]
Please sign the White House petition calling for the closure of Guantánamo!
Andy Worthington
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January 22, 2012 - Ten days ago, on January 11 (the 10th anniversary of the opening of the "war on terror" prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba), the "Close Guantánamo" campaign was launched, with a mission statement signed by Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Chief of Staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell; the Hon. John J. Gibbons, former Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit; Gen. David M. Brahms (Ret.); Rear Adm. Donald J. Guter (Ret.); Rear Adm. John D. Hutson (Ret.); Col. Morris Davis, former chief prosecutor for the Military Commissions at Guantánamo; the Center for Constitutional Rights; Human Rights First; Human Rights Watch; attorneys for the Guantánamo prisoners, and journalists...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85054] [ 23-jan-2012 16:06 ECT ]
“Each Arab dog will have his day:” Military raids Khalil youth center
by Tom, International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

January 22, 2012 - In an action that appears to have been carried out purely for the entertainment and satisfaction of Israeli settlers, the center of the activist group, Youth Against Settlements, in Tel Rumeida, Al Khalil (also known as Hebron) was stormed by Israeli soldiers at 3pm on the afternoon of Saturday 21st January. Organisation leader Issa Amro was briefly arrested and taken away without reason. Settlers surrounded the Centre of Steadfastness and Challenge, as soldiers broke in and seized Amro while simultaneously seeming to attempt a search of the building....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85052] [ 23-jan-2012 15:48 ECT ]
The Palestinian children – alone and bewildered – in Israel's Al Jalame jail
Harriet Sherwood in the West Bank

January 22, 2012 - The room is barely wider than the thin, dirty mattress that covers the floor. Behind a low concrete wall is a squat toilet, the stench from which has no escape in the windowless room. The rough concrete walls deter idle leaning; the constant overhead light inhibits sleep. The delivery of food through a low slit in the door is the only way of marking time, dividing day from night. This is Cell 36, deep within Al Jalame prison in northern Israel. It is one of a handful of cells where Palestinian children are locked in solitary confinement for days or even weeks. One 16-year-old claimed that he had been kept in Cell 36 for 65 days. The only escape is to the interrogation room where children are shackled, by hands and feet, to a chair while being questioned, sometimes for hours....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85051] [ 23-jan-2012 15:37 ECT ]
‘Libya’s like Somalia’
Patrick Cooke
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January 22, 2012 - Somali asylum seekers who fled Libya by boat and were brought to Malta last weekend tell Patrick Cooke that Africans still risk beatings and even death in post-Gaddafi Libya. Zakaria and a fellow Somali were exhausted after carrying out back-breaking manual labour for a Libyan man who had picked them up in 'Krimea’, an area of Tripoli where the city’s underclass of sub-Saharan Africans congregate in the hope of finding work. "When we finished, he told us 'you are a friend of Gaddafi so I will not pay you, you killed our brothers’. Then he beat us with sticks and threatened us with a gun," Zakaria tells The Sunday Times. "Africans are being beaten and killed in Libya and no one there cares,".....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [85050] [ 23-jan-2012 15:01 ECT ]

 



Israel launches 'deadly air strike' on Gaza

At least two Palestinians killed
in raid against northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, health ministry reports.


Last Modified: 18 Jan 2012 12:27

An Israeli strike has killed at least two Palestinians in northern Gaza close to the border, the occupied territory's health ministry said.

"We recovered one martyr and two other people with injuries after the air raid carried out by occupation aircraft in Beit Hanoun," Adham Abu Selmiya, a government official, told the AFP news agency on Wednesday.

One of the injured, who was in critical condition, later succumbed to his wounds.

Palestinian security sources said the raid hit a field used by Hamas.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said the target was "a terrorist squad that was attempting to place an explosive device by the security fence" in the second such incident this year.

She said an Israeli aircraft and the armoured corps had fired at the squad, and the device that they were trying to plant had exploded.

In 2011, there were "approximately 30 such incidents", she said.

The often tense border between the coastal territory and Israel has been calm in recent days, after an increase in rocket fire from Gaza and Israeli attacks in December.

Source:
Agencies


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Google Alert - Palestine news


18 01 2012






EU delegates: Palestine Liberation Organization should return to Jerusalem
Haaretz
A report by European Union delegates in Jerusalem and Ramallah is calling for the reinstatement of the Palestine Liberation Organization and for the advancement of Palestinian Authority policies in East Jerusalem. The report, a copy of which was ...
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Haaretz
Israel, Palestine and the meaning of antisemitism
The Guardian
Once again a Jewish writer (Tanya Gold, 17 January) complaining about antisemitism deliberately ignores the distinction between false accusations against Jews over the centuries and justified criticism of the Jewish takeover of Palestine, a land that ...
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A Palestinian View: The Fatah-Hamas reconciliation process
Daily News Egypt
By Ghassan Khatib There has always been a very strong correlation between internal Palestinian issues and Palestinian-Israeli relations. This is true because Israel is a key player in all aspects of Palestinian life. Israel's troops are on the ground ...
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'F' Is For Funding ... Which Palestinian Muppets Lack
NPR
by Daniel Estrin Daoud Kuttab, executive producer of Shara'a Simsim, the Palestinian version of Sesame Street, holds a Muppet at his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah earlier this month. The producers say they have been forced to put production ...
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Couple in Lake Palestine boat accident identified
KYTX
By Courtney Friedman - email LAKE PALESTINE (KYTX) - New information on Monday's drowning on Lake Palestine - the Lancaster couple involved in the boat accident have been identified. The man who drowned was 58-year-old Floyd Cooper. ...
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Should The U.N. Admit Palestine As A Full Member State?
NPR
by NPR Staff Mustafa Barghouthi (from left), Daniel Levy, debate moderator John Donvan, Dore Gold and Aaron David Miller speak before an audience in New York on the motion "The UN Should Admit Palestine As A Full Member State. ...
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Palestine women's ministry staff go on hunger strike
gulfnews.com
By Nasouh Nazzal, Correspondent Ramallah: Women employees at the Palestinian Women's Affairs Ministry are on a "hunger strike till death" to protest against corruption and harassment. The hunger strike was announced on Tuesday by the women who gathered ...
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FoEME Calms Water War Rhetoric Between Palestine and Israel
Green Prophet
But according to Haaretz, the French report accused Israel of ” systematically destroying wells that were dug by Palestinians on the West Bank,” and blocks “Many water purification facilities planned by the Palestinian Water Ministry. ...
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Obama, Jordan's King Abdullah Put Syria at Top of Agenda
BusinessWeek
A senior Palestinian official today expressed doubt today that peace talks would yield progress. “Plainly and simply, no,” Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's policy-making Executive Committee, said today in an interview ...
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Hamas leader to step down just as his relative moderation most needed
Globe and Mail
The quiet, intense man has been pivotal in efforts to reconcile with the secular Palestine Liberation Organization, and even has prodded Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad to usher in political reforms rather than attack his own people. ...
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Globe and Mail



 


The Israeli Occupation Archive has posted 2 new item(s):

* EU delegates: Reinstate Palestinian Liberation Organization in Jerusalem
* Chris Hedges: Why I’m suing Barack Obama

_______________

EU delegates: Reinstate Palestinian Liberation Organization in Jerusalem


http://www.israeli-occupation.org/2012-01-18/eu-delegates-reinstate-palestinian-liberation-organization-in-jerusalem/

The current report holds that, among other things, Israel is working to annex
the Eastern part of Israel – a policy that the European Union sees as illegal,
and holds that Israeli policies in East Jerusalem are "increasingly undermining
the feasibility of Jerusalem as the future capital of two states."

Chris Hedges: Why I’m suing Barack Obama


http://www.israeli-occupation.org/2012-01-17/chris-hedges-why-im-suing-barack-obama/

Fear is the psychological weapon of choice for totalitarian systems of power.
Make the people afraid. Get them to surrender their rights in the name of
national security. And then finish off the few who aren’t afraid enough. If
this law is not revoked we will be no different from any sordid military
dictatorship. Its implementation will be a huge leap forward for the corporate
oligarchs who plan to continue to plunder the nation and use state and military
security to cow the population into submission.

_______________


To the Israeli Occupation Archive homepage where you can see all recent news
stories, commentaries, and editor's comments: www.Israeli-Occupation.org


 



Tear gas manufacturer protested |

Islam on trial in US |

"Erekat, go home" | And much more ...

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UPDATE FROM THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA

http://electronicIntifada.net
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LATEST FEATURES FROM THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA

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Blockade dictates types of flowers grown in Gaza

By Mohammed Omer, Rafah, 16 January 2012

Israel's ongoing blockade has suffocated countless export
industries and continues to dictate the types of crops
grown in Gaza, including flowers.

http://electronicintifada.net/content/blockade-dictates-types-flowers-grown-gaza/10821

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UK Labour Party student officials face backlash over free tour of Israel, settlements

By Asa Winstanley, London, 16 January 2012

A member of the UK's National Union of Students Executive
Council has denounced several youth and student officers
from the opposition Labour Party for taking part in an
all-expenses-paid tour of Israel and its illegal
settlements in the occupied West Bank. The Labour students
delegation met with Captain Barak Raz, an Israeli army
spokesperson and other Israeli officials.

http://electronicintifada.net/content/uk-labour-party-student-officials-face-backlash-over-free-tour-israel-settlements/10819


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THE LATEST FROM THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA BLOGS

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MLK Day protest at weapons manufacturing company

Nora Barrows-Friedman's blog, 16 January 2012

Activists in Pennsylvania hold a protest outside the
headquarters of Combined Systems, Inc., the company that
manufactures lethal tear gas canisters used against people
from Palestine to Oakland. Adalah-NY has a full-length
report on CSI and its domestic and international contracts.

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora/mlk-day-protest-weapons-manufacturing-company

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Decades-long sentences for young US Muslims
convicted of vague terrorism conspiracy by "sleeping" jury

Maureen Clare Murphy's blog, 14 January 2012

A judged handed down lengthy prison sentences yesterday to
three young US Muslims who were convicted of vague
terrorism conspiracy charges. Maureen Clare Murphy reports
from North Carolina.

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen/decades-long-sentences-young-us-muslims-convicted-vague-terrorism-conspiracy-sleeping

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Palestinians for Dignity: Saeb Erekat, Go Home

Linah Alsaafin's blog, 14 January 2012

Palestinians for the first time took part in a protest
right in front of the Palestinian Authority compound
Al-Muqata'a voicing their opposition and anger against the
negotiations between the PA and Israel, currently taking
place in Amman, Jordan.

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/linah-alsaafin/palestinians-dignity-saeb-erekat-go-home

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Why hasn't NGO Monitor's US fundraiser filed legally required
public disclosures with Internal Revenue Service?

Ali Abunimah's blog, 14 January 2012

NGO Monitor, the far-right Israeli group that fashions
itself as a transparency watchdog, suffers from a
mysterious lack of transparency itself.

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/why-hasnt-ngo-monitors-us-fundraiser-filed-legally-required-public-disclosures

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"There was no Israel in 1709" - Clip from TV's
The West Wing highlights absurdity of US Palestine denial

Jalal Abukhater's blog, 14 January 2012

A short montage from TV's The West Wing, in which
President Bartlett is given a map of the Holy Land from
1709, highlights real life absurdities of how US
politicians deal with Palestine.

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/jalal-abukhater/there-was-no-israel-1709-clip-tvs-west-wing-highlights-absurdity-us-palestine

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US Department of Education throws out Zionist group's "civil rights"
complaint against Barnard College

Ali Abunimah's blog, 14 January 2012

The US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights
(OCR) has dismissed a complaint against Barnard College -
which is a partner of Columbia University - that a student
was "steered" away from taking a class by Professor Joseph
Massad because the student is Jewish.

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/us-department-education-throws-out-zionist-groups-civil-rights-complaint-against

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Badil center for residency and refugee rights' response to Israel's racist "citizenship law"

Nora Barrows-Friedman's blog, 13 January 2012

Badil center responds to the Israeli high court's
rejection of a challenge to the racist "citizenship law":
"This illustrates once more the Israeli self portrait as
an exclusively Jewish state with a different set of rights
for its Jewish and non-Jewish (mainly Palestinian)
inhabitants."

