Saturday 23 July 2011

Kelly James Clark interviews Rami Elhanan

DateSaturday, July 23, 2011 at 8:45AM AuthorGilad Atzmon


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Saboteurs Target a Train Traveling from Aleppo to Damascus, Driver Martyred

Jul 24, 2011

HOMS, (SANA) - A group of saboteurs on Saturday targeted a train in al-Souda area in Homs at 03:00 am while it was traveling from Aleppo to Damascus with more than 480 passengers onboard most of them are children, women and patients who were traveling to undergo surgeries.
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SANA Correspondent mentioned that those terrorist groups loosed parts of the railway as the train derailed and its cabin was burnt and the driver was martyred while a number of the passengers were injured.
Official source: the sabotage act aimed at committing massacre against innocents
An official source at the Interior Ministry announced that the sabotage act aimed at committing a massacre against 480 innocent passengers traveling from Aleppo to Damascus.
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"The Ministry urges all citizens to cooperate with security and police apparatus to give any information available about the saboteurs and criminals who exploit and hide behind demonstrations to carry out terrorist acts that target civilians as well as damaging private and public properties," the source added.
It underlined that the authorities will firmly and decisively deal with those saboteurs.

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Homs Governor Ghassan Abdul-Al described the sabotage act as a heinous crime against a train which transports women, children and patients who were heading for Damascus for treatment.
In a statement to SANA, Abdul-Al referred to the existence of railroad pieces that were loosed by the saboteurs, clarifying that a freight train had crossed from an opposite direction from Homs to Aleppo before 1.00 a.m. when the railroad was safe and tight, adding this leads to the fact that sabotage happened between 1.00 and 3.00 a.m.

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About the motives of saboteurs to select this spot to commit their crime, the Governor said that the area of the incident is considered as an arch for the railways from a mechanical point of view, so any derail or sliding will be deadly, but the care of God has rescued that train.
He pointed out to the presence of tracks for motorcycles' tires near the bride that was selected to derail the train, particularly the road is very slippery here and might lead to a huge number of losses.

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Director of the Railways' General Establishment George Makaabari added that selecting this place to carry out the criminal act by saboteurs indicate their plot was targeting to kill all passengers, particularly they have loosed the links of the railroad and a number of beams to a distance of scores of meters.

R. al-Jazaeri / Mazen

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Norway attacks draw condemnation from pro-Palestinian organizations

[ 23/07/2011 - 05:11 PM ] 
BRUSSELS, (PIC)-- The twin attacks in Oslo that left some 90 dead have drawn strong condemnation by pro-Palestinian organizations on Saturday.
The Labor party youth retreat was a supporter of Palestinian rights and an end to the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip.
In a statement following Friday's shocking attack, the European campaign to end the siege on Gaza said that ''regardless of the identities of those involved in the attack, the bloodshed and intimidation of innocent people is an act condemnable on the utmost terms''.
The attacks ''could never be justified'' and were a ''violation of humanitarian principles and moral obligations'', the statement says.
The Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, whose headquarters was bombed in downtown Oslo, was hosted on Thursday in the island where the almost simultaneous shooting took place. One of the topics discussed there were issues concerning the Palestinians and ending the siege on the Gaza Strip, the ECESG said, adding that Palestinian flags and anti-siege banners fluttered at the camp.
Norwegian police have arrested and charged a suspect in the attacks. They said he was of Norwegian descent and that the crime was motivated by conservative racial ideologies.
Norway's pro-Palestinian foreign policy had received strong disapproval from Israel and its supporters in the country.
Also among those who condemned the attacks is the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network, which has 132 member organizations working in different developmental fields.
In a statement, the PNGO network sent condolences to the families of those killed in the attacks and wished speedy recovery for those who were injured.
The PNGO also wished for more ''stability, safety, and prosperity'' for Norway and its people.

91 Killed in Norway Explosion by “Native Christian Fundamentalist”
Local Editor
Two explosions took place on Norway youth camp and government headquarters killing at least 91 people, and Norway police said that initial investigations revealed that a “Christian fundamentalist” was behind the attack, but the reasons were not clarified yet.
Norway has not witnessed such an attack since decades.

However, it’s Premier Jens Stoltenberg said that “the country will emerge stronger from this cruel act of violence”.

“Never since the Second World War has our country been hit by a crime on this scale,” Stoltenberg said in a press conference, adding that the coming days will show who is responsible and what kind of punishment they will get.”


He said: “The message to whoever attacked us, the message from all of Norway is that you will not destroy us, you will not destroy our democracy and our ideals for a better world."

The police said that “the suspect was a 32-year-old Norwegian who had posted anti-Muslim rhetoric online”.

Furthermore, local media reports said that “the arrested suspect had links to right-wing extremists and possessed two weapons registered in his name”, and that “he described himself on his Facebook page as Conservative and Christian”.


Live witnesses said that “the attacker opened fire at first with an M16 after beckoning youngsters towards him”.


Source: AFP

23-07-2011 - 12:01 | 651 View

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Kelly James Clark interviews Nurit Peled-Elhanan

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Washington says PA should fight resistance to get money

 23/07/2011 - 05:58 AM 

New York, (PIC)-- Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the chairperson of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, has urged the White House not to extend a single penny to the PA in Ramallah until it totally bows to American orders and demands in fighting Palestinian resistance, Hebrew press revealed.

Ros-Lehtinen’s proposal came in reaction to the White House request tabled in the Congress to approve the release of 550 million dollars to the PA in Ramallah on condition that no Hamas member should work in the PA institutions and apparatuses.

On Wednesday, the committee started discussing a petition imposing conditions on the US assistance to Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen, and the PA, and to block those aids in the event "radical" groups against the US took power in those countries.

