Archive
What of the white Man’s Religion – Christianity?
Posted on August 29, 2012 by Akashma Online News
Excerpt of I Write What I like Steve Biko Writings published first in 1978 by Bowerdean Publishing Company, Ltd. and The University of Chicago Press.
It seems the people involved in imparting Christianity to the black people steadfastly refuse to get rid of the rotten foundation which many of the missionaries created when they came. To this date black people find no message for them in the bible simply because our ministers are still too busy with moral trivialities. they blow these up as the most important things that Jesus had to say to people. They constantly urge the people to find fault in themselves and by so doing detract from the essence of the struggle in which the people are involved. Deprived of spiritual content, the black people read the bible with a gullibility that is shocking. While they sing in a chorus of “mea culpa” they are joined by white groups who sing a different version – “tua culpa”.
the anachronism of a well-meaning God who allows people to suffer continually under an obviously immoral system is not lost to young blacks who continue to drop out of Church by the hundreds. Too many people are involved in religion for blacks to ignore. Obviously the only path open for us now is to redefine the message in the bible and to make it relevant to the struggling masses. The bible must rather preach that it is a sin to allow oneself to be oppressed. The black man to keep him going in his long journey towards realization of the self. This is the message implicit in “black theology”. Black theology seeks to do away with spiritual poverty of the black people.”It seeks to demonstrate the absurdity of the assumption by whites that “ancestor worship” was necessarily a superstition and that Christianity is a scientific religion. While basing itself on the Christian message, black theology seeks to show that Christianity is an adaptable religion that fits in with the cultural situation of the people to whom it is imparted. Black theology seeks to depict Jesus as a fighting God who saw the exchange of Roman money – the oppressor’s coinage – in His Father’s temple as so sacrilegious that it merited a violent reaction from Him – Son of Man.
Thus in all fields “Black consciousness” seek to talk to the black man in a language that is his own. It is only by recognizing the basic set-up in the black world that one will come to realize the urgent need to a re-awakening of the sleeping masses. Black consciousness seeks to do this. Needless to say it shall have to be the black people themselves who shall take care of this programme for indeed Sekou Toure was right when he said:
“To take part in the African Revolution, it is not enough to write a revolutionary song; you must fashion the revolution with the people. And if you fashion it with the people, the song will come by themselves and of themselves. In order to achieve real action you must yourself be a living part of Africa and of her thought; you must be an element of that popular energy which is entirely called forth for the freeing, the progress and the happiness of Africa. There is no place outside that fight for the artist or for the intellectual who is not himself concerned with, and completely at one with the people in the great battle of Africa and of Suffering humanity.” by Frank Talk/Steve Biko
Ps: Founded in 1984 in South Africa, Frank Talk is a political journal whose genealogy is rooted in the student-led anti-apartheid movement of the 1970s and 80s. Originally the pseudonym under which Steve Biko wrote several articles as the Publications Director of the South African Students’ Organization (SASO), Frank Talk became the title of the journal published by The Azanian People’s Organization (AZAPO), a nationalist group committed to Biko’s ideas of Black Consciousness.
Biko’s prolific SASO writings were published in early volumes of Frank Talk, and throughout its history the journal remained committed to the Black Consciousness ideology responsible for mobilizing student-led anti-apartheid resistance. Exploring the theory of Black Consciousness and related issues of race and racism, theology, culture and revolution, Frank Talk became a platform for rigorous political analysis of the frustrations and problems of black students and black people generally. Available in both Afrikaans and English, several issues of the journal were banned for distribution by South Africa’s apartheid government. The last issue of Frank Talk was published in 1990.
Occupied Tibet
Posted on August 29, 2012 by Akashma Online News
Occupied Tibet: The Case in International Law
In the summer of 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. This, however, did not result in Kuwait’s loss of sovereignty due to a United States lead worldwide coalition which promptly mobilized to expel the invading forces. In 1980, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, faced years of international outcry and fighting with U.S. backed guerrillas, and finally under great international pressure pulled out in 1985. In 1949, China invaded Tibet, and by 1996 Tibet remains an occupied country. An estimated 1.2 million Tibetans have perished as a result of more than 40 years of occupation and the cultural genocide in Tibet continues unabated, as the world’s governments stand by, virtually without action.
Is this difference in the world’s response to the occupation of Tibet justified based on differences in the legal status of Tibet, Kuwait and Afghanistan before invasion. An examination of pertinent international law reveals that the answer is negative. Tibet, like these other nations, was a sovereign state, prior to its invasion and annexation. As such it is entitled to govern itself. It’s legal claim of sovereignty is based on both territorial integrity and the right to self-determination. This article will examine each in turn.
I. TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY
1. Historical PerspectiveWhile China claims that Tibet has always been a part of China, Tibet has in fact a history of at least 1300 years of independence from China. In A.D. 821 China and Tibet ended almost 200 years of fighting with a treaty engraved on three stone pillars, one of which surprisingly still stands in front of the Jokhan cathedral in Lhasa. The treaty reads in part:
” Both Tibet and China shall keep the country and frontiers of which they are now possessed. The whole region to the East of that being the country of Great China and the whole region to the West being assuredly the country of Great Tibet, from either side there shall be no warfare, no hostile invasions, and no seizure of territory…..And in order that this agreement establishing a great era when Tibetans shall be happy in Tibet and Chinese shall be happy in China shall never be changed, the Three Jewels, the body of Saints, the sun and the moon, planets and stars have been invoked as witnesses.”
In the 13th and 14th centuries both China and Tibet came under the influence of the Mongol empire. China claims today that Tibet and China during that time became one country by virtue of the Mongols domination of both nations. In evaluating this claim it must first be remembered that virtually all of Asia was dominated by the Mongols under Kublai Khan and his successors, who ruled the largest empire in human history. Secondly the respective relationships between the Mongols and the Tibetans and between the Mongols and the Chinese must be examined. These two relationships were not only radically different in nature but they also started and ended at different times. Tibet came under Mongol influence before Kublai Khan’s conquest of China and regained complete independence from the Mongols several decades before China regained its independence. China was militarily conquered by the Mongols, while the Tibetans and the Mongols established the historically unique “priest-patron” relationship, also know as “cho-yon”. The Tibetans and Mongols have always shared a close racial and cultural affinity. The Mongol aristocracy had converted to Buddhism and sought spiritual guidance and moral legitimacy for the rule of their vast empire from the Tibetan theocracy. As Tibet’s patrons they pledged to protect it against foreign invasions. In turn Tibetans promised loyalty to the Mongol empire. The Mongol Tibetan relationship was thus based on mutual respect and dual responsibility. In stark contrast, the Mongol Chinese relationship was based on military conquest and domination. The Mongols ruled China, while the Tibetans ruled Tibet. Mongol influence in Tibet waned and eventually ceased with the decline of the Mongol empire in the mid- 14th century.
In 1639, the Dalai Lama established another cho-yon relationship, this time with the Manchu Emperor who, in 1644 conquered China and established the Qing Dynasty. In 1720, the Manchus, fulfilling their role as protectors of Tibet, at the request of the Tibetans, entered Lhasa and helped the Tibetan government solidify its position following an occupation by the Dzungar Mongols. While the cho-yon relationship may have been formalized in writing in 1720 by treaty, no evidence of the treaty remains. By the middle of the 19th century, Manchu influence in Tibet had waned considerably as the Manchu empire began to disintegrate. In 1842 and 1856 the Manchus were incapable of responding to Tibetan calls for assistance against repeated Nepalese Gorkha invasions. The Tibetans drove back the Gorkhas with no assistance and concluded bi-lateral peace treaties. In 1911 the Tibet Mongol relationship came to its final end with the fall of the Manchu dynasty.
Tibet formally declared its independence in 1912 and continued to conduct itself as a fully sovereign nation until its invasion by China in 1949. Tibet governed itself without foreign influence, conducted its own foreign affairs, had its own army and operated its own postal system. Tibet enjoyed de facto recognition by its neighbors as well as by Britain, with whom Tibet entered into a series of treaties regarding travel and trade.
2. Effect of the Chinese Invasion
Tibet was an independent state at the time of the Chinese invasion and, under international law, states are presumed to remain in existence until that assumption can be rebutted. China is unable to show that it has legally acquired title to Tibet since the forceful annexation. In 1951, a Tibetan delegation to Beijing signed the so-called Seventeen-Point Agreement through which Tibet was to control its internal affairs but cede control over external affairs to China. The delegation was forced to sign the agreement under threats of violence and was denied an opportunity to consult Lhasa beforehand. The delegation informed the Chinese that they had no authority so sign such an agreement and did not have the official government seals needed to formalize the treaty. Upon learning of the treaty , Lhasa immediately telegraphed Beijing to declare that the treaty was unacceptable. It is also important to note that Chinese troops were occupying large parts of Tibet at the time this treaty was signed. Since this treaty was signed under duress it was null and void since, according to Article 52 of the Vienna Conventions of the Law of Treaties, any agreement signed under duress is void. Furthermore, China began to violate the terms of the agreement immediately following its signing.
There is no legal justification for China’s interference with Tibet’s territorial integrety. Forceful annexations are in violation of international law. Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter expressly prohibits annexation by force. Therefore China’s invasion and continuing occupation of Tibet did not confer any rights to China, rather, China is guilty of an illegal military invasion colonization of Tibet in violation of international law.
II. The RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION
1. Tibetans as a “People” In addition to Tibet’s historical territorial right to sovereignty, the Tibetan people have a right to self-determination. The right of self-determination is set forth in Article 1(2) of the United Nations Charter, which declares that the purpose of the United Nations is “to develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principles of equal rights and self-determination of peoples.” Further, Chapters IX XI, XII and XIII of the Charter embody the principles of self- determination and impose obligations on Member States to respect peoples’ right to self-determination.
The right to self-determination is also set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is widely recognize as customary international law. While the existence of the right to self-determination is not in question, what “people” have the right to it remains an issue. Lacking a specific legal definition, scholars have developed a generally agreed upon definition of the “people” who are entitled to exercise the right to self-determination. That definition includes objective components such as a common race, language, religion, territory, and history as well as the subjective component of a common awareness as a people. Tibetans clearly meet both the objective and the subjective components of this definition for what constitutes a people. Tibetans are a distinct ethnic group with their own language, religion, culture and history completely distinct from that of the Chinese people. In fact, there is much evidence that even the Chinese have looked at the Tibetans as a separate race for over 2,000 years. Tibetans’ continued resistance to Chinese rule inside Tibet and the active role of the Tibetan government in exile are evidence of the Tibetans strong awareness as a people. Furthermore, Tibet is both geographically and economically viable and self-determination for Tibetans would further not only human rights and dignity, but also increase peace and stability in the region. Acting as a buffer zone between India and China, Tibet would help cool one of the most militarized and hotly contested borders in the world.
2. Government Legitimacy
Additionally, as has been stated by the International Committee of Jurists, the deprivation of human rights by a government is evidence of a lack of governmental legitimacy and triggers the right of self- determination for the oppressed people. As set forth in the Declaration on Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Co-Operation Among States in Accordance with the Charter of the United Nations (General Assembly Resolution 2625), territorial integrity is a right only of legitimate governments which “conduct themselves in compliance with the principles of equal rights and self-determination of peoples.” This requires that the government’s authority not only be based on the will of the governed, but that the government also guarantees political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights equally to the governed population. China, however, systematically violates the rights of the Tibetan people. China’s practices in Tibet include arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, reproductive rights violations, religious repression and extra-judicial executions, all apparently intended to break the Tibetan spirit. Furthermore, China continues to transfers millions of its own people into Tibet in violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and engages in environmental destruction in Tibet.
CONCLUSION
Even though the United Nation’s General Assembly in 1961 and 1965 passed resolutions recognizing the Tibetans’ right to self-determination, the United Nations has taken no steps to restore Tibet’s sovereignty. Occasionally, United Nations independent expert bodies draw attention to China’s international law violations. However, the political bodies within the United Nations system who are responsible for policy and action, more often than not, refuse to intervene. This year’s session of the Human Rights Commission, which under pressure from China, refused to even discuss a resolution on human rights abuses in China, is an example of the United Nations’ unwillingness to uphold international law.Today, the political will of nation states to uphold international law has fallen victim to self-serving economic interests. Nations are competing with each other for the opportunity to gain a share of China’s 1.2 billion people consumer market. Criticizing China on human rights violations in general or the issue of Tibet specifically, invariably leads to stong protests by China and a freeze in economic relations. Thus, the German foreign minister’s scheduled visit to China was cancelled earlier this summer when the German parliament passed a resolution urging China to cease human rights violations in Tibet and to enter into negotiations with the Tibetan Government in Exile. Within days of this action the press reported a warming of relations between China and the United States. So far nations have not been willing to unify behind the rule of law, rather when one nation calls on China to comply with international law, others rush to the opportunity to secure new business deals.
This leads us to ask, what are the prerequisites for a civilized world community? What is the difference between the ethics of an individual and a community? Is it not that individuals look out for their own good, while a community seeks to protect the welfare of all of its members? The same we believe is true for nation states and the community of nations. It is important to remember that 185 nation states have agreed, as members of the United Nations, to be bound by international laws, standards and norms, yet they appear too often unwilling to call each other on their violations of international law. They are even less ready to institute effective enforcement mechanisms.
The blame for the continued colonization of Tibet therefore does not only rest with China, but also with all United Nations member states. It is time for our governments to not only look regretfully, or with a pointed finger, to the past, such as the annihilation of the Native American populations or the German Holocaust, but to stop todays human rights violations through decisive and coordinated international actions. We believe it is our individual moral responsibility to persuade our governments to monitor human rights violations internationally, to openly censor violators and to promote an effective system for enforcement of international law.
Olympics in Tibet Story
Posted on August 29, 2012 by Akashma Online News
Olympic glory divides Tibetans
By Saransh Sehgal
DHARAMSALA, India – At the London Olympics, a young woman, Choeyang (also spelt Qieyang) Kyi, 21, made history by becoming the first ethnic Tibetan to participate in the international sports event, winning a bronze medal for China in the women’s 20-kilometer racewalk.
Beijing promptly moved to showcase her victory as a success for its policy toward Tibet, ignoring the grim reality that self-immolations by Tibetans crossed the half-century mark in August. Exiled Tibetans in Dharamsala, meanwhile, have mixed feelings – many have applauded her success but disliked her representing China.
This displeasure came mainly from the radical exiles who advocate for Rangzen (independent Tibet); most others have joined those inside Tibet and the Chinese to hail her success. Social media sites used by Tibetans and Chinese both inside and outside China were flooded with congratulations and remarks on her success, some even calling her a heroine for Tibet.
“As an individual, we wish her well; she must have put in a lot of effort to reach there,” Dicki Choyang, the Tibetan government-in-exile’s spokesman for information and international relations, told The Associated Press (AP). “But we are sad that she cannot represent a free Tibet. China uses things like this for [its] political gain. The fact that a Tibetan is participating in the Olympics does not take away anything from the dire situation prevailing inside Tibet.”
Lobsang Wangyal, another exile and an organizer of the Tibetan Olympics in 2008 – an event created to provide an opportunity for young Tibetans to share the spirit of the Summer Olympic Games that opened on 8.8.8 (August 8, 2008) in Beijing – said: “I am happy to see a Tibetan competing in the London Olympics. Although Choyang Kyi bagged a bronze medal representing China, it has also shined a light for the Tibetans, showing Tibetans’ ability and enthusiasm.
“I see nothing wrong with a Tibetan representing any country. There are Tibetans in different countries these days and many have represented their adopted country. Any Tibetan participating in any international activity brings collective goodwill for Tibetans in general and enhance their career potentials,” he added.
The scene at the London Olympics was perhaps the first time in modern history where both the flag of the People’s Republic of China and the Tibetan snow-lion flag (a symbol of Tibet’s freedom banned in China) were seen waving together, jointly honoring the young Tibetan athlete. A crowd of Chinese, Tibetans exiled in London and Westerners witnessed her historic win. An irony was that most Tibetans praised Choeyang Kyi considering her one of their own while she walked in Chinese red, an eternal theme for China.
During a news conference soon after her victory, the young Tibetan athlete was asked questions, most of which she refused to answer to avoid being caught in political entanglements. But in a media statement, Choeyang Kyi (Qieyang Shenjie for the Chinese) said she felt pride after winning in London. “I’m extremely honored to take part as the first representative of the Tibetans at the Olympic Games and to win a medal. My prayers go to my parents and every single one of my supporters.” She said she even witnessed the exiled Tibetans in London encouraging her while she raced. “I heard it! Really. I heard a Tibetan cheering me on!” she said.
While her fans boosted her image, Beijing too portrayed her victory to the world as depicting Tibet’s prosperity under Chinese rule, which annoyed the exiles. Chinese state-run media highlighted her as a normal Tibetan from a herder’s family winning the medal for all Tibetans as a minority group and China as whole. “She grew up herding yaks on a plateau meadow, just like many other women from rural Tibet. Singing and praying accounted for much of her spare time. And it was not until 2008 that she got the chance to watch the Olympic Games on TV for the first time,” a Xinhua report said.
Interestingly, on her weblog she said she was sworn in as a member of China’s ruling Communist Party in July before going to London to compete. “Will be making a swear-in speech, a bit excited and a bit nervous,” she wrote, as reported by AP.