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora/badil-center-residency-and-refugee-rights-response-israels-racist-citizenship-law

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Volvo misses the mark on responsibility for the protection of human rights

Adri Nieuwhof's blog, 13 January 2012

Volvo Group refuses once again to take action against the
use of its equipment in the demolition of Palestinian
homes by Israel. Multinational enterprises have a
responsibility to protect human rights.

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/adri-nieuwhof/volvo-misses-mark-responsibility-protection-human-rights

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Death threats and intimidation by Zionist groups increasing in France, say BDS activists

Ali Abunimah's blog, 13 January 2012

Palestinian solidarity organizers in France say they have
been receiving death threats and have received a
suspicious package by mail containing a white substance
according to a statement issued by Campagne BDS France -
which works for boycott, divestment and sanctions.

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/death-threats-and-intimidation-zionist-groups-increasing-france-say-bds-activists



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Iraqi Militia Refuses to Lay Down Arms, Despite US ‘Withdrawal’
by John Glaser

January 17, 2012 - A Shi’ite militia that fought U.S. troops in Iraq said Tuesday it will not lay down its arms immediately due to concerns about the remaining American presence and an unstable Iraqi government. The U.S. has approximately 17,000 personnel based at its embassy in Baghdad, notoriously referred to as the size of the Vatican, and about 5,000 private mercenaries providing security for them. Since the official withdrawal of U.S. occupation forces in December, new sectarian tensions have arisen as Shi’ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has tried to usurp dictatorial power and marginalize Sunni authorities....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84936] [ 18-jan-2012 17:48 ECT ]
The Guantanamo Legacy – Ten Years of Criminality go beyond this one base and one state
Dr Abdul Wahid
8_gitmo_review_hmed_4a.grid-6x2.jpg

January 18, 2012 - ...But the 'Guantanamo legacy’ is far more than this criminal camp and the other similar prisons (like Bagram, as well as other 'secret’ prisons) and the criminal acts that were done in getting people into this camp, and go on inside it. It is far more than the actions of the United States alone. The 'Guantanamo legacy’ is the public expose’ of policy decisions by the United States of America, Britain and other allies to pursue their interests in the world by undertaking actions that are considered illegal in their own terms and immoral by their own standards: torture and the use of secret prisons to detain people indefinitely; targeted assassination by drone aircraft that have killed hundreds of others besides the intended targets; invasion and occupation of other countries whilst perpetrating atrocities; violating the sovereignty of your supposed allies as well as killing their soldiers; and a variety of other murderous covert operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84935] [ 18-jan-2012 17:44 ECT ]
Hummus and falafel are already "Israeli." Now they’re coming for Palestine’s olive oil too
Ali Abunimah

January 17, 2012 - Zionism’s cultural appropriation of indigenous Palestinian folklore and cuisine – such as hummus, falafel and maftoul – as "Israeli" has long irked Palestinians, especially when these same cultural products are used in international propaganda and marketing efforts which deny Palestinians’ rights and history. Now, Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank are attempting to steal perhaps the most important symbol and source of economic sustenance for rural Palestinians: olive oil and olive culture. A professionally made YouTube video released by the "Matteh Binyamin Regional Council" – an entity that represents dozens of illegal Israeli colonies in the occupied West Bank – aims to convince Israelis that Jewish settlers, not Palestinians, are the true caretakers of the region’s olive trees and the historic heirs of its olive culture...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84933] [ 18-jan-2012 17:33 ECT ]
Hummus and falafel are already "Israeli." Now they’re coming for Palestine’s olive oil too
Ali Abunimah

January 17, 2012 - Zionism’s cultural appropriation of indigenous Palestinian folklore and cuisine – such as hummus, falafel and maftoul – as "Israeli" has long irked Palestinians, especially when these same cultural products are used in international propaganda and marketing efforts which deny Palestinians’ rights and history. Now, Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank are attempting to steal perhaps the most important symbol and source of economic sustenance for rural Palestinians: olive oil and olive culture. A professionally made YouTube video released by the "Matteh Binyamin Regional Council" – an entity that represents dozens of illegal Israeli colonies in the occupied West Bank – aims to convince Israelis that Jewish settlers, not Palestinians, are the true caretakers of the region’s olive trees and the historic heirs of its olive culture...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84934] [ 18-jan-2012 17:33 ECT ]
Defence for Children International-Palestine Section: Violations Bulletin December 2011
Defence for Children International-Palestine Section

January 17, 2012 - Nine-year-old boy dies as a result of an Israeli airstrike on Gaza; two children hospitalised when settlers throw stones at the car they are travelling in; 11-year-old boy is threatened with a knife by a settler in Hebron; 17-year -old boy is hospitalised when a settler sprays tear gas in his eyes; 12-year-old boy is shot near the Gaza border....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84932] [ 18-jan-2012 17:28 ECT ]
Gaza Strip - Operation Cast Lead Aftermath : The Al Ashqar Family
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)
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January 17, 2012 - On 17 January 2009, at approximately 05:30, the area surrounding the UNRWA school in Beit Lahiya came under attack from Israeli forces. The area was bombarded using both high explosive, and white phosphorous artillery; white phosphorous is an incendiary chemical which ignites on contact with oxygen, its use in civilian populated areas violates the principle of distinction, and the prohibition of indiscriminate attacks. Nujoud Al Ashqar, along with approximately 1,600 others, was taking shelter in the school at the time of the attack. Nujoud sustained severe head injuries as a result of the bombing, and also losing her right hand. Two of her sons Bilal, 6, and Muhammed, 4, were killed in the attack....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84931] [ 18-jan-2012 17:21 ECT ]
722,000 Israelis Live Beyond Green Line
Richard Silverstein

January 17, 2012 - Yisrael HaYom published today one of the more stark and telling statistics about the 'success’ of the Occupation: in 2011, 722,000 Israelis lived beyond the Green Line, including in settlements and East Jerusalem. This was a 5% increase over 2010. That means that 1 in every seven Israelis lives outside of 1967 borders and explains why the country is rapidly becoming a unitary state from the Mediterranean to the Jordan. Bibiton and the settlers themselves are overjoyed with this development because it means they can continue pursuing their Apartheid Jews-only State...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84930] [ 18-jan-2012 17:17 ECT ]
Military Resistance 10A16 : the Operators
Thomas F Barton

January 17, 2012 - Suleiman al-Nahdi waits with dozens of other prisoners in a seemingly permanent state of limbo five years after he was cleared for release from Guantanamo Bay. "I wonder if the U.S. government wants to keep us here forever," the 37-year-old al-Nahdi wrote in a recent letter to his lawyers.
Open for 10 years on Wednesday, the prison seems more established than ever. The deadline set by President Obama to close Guantanamo came and went two years ago. No detainee has left in a year because of restrictions on transfers, and indefinite military detention is now enshrined in U.S. law....

  continua / continued avanti - next    [84929] [ 18-jan-2012 17:13 ECT ]
Syria News - January 17, 2012 (Warning: Graphic Videos)
Local Coordination Committees of Syria + Videos
17homs-mf672.jpg

January 17, 2012 - Tuesday in Loyalty for Martyr Hammadi Al-Saeed: The current number of today's martyrs is 35 including 6 defected recruits, a lady, a disabled young man and 2 children. In Homs, there were 20 martyrs, 7 in Idlib , 2 martyrs in Hama , 4 Damascus Suburbs (Madaya and Qatan) and one in each of Khan Sheikhon (Idlib suburbs), Daraa...Homs: The Palestinians detained in the central prison, on the background of the events, are demanding the UNRWA Organization to intervene to release them, and they are confirming that the amnesty recently announced is false and the released detainees were transported to special security branches, such as Palestine branch, like Zakaria Khalil and Nashaat Hasan. And they confirmed being tortured and treated inhumanly...Damascus Suburbs: Zabadany: More than 250 families from Zabadany and Madaya were confirmed to to leave their houses in the cold weather situation and shortage of food supplies and diesel due to the contiuous shelling for the five consecutive days by security forces and the regime's army...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84928] [ 18-jan-2012 16:42 ECT ]
‘Pakistan refused to receive Grossman’
Anwar Iqbal

January 17, 2012 - The US State Department confirmed on Tuesday that Islamabad had asked Washington not to send its special envoy Marc Grossman to Pakistan for consultation on exploratory talks with the Taliban. The confirmation of a Washington Post report came hours before Pakistan’s new ambassador, Sherry Rehman, was to meet US President Barack Obama to present her credentials...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84926] [ 18-jan-2012 16:39 ECT ]
Criminalizing Gaddafi Support
Caustic Logic

January 17, 2012 - ...Now that "democracy" has come to Libya, the people finally get to chose their leaders. As usual, the field to choose from will be narrowed by many, often invisible, factors. The largest and most important is set up now - no Gaddafi loyalists or anyone connected with the hyper-demonized old system or representing any of its ideals will be allowed. No matter how many people might want it, and perhaps because many will want it, the new leaders so indebted to the West will not allow it. Freedom isn't free and it's also got limits....Virtually everyone who worked at any level of Moammar Gaddafi’s former government is barred...Massaoud El Kanuni, a Libyan lawyer specialising in constitutional law, told the Wall Street Journal: "That criteria could be used against three-quarters of the country. How are we going to follow a path of national reconciliation if so many people are excluded from [the country’s] future?"...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84925] [ 18-jan-2012 07:36 ECT ]
Shouting "Kill him…Kill him": Settlers Attack a Young Jerusalemite with Knives
Palestine News Network
17majdeabughazala_copy.jpg

January 17, 2012 - Israeli extremists attacked a Jerusalemite guy, Majdi Mahmoud Abu Ghazala, 21, with sticks and sharp metal tools during his work in Jaffa Street in West Jerusalem, in the early hours of Sunday morning. Abu Ghazala said that the attack took place at 4 am outside the restaurant that works in on Jaffa Street. A group of Israeli extremists pointed at him from somewhere nearby but he didn't pay attention and continued to do his job. Then they closed in on him and surrounded him holding knives, metal instruments, sticks and stones. 7 men wearing the Kippa on their heads and a woman made the group....

  continua / continued avanti - next    [84924] [ 18-jan-2012 07:31 ECT ]
Iraq’s Turmoil: Likelihoods to Open up Pandora’s Box for Turkey
Idrees Mohammed

January 17, 2012 - The rift rises between Iraq and Turkey as Iraq summons Turkish ambassador to call on his government to consider the "necessity of avoiding anything that might disturb" the ties. The move comes amid the already chilly atmosphere between Ankara and Baghdad due to the former’s attitude to the latter’s Shiite-led government’s action to arrest Iraq’s Vice President. Turkish Prime Minister warned his Iraqi counterpart over the action, warning that his action will hurt the country’s democracy and urging him to reduce the tension. His calls were harshly slammed by Iraqi Prime Minister who expressed surprise of Turkey’s "interference" in his country’s internal affairs, declaring his determination not to "allow that absolutely."....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84923] [ 18-jan-2012 07:13 ECT ]
Abusing East Jerusalem Children
by Stephen Lendman

January 17, 2012 - Last July, B'Tselem published a report titled, "No Minor Matter: Violation of the Rights of Palestinian Minors by Israel on Suspicion of Stone-Throwing." It discussed their abusive treatment. From 2005 through 2010, "at least 835 Palestinian minors were arrested" and faced military court trials for alleged stone-throwing. Thirty-four were aged 12 - 13, 255 aged 14 - 15, and 546 aged 16 -17. All except one were convicted. Due process and judicial fairness were denied. In violation of international law, Israel treats children like adults. Some aged 10 or younger are arrested, intimidated, tortured, or otherwise abused. In fact, on January 12, Al Haq reported "a new line crossed" after Israeli security forces harassed, blindfolded, arrested, and detained a seriously ill six-year old boy for seven hours. Obviously, his parents were frantic....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84922] [ 18-jan-2012 07:00 ECT ]
Syria Protests January 17, 2012 : A Video Roundup
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  continua / continued avanti - next    [84921] [ 18-jan-2012 06:55 ECT ]
Hamas, Islamic Jihad debate joining forces
The Daily Star