However, the committee left it to the US president to decide whether or not to continue funding those countries based on his evaluation to the interest of the US national security.
In a related matter, Palestinian citizens in Al-Khalil city, south of the West Bank, revolted against the PA security apparatuses policy of summoning citizens to police headquarters.
Tens of relatives of political prisoners in the PA jails in the West Bank gathered at Ibn Rushd Square chanting phrases against political detention and against arresting Palestinian women.

The crowds also vowed not to respect summonses by the PA security apparatuses, stressing that such abhorred policy must stop.

Few days ago, activists in the West Bank unleashed "I am not afraid" campaign on the internet to reject political detention and summonses by the PA security apparatuses, underlining that the PA security apparatuses couldn’t just suppress the freedom of the Palestinian people.

The crowds also urged the Palestinian people to reject oppression, underscoring that Palestinian people hadn’t and shouldn’t accept the arrest of Palestinian women.
"We wonder when would you join us and say no to the political detention and say no to oppression. Enough is enough; we need to restore our freedom. We were born free and we should remain free. It is about time for you Palestinian people to join us and say no to political summonses", the protesters said.

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Opinion Poll: Lebanon & the 'ill reputed' Hariri Tribunal

Via FLC

English summary of Beirut Center for Research and Information's latest poll on tribunal.
For Arabic version see http://www.al-akhbar.com/node/17126
1. Do you believe that the simultaneous release of the STL indictment along with the issuance of the ministerial statement was a coincidence or deliberate?

26.4% said it’s a coincidence
65.8% said it’s deliberate

2. In your opinion, do the leaks of the indictment’s contents 2 years ago in the western and Arab media cast doubt on the tribunal’s credibility?

63.5% said YES;
33% said NO

3. Did Daniel Bellemare, the STL Prosecutor, deal with the evidence provided by Seyyid Hassan Nasrallah in a professional manner?

26% YES,
60.5% NO

4. do you have confidence in the STL’s autonomy?

36.8% said YES,
60% said NO

5. do you believe that the tribunal should investigate the false witness issue before the trial?

70% said YES,
22.5% said NO

6. what are the objectives pursued by those who support the tribunal?

40.8% said justice,
54.3% said political gains

7. whom in your opinion stood most to gain from the assassination of Hariri

55.8% said Israel and/or US
13.8% said Hizbullah and/or Syria

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Ground your warplanes, save the Horn of Africa

by Ramzy Baroud, source

‘When you are hungry, cold is a killer, and the people here are starving and helpless.’ Not many of us can relate to such a statement, but millions of ‘starving and helpless’ people throughout the Horn of Africa know fully the pain of elderly Somali mother, Batula Moalim.

Moalim, quoted by the British Telegraph, was not posing as spokesperson to the estimated 11 million people (per United Nations figures) who are currently in dire need of food. About 440,000 of those affected by the world’s “worst humanitarian disaster” dwell in a state of complete despair in Dadaab, a complex of three camps in Kenya. Imagine the fate of those not lucky enough to reach these camps, people who remain chronically lacking in resources, and, in the case of Somalia, trapped in a civil war.
All that Batula Moalim was pleading for was “plastic sheeting for shelter, as well as for food and medicine.”

It is disheartening, to say the least, when such disasters don’t represent an opportunity for political, military or other strategic gains, subsequently, enthusiasm to ‘intervene’ peters out so quickly.
UN officials from the World Food Programme (WFP) are not asking for much: $500 million to stave off the effects of what is believed to be the worst drought to hit the Horn of Africa in 60 years. This is not an impossible feat, especially when one considers the geographic extent of the drought and creeping famine. Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya are all affected, and terribly so. Sudan and Eretria are also not far from the center of this encroaching disaster.

60 percent of the amount requested by WFP has already been raised. More is needed, however, especially as the reverberation of the drought is already surpassing the immediate need for food and shelter. Five million are already at risk of cholera in Ethiopia alone, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Hundreds have reportedly died, and many more are likely to follow.

Cholera requires an immediate remedy as the intestinal infection leads to sever diarrhea, dehydration and death. Other figures are equally grim. 8.8 million people, also in Ethiopia, are at risk of contracting malaria, according to Tarik Jasarevic, WHO spokesman. Jasarevic has also told journalists that these ailments have already been reported in Somalia, and other Ethiopian regions. This means the disaster is not confined to refugee camps and is thus much harder to control.

For refugees, there is nothing worse than having no safe haven in sight. Still, they must escape when death becomes the only alternative to aimless journeys. While hundreds of thousands are gathering in Kenya’s camps, an average of 1,700 Somali refugees venture to Ethiopia each day. The latter, a country with a population of about 85 million, is fully embroiled in the crisis. 4.5 million Ethiopians need assistance, a rise of over 50 percent in less than three months, according to WHO. One can only try to envisage the speed at which this disaster is unraveling.

International organizations, including WFP, WHO and UNICEF have made numerous appeals. Some major media outlets responded by giving the humanitarian crisis a degree of coverage. While donations have bashfully trickled in, the goals are yet to be reached. According to a report by the Telegraph, “no African country has offered a donation to help drought victims in the Horn of Africa outside of those affected.”

The report, published July 15, quoted Michael O’Brien-Onyeka, Oxfam’s Regional Campaigns Policy Manager for East and Central Africa, who said it was “disappointing” that “African states insist on ‘African solutions for African problems’ with regard to Libya but fail to respond to droughts and famines.”
On the subject of Libya, it may be helpful to consider some financial figures.

“The British Government has pledged £38 million in food aid to Ethiopia,” reported the Telegraph. The following day, British Daily Mirror reported on the seemingly different subject of Libya. Four more British jets were recently deployed to the war zone near Libya, raising the total to 22 RAF jets, according to James Lyons in the Mirror (July 16). The cost thus far is £260 million, only £40 million short of the total amount needed by the WFP to feed 11 million starving people.

