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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY!

" One in 10 chance perhaps, but save Chile! ... not concerned with risks involved ... $10,000,000 available, more if necessary ... make the economy scream."-- CIA Director Richard Helms, discussing plan to destabilize government of Chile under democractically-elected President Salvador Allende

 

TORTURE/WAR CRIMES

Nov 20 20:04

Get Out Of My Country

Malalai Joya was 27-years-old when she became the youngest person elected to the new Afghan Parliament.

She’s now suspended from Parliament for criticizing other MPs and accusing many of being warlords and criminals. She calls Afghanistan’s democracy a farce and says her country’s liberation is a lie. She has written a book called A Woman Among Warlords. Malalai Joya was in Toronto.

Nov 20 19:58

53% of Israelis Think Ethnic Cleansing Is The Solution To The Conflict

Israelis talk often and loudly about their desires for peace. But its never been clear precisely what peace concept it is they desire. In particular, Israeli notions of peace have never gone so far as to grant the Palestinians the same national rights that Israelis claim for themselves. Well, according to a new poll by Israeli National News (disclaimer: its a right-wing rag, sample size “more than 6,400?), a majority of Israelis are clear about what kind of “peace” they desire.

53.2% of surveyed Israelis say the “solution” to the conflict was the ethnic cleansing...

Nov 20 14:29

All Afghan detainees likely tortured: diplomat

Colvin said: "As I learned more about our detainee practices, I came to the conclusion ..they were .. counterproductive and probably illegal.”

Nov 20 11:44

World Condemns Israeli Settlements

"We urge the Israeli side to take concrete measures to restore Palestine-Israel mutual trust and create favorable conditions for the early resumption of talks between them," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Thursday.

The remarks by China's Foreign Ministry were also echoed by the Swiss government which called on Israel to stop construction of Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian territories.

Nov 20 11:29

Israel To Build Seven Illegal Settlement Suburbs In Occupied Jerusalem

The Quds information center has disclosed Thursday that the Israeli occupation authorities have prepared the blueprints for seven settlement projects in the occupied city of Jerusalem as part of its efforts to judaize the Palestinian city.

In a statement it issued and published by the Quds Press, the center pointed out that the new suburb that the IOA announced it would construct in Israeli settlement of Gilo was indeed a prelude for seven bigger settlement projects the IAO wants to build in the occupied Palestinian city.

The center also quoted sources inside the IOA as saying that the rightist government of premier Binyamin Netanyahu would carryout the projects after the diplomatic “misunderstanding” with the US administration regarding those settlements is absorbed.

Nov 20 11:01

Israeli Who Stabbed Palestinian May Have Carried Out Series of Such Attacks

A 16-year-old Israeli who stabbed Palestinian Jamil Abdullah, 42, in occupied Jerusalem on Thursday may have also carried out a series of attacks against Arabs and Palestinians, the Israeli police said Friday during a remand hearing at the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court.

The Jerusalem Police believe that Thursday's stabbing incident was “nationalistically motivated.” The police told the court that the culprit had attacked Arabs and Palestinians near the Tomb of Simeon the Just in east Jerusalem, near the settlement of Carmel and near the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar.

Abdullah, 42, the father of five from the village of Shoafat in the Jerusalem area, was evacuated to the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital with abdomen wounds.

Nov 20 07:09

Did Hitler Inspire the U.S. Post 9/11 Tribunal System?

Yes! In case nobody has noticed the NWO boys have an obsession with Adolph!

Nov 19 21:37

Fort Hood Shootings a Shocker:Why Not U.S. War Crimes?

American lives are worth a lot. So when Americans get killed, it’s a big story. There are lots of editorials. Congressmen call for investigations. We want to find out what happened, why it happened, and how to make sure it never happens again.

The lives of foreigners, on the other hand, are pretty much worthless. Even when they die because Americans killed them, news accounts marking their deaths are short, sweet, and short-lived. Congressional investigations? No way. To the contrary! If anyone is inconsiderate enough to mention the killings of people overseas in a public forum, they get shouted down or simply ignored.

Nov 19 15:33

Short History of Israeli Right Wing Terrorism

Yaakov (Jack) Teitel (pictured in Israeli custody) is not the first and probably not the last Israeli terrorist to target Palestinians or Israeli supporters of peace.

Furthermore, many of these Jewish terrorists came from the ranks of the West Bank settlers.

Read on for a partial list of Israeli groups and individuals who took violent action to sabotage peace.

Following the arrest and indictment of Yaakov (Jack) Teitel who reportedly admitted to a series of murderous terrorist attacks against Israelis and Palestinians over the past twelve years, the settlers and their supporters cried foul. Teitel is an exception, they said, a single case, a “lone wolf,” a lunatic.

Nov 19 12:43

Israeli's Imprison Cat For Aiding Palestinian Prisoners

An Israeli prison,The Nakab, located between Egypt and Israel has booked one cat in solitary confinement as punishment for its services and assistance to prisoners who are serving sentences in solitary confinement.

According to the Israeli officers,the cat was aiding prisoners by moving light objects (i.e. letters,bread etc) between the cells of prisoners.
It turns out that the cat had been providing its services to prisoners for several months until it was exposed recently and so the prison administration decided to place the cat in solitary confinement - the same way they do to the prisoners.