January 17, 2012 - Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the main Palestinian Islamist movements, are holding talks about merging their two factions, sources on both sides said on Tuesday. During a meeting with top officials from Islamic Jihad, Gaza's Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya called for "opening a serious dialogue to achieve the merger of the two movements," his office said in a statement. Islamic Jihad confirmed that talks to merge the two factions were already under way...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84920] [ 18-jan-2012 04:47 ECT ]
Ordinary Evil (I): Just Admit that You're Voting for Hitler, Okay?
Arthur Silber

January 17, 2012 - ...The real killer in Santorum's remarks -- in more ways than one -- is contained in the second paragraph. Read those comments again: And if people say, "Well, you can't go out and assassinate people," well, tell that to Awlaki. Okay? We've done it. We've done it for an American citizen. We can certainly do it for someone who's producing a nuclear bomb that can be dropped on the state of Israel or provides a nuclear shield for a country that will spread terrorism with impunity and change the face of the world...."We've done it," Santorum says. He's right. I well understand that the one form of argument that is absolutely prohibited in our public debates is to identify the meaning of a principle. Nonetheless, for the ten or twelve of you who resist the fatal corruptions of our "public discourse," I state that the "legitimacy" of wide-scale murder, even of millions of human beings, is the the meaning of the operative principle. ...But -- and here's the additional killer in Santorum's remarks -- note where Santorum correctly locates the "justification" for his view: the murder of al-Awlaki, an American citizen. Santorum is a "crazy" Republican nutjob, right? He's not the one who ordered the murder of al-Awlaki....What Americans desperately need to face, and what most of them adamantly refuse to acknowledge, is that to vote for either the Democratic or Republican nominee for president later this year is to vote for these horrors. It is to support them....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84919] [ 18-jan-2012 04:28 ECT ]
Saudi hacker plays cat-n-mouse with oh-so serious foreign minister
by Allison Deger
17danny.ayalon.jpg

January 17, 2012 -Al Akhbar English today interviewed the elusive Saudi hacker first known for releasing Israeli credit card information, now notorious for causing a frenzy with Israel's deputy foreign minister. Politics seem like a footnote, as each step of the way, 0xOmar goads Danny Ayalon, the official, in a game of cat and mouse. Ayalon recently called the hacker a "terrorist." 0xOmar writes to the Lebanese newspaper: Danny Ayalon proved his stupidity multiple times. He just talks, 'We'll catch, We'll do, We'll reply, We We We We'll.' Enough said Danny, enough said. You say and I do, You talk and I hack, this is the reality. Wake up, you cannot even find me, I keep publishing and when you talked again, Gaza hackers taught you a lesson, hacked your Homepage and put a shoe on your face. We don't have anything to say about people who just talk, we act! ...However web-savvy 0xOmar may be, I couldn't help but imagine him as a teenager...Without prompting, he tells the interviewer about how proud his parents are of him...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84918] [ 18-jan-2012 03:46 ECT ]
Unlawful, Unresolved: Israeli Settlers in Foreign Land
By Graham Peebles

January 17, 2012 - Violence, abuse, non-accountability, hate, such is communal living today within the occupied West Bank, where some 518,974 colonisers sit within 200 illegal settlements.... Around half a million 'settlers’ - more accurately, colonisers - now squat upon Palestinian soil, huddled within walled encampments upon stolen land, branded blue and white. Noisily perching upon hilltops, rooms with a view, or flourishing in verdant valleys, these settlements creep shamefully throughout the West Bank and the sacred city of Jerusalem...

  continua / continued avanti - next    [84917] [ 18-jan-2012 03:27 ECT ]
Libya: TNC releases anti-democratic draft electoral laws
By Will Morrow

January 17, 2012 - Libya’s self-appointed Transitional National Council (TNC) last week released draft laws governing elections scheduled later this year for a "General National Congress." The Congress is supposed to elect a new government to replace the TNC, and draft a new constitution to be put to a referendum. The deeply anti-democratic draft electoral laws make clear that the new governing body, like the NATO-installed TNC, will be carefully vetted by the US and European imperialist powers and will represent different regional and tribal elite cliques against the interests of the Libyan people. The draft legislation features provisions preventing people nominating themselves as candidates for the Congress. Libyan workers are blocked from participation by the requirement that candidates must have a "professional qualification." Virtually everyone who worked at any level of Moammar Gaddafi’s former government is barred, unless they can demonstrate "early and clear support for the February 17th revolution." Those with an academic degree in Gaddafi’s "Third Universal Theory" or Green Book—previously required by many people to advance their careers—are ineligible....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84916] [ 18-jan-2012 03:07 ECT ]
Palestinian artists strike Jerusalem’s streets again with message for "occupiers and our people"
Ali Abunimah
44-j-99-k99999.jpg

January 17, 2012 - Tonight, Palestinian street artists struck again – as they had promised to do – this time in southern Jerusalem, or more specifically "in Talpiot, an Israeli commercial area, built on Palestinian land of Baqaa and Beit Safafa." Last week, this anonymous group of Palestinian artists left their mark in the center of western Jerusalem, symbolically reclaiming spaces from which Palestinians had been ethnically cleansed. They have now issued a statement – in English and in Arabic – explaining their actions. Below the statements you can find photographs of their latest work....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84915] [ 18-jan-2012 02:34 ECT ]
Palestinian goes on hunger strike to protest settler violence
Mya Guarnieri

January 17, 2012 - According to the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), Hana Abu Haikel has gone on hunger strike on behalf of her family to protest both settler violence and the Israeli army’s failure to stop settler attacks on Palestinians and their property. CPT reports that the Abu Haikel family has filed 500 complaints against settlers and have received no response from Israeli authorities....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84913] [ 18-jan-2012 01:42 ECT ]
Hamas official: Reconciliation talks beset by mistrust
Ma'an news

January 17, 2012 -- A senior Hamas official has told Ma'an that ongoing talks to implement the party's reconciliation agreement with Fatah are undermined by low confidence between the factions. Both parties want to achieve national unity but the reconciliation deal, signed in Cairo last May, is plagued by a lack of trust, the Hamas official told Ma'an on Monday on condition of anonymity. The deal aimed to end four years of divided government by forming a joint administration that would pave the way for elections. When the parties failed to agree on a candidate to lead the unity cabinet, they decided to proceed to elections without joining the governments...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84912] [ 18-jan-2012 01:34 ECT ]
Revealed: The FBI's Secretive Practice of "Blackballing" Files
by: Jason Leopold
712leopold.jpg

January 17, 2012 - Have you ever filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the FBI and received a written response from the agency stating that it could not locate records responsive to your request? If so, there's a chance the FBI may have found some documents, but for unknown reasons, the agency's FOIA analysts determined it was not responsive and "blackballed" the file, crucial information the FBI withholds from a requester when it issues a "no records" response....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84911] [ 17-jan-2012 18:41 ECT ]
Pissing Contests...
Layla Anwar

January 17, 2012- ... In July 2008 - I wrote about Ahmad and this is what I had to say : "Once arrived, they placed them in a corner of a dirty cell and started pissing on their wounded bodies while hysterically laughing. Not contenting themselves with that alone, they (the Americans) brought in a basin used to collect shit from their mobile toilets and emptied it on Ahmad and the other detainees heads" I was writing about Ahmad in Baghdad...I was writing about the women you tied with their legs apart until you split them in the middle...split loose from their bodies, their souls and their humanity... I strongly suggest you re-read that post of mine - I called it "Crucified by Freedom." No need to be so outraged, this is you. You pissed on the living, on the Crucified, why surprised when pissing on the dead ?...

  continua / continued avanti - next    [84909] [ 17-jan-2012 17:47 ECT ]
Torture charges dropped against UK intelligence officers
By Paul Mitchell

January 17, 2012 - The prosecution case against British intelligence officers accused of complicity in the torture of detainee Binyam Mohamed has been dropped. Pressure from the intelligence establishment in the UK and the United States is now mounting on the British government to pass further legislation to suppress intelligence information in court and prevent officers from ever being brought before them in future...Mohamed, an Ethiopian citizen and British resident, says he was subject to extraordinary rendition in Pakistan and flown by the CIA to Morocco in 2002. There, he was "routinely beaten, suffering broken bones and, on occasion, loss of consciousness due to the beatings. His clothes were cut off with a scalpel and the same scalpel was then used to make incisions on his body, including his penis. A hot stinging liquid was then poured into open wounds on his penis where he had been cut. He was frequently threatened with rape, electrocution, and death."...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84906] [ 17-jan-2012 16:36 ECT ]
Blockade dictates types of flowers grown in Gaza
Mohammed Omer
16-aymen-siam.jpg

January 16, 2012 - Ayman Siam, 41, is not growing carnations as usual this year. It’s limonium and statice flowers instead because they are hardier. Given the risks of an Israeli blockade, it’s a political decision. Earlier this week Israel allowed four trucks of strawberries and flowers out of Gaza, in a slight easing of a stranglehold on exports. But as an exporter who has suffered heavy losses over the past five years through the Israeli blockade, Siam needs to cut his risks. "The business loss I suffered from growing carnations comes close to a million dollars, including the cost of the plants and fertilisers," Siam tells IPS. Service suppliers have taken legal action against him for an inability to settle payments due since 2006. All this is besides the loss of income for his workers...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84907] [ 17-jan-2012 16:47 ECT ]
In Signal to Israel and Iran, Obama Delays War Exercise
Analysis by Gareth Porter and Jim Lobe*

January 16, 2012 - The postponement of a massive joint U.S.-Israeli military exercise appears to be the culmination of a series of events that has impelled the Barack Obama administration to put more distance between the United States and aggressive Israeli policies toward Iran. The exercise, called "Austere Challenge '12" and originally scheduled for April, was to have been a simulation of a joint U.S.-Israeli effort to identify, track and intercept incoming missiles by integrating sophisticated U.S. radar systems with the Israeli Arrow, Patriot and Iron Dome anti-missile defence systems... Obama and U.S. military leaders apparently decided that the United States could not participate in such an exercise so long as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to give the administration any assurance that he will not attack Iran without prior approval from Washington....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84908] [ 17-jan-2012 16:54 ECT ]
Gaza: PCHR Condemns Use of Force by Security Officers against a Number of Palestinians While Performing Shiite Rituals
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)

January 16, 2012 - The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns the use of excessive force by security officers against a number of Palestinians while performing Shiite rituals on Saturday, 14 January 2012, in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya. PCHR calls for opening serious investigation into this incident and bringing the perpetrators to justice. According to investigations conducted by PCHR and statements given by a number of victims, at around 18:30 on Monday, 14 January 2012, large numbers of security officers wearing military uniforms and helmets, and some being masked, stormed a house in Beit Lahiya, where about 20 Palestinians were performing Shiite rituals...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84905] [ 17-jan-2012 16:27 ECT ]
Syria News - January 16, 2012 (Warning: Graphic Videos)
Local Coordination Committees of Syria + Videos
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January 16, 2012 - ...Homs: Martyrdom of two children and a man, who weren't identified, at Al-Lewaa Al-Khateeb bakery in Asheera neighborhood...Homs: Martyrdom of Haytham Hana Ibrahim and Attiyah Hana Ibrahim while they are at the bakery by security members' gunfire they are Christians from Ashera neighborhood...Damascus Suburbs: Zabadany: More than 200 families fled from the western areas to the eastern parts of the city running away form the army's continuous shelling since Saturday...Damascus Suburbs: Zabadani: shelling continues since 4 days with cutting off the electricity and preventing food, fuel, wheat supplies to enter the city, while students are forbidden from attending exams in Damascus University...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84904] [ 17-jan-2012 15:15 ECT ]
Iraq: No one bombs bigger than the media
The Common Ills