Here is another example of the dubious nature of British involvement in the war on Libya (falsely slated as a war to prevent imminent massacres of civilians): “Tornado GR4s cost around £35,000 for every hour they are in the air and are having to fly long distances from their base in Gioia del Colle, southern Italy, to Libya,” according to the Mirror.

Major African countries and Britain are not the only parties involved in acts of duplicity. The US military adventurism in the Horn of African, especially Somalia, and its renewed use of costly unmanned drones can feed, cloth, shelter and treat countless refugees. More, Arab and Muslim countries tend to be the least responsive parties in such situations. While it is true that the chief of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu made several appeals for help, such singular calls generate feel-good moments but no major mobilization for action.

The disaster in the Horn of Africa is partly man-made. Countries with ‘failed states’ status (in other words, victims of outside interventions) cannot possibly fend off crises of this magnitude. For the last 20 years, Somalia has had no central government controlling the country’s territories. Outside intervention has made it impossible for any party to unite the disjointed country. What is a Somali refugee to do?

To help the millions disaffected by the multilayered disaster in the Horn of Africa, we need more than appeals for blankets and food stuff. We also need a degree of human decency and common sense. We need to re-channel some of the funds wasted on disastrous wars into actually saving lives. If warning parties would ground their Tornado GR4s and other warplanes for a few days, the single action alone could save the entire region.

For now, though, let us all do what we can to help the Horn of Africa survive this terrible ordeal.
(Click here to learn more and to help.)

- Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story (Pluto Press, London), available on Amazon.com.
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Friday 22 July 2011

IOA to confiscate 136 dunums of OJ land - Jewish settlers return to evacuated settlement

IOA to confiscate 136 dunums of OJ land
[ 22/07/2011 - 03:20 PM ] 

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has declared intention to confiscate 136 dunums of Palestinian land in occupied Jerusalem.
The organization and construction committee in the IOA-controlled Jerusalem municipality said that 102 dunums would be expropriated in the Ras Al-Amud and Wadi Qaddoum areas.
It said that another 34 dunums would be confiscated south of Silwan town.
Municipality teams escorted by security forces glued orders to that effect on houses in those districts.
Jewish settlers return to evacuated settlement
[ 22/07/2011 - 11:38 AM ] 
JENIN, (PIC)-- Jewish settlers returned to the evacuated settlement of Homesh, south of Jenin city, at dawn Friday and offered Talmudic rituals, as Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrived to the scene to provide protection for them.
Local sources said that the settlers spread in the olive groves between Burqa and Seelat Al-Dhaher villages.
Herds of settlers routinely storm the same area during which they attack Palestinian civilian property ever since Homesh was evacuated in 2005.
The IOF troops at dawn Friday stormed the Yamun village, west of Jenin city, and combed the area between it and Burkin village and intercepted farmers while on their sway to tend to their fields.

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The puzzle for Obama is how to help the 'Foggy Bottom' Syrian opposition gain power without foreign military intervention ...

FLC

"As the Obama administration steps up its support for regime change in Syria, the Arab Spring is moving into what could be its hottest phase. The puzzle is how to help the Syrian opposition gain power without foreign military intervention -- and without triggering sectarian massacres inside the country...
Clinton has left the door open slightly for reformers within the Assad regime.
Last Saturday in Istanbul, she urged "an opposition that can provide a pathway, hopefully in peaceful cooperation with the government, to a better future." The administration is closely monitoring "who in the current power structure might be amenable to a transition," says a senior White House official.
A second White House official summarizes the new approach this way: "The Assad ship is sinking. The most important thing is to get people to realize this, so that, hopefully, they will jump off the ship and get on the lifeboat." For the U.S., this means working with Syrian dissidents, and also with Turkey and other regional powers that can help broker change.
The administration wants to encourage the Syrian opposition inside the country to unite, develop a clear agenda and build an inclusive leadership. Leading that effort is Robert Ford, the U.S. ambassador in Damascus; an administration official describes him as a "vehicle for transition."...
A road map for the opposition was sketched in an interview by Radwan Ziadeh, a visiting scholar at George Washington University who closely follows the dissident groups...
The Syrian equation is shaped by two "X-factors." The first is whether the army will split, with influential officers moving away from the regime...The second wild card is sectarian violence between dissident Sunnis and the ruling Alawite minority. The latest grim warning came on Sunday and Monday, when the U.S estimates that 15 to 30 Syrians were killed in ethnic fighting in Homs. A White House official called those reports "really worrisome."
The strategic stakes are high in Syria partly because Assad is allying himself ever more closely with the stridently anti-Western regime in Iran. White House officials last week were circulating a news report that Iran had pledged $5.8 billion in emergency aid to Assad's regime. Tehran and Damascus may once have pretended that they supported the Arab Spring, but no longer. If Assad falls to citizen protest, the Iranians know they will be the next target..."

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Via FLC

"... But according to Baer, we ain't seen nothing yet.
There is almost "near certainty" that Netanyahu is "planning an attack [on Iran] ... and it will probably be in September before the vote on a Palestinian state. And he's also hoping to draw the United States into the conflict," Baer explained.
The Israeli air force would attack "Natanz and other nuclear facilities to degrade their capabilities. The Iranians will strike back where they can: Basra, Baghdad," he said, and even Afghanistan. Then the United States would jump into the fight with attacks on Iranian targets. "Our special forces are already looking at Iranian targets in Iraq and across the border [in Iran] which we would strike. What we're facing here is an escalation, rather than a planned out-and-out war. It's a nightmare scenario. We don't have enough troops in the Middle East to fight a war like that." He add, "I think we are looking into the abyss."
Masters asked Baer why the U.S. military is not mobilizing to stop this war from happening. Baer responded that the military is opposed, as is former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who used his influence to thwart an Israeli attack during the Bush and Obama administrations. But he's gone now and "there is a warning order inside the Pentagon" to prepare for war...
"The president is up for re-election next year" Blair pointed out, and Israel is "truly out of control."...
Actually, only one person matters: the president. If Israel bombed Iran tomorrow, Congress would forget all about their partisan differences and run, not walk, to the House and Senate floors to endorse the attack and call for unstinting support for Israel. That is what Congress always does, and will always do so long as the lobby (and the donors it directs) are the key players in making our Middle East policies.
And who knows what Obama would do? So far, he has not exactly distinguished himself when it comes to standing up to Netanyahu.
But an Israeli attack on Iran would be different. It would endanger countless Americans (in the region and here at home, too). It would kill off any economic recovery by causing oil prices to skyrocket. It would engulf us in another Middle East war. And it would threaten the existence of the state of Israel..."
 