Choeyang Kyi comes from the Amdo region of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, where self-immolations in recent months have been reported after previous cases in the Kirti Monastery in Sichuan province. She was born to a herder’s family and started running as a child on the Tibetan Plateau and later was enrolled in a provincial academy to be trained professionally when she was 16. It was not until 2010 that she was given a chance to join China’s national team. Her achievement has even prompted demands for more ethnic-minority groups participating in national sports, which over the years have been dominated by the majority Han Chinese.
In Dharamsala, the exile capital of Tibetans in northern India, days after she won a medal for China, there began a debate on whether they were cheering for Tibet or for China.
Tenzin Nyinjey, a young intellectual based in Dharamsala, said: “All of us are proud of her achievement. We love her for being a Tibetan and the achievement she has made, although it would have been great if she was carrying a Tibetan national flag, instead of the Chinese red flag. But let’s not forget that Tibet is under the military occupation of China, that’s the harsh reality. So she has to make that ‘compromise’, but in her interviews to the media, she strongly expressed her national pride, of being the first Tibetan to win an Olympic medal.”
However, Tseten Zoechbauer, a Rangzen activist living in Vienna, Austria, said Choeyang Kyi was no hero for her. “I respect her as an athlete and I see that she becomes an inspiration for every young Tibetan, that we can make it there … but she’s never a hero of Tibet to me. She is nothing compared to the martyrs and Tibetans who risk their lives in the Tibetan freedom struggle. She could have spoken about the reality of Tibet after winning – that would have been heroic.”
Dibyesh Anand, associate professor of international relations at the University of Westminster in England, said: “It is a case of an achievement by an individual Tibetan at a global level, and hence it is normal for Tibetans everywhere to feel proud of [it]. In a way, her success challenges the dominant [Han] Chinese, exile-Tibetan and Western stereotypes of Tibetan people living in Chinese-controlled Tibet. Chinese view Tibetans as weak, requiring paternalistic help; Westerners see them as primarily spiritual, and exiled Tibetans see them as victims. She shows that an individual can surmount all obstacles and all stereotypes to excel.
“The majority of the Tibetans who are celebrating are doing so on the basis of her ethnic identity and despite the flag she has to represent. They realize that the compromise is essential,” Anand added.
“In my experience, Tibetans are better [at] grasping this nuance than many Western supporters of free Tibet. Those who moan that she is part of Chinese propaganda ignore that China could not have fixed the outcome of the event and it is only her individual excellence that matters. They ignore that any Tibetan wanting to be an Olympian has no choice but to be under a flag that is not Tibetan, because Tibet has no independent international identity. Unless they prefer Tibetans to give up everything in life and only struggle for freedom all the time, it is to be expected that such situations will arise.”
Nevertheless, the Olympic victory was a multifaceted one, particularly for Choeyang Kyi herself, who tried her best to distance herself from political issues and not to say anything that would provoke either community – her own and the one she lobbies for. In all this, she is worthy of the praise exiled Tibetans and Chinese alike have bestowed on her.
Saransh Sehgal is a contributor based in Dharamsala, India, who currently is pursuing further study in Vienna, Austria. He can be reached at saranshsehgal@gmail.com.
More on Tibet:
While China claims that Tibet has always been a part of China, Tibet has a history of at least 1300 years of independence from China. In 821 China and Tibet ended almost 200 years of fighting with a treaty engraved on three stone pillars, one of which still stands in front of the Jokhang cathedral in Lhasa.
The treaty reads in part: Both Tibet and China shall keep the country and frontiers of which they are now possessed. The whole region to the East of that being the country of Great China and the whole region to the West being assuredly the country of Great Tibet, from either side there shall be no hostile invasion, and no seizure of territory… and in order that this agreement establishing a great era when Tibetans shall be happy in Tibet and Chinese shall be happy in China shall never be changed, the Three Jewels, the body of Saints, the sun and the moon, planets and stars have been invoked as witness. The three stone pillars were erected, one outside the Chinese Emperor’s palace, one on the border between the two countries, and one in Lhasa. Tibet An Occupied Country
Muslims Killing in Burma and our Social Media
Published on August 15, 2012 by Akashma Online News
Re-blogged from FarazAhmed.com
Muslims Killing in Burma and our Social Media
Muslims Slaughter by Buddhist Debunked – Fake Pictures exposed
Faraz Ahmed July 14, 2012 328
In now a days people are posting pictures with captions like Muslims killing in burma, Muslims slaughted by Buddhists in Burma..
I have search reality of few pics and found following:
A picture shared on facebook:
I have found original version here:
http://www.tibetancommunity.be/news/chinaquake.html
This picture was taken in 2010 regarding Earthquake in China and tibetians community help and rescue in China. Now Islamic political parties and some other elements are sharing this image as Muslims killing / slaughter in Burma.
A view of another widely spreaded picture with caption of “More then 1000 people killed in Burma” which also has a fake caption.
Original Image and Website:
This picture is of year 2004 nearly 8 years old about riots in Thailand.
http://tarikh100.blogspot.com/2011/11/blog-post_5836.html
One more image is spreading on social media with logo of Jamat-e-Islami having caption “terrorists of Budhism of Burma kills 500 Muslims”
Well this image is also one of incident occur in Thiland (2nd January 2009)
A view of images shared in this article:
One more image spreaded on Social Media regarding Muslims Killing in Burma
This picture is also misleading original picture was from Riots in Thailand and taken in 2003:
http://www.islammemo.cc/zakera/moslimoon-mansioon/2003/01/30/1134.html?lang=en-us
One more misleading image shared on facebook with caption “A Muslim was burned in Burma and Journalist are Taking pictures instead of saving him “
The original image was taken when Chinese president visit India:
By sharing all these doesn’t mean that Muslims aren’t killed in Burma but what I mean is we are sharing everything without verification and authenticity of image.
Added: 07-18-2012
I have found more more picture (07-18-2012) so Iam sharing it here.
The real image was regarding 9/11 attacks and arrests of Tajikis and Uzbiks.
Again I Like to mention that POSTING THESE FAKE IMAGES DOESN’T MEANS THAT MUSLIMS ARE NOT KILLED IN BURMA, THE ONLY REASON OF SHARING THOSE IMAGES IS TO SHOW HOW SOCIAL MEDIA AND POLITICAL PARTIES ARE MANIPULATING IMAGES.
Sinai Peninsula conflict Zone-Israel Egypt Treaty at Stake
Posted on August 11, 2012 by Akashma Online News
Before you make your mind be sure to look the map of the Sinai Peninsula, which situated very strategically so Israel can not lose control of it, even thought officially gave it back to Egypt in the famous treaty of 1979, where there were conditions that Egypt has to comply with; like not to have military presence in the area, only Israel could patrol the Sinai peninsula. Also the commerce between Egypt and Israel has to stay active.
Masked Gunmen killed Egyptian soldiers
Sometimes our activism and our Passion for Palestine takes to take Palestine’s side. –I ‘m looking a different picture here.
At the beginning when the news got published, I immediately thought of Israel–We know that in conflicts of this nature Israel is the one country that gets the benefit most of the time, well that’s what we–Palestinian supporters think most of the time.
There are other elements into the Palestine resistance side of the conflict: the armed wings or militias that, on one instance we praise for their courage to stand up against Israel trying sometimes almost suicide missions, on other, we see them as an obstacle for peace.
There are many groups not aligned with Hamas nor with Fatah and they act independently, and diplomacy does not work for them. They see diplomacy as a waste of time.
One of those groups in 2007 carried the attack in the Israel base that captured the IDF soldier Gilda Shilat. Hamas was not in control of the situation but after many underground talks with the leaders of the group Hamas consolidated the famous exchange of prisoners for Shilat few months ago.
Also do not forget that the Israel-Egypt treaty was due to security, Israel nor Egypt could control the Bedouins and the constant attacks to Israel so Israel exchange peace and security and gave back the Sinai Peninsula. Those same tribes that now control and profit from the tunnels in the Egyptian Side.
So it is premature to say that Israel did it, or say that Palestinians factions did it crossing to Israel knowing that they will be killed, kind of suicide mission.
Every one have motives to create conflict between Israel-Palestine, Palestine-Egypt and Egypt-Israel, there are many in Egypt that oppose the peace treaty with Israel, so they could be the ones, to make believe that Israel did it, to take advantage of the animosity of the Egyptians against Israel, because after all Egyptian and Palestinians are like brothers united by ancestral ties and religion.
Could be possible that Egyptian tribes could have done it, making sure to looks like Israel prints to keep the tunnels open, do not forget they control and profit from them. They do not want Rafah crossing to be officially and permanently to be open to commerce and transit, is not good for business.
Or could be any of the groups, the armed militia that act independently from the central government …all of them have motives to create conflict…But something for sure..if it was a Palestinian group, they usually take responsibility for their acts, or maybe they are learning deceit and treason as Israel do, and do it under the veil of the doubt …..
Before you make your mind, be sure to look the map of the Sinai Peninsula, situated very strategically so Israel can not lose control of it, even thought officially gave it back to Egypt in the famous treaty of 1979, where there are conditions that Egypt has to comply with; like not to have military presence in the area, only Israel could patrol the Sinai peninsula. Also the commerce between Egypt and Israel has to stay active.
Another important aspect if the Red Sea, the Suez Canal , the Gulf of Aden.
It’s quite simple: Israel needs an outlet to the Red Sea for its shipping. The only Israeli presence on the islands is military to ensure that the shipping lanes are kept clear for its imports and exports, including military hardware to fight against Arab states. By international agreement, a multinational UN force is also stationed on the islands which “monitors the compliance of all parties” with this agreement. In reality, this means that American and Egyptian troops help to protect Israel’s shipping lanes through the Straits of Tiran, Saudi Arabia’s occupied sovereign territory. What would the people of Saudi Arabia say if they knew?
You be the judge..
What ever the truth is will emerge eventually but off course not before thousands of lives and maybe millions of innocent lives are lost.
My nauseated Imagination that it’s sick of Zionism
Posted on July 25, 2012 on Akashma Online News
by Marivel Guzman
Zionism and NWO
Could be just my nauseated imagination that it’s sick of so much Zionism, or, I’m exhausted of witnessing so much death, destruction, and misery caused by their hand. “The chosen Ones,” and please forgive me to use those words in a sarcastic way. I am not trying to insult Judaism, which believes that the 12 tribes were chosen by God. I’m simply stating my state of mind.
Watch “London Olympics 2012 ‘ Zion’ Logo” on YouTube. All you have to do is type Olympic Logo or London Olympic Games, and you find by yourself. (Olympic logo images could not be used-they intend to sell 2 billions euros out of that image)
One Monday, 4 June 2007, the logo of the London Olympic Games was unveiled in a star-studded ceremony in London. The funny thing is that few people paid attention to the logo back then. We were too busy probably getting duped with the First Black President who will take the White House – Not trying to be racist or anything, but in the US just until few months before Obama even run for President, America was still one of the most racist societies in the world. The media played the black card for many years, when it came to black presidents.- So Obama is running for president, and winning the elections was a prime time event in US history
Soon after the 2012 London Olympic logo was released to the press, Iran- the country led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad- protested and announced they may boycott the Games
Why? According to the representatives of Ahmadinejad’s circle, the scrambled, jagged figures within the logo don’t form ‘2012’, but rather the word ‘Zion’. The man who first unscrambled the logo’s ‘numbers’ and determined they are actually letters spelling the word ‘Zion’ did so in 2008, soon after the 2012 symbol was announced and provided to the public.
He was a 25-year-old young British man named Rik Clay, and he was a student of secret societies and their symbolism in everyday logos on the U.S. dollar bill, etc. Clay, who seemed in good spirits during interviews just subsequent to his logo revelation, allegedly committed suicide soon after coming out with his discovery. Check out the YouTube video Rik Clay & 2012- RIP 1/9.
Choosing the logo of the Olympics Games is a lengthy process. Hundreds or probably thousands of designs are submitted to the Olympic committee to choose one for this mighty global event. So we wonder what the chances are that this logo symbolizing the year London Olympics games 2012 could be moved around and spelled the word Z I O N, right?
Don’t forget that Israel was asking the London Olympic Committee to hold a minute of silence during the ceremony of the aperture of the games as a tribute to the 11 Israeli athletes sacrificed on September 6, 1972. Munich 72 left a scores of hate and spilled blood without purpose, others that satisfy the arrogance of the Apartheid State of Israel. Their unwillingness to fulfill the demands of the captors ended the life of the 11 members of the Israel Olympic Team. After all they had promised to do so, the life of the athletes was hanging out on the promise that Israel government did to the captors. There is plenty of evidence and witness testimonies that the police opened fire first without regard for the life of the Israeli athletes.

Who ever picked the Olympic logo did it with the well acknowledgement of the Israel request to hold a minute of silence, now there is not just a moment of silence but the whole event will be a remembrance of the Zionist State.
The logo was designed by Wolff Ollins at the ticket price of 400,000 Euros. According to International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge, the logo will inspire the youth. Really? how 4 letters with a dot that switches around spelling Zion will inspire the youth?. On his words
“This is a truly innovative brand logo that graphically captures the essence of the London 2012 Olympic Games – namely to inspire young people around the world through sport and the Olympic values.
If they want to inspire the youth, they should have invited the youth of United Kingdom to summit their designs, that, could have been a truly inspiration for them, second with the world entrenched in violence; the occupy movement, the Arab springs, the European Union coming to pieces, the miners fighters for rights around the world, the teachers demanding decent salaries, the workers unions asking better conditions for their workers. And in top of everything Israel and the US mingling in the business of everyone on Earth, what inspiration that logo spelling ZION will give to the youth?
The designer of the Olympic logo is a multi billion dollars company whose parent company Omnicom Group, it is in charge of the propaganda industry on almost the whole world.

Companies such as Omnicom shape our reality. It is easy to create a wonderland where we all can be controlled. Once Zbigniew Brzezinski said in an interview with CBS, it is easier to kill a million people than to control a million people. But I think that they can still control 6 billion people using the Media Propaganda Machine.
“You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.” -Morpheus in the Matrix
The Relation between TV, News Agencies and Adverting Companies
All three companies form the real axis of evil. They are in charge of the creation of propaganda, which it is the best weapon to defeat the masses.
They all go hand and hand together. After all, in 2003, they sold to the world the Iraq War, which had killed more than one million Iraqis and counting. They did not spare lives to recreate the perfect scenario for a war of that magnitude. Even the 911 tragedy which evidence suggest to be staged by no other than the American Government was an event well sold, which case was solidified by the well advertised News and movies and documentaries purposely and conveniently made to convinced the most skeptic minds. Remember the movie Wag the Dog, where a fake war was constructed and distributed in the news to distract the electorate from a sex scandal in election time. When we see the reality and make comparative analysis of what the Media has giving us and what really had happened in Real life, we see clearly the deception where our own government is the culprit, planer and executioner of every staged event in our history.
Over the history of these 3 Machines, they have killed more than a billion people. They are as guilty as the bullets that kill the innocents they target. The government develops strategic alliances with them to sell anything they want to portray in the theater of the world. Let’s take as example Omnicom: The company oversees a global network of more than 175 marketing services companies, as well as Omnicom Media Group, and provides services for over 5,000 clients in more than 100 countries worldwide. As a strategic holding company, Omnicom manages a portfolio of global market leaders; Omnicom’s agencies provide marketing and communications services in the disciplines of advertising, customer relationship management (CRM), strategic media planning and buying, digital and interactive marketing, direct and promotional marketing, public relations (PR) and other specialty communications.
Omnicom, which Revenue $13.9 billion (2011), where all this money is coming from? Presidential Campaigners, Arms Manufactures, Energy and Pharmaceutical Lobbyist firms, and off course the governments of the world that sell wars and protection to the world, using UN and NATO as a front.
Celebrities for Palestine – Alice Walker Stands Tall Against Israel Apartheid State
Posted On June 20, 2012 on Akashma Online News
On February 9, 1944, in the small farming community of Eatonton, GA, Willie Lee and Minnie Grant gave birth to their eighth and final child, a girl, they named Alice. Little did her parents know that their youngest daughter would become one of the most prolific, controversial and respected African-American novelists of the later-half of the 20th Century. But the potential in Willie Lee and Minnie Grant’s baby may not have been recognized early on by others living in their farming community. Alice would have to overcome a number of difficulties in her lifetime that would profoundly influence the way she pictured herself and the world around her and would later help shape her views as a writer.
Poet, Writer and Activist Alice Walker makes her position clear on BDS and Cultural Boycott Against Israel Apartheid State. She does not give her permission to Israeli Publisher House to publish “The Color Purple” , even thought that it was published in Hebrew Language before , Now She adds her voice to the BDS Campaign, her Moral Standing it is stronger than her Ego as an Author
“The Color Purple,” which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, was adapted into a movie in 1985 directed by the American filmmaker Steven Spielberg.
She born in the State of Georgia, one of the more racist states of the US, that fact could have contributed to her formation as a writer, “The Color Purple” Book explore the situation of the blacks in the South, the exploitation of the black woman by the black males and the white society.