January 16, 2012 - Tom A. Peter (Christian Science Monitor) notes 8 dead in a bombing targeting housing for displaced Iraqis outside of Mosul. This is the region of northern Iraq that various religious minorities have relocated to due to safety concerns. Peter reports the targets were the Shabaks. He then notes they share traits with Islam, he forgets to note the same is true of Christianity....In terms of the press, what's most interesting about the Mosul bombing is what was interesting about yesterday's bombing. Both targeted Sunni areas -- yes, Tom A. Peter, that is a Sunni area. But notice how AP is the only one who can say that. If you're not reading coverage at US outlets and/or using the links, you may not be aware of how the papers especially love to play up Shi'ite versus Sunni The US helped hardened that division at the start of the war and has kept it alive ever since. If this were a Shi'ite area targeted, the New York Times (for example), would be letting you know that Shi'ites were targeted and include a paragraph about al Qaeda in Iraq and blah, blah, blah. When it's Sunnis targeted, they don't even rush to note it. The template includes the accusation that the violence is an attempt on the part of 'Sunni insurgents' to start up the civil war...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84902] [ 17-jan-2012 13:44 ECT ]
Corruption in Iraq: 'Your son is being tortured. He will die if you don't pay'
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad
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January 16, 2012 - The walls of Um Hussein's living room in Baghdad are hung with the portraits of her missing sons. There are four of them, and each picture frame is decorated with plastic roses and green ribbons as an improvised wreath for the dead. Um Hussein had six children. Her eldest son was killed by Sunni insurgents in 2005, when they took control of the neighbourhood. Three of her remaining sons were kidnapped by a Shia militia group when they left the neighbourhood to find work. They were never seen again. She now lives with the rest of her family – a daughter, her last son, Yassir, and half a dozen orphaned grandchildren – in a tiny two-room apartment where the stink of sewage and cooking oil seeps through a thin curtain that separates the kitchen from the living room... She told the Guardian how she had to fight to release Yassir from jail. Yassir was detained in 2007. For three years she heard nothing of him and assumed he was dead like his brothers. Then one day she took a phone call from an officer who said she could go to visit him if she paid a bribe. She borrowed the money from her neighbour and set off for the prison...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84901] [ 17-jan-2012 13:27 ECT ]
Britain brands Israel settlements 'deliberate vandalism'
Sapa-AFP

January 16, 2012 - British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg condemned Israeli settlements as "deliberate vandalism" as Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas began a European tour to boost his position. Abbas welcomed the comments by the British official, which came as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators squabbled over the conditions to restart full talks which have been on ice since September 2010...

  continua / continued avanti - next    [84900] [ 17-jan-2012 11:50 ECT ]
Israeli Military Prepares for Massive Gaza Invasion ‘Within Months’
Jason Ditz

January 16, 2012 - The Jerusalem Post reports today that Israel’s military has ordered its Southern Command to prepare for a "large scale" invasion of the Gaza Strip, likely to begin within the next few months. The revelation is hardly a surprise, as Israeli Military Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz has repeatedly pressed for an invasion of the Gaza Strip over the past few months, while trumpeting the late 2008 invasion as a "great success."...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84899] [ 17-jan-2012 11:36 ECT ]
10 Years in Prison, 10 Years of Struggle: On the Anniversary of the Abduction of Ahmad Sa'adat
The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat
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January 16, 2012 - January 15, 2012 is the 10th anniversary of the abduction of Palestinian political leader Ahmad Sa'adat by the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah at the hands of the PA intelligence services headed by Tawfiq Tirawi. Sa'adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has been imprisoned for ten years - first by PA security, then under US and British guard in a PA prison in Jericho, and now, for the past six years, inside Israeli jails alongside thousands of other Palestinian political prisoners after a siege on Jericho and the kidnapping of Sa'adat and his comrades in 2006...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84898] [ 17-jan-2012 05:28 ECT ]
Cruel and Unusual Punishment
by Stephen Lendman

January 16, 2012 - The Constitution's Eighth Amendment prohibits "cruel and unusual punishment." The legal dictionary defines it as: "any cruel and degrading punishment not known to the Common Law, or any fine, penalty, confinement, or treatment that is so disproportionate to the offense as to shock the moral sense of the community." Sentencing minors to life without parole qualifies. The ACLU says American children as young as 13 "are sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in prison without any opportunity for release." In fact, some as young as 11 are affected....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84897] [ 17-jan-2012 04:59 ECT ]
UK Labour Party student officials face backlash over free tour of Israel, settlements
Asa Winstanley

January 16, 2012 - A member of the UK’s National Union of Students Executive Council has denounced several youth and student officers from the opposition Labour Party for taking part in an all-expenses-paid tour of Israel and its illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. The Labour students delegation met with Captain Barak Raz, an Israeli army spokesperson and other Israeli officials. The Union of Jewish Students (UJS), a pro-Israel group, paid for the entire junket. The 4-9 January tour was led by Dan Sheldon, UJS campaigns officer. It included meetings with Tony Blair, the former UK prime minister who now works as a representative of the Middle East "Quartet" (the US, European Union, UN and Russia), and Mark Regev, chief spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84896] [ 17-jan-2012 04:18 ECT ]
Syria Protests January 16, 2012 : A Video Roundup
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  continua / continued avanti - next    [84895] [ 17-jan-2012 03:59 ECT ]
Video: Central Florida police officer beats 66-year-old man suffering from dementia
WFTV

January 16, 2012 - WFTV obtained dash camera video of a violent police beating in Melbourne. The video shows an officer attacking a 66–year-old man who WFTV learned is suffering from dementia. In the video, Melbourne police Officer Derek Middendorf is shown giving Albert Flowers a front kick to his stomach. Middendorf then punched Flowers repeatedly while he was on the ground... Flowers' nephew, Garrick Flowers, said he yelled at the officer to stop and told him his uncle has dementia. "He's 66 years old, he had triple bypass, I think he's killing him," said Garrick Flowers...The family said Flowers was hospitalized for close to a month. The officer turned off his video and audio equipment before the beating. The department was able to extract the video from the hard drive, but not the audio. The only disciplinary record the officer received for the incident was a written reprimand for turning off the recording equipment...

  continua / continued avanti - next    [84894] [ 17-jan-2012 01:33 ECT ]
NATO helicopter crash in Helmand, all killed on board
KHAAMA PRESS

January 16, 2012 - According to local authorities in southern Afghanistan, a NATO civilian helicopter crashed in southern Helmand province on Monday, killing all three on board. The officials further added, the incident took place on Monday afternoon at Shawol area of Nad-e-Ali district. Provincial Security Chief Kamaluddin Sherzai confirming the report said, the NATO helicopter crashed due to technical problems...In the meantime a spokesman for the Taliban militants group Qari Yousuf Ahmadi claimed responsibility behind the incident and said that their fighters shot down the NATO helicopter...

  continua / continued avanti - next    [84893] [ 17-jan-2012 01:02 ECT ]
Saudi 0xOmar: Hackers of the World Unite Against Israel
By: Yazan al-Saadi
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January 16, 2012 - Al-Akhbar contacted the self-proclaimed "Saudi hacker" named 0xOmar through an email the hacker posted online. The hacker spoke about his motivation for carrying out these cyber-attacks, the group he belong to, why Israel is his target, his/her responses to Ayalon’s statements, and what he envisions as the endgame... YS: When did you become a hacker? Was there anything in particular that attracted you? 0x: I became a hacker when I saw how Israeli terrorists enjoy killing and arresting, I was not able to hurt Israel from Saudi, but I was able to reach my goals in cyber-world. I learned hacking fast and I added programming skills to it. Now I've reached this point and I fight for Islam and Palestine....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84892] [ 17-jan-2012 00:47 ECT ]
Sinai Torture Camps
by Stephen Lendman

January 16, 2012- A November 30 Physicians for Human Rights/Israel (PHR-I) report explains "chilling evidence" of atrocities committed against sub-Saharan African refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers. Titled, "Hundreds of Refugees Held Hostage in Sinai Torture Camps Need Rescuing," it discusses their horrific ordeal in captivity, including torture, other physical abuse, male and female rapes, and killings. Human traffickers mainly hold Eritreans for ransom. Relatives are pressured to pay. Tactics include phoning them to hear loved ones cry out in pain. Survivors report starvation, punching, slapping, kicking, whipping, burial in sand, electric shocks, hanging by hands or legs, branding with hot irons, as well as rape or other forms of sexual abuse...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84890] [ 17-jan-2012 00:25 ECT ]
Chief rabbi of Safed sees nothing wrong with overt racism
By Sophie Crowe

January 16, 2012 - Shmuel Eliyahu comes from a long and prestigious rabbinical line; his father, Mordechai, was chief rabbi of Israel, and he is now chief rabbi of Safed, or Tsfat in Hebrew, a largely Jewish town in the northern Galilee region of Israel. Eliyahu, who identifies as ultra Orthodox and religious Zionist, has earned notoriety over the years for his very public and very offensive statements about non-Jews – read Palestinians– in Safed... The most recent controversy is Eliyahu’s call on Safed’s Jews, last October, not to rent rooms or apartments to Palestinians. He signed a petition, known as the "rabbis’ letter," bidding landlords to turn away Palestinian tenants, signed by 18 other rabbis, many from Safed. 50 other rabbis lent their verbal support for the letter...

  continua / continued avanti - next    [84889] [ 17-jan-2012 00:15 ECT ]
Why I’m Suing Barack Obama
Chris Hedges
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January 16, 2012 - Attorneys Carl J. Mayer and Bruce I. Afran filed a complaint Friday in the Southern U.S. District Court in New York City on my behalf as a plaintiff against Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to challenge the legality of the Authorization for Use of Military Force as embedded in the latest version of the National Defense Authorization Act, signed by the president Dec. 31. The act authorizes the military in Title X, Subtitle D, entitled "Counter-Terrorism," for the first time in more than 200 years, to carry out domestic policing. With this bill, which will take effect March 3, the military can indefinitely detain without trial any U.S. citizen deemed to be a terrorist or an accessory to terrorism. And suspects can be shipped by the military to our offshore penal colony in Guantanamo Bay and kept there until "the end of hostilities." It is a catastrophic blow to civil liberties...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84888] [ 17-jan-2012 00:07 ECT ]
P.A Security Attack, Arrest Palestinian For Participating In Protest
Saed Bannoura

January 16, 2012 - Ad-Dameer, the Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, issued a press release denouncing the Palestinian Security Forces for arresting and attacking a Palestinian youth on Sunday, for participating in a non-violent protest denouncing the Palestinian-Israeli talks in Amman. The protest was held in the central West Bank city of Ramallah; the security forces dispersed the nonviolent protesters, and chased some of them. Said Al-Edreesy, 22, was grabbed by a number of security personnel, and was repeatedly beaten by one of them before being thrown into a security vehicle that took him to a security base in the city...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84887] [ 16-jan-2012 23:19 ECT ]
Who are the victims of civil liberties assaults and Endless War?
Glenn Greenwald

January 16, 2012 - In The Washington Post yesterday, Law Professor Jonathan Turley has an Op-Ed in which he identifies ten major, ongoing assaults on core civil liberties in the U.S. Many of these abuses were accelerated during the Bush administration in the wake of 9/11, but all have been vigorously continued and/or expanded by President Obama. Turley points out that these powers have long been deemed (by the U.S.) as the hallmark of tyranny, and argues that their seizure by the U.S. Government has seriously called into question America’s status as a free nation: "They form a mosaic of powers under which our country could be considered, at least in part, authoritarian." All ten of these powers are ones very familiar to readers here: Assassination of U.S. citizens; Indefinite detention; Arbitrary justice; Warrantless searches; Secret evidence; War crimes; Secret court; Immunity from judicial review; Continual monitoring of citizens; and Extraordinary renditions....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84886] [ 16-jan-2012 23:05 ECT ]
Gaza Strip - Operation Cast Lead Aftermath : The Shurrab Family
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)
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January 16, 2012 - On 16 January 2009, Israeli forces positioned in the al Fukhari area, south east of Khan Younis, opened fire on the vehicle of Mohammed Shurrab and his two sons Kassab, 28, and Ibrahim, 18, as they were travelling back to their home during the Israeli-declared ceasefire period. Mohammed was injured and crashed the car, his two sons were subsequently shot as they left the car. Israeli soldiers refused to allow medical access to the area, and Kassab and Ibrahim bled to death on the scene over a number of hours. There were no military operations in the area at the time. For Mohammed Shurrab (67), life since the death of his sons has been a contact battle to fight back the memories of the day...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84885] [ 16-jan-2012 22:30 ECT ]
Anti-Israel Hackers Strike Again by Attacking El Al and Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Websites
Sharona Schwartz