Nov 19 12:28

Binyam: Judges attack UK secrecy over public documents

Senior judges say the foreign secretary is stopping them releasing details of CIA interrogation techniques - even though the US has published them.

The High Court says it wants to refer to previously classified documents as part of its judgement on the alleged mistreatment of Binyam Mohamed.

Mr Mohamed says the US tortured him after his arrest in Pakistan in 2002.

Nov 19 12:14

Torture could doom N.Y. trial against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and 9/11 terrrorists

The government’s decision to prosecute alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-conspirators as criminals puts the issue of torture squarely before the federal courts.

Given the government’s acknowledgment that Mohammed and his co-defendants were subject to harsh interrogation techniques that included repeated waterboarding, it cannot avoid the issue, no matter what evidence it chooses to use.

Nov 19 12:11

US Makes Debut Attendance at Hague War Crimes Court

U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues Stephen Rapp made a debut appearance for the United States at the world's war crimes court Thursday and said the U.S. remained wary of politically driven prosecutions.

Webmaster's Commentary: 

Translation: The United States is trying to block prosecution of Israel for War Crimes.

The ICC's credibility is on the line here.

Nov 19 10:45

Netanyahu:The Obscene Liar

Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu is a manifestly fascist-minded demagogue who thinks that everything Jewish must override everything non-Jewish, regardless of all considerations.

He is also a first-class liar who believes that lying to the world, including Jews, is the first line of defense against growing opposition to genocidal Israeli criminality.

Nov 19 10:35

Israel Wounds 3 Palestinians,Rounds Up Dozens In Gaza

Israeli warplanes pounded the tunnels area in Rafah, in southern Gaza Strip, and a position for the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, at dawn Thursday wounding three citizens, local sources reported.

They told the PIC reporter that Israeli F-16s fired two missiles at the tunnels area on the Palestinian-Egyptian borders and injured three civilians.

The sources noted that few minutes later the warplanes blasted a position for the Qassam Brigades west of Khan Younis, also in southern Gaza

Nov 19 09:27

CIA Secret 'Torture' Prison Found at Fancy Horseback Riding Academy

The CIA built one of its secret European prisons inside an exclusive riding academy outside Vilnius, Lithuania, a current Lithuanian government official and a former U.S. intelligence official told ABC News this week.

Webmaster's Commentary: 

So, the bottom line is that we the people do not know what other secret torture facilities the CIA has been using to extract confessions, and to judge by the scars on the bodies of people like Binyam Mohammed, waterboarding was not the worst thing being done.

Remember that in Nazi Germany, Germans living just a few miles from the slave-labor camps had no idea what their government was doing.

Do you know what your government is doing?

Nov 19 04:44

Canada ignored Afghan torture allegations

Canadian troops handed Afghan detainees to local authorities in the knowledge they would be tortured, and later tried to silence critics of the practice, a senior Ottawa diplomat told lawmakers.

Nov 19 04:42

What You Didn't Know About The War

This video is mandatory viewing to all supporters of the war(s).

Nov 19 04:42

Lithuanian horse club was CIA 'black site'

Controversy over secret CIA prisons in Europe came to light again with the allegations that an upscale Lithuanian horseback riding school was secretly used to interrogate Al-Qaeda suspects.

ABC news, citing unnamed Lithuanian government officials and a former US intelligence official, claimed the riding academy and cafe outside Vilnius was used to interrogate up to eight Al-Qaeda suspects at a time.

Nov 18 19:56

Israel Strikes At Khan Younis & Rafah

“The strikes are in response to continued recent rocket firing into Israel from the Gaza Strip. In the past month some 15 rockets have been fired into Israel,” the IDF Spokesman’s Office said.

Late last week, the IDF as well Palestinian medical workers reported that Israeli soldiers had shot and killed a Palestinian and wounded at least one other in a confrontation near a Gaza Strip border crossing.

An IDF spokeswoman said the troops opened fire at Palestinians suspected of placing explosives near a security fence. One died of injuries, a second was taken to hospital and three others were seized.

Nov 18 16:03

Netanyahu Whines: Israel Is World’s ‘Most Threatened Country’

Israel is “the most threatened country in the world,” and the rocket attacks its civilian population has suffered are “attacks not experienced by any other state since Britain in World War II,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday.

Netanyahu was giving the closing remarks at the Israel Annual Conference on Aviation and Astronautics. Much of the discussion at the conference centered on missile defense.

“We are faced with enemies who do not conceal their intentions, and who arm themselves accordingly,” the Israeli prime minister said. “They first attack us physically, and then attack our right to self-defense.”

Nov 18 13:47

Erekat Denies PA Plans to Declare State Unilaterally

The Palestinians will not unilaterally declare an independent state, but rather seek a UN Security Council resolution endorsing a two-state solution along the pre-1967 lines, Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

Israeli officials said Erekat was backtracking on earlier statements calling for a unilateral declaration of independence, even as he said that Israel was "twisting his words."

The Palestinians want the Security Council to set the borders of their future state and those of Israel along the pre-1967 lines, Erekat said. "What we are seeking is to preserve the two-state solution," he said. "One state is not an option."

Nov 18 11:52

Houthis release photos of Saudi phosphorous bombs

Houthi fighters in Yemen say Saudi forces have used unconventional weapons in their fight against Shias in northern country.

The fighters said many civilians were killed or injured after Saudi warplanes dropped phosphorous bombs on villages in north.