Alice Walker has lived the injustice of being black in a white ruled society, she grew up with the sores of racism and even being lived the Racist American Period and survived it, she does not show any signs of hate against this White Society, on the contrary if you read her books, and you hear her experiences that she kindly shares on her interviews, you notice her beautiful soul, how she thanks God for the transformation of our society and sees some of the changes, she reveals herself as a revolutionary mind offering to us with her writing the thought process that keeps evolving, and we can say now, that some blocks of our society are civilized in their ideas and their behavior
She has visited many places that have suffered injustices like Post Apartheid South Africa and knows of the terrible life the Afrikaans had it, and because she knows thru her own experiences the real story, she adds her voice to the people of Palestine, which sufferings are very similar to the blacks of the south where she grew up, or the South Africans of the Apartheid Era.
She has the courage to stand tall against Israel Bully of the Middle East, she was part of the Gaza Flotilla last year, unfortunately Israel Political pressure made the voyage impossible to reach Palestinians Waters, but the awareness keeps sparking out, and sees Hope for a Non Violent transition to peace.
I bow to this amazing lady that puts her name to use for a good cause without minding the professional risk.
“Alice Walker! She has absolutely nothing to gain in terms of ego, popularity, power, or Money. Her stance comes from her heart, conscience, compassion, and genuine concern for justice.” Professor Gail Baker
“Walker’s use of Celie’s own voice, however underdeveloped, allows Walker to tell the history of black women in the rural South in a sympathetic and realistic way. Unlike a historian’s perspective, which can be antiseptic and overly analytical, Celie’s letters offer a powerful first-person account of the institutions of racism and sexism. Celie’s simple narrative brings us into her isolated world with language that reveals both pain and detached numbness: “My momma dead. She die screaming and cussing. She scream at me. She cuss at me.”
Like her voice, Celie’s faith is prominent but underdeveloped. Celie relies heavily on God as her listener and source of strength, but she sometimes blurs the distinction between God’s authority and that of Alphonso. She confesses that God, rather than Alphonso, killed her baby, and she never makes any association between the injustice she experiences in her life and the ability of God to overturn or prevent this injustice.”
The Color Purple, 1982
Letter from Alice Walker to Publishers at Yediot Books
Published Originally on PACBI
June 9, 2012
Dear Publishers at Yediot Books,
Thank you so much for wishing to publish my novel THE COLOR PURPLE. It isn’t possible for me to permit this at this time for the following reason: As you may know, last Fall in South Africa The Russell Tribunal on Palestine met and determined that Israel is guilty of apartheid and persecution of the Palestinian people, both inside Israel and also in the Occupied Territories. The testimony we heard, both from Israelis and Palestinians (I was a jurist) was devastating. I grew up under American apartheid and this was far worse. Indeed, many South Africans who attended, including Desmond Tutu, felt the Israeli version of these crimes is worse even than what they suffered under the white supremacist regimes that dominated South Africa for so long.
It is my hope that the non-violent BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement, of which I am part, will have enough of an impact on Israeli civilian society to change the situation.
In that regard, I offer an earlier example of THE COLOR PURPLE’s engagement in the world-wide effort to rid humanity of its self-destructive habit of dehumanizing whole populations. When the film of The Color Purple was finished, and all of us who made it decided we loved it, Steven Spielberg, the director, was faced with the decision of whether it should be permitted to travel to and be offered to the South African public. I lobbied against this idea because, as with Israel today, there was a civil society movement of BDS aimed at changing South Africa’s apartheid policies and, in fact, transforming the government.
It was not a particularly difficult position to hold on my part: I believe deeply in non-violent methods of social change though they sometimes seem to take forever, but I did regret not being able to share our movie, immediately, with (for instance) Winnie and Nelson Mandela and their children, and also with the widow and children of the brutally murdered, while in police custody, Steven Biko, the visionary journalist and defender of African integrity and freedom.
We decided to wait. How happy we all were when the apartheid regime was dismantled and Nelson Mandela became the first president of color of South Africa.
Only then did we send our beautiful movie! And to this day, when I am in South Africa, I can hold my head high and nothing obstructs the love that flows between me and the people of that country.
Which is to say, I would so like knowing my books are read by the people of your country, especially by the young, and by the brave Israeli activists (Jewish and Palestinian) for justice and peace I have had the joy of working beside. I am hopeful that one day, maybe soon, this may happen. But now is not the time.
We must continue to work on the issue, and to wait.
In faith that a just future can be fashioned from small acts,
Alice Walker
“Whereas international institutions and governments fail to take action in support of justice and equality for the Palestinian people, the Russell Tribunal will raise awareness about the urgency of holding Israel accountable for its violations of international law,”
“This tribunal will serve as an effective tool with which to educate a wider public about the nature of Israel’s system of oppression of Palestinians and will help to mobilise support for popular resistance and the BDS movement,” Juma Juma – Representative of the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC)
Alice Walker
Alice Walker in Berkeley, California, April 1983. Walker uses a variety of narrative forms and levels of diction to create vivid, memorable, and larger-than-life characters.
Walker’s novels include :
THE THIRD LIFE OF GRANGE COPELAND (1970),
Set in Georgia between 1920 and 1960, Alice Walker‘s first novel The Third Life of Grange Copeland describes the economic oppression African-Americans suffered under the share-cropping system and its tragic effects on black families and the black community. Walker asks to what degree blacks themselves have been accomplishes in their victimization by the white power structure, which destroys their dignity and dreams. She also explores the intersection of racism and sexism in the oppression of African American families, depicting black men who vent their anger and frustration, not on the whites who exploit them, but on their wives and children. The two main male characters, Grange and Brownfield Copeland, both try to prove their manliness through methods endorsed by white patriarchy: through assertions of power over women in the form of sexual conquests and wife abuse.
MERIDIAN (1976),
The Difficulty of Idealism
Meridian is energized by a younger generation coming into its full power and raising its voice in dissent against the institutional racism that prevailed through the 1960s. Through occasionally violent protests and demonstrations, Meridian and other activists attempt to institute change and alter perceptions. Idealistic as they are, they ultimately find various degrees of satisfaction with the goals and ideals of the civil rights movement. Meridian feels that she will always stand on the fringes of the movement since she is unprepared to take her dissent to a radical, if not murderous, level. Lynne struggles with adapting and applying her own idealism to meaningful change in the lives of southern blacks. Truman eventually sours to the movement, having lost sight of its intentions in his self-absorption. In the end, Meridian realizes the fatuousness of dying or killing for the movement, concluding that the battle is won in small ways, such as getting blacks registered to vote and improving the lives of people victimized by the unchecked expression of racism.
THE TEMPLE OF MY FAMILIAR (1989),
POSSESSING THE SECRET OF JOY (1992),
BY THE LIGHT OF MY FATHER’S SMILE (1998),
NOW IS THE TIME TO OPEN YOUR HEART (2004),
OVERCOMING SPEECHLESSNESS (2012).
Her poetry is collected in ONCE: POEMS (1968),
REVOLUTIONARY PETUNIAS & OTHER POEMS (1973),
ABSOLUTE TRUST IN THE GOODNESS OF THE EARTH:
NEW POEMS (2003).
Some of her short fiction has been published in:
IN LOVE & TROUBLE: STORIES OF BLACK WOMEN (1973).
She became a major figure in feminism — which she called “womanism” — through such writings as IN SEARCH OF OUR MOTHERS’ GARDENS: WOMANIST PROSE (1983) and LIVING BY THE WORD (1988). These collections of essays, speeches, and letters focus on Walker’s experiences as a black woman in America, and on racial and class inequality.
How Alice Walker become Palestinian Activist: In her interview with Amy Goodman in Democracy Now she explains how the lost of her sister and the story of a woman in Palestine that lost everything and everyone in her family made her be more out spoken about the Palestinian Issue.
ALICE WALKER: Well, I was actually mourning the death of my own sister, and I thought that, oh, she was, you know, much older, and she was sick, and she died, and we’d had a horrible five or six years before she died. And so I thought, you know, when she dies, I won’t be devastated. And I was completely devastated. It was so painful.
And I was out trying to deal with my own devastation, when I learned about a woman in Palestine, during the bombing, who had been — who had lost five of her daughters, and she herself was unconscious. And it just instantly connected me to her. I felt, what will this be like? Who will tell her? Who will tell this woman when she wakes up that “your five daughters are dead”?
And so I felt that I had to go and present myself to this situation and to be attentive to it in a way that I had started being many years before, except that at the time I was married to and then related to, in many ways, to a Jewish person who always said, well, if you see the Palestinian side, almost anything, you know, positive about the Palestinian side, then it means that you are anti-Semitic. And so, this was so shocking to me that it silenced me for a while. I mean, I said a few things, I wrote a few things. But I felt that I had left something undone. And I realize at this point in my life, and years earlier, actually, that there are things in life that call to us, and they’re ours to do. And this was one of the things that was mine to finish.
And so I went to Gaza, and I met with women who had lost everything, and their children, their houses. You know, I sat on the rubble, even though there was the phosphorus powder, because it was just overwhelming to see the injury and the damage that had been done to these people by the Israeli government. And I knew that it was my responsibility as a writer and as a human being to witness this and to write about it. I mean, why else was I — why else am I a writer? You know, why else do I have a conscience? I think that all people who feel that there is injustice in the world anywhere should learn as much of it as they can bear. That is our duty.
“I speak a little about this American history, but it isn’t history that these women know.” These are the women, the Palestinian women, I’m with. “They’re too young. They’ve never been taught it. It feels irrelevant. Following their example of speaking of their families, I talk about my Southern parents’ teachings during our experience of America’s apartheid years, when white people owned and controlled all the resources and the land, in addition to the political, legal, and military apparatus, and used their power to intimidate black people in the most barbaric and merciless ways. These whites who tormented us daily were like Israelis who have cut down millions of trees planted by Arab Palestinians, stolen Palestinian water, even topsoil. Forcing Palestinians to use separate roads from those they use themselves, they have bulldozed innumerable villages, houses, mosques, and in their place built settlements for strangers who have no connection whatsoever with Palestine: settlers who have been the most rabidly anti-Palestinian of all, attacking the children, the women, everyone, old and young alike, viciously.”
AMY GOODMAN: Alice, I wanted to go back to March 2009 -—
ALICE WALKER: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: — when you were in Gaza, to a video of you there.
ALICE WALKER: It’s shocking beyond anything I have ever experienced. And it’s actually so horrible that it’s basically unbelievable, even though I’m standing here and I’ve been walking here and I’ve been looking at things here. It still feels like, you know, you could never convince anyone that this is actually what is happening and what has happened to these people and what the Israeli government has done. It will be a very difficult thing for anyone to actually believe in, so it’s totally important that people come to visit and to see for themselves, because the world community, that cares about peace and cares about truth and cares about justice, will have to find a way to deal with this. We cannot let this go as if it’s just OK, especially those of us in the United States who pay for this. You know, I have come here, in part, to see what I’m buying with my tax money.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Alice Walker in 2009, interviewed by my colleague here at Democracy Now!, Anjali Kamat. When you look back at you walking through the rubble of Gaza, your thoughts?
ALICE WALKER: My thought is that I am so glad I was there. I am so glad that I managed to gather myself and present myself to this situation, because it is my responsibility, you know, as a person, as an elder, as someone who cares about the planet, who really wants us all to thrive, you know, or just survive. This is a very thorny issue, and it takes all of us looking at it as carefully as we can to help solve it. It’s not that it’s impossible to solve. But what will help a lot is the insistence by all of us on fairness and on people actually understanding what they’re looking at.
AMY GOODMAN: You say that the Middle East solution is beyond the two-state solution, and you also talk about restorative justice.
ALICE WALKER: Yes, I do, because I believe in restorative justice. I think we could use that here. I mean, I don’t feel great about the past leaders here not being brought to trial, actually, you know. But if we can’t have trial, we could at least have council. I mean, but to let people, any people, just go, after they’ve murdered lots of people and destroyed a lot, is not right. It destroys trust. So — what was the rest of the question?
AMY GOODMAN: And you believe in a one-state solution.
ALICE WALKER: Oh, the one-state solution. Yes, I do. I mean, when I think about my tax money, and I think about, well, you know, given that I’ve already given, and we as a country have given over a trillion dollars to Israel in the last — since, I don’t know, ‘48 or something, but a lot of money that we could have used here, where would I be happiest to see, you know, my money spent? Well, I would be happy seeing my money spent for all the people who live in Palestine. And that means that, you know, the Palestinians who are forced out of their houses, forced off of their land, should come back and share the land, all of it, including the settlements. You know, if I am going to be asked to help pay for settlements, I would like to be, you know, permitted to say who gets to live in them. And I would like the women and children, the Palestinian women and children that I saw, I would like to say — take them by hand and say, “You know what? Look at this. We built this for you. You’re home now.”
The following link contain Alice Walker entire interview with Amy Goodman from Democracy now
http://www.democracynow.org/embed/story/2010/4/13/alice_walker_on_overcoming_speechlessness_a
A Tale Of A Rape A Death Sentence
Posted on June 6, 2012 by Akashma Online News
Rape is a very difficult and complex Issue
Rapists do not belong to any social status, religious denomination, nationality or race group, we e find them every where, the difference in the numbers are in the reported cases, as most of the statistics are compiled from court cases denominated as rapes.
Only Some countries publish their Data on Rape cases so it is difficult to know the real numbers to make the statistics by countries.
For western societies where rape it is openly discussed in forums and some chapters of the Penal Code is dedicated to punish sexual harassment, domestic violence and rape victims violators, the numbers showing in statistics are alarmingly high. We have very strict laws to punish sexual predators, and even with all the protection in place, women are still victims of rapes and domestic violence.
In the more complicated issues of domestic violence and systematic rape of women with their husbands, or domestic partners it is very difficult to find the exact numbers other than isolated cases heard in courts of domestic violence cases, where the rape is exposed. Most of the cases that are known thru shelter for abused women stories are kept confidentially for the women protection, but at the same time most of these cases are not prosecuted for fear to reprisals from part of the male violator.
According to some psychologists that have studied the behavior of Rapists and his/her victims, they conclude that Rape is a violent crime that is motivated by power, not by sex, but I think there are both types; power abuse to show superiority and sexual behavior to satisfy mental states.
Usually women are afraid to report their husbands, the fear from their husbands it is bigger than their desire to be free from the abuse. Even with all the protection guarantee for women against rape and domestic violence the numbers are growing in the US and elsewhere in the world.
Some women are hesitant to report their husbands and put them in jail, they do not want see themselves without economical support, a lot women prefer the mental and physical abuse and rape instead to navigate in life working or asking for public welfare.
The cases we heard off in the media are known only because the victims are brave enough to report the predators, being husband, family or strangers, but it is not the case in conservative societies where religious tabus invite and condone the abuse.
In some countries where are majority Muslim, they treat rape victims in different way that in western countries. In remote Muslims places where tribal government is still the law, male members of a rape victim’s family will prefer to treat rape victims as guilty persons instead of going to the shame of presenting their cases in the tribal council, they will do what it is called honor killings, off course this practice is less and less used for fear to prosecution, but the rape victims still are forced to be silenced in shame or fear.
Sexual issues are still considered tabus in many communities, even in the United States that we consider ourselves “Modern Society”, we the parents still need to sign consent for our children to be taught subjects about sexually and Aids related issues.
This article is not to engage in religious arguments,or to hurt sensitivities, but to expose the perpetrators and the cultural bound that exhibit some countries when the issue of rape is addressed.
The Rapist that use physical superiority to get control of the victims which it is the most common type of rape, but also there are many cases where mental abuse it is used to exercise control on the victims, like in the case of domestic partners and husbands rape and domestic violence cases.
The following story developed in front of the cameras of journalist in March 26, 2011 in the five-star Rixos Hotel in Tripoli exposed a common practice from part of the authorities to subjugate and humiliate women as a way to punish the male family members.
Al-Obaidi is the woman who pushed her way, weeping, into the five-star Rixos Hotel in Tripoli last weekend. That’s where the Libyan regime keeps international journalists penned up under the supervision of government “minders.” The minders try to ensure the journalists see only those things that may assist the regime’s propaganda efforts.
Bruises are seen on the face of Iman al-Obaidi as she cries at the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli on March 26. Zohra Bensemra/Reuters
(Not that I blame the journalists, having been penned up and minded myself on more than one occasion. You do what you can do to be where you have to be.)
Anyway.
Al-Obaidi confronted journalists eating their breakfasts with a pretty harrowing story. She said she had been detained by a gang of “militiamen” earlier in the day and gang-raped.
Why? Almost certainly because she’s from Benghazi, the rebel-held city in eastern Libya/
So intent was al-Obaidi on convincing reporters of her story that she lifted up her black robe, which goes against the grain of nearly any woman in Arab society, and displayed the trauma inflicted on her thigh. There were also, reporters at the scene wrote, marks on her face, and on her wrists and ankles, indicating she’d been tied up.
“They defecated on me,” she told the reporters who scrambled with cameras and notebooks. “They urinated on me. They violated my honor.”
Rape rarely reported in Arab world
In places like Libya, Syria, or, until recently, Egypt or Iraq, a public act like al-Obaidi’s is not just incredibly courageous but near-suicidal, which is why rape is almost never reported in the Arab world, even though it is routinely used as a punishment by security forces.
Even in less repressive countries like Jordan, the rape itself is often less hurtful than what can come next. There is a case a young woman in Amman who had the misfortune of being raped by an uncle.