January 16, 2012 - Pro-Palestinian hackers continue to strike at Israeli websites, on Monday targeting the websites of the national airline El Al and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE). The apparent leader of the group who calls himself 0xOmar warned Israeli journalists in advance of the attack. In a Monday night interview, 0xOmar told Israel’s Channel 10 that he was working with a pro-Palestinian hacker group called "Nightmare" to take down the El Al and TASE websites. It is unclear where he is from, though he has identified himself as Saudi. Using a computer generated voice in a pre-prepared video, he said: "This is the beginning of cyber war against Israel. You are not safe anymore…Let’s hack Israeli shopping websites. Let’s hack Israeli military websites and publish their sensitive and hidden information. Let’s destroy Israel in cyber world. It will come to real world also."...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84884] [ 16-jan-2012 22:03 ECT ]
Libya militias clash in Gharyan near Tripoli
By Gabriel Gatehouse, BBC News

January 16, 2012 - A weekend of clashes in Libya has left at least two people dead and more than 40 injured. Rival armed groups fired rockets and heavy machine guns around the town of Gharyan, about 80km (50 miles) south of the capital, Tripoli. The Libyan authorities say they are now raising a force to disarm what they say are Gaddafi loyalists. Local officials in Gharyan told the BBC they were powerless to control some of their own revolutionary brigades...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84883] [ 16-jan-2012 21:44 ECT ]
The Plant-a-Tree in Palestine Project
By Dave Black
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January 16, 2012 - On January 2nd members of a Stop the Jewish National Fund (JNF) delegation joined individuals from a nearby refugee camp, trade union representatives, youth activists, Stop the Wall campaigners and representatives of a spectrum of political parties to take part in a new project to re-plant trees in previously devastated areas of Palestine. The group planted 111 trees, representing the number of years that the JNF has been in existence, playing a key role in Israel's policy of displacing and dispossessing Palestinians...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84882] [ 16-jan-2012 19:17 ECT ]
China, Saudi Arabia and the New Oil Alliance

January 16, 2012 - THE ALLIANCE between China and Saudi Arabia over energy and oil has just been strengthened, writes Dan Denning, editor of the Daily Reckoning Australia. On Saturday – in the wake of Europe's debt crisis – Saudi state oil company Aramco signed a deal with China's Sinopec to build an oil refinery in the Red Sea city of Yanbu. The refinery will process 400,000 barrels of oil per day, some of which will presumably end up in China. "Saudi Aramco will hold a 62.5 percent stake with Sinopec holding the balance in the venture that highlights China's growing role as an infrastructure developer in the oil rich kingdom," according to AFP. As an intriguing sidenote, Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao – who made Saudi Arabia the first stop on his Middle East tour – signed a series of "agreements and cooperation programs" with Saudi King Abdullah. One of those was, "An agreement between the two governments on the peaceful usage of nuclear energy was also signed...

  continua / continued avanti - next    [84881] [ 16-jan-2012 18:26 ECT ]
Afghanistan: Truce reports seen as a bid to derail peace talks
by Muhammad Hassan Khetabon

January 16, 2012 - Some political analysts on Monday said the circulation of a false decree from Taliban's supreme leader Mullah Omar was an attempt by foreign spies to sabotage the Taliban-US peace talks. A media report says the United States has geared up efforts to convince the Taliban into declaring a ceasefire to bring the ongoing conflict to an end. But the Taliban said Omar's reported decree printed in a local Pashto-language newspaper was untrue. The decree dispatched to several media outlets on Monday quoted the Taliban leader as saying he had declared a ceasefire and had selected some figures for talks with the US. However, rebel spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, rejected the report as false...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84880] [ 16-jan-2012 18:00 ECT ]
European Aid Convoy ‘Miles of Smiles 8’ Arrives in Gaza
Saed Bannoura
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January 15, 2012 - The eighth in a series of vehicle convoys from European and Arab countries to the Gaza Strip reached its destination on Saturday, bringing medical equipment and vehicles for the disabled. According to organizers, forty-eight European and Arab activists participated in the convoy, which consisted of a number of vehicles driving caravan-style from Europe through Arab countries, and then entering Gaza from Egypt. The convoy is bringing two tons of medical supplies worth approximately $500,000 USD...

  continua / continued avanti - next    [84879] [ 16-jan-2012 17:54 ECT ]
Iran confirms receiving US Hormuz letter
Press TV

January 15, 2012 - Iran's Foreign Ministry says it has received a US message regarding the Strait of Hormuz via three different channels. "The US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice had handed a letter to Iran's Ambassador to the UN Mohammad Khazaei; the Swiss Ambassador to Tehran [Livia Leu Agosti] also conveyed the same thing; and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani delivered the same message to Iranian officials," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Sunday. Mehmanparast said Iran is studying the letter and "will respond if necessary."...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84878] [ 16-jan-2012 17:49 ECT ]
Iran warns of consequences if Gulf backs oil sanctions
By Ramin Mostafavi

January 16, 2012 -- Iran warned Gulf Arab states on Sunday they would suffer consequences if they raised oil output to replace Iranian crude facing an international ban...Leaders from some of the Asian countries that buy the most Iranian oil have begun touring the Middle East to secure alternative supply lines from Arab states. European buyers suggest they will also lean more heavily on Arab oil producers should an EU ban come into effect...Iranian OPEC Governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi said Tehran would regard as an unfriendly act any move by neighboring Gulf Arab oil exporters to make up for Iranian crude. "If (they) give the green light to replacing Iran's oil these countries would be the main culprits for whatever happens in the region - including the Strait of Hormuz," Khatibi told the Sharq daily newspaper, referring to the narrow sea channel through which a third of the world's oil tanker traffic passes...

  continua / continued avanti - next    [84877] [ 16-jan-2012 17:40 ECT ]
With Right on Our Side: The Inspiring Guantánamo 10th Anniversary Protest in Washington D.C.
Andy Worthington
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January 15, 2012 - Last week, I was in Washington D.C., attending events to mark the 10th anniversary of the opening of the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as part of a 12-day US tour organized by some of my great friends in the US — the activists of The World Can’t Wait, and their national director Debra Sweet, who is largely responsible for making sure that I don’t get lost, that I can find coffee when I need it, and that I don’t get too much sleep! — as well as being a tireless campaigner for justice...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84876] [ 16-jan-2012 17:37 ECT ]
Drone Disasters
Tom Engelhardt & Nick Turse

January 15, 2012 -After almost two months in abeyance and the (possibly temporary) loss of Shamsi Air Base for its air war, the CIA is again cranking up its drone operations in the Pakistani tribal borderlands. The first two attacks of 2012 were launched within 48 hours of each other, reportedly killing 10 ___s, and wounding at least four ___s. Yes, that’s right, the U.S. is killing ___s in Pakistan. These days, the dead there are regularly identified in press accounts as "militants" or "suspected militants" and often, quoting never-named Pakistani or other "intelligence sources," as "foreigners" or "non-Pakistanis." They just about never have names, and the CIA’s robots never get close enough to their charred bodies to do whatever would be the dehumanizing techno-equivalent of urinating on them....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84875] [ 16-jan-2012 17:32 ECT ]
Palestinians live in fear for their lives as two-state solution hopes fade
Ruth Pollard

January 15, 2012 - A 20 per cent rise in settlement construction across the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the past year has taken land critical to the creation of a Palestinian state and placed a two-state solution further away than ever, a report has found. Building has started on at least 1850 housing units, while there were 3500 units already under construction, the Israeli settlement watch group Peace Now said. Eleven new settlements - home to 2300 settlers and 680 structures - were recognised by Israel last year when it legalised those outposts (outposts are created when a settlement expands to a new area of land)....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84874] [ 16-jan-2012 17:26 ECT ]
Syria News - January 15, 2012 (Warning: Graphic Videos)
Local Coordination Committees of Syria + Videos
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January 15, 2012 - The number of Syrian martyrs rose to 32 martyrs among them are two women and 2 children, 10 in Idlib, 13 in Homs,3 martyrs in Hama 2 in each of Jasem in Daraa and Madamiah in Damascus Suburbs and a martyr in Amouda...Hama : the child Mohammad Saad was martyred after security forces opened random fire in Al-Qusoor neighbourhood. Demonstrators tried to rush him into a hospital but he died before he arrived there. His funeral will be tomorrow in Al-Hamidiyeh neighbourhood...Idlib: Martyrdom of nine people after regime's forces targetted a bus they were traveling in. The martyrs are: Reyad Mohammad Al-Eid, Alaa Bakkor, Hassan Bakkor, Ahmad Abdul Kareem AL-Salloom, Mohammad Hashem Al-Abdalla, Reyad Anad, Alaa and Hosain Shaghoret, and Ahmad Abdul Kareem Al-Badria...Homs: Sarah Khalifah Al-Hamad, a child, was martyred by the gunfire of Shabbiha in Karam Al-Zaitoun neighborhood.

  continua / continued avanti - next    [84873] [ 16-jan-2012 16:05 ECT ]
The Veritas Papers: Makers of 2010 Palestine activist handbook release 15 eye-catching pamphlets
Abraham Greenhouse

January 15, 2012 - In the summer of 2010, a small group of activists from across North America released The Veritas Handbook: A Guide to Understanding the Struggle for Palestinian Human Rights. The 347-page document combined a "crash course" on key political and humanitarian issues with an extensive survey of resources for emerging activists and advocacy veterans alike. The Electronic Intifada reviewed the Veritas Handbook shortly after its release... According to a press release, some activists were intimidated by the extreme length of the handbook, prompting the authors to begin work on "something much shorter" and more accessible. Partially drawing on content found in the handbook, the authors created a set of 15 impressively-designed booklets that can be utilized both as outreach tools, and for internal education within activist groups...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84871] [ 16-jan-2012 15:31 ECT ]
Military Resistance 10A14 : Darkness Made Light
Thomas F Barton

January 15, 2012 - ...A senior Taliban logistical officer sounded a similarly moderate tone, telling The Daily Beast: "Our reaction was correct and mature. We condemned the despicable act but said it would not affect the talks." Still, he was disheartened by the video. "In Afghanistan we have a saying: 'Kill your enemy but don’t let his body rot in the sun.’ What happened is against our traditions and couldn’t have happened at a more sensitive time." The Taliban’s seemingly temperate line may hold promise for future talks, but it is clearly at odds with the hot-headed feeling among most Taliban fighters who have viewed or heard of the video, and with the general disgust among the Afghan public.
Indeed, there seems to be a serious and perhaps dangerous disconnect between the Taliban’s suddenly more restrained official stance and its hard-pressed men in the field — and, indeed, the common man. "It’s insane," says an Afghan subcommander in Helmand province where the urination incident allegedly took place last year. "Why are we talking to those who hate us so much that they desecrate our martyrs’ bodies?" he asks angrily in a phone conversation with The Daily Beast....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84870] [ 16-jan-2012 15:20 ECT ]
Apartheid in Israel
By Musa Keilani
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January 15, 2012 - Israel, it is known, has an apartheid policy against the Palestinians living under its occupation, as well as against Israelis of Arab origin. It practises an openly violent form of apartheid against the people living under its occupation. Israeli soldiers and settlers continuously humiliate Palestinians at every given opportunity, whether in their towns and villages or at the hundreds of roadblocks. Every town and every village in the West Bank can be described as a detention centre since all entry and exit points are tightly sealed off, with Israeli soldiers guarding and enforcing their rules on whoever passes through the points they control....