They have also released pictures of phosphorus bomb attacks by Saudi warplanes.

Nov 18 10:57

UN Lists Vulnerable Palestinian Villages

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Tuesday published a report listing Palestinian communities that are especially vulnerable to the settler strategy known as the "price tag."

The document includes 83 villages, hamlets and neighborhoods that appear to be particularly vulnerable to retaliatory attacks by settlers in response to Israeli occupation army operations to dismantle illegal structures built by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. In the past, such attacks have included rock-throwing and setting fire to Palestinian property.

Nov 18 10:48

Israel Seeking to Curb Crisis with Obama over Settlements

Although Israel has been insisting for quite a while that there is no crisis of relations with the United States, Israeli officials were surprised Tuesday by the harsh American, British, regional and International responses to the approval of building 900 new housing units in the occupied Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo.

A source in Benjamin Netanyahu's office clarified Tuesday evening that such approvals "are not handled by the Israeli prime minister."

Nov 18 07:27

Torture Resisters Arrested at Fort Huachuca

Human rights activists protesting torture being carried out by the United States marched to the main gate at Fort Huachuca Army Intelligence Center, where five crossed into the base and were taken into custody on Nov. 15.

"Rogue assassinations and torture have damaged the soul of our nation and tarnished our image around the world," torture resisters said in a letter to the Army base.

Nov 17 12:27

Occupying Countries Responsible of Global Hunger

Hezb’Allah warned that the tragic figures of the FAO-on the number of hungry people around the world-reveal the criminal face of the so-called materialistic culture of savage capitalism at present, holding responsible the world countries practicing and committing aggression, occupation and supporting it, with the US topping the list.

Hezb’Allah issued on Monday a statement in which it commented on the opening of the World Food Summit in Rome for fighting hunger, which afflicts more than one billion people around the world.

Nov 17 12:16

Ehud Barak:Arrow Gives Israel Leverage in Talks

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday that Israel's Arrow missile defense system, once completed, would "change the picture and be a necessary condition for a peace accord that is stable, due to deterrence".

Speaking at the international Euro-Space conference near Ben Gurion International Airport, Barak stressed Israel's need for defense systems in any negotiations for peace with its neighbors.

"Any threat that could disrupt normal life must be neutralized," he said. "This effort is an addition to a multi-layered concept: Iron Dome as an answer to short-range (artillery), Magic Wand for the middle layer, the Arrow as it is today and Arrow 3."

Nov 17 12:08

US Politician Wants American Jews to Buy West Bank Homes

An influential Jewish community leader and Democratic State Assemblyman from New York is currently heading a mission of about 50 Americans through the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem to promote home purchases in the area and to protest U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East policy.

"Our goal is to send a clear message to Washington and President Obama that Jews will continue to live in Judea and Samaria and the ultimate commitment American Jews can make is to actually come and buy property in these areas as this will ensure these communities" security and growth," said Dov Hikind, 59, who has been representing Brooklyn's 48th district since 1983.

Nov 17 12:07

Blogger Junket to Uzbekistan: Torture chambers likely not among tour stops

A short while back I noted here that Gulnara Karimova, daughter and henchwoman of Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov, had recently hosted rock star Sting in Tashkent, the nation’s capital. Sting took in a fashion show and other events with Gulnara, whose father’s regime killed one prisoner by immersion in boiling water, and in 2005 slaughtered hundreds of protesters in the town of Andijan. “The scale of this killing was so extensive, and its nature was so indiscriminate and disproportionate, that it can best be described as a massacre,” Human Rights Watch said in a study of the events at Andijan.

Nov 17 12:03

Israel Snubs US Request to Halt Settlement

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declined a US request to freeze a project to build dozens of housing units in an east Jerusalem settlement, Israeli army radio reported on Tuesday.

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell had recently asked the hawkish premier to halt the project in Gilo, saying it risks raising tensions with Palestinians amid floundering efforts by Washington to restart peace negotiations, it said.

But Netanyahu refused, saying that the project did not require government approval and that Gilo was "an integral part of Jerusalem," it said.

Nov 17 11:57

“Israeli Ministries Funding the Rabbi who Endorses Killing Babies”

The Haaretz repost says:
“Right-wing spokesmen, including some elected officials, rushed to place Yaakov “Jack” Teitel in the fringe group alongside Yigal Amir, Eden Natan Zada, Eliran Golan, Asher Weisgan, Danny Tikman and a few other “political/ideological” murderers. True, they acknowledge, there are among us several lunatic rabbis who agitate to violence. Really, just a handful; even a toddler could count them. The more stringent will note that unlike the Hamas government, our government does not pay the salaries of rabbis who advocate the killing of babies.”

Nov 17 07:37

U.S. stalls on human trafficking

Three years ago, President Bush declared that he had "zero tolerance" for trafficking in humans by the government's overseas contractors, and two years ago Congress mandated a similar policy.

But notwithstanding the president's statement and the congressional edict, the Defense Department has yet to adopt a policy to bar human trafficking.

Nov 17 06:39

Jack Straw Lied To Parliament

The documents I obtained under the Freedon of Information Act yesterday are irrefutable evidence that Jack Straw lied to the parliamentary inquiry into extraordinary rendition.

Nov 16 18:34

Missing Iranian General Found In Israel

An Iranian general who disappeared in Turkey two years ago amid media claims of defection is being held inside a jail in “Israel”, several newspapers reported on Monday citing a conservative website.