When her family found out about it, the stain on their honor was so unbearable that they locked the door, turned the music up loud, drew the curtains and shot her. When she had the nerve to recover in hospital, she was sold off to an old man who was willing to lend his name to the bastard child who resulted from the rape. All the girl had to do was agree to a life of indentured servitude scrubbing her saviour’s floors. She was rescued by a group of women’s advocates.
In Libya these days, you can add the viciousness of the regime’s enforcers to the day-to-day misogyny Arab women face.
According to reporters on the scene, al-Obaidi was instantly set upon by waitresses in the restaurant, who grabbed knives and attacked her. One threw a coat over her head to shut her up. And these were the women who responded. The male “minders” from the government just grabbed al-Obaidi and began dragging her away.
Al-Obaidi reacts as she is grabbed by a Libyan official, left, preventing members of the foreign media from reaching her. As reporters gathered to hear her story, security guards grabbed al-Obaidi, bundled her into a car and drove her away. Several journalists were beaten during the scuffle. Zohra Bensemra/Reuters
Journalists who tried to protect her were beaten. One “minder” pulled a gun. Another one smashed the camera of a CNN cameraman who’d filmed the scene.
But, finally, the international press had a real story, and the damage control began, in the ham-fisted, dull-witted manner that only officials of regimes like the one in Tripoli can manage.
Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim immediately announced that al-Obaidi was drunk and mentally deranged.
Subsequently, when reporters insisted on speaking with her again, Ibrahim announced she may not have been deranged and drunk after all and assured the media her allegations were being investigated. Indeed, four men had been questioned, he declared. Al-Obaidi, he said, was safely back in the bosom of her family.
Except her family told reporters their daughter remained locked up. Her mother said the regime had told her that if her daughter would just change her story, there would be a reward of cash and new accommodations for the family.
Her mother not only said her daughter stands by her story, she dispensed with the family-honour nonsense. She declared her pride at her daughter’s courage and denounced Gadhafi and his thugs as “dogs.”
Now, the regime has changed its story again. Ibrahim now claims that al-Obaidi is a prostitute, a “sharmuta,” to use the nasty Arabic invective. Further, the men she accused of raping her are now so offended at this slight to their dignity that they’ve filed a lawsuit against their victim.
And, of course, they will win, if Gadhafi’s regime lasts long enough for it to get to court, even though al-Obaidi is, according to her mother, a lawyer. She will be punished further.
Story rings true
Now, a word: Beyond a certain point, reporters cannot do normal due diligence on al-Obaidi’s story. It may, indeed, be that she will turn out to be crazy. As noted, you’d almost have to be to challenge a regime.
But her family confirms her account. To anyone who has worked in an Arab country, it has the ring of truth. I have watched Arab policemen brutalize a helpless woman.
Plus, al-Obaidi took the extraordinary step of publicly acknowledging rape in an Arab society. And most importantly, the regime has tried to shut her up. So, I’m just going to go ahead here and give her the benefit of the doubt.
Women hold a picture of al-Obaidi during a protest in Benghazi, Libya, on March 27. Women’s groups abroad have not been so quick to take up her cause. Suhaib Salem/Reuters
But here’s my question. The reporters whom she confronted are clearly outraged. Libyan women, at least in Benghazi, are outraged and protesting. So, where is all the outrage here in the West?
As far as I can tell, there has been no comment from organizations such as the U.S. National Organization for Women, despite the eyewitness dispatches from Tripoli. Shouldn’t Iman al-Obaidi be a symbol of something?
I can only hope it’s not a matter of opposition to U.S. militarism trumping support for women victimized in the Arab world.
I know, I know: the West intervenes selectively against tyrants, and yes, America and its allies have supported some pretty disgusting sociopaths over the years, and sure, there’s hypocrisy everywhere.
Heaven knows what has become of al-Obaidi. But if she survives, and there is justice, she should be sitting next to the first lady next February.
Saudi rape victim gets 90 lashes
–RIYADH: A Saudi court has sentenced a gang rape victim to 90 lashes of the whip because she was alone in a car with a man to whom she was not married. The sentence was passed at the end of a trial in which the Al Qateef high criminal court convicted four Saudis convicted of the rape, sentencing them to prison terms and a total of 2,230 lashes.
Rape Culture in France – Rape has been recognized as a crime in France since 1980 (you can get up to 15 years in prison). The legal definition is as follows: “Any sexual penetration (otherwise it’s categorized as assault and not as rape) imposed upon another person through violence, constraint, threat, or surprise, is a rape.”
Canada Rape Culture – In Canada, there have been discussions as to whether or not we live in a “rape culture”. Although difficult to define, this term refers to a society in which sexual assaults are ignored, legitimized, or blamed on the victim. Proponents of the existence of a rape culture claim that factors such as the clothes the victim was wearing, how much she had to drink, the relationship she had with the perpetrator and whether or not she appeared interested in sex, become the main focus of rape cases.
Mass Rape, Rape as a Weapon of War, and Women in War Zones – Rape is a form of gender-based violence against women. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women stated in its General Recommendation No. 19 that gender-based violence is a form of discrimination which the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) requires its states parties to eliminate in all its forms. …
Marital Rape: New Research and Directions – Raquel Kennedy Bergen With contributions from Elizabeth Barnhill
Rape in marriage is a serious and prevalent form of violence against women. While the legal definition varies within the United States, marital rape can be defined as any unwanted intercourse or penetration (vaginal, anal, or oral) obtained by force, threat of force, or when the wife is unable to consent (Bergen, 1996; Pagelow, 1992; Russell, 1990). Most studies of marital rape have included couples who are legally married, separated, divorced, or cohabiting with the understanding that the dynamics of sexual violence in a long-term cohabiting relationship are similar to those of a married couple (Mahoney & Williams, 1998). While no published studies of marital rape could be located which included cohabiting gay and lesbian couples, there is a slowly growing body of literature that addresses sexual violence in same sex relationships (see Girshick, 2002).
Global Social Dissease Child Abuse
Posted on June 06, 2012 by Akashma Online News
Originally posted on Metropolis Japan Magazine
Thanks to increased government involvement and greater public exposure, child abuse is gradually emerging from the shadows. But Japan’s youngest citizens remain vulnerable to violence at the hands of those who care for them. Tama Miyake reports.
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Kenji* bears the scars of a battle lost years before. The 5-year-old has been burned and beaten, held underwater, and singled out as the youngest boy in a family of five children. He is emotionally troubled, panics easily, and is still afraid to take a bath. But this little boy is one of the lucky ones.
Kenji has spent the past three years living with his two sisters in a residential care center run by the prefectural government in northern Saitama. Today, he gets regular counseling, a hot meal at the end of every day, and the affectionate attention of a troop of care workers.
Kenji is a survivor, a battle-hardened victim of what is now being recognized as one of Japan’s greatest social ills: child abuse. His mother is in jail; his father is out of the picture. His grandparents want nothing to do with them, and one of his older siblings is dead. Care workers suspect that child died from abuse inflicted by the parents, but no evidence was ever uncovered.
Yet for all the hardship Kenji has faced in his short life, his is just one story of out of thousands. In the last fiscal year alone, consultation centers around the country received 25,000 reports of suspected child abuse, an increase of nearly 25 percent over the previous year and testimony to what experts say is a breakdown in the traditional family unit, a rise in the number of single and young parents, and the growing tendency toward isolation from friends, family and the community at large.
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Despite efforts by the government and volunteer organizations to halt the cycle of violence, many Japanese children never live to see the inside of a care center. Earlier this month, a 3-year-old boy was beaten to death by his father and a 14-month-old boy starved to death under his mother’s care, adding to the more than 60 children who have already died of abuse since the enactment in November 2000 of the Child Abuse Prevention Law.
As more and more children become victims, the Japanese government is finding itself increasingly involved in issues long considered private, and struggling to protect the very people who represent its future. But with the country’s care centers bursting at the seams and resources stretched ever thinner, the question remains: Is it enough to save them?
Warning signs
Here, as in most developed countries, child abuse encompasses physical, sexual and psychological abuse, as well as neglect. And in keeping with most other countries, it’s the mothers who are most often the perpetrators of abuse. But there are several factors that make the situation in Japan far different, and at times far more troubling, than the rest of the world.
According to reports issued by the Health, Welfare and Labor Ministry, the number of suspected abuse cases reported to consultation centers around the country in fiscal 2000 reached 18,804, a rise of 60 percent over the previous year and a 17-fold increase over 10 years earlier. The actual number of cases is believed to be much higher, with the ministry’s release last month of a research study showing an estimate of 35,000 for that year.
The startling increase was attributed in part to the enactment of the prevention law, which obliges doctors, teachers and child welfare officers to report suspected abuse to the consultation centers, and a new system of counting all reported cases rather than only those in which action was taken. But it was also a reminder that, like the bruises and burns that mark so many of its victims, child abuse had become a problem Japan could no longer ignore.
Indeed, the number of cases and the fact that 85 percent of abusers reported in 2000 were the victims’ parents—with mothers making up 60 percent—highlighted the precarious state of the Japanese family, which many say faces unprecedented strain.
“The family is a very stressful unit when you stop and think about it,” says Yuko Kawanishi, a sociologist and professor at Temple University. “And there’s really no period in human history that only the mother and the nuclear family were raising the children.”
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With the tendency of Japanese husbands to focus on climbing the corporate ladder and the nation’s rapid development post-WWII, the past 40-50 years have seen the burden of child rearing fall ever more heavily on the mother. “The husband is always busy, he’s almost married to the company. So more and more, the wife gets isolated,” explains Kawanishi, who notes that just one generation ago Japanese families shared child rearing responsibilities among extended relatives and close neighbors.
It’s this growing isolation combined with the immense pressure that many Japanese mothers feel to raise well-behaved, well-groomed and well-adjusted children that experts say can make for a deadly combination. “Typically they are excessively serious about rearing their children and strict about teaching manners so their kids can behave in front of other people,” says Yasuko Takahashi, a clinical psychologist and counselor to abusive mothers in Saitama, of the women she sees in her group therapy sessions. “They believe they are doing it for their children’s sake.”
Another factor adding to the strain felt by many Japanese parents is the increasing lack of communication with the outside world. “I think a lot of it has to do with urbanization,” says Kawanishi. “Nowadays, it’s basically like living with a bunch of strangers. I’ve never even talked to my neighbors. And the worst is this apartment-complex life; it’s not helping lonely mothers at all.”
Isolation, whether in the form of separation from concerned relatives and friends, or in the secluded apartments of high-rise Japanese cities, is in fact a prime factor in most cases of abuse.
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Child abuse expert Dr. Eli Newberger cites the issues surrounding discipline and punishment as among the most confused in childcare
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“Most severe cases of abuse, in virtually every instance, were in homes where there were no lines of connection to family or professional support,” notes Dr. Eli Newberger, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School with 32 years of experience dealing with abuse as founder of the Child Protection Team at Children’s Hospital in Boston.
The past few decades have seen the rise of another trend relatively new to the Japanese family dynamic: dekichatta kekkon (shotgun marriages). “Most shotgun marriages are among very young people,” says Kawanishi, who attributes this to a loosening of sexual practices and a lack of birth control options. “So we’ve seen this kind of polarization between sexually educated women who are waiting longer and longer on the one hand and on the other hand this very different group of very young, uneducated women who are getting pregnant very early.”
Lacking much life experience outside their own homes, these young parents also have the potential to join another group that’s at high risk of becoming abusers: single parents. Forced to support themselves and their children in a depressed economy, Japan’s single parents have been identified by the government as needing particular support.
“Since single parenthood is one of the causes of child abuse, people should extend a helping hand to single-parent families,” says Mr Ohta, head of the children’s consultation division at the health ministry.
Breaking the chain
Having established child abuse as a rapidly growing social problem, the Japanese government is now charged with finding ways to stop it. In addition to the recently enacted prevention law, which allows it to challenge custody rights by banning abusive parents from having contact with their children, the federal government has strengthened support services by allotting subsidies to municipalities, distributing manuals on detection and treatment of abuse to childcare workers and police officers, and conducting studies on the handling of abuse cases.
“We must work on manuals designed to respond to cases, and as far as deaths are concerned, quick discovery is necessary, so the involvement of police and other related authorities is necessary,” says Ohta. “Comprehensive involvement is necessary, as has been carried out until now.”
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But those on the front lines say these efforts are far from enough. “Right now the governmental eye goes more to the older generation and their care,” says Chizuko Yaita, the sole therapist at the residential care center housing Kenji and his sisters. “I know you can’t compare, but they have to realize that kids are also very important for Japan’s future.”
Yaita has been counseling abused children for the past two years at a center housing 80 children from 3 to 18 years old. But the US-trained therapist says the salary the government offers is so low she can only afford to work at the center three days a week. Meanwhile, the care workers who deal with the children on a daily basis are stretched to the limit.
“The hardware is getting better, but the software is not enough,” Yaita says, noting that almost every care center has had to turn children away because they’re already full. “We need more care workers for the situation to get better. Sometimes it’s impossible to do even the simple things because they don’t have enough time or hands.”
According to a survey conducted by the health ministry, many prefectures and large cities have only one child consultation center, the first point of contact for intervention in abuse cases. Even more troubling, most workers at these centers receive only one or two days of training. With local governments controlling these centers as well as elementary schools and day-care facilities, the level of protection for young Japanese can vary widely from city to city and prefecture to prefecture.
Volunteer organizations have made efforts to fill in where government support runs out, staffing emergency hotlines for children and parents, offering local childcare services, and reaching out to isolated families. But old habits can be hard to break, particularly in Japan, where psychological care is still in its relative infancy.
“The word counseling scares people,” says the psychologist Takahashi, adding that it has taken her a year to establish a level of trust with the mothers she counsels. “There has to be some kind of unique cultural adaptation of counseling.”
According to Yaita, the concept of counseling was only introduced to most residential care centers two years ago, when the government made funding available to hire therapists. But with budgets still stretched, most care centers cannot afford more than two therapists for up to 80 residents. Perhaps more worrisome, outside of volunteer groups and the efforts of concerned care workers, there is no established system to counsel the abusers.
“The parents are the problem, right?” says Yaita. “This is very bad; because of a lack of number of care workers, they don’t have time for [the parents]. In the States, those parents must do something, like group therapy, but we don’t have those regulations.”
Adding to this is the fact that while there are strong grassroots efforts as well as newly enacted laws, including one obliging medical workers to look for signs of child abuse at mandatory health checks for children aged 18 months to 3 years, there are no penalties for not reporting suspected abuse. The handling of child abuse in the courts is also relatively new, with convicted offenders receiving widely varying jail terms—or, as was the case with a Fukui Prefecture couple convicted of causing the death of their 11-month-old daughter early this month, suspended sentences.
Therefore, as the country struggles to come to grips with abuse and all its elements, it appears unlikely to most that the situation will improve anytime soon. “Judging from the past,” says Ohta, “it does not look like cases will decrease this year or next.”
To learn more about child abuse, report a suspected case, or get involved in its prevention, contact any of the following organizations.
Main child consultation center in Tokyo
Report a suspected case, talk to counselors, and receive information from the local government. Tel: (03) 3208-1121. In case of emergency, call police at 03-3212-2111 (English) or 110 (Japanese).
Center for Child Abuse Prevention
Call the hotline, learn about prevention, and volunteer for events and other services. Tel: 03-5374-2990 (Japanese).
Child Research Net
Read articles on all aspects of child development, share ideas, and attend conferences.
www.childresearch.net
Tokyo English Life-Line
Talk to counselors, receive support, and volunteer as a counselor.
Tel: 03-5774-0992.
Clean Energy and It’s Dangerous Waste
Executives join business students on Mideast trip
When Qamar Ahmed embarks on a trip to Israel and Jordan as part of an Edwards School of Business course, he will also be on a personal journey of discovery.
“My great-grandfather has a mosque named after him in (Haifa) Israel and I just got confirmation we will be visiting that mosque,” said Ahmed, who is originally from Pakistan.
“That will be really meaningful for me because no one from my close or extended family has ever visited the mosque, so I’ll be the first.”
Ahmed is one of 16 students accepted for the Mining & Entrepreneurship in Israel and Jordan course — a 10-day tour (May 2-12) where students will cover an array of topics, including conducting international business, opportunities and entrepreneurship in the Middle East and Saskatchewan’s role in global-food security.
They will be visiting educational, industrial, environmental and cultural sites across Israel and Jordan.
“The goal of the trip is to look at the business side of Israel and see the success they have in terms of the culture they have created … how such a small country has made itself such a big player within international technology market as well as natural resources, which is potash,” Ahmed said.
Edwards Dean Daphne Taras said the three-credit course helps give a more global focus to the undergraduate curriculum.
“We should be going to a country or countries in which there is a substantial synergy between the trip and our own interests,” Taras said.
Potashcorp. has come on board as a major sponsor of the trip, and the students will visit two companies they have a stake in — Israel Chemicals Ltd. (14 per cent) and Arab Potash Company (28 per cent).
Taras said a unique part of the trip is having business leaders accompany the group.
Potashcorp’s CFO Wayne Brownlee will be with the group for the first week of the tour as will Lionel Labelle, president and CEO of Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership (STEP), along with other business leaders.
Kate Simpson, a third-year marketing student, said seeing how different cultures address entrepreneurship will be educational. “I come from a family of entrepreneurs. It’s in my blood so I’m really excited to explore the entrepreneurship in the Middle East,” Simpson said. “Im looking forward to visiting the startup companies as well as experiencing the culture and visiting the historical landmarks and sites.”