  continua / continued avanti - next    [84869] [ 16-jan-2012 15:13 ECT ]
New plan criminalizes Palestinian citizens of Israel
Sergio Yahni for the Alternative Information Center

January 15, 2012 - On the request of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Minister of Internal Security, Yitzhak Aharonovitch (Israel Beteinu), presented a plan to the government today that will essentially criminalize Palestinian citizens of Israel under the guise of "improving personal and community security within the Arab sector." According to the plan, which the Ministry of Public Security has already begun to implement, three special police units, including detective and investigation units, were created in Nazareth, Tayibe and the Bedouin communities in the south. Some 11 additional units will be established within the next two years. According to the plan, neighborhood watches will be strengthened in Arab areas and the Arab sector will be given special priority for programs like "City Without Violence" and the war on drugs....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84868] [ 16-jan-2012 14:32 ECT ]
Criminalizing Dissent in America
by Stephen Lendman

January 15, 2012 - America has a sordid repressive history. Among others, First Amendment rights are violated. It guarantees freedom of religion, expression, to petition government for redress of grievances, and right to peacefully assemble. The 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts restricted First Amendment freedoms. So did 1919 anti-communist Palmer raids, the 1934 Special Committee on Un-American Activities, its House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) successor, secret FBI COINTELPRO crackdowns, the 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, the 2001 USA Patriot Act, and other post-9/11 measures....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84867] [ 16-jan-2012 04:39 ECT ]
American Temporality and the War of Urination
By Nath Aldalala'a

January 15, 2012 - The temporality of the war on terror is evident in its core actions; these, apart from the invasion and mass killings of civilians in both Afghanistan and Iraq, are illustrated by practices which have come to define the spirit of this war. For example, early in the war on terror were the images of Abu-Graib, and the use of various 'Enhanced Interrogation Techniques’, the secret prisons that were established throughout the world, 'The Rendition Programmes’, non-combatant enemy(s), Haditha, Mohammadia…all the way to these recent images of Marines urinating on corpses....The war on terror, while being propped up by the logic of fear, is also sustained by an ideology of American-ness. American popular consciousness does not acknowledge guilt about the invasions of Afghanistan or Iraq. Consequently, their reduction of the enemy to a form of nothingness is merely the diktat of this war. Yet, while prisoners, "not corpses", are tortured by the most inhumane methods, there remains no change to the American political or cultural calculations. So, how should urinating on the dead make any difference?...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84865] [ 16-jan-2012 03:15 ECT ]
Syria Protests January 15, 2012 : A Video Roundup
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  continua / continued avanti - next    [84866] [ 16-jan-2012 04:33 ECT ]
Close the Guantánamo Gulag
by Prof. Marjorie Cohn

January 15, 2012 - Travelers to Cuba and music lovers are familiar with the song "Guantanamera"— literally, the girl from Guantánamo. With lyrics by José Martí, the father of Cuban independence, Guantanamera is probably the most widely known Cuban song. But Guantánamo is even more famous now for its U.S. military prison. Where "Guantanamera" is a powerful expression of the beauty of Cuba, "Gitmo" has become a powerful symbol of human rights violations—so much so that Amnesty International described it as "the gulag of our times." That description can be traced to January 2002, when the base received its first 20 prisoners in shackle...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84864] [ 16-jan-2012 02:43 ECT ]
Pakistan set to call early elections
Saeed Shah in Islamabad

January 15, 2012 - Pakistan's embattled government is preparing to call early elections in an attempt to find a way out of the political crisis that has paralysed the country, as a confidence vote in parliament and critical court cases loom on Monday. At war with the courts, the opposition and the military establishment, President Asif Zardari's administration has agreed to an opposition demand to hold early national polls, but only after the separate election takes place in March for the Senate, the upper house of parliament, according to members of the ruling coalition and its advisers...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84863] [ 16-jan-2012 02:28 ECT ]
A call from Gaza's fishermen to lift Israel's naval blockade
Various undersigned

January 15, 2012 - Do not forget Palestinian fishermen who are prevented from fishing beyond the unilaterally imposed Israeli limit of 3 nautical miles and whose life is constantly under threat from the Israeli Naval Forces. We are waiting for you to lift the naval blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip and its seawaters and to force Israel to respect international legal obligations. We the Palestinian fishermen of the Besieged Gaza Strip, the CPSGAZA, the Union of Fishermen in Gaza City, the Palestinian Association for Fishing and Marine Sports and Al Tawofeek Society are calling on the word to force Israel to lift the naval blockade which restricts the Palestinian fishing area to 3 nautical miles and to support the Oliva and similar peaceful civil missions aimed at monitoring Israeli violations and at ensuring Palestinian fishermen the possibility of fishing in safe conditions...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84862] [ 16-jan-2012 01:47 ECT ]
Saudi Arabia, China ink nuclear cooperation pact
By GHAZANFAR ALI KHAN I ARAB NEWS
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January 15, 2012 - Saudi Arabia signed an agreement with China in Riyadh Sunday for cooperation in the development and use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes, which will help to meet the Kingdom's rising demand for energy and cut its growing dependence on depleting resources...The signing ceremony was witnessed by King Abdullah and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao together with a large number of high-ranking Saudi and Chinese officials. "The nuclear energy cooperation agreement seeks to establish a legal framework that strengthens scientific, technological and economic cooperation between Riyadh and Beijing, while the two sides reaffirm their desire to place the highest priority on nuclear safety and environmental protection," said an official source. On behalf of the Kingdom, Hashim Abdullah Yamani, president of King Abdullah City of Atomic and Renewable Energy, signed the nuclear agreement....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84861] [ 16-jan-2012 01:14 ECT ]
Palestinian youth mobilize against “talks” in Jordan
Palestine Monitor

January 15, 2012 - - Calling themselves Palestinians for Dignity, young Palestinians mobilized a protest against what they call the "negotiations for negotiations" outside the recently revamped Palestinian Authority headquarters, al-Muqata’a yesterday. Palestinian chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat returned to the negotiating table with Israel in Amman, Jordan on 3 and 10 of January. According to Erekat, the meetings in Amman are not a resumption of "peace talks," but rather intended to secure a settlement freeze before the PA considers returning to talks with Israel...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84860] [ 16-jan-2012 01:06 ECT ]
Maliki's dance on Shiite-Sunnite divide
YAVUZ BAYDAR

January 15, 2012 - ...Assad cunningly plays with time, because he wants to see a new ally consolidate himself in neighboring Iraq. That man is Nouri al-Maliki, prime minister of Iraq. He is now emerging as the well-needed link between Damascus and Teheran, cementing fears that the fundamental tectonic shift due to take place will be on the Sunnite-Shiite divide, the line from Bahrain-Iraq-Syria, extending all the way up to Lebanon...Given the chance, Maliki will fill in as an ally linking Teheran with Damascus, to trigger across-the-border sectarian warfare between the Gulf and the Eastern Mediterranean. He is right in one regard in the sense that it may drag in Turkey into this mess, which also makes Ankara the focal point of anxiety as its efforts appear as an attempt to swim against the tide. Take for granted that Assad is very happy about it...

  continua / continued avanti - next    [84859] [ 16-jan-2012 00:56 ECT ]
Gaza Strip - Operation Cast Lead Aftermath :The al-Nadeem family
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)
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January 15, 2012- On 15 January 2009, shortly after 7:00, the Israeli army fired a tank shell and live ammunition at Naser al-Nadeem and his two sons, Bashar (17) and Firas (15), who were fleeing their home in the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza City. The two boys sustained moderate injuries while their father was severely injured. After 9 months of intensive medical treatment in Egypt and Gaza, Naser al-Nadeem eventually succumbed to his wounds. He was 44. Naser’s wife, Majda al-Nadeem (45), is now a single parent of three sons, Mohanned (19), Bashar (17), Firas (15), and two daughters, Dima (14) and Tala (9)...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84858] [ 16-jan-2012 00:40 ECT ]
23 Killed in Attacks on Iraqi Police Forces
Margaret Griffis

January 15, 2012 - ..Gunmen staged a coordinated attack at the al-Balada police compound, located in Ramadi. At least 21 people were killed, including civilians, police and gunmen. Another 21 people were wounded. The attack began with a series of bombs in central Ramadi meant to draw police away from the station. Gunmen, who were wearing military uniforms and explosives vests, then stormed the station and tried to take hostages during a three-hour fight. Officials believe the men were trying to liberate colleagues who had been recently arrested...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84857] [ 16-jan-2012 00:27 ECT ]
'Israel and U.S. postpone massive defense drill in fear of escalation with Iran'
By Haaretz and DPA

January 15, 2012 - Israel and the United States have postponed a massive joint defense exercise, which was expected to be carried out in the coming weeks, in order to avoid an escalation with Iran, Channel 2 reported on Sunday. According to an Israeli defense official, Washington wants to avoid causing further tensions in the region, especially in light of the sensitive situation that has been generated after various reports in the international media that the U.S. and Israel are preparing to strike Iran's nuclear facilities...

  continua / continued avanti - next    [84856] [ 15-jan-2012 23:47 ECT ]
UAE evades Israel boycott in stalled arms deal
Al-Akhbar,
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January 15, 2012 - A UAE attempt to buy Israeli drones is "shameful", a leading BDS activist told Al-Akhbar. "The UAE establishment was caught several times normalizing relations with Israel, in sports, in diamonds, in retail, and even in academia, but this is by far the worst instance of this shameful normalization," said Omar Barghouti, Palestinian human rights activist and co-founder of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. Israel’s ministry of defense has allegedly stalled a drone deal between an Israeli aeronautics company and the UAE, the Palestinian Maan News Agency reported, citing a report by the Paris-based journal Intelligence Online last Thursday...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84855] [ 15-jan-2012 23:23 ECT ]
Is Eight Enough? US Reports Killing Hakimullah Mehsud Yet Again
Pakistani Taliban Again Denies Leader's Slaying
Jason Ditz

January 15, 2012 - With officials desperately hoping that the eighth time is the charm, they have reported today that they believe the January 12 drone strike against a pair of cars in North Waziristan has killed Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leader Hakimullah Mehsud. Readers may remember Hakimullah from the last seven times officials have claimed he was killed, most of them "confirmed kills." Hakimullah was first slain in August 2009, and slain six addition times between then and February 2010. He appeared in May 2010 to report that despite being killed so many times he was "basically ok."...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84853] [ 15-jan-2012 22:21 ECT ]
Property damaged, Palestinians attacked in weekend of settler violence
Uri Yacobi Keller & Mya Guarnieri

January 15, 2012 - According to Palestinian news agencies Maan and WAFA, settlers from the Tapuah settlement attacked Palestinian land in the area south of Salfit in the central West Bank yesterday (Saturday). The settlers cut down no less than 100 olive trees of the Palestinian villages Yasouf and Jamain. Maan also reported that the settlers attacked and caused extensive damage to cars belonging to two Palestinians on the road that is adjacent to the Huwwara checkpoint. In Hebron, settlers attacked the home of a Palestinian woman, throwing stones at her house and setting her car on fire, according to Maan...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84852] [ 15-jan-2012 17:42 ECT ]
U.S. warns Israel against strike on Iran
By ADAM ENTOUS,JULIAN E. BARNES and JAY SOLOMON