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MP Fares: Even 300 Indictments Do Not Change Regional Balance

Hussein Assi
MP Marwan Fares to Al-Manar Website:

  • Accusing SSNP of Involvement in Assassinations Not Surprising
  • Saudi-American Scheme Targeting Resistance against Israel
  • Tribunal Does Not Seek Justice… Fulfills Israel’s Orders
  • 300 Indictments Will Change Nothing in Region’s Balance
  • Setting Preconditions for Dialogue Baseless… Arms Divine
  • Opposition Does Not Seek Lebanon’s Interest; Wants Power
Member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) parliamentary bloc MP Marwan Fares said that the accusations launched against his party of involvement in some assassinations that hit Lebanon throughout the last few years were not surprising, since the SSNP took part in the Resistance against the Zionist enemy. He spoke in this context of a linked Saudi-American scheme seeking to get rid of the Resistance in the region.

In an exclusive interview with Al-Manar Website, MP Fares did not rule out the possibility of adding the SSNP to the list of targets of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. He said all national figures were potential suspects and targets. He reiterated that the international tribunal was politicized, and that it was not seeking justice but is carrying out Israeli resolutions.

While welcoming the initiative of President Michel Sleiman to re-vivify the national dialogue, Fares criticized March 14 forces over the conditions they are setting to take part in the dialogue process. He also condemned March 14’s call for the participation of the Arab League in a dialogue that does not concern it.

He expressed belief that the government will make achievements, and said that the opposition did not seek Lebanon’s interest, and that all what it wants is to return to power.

RESISTANCE ARMS NOT DISCUSSION TOPIC

MP Marwan Fares told Al-Manar Website that the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) supports the initiative of President Michel Sleiman as well as Speaker Nabih Berri to re-vivify the national dialogue. He said that dialogue was the only alternative for the current political differences.

Yet, Fares stressed the necessity to put clear and transparent standards for dialogue. He pointed in this context to the importance of backing the Resistance and its arms. He rejected March 14’s claims that dialogue aimed at discussing the fate of the Resistance arms. “This issue is settled since the first dialogue version,” Fares recalled. “It is not a topic for discussion. Now, the dialogue aims at reaching an agreement on national rules to protect Lebanon from any potential Israeli aggression.”

SETTING PRECONDITIONS… DENIAL OF DIALOGUE PRINCIPLE

MP Fares rejected the preconditions set by the March 14 forces to take part in the dialogue, such as their announcement that their participation in the dialogue hinges on putting the Resistance’s arms under the control of the State within a certain timeframe, alongside Hezbollah’s approval, before the dialogue launch. He said that productive and effective dialogue cannot have preconditions, and stressed that whoever speaks about conditions does not really want dialogue. “Such rhetoric is in itself a denial of the dialogue’s principle,” he said. “As long as the Resistance arms are divine and protect Lebanon, there are no possible conditions for dialogue. Those who set conditions are in facts the ones connected to a foreign American policy, not a national and internal one.”

Fares also found strange the call made by the March 14 forces for the Arab League participation in the Lebanese national dialogue. He questioned the usefulness of such participation, given the Arab League’s absolute absence from the dramatic developments in the Arab region. “Even more, the Arab League has nothing to do with Lebanese internal issues,” he said, as he announced his party’s refusal for any foreign meddling in the Lebanese affairs.

OPPOSITION… POWER LOSERS

Asked about the many challenges awaiting the Lebanese government, Fares noted that the formation of this government was in itself an achievement in the face of the American policy in the region, given that the Americans, alongside the March 14 political bloc, were against its formation. “They refused all proposals to take part in the government,” he recalled.

Fares, who declared absolute support for the government headed by Prime Minister Najib Miqati, said that it has started to make achievements. However, he expected achievements to increase during the upcoming phase, in the interest of the Lebanese people and not the party that has ruled the country throughout the last few years and implicated the country in unnumbered debts.
Commenting on the opposition’s plans to topple the new government with all possible means, Fares said the main problem of this opposition was that it was “power loser”. He explained that its constituents did not seek Lebanon’s interest. “All what they want is to return to power,” he stressed. “We witnessed catastrophes under their rule. We don’t want history to repeat itself.”

ALL NATIONALS ARE TARGETS

Answering a question about the repercussions of the indictment in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and whether the Lebanese have overcome the storm, Fares pointed to the latest speech of Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah in which he assured to all his supporters that the indictment’s plot will go in vain. “Three hundred indictments, and not only one, will fail in changing the balance,” he noted.
Fares reiterated that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon was a politicized tribunal that yields to the American and Israeli policies. “This tribunal is seeking to take the place of the new Middle East, announced by former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in July 2006,” he pointed out.

The SSNP lawmaker, meanwhile, pointed to a report, published earlier this month by a Saudi unknown paper, claiming that his party was involved in many assassinations that hit the country during the last few years. “Accusing the SSNP was not surprising for us because we took part in the resistance project against Israel,” he said. He spoke in this context of a linked Saudi-American scheme seeking to get rid of the Resistance in the region.