Ahmed agreed looking at issues from another viewpoint will be invaluable. “To get that first-hand perspective from someone else will be pretty interesting.”
Other highlights of the tour include visiting Better Place, a leading global provider of electric-car networks, business around the Dead Sea and students and professors at the University of Jordan and business school in Israel.
“Every minute on the trip will be a teachable moment,” said Taras.
Once they return home the students will write a paper. They will also give a presentation on a topic they have chosen while on the trip.
Kate Simpson
Qamar Ahmed
United Nations – Agenda 21: Centralized Power
Published On May 30, 2012 by Akashma Online News
By Marivel Guzman

UN-United Nations- Centralized Government

Agenda 21 is a comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally, nationally, and locally by organizations of the United Nations System, Governments, and Major Groups in every area in which human impacts on the environment.
For over 60 years, ‘The Men Behind the curtain’ had been working diligently to establish a one central office of power, a centralized body, where they can manage the ‘Affairs of Earth.’ For this reason they created the United Nations in 1945, which is an offshoot of the League of Nations which was an organization imposed to the losers of the World World II as a requisite to sign into the Treaty of Versailles that ended the war. They also created the International Monetary Fund in 1945, Israel in 1948, NATO in 1949.
All conveniently sold to the world with an specific purpose: NATO is the armed branch of the global elite, UN being the diplomatic branch, IMF the financier, Monsanto the world’s seed controller, and Israel the brat-idiosyncrasy branch-wrapped- religiously-pity-package that stats civil wars, revolutions and global conflicts at will. (Before Israel was invented and inserted in the Middle East, The Zionist Organization was the stirring force)
For years, the use of the New World Order (NWO) was sounding more like a conspiracy theory than any other thing. In addition, the propaganda machine (Controlled Media/MainstreamMedua) that controls what gets out to the people had the project under wraps.
By now, the centralized office of the United Nations is at full control of Earth, and little can be said that had not been said before regarding their aims for the human race.
Well, if I tell you that they want to enslave the human race, I will sound too radical, and maybe I would sound a little bit lunatic, and most probably, everyone will laugh. If you believe me or not, it does not change the situation.
It calls Agenda 21- known as “Sustainable Development”.
Sustainable Development views the American way of life as wasteful and greedy and teaches that man is living beyond the Earth’s carrying capacity. While often promoted as environmental stewardship or simply “going green” the true nature of Sustainable Development is actually about controlling the Earth’s resources, – Think Monsanto, Seed Vault, IMF’s rapacious measures, oil companies- just to name the few more important.
Understand that humans have the tendency to day-dreaming and believe what make them feel comfortable with. It is natural. Centuries of mental abuse have forced humanity to shield itself in a type of narcotic state of uncomfortably numbness like Pink Floyd called it.
It is easy to let the world roll in front of us. As long as we don’t get caught up in the avalanche of worldly affairs, we get to live another day.
I mean, it is easy just to wake up and go to work waiting for the paycheck to arrive so we can buy our food and keep us alive for another day.
Who wouldn’t want to have a stable job that guarantees a plate of food in their table? Right?! No one wants to see himself digging in the trash cans for leftovers. It isn’t a nice sight, so we maintain the Status Quo, and we ignore what happens to the majority of humanity.
Starvation is an engineered social disease.
We must think that life is not that simple for billions of beings around the world. Surviving for millions is not just having something to fill their stomach with, and maybe digging in a trash can to find food it is a simple trill to survive. For millions, there are no trash cans to dig up for food, not even the smell of food for miles around.
There are serious starvation issues in many countries around the world. Even thought there are millions of warehouses filled with seeds of many kinds, and preserved foods that can feed millions of people and still keep 90 percent of their supplies.
Know that thousands of tons of vegetables is thrown out to the animals for the only reason to keep their prices high in the stock market.
There are millions of people dying regularly as a result of structured wars planned and officially stamped by the Security Council of the United Nations.
All it takes is a big fish like United States, France, China, Russia or Piranha like Israel to tell the Security Council they need to bring a country to order immediately
If you have kept up with the latest news of the last 30 years at least you will notice what “order” means for the globalists.
Control of all countries’s leaders, and control of their natural resources, including people as a slave labor”
If a president is very popular in his country and populist with its internal policies-remember Hugo Chavez- if he is implementing social reforms that are intended to bring social changes, that undoubtedly will bring equality and social justice to his country immediately the bells ring in the higher spheres of the United Nations Cabal and the president is summon to one the UN offices which are placed somewhere around the world to warn the individual, to stop those actions of goodness to the people.
If the president refuses to comply, the cabal has the means to bring it to its knees. coups, embarrassment, harassment, isolation, or assassinations.
Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, and by now every country of South America have been targeted by the cabal using sanctions, and sadly after creating chaos, they are forced to take Internation Monetary Fund’s loans. As you should know, these loans come attached with policy reforms like austery measures.
The warnings come in different colors and flavors: First, the propaganda machine at full blown starts its campaign of misformation, full spin, and debunking information against the president in question policies.
We are familiar with these stunts of propaganda. We have seen it over and over throughout the years. They are vicious, and sometimes they had ended in coups, the destruction of whole countries, and disintegration of their societies.
Libya is the latest example of the reach of the United Nations War Arm, NATO troops destroyed the infrastructure of Libya and killed thousands of innocent civilians.
Iraq and Afghanistan were destroyed. Syria was closed, but survived.
Structured Wars that serve to maintain fear in the population.
The following Bold sections recapitulate UN branches of control.
From seeds, food production, food control, water rights and distribution, housing, forestry, agricultural rights, and security.
UN has achieved the total control with the help of a few giants. Monsanto is in charge of controlling food supplies. IMF in charge of controlling the money influx and internal policies of various nations.
NATO enforcing the policies of the UN, and Israelplaysg the stirrer of conflicts.
Read United States-Israel Enhance Security Cooperation Act 2012.
This document is signed every year since 1948-You will understand why Israel gets away with crimes every time.
Security Council
UN charter is to keep global peace and security.. They do the opposite
Read The Role of the General Assembly of the United Nations vs the Security Council Arbitrary Practices
The Security Council has the primary responsibility, under the UN Charter, of maintenance of international peace and security. A reform of the Security Council, including its membership, is under consideration.
The Security Council takes the lead in determining the existence of a threat to the peace or an act of aggression. It calls upon the parties to a dispute to settle it by peaceful means and recommends methods of adjustment or terms of settlement.
Under Chapter VII of the Charter, the Security Council can take enforcement measures to maintain or restore international peace and security. Such measures range from economic sanctions to international military action. The Council also establishes UN Peacekeeping Operations and Special Political Missions.
Security Council Subsidiary Bodies
Well all that only in paper. Ask Palestine, how many times it has requested peacekeeping troops to deter Israel from irs continues aggressions.
The capitalist system that rules our world is like a cancer that grows inside a society. When the good tissue dies, the infected tissue grows without benefit for the body where it lives.
The corporate structure that makes possible this capitalist system to survive is a pariah entity that lives out of other structures that support the pariah with their work.
The base of every country is their society , which is structured also in a pyramid scheme, where the belief system in place control everything that it is taught, believed, and done. They use education, family, religion, and the judiciary systems to maintain the control of society.
“The Elite networ, in general, can manipulate and deceive most of its own membership because it is structured like a pyramid. If you look at any organization, from a small business to a multinational corporation, you will see the same pyramid structure. At the top will be a very few people who know everything there is to know about the organisation, its motivation, agenda, and the direction it wishes to go. The further you descend from the peak, you meet more and more people who know less and less about that overall picture. They are only aware of their part in the organization and not everyone else’s. This is a manipulator’s dream, and it is the means through which the Elite can control so many people and organizations across the world.” David Icke
The globalist agenda of the Elite is set up in such a web, that their corporations are inserted in every country in a way that society/people do not notice the structures, because they become part of the governments that they control, and they rule the government through many organizations which work in behalf of these corporations.
The higher up structures of this pyramid scheme are controlled by the judiciary bodies of every country, and they all coordinate their activities directly from the United Nations Inter regional Crime and Justice Research Institute.
According to their documentation, the World Criminological Directory covers almost 500 institutes in some 90 countries, including academic institutions, governmental institutes, NGOs, private institutes, and international organizations.
It is a very scary thought that the UN controls what happens in my city. They use shadowy NGO’s and umbrella institutions that collect all the information that feed their database.
Crime Prevention Network
The network of institutes was established by the Secretariat of the United Nations, in cooperation with the Mlmember states. It has been developed to assist the international community in strengthening international cooperation in the crucial area of crime prevention and criminal justice in the global, regional, and sub-regional levels.
Interested yet?
The Institutions and organizations that comprise the Crime Prevention Network of the United Nations looks benign and probably too complicated to understand at first sigh. You need to search in all their branches and dig deep in their structure and find out that the rabbit hole goes deeper than we can even imagine.
“Its easier to kill a million people…than it is to control them” Zbigniew Brzezinski
One of their institutions, the Basel Institute on Governance based in Basel Switzerland, supposedly find corruption and find money that it is illicit generated, and when they find the money, what happen to that money?
Did Cuba got all the money stolen by the American Corporations during the United States take over of Cuban Economy, the money stolen by the Corrupt Mexican Presidents that ruled Mexico and run with the money to US banks or Switzerland banks. The billions of dollars stolen from Libya by American banks, where it is that money?
Where are the trillions of dollars stolen to the North American (US) citizens using the House Market as bait. Is the Basel Institute working to bring the money back to the people?
According to the United Nations Basel Institute, The International Center for Asset Recovery of the Institute is specialized in the training and assistance of developing countries on the practical issues of tracing, confiscating and repatriating the proceeds of corruption, money laundering and related crimes.
Basel Institute on Governance · Basel, Switzerland
The Basel Institute on Governance is an independent and non-profit institution associated with the University of Basel. The main responsibilities of the Institute include the conduct of scientific research, policy advice and the support of capacity building in the area of public, corporate, and global governance. Its primary objective evolves around the fight against corruption and money laundering. These aims are pursued through assistance in the establishment of regulation mechanisms and compliance systems.
They present themselves as a Righteous Office to find criminals and fight crime, but in reality, what do they do? Maybe they cripple prospering economies, who knows if they use Drug Administration Organizations Cartels to create illicit business under the radar of the local eye of the population, but they generate a booming business that finance big global projects, but on the surface they are Fighting Crime Organizations.
Some Wars Aren’t Meant to Be Won
The Corruption and Crime in the higher levels of government have grown up in the last 30 years.
The War on Drugs that have taken so many lives and resources of the countries involved, have not worked.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and their branches around the world with all their fancy offices and high paid officers and employees have done nothing to help with the Drug Addiction which it is considered a disease by the American Medical Association and many Medical Association around the world, and with all the criminalization on drug use, society is crippled because people it is being incarcerated instead to being treated in a rehabilitation clinic.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations works to alleviate poverty and hunger by promoting agricultural development, improved nutritio, and the pursuit of food security. The organizationn offers direct development assistance, collects, analyses, and disseminates information, provides policy and planning advice to governments, and acts as an international forum for debate on food and agriculture issues.
If the United Nations have the control and security of food supplies to feed the people, then what it is the role of local organizations funded by the various governments, like the Department of Agriculture of the US, Agriculture Department of any other country?
Who control who?
The Codex Alimentarius, or the food code, has become the global reference point for consumers, food producers and processors, national food control agencies, and the international food trade. The code has had an enormous impact on the thinking of food producers and processors as well as on the awareness of the end users – the consumers. Its influence extends to every continent, and its contribution to the protection of public health and fair practices in the food trade is immeasurable.
I can analyze this this Codex Alimentarius several times, and when I go to the market and I do not have enough money to buy my grocery list, what good does it do?
I look at the starving children in the above picture. I doubt. they even read.
What a waste of money invested in crafting this Codex, I wonder how much does it costs to keep this Codex Updated, it is ludicrous when we have millions of people starving.
MONSANTO comes to mind. This entity has been left to manipulate the production of seeds, cattle, and vegetation around the world. It has become so powerful that Monsanto it is as dangerous as War Itself.
Monsato it is so sinister in their aims of controlling the food production that have been called The Evil Empire. They sold their idea to the world with their Seed Gene Modification invention. They said, they will create a New World, where there never be any shortage of food,
They promise great harvest and never ending production of food. But as we move along in history, and since Monsanto came to control the food supplies, the world has entered a new type of war.
Does Monsanto operate outside of United Nations mandate, or United Nations serve the Interest of Monsato.
So we wonder what it is the role of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United nations.
FAO, which operates multiple networks of satellites and Global Imagery Sensors that map the whole world.
The Codex Alimentarius Goals is to control globally what it food id produced, and supplemental intakes such vitamins and herbals.
Obama EXECUTIVE ORDER
ESTABLISHING THE NATIONAL PREVENTION, HEALTH PROMOTION, AND PUBLIC HEALTH COUNCIL
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 4001 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148), it is hereby ordered as follows:
“Section 6 (g) contains specific plans to ensure that all prevention programs outside the Department of Health and Human Services are based on the science-based guidelines developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under subsection (d) of this section.” Entire Executive Order
In other words, ALL prevention programs, even those outside of the umbrella of the Department of Health and Human Services, must align with CDC guidelines, which are “science-based.”
What do we understand for prevention? Herbs and vitamins. Herbs that you grow in your backyard and vitamins that are not approved by your doctor do not fall under these “science-based” guidelines, and are not allowed. Therefore, this will effectively open the door to outlawing ALL disease prevention practices that use herbs and vitamins not prescribed by a doctor, and implement CODEX ALIMENTARIUS right here in theU.S.A. !
Eyes in the Sky – Satellites
Who own them? Who are they watching?
United Nations Operates Some and Participate in the Management of others.
I’m confused about the United Nations . Is Global Entity more powerful than the Nations that comprised it?
Isn’t the United Nations created by the goodwill of the nations that wanted global peace?…
GeoNetwork
Through the application of multitemporal low and high resolution satellite imagery, and GIS map services
AsiaCover
through the application of GIS maps and high resolution satellite imagery:generation of consistent, timely high resolution land cover and supplemental information for seven countries in South East Asia; collection of detailed metadata on existing datasets in compliance with ISO 19115 standard, using the GeoNetwork technology
AFRICOVER – Land Cover Mapping and Global Land Cover Network (GLCN) Initiative
through the application of high resolution satellite data (Landsat TM/ETM)
Establishment of a digital georeferenced database on land cover and a geographic referential for the whole of Africa; being extended to global level under the GLCN initiative.
Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS) through the application of integrated ground and space-based environmental observations:
observations, modelling, and analysis of terrestrial ecosystems to support sustainable development;
access to information on terrestrial ecosystems so that researchers and policy makers can detect and manage global and regional environmental change
AgrometShell (AMS)
through processing and modelling of low resolution, high frequency satellite imagery and ground observations:
development of analytical software tools to evaluate the effect of weather on crop yields.
Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS) with the use of the Advanced Real Time Environmental Monitoring Information System (ARTEMIS)
through the application, among others, of global low resolution satellite data and ground observations from meteorological stations:
establishment of a system for monitoring global food supply and demand situation using, in addition to socio-economic data and information, remote sensing and ground based environmental observations for crop condition assessment.
Southern African Development Community (SADC) Regional Remote Sensing Unit with the use of ARTEMIS
through the application of low and high resolution satellite data and ground observations from meteorological stations:
development of regional remote sensing and GIS capacity to support food security early warning and environmental assessment in the SADC countries.
Why the United Nations would be involved in the agriculture of the countries, if UN can not even avert wars, or can not even have the consent of 5 countries when they want to destroy a nuisance of a country, as it happen with Iraq.
There is more that United Nations Control, the World Bank and the International Monetary fund, two weapons of war that makes the poorer countries pry of the Rich Global Corporations that in agreement with the United Nations get their pawns into the national resources of the countries and manage their internal sociology-economical and political policies, keeping the entire population subject to poverty and addicted to public welfare that it is at the same time another Corporate strategy to control the population.
World Bank Mandate
Makes no sense that the institution that is supposed to help the people, it is actually making us poorer.
The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are two mobsters that control the economy of the poorer countries.
The World Bank is the world’s largest source of development assistance and uses its financial resources, highly trained staff, and extensive knowledge base to help each developing country onto a path of stable, sustainable, and equitable growth in the fight against poverty.
In reality they keep the countries they “help” in a leash of control, low salaries for the people as a condition to lend money to the country, and higher interest to the people to “Control Inflation”, but they reserve the low interest loans for the banks, the rich in other words.
Do you see why there are so many protests when the G8 makes their Global Meetings, where they discuss the next strategy to control another chunk of the world?
Did you witness the thousands of protesters in Greece that were fighting against their government for the austerity measure that needed to be imposed on people as a condition for the European Union to give another loan?
Isn’t sad that States (nations)allows the banks and corporations to ruin our world, specially the War Complex Machine?
Time to WAKE UP and SHAKE out the conformity from our reality.
You need to know what it is happening around you, do not bury your head in the sand, thinking that the calamities you see dar away in your computers would pass through you and not affect you. Your children future is at stake. The human race is in its way to extinction. A hybrid race and AI is taken a hold of the world.
If we do not do something about it. At least as a free man, thinkers and owners of our own future.
Please be informed, and be part of the political process of your community and your country. Do not let it be in the hands of the career politicians.