January 14, 2012 — U.S. defense leaders are increasingly concerned that Israel is preparing to take military action against Iran, over U.S. objections, and have stepped up contingency planning to safeguard U.S. facilities in the region in case of a conflict. President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other top officials have delivered a string of private messages to Israeli leaders warning about the dire consequences of a strike...Mr. Panetta and other top officials have privately sought assurances from Israeli leaders in recent weeks that they won't take military action against Iran. But the Israeli response has been noncommittal, U.S. officials said....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84850] [ 15-jan-2012 17:29 ECT ]
Syria News - January 14, 2012 (Warning: Graphic Videos)
Local Coordination Committees of Syria + Videos
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January 14, 2012 - The number of martyrs has increased today Saturday 14 January 2012 to 13 by the gunfire of the security forces and army between them is are 3 children, one of them was killed when buying bread and the second was run over two recruits and a woman by a sniper bullet : Homs: 5 , Idleb: 3, Latakia: 1, Daraa: 1, Damascus suburb: 2 , Other nationality: 1...Damascus : Qaboun neighborhood: martyrdom of Abdulbaset Jibbeh 17 years old, many other were wounded a girl among, in gunfire by security forces on a demonstration , while dozens were arrested... Damascus Suburbs: Zabadany: Military reinforcements which are approximately 150 armored vehicles and recruits' transporters reached the area. Tens of wounded have been reported as a result of shelling more than 50 artilliery shells and light bombs. The electriciy is still blocked off the neighborhood whereas communication means and water returned to the city.
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84851] [ 15-jan-2012 17:29 ECT ]
Military Resistance 10A13: NGNG
Thomas F Barton

January 14, 2012 - ... The U.S. Navy is asking government investigators to suppress information concerning the toxic water scandal at the Marine Corps' Camp Lejeune, according to a letter obtained Thursday by The Huffington Post. The letter, signed by Maj. Gen. J.A. Kessler of the Marine Corps and dated Jan. 5, 2012, asks the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry to withhold from a forthcoming report details about the whereabouts of water lines, wells, treatment plants and storage tanks on the North Carolina military base -- in the name of national security. Government watchdogs and environmental advocates said they interpret the letter as further evidence of a Navy effort to evade culpability for what many call the worst and largest drinking water contamination in U.S. history....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84848] [ 15-jan-2012 16:11 ECT ]
Israel soldiers detain 2 Palestinians after assault by settlers
Ma'an news

January 14, 2012 -- Israeli forces detained two young Palestinian men in central Hebron on Friday night, after witnesses said they were attacked by Israeli settlers. Settlers from nearby outposts assaulted the men as they crossed al-Shuhada street in the center of the southern West Bank city, eyewitnesses said. Israeli soldiers patrolling the area detained the Palestinians after the assault, they said....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84847] [ 15-jan-2012 16:02 ECT ]
WE ALMOST PULLED IT OFF
by Malcom Lagauche
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January 14, 2012 - ...There are a few ironies of this story. In Baghdad, prior to the illegal invasion of 2003, we could have gone anywhere and been treated with respect, even though we were from the country that destroyed Iraq in 1991 and had imposed a strangling embargo on the country. Today, if a dozen U.S. citizens, pro wrestlers or otherwise, walked down virtually any Baghdad street, they would either be shot or kidnapped. So much for liberating the country. The beautiful stadium in which we were to have held the grand finale of the tour in Baghdad is no longer in use. U.S. tanks destroyed it in 2003 when they used it as a permanent parking lot. Today, it is a mass of ruts and holes. And, the soccer stadium in Fallujah where we would have performed, is now a mass graveyard. During the U.S. attack on the city in April 2003, more than 600 civilians were killed and the stadium had to be converted to a burial ground....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84846] [ 15-jan-2012 15:52 ECT ]
The marines urination video doesn't show the real war crime
Ross Caputi

January 14, 2012 - The video of US marines urinating on Afghan corpses does not shock me. Though their behavior is disgusting and unacceptable, I find the public's reaction to this video far more troubling. People are not outraged that there are dead Afghans; they are outraged at the manner in which the dead are treated. This is indicative of our culture's tolerance for war and war crimes – as long as they are done in a gentlemanly fashion. During the second siege of Fallujah, blatant war crimes were committed, yet the corporate media reported them with indifference. The siege itself was a war crime, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross Summary of International Law, because indiscriminate tactics were used, constant care was not taken to protect the civilian population, proper distinction between civilians and combatants was not made, medical personnel and medical units were not protected, indiscriminate weapons were used, and recent research about the current health crisis in Fallujah suggests that poisonous weapons may have been used as well....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84845] [ 15-jan-2012 15:14 ECT ]
Boom in Fallujah Birth Defects Continues To Go Uninvestigated
by Julie Rodriguez
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January 14, 2012 - ...Research has also shown a 12-fold increase in childhood cancers since 2004. The normal birth rate has also been skewed, with only 86 boys now being born for every 100 girls in Fallujah. The birth defect rate is more than 14 times that found today in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Despite the public health crisis, the Iraqi government has done nothing to investigate the causes of these birth defects. The people of Fallujah have been unable to obtain international support for the kind of in-depth, comprehensive study necessary to determine them....


  continua / continued avanti - next    [84843] [ 15-jan-2012 15:06 ECT ]
The never-ending Political Crisis in Iraq
The Common Ills

January 14, 2012 -... Rumors continue to swirl that al-Issawi is Nouri's next intended target. He kicked things off with mass arrests (the bulk of the nearly 800 arrested are said to have been released or about to be -- proving yet again that it was targeting a certain segment of Iraq's population). Then, after returning to the country from DC (where he visited with Barack Obama), Nouri ordered Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi's home surrounded with tanks and then, days later, issued an arrest warrant on al-Hashemi. Upon return from DC, he also demanded that Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq be stripped of his post. al-Issawi, al-Hashemi and al-Mutlaq are all members of the political slate Iraqiya which came in first in the March 2010 elections. Nouri al-Maliki's State of Law came in second. Al Mada reports that State of Law's Samira al-Moussawi is stating that al-Mutlaq will not be allowed to continue in his post, that State of Law will not allow it. Not content at lashing out at politicians in his own country, Nouri appears determined to expand the political crisis into the entire region. Al Mada notes that Nouri is stating the remarks of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will cause a catastrophe. Hyperbole's always been a part of Nouri's make up. Kitabat also notes Nouri's attack on Erdogan and how he accuses Erdogan's call for Iraq to resolve the political crisis as Turkey interfering in Iraq's domestic affairs. You've heard of a pep squad? Well Nouri has a thug squad....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84842] [ 15-jan-2012 14:55 ECT ]
Iraqiya members flee arrest warrants
By Qader Ismael

January 14, 2012 - Arrest warrants for five Iraqiya members from Diyala Province have been issued. Others members of former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's opposition coalition fear they will be next, retribution for Diyala's full throated demanded for regional autonomy. Almost a month ago Diyala Provincial Council, dominated by Iraqiya, voted for regional autonomy. The following night the Council building was occupied by protesters and police...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84841] [ 15-jan-2012 14:43 ECT ]
Syria Protests January 14, 2012 : A Video Roundup
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  continua / continued avanti - next    [84840] [ 15-jan-2012 14:39 ECT ]
Racist Israeli Supreme Court Decisions
by Stephen Lendman

January 14, 2012 - Two recent Israeli High Court rulings follow a disturbing trend. On January 11, divided justices ruled 6 - 5 for Israel's Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law. It denies citizenship rights to Palestinians with Israeli spouses. Enacted in 2003 as temporary legislation, it was extended twice after its initial expiration date. The law empowers the interior minister to grant citizenship only if affected Palestinians identify strongly and cooperate with Israel. They must also contribute to national security. As a result, few qualify...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84839] [ 15-jan-2012 14:26 ECT ]
Video: Bedouin community near settlement faces forced relocation
B'Tselem

January 14, 2012 - Israel's Civil Administration is planning to forcibly relocate some 27,000 Bedouins living in Area C in the West Bank. At first, 20 communities, comprising some 2,300 people, will be uprooted from the area of the Ma'ale Adummim settlement and relocated to a site next to the Abu Dis garbage dump, east of Jerusalem. Members of the Khan al-Ahmar community explain how the move will affect them.
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84838] [ 15-jan-2012 10:24 ECT ]
Palestinians suffer as bad driving epidemic grips Israeli settlers
Dr. Hanan Chehata
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January 14, 2012 - A strange affliction seems to be affecting settlers in the West Bank. It seems that as soon as they are granted settler status (a badge of dishonour in the eyes of the rest of the world considering the illegal nature of all settlements) these individuals lose all ability to drive in a calm and reasonable manner and instead become lethal menaces on the road. You may laugh at the thought that bad driving could be some sort of medical condition but it if you look at news reports coming out of the Occupied Palestinian Territories over the last few months you too might find yourselves scrambling for ideas as to why there seems to be a disproportionately high number of stories like this * Settler Runs Over Disabled Palestinian Girl (Jan 12th 2012); * Toddler hit by settler car (Jan 12th 2012); * Jewish terrorist settler runs over Palestinian civilian (5th Oct 2011); * Settler Rams vehicle Into Two Palestinian Sisters (4th Oct 2011) ....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84837] [ 15-jan-2012 10:02 ECT ]
Two killed and 16 hurt in Libyan clashes
Reuters

January 14, 2012 – Clashes between rival Libyan militias have killed two people and wounded 16, in the latest violence involving armed groups refusing to hand in their weapons. The clashes began late on Friday and continued on Saturday. "We received eight cases yesterday, including one dead who was shot in the head and chest, one critical with a head wound and six others lightly injured," said Ibrahim Karim, a doctor at the main hospital in Gharyan, 80 km (50 miles) south of Tripoli....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84836] [ 15-jan-2012 09:37 ECT ]
'Gaza hackers' target Israel fire service website
AFP

January 13, 2012 - Hackers claiming to be from the Gaza Strip defaced the website of the Israel Fire and Rescue services, posting a message saying "Death to Israel," a spokesman told AFP on Friday. Fire service spokesman Yoram Levy said that attackers who identified themselves as the "Gaza Hackers Team" struck its website late on Thursday and posted a picture of Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon with footprints over his face. "There was some writing in Arabic and a picture of Danny Ayalon," Levy said, adding that by Friday morning the site was largely back to normal....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84835] [ 15-jan-2012 09:02 ECT ]
Here we go again - another round of futile negotiations
Middle East Monitor

January 14, 2012 - The bad news from Israel keeps coming thick and fast. If the report by European embassies in Tel Aviv on Israel's discrimination against Palestinian Arabs was bad, then surely the internal EU report on the West Bank was shocking. One only needs to scan the two to realise why the Amman talks between Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and Yitzhak Molko, the advisor to the Israeli prime minister, are doomed to fail. Faced with an international Quartet deadline of 26 January to resume negotiations, both parties have started to meet under the auspices of Jordan's King Abdullah II. Palestinians factions, including members of Fatah, were appalled by Abbas's decision to get involved, given that the Israeli government has refused yet again to meet their minimum demand of an end to illegal settlement expansion in the occupied territories....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84834] [ 15-jan-2012 02:41 ECT ]


 



Tunisia: Pride and despair one year after revolt
euronews

January 14, 2012 - People gathered in Bourguiba Avenue in Tunis where protests against the then President Ben Ali reached their climax, forcing him to flee a year ago today. Despite Tunisia’s progress since, problems remain including poverty, unemployment and corruption.... Others are angry about close ties between Tunisia’s new Islamist-led coalition and Qatar which is accused of buying influence in the country. "We are grieving today," a woman said. "The current regime is giving us a day to celebrate the revolution. They are giving an invitation to Qatar to celebrate this occasion," she added, referring to the visit of its Emir. "We thank them for selling Tunisia to these people!"...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84833] [ 15-jan-2012 02:26 ECT ]
Presiding officer calls for Bradley Manning to face court-martial
By James Brewer

January 14, 2012 - The US Army announced Thursday that the presiding officer in last month’s pretrial hearing for Private Bradley Manning, the US soldier charged with handing over thousands of classified documents to whistleblower site WikiLeaks, has recommended that Manning face a full court-martial. Col. Paul Almanza wrote to his superiors calling for all 22 charges against Manning to be referred for trial. According to the US Army Military District of Washington, "the investigating officer concluded that the charges and specifications are in the proper form and that reasonable grounds exist to believe that the accused committed the offenses alleged."...

  continua / continued avanti - next    [84832] [ 15-jan-2012 02:23 ECT ]
In Iraq Cemetery, Living Among the Dead
By OMAR AL-JAWOSHY