Fares did not rule out the possibility of adding the SSNP to the list of the targets of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. He said all national figures were potential suspects and targets. He reiterated that the international tribunal was not seeking justice but carrying out Israeli resolutions. He wondered about the reasons preventing the tribunal of seriously considering the Israeli logical involvement in the crime.
Source: Website Team
22-07-2011 - 10:

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More Trouble in Murdoch World


So, Murdoch is taking a more proactive approach to stop the bleeding. But will it work? postulates Mike Whitney
 Foreword by Debbie Menon
The Mainstream Press and TV misinformation services in general are doing their best to create the image or the public concept that this is a simple scandal of “hacking” into private and personal affairs, prying, so to speak. It was NOT!

It was a criminal act of warrantless wiretapping telephones in order to get information, an illegal activity punishable by a prison sentence and, in this instance, involving a Newspaper, possible loss of the newspapers license to publish, as well as imprisonment of those involved or accessories to the facts.
We must not let the public begin to believe that what Rupert’s gang at News of the World did was “hacking,” which most people regard as a harmless computer prank by kids. It was “wiretapping” of telephones, which is a felony offense in most countries, and most definitely so in the UK.
I notice there is no one named to the Investigatory Panel who has a degree or background in the legal Profession who might make a distinction between unsociable snooping, or “Hacking,” and illegal criminal activity, “Wiretapping.”

I also note that in none of the discussion in MSM is the possibility of “wiretapping,” or the actual word employed. We should not let the public forget this, or be misled by the MSM!
Mr. Cameron is simply another small part of the cover-up.

Stu Littlewood puts it nicely “…. and Murdoch Is Not The Only Maggot In The Rotten Apple ” in the barrel, but the entire rest of the barrel are also just as rotten, every last one of them. What anyone can say about Murdoch holds as true or even truer for the rest of the mainstream media, BBC, CNN et al who if Murdoch is targeted and put on the sinking ship will have to scurry for cover.
“Rupert Murdoch is the last of a dying breed: An old-fashioned press baron, a tough businessman with ink running through his veins, a hefty checkbook, and a hunger for the next big story. ” — reports CNN

Rubbish! Old-fashioned Press Baron ? He is nothing more than another run of the mill piratical power broker who has amassed a great media empire as a tool to meddle and peddle his Ares, influence and blackmail. There is a vast difference between a Baron and a Brigand.
He and his kind have killed all of the old “Press Barons,” who were not much better.

See: Rupert Murdoch Has Gamed American Politics Every Bit as Thoroughly as Britain’s
UK leaders say Rupert Murdoch’s empire has “entered the criminal underworld”
Yeah, he is behind and deeply involved in a lot of criminal activity… but you can bet he has legal cover which gives him absolute denial, and you will find his finger prints on nothing.

He obviously has an entire army full of Becky Brook’s to take the heat and the rap, and he will throw them under buses wherever and whenever necessary. And, he can do valuable work for some very important and even more powerful people than he is, which makes him a valuable asset in certain quarters. He has friends. He has money. Money equals POWER.

With a good wife, like Wendy, a man might be reformed. But, with a shrewd and ambitious wife, like her, it is more likely that she would simply feed and fan his fires or greed and ambition onward and downward to greater and greater depths of suppression, success and excesses of exploitation and power.

“As the phone hacking investigation widens, the effort to revise media ownership rules is bound to gain pace. But Murdoch can’t be bothered about things like that now. He’s got more important matters to attend to, like putting out the fire that’s threatening to consume more of his properties. What he’s focused on is crisis management and “getting ahead of the curve” so he’s not dragged around by events like he has been up-to now. That’s why he’s launched an impressive Mea Culpa campaign wherein two of his chief lieutenants have resigned (on Friday), Murdoch has personally (and publicly) apologized to the family of Millie Dowler, and News Corp. has published two full-page ads in many of their Saturday and Sunday newspapers stating in bold print: “WE ARE SORRY”. …. “We are sorry for the serious wrongdoing that occurred…..We are deeply sorry for the hurt suffered by the individuals affected.” (etc) signed Rupert Murdoch.
“Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.”
“So, Murdoch is taking a more proactive approach to stop the bleeding. But will it work?” postulates Mike Whitney:

Rupert Murdoch’s troubles keep piling up

 by Mike Whitney
 On Friday, Labor leader Ed Miliband called for a break-up of the Murdoch empire saying, “I think he has too much power over British public life…..We’ve got to look at the situation whereby one person can own more than 20 percent of the newspaper market….I think it’s unhealthy.”

Miliband has a good grasp of public sentiment, which is why his personal approval ratings have soared in the last few weeks. His comments reflect a fundamental change in attitudes about media ownership following revelations about Millie Dowler, the 13-year old murder victim whose phone messages were hacked by investigators employed by Murdoch. The public now understands that the concentration of media has led to terrible abuses that need to be corrected. As the phone hacking investigation widens, the effort to revise media ownership rules is bound to gain pace.

But Murdoch can’t be bothered about things like that now. He’s got more important matters to attend to, like putting out the fire that’s threatening to consume more of his properties. What he’s focused on is crisis management and “getting ahead of the curve” so he’s not dragged around by events like he has been up-to now. That’s why he’s launched an impressive Mea Culpa campaign wherein two of his chief lieutenants have resigned (on Friday), Murdoch has personally (and publicly) apologized to the family of Millie Dowler, and News Corp. has published two full-page ads in many of their Saturday and Sunday newspapers stating in bold print: “WE ARE SORRY”. …. “We are sorry for the serious wrongdoing that occurred…..We are deeply sorry for the hurt suffered by the individuals affected.” (etc) signed Rupert Murdoch.

“Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.”

So, Murdoch is taking a more proactive approach to stop the bleeding. But will it work? His first big test will be on July 19, when he and his son James appear before the Select Committee in Parliament to answer questions related to the phone hacking controversy. We expect the usually-abrasive Murdoch to be on his best behavior doing whatever is required to put the flap behind him.