They work for profits, not for us.
Be part of the solidarity movement that is growing bigger and stronger. We want peace for our world, we want justice and equality. Be part of the invisible revolution
I m skeptical mind, and I doubt everything, and do not trust any one that is a product of the Globalist Elitist groups, of Banksters, War Complex Machine, Energy Industry Icons, Monsanto Corporation, Pharmaceutical Industry, Global Churches or Fundamental Religious Groups, or any other group or individual who makes everything possible to divide us, to kills us, ignore us, numb us, or sicken us.
I ask you to investigate, to share any truth that you discover or uncover, any information that is good for us, the human family on earth. And the same way I wish with all my heart that everyone, will come with us, to be part of our awakening family, to rise to the occasion. Tosavee our world.
STAY HUMAN!
Support futurist and visionary activist and Artist Peter Charles from United Natures
Terrorists vs Criminals – Just An Opinion
Posted on February 18, 2012 by Marivel Guzman
Who are The Terrorists? – Who are the Criminals?
In small countries or third world countries the corruption is rampant, disproportionate and selective.
You find corruption in every level of society, but the more damaging is the Government Corruption.
The bribes are every day offered and accepted for the more minimal services and the big bribes are common in the upper levels of Government, being to acquire a good position in a bureaucratic job, tor get government juicy contracts, off course on that the Western rich countries champion the the little poor countries (Halliburton and Black water come to mind)
These can be considered small crimes, but the BIG Crimes are being committed between Countries, on the top executive levels of power.
These Criminal Enterprises are committing unspeakable terrorists acts to inflict fear, these shadow entities are deep nested inside the government apparatus, financed by powerful lobbyists firms that serve various branches of the International Cartel of Banksters and War Complex Machine, all under the umbrella of the government they serve.
Every one is using the term “terrorist” very loose, since Bush and Company started their “War in Terror”, the whole world have jumped into the terror wagon rhetoric speech, without realizing that every body have caught these infectious social diseases called “passive syndrome response and passive aggressive behavior”, where fear is used to generate a response to a premeditated event. The word TERROR, AND TERRORIST are the target words that generate the behavior expected by the planners of the program.
A criminal person is not precisely a terrorist, and a terrorist is not precisely a criminal person.
There is a significant distance between a person committing a simple crime and a terrorist committing a crime, even thought booth acts involving some amount of violence, not the two are the same.
A terror act is intended to inflict a psychological traumatic experience to the target individuals or group of individuals.
A criminal act is intended to terminate life, or to gain some personal or financial benefit from the act.
Now days the Governments are using this confusion to advance in the agendas set up by the entities that work under the secrecy and protected by the money they control.
Whole countries are being victims of their own government programs of control. In the US congress is in the dark of many operations carry out by the Department of Defense and its millitary private contractors which are mercenaries in every sense of the word.
The whole criminal code in many countries have been updated to fit their new mechanism of a global stage and to get rid of unwanted individuals, or to cripple their abilities to perform in society.
The cooperation between countries to “Fight Terrorism” is just a tool that have severed the sovereignty of many Nations.
The Globalists and its Agenda is moving to control the whole world, already divided like a pie in four regions; European Union, North American Union, African Union and Arab League of Nations.
Munich 72, 11 Israeli Olympic Players Sacrificed
Posted on May 17, 2012 by Akashma Online News
There are always 2 sides to the story, On September 6, 1972 in the quarters of the Israeli Olympic Team another story was being played out. In an attempt to pressure Israel to release 200 Palestinians prisoners held in Israel jails, Palestinian Resistance Movement known as Black September have planned to exchange the Olympic hostages for their Nationals in Israeli Jails.
The German Government felt that was their duty to resolve the kidnapping issue, there were two points that needs to be noted:
- First -For years Germany was being made feel guilty after a long “Guilty PR campaign”, the actions of Adolph Hitler have followed every German until now to feel guilty of what is known as the Nazi Holocaust during the Second World War, where millions of European Civilians died, in one of the worse massacres that humanity know of.
- Second– Germany was the host country of the Munich Olympic Games 72.
After two days of negotiations, where the Palestinian Group have refused the offers of money or security for their persons, their only goal was the liberation of 200 Palestinians Resistance Fighters, and nothing else, finally on September 6 and after arduous negotiations, The German Government agreed to provide an airplane to take them to a friendly country and 3 helicopters to transport them to the air field of Furstenfeldbruck military airbase, and the Promise form the Israel Government to release the prisoners.
Now that the world knows, the way Israel operates, its deceitful practices, it’s lack of seriousness on negotiations, with unfulfilled promises and it’s complete neglect of Palestinians rights, we can get to the conclusion that Israel in Munich 72, never intended to liberate the prisoners, the fact that the German police start shooting at the Palestinians and hostages on Israel Orders tell us that the operation and negotiations to liberate the hostages, was a false flag operation of PR campaign from part of Israel to demonize more the Palestinian Resistance Movement in an attempt to steal more land with impunity and to kill Palestinians with the complete assurance that the world will hate the “Palestinians as terrorists”…
Witnesses at the airport said the shooting began when police snipers opened fire on the militants. You have to recreate in your mind the situation in the airport, the militants and hostages were in the same cabin of the helicopters, meaning that the police was not ensuring the lives of the hostages.
According to witnesses, the police started shooting at the helicopters as soon as they touch ground, and “the news were already circulating in the Press that the Terrorists have blown up the Helicopter with the hostages inside, which was dismissed later on.
News of the deaths was confirmed at 0310 pm German Time, contradicting an earlier announcement by a Munich police officer that all the hostages had been released and four of the kidnappers captured. All the Israeli PR machine was working full time, disseminating debunking information on the events.
German authorities agreed to demands by the Palestinians to supply them with an airplane, and provided three helicopters to take them to the airport.
The gun battle started almost immediately after the helicopters landed at the airport.
Bavarian Minister of the Interior Bruno Merk confirmed Munich’s police chief had given the order to open fire. BBC, September 6, Munich 72
After the events of September 1972, Golda Meir authorized the formation of Mossad directed covert action teams to find and assassinate those individuals responsible for the attack on the Israeli athletes in Munich.
Israel for more than 20 years used the events of Munich 72 as excuse, to assassinate Palestinians Political Adversaries, Potential Palestinians leaders, and/or Important Palestinians supporters around the world.
Since Israel creation, the use of terrorism against Palestinians to justify Israel forced existence in stolen lands, have became the worse nightmare for Palestinians in the occupied territories living in West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem and Palestinians scattered around the world that live as refugees without any rights.
The the world also feels the insecurity with a Psychopath Pariah State that have used Apartheid System to segregate the native Palestinian Population to humiliate and maintain a position of subjugation and fear, and that with the support of other terrorists powerful allies from the West have financed Israel Nuclear programs and have stayed mouth shout on this issue pretending that Nuclear Israel does not exist. The middle east have become a tickling bomb.
Israel making use of its eternal victim hood and trying to perpetuate that image, recently requested to the International Olympic Committee in London to hold a minute of silence for the victims of the assault on Munich 72, trying to initiate an Olympic Tribute for Israel victims only, as if there are not other victims on violence on every spot on Earth and Israeli deaths are the only ones that matter. They themselves are the Number 1 suspects and perpetrators in numerous campaigns of terror in Occupy Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and in many places in the world, where they are known to create false flags operations, do not forget the King David Hotel Bombing, that for many years was blamed on Palestinian.
the International Olympic Committee will not hold a moment of silence to honor the victims, despite a request from Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon. The decision, handed down Thursday, left Israeli officials fuming.
Some Radical Jews groups in London have called for boycott on the the London Olympic Games 2012, while the conscience world has been asking to boycott Israel and ban it from participating in the Olympics.
Israel Administrative Detention Ilegal Practive
Posted On May 15, 2012 by Marivel Guzman
All the rights reserved for Addammer, article published only for information purpose, not intended for commercial use.
Administrative Detention
Administrative detention is a procedure that allows the Israeli military to hold prisoners indefinitely on secret information without charging them or allowing them to stand trial. Although administrative detention is used almost exclusively to detain Palestinians from the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), which includes the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, Israeli citizens and foreign nationals can also be held as administrative detainees by Israel (over the years, only 9 Israeli settlers have been held in administrative detention). Israel uses three separate laws to hold individuals without trial:
- Article 285 of Military Order 1651, which is part of the military legislation applying in the West Bank;
- Internment of Unlawful Combatants Law (Unlawful Combatants Law), which has been used against residents of the Gaza Strip since 2005;
- Emergency Powers (Detentions) Law, which applies to Israeli citizens.
Palestinians have been subjected to administrative detention since the beginning of the Israeli Occupation in 1967 and before that time, under the British Mandate. The frequency of the use of administrative detention has fluctuated throughout Israel’s occupation, and has been steadily rising since the outbreak of the second intifada in September 2000.
On the eve of the second intifada, Israel held 12 Palestinians in administrative detention. Only two years later, in late 2002-early 2003, there were over one thousand Palestinians in administrative detention. Between 2005 and 2007, the average monthly number of Palestinian administrative detainees held by Israel remained stable at approximately 765. Since then, as the situation on the ground stabilized and violence tapered off, the number of administrative detaines has generally decreased every year. As of 1 April 2012, there were at least 322 Palestinians from the West Bank and East Jerusalem being detained in administrative detention, of which 24 were members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
Although international human rights law permits some limited use of administrative detention in emergency situations, the authorities are required to follow basic rules for detention, including a fair hearing at which the detainee can challenge the reasons for his or her detention. Moreover, to use such detention, there must be a public emergency that threatens the life of the nation, and detention can only be ordered on an individual, case-by-case basis without discrimination of any kind. (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 9).
Administrative detention is the most extreme measure that international humanitarian law allows an occupying power to use against residents of occupied territory. As such, states are not allowed to use it in a sweeping manner. To the contrary, administrative detention may be used against protected persons in occupied territory only for “imperative reasons of security” (Fourth Geneva Convention, Art.78).
In practice, Israel routinely uses administrative detention in violation of the strict parameters established by international law. Tellingly, Israel has claimed to be under a continuous state of emergency sufficient to justify the use of administrative detention since its inception in 1948. In addition, administrative detention is frequently used – in direct contravention to international law – for collective and criminal punishment rather than for the prevention of future threat. For example, administrative detention orders are regularly issued against individuals suspected of committing an offense after an unsuccessful criminal investigation or a failure to obtain a confession in interrogation.
In practice, Israel’s administrative detention regime violates numerous other international standards as well. For example, administrative detainees from the West Bank are deported from the occupied territory and interned inside Israel, in direct violation of Fourth Geneva Convention prohibitions (Articles 49 and 76). Further, administrative detainees are often denied regular family visits in accordance with international law standards, and Israel regularly fails to separate administrative detainees from the regular prison population as required by law. Moreover, in the case of child detainees, Israel regularly fails to take into account the best interests of the child as required under international law.
In the occupied Palestinian West Bank, the Israeli army is authorized to issue administrative detention orders against Palestinian civilians on the basis of article 285 of Military Order 1651. This article empowers military commanders to detain an individual for up to six-month renewable periods if they have “reasonable grounds to presume that the security of the area or public security require the detention”. No definition of “security of the area” or “public security” is given. On or just before the expiry date, the detention order is frequently renewed; there is no explicit limit to the maximum amount of time an individual may be administratively detained, leaving room for indefinite legal detention.
Administrative detention orders are issued either at the time of arrest or at some later date and are often based on “secret information” collected by the Israeli Security Agency (formerly known as the General Security Service). In the vast majority of administrative detention cases, neither the detainee nor his lawyer is ever informed of the reasons for the detention or given access to the “secret information”.
In practice, the Unlawful Combatants Law contains fewer protections for detainees than even the few that are granted under administrative detention orders in the West Bank. For example, judicial review is conducted less often; the legality of the detention does not require the existence of a state of emergency; and, the detention “is carried out pursuant to an order issued by the chief of staff or by an officer holding the rank of major general”. In addition, the law establishes two troubling presumptions that shift the burden of proof to the detainee: first, the release of an individual identified as an “unlawful combatant” will harm national security unless proven otherwise; second, the organization to which the detainee belongs carries out hostilities, if the Israeli Minister of Defense has made such a determination, unless proven otherwise. This practice patently violates the accused’s right to a presumption of innocence in any criminal proceeding, and results in a system of indefinite detention justified by mere speculation and stacked heavily against the detainee.
- The government of Israel should release all administrative detainees;
- In the meantime, administrative detainees must be granted their rights in accordance with international law;
- The government of Israel should immediately cease using the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law and take action to repeal it;
- EU member states should raise cases of administrative detainees with the Israeli government under the EU-Israel political dialogue.
More On Administrative Detention
Association’s (Addameer) legal activities. Addameer has also sought to expose the ways in which Israel’s use of administrative detention, as a
means of collective punishment and of exacting revenge on Palestinians in retaliation for exercising their political and civil rights, contravenes the permitted uses of administrative detention in international law. In March 2009, Addameer notably launched an international advocacy and lobbying campaign to stop administrative detention and highlight Israel’s illegal practices in this regard. Administrative Detention in The Occupied Palestine
Administrative Detainees
Administrative detention is a procedure that allows the Israeli military to hold prisoners indefinitely on secret information without charging them or allowing them to stand trial.
Palestinians have been subjected to administrative detention since the beginning of the Israeli Occupation in 1967 and before that time, under the British Mandate. The frequency of the use of administrative detention has fluctuated throughout Israel’s occupation, and has been steadily rising since the outbreak of the second intifada in September 2000. Palestinians Administrative Detainees
Palestinians from the OPT are currently held in a total of 4 interrogation centers, 4 military detention centers, and approximately 17 prisons. While the 4 military interrogation centers are located inside the OPT, all the interrogation centers and prisons—except for one prison, Ofer—are located within the 1948 borders of Israel, in violation of international humanitarian law. The location of prisons within Israel and the transfer of detainees to locations within the occupying power’s territory are illegal under international law and constitute a war crime. The Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly states that “Protected persons accused of offences shall be detained in the occupied country, and if convicted they shall serve their sentences therein” (Article 76). Prison and Detention Center
| Relevant Addameer publications |
Munir’s Story: 28 years after the Massacre at Sabra-Shatila
Posted on May 09, 2012 by Marivel Guzman
Original Story Published on September 07, 2010
By Dr. Franklin Lamb –
The author seen with children at Shatila Refugee Camps, unaware that some of their relatives and families’ friends were among the hundreds butchered against 11 such “walls of death” 28 years ago, on September 16-18, 1982. Photo: Courtesy of the author, Dr. Franklin Lamb.
The untreated psychic wounds are still open. Accountability, justice and basic civil rights for the survivors are still denied.
Scores of horror testimonies have been shared over the past nearly three decades by survivors of the September 1982 Sabra- Shatila massacre. More come to light only through circumstantial evidence because would be affiants perished during the slaughter. Other eyewitness are just beginning to emerge from deep trauma or self imposed silence.
Some testimonies will be shared this month by massacre survivors at Shatila camp. They will sit with the ever growing numbers of international visitors who annually come to commemorate one of the most horrific crimes of the 20th century.
There are no average massacre testimonies.
Zeina, a handsome bronzed-faced middle-aged woman, an acquaintance of Munir Mohammad’s family, asked a foreigner the other day: “How can it be 28 years? I think it was just last fall that my husband Hussam and our two daughters, Maya, 8 years old, and Sirham, 9 years old, left our two room home to search for food because the Israeli army had sealed Shatila camp nearly two days before and few inside Shatila Camp had any. I still pray and wait for them to return.”
In Shatila Palestinian refugee camp and outside Abu Yassir’s shelter, the bullet marks still cover the lower half of the 11 “walls of death” where some of the dried blood is mixed and feathered in with the thin mortar. An elderly gentleman named Abu Samer still has some souvenirs of the event: three American automatic pistols fitted with silencers, a couple of knives and axes that were strapped to some of the killers belts as they quickly and silently shot, carved and chopped whoever they came upon starting at around 6 pm on Thursday September 16, 1982. Plus a couple of whisky bottles. These weapons were gifted to Israel by the US Congress and subsequently issued along with drugs and alcohol and other “policing equipment” to the killers in his “most moral army” by Ariel Sharon.
Earlier this year, one of the murderers from the Numour al-Ahrar (Tigers of the Liberals) militia, the armed wing of Lebanon’s right-wing National Liberal Party founded by former Lebanese President Camille Chamoun, nonchalantly confessed, “we sometimes used these implements in order to advance silently through the alleys of Shatila so as not to cause unnecessary panic during our work.” The Tigers militia, one of five Christian killer units, was assisted inside Shatila by more than two dozen Israeli Mossad agents, and led in this blitz by none other than Dani Chamoun, son of the former President.
No plaque or sign notes what happened here.
The world learned of the slaughter at Sabra-Shatila on the morning of Sunday September 19, 1982. Photos, many now available on the Internet, taken by witnesses such as Ralph Shoneman, Mya Shone, Ryuichi Hirokawa, Ali Hasan Salman, Ramzi Hardar, Gunther Altenburg, and Gaza and Akka Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) Hospital staff, preserve the gruesome images deeply etched in the survivors memory. The Israeli Kahan Commission, five months later in its February 7, 1983 Report, substantially whitewashed Israeli responsibility referring more than once to the massacre as “a war.”