January 14, 2012 — The largest cemetery in the restive province of Diyala has more than 20,000 graves, some date back as far as 1600 A.D., and covers more than a mile and a half of land. The cemetery also has something that few others in the world have: living residents...Khalisa Mustafa, a housewife who lives in the cemetery, said that she feared nighttime because "the environment is so scary." Ms. Mustafa, 35, added: "Poverty pushed us to live among the dead." Not surprisingly, there is no running water or sewage system in the cemetery. So, the residents have created several small channels that carry dirty water away from their homes. But the channels have expanded, washing away some gravestones. "Most of these families represent the results of the sectarian conflict," said Nasir Al-Shimary, a human-rights activist in Baquba. "If the government doesn’t seriously address the country’s problems, there will be more people living in cemeteries in the future."...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84831] [ 15-jan-2012 02:12 ECT ]
Gaza Strip - Operation Cast Lead Aftermath : Muhammed Mousa
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)

January 14, 2012 - On 14 January 2009, at approximately 21:00, Israeli aircraft targeted the Mousa family home near al Sabra pharmacy in the south of Gaza City. Izz Addin Wahid Mousa, 48, his wife, Maysara Afif Mousa, 48, their sons Wahid Izz Addi Mousa, 28, Ahmed Izz Addi Mousa, 27, Mohammed Izz Addi Mousa, 22, and daughter Nour Izz Addi Mousa, 15, were killed in the attack. The physical scars caused by the attack are still clearly visible on 25 year old Muhammad Mousa. With nerve and bone damage in both his right arm and leg he has been left with a strong limp and his face displays patches of taut skin showing where he was burnt from the fire that engulfed his home. His injuries have left him unable to continue working in the local marble factory, leaving him unable to pick up the pieces of his life after losing his father, mother, sister and three brothers....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84830] [ 15-jan-2012 02:00 ECT ]
Video: “Guantánamo Forever?” – Jim Moran, Andy Worthington, Morris Davis and Tom Wilner at the New America Foundation, January 10, 2012
Andy Worthington

January 14, 2012 - On the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Bush administration’s prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, which belonged to George W. Bush for seven of those ten years, but has belonged to Barack Obama for the last three, there is no reason for anyone with a heart, a conscience or a respect for America and the rule of law to be cheerful. On Tuesday lunchtime, however, as part of my ongoing US tour, when I met up, at the New America Foundation in Washington D.C. with Tom Wilner, Counsel of Record in the Guantánamo prisoners’ habeas corpus cases in the Supreme Court in 2004 and 2008, and Col. Morris Davis, the former chief prosecutor of the Military Commissions at Guantánamo, who resigned in 2007 in protest at the use of torture, Col. Davis found it impossible not to crack a joke about it. "We must stop meeting like this," he said, referring to the fact that, exactly a year ago, he and Tom and I were on a panel discussing Guantánamo on the 9th anniversary of its opening....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84829] [ 15-jan-2012 01:26 ECT ]
Demolitions in W. Bank villages reflect settlement upsurge
Mya Guarnieri

January 14, 2012 - On Monday, January 9, Israeli authorities shut down "the only road leading to Khan al Ahmar elementary school," the Palestinian news agency WAFA reports. The move came a day after Israel issued a number of stop-work orders in Umm al Kheir... Both Khan al Ahmar and Umm al Kheir are Bedouin villages located in the southern West Bank, in Israeli-controlled Area C. Israeli authortities blocked the road leading to Khan al Ahmar’s school on Monday with massive cement blocks and a high fence in order to keep children from reaching it. According to WAFA, the Palestinian Ministry of Education "condemned the closure."...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84828] [ 15-jan-2012 00:58 ECT ]
Settlers 'chop down 100 olive trees' in Nablus
Ma'an news

January 14, 2012 -- Israeli settlers chopped down more than 100 olive trees belonging to Palestinians south of Nablus on Friday evening, a PA official said. The group tore down the produce in the valley neighboring the Tappuah settlement, between Yaduf and Jamain villages, Palestinian Authority official monitoring settlement activity Ghassan Doughlas said. Another group of settlers smashed two vehicles belonging to Palestinians in the same area on Friday night, Doughlas added....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84827] [ 15-jan-2012 00:27 ECT ]
Saudi Arabia, China agree to bolster strategic ties
By GHAZANFAR ALI KHAN

January 14, 2012 - Crown Prince Naif, deputy premier and minister of interior, held wide-ranging talks with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao in Riyadh Saturday night and pledged "to deepen strategic friendly ties, work together to tackle the global financial crisis and strengthen coordination in international and regional affairs." "The two leaders also discussed ways to boost bilateral ties to a new high," said a diplomatic source, while giving details of the talks here. "King Abdullah will hold talks with the Chinese premier on Sunday," said Li Lianghua, a Chinese Embassy spokesman....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84826] [ 15-jan-2012 00:07 ECT ]
Iraq suicide attack on pilgrims kills 61
DPA

January 14, 2012 - At least 61 Shiite pilgrims were killed Saturday in a suicide bombing in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, according to medical and security sources. A further 139 people were injured in the attack, despite the deployment of thousands of security personnel to protect the pilgrims. The victims included women and children, added the sources. The bomber was wearing an explosive belt when he blew himself up targeting a crowd of people who were heading to a mosque, a security source in Basra, 420 kilometres south-east of the Iraqi capital Baghdad...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84825] [ 14-jan-2012 19:09 ECT ]
No Regrets, No Tears: Bidding Farewell to Iraq
George Capaccio

January 13, 2012 - ... The destruction of Falluja, I would argue, is a microcosm of what has befallen the entire country under the iron boots of the US imperium and its "coalition partners." For nearly nine years, along with hordes of unaccountable mercenaries, they trampled upon the dignity and heritage of the Iraqi people, subjecting thousands of men, women, and even children to torture, imprisonment, and death. I would also argue that the occupation created the conditions in which sectarian conflict could become even more murderous than the industrial strength violence of the occupiers, whose "achievement" Barack Obama saw fit to commend at Fort Bragg in North Carolina: "This is an extraordinary achievement, nearly nine years in the making. And today, we remember everything that you did to make it possible. ... Years from now, your legacy will endure"...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84824] [ 14-jan-2012 18:53 ECT ]
Opium production soars in Afghanistan: UN
AFP

January 13, 2012 — Production of opium and the illicit crop's value soared in Afghanistan last year, the United Nations said in a report released Thursday. According to the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime, farmer income derived from Afghanistan's opium crop in 2011 was $1.4 billion (1.09 billion euros), representing nine percent of GDP. "Opium is therefore a significant part of the Afghan economy and provides considerable funding to the insurgency and fuels corruption," Yury Fedotov, executive director of the UN office, said in a statement...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84821] [ 14-jan-2012 18:47 ECT ]
Military Resistance 10A12: Traitors at Work
Thomas F Barton

January 13, 2012 - Number of men still imprisoned at Guantanamo after being cleared for release by the government: 89 . Number of prisoners the U.S. has said it lacks evidence- to prosecute but claims are too dangerous to release: 46. Percentage of prisoners at Guantanamo who were never al Qaeda fighters according to government data: 92%. Percentage of prisoners captured by American troops: 5%
Percentage of prisoners reportedly turned over to Coalition forces in response to a bounty offer: 86%...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84820] [ 14-jan-2012 18:20 ECT ]
Iraq – What was done in our name?
By Phil Shiner

January 13, 2012 - ... The UK’s detention and interrogation policies in Iraq were not only completely unlawful but outrageously contaminated by the fact that our co-author in this illegal war, soon to become our Joint Co-Occupier subsequently, was the United States. Everything the world community associates with US practices and techniques, whether at Guantanamo Bay, Bagram Air Base, Abu Ghraib, secret sites or rendition is of a piece with UK policies and practices in Iraq. This is not my subjective opinion or idle speculation. It is a matter of publicly available evidence....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84818] [ 14-jan-2012 18:04 ECT ]
DHS Targets Nigerian Islamist Group Boko Haram
US Homeland Security Suggests Military Action in Nigeria
Nile Bowie

January 13, 2012 - ... If Nigeria continues to face severe instability, the actions foreign powers will take to preserve their economic and geopolitical interests is quite clear. At this stage, it remains uncertain whether Boko Haram is a legitimate indigenous extremist movement or a nurtured product of Intelligence communities working to benefit from destabilizing Africa’s most populous nation. The tired theatrics and recycled rhetoric of Boko Haram’s leadership certainly lends credence to the latter. As The United States African Command (AFRICOM) continues to expand its influence throughout the continent, the entity has long anticipated Nigerian instability; its 2008 war-game scenario envisioned 20,000 U.S. troops maintaining security of the Niger Delta oil fields within a dissolved anarchic Nigeria. According to a Washington, D.C. based journalist, Scott Morgan, Nigerian military sources have confirmed that U.S. troops are scheduled to be deployed within Nigeria to help local forces do battle with Boko Haram. U.S. officials have not confirmed the deployment, however the increased presence in the region would be consistent with the cumulative expansion of an aggressive Pan-African foreign policy, spearheaded by America’s first President of African descent....
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84817] [ 14-jan-2012 17:57 ECT ]
Ongoing Global Economic Crisis
by Stephen Lendman

January 13, 2012 - Rosy scenario optimists ignore clear-eyed analysis. Economist Paul Craig Roberts sees hard times getting harder. His "Dismal Economic Outlook For The New Year" article highlights what media scoundrels and mainstream analysts miss or suppress. Decades of imperial wars, exporting America's manufacturing base and other high-paying jobs, as well as financial deregulation and corporate/government collusion "severely damaged the US economy and the economic prospects of 90%" of households. They've never had it so bad with worse coming...
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84816] [ 14-jan-2012 17:43 ECT ]
Syria News - January 13, 2012 (Warning: Graphic Videos)
Local Coordination Committees of Syria + Videos

January 13, 2012 - The number of Syrian martyrs rose to 16 martyrs so far including three children. Six martyrs in Homs, three martyrs in Damascus Suburbs [2 Dumair 1 Rankous], two martyrs in Aleppo, and a martyr in each of Hama, Deir Ezzor,Idlib, Lattakia and Daraa. The Local Coordination Committees documented 460 points of demonstrations all over Syria. The highest corroborated points were the same as the previous Firday in the first two ranks come Idlib (126 points this week) and Hama (71 ponits). Daraa maintained its number (59 points) and then come Damascus suburbs and Homs with (52 points) of demonstrations each. In Aleppo, there were 25 points of demonstrations including 6 points inside the city. In Deir Ezzor and Hasaka there were 21 points of demonstrations in each one of them. Lattakia had 18 points of demonstrations and then comes Damascus with 12 points of protests. Also this Friday, there were 3 points of demonstrations in Swaida governorate.
  continua / continued avanti - next    [84815] [ 14-jan-2012 16:25 ECT ]


 















 

فيديو نادر لعبد الباسط يبكي من خشية الله ويتماسك- Quran


مجازر اسرائيل فى فلسطين



Israel Crimes in Palestine

Crimes d Israel en Palestine

 

Dailymotion - souffrance d'enfants- مأساة أطفال المسلمين


GAZA-STROPHE

We came to Gaza in the aftermath of the war, and with our friends the Palestinian Human Rights delegates, we discovered the extent of the «Gaza-strophy». The accounts of dozens of witnesses of Israel's war against Gaza who take us to depth of the Palestinians' nightmare.

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production
ISKRA / L’Yeux ouverts / RFO

un documentary film by
Samir Abdallah & Khéridine Mabrouk

editing
Kahena Atia

music
abbas bakhtiari

additionals footages
Media Group

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Support the production
and screening of
Gaza-strophe, Palestine
visit gaza-strophe.com
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Former CIA Officer: Israel Controls U.S. Government & Media

 


The legendary Pink Floyd rocker Roger Waters 

has recorded a new version of "We Shall Overcome"

honoring victims of Israel's flotilla attack.

 


Long Live Palestine - LowKey

 

 










 





 


 





 


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