Ali Reza Asgari, a deputy defense minister under the previous government of president Mohammad Khatami, disappeared after checking into a hotel in Turkey in February 2007.

Nov 16 16:17

Bush memos parallel claim 9/11 mastermind’s children were tortured with insects

Bush Administration memos released by the White House on Thursday provide new insight into claims that American agents used insects to torture the young children of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Nov 16 11:13

Twenty Years From Now, You Will Lie To Your Children

In twenty years children are all too likely to be living poor, on a hostile planet, working long hours to pay down the sins of their fathers.

And they might well be enraged, too, as they should be.

A decade or two from now, if they confront their right-wing elders – gazing in anger and astonishment at the bottomless capacity of their parents’ selfishness – you can safely bet that their questions will be met with dissembling deception.

Twenty years from now, regressives will lie to their children.

We know this because those regressives are already lying today, covering their execrable crimes the only way possible.

With deceit.

Nov 16 10:49

How To Create A Terrorist

Going from Ramallah to Jerusalem by bus should only take about twenty minutes, but since Israel constructed the separation wall it usually takes up to one hour. In addition to the wall one has to negotiate Qalandia checkpoint, a hi-tech airport/border security style military facility. Everyone has to disembark from the bus, pass through the checkpoint and, assuming that everything went as planned, get back on the bus on the other side of the wall and continue on their journey to Jerusalem.

Nov 16 10:35

Another Abu Ghraib? Iraqis Abused by UK Occupation Troops

British occupation soldiers forced an Iraqi detainee to wear an orange jump suit and told him that he was to be executed at the US-run Guantanamo Bay camp, according to allegations in a report Monday. The 23-year-old man said he was beaten and sexually abused and flown to a British detention centre in southern Iraq which he believed was the "war on terror" camp in Cuba, the Independent said.

The man's case is among accusations being investigated by Britain's Ministry of Defense that soldiers tortured Iraqi civilians, including the abuse of a 16-year-old boy at knifepoint. A British medic was also accused of records of abuse.

Nov 16 10:28

Christians In Jerusalem Want Jews To Stop Spitting On Them

A few weeks ago, a senior Greek Orthodox clergyman in Israel attended a meeting at a government office in Jerusalem’s Givat Shaul quarter. When he returned to his car, an elderly man wearing a skullcap came and knocked on the window. When the clergyman let the window down, the passerby spat in his face.

“When there is an attack against Jews anywhere in the world, the Israeli government is incensed, so why when our religion and pride are hurt, don’t they take harsher measures?” he asks.

Nov 16 07:53

Obama Talks Human Rights in China

For President Obama, speaking openly about the Chinese government's human rights record during a town hall meeting on its own soil was an exercise in moderation.

Webmaster's Commentary: 

It was an exercise in hypocrisy coming from the nation that wiretaps its citizens, engages in torture and imprisonment without trial, show trials (see New York), and "Free Speech Zones".

Nov 15 20:46

Do We Still Have Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's Sons?

But little known to most Americans, no matter how closely they might follow the news, the torture by whatever name one might choose to call it, is not even the worst of it. According to a March 2003 report that appeared in the Washington, DC, area only in the little-read Washington Times, the United States government has his two young sons in its custody . As reported by Olga Craig of the Sunday Telegraph of London on March 9, 2003:

Webmaster's Commentary: 

So, before you believe any confessions KSM might make on the witness stand, ask yourself if you would take the blame for 9-11 rather than be forced to watch your own children be tortured.

Nov 15 16:42

Ray McGovern: Shining Light on Roots of Terrorism

Media commentary on the upcoming 9/11 trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has raised concern that state secrets may be divulged, including details about how the Bush administration used torture to extract evidence about al-Qaeda.

“I think that we’re going to shine a light on something that a lot of people don’t want to look at” is how American Civil Liberties Union attorney Denney LeBoeuf put it, according to The New York Times on Saturday.

Nov 14 23:54

Israel’s “Pathology”

Nobody seems to know just what Barack Obama said to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when the two met recently at the White House. In fact, when it comes to Middle East policy, nobody seems to know much of anything about what goes on inside the White House. I’ve heard more than one Washington insider say that this administration is totally tight-lipped on the subject.

Nov 14 23:44

Israeli Military Chief Rabbi: Troops Who Show Mercy Will Be ‘Damned’

Speaking Thursday at the Hesder yeshiva in the West Bank settlement of Karnei Shomron , Rontzki referred to Maimonides’ discourse on the laws of war. That text quotes a passage from the Book of Jeremiah stating: “Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord with a slack hand, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.”

In Rontzki’s words, “In times of war, whoever doesn’t fight with all his heart and soul is damned – if he keeps his sword from bloodshed, if he shows mercy toward his enemy when no mercy should be shown.”

Nov 14 14:13

Gates signs order barring release of torture photos

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates ruled on Friday that 44 photos that reportedly show abuse of detainees by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan cannot be released publicly. The Obama Administration notified the Supreme Court on Friday evening of this action by the Pentagon leader, and urged the Court to set aside a lower court ruling directing release of those photos. The new brief was filed in Defense Department v. American Civil Liberties Union (09-160).

The Court may act on the new filing as early as next Monday.