But the crisis won’t end with these preliminary hearings. In fact, there’s little Murdoch can do to stop the drip, drip, drip of new revelations. Already there’s talk of “break ins” and “phone tapping”, although, so far, the claims have not been substantiated. What is certain, though, is that Murdoch Inc. is going to be under a microscope for a long time to come. And, that’s going to be very bad for advertising revenues and stock prices.

So what will the investigation uncover?

Well, first of all, there’s the question of criminal wrongdoing. Is there proof? This is from Reuters:
“News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks was warned by police in 2002 about serious malpractice and possible illegal activities by reporters at a newspaper she edited, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Wednesday….

“As early as 2002 senior police officers at Scotland Yard met the now chief executive of News International and informed her of serious malpractice on the part of her newspaper staff and criminals undertaking surveillance on their behalf,” Brown told parliament on Wednesday.” (“Police told News Corps Brooks of malpractice: Brown, Reuters)

Okay, so who knew the phone hacking was going on and how high up the chain of command does it go? All the way to Murdoch?

If so, then was phone hacking company policy? These questions have to be answered.

Here’s a tidbit from the Hindustan Times:
“….a steady stream of revelations over the last few years suggest that reporters at the News of the World illegally hacked into the phones of upto 4,000 people, checking on their voice-mails and perhaps, listening to their conversations. The list of those whose phones were hacked (often by private detectives working on behalf of the paper) included politicians, sports stars, actors, other journalists and anybody else who happened to be in the news at the time…..

If it is wrong to hack or tap phones or carry transcripts of the private conversations (as the current mood of outrage suggests) then let’s also accept that this is a fairly common and widespread practice. Reporters often tap phones or secretly tape conversations. Newspapers hack into computers and obtain access to bank data and personal financial information. They carry taped conversations without verifying their accuracy or testing the tapes for evidence of tampering….

In Britain, there is also a little discussed kind of journalism called the ‘dark arts’ in which journos hire actors to impersonate people on the phone to obtain information or pretend to be somebody else to con people into talking to them….” (“When the whip comes down on tabloids”, Hindustan Times)

So, Murdoch is just the tip of the iceberg?

Apparently so. But if that’s the case, then isn’t time the public found out how widespread these intrusions into their privacy really are? And don’t people have the right to know whether the media is gathering information legally or not? That seems pretty basic.

There’s an interesting article in The Nation titled “Has Roger Ailes Hacked American Phones for Fox News?” by Leslie Savan that brings these questions more into focus. Here’s an excerpt:
Dan Cooper was one of the people who helped create the Fox News channel with Roger Ailes, and was fired in 1996. In 2008, Cooper wrote on his website that David Brock (now head of Media Matters) had used him as an anonymous, on-background-only source for an Ailes profile he was writing for New York magazine. Before the piece was published, on November 17, 1997, Cooper claims that his talent agent, Richard Leibner, told him he had received a call from Ailes, who identified Cooper as a source, and insisted that Leibner drop him as a client–or any client reels Leibner sent Fox would pile up in a corner and gather dust. Cooper continued:
“I made the connections. Ailes knew I had given Brock the interview. Certainly Brock didn’t tell him. Of course. Fox News had gotten Brock’s telephone records from the phone company, and my phone number was on the list.
Roger Ailes with Rupert M
Deep in the bowels of 1211 Avenue of the Americas, News Corporation’s New York headquarters, was what Roger called the Brain Room. Most people thought it was simply the research department of Fox News. But unlike virtually everybody else, because I had to design and build the Brain Room, I knew it also housed a counterintelligence and black ops office. So accessing phone records was easy pie.” (“Has Roger Ailes Hacked American Phones for Fox News?” Leslie Savan, The Nation)

If Savan is right, then the other major media are probably involved in similar activities. But doesn’t that suggest that media is not really a “watchdog of power” at all, but rather a threat to the public interest? After all, no one knows how this information is being used. It could be that ownership is using the information to blackmail politicians or to eliminate political enemies. Is that why so many congressmen have decided not to run for another term in the 2012 elections, because someone in the media has dirt on them that would turn them into the next Anthony Wiener or John Edwards?

Lastly, here’s a blurb from another article in The Nation titled “Sky Falls on Rupert Murdoch”:
“…widening revelations of the phone-hacking scandal show, News Corporation is not an ordinary commercial enterprise. Through his journalists and gossip columnists and the network of former and current police officers and law enforcement officials on his payroll, Rupert Murdoch has been operating what amounts to a private intelligence service. And the threat of personal exposure—on the front page of the Sun or Page Six in the Post—gives News Corporation a kind of leverage over inquisitive regulators or troublesome politicians wielded by no other company on earth.

English already has the expression “para-state” to describe the kind of shadowy forces that operate beneath and behind legitimate authority. Is it really unreasonable to suggest that in News Corporation, Fox, News International, Sky and the rest of Murdoch’s empire, we are witnessing the exposure of the para-corporation?” ( “Sky Falls on Rupert Murdoch”, D.D. Guttenplan, The Nation)

Repeat: “Rupert Murdoch has been operating what amounts to a private intelligence service.”
Uh-huh.

The firestorm in the UK is not really about phone hacking at all. It’s about Corporate fiefdoms and unelected oligarchs who control the flow of information and use that power to their own advantage. The longer the investigation goes on, the better for everyone. Transparency is the best disinfectant.

Mike Whitney graduated from St. Michael’s College in English Lit in 1975. Currently, he is Program Director of the Snohomish County Democrats but, he admits that his interest in politics only began with the appointment of GW Bush as President. Like many other regular Americans, he has understood from the very beginning the global aspirations of the Cabal that presently occupies 1600 Pennsylvania Ave and the threat they pose to the world. It is a threat that is as real and as far reaching as any we have seen since the rise of Fascism in 1930s Germany (The author’s description of himself). He lives in Washington state. He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com
Source :Information Clearing House“and “The Nation

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Christian Zionists embrace the very people who call Jesus "Hitler of Bethlehem"

[ 21/07/2011 - 10:18 AM ]
  By Khalid Amayreh in occupied Jerusalem

As many as 5000 Christian Zionists gathered this week at the Convention Center in Washington, D.C. for the annual conference of the organization CUFI, Christians United For Israel.