Zeina ushered me down a narrow alley from her house arriving at the 3 by 8 meter wall outside her sister’s home, spraying here and there with an aerosol can as we walked. She apologized for the spray but insisted that she and her neighbors could even now smell the slaughter that happened there three decades earlier.
For readers unfamiliar with the location of Shatila Palestinian Refugee Camp in Beirut, this particular “wall of death” is located across from the PRCS Akka Hospital, such as it is, after years without adequate financial or NGO support. Locating the 11 “walls of death” requires help from the few older Palestinians who still live in this quarter. They are among those still living at the scene and who still vividly recall the details of the massacre. Some provide personal history of some of the butchered, seemingly urging the dead to return by making them seem so alive, often describing a personality trait and the name of their family village in Palestine.
“A sweet boy who adored his older brothers Mutid and Bilal.”
Zeina recalls that Munir Mohammad was 12 years old on September 16, 1982, a pupil at the Shatila camp school, named Jalil (Galilee). Virtually all of the 75 remaining UNRWA schools in Lebanon, like other Palestinian institutions, are named after villages, towns or cities in occupied Palestine. Often they are named after villages that no longer actually exist, being among the 531 villages the Zionists colonizers obliterated during and after the 1947-48 Nakba (Catastrophe).
Zeina recalls that it was late on a Thursday afternoon, September 16, that the Israeli shelling had grown intense. Designed to drive the camp residents into the shelters, almost all of which Israeli intelligence, arriving the previous day in three white vehicles and posing as “concerned NGO staff” had identified and noted the coordinates on their maps. Some residents, thinking aid workers had come to help the refugees, actually revealed their secret sanctuaries. Other refugees, based on their experience in the crowded shelters during the preceding 75 days of indiscriminate, “Peace for Galilee” Israeli bombing of Shatila, suggested to the “aid workers” that the shelters needed better ventilation and perhaps the visitors would help provide it.
According to Zeina the Israeli agents quickly sketched the shelter locations, marked them with a red circle and returned to their HQ which was located less than 70 meters on the raised terrain at the SE corner of Shatila camp still known as Turf Club Yards. Today, this sandy area still contains three death pits which according to the late American journalist Janet Stevens is where some of the hundreds of still missing bodies of the more than 3,000 slaughtered are likely buried. Janet had theorized that there was a second Sabra-Shatila Massacre that occurred on Sunday morning, September 19th, which piggybacked the first and was conducted on the west side of Shatila inside the second Israeli-Phalange HQ, known as the Cite Sportiff athletic complex. As the Israeli soldiers took custody from the Phalange militia of the surviving refugees, trucks entered Cite Sportiff loaded with hundreds of camp residents on the back to be taken to “holding centers”. Family members forced to wait outside heard volleys of gunfire and screams from inside the complex. Hours later the same flat beds drove away to unknown locations, tarps covering the unseen mounded cargo.
Camp resident, Mrs. Sana Mahmoud Sersawi, one of the 23 complainants in the Belgium case filed against Ariel Sharon on June 16, 2001, (currently but not fatally sidetracked) explained:
“The Israelis who were posted in front of the Kuwaiti embassy and at the Rihab benzene station at the entrance to Shatila demanded through loudspeakers that we come to them. That’s how we found ourselves in their hands. They took us to the Cite Sportiff, and the men were marched behind us. But they took the men’s shirts off and started blindfolding them. The Israelis interrogated the young people and the Phalange delivered about 200 more people to the Israelis. And that’s how neither my husband nor my sister’s husband ever came back.”
Journalist Robert Fisk and others who studied these events, concur that more slaughter was done during the 24 hour period after 8 a.m. Saturday, the hour the Israeli Kahan Commission, which declined to interview any Palestinians, ruled that the Israelis had stopped all the killing.
Eyewitness testimony also established that the “aid workers” described by Zeina passed the shelter descriptions and locations to Lebanese Forces operatives Elie Hobeika and Fadi Frem, and their ally, Major Saad Haddad of the Israeli-allied South Lebanese Army. Thursday evening, Hobeika, de facto commander since the assassination the week previously of Phalange leader and President-elect Bachir Gemayel, led one of the death squads inside the killing field of the Horst Tabet area near Abu Yassir’s shelter.
It was in 8 of the 11 Israeli-located and marked shelters that the first of the massacre victims were quickly and methodically slaughtered. There being few perfect crimes, even in massacres, the killers failed to find 3 of the shelters. One of the overlooked shelters was just 25 meters from Abu Yassir’s shelter. Apart from these three undiscovered hiding places there were practically no Shatila shelter survivors.
American journalist David Lamb wrote about this first night of butchery and the “walls of death”:
“Entire families were slain. Groups consisting of 10-20 people were lined up against walls and sprayed with bullets. Mothers died while clutching their babies. All men appeared to be shot in the back. Five youths of fighting age were tied to a pickup truck and dragged through the streets before being shot.”
At around about 8 p.m. on September 18 Munir Mohammad entered the crowded Abu Yassir shelter with his mother Aida and his sisters and brothers Iman, Fadya, Mufid and Mu’in. Keeping the relatively few camp shelters for the woman and children while the men took their chances outside was a common practice as the massacre unfolded. But a few men did enter to help calm their young children.
“If any of you are injured, we’ll take you to the hospital.”
Munir later recalled events that night: “The killers arrived at the door of the shelter and yelled for everyone to come out. Men who they found were lined up against the wall outside. They were immediately machine gunned.” As Munir watched, the killers left to kill other groups and then suddenly returned and opened fire on everyone, and all fell to the ground. Munir lay quietly not knowing if his mother and sisters were dead. Then he heard the killers yelling: “If any of you are injured, we’ll take you to the hospital. Don’t worry. Get up and you’ll see.” A few did try to get up or moaned and they were instantly shot in the head.
Munir remembered: “Even though it was light out due to the Israeli flares over Shatila, the killers used bright flash lights to search the darkened corners. The killers were looking in the shadows”. Suddenly Munir’s mother’s body seemed to shift in the mound of corpses next to him. Munir thought she might be going to get up since the killers promised to take anyone still alive to the hospital. Munir whispered to her: “Don’t get up mother, they’re lying”. And Munir stayed motionless all night barely daring to breath, pretending to be dead.
Munir could not block out the killers words. Years later he would repeat to this interviewer as we passed the Shatila Burial ground known as Martyrs Square:
“After they shot us, we were all down on the ground, and they were going back and forth, and they were saying: ‘If any of you are still alive, we’ll have mercy and pity and take them to the hospital. Come on, you can tell us.’ If anyone moaned, or believed them and said they needed an ambulance, they would be rescued with shots and finished off there and then…What really disturbed me wasn’t just the death all around me. I…didn’t know whether my mother and sisters and brother had died. I knew most of the people around me had died. And it’s true I was afraid of dying myself. But what disturbed me so very much was that they were laughing, getting drunk and enjoying themselves all night long. They threw blankets on us and left us there till morning. All night long [Thursday the 16th) I could hear the voices of the girls crying and screaming, ‘For god’s sake, leave us alone.’ I mean…I can’t remember how many girls they raped. The girl’ voice, with their fear and pain, I can’t ever forget them.”
The same kind of dégagé is displayed by the half dozen confessed militia murderers featured in German director Monika Borgmann’s 2005 film Massaker, one of whom opined: “With hanging or shooting you just die, but this is double,” explaining how he took an old Palestinian man and held him back against a wall, slicing him open in the shape of a cross. “You die twice since you also die from the fear,” he said nonchalantly describing white flesh and bone as if in a charcuterie waiting to be served.
The killers also explained how they began a frantic rush to dispose of as many bodies as possible before the media entered Shatila. One testified how the Israeli army gave them large plastic trash bags to dispose of bodies. Another confessed that they forced people into army trucks to ferry them to Cite Sportiff where they were killed. And that they used chemicals to destroy many of the corpses. Several mentioned that Israeli army officers conferred with the militia’s leaders in Beirut on the eve of the massacres.
The venomous hatred persists to this day.
To this day, the Hurras al-Arz (Guardians of the Cedars) boasts of its role in the carnage. Less than two weeks before the massacre the party issued a call for the confiscation of all Palestinian property in Lebanon, the outlawing of home ownership and the destruction of all refugee camps.
The party statement of September 1, 1982 declared: “Action must be taken to reduce the numbers of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, until the day comes when no single Palestinian remains on our soil.”
In 1982 certain political parties referred to Palestinians as “a bacillus which must be exterminated” and graffiti on walls read: “The duty of every Lebanese is to kill a Palestinian”–the same hatred commonly expressed today in occupied Palestine among colonists, extremist Rabbis and politicians.
The ‘Guardians’ call for outlawing Palestinian refugee property ownership was indeed achieved in 2001 by a law drafted by current Minister of Labor, who pledged on September 1, 2010 that “Parliament will never allow Palestinian refugees the right to own property.”
The mentality that allowed the Massacre at Sabra-Shatila 1982 is largely unchanged in 2010, as Lebanon still resists the call of the international community to grant the survivors of the Sabra-Shatila massacre basic civil rights. Some who have studied the Arabic websites and observed gatherings of the political parties represented at the 1982 massacre, claim the hate language is actually worse today and is being used to stir up Parliamentary opposition Palestinian civil rights.
During the month following the 1982 Massacre, British Dr. Paul Morris treated Munir at Gaza Hospital approximately one kilometer north of Abu Yassir’s shelter, and kept the youngster under observation. Dr. Morris reported to researcher Bayan Nuwayhed al Hout (Sabra and Shatila: September 1982, Pluto Press, London, 2004) that Munir “Will smile once in a while, but he doesn’t react spontaneously like others of this age, except just occasionally.” Then the doctor banged on the table, and said: ‘The lad has to be saved. He has to leave the camp, if only for a while, to recover himself.”
When Munir was asked by al Hout if one day when he grew up and would be able to carry a weapon would he consider revenge. The pre-teen replied, replied: “No, No. I’d never think of revenge by killing children. The way they killed us. What did the children do wrong?”
Munir’s 15 year old brother Mufid was among the first to enter Abu Yassir’s shelter, but he left and later appeared at Akka Hoppital with a gunshot wound. After being bandaged he left the hospital to seek safety and his family. No one has seen him since and for a long time Munir could not even mention him.
According to camp residents, Munir’s older brother, Nabil, then 19 years old, being of fighting age would have been shot on sight by the killers. Aware of this, Nabil’s cousin and his cousin’s wife fled with him as the Israeli shelling increased and camp residents reported indiscriminate killing. The trio dodged sniper bullets to seek refuge in a nursing home where his aunt worked. Like Munir, Nabil soon learned that his mother and siblings were all dead.
Now in America, both Munir and Nabil are leading relatively ‘normal lives’ considering the horror and lost family they experienced while escaping death at Sabra-Shatila. Munir and Nabil have become a credit to Shatila camp, to Palestine and to their adopted country. Residing in the Washington DC area, Munir is married and busy with his career. Nabil is devoting his life to advocacy for peace and justice in the Middle East, working with an NGO. Both brothers return to Shatila camp regularly.
Also apparently living ‘normal lives’ are the six “Christian” militia killers featured in Borgmann’s film Massaker. “They are all living ordinary lives. One of them is a taxi driver,” Borgmann explains.
As is well known, the massacres at Sabra-Shatila were undeniable war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Each killing was a violation of international laws enshrined in the Fourth Geneva Convention, International Customary Law and jus cogens. Similar massive crimes have seen charges brought against Rwandan officials, Chile’s ex-president, General Augusto Pinochet, Chad’s former president, Hissein Habre, former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, Liberia’s Taylor and Sudan’s Bachir.
No one has been punished or even investigated for the Sabra-Shatila massacre. On March 28, 1991 Lebanon’s Parliament retroactively exempted the killers from criminal responsibility. However, this law has no standing in international law and the international community remains legally obligated to punish those responsible. The victims and their families of the Sabra-Shatila massacre as well as virtually all human rights organizations including but not limited to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Humanitarian Law Project, strenuously oppose blanket amnesty for the killers. They argue that the 1991 violates Lebanon’s constitution, as well as international law and promotes impunity for heinous crimes.
It was precisely to achieve justice for the victims of crimes such as Sabra-Shatila that the International Criminal Court was established. The ICC must begin its work without further delay and all people of goodwill must encourage Lebanon to grant the survivors of the Sabra-Shatila Massacre basic civil rights.
Dr. Franklin Lamb is Director, Americans Concerned for Middle East Peace, Beirut-Washington DC, Board Member of The Sabra Shatila Foundation, and a volunteer with the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign, Lebanon. He is the author of The Price We Pay: A Quarter-Century of Israel’s Use of American Weapons Against Civilians in Lebanon and is doing research in Lebanon for his next book. He can be reached at fplamb@gmail.com
Also see:
A Letter To Janet About Sabra-Shatilla By Franklin Lamb
A Shred of Truth that Vilify The Real Truth
The Out of Context Line That Can Sacrifice A whole Nation and Discredit A Legitimate Movement of Resistance.
“Abu Marzouk: Hamas won’t be bound by PA-Israel treaty”
DIME weapons were first used against Gaza by Israeli drones in the summer of 2006, when Palestinian medical personnel reported that it significantly increased the fatality rate among victims. Shortly after the DIME weapons were also trialled during the first week of the war in Lebanon in July 2006.
Fighting against misinformation it have been one of the biggest Fights For Palestine.
The first excerpts of an Interview published on Thursday 19 of April have sparked a whole new controversy on the position of Hamas regarding Israel and PA previous agreements.
To the informed readers comes to no surprise Hamas Position on Israel Illegal Existence on Palestine Lands, and vilifying the words of Abu Marzook taken out of context is irresponsible by writers, journalists and bloggers that add their “Side” of the story when their twisted, misinterpreted and purposely published Shreds of the Truth, that by the end of the day have become a whole new “Truth” and a story moving by the armies of bloggers and News Big and small around the world.
Hamas is an acronym of Harakat al Mawqawama al Islamiyya meaning “Islamic Resistance Movement.” The word Hamas also means “zeal.”
Since the article of Abu Marzook interview was first published more than 4000 News and bloggers published their version of the interview and more than 2 millions web sites have talk about it, and they have made their own interpretation of the interview and across the Headlines of the Editorials you can read with Bold Letters:
Hamas leader to Jewish paper: No peace with Israel
This remind me of the experiment done to a group of students that are given a “story” and they are suppose to pass the verbal story to a new student entering the room, by the time the last student is given the “Raw Story”, there is not a Shred of Truth on the story but only the idea of the original story, and the interpretation that every student have given to the story given to them, I mention you this little story/experiment because most probably you were part of this experiment sometimes in your life while in school. The same distortion of the truth is being passed over and over regarding Palestine, its leaders and its people.
The sole mention on an article of the world “Islamic” brings up bad taste of mouth and negative reaction from the well trained audience of the world that have developed a new social disease:
Islamophobia:
Phobia Intentional created, nurtured and spoiled as brat child. Once this brat is release in our society that has been already weakened with pain, wars and propaganda, is able to create the worse of the chaos, and the worst of the crimes, which is the acceptance of the crimes because the subconscious mind have already condoned it.
Phobia: A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder. It is a strong, irrational fear of something that poses little or no actual danger.
If you follow the stories that were generated after the interview that was first published on the 19 of April, you can not help but get outraged by the malicious intent and effort to discredit and to twist the words of Moussa Abu Marzouk, this type of lies and dirty games play by the Major News Organizations is what have help create this social disease that have been so handy for the War Complex Machine, that have helped to desensitized the people hearts. It has come to the point in the physique of the people that if dozens, hundreds or even thousands get killed don’t matter because their lives are not important because they are Muslim, and what they have done to deserve this?.
In Palestine they can not accept the theft of their lands, they can not sit idle when the residents of Gaza are sprayed. with white phosphorus, they react with anger when their children are bombed in the schools or sonar bombed when they sleep.
In other parts of the world where Muslims are being vilified after Bush invaded Iraq, and thereafter the situation got worse for Muslims around the world.
Notice when the News bothers to mention Israel crimes in Occupied Palestine, they make sure that they use the words “Militant Islamist Wings of Hamas”, or “radical Islamic Palestinian terrorist group”, with this denominations the victims are already being vilified and their murder are con·done by the public opinion.
Why will Hamas as an political organization and as an Official Government in Place in Gaza, will accept anything less than the rights for its people?. Why will Hamas be blame and branded a terrorist organization, when they only defend the population from the attacks of Israel?
Does it make sense to you? …The robbers came in the middle of the night and killed your parents, and in the morning you are force to accept a paper that says that those robbers not only will not be punish for the murder of your parents but they will take your home also, and you will go to live in a tent under the auspice of the UNRWA charity? ..how many times the story have to be repeated before someone feel in its heart, that it is inhuman, unfair and illegal under all international standards laws?
This simple story happened in thousands of Palestinians homes, entire villages were razed after their residents were murdered, some other were forced into exile, thru intimidation and terrorist practices. Now they asking Palestinians to accept their destiny without fighting, without feeling the pain. They are asking to give up the fight, they are being ask to lower their gaze and do not complain.
Well some people have already accepted that the plight of the Palestinians is irremediable and unchangeable fact. The PA did when their leaders signed peace treaty with Israel, when they decided to settle the deaths of hundred of thousands of Palestinians deaths in exchange for a Chair in Ramalah, but Hamas and other groups were never agreed with those deals, because they were rotten deals for Palestinians and until now they have not change their mind. They still defend the population and express their outrage on the Press.
Every conflict in history that is ever being written has always been only one side of the story, but that has changed, now we have thousands sides of the story, but with every story there is a twist of the truth, and that have been used against legitimate resistance movements. Hamas is just one example, its leaders have been labeled as Islamist Radicals , the organization itself has been officially labeled terrorist organization in many western countries thanks to AIPAC long tentacles and other Radical Jews groups around the world.
The common notion is that Palestinians living in Gaza are Islamist terrorists, why is this? Israel acquire thousands of weapons “legally”, they signed Weapons Deals with US its major arms supplier.
U.S. press coverage of Israeli attacks on the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian towns on the West Bank often treat the U.S. government as either an innocent bystander or an honest broker in the current conflict, often without giving a full sense of the importance of the United States role as a supplier of arms, aid, and military technology to Israel. In its role as Israel’s primary arms supplier, the United States could exert significant potential leverage over Israeli behavior in the conflict, if it chooses to do so.
Military and Economic Aid
Since 1976, Israel had been the largest annual recipient of U.S. foreign assistance. According to a November 2001 Congressional Research Service report, Israel: U.S. Foreign Assistance, U.S. aid to Israel in the last half century has totaled a whopping $81.3 billion.
In recent years, Israel remains the top recipient of U.S. military and economic assistance. The most commonly cited figure is $3 billion a year, with about $1.8 billion a year in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) grants from the Department of Defense and an additional $1.2 billion a year in Economic Support Funds (ESF) from the Department of State. In the last decade FMF grants to Israel have totaled $18.2 billion. In fact, 17% of all U.S. foreign aid is earmarked for Israel. World Policy Institute
The weapons that Israel buys “legally” from the US arm dealers are killer machines, they kill and destroy people and property, and they are more terrorizing devices than Palestinians Home Made Rockets, rockets that have to be bought “Illegally”, smuggle thru the tunnels, because Israel have sweet deals with the West and the west have taken the right for Palestine to defend their population.
What does it make a person a terrorist?
If you are Palestinian and kill a settler, without jury or trial you are branded terrorist, but when you are Israeli, and you kill 1400 innocents civilians, you simply are defending Israel. That it is the Mantra repeated, That is the difference now days in hundreds of News Outlets that are legitimating this distinction, when they irresponsibly publish News and articles simply branding Palestinians as Islamist Terrorists.
Most of the weapons that Israel uses comes from US weapons factories, the profits are astronomical, so the conflict needs to be kept alive. What will it be of the US Weapon Manufactures if there is a Peace Agreement in Palestine? Peace is the enemy # 1 of Profits .
We are talking of billions of dollars a year in Profits, pure profits because the money that goes to Israel for “Defense”
is free, and some of it comes back as Profit for the US Corporations that live out of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Sure. Almost all of the weapons used by Israel are from the United States. There might be a couple French fighter planes that they’re using, but its F-16s made in Fort Worth, Texas; its Apache helicopters; its Sparrow and Sidewinder missiles; it’s all from the United States. So you have this real disconnect between an overemphasis on the supply by Iran and Syria of Hezbollah’s weapons and no discussion of the fact that all of the Israeli arsenal is from the United States, and that that is in contravention to U.S. law. to the Arms Export Control Act, which says that U.S.-origin weapons are only to be used for self-defense and for internal security. Frida Barrigan from World Policy Institute
Published April 19, 2012 originally
Hamas Wouldn’t Honor a Treaty, Top Leader Says
Abu Marzook Says He’s Open to a New Israel Relationship
Any agreement reached between Israel and the Palestinian Authority will be subject to far-reaching changes if Hamas comes to power in a democratic Palestinian state, a top Hamas leader told the Forward in an exclusive and wide-ranging interview.Mousa Abu Marzook, considered Hamas’s second-highest-ranking official, said that his group would view an agreement between Israel and the P.A. — even one ratified by a referendum of all Palestinians — as a hudna, or cease-fire, rather than as a peace treaty. In power, he said, Hamas would feel free to shift away from those provisions of the agreement that define it as a peace treaty and move instead toward a relationship of armed truce.
“We will not recognize Israel as a state,” he said emphatically. “It will be like the relationship between Lebanon and Israel or Syria and Israel.”
The exchange was but one part of an unprecedented five-and-a-half-hour discussion conducted over two days between Abu Marzook and the Forward, the first-ever in-depth exchange between a senior Hamas leader and a Jewish publication.Larry Cohler-Esses from Forward
The Situation in Gaza is different, here we talk about resistance as a strategic option, about the right of all the resistance factions to obtain all the means needed to conduct resistance, about the legitimacy of the weapons of the resistance, and about the national consensus on managing the resistance in a way that does not harm the principle.
We Talk about operating in accordance with the conditions we talked about:
Taking people’s circumstances into consideration, and even the conditions in Gaza, which has become..Today.” Ismail Haniya during an interview on Al-Quds TV in Lebanon March 5, 2012
Sandra Twang: No to Abduction of Dignity!
Posted on April 02, 2012 by Marivel Guzman
First American Citizen Activist that started the International Campaign of Non Violent Protest of Resistance joining Palestinians Prisoners in hunger strike
UPDATED
21 days in hunger Strike for Justice
Sandra Twang: No to Abduction of Dignity!
Standing in solidarity with Hana Shalabi
by Sife Saleem – Original Posted Aljazeera Talk – Gaza
Translated by: Jummana Al-Kahlout
A scream out for liberty exploded from the land of democracy and human rights, the United States of America. Sandra, an American citizen was inspired by a Palestinian hero fighting for freedom and now stands in solidarity with her, demanding justice. Her message is a call out to Barack Obama, the Israeli government and the international community’s conscience.
Sandra Rose Twang, the American peace activist has been on hunger strike since the 21st of March 2012 in solidarity with Hana Shalabi. She told Aljazeera Talk that her solidarity movement is a message to Barrack Obama pleading him to intervene in Hana’s case and attempt to end the inhumane and unjust imprisonment of Palestinians in Israeli jails.
Sandra has spread her message on the internet asking people to support the cause and join the hunger strike to impose enough pressure to drive the American government to take action. “Hana Shalabi is a hero and a role model to me in her courage and power” Claims Sandra.
Twang has been interested in the Palestinian cause for the past two years and has educated herself enough to conclude that the Palestinian people are a strong nation who withstood suffering, injustice and discrimination for over 60 years.
Thus, she has joined their fight for liberation by standing in strong solidarity with Hana Shalabi in her hunger strike. She tells us “It was difficult to cope in the first few days, but I now feel fine. My youngest son supports me and so does my mother because they believe Palestinian’s have the right to live in dignity”
“This is justice.” She adds. Hana is fighting for her basic human right, to live a decent life within Israeli prisons, which she is sitting in without even a hint of a fair trial! First degree murders receive a trial so why is Hana, whose crime is her “unacceptable” opinion, denied this right? She explains that it saddens her to see the international community failing to interact with Hana’s situation, expressing her sorrow at the evident reluctance.
“Palestinians are a symbol of courage” she says in a heart-felt manner.
Administrative detention is not just arrest. It is the abduction of dignity, land and life. The sole goal of this detention is to keep Palestinians deprived of basic human rights, consequently making their ultimate demand; to gain them back.
This is simply unacceptable. The United States has always been an advocate of human rights and international democracy, but Sandra fears that if the US continues to support the oppression of the Palestinian people, it is contradicting its own values and faces an almost inevitable backfire in the near future.
Sandra’s message to the Israeli government states “The world has stood by and allowed you to illegally occupy, kill and humiliate the people of Palestine; for this, you might think you have won, but a real country does not constitute of just land, a real country cannot stand on pillars of corruption, it is only a matter of time before you collapse”
The fate of 20,000 detainees illegally held in Israeli jails worries Sandra, and should worry the entire international community. Sandra is determined to fight for the freedom of these Palestinian prisoners and calls on people seeking peace and governments claiming justice to stand up and take a stance too.
Do not allow international silence to overwhelm you. Take action and enforce change.
US Senators Web Sites, and Direct Numbers
The silence protest staged by Palestinians Conscience Objectors is the best Non Resistance Weapon and only resource Palestinians have inside Israel Prisons, Often denied the rights of an attorney, which is the case in most of the detainees, they leave them with few option to exercise their rights. A silence hunger strike staged by an individual could be the lousiest of the protest can any one perform, the role of the press and the mouth to mouth news it is the key element to make it to succeed.
On March 23 the ethics committee of Israel Bureau of Prisons announced that Hana Shalabi was going to be forced to eat artificially using gastrointestinal tubes, a practice that it’s considered inhumane treatment by Amnesty International, because even though is propagated as a human practice to save the life of a prisoners it curtail their freedom of expression and rights to protest in a Non Violent Way. A Silence Fight It’s My Right! Hunger Strike For Justice
We have invented the most powerful flying machine, the smallest medical devices, the most dangerous weapon we can imagine and being so technologically advanced we still can not comprehend in its entirely our humanity, but we are trying, little by little we understand more and more of us, our world become so important that we feel the necessity of help in the restoration and the unification of our human family.
What make us humans we ask ourselves? The Soul?, our Heart?, our feelings? what really do we have inside our bodies that make us compassionate or despicable beings? Does all the human beings are able to FEEL?. The Most Powerfull Weapon Our Humanity
“I am ashamed to say that my country in particular has acted in a most egregious way in its veto of any UN response in holding Israel accountable for its crimes.
But now I want to tell you what drove me to this hunger strike.
There is a young woman, Hana Shalabi, now imprisoned in Hasharon Prison in Israel, arrested on February 16, 2012 and is being held under administrative detention, detention without charge or trial. She is not allowed to know what she is accused of, to examine any of the evidence against her, thereby rendering her capability for due process null and void.” Sandra Rose Twang
The first African- American who rule the American people
Posted on March 31, 2012 by Marivel Guzman
Some say Barrack Obama Illegally Sits in the United States Presidency
“No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States”. US Constitution
A person that has illegal access to secret information that can be used against the United States of America, should be charge with treason, altogether with the persons that help this person to climb to the Presidential Chair.
The President of the United States is Commander in Chief of the Arm Forces of the United States, this makes Barrack Obama to be employee of the Department of Defense, for such; he should have been cleared by The Defense Security Service. commonly known as DSS
If it is determined that you need a security clearance, you have to complete a Security Clearance Background Investigation Questionnaire. Since May 2001, the U.S. Department of Defense has required that this form be completed via a software program called EPSQ (Electronic Personnel Security Questionnaire). When completing the questionnaire for confidential and secret clearances, you have to provide information for the previous five years. For top-secret clearances, you must provide information for the previous ten years. It is important to make sure that you tell the truth because if it is proved that you gave false information, you could go to prison for five years. If you are in the military, false testimony can result in not only five years in the brig (military prison) but also a dishonorable discharge and forfeit of all benefits.
“If you work for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Defense Security Service is the office that is most likely to conduct your security clearance investigation. The Office of Personnel Management conducts security clearance investigations for most other branches of the federal government.”
The US Department of Defense, The Democratic Party, The Congress of The United States, The Judges that Sworn Barrack Obama as President of the United States, The Ethic Committee more specially and any person that knew that Obama was not American Born Citizen, any person that was part of the Fraud and Conspiracy to Mislead the American Citizens need to be charge with treason and sentence accordingly to the Crime.
There are certain rules that needs to be meet for a person to Run for President of the United States of America, if this person lied under oath once he was investigated should be charged with fraud, and afterward that he was illegally sworn as President of the United States this person and his stuff should be charged with conspiracy to commit a crime.
The persons that covered up the scam once they were interviewed by the media, or by special investigators all should be charged with fraud and conspiracy to commit a crime.
No person is above the law, No person should use his/her power to access power of position or help other persons to access a power of position.
“There have been numerous requests for Sen. Barack Hussein Obama’s official birth certificate. State law (Hawai‘i Revised Statutes §338-18) prohibits the release of a certified birth certificate to persons who do not have a tangible interest in the vital record. Therefore, I as Director of Health for the State of Hawai‘i, along with the Registrar of Vital Statistics who has statutory authority to oversee and maintain these type of vital records, have personally seen and verified that the Hawai‘i State Department of Health has Sen. Obama’s original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures.” Dr. Chiyome Fukino, the Director of the Hawaii Department of Health released on October 31, 2008
In December ’08 a retired CIA officer commissioned an investigator to look into the Barack Obama birth certificate and eligibility issue. On July 21, 2009 westernjournalism.com obtained a copy of the investigator’s report. Here is an unedited version of the report.
June 10, 2009 Report, updated July 18, 2009
The Territorial Public Health Statistics Act in the 1955 Revised Laws of Hawaii
I think that I now understand the legal background to the question of where Obama was born.
Let’s begin with the statement that Dr. Chiyome Fukino, the Director of the Hawaii Department of Health released on October 31, 2008. The television and print media used this statement as a reason to prevent and treat with contempt any investigation into whether Barack Obama was not born in Hawaii. But the language of the statement was so carefully hedged and guarded that it should have had the opposite effect.
“There have been numerous requests for Sen. Barack Hussein Obama’s official birth certificate. State law (Hawai‘i Revised Statutes §338-18) prohibits the release of a certified birth certificate to persons who do not have a tangible interest in the vital record. Therefore, I as Director of Health for the State of Hawai‘i, along with the Registrar of Vital Statistics who has statutory authority to oversee and maintain these type of vital records, have personally seen and verified that the Hawai‘i State Department of Health has Sen. Obama’s original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures.”
It is understandable that after such an apparently definitive statement most news outlets, whether conservative or liberal, would accept this as sufficient grounds to relegate the controversy to the status of a fringe phenomenon. Unless they happened to take the trouble to look into the “state policies and procedures” as laid down by the relevant statutes. If they had done so, they would have seen that Dr. Fukino’s press release was carefully hedged and “lawyered” and practically worthless. But the media in general should not be faulted. The statement seems to roll out with such bureaucratic certainty and final authority. I believed it to be significant until a Honolulu attorney mailed me the relevant statutes. I was so surprised that I laughed out loud.
Here is a summary of Hawaii’s “state policies and procedures” in 1961.
In the State of Hawaii, back in 1961, there were four different ways to get an “original birth certificate” on record. They varied greatly in their reliability as evidence. For convenience, I’ll call them BC1, BC2, BC3, and BC4.
BC1. If the birth was attended by a physician or mid wife, the attending medical professional was required to certify to the Department of Health the facts of the birth date, location, parents’ identities and other information. (See Section 57-8 & 9 of the Territorial Public Health Statistics Act in the 1955 Revised Laws of Hawaii which was in effect in 1961).
- Actual long form Certificate of Live Birth similar to one Obama refuses to release
BC2. In 1961, if a person was born in Hawaii but not attended by a physician or midwife, then all that was required was that one of the parents send in a birth certificate to be filed. The birth certificate could be filed by mail. There appears to have been no requirement for the parent to actually physically appear before “the local registrar of the district.” It would have been very easy for a relative to forge an absent parent’s signature to a form and mail it in. In addition, if a claim was made that “neither parent of the newborn child whose birth is unattended as above provided is able to prepare a birth certificate, the local registrar shall secure the necessary information from any person having knowledge of the birth and prepare and file the certificate.” (Section 57-8&9) I asked the Dept of Health what they currently ask for (in 2008) to back up a parent’s claim that a child was born in Hawaii. I was told that all they required was a proof of residence in Hawaii (e.g. a driver’s license [We know from interviews with her friends on Mercer Island in Washington State that Ann Dunham had acquired a driver’s license by the summer of 1961 at the age of 17] or telephone bill) and pre-natal (statement or report that a woman was pregnant) and post-natal (statement or report that a new-born baby has been examined) certification by a physician. On further enquiry, the employee that I spoke to informed me that the pre-natal and post-natal certifications had probably not been in force in the ‘60s. Even if they had been, there is and was no requirement for a physician or midwife to witness, state or report that the baby was born in Hawaii.
BC3. In 1961, if a person was born in Hawaii but not attended by a physician or midwife, then, up to the first birthday of the child, a “Delayed Certificate” could be filed, which required that “a summary statement of the evidence submitted in support of the acceptance for delayed filing or the alteration [of a file] shall be endorsed on the certificates”, which “evidence shall be kept in a special permanent file.” The statute provided that “the probative value of a ‘delayed’ or ‘altered’ certificate shall be determined by the judicial or administrative body or official before whom the certificate is offered as evidence.” (See Section 57- 9, 18, 19 & 20 of the Territorial Public Health Statistics Act in the 1955 Revised Laws of Hawaii which was in effect in 1961).”
[In other words, this form of vault birth certificate, the Delayed Certificate, required no more than a statement before a government bureaucrat by one of the parents or (the law does not seem to me clear on this) one of Barack Obama’s grandparents. If the latter is true, Ann Dunham did not have to be present for this statement or even in the country.]
BC4. If a child is born in Hawaii, for whom no physician or mid wife filed a certificate of live birth, and for whom no Delayed Certificate was filed before the first birthday, then a Certificate of Hawaiian Birth could be issued upon testimony of an adult (including the subject person [i.e. the birth child as an adult]) if the Office of the Lieutenant Governor was satisfied that a person was born in Hawaii, provided that the person had attained the