Nov 14 14:03

U.S.: No need to rule on torture claim

The Obama Administration on Friday evening urged the Supreme Court to turn aside a test case by four former Guantanamo Bay detainees, and to do so without ruling on their claims of torture and religious discrimination by U.S. agents there. It is clear, Solicitor General Elena Kagan argued in the new filing, that the detainees had no legal basis for their claims at the time they were at Guantanamo — between early 2002 and March 2004. Thus, she contended, the officials sued are immune from the lawsuit.

Nov 14 08:38

Do We Still Have Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's Sons?

Finally, after having been held in U.S. CIA and military custody for more than four years while being subjected to “all appropriate pressure” by “interrogators” employing their “full range of permissible techniques,” the former student at North Carolina’s Chowan College and North Carolina A & T, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, has finally claimed to have directed just about every major terrorism attack against the United States over the past fifteen years. From the techniques that we have read about, one has to wonder what took him so long to start singing like a canary.

Nov 14 08:31

Rights Group: Israel 'Personally Attacking' Us over Gaza Report

Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of launching an "organized campaign" of lies and misinformation against it in the wake of the organization's support of the Goldstone report, British newspaper the Guardian reported Friday.

"I really hesitate to use words like conspiracy, but there is a feeling that there is an organized campaign, and we're seeing from different places what would appear to be coordinated attacks...from some of the language and arguments used it would seem as if there has been discussion," Iain Levine, Human Rights Watch's program director, told the Guardian.

Nov 14 08:08

SABRA AND SHATILA REVISITED

I have been to over 30 refugee camps in Jordan and the West Bank and I did expect the refugee camps in Lebanon to be worse. I have read a lot and even seen pictures and some videos but still I was shocked by what I saw, what I smelled, what I heard and what I felt. The words I write cannot do justice to this.

Nov 13 13:27

“Hezb'Allah Knows Everything about the Israeli Army's Activities”

One day after Hezb'Allah General Secretary Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel not to try to launch any aggression against Lebanon, promising it with humiliating defeat; Israeli media revealed Thursday that Hezb'Allah knows every single detail about the activities of the Israeli occupation army.

Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot said it has got a document confirming that Hezb'Allah knows every detail about the activities of the Israeli army and the command of the northern area and brigade 91 in the border area.

The Israeli paper says in its report issued Thursday morning, "The bulletin shows to what extent Hezb'Allah intelligence succeeded in penetrating into the Israeli army, and proves that Hezb'Allah has enough sources of information."

Nov 13 13:07

Hamas Tells Red Cross: Israel Planning another War in Gaza

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyyeh has warned that Israel is planning another offensive on the Gaza Strip, Iran’s Press TV reported on Friday.

According to Haniyyeh, it is Israel and not Hamas that is intent on keeping the conflict going between the two sides. Hamas is “not looking for more violence,” Haniyyeh told a group of Red Cross delegates visiting the Gaza Strip earlier this week.

Haniyyeh said that should such an offensive occur, Hamas would be prepared to retaliate. “Our people will not surrender; they will fight back,” Prime Minister Haniyyeh’s office said, in a statement.

Nov 13 07:48

Israeli Foreign Ministry Drops Peace As Goal

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has set priorities for his ministry that apparently are at odds with those of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

While Netanyahu is trying to convince U.S. President Barack Obama that he is sincere about advancing the peace process on the principle of two states for two peoples, the Israeli foreign ministry’s written goals don’t even mention the word “Palestinians.”

Israeli Foreign Ministry director general Yossi Gal recently distributed a document detailing the ministry’s goals for 2010 to Israeli embassies around the world. The goals are significantly different than those the ministry espoused during previous foreign minister Tzipi Livni’s term, especially regarding the peace process

Nov 13 07:47

“Peace Talks with Israel Hindered by Obama Inaction”

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will deliver a message from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Syrian leader Bashar Assad during the latter’s visit to Paris on Friday, relaying Israel’s desires to renew “peace negotiations” immediately without preconditions.

The French newspaper La Figaro on Friday quoted Assad as saying that U.S. President Barack Obama represented a weak point in the efforts to renew negotiations. “The American godfather needs to draw up a plan of action and take his own initiative, not wait for others,” said the Syrian President.

Nov 13 05:26

How the U.S. Funds the Taliban

How the U.S. Funds the Taliban

By Aram Roston, The Nation
Posted on November 13, 2009, Printed on November 13, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/143898/

Welcome to the wartime contracting bazaar in Afghanistan. It is a virtual carnival of improbable characters and shady connections, with former CIA officials and ex-military officers joining hands with former Taliban and mujahedeen to collect US government funds in the name of the war effort.

In this grotesque carnival, the US military's contractors are forced to pay suspected insurgents to protect American supply routes. It is an accepted fact of the military logistics operation in Afghanistan that the US government funds the very forces American troops are fighting.

Nov 12 20:54

The Israeli: Harsh and Justified Media Portrayal

Gilad Atzmon argues (with harsh video examples) that it is the artists that are ahead of the politicos in reflecting and leading the public perception.

Nov 12 18:48

DID ANYONE ACTUALLY BELIEVE THAT STUFF ABOUT BRINGING ‘FREEDOM’ AND ‘DEMOCRACY’ TO IRAQ?

We were told over and over again prior to and then during the war that killed hundreds of thousands, maybe over a million, displaced millions more, and completely gutted an entire nation that is still suffering daily that all of this suffering was in aid of bringing true democracy and freedom to Iraq. Now, the very foundation upon which democracy is built, freedom of the press, has been removed rendered all that suffering as worthless.

Nov 12 10:21

UN Official: ‘Penalize Israel Over Gaza’

Citing the Goldstone Report, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told the Security Council Wednesday that Israel was responsible for the killing of more than 1,000 civilians in Gaza and attacks on schools and mosques and UN facilities.

“The report lays out in detail the nature and scope of violations of international human rights and humanitarian law perpetrated on the civilian population of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, where in Gaza earlier this year Israeli forces killed well over one thousand civilians and attacked homes, schools, mosques, food and water installations, and UN facilities.”

Nov 12 07:25

What Goldstone says about the US

Firstly, if Israel is guilty of committing systematic war crimes across Gaza and the West Bank, then the US, which supported, funded and armed Israel during the war, is an accessory to those crimes.

Put simply, if there is blood on Israel's hands, than it is has dripped all over America's shirt.

Nov 11 21:56

Bush torture ‘architect’ sits on court that will rule on another torture ‘architect’

John Yoo, the former Bush administration lawyer who gained notoriety for penning a number of the so-called "torture memos" justifying the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" on terrorism suspects, has filed an appeal of a lawsuit against him with a court on whose bench sits another torture "architect" from the Bush administration.

Yoo's lawyers have filed an appeal against a lawsuit by convicted terrorist supporter Jose Padilla to the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. One of the judges on that bench is Jay Bybee, who served early on in the Bush administration in the same Office of Legal Counsel where Yoo wrote the torture memos.

Nov 11 15:31

Nasrallah to Israelis: Send Your Whole Army, We'll Destroy Them!

Sayyed Nasrallah addressed Israeli, renewing commitment to the Resistance's pattern and choice. "Send as many Israeli brigades as you want, send even your whole army, we will destroy them in our valleys and mountains," his eminence said, addressing Israeli Prime Minister, Defense Minister and chief of staff.

His eminence then recalled of the US continuous support to Israel since the 2006 July war against Lebanon. "Since the July War, the US has offered Israel complete military and logistic support. The Obama administration came and sought to play the "hero" game claiming to spare efforts to suspend settlements. But I told you since the beginning it was just a trick and this is what happened, causing a sort of frustration within the Palestinians."

Nov 11 12:47

Only Resistance Can End Israeli Occupation

“During 18 years of resistance, many sacrificed their lives for defending Lebanon and liberating our country; the resistance movement owes its achievement to them and we will follow their path, which brought dignity to us,” the Hezb’Allah leader said.

He also called on Palestinians not to expect gaining their rights by counting on fake mediation efforts of the US, which is totally committed to Israeli interests.

“America is creating our problems; it is giving Israel all kinds of military and strategic support. US is backing away from pressuring Israel on settlements. How can we expect Washington to help us with our problems?” he asked.

Nov 11 11:46

Victims Of Veterans Day

Today in the United States of America we spend the morning,afternoon and evening honoring Veterans: From marching bands which play military arrangements to the Junior ROTC parades which go on from the morning hours until mid-afternoon and finally late-night news broadcasts displaying a macabre of nationalism.

Today,Novemeber 11th 2009,we 'honor' our Veterans while glorifying war.

Nov 11 06:46

Goldstone Report 2009 PDF

The UN Fact-Finding Mission led by Justice Richard Goldstone released its long-awaited report on the Gaza conflict [1], in which it concluded there is evidence indicating serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law were committed by Israel during the Gaza conflict [2], and that Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity.

Nov 11 05:11

Barack Obama Administration Continues US Military Global Dominance

Barack Obama Administration Continues US Military Global Dominance

in Featured Articles & Editorials
By Peter Phillips

The Barack Obama administration is continuing the neo-conservative agenda of US military domination of the world— albeit with perhaps a kinder-gentler face. While overt torture is now forbidden for the CIA and Pentagon, and symbolic gestures like the closing of the Guantanamo prison are in evidence, a unilateral military dominance policy, expanding military budget, and wars of occupation and aggression will likely continue unabated.

Nov 10 11:14

AshkeNazi Threatens Gaza With Another "Little Holocaust"

There seems to be a perfect conformity between Gabi Ashkenazi and his last name. The Israeli chief of staff is considered one of the main Israeli war criminals responsible for the virtual genocide against the Gaza Strip during the past winter. On his murderous hands, he carries tons of innocent blood, including that of more than 340 children, killed in Israel’s pornographic bombing of civilian neighborhood.

Last week, Ashkenazi was quoted as saying that Israel was likely to wage another quasi holocaust on Gaza, adding that the Israeli occupation army would enter the innermost corners and streets of the coastal territory.

Nov 10 10:50

Obama Meets With Bibi:The Unusual Media Blackout

President Barack Obama held unusually low-profile talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday that failed to provide any sign of progress toward reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

A White House statement after the one-hour, 40-minute session framed the meeting in only general terms, saying the two leaders discussed “how to move forward on Middle East peace” and also spoke about Iran and security issues.

The parley was accompanied by an unusual news blackout, as the standard photo op and press availability were not held. In addition, A spokesman for Netanyahu declined to comment on the talks and a briefing the Israeli prime minister intended to hold on Tuesday for reporters who accompanied him to Washington was canceled.