The annual event is considered a key occasion when Christian supporters of Israel reassert their nearly hysterical embrace of the Zionist apartheid regime, including the policies of ethnic cleansing of non-Jews (Muslims and Christians), lebensraum, and even its genocidal designs.

Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu addressed the evangelical conference, telling the huge audience that "when you support Israel, you don’t have to choose between your interests and your values, you get both.."

Netanyahu, like most other Israeli leaders, is a pathological liar who lies as often as he breathes oxygen. He knows deep in his heart that what Israel has been doing and the way it has been behaving ever since its birth 63 years ago represents the ultimate contradiction to true Christian values, the values that Jesus preached and because of which he incurred the wrath of the Jewish establishment of his time.

One of the most enthusiastic Zionist Christian supporters of Israel is Glen Beck, a tomfool par excellence, who would do anything in order to obtain a kosher certificate of good conduct from the very same people who would view Beck himself a slave, and his mother, daughter and sister as Shiksas or whores.

The news commentator, who visited Israel a few days ago in order demonstrate his Zionist credentials, sounded very much as if he was a Kahana disciple.

Meir Kahana is the Judeo-Nazi rabbi and former Knesset member who urged Israel to carry out a genocidal ethnic cleansing of its non-Jewish population and subjects in order to create a goyem-free Talmudic theocracy.

"Jews have been chased out of every corner of this planet, enough is enough," Beck was quoted as saying. He added that new states can be established, but not at the expense of other states, and that Israel is historically the land of the Jews.

Beck utterly ignored the all too clear historical fact that Palestine had been known as the Land of Canaan long before the appearance of Abraham, the common forefather of both Adnani or northern Arabs and early Israelites. Likewise, he also ignored the fact that Arabs and Muslims had lived in Palestine uninterruptedly since time immemorial, certainly longer, I would say much longer, than Jews ever did.

In an outburst of hysteria and childish emotionality, Beck tried to outdo himself by claiming himself a Jew.

"When we see Israelis not as part of us, we can move to the next level as human beings. Let us declare 'I am a Jew,' they can't kill all of us."

Well, I am afraid I have bad news for Beck and his ilk. They are not viewed as bona fide human beings, but as donkeys, yes donkeys, by the very people they grovel in humility at their feet.

The former Chief Rabbi of Israel, Ovadia Yosef, recently declared that the only reason Beck and all other non-Jews were to serve Jews. The very same message had been brazenly told by none other than Menachem Shneerson, the celebrated Chabad lubavitch, without having the sheepish Americans raise their eyebrows.

Another rabbi by the name of Yitzhak Ginsburgh has been quoted as saying that it is moral for a Jew to murder non-Jews and steal his heart or liver if he needs one.

"As for the Goyem, Gentile souls are of a completely different and inferior order. They are totally evil with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

"If a Jew needs a liver, can you take a liver of an innocent non-Jew passing by to save him? The Torah would probably permit that. Jewish life has infinite value, he explained. There is something infinitely more holy and unique about Jewish life than non-Jewish life." (See the Jewish Week, New York, also Haaretz-1996).

Incidentally, this is the very same rabbi who recently published a book entitled the King's Torah in which he argued that the Torah and Talmud allow the murder of innocent children of non-Jews during war time on the ground that saving Jewish soldiers' lives overrides and takes priority over maintaining non-Jewish lives however innocent these may be.

Christian Zionists are really blind at heart. The fact they prevent themselves from seeing the truth suggests that we are talking about a bunch of psychotic people who are thoroughly intoxicated by their monomaniac fanaticism and blinded by their shocking ignorance.

They would just go to any extent to prove their loyalty and allegiance to the very people who, whenever uttering the name Jesus, recites the following blasphemous refrain: May his name be damned, may his memory be erased.

When Beck was in Israel, he was confronted with one Likud member, who told the Christian Zionist imbecile straight in the eye, "your God is not my God, and your country is not my country."

I know it is utterly useless to appeal to reason, even to religious or simple human decency, when arguing with Christian Zionist fanatics, as one would get the impression that these people must have substituted the universal message of love which Jesus preached with the message of hate, death and racism, as practiced by Jewish Nazism.

How can one possibly do so when these pseudo Christian zealots firmly believe that every Jewish terrorist, who may have just set a church or mosque in the West Bank on fire or spat on a Christian clergyman walking in the streets of occupied Jerusalem, represent the Almighty?

I challenge these phony evangelicals to approach their Zionist masters and lovers and ask them to stop calling Jesus, the son of Satan, and Hitler of Bethlehem. I urge them to so gently ask the Merkaz Harav Talmudic College to stop teaching Chesronot Shas which tells us in Gittin 57 that Jesus is boiling in hell in hot excrement and semen, which is his curse for questioning the Jewish authority.

Indeed, instead of inciting hatred toward the very people who, whenever uttering Jesus' name, they so solemnly and respectfully say "may peace be upon him," these brainwashed Zionist Christian fanatics should ask their Jewish bedfellows to stop referring to Jesus as the son of a prostitute and a Roman soldier, who learned witchcraft in Egypt and who beguiled Jews to worship him as an idol. (See similar beliefs in Shabbath104b and in Sanhedrin106a).

True Christians don't side with oppressors against the oppressed. True Christians don't support land theft, ethnic cleansing and terrorism, regardless of the perpetrators and victims. True Christians pride themselves on being loving, tolerant and peace makers.