Nov 10 09:05

US HOUSE VOTE AGAINST GOLDSTONE REPORT WAS A VOTE OF CONSCIENCE

Yesterday I wrote a piece about the control AIPAC has over US foreign policy. But, I did not go into other particulars as to why the US House of Representatives voted against the Goldstone Report.

After speaking to one of my Associates over at Uruknet, the following ideas surfaced…
First of all, US war crimes are far worse than the Israeli ones….. this is an indisputable FACT.

Nov 10 09:05

IRREDEEMABLE WAR CRIMINALS

There seems to be a perfect conformity between Gabi Ashkenazi and his last name. The Israeli chief of staff is considered one of the main Israeli war criminals responsible for the virtual genocide against the Gaza Strip during the past winter. On his murderous hands, he carries tons of innocent blood, including that of more than 340 children, killed in Israel’s pornographic bombing of civilian neighborhood.

Last week, Ashkenazi was quoted as saying that Israel was likely to wage another quasi holocaust on Gaza, adding that the Israeli occupation army would enter the innermost corners and streets of the coastal territory.

Nov 10 04:47

Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq

Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq

Lawrence R. Velvel, Dean of the Massachusetts School of Law, interviews Stephen Kinzer, author of Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq.

If you think George W. Bush and the neoconservatives inducted "regime change" into American foreign policy's hall of fame? Think again. Long before Iraq, U.S. presidents, spies, corporate types and their acolytes abroad had honed the art of deposing foreign governments.

Nov 09 23:47

Bipartisan Attack on International Humanitarian Law

The primary motivation for the resolution appears to have been to block any consideration of its recommendation that those guilty of war crimes be held accountable.

Nov 09 13:40

ICC PROSECUTOR ACKNOWLEDGES RECEIPT OF GOLDSTONE REPORT!

Nov 09 10:53

Israel:A Return To The Middle Ages

When you read a news story saying that “the United Nations called on Israel to stop demolishing Palestinian homes and put an end to the policy of forced evictions in East Jerusalem, warning that there are 60,000 Palestinians threatened of becoming homeless,” you cannot but wonder about the role of the international organization today and about the goal for which it was created on the eve of the victory of the forces of freedom against Nazism and Fascism and whether it is the same organization authorized by history and the world’s peoples to guarantee the right to ‘self determination’?
Is it the same organization charged with “putting an end to colonialism”?

Nov 09 10:42

Rabbi’s Book:Israelis Can Kill Children, Women & Elders

The Goldstone report, which accuses Israel of committing war crimes against civilians in Gaza, was not folded yet till a book for one of the Israeli rabbis was issued permitting the killing of children, women, the elderly and the innocent of non-Jews in the necessities of war.

The book also accuses all nations of non-Jews of shedding the blood of Israelis and thus dealing with them on the basis of this opinion, which allows the killing of their children, women and their elders.

Shapira, head of the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva, also said in “The King’s Torah” that it is permissible to kill children if they pose a threat.

Nov 08 17:06

The CIA Mind Control Doctors: From Harvard to Guantanamo

The CIA Mind Control Doctors: From Harvard to Guantanamo
Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
by Colin A. Ross
The CIA Doctors, Military Mind Control
and Project Bluebird
My book, The CIA Doctors,[i] is based on 15,000 pages of documents I received from the CIA through the Freedom of Information Act and dozens of papers published in medical journals. These papers report the results of research funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Department of the Army, the Office of Naval Research and the CIA. From 1950 to 1972, the CIA funded TOP SECRET research at many leading universities including Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Johns Hopkins and Stanford. There was a series of CIA mind control programs including BLUEBIRD, ARTICHOKE, MKULTRA, MKSEARCH and MKNAOMI.

Nov 07 06:02

The Evil Empire

Another great Paul Craig Roberts piece!

Nov 06 20:30

Fort Hood: DoD Experimental PTSD Therapy Backfires?

Reposted (emphasis mine) from alexconstantine's blacklist.

[Major Hasan's] past training, paid for by the US Military, [was] at Virginia Tech University ... "...most likely” one of the US Department of Defenses top PSYOP training centers and where in April, 2007, it suffered the worst school massacre in US history....Even more interesting to note is that... [there] were three other “alleged” gunmen....

Major Hasan... [was] one of the originators of what is called the US Army's “Warrior Combat Reset Program” set up to help American soldiers ... [with PTSD], and which according to these reports led to his being at Fort Hood to “electronically prepare” an experimental group of US Soldiers for their return to the Iraq war zone....

So strong was the American Military and Intelligence establishments’ belief that only by “erasing” the previous “battle stained” memories of their Soldiers could they be made to continue killing and dying that in 2007 they contracted with Russia’s Psychotechnology Research Institute in Moscow to purchase a system [which] was used by the Soviet Military on Russian troops being redeployed to Afghanistan.

Unfortunately for the Americans, ... the previous Soviet experiments... had a very dangerous side-effect of “triggering immediate battle memories” instead of “erasing” them and resulting in masses of Russian troops ... to “erupt” in “immediate violence” which left an estimated 37 of them dead when they began (for no apparent reason) to begin firing upon each other....

Nov 06 15:54

Collateral Damage Is Murder

Collateral damage is nothing more than a euphemism for state-sponsored mass murder. It is the term given to people killed in military actions who were “not intentionally targeted.” In reality, this is pure propaganda. It has always been morally just to protect innocent people against aggressors. But, on the other hand, it has never been moral, nor has it ever been necessary, to bomb cities filled with innocent people.

Nov 06 08:05

UN Affirms Israeli-Hamas War Crimes Report

A 575-page blistering report by Justice Richard Goldstone detailing war crimes in Gaza last December is refusing to die despite an aggressive Israeli smear campaign to kill it.

The report, which was favorably voted by the 47-member Human Rights Council in Geneva last month, received overwhelming support Thursday in the 192-member General Assembly.

Webmaster's Commentary: 

"Maj. Malik Nidal Hasan Maj. Malik Nidal Hasan Maj. Malik Nidal Hasan Maj. Malik Nidal Hasan Maj. Malik Nidal Hasan Maj. Malik Nidal Hasan Maj. Malik Nidal Hasan Maj. Malik Nidal Hasan Maj. Malik Nidal Hasan Maj. Malik Nidal Hasan Maj. Malik Nidal Hasan Maj. Malik Nidal Hasan Maj. Malik Nidal Hasan Maj. Malik Nidal Hasan Maj. Malik Nidal Hasan !!!!!!!"
-- ABCNNBBCBS

Nov 06 05:55

Dick Cheney goes for the jugular

Like a horror movie monster, the former vice-president keeps coming back to sink his teeth into Obama's foreign policy

Nov 05 12:33

Italian court finds CIA agents guilty of kidnapping terrorism suspect

Twenty-three Americans were tonight convicted of kidnapping by an Italian court at the end of the first trial anywhere in the world involving the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" programme for abducting terrorist suspects.

Nov 05 12:15

U.S. dodges UN debate on Goldstone Gaza report

The United States on Wednesday openly eschewed a United Nations General Assembly debate on a resolution that would call on Israel and the Palestinians to investigate charges of war crimes during the Gaza war detailed in the Goldstone Commission's report.

Webmaster's Commentary: 

"We don;t see it, and we don;t hear it, and you can;t make us, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah!" -- Official White Horse Souse

Nov 05 12:00

Dear AIPAC Call-Girl

Dear AIPAC Call-Girl,
How does it feel to sell your soul for a shekel? Does it make you feel all tingly inside to know that you spat on an unbiased UN report which you,more than likely,never read?

Nov 05 10:49

M.A.D For Gaza

A 22-day assault on humanity was accumulated within 2,500 pages and declared null and void in less time than it takes one to finish mundane activities at home. 22-days of deadly air-strikes on civilian homes, UN buildings, schools, places of worship and even ambulances was spat on not only once but twice; Yesterday the United States Congress (i.e. AIPAC call-girls) called on the President and the Secretary of State to oppose unequivocally any endorsement or further consideration of the “Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict”. The vote was a heart-stopping 344 representatives asking for the Goldstone report to be opposed while only 36 stood in favor of further consideration of the report.

Nov 05 06:59

'Torture intelligence' criticised

The UK ambassador to Uzbekistan has criticised MI6 for using intelligence allegedly gained through torture, according to newspaper reports.

Nov 05 06:57

First blow to CIA's Renditions! 23 arrested by Italian Police.

An Italian judge found 23 Americans and two Italians guilty Wednesday in the kidnapping of an Egyptian terror suspect, delivering the first legal convictions anywhere in the world against people involved in the CIA's extraordinary renditions program...

Nov 05 03:50

Fox Flu Story Denied by White House

Critical of the reported decision of the administration to use scarce vaccine on detainees, Fox News launched a series of reports including one headlined "Pentagon: Gitmo Detainees to Receive H1N1 Vaccine, Despite White House Claim."

When White House spokesman Robert Gibbs denied the Fox report, that network responded by publishing Mr. Gibbs' denial in a report headlined "White House Responds to Report Terror Suspects Get Priority Treatment for H1N1 Virus."

Fox included a video clip and transcript, which reads:

WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY ROBERT GIBBS: There is no vaccine in Guantanamo, and there's no vaccine on the way to Guantanamo.

QUESTION: So the Pentagon was wrong when they confirmed that on Friday?

GIBBS: I — I don't know what the Pentagon said. I — I know, in asking yesterday, whether or not there was any vaccine there or whether there was any vaccine that was on its way, the answer to both those questions was — was no.

QUESTION: Is that because of the White House stopped it or...

GIBBS: No, that was because there wasn't any there, and there wasn't any on the way.

(*QUESTION: "I thought this administration has banned the use of torture in Guantanamo . Has that policy been reversed ?" )

Nov 04 17:00

General Assembly begins debate on UN rights probe into Gaza conflict

The General Assembly today began its debate on the report of the United Nations probe which found that both Israeli forces and Palestinian militants were guilty of serious human rights violations during the Gaza conflict earlier this year.

The report is the result of a three-month investigation, led by Justice Richard Goldstone, a former prosecutor at the UN war crimes tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and mandated by the UN Human Rights Council.

Webmaster's Commentary: 

INVOKE GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION 377!

Nov 04 15:17

Former UK ambassador: CIA sent people to be ‘raped with broken bottles’

The CIA relied on intelligence based on torture in prisons in Uzbekistan, a place where widespread torture practices include raping suspects with broken bottles and boiling them alive, says a former British ambassador to the central Asian country.

Webmaster's Commentary: 

I told you waterboarding wasn't the worst of it.