But Christian Zionists are not true Christians even if they claim to be. This is why they embrace a manifestly evil state that murders, steals and lies, a state that is more in sync with Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin and their ideals than it is with Jesus Christ and his universal message of love and compassion.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Israel’s war on nonviolent protest

Israel’s crushing of nonviolent protest will leave
violence as the only remaining option.
Jonathan Cook

It was a Palestinian legislator who made the most telling comment to the Israeli parliament last week as it passed the boycott law, which outlaws calls to boycott Israel or its settlements in the occupied territories.
Ahmed Tibi asked:
“What is a peace activist or Palestinian allowed to do to oppose the occupation? Is there anything you agree to?”

The boycott law is the latest in a series of ever-more draconian laws being introduced by the far right. The legislation’s goal is to intimidate those Israeli citizens, Jews and Palestinians, who have yet to bow down before the majority-rule mob.

Look out in the coming days and weeks for a bill to block the work of Israeli human rights organizations trying to protect Palestinians in the occupied West Bank from abuses by the Israeli army and settlers; and a draft law investing a parliamentary committee, headed by the far right, with the power to veto appointments to the high court. The court is the only, and already enfeebled, bulwark against the right’s absolute ascendancy.

Watershed law

The boycott law, backed by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, marks a watershed in this legislative assault in two respects.

First, it knocks out the keystone of any democratic system: the right to free speech. The new law makes it illegal for Israelis and Palestinians to advocate a nonviolent political program — boycott — to counter the ever-growing power of the half a million Jewish settlers living on stolen Palestinian land.

As the Israeli commentator Gideon Levy observed, the floodgates are now open: “Tomorrow it will be forbidden to call for an end to the occupation [or for] brotherhood between Jews and Arabs.”

Equally of concern is that the law creates a new type of civil, rather than criminal, offense. The state will not be initiating prosecutions. Instead, the job of enforcing the boycott law is being outsourced to the settlers and their lawyers. Anyone backing a boycott can be sued for compensation by the settlers themselves, who — again uniquely — need not prove they suffered actual harm.

Under this law, opponents of the occupation will not even be dignified with jail sentences and the chance to become prisoners of conscience. Rather, they will be quietly bankrupted in private actions, their assets seized either to cover legal costs or as punitive damages.

Human rights lawyers point out that there is no law like this anywhere in the democratic world. Even Eyal Yinon, the naturally conservative legal adviser to the parliament, assessed the law’s aim as stopping a “discussion that has been at the heart of political debate in Israel for more than forty years.” But more than half of Israelis back it, with only 31 percent opposed.

A delusional, self-pitying worldview

The delusional, self-pitying worldview that spawned the boycott law was neatly illustrated this month in a short video “ad” that is supported, and possibly financed, by Israel’s hasbara, or propaganda, ministry. Fittingly, it is set in a psychotherapist’s office.

A young, traumatized woman deciphers the images concealed in the famous Rorschach test. As she is shown the ink blots, her panic and anger grow. Gradually, we come to realize, she represents vulnerable modern Israel, abandoned by friends and still in profound shock at the attack on her navy’s commandos by the “terrorist” passengers aboard last year’s aid flotilla to Gaza.

Immune to reality — that the ships were trying to break Israel’s punitive siege of Gaza, that the commandos illegally boarded the ships in international waters, and that they shot dead nine activists execution-style — Miss Israel tearfully recounts that the world is “forever trying to torment and harm [us] for no reason.” Finally she storms out, saying: “What do you want — for [Israel] to disappear off the map?”

The video — released under the banner “Stop the provocation against Israel” — was part of a campaign to discredit the recent follow-up flotilla from Greece. The solidarity mission was abandoned after Greek authorities, under Israeli pressure, refused to let the convoy sail for Gaza.

Israel’s siege mentality asserted itself again days later as international activists staged another show of solidarity — the “Welcome to Palestine” campaign. Hundreds tried to fly to Israel on the same day, declaring their intention to travel to the occupied West Bank. The goal was to highlight that Israel both controls and severely restricts access to the occupied territories and to Palestinians.

Proving precisely the protesters’ point, Israel threatened airlines with retaliation if they carried the activists and it massed hundreds of soldiers at Ben Gurion airport to greet arrivals. Some 150 peaceful protesters who reached Israel were arrested moments after landing.

Echoing the deranged sentiments of the woman in the video, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, denounced the various solidarity direct actions as “denying Israel’s right to exist” and a threat to its security.

Rebellion against ghettoization of Palestine

In reality, however, the surge in flotilla activity reflects not an attack on Israel but a growing appreciation by international groups that Israel is successfully sealing off from the world the small areas of the occupied territories left to Palestinians. The flotillas are a rebellion against the Palestinians’ rapid ghettoization.

Although Netanyahu’s comments sound delusional, there may be a method to the madness of measures like the boycott law and the hysterical overreaction to the flotillas.

These initiatives, as Tibi points out, leave no room for nonviolent opposition to the occupation. Arundhati Roy, the award-winning Indian writer, has noted that nonviolence is essentially “a piece of theatre. [It] needs an audience. What can you do when you have no audience?”

Netanyahu and the Israeli right understand this point. They are carefully dismantling every platform on which dissident Israelis, Palestinians and international activists hope to stage their protests. They are making it impossible to organize joint peaceful and nonviolent resistance, whether in the form of boycotts or solidarity visits. The only way being left open is violence.

Is this what the Israeli right wants, believing both that it will confirm to Israelis’ their paranoid fantasies as well as offering a justification to the world for entrenching the occupation?

Netanyahu appears to believe that, by generating the very terror he claims to be trying to defeat, he can safeguard the legitimacy of the Jewish state — and destroy any hope of a Palestinian state being created.

Jonathan Cook won this year’s Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His latest books are Israel and the Clash of Civilisations:
Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East (Pluto Press) and Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair (Zed Books). His website is www.jkcook.net.

A version of this article originally appeared in The National (www.thenational.ae), published in Abu Dhabi.


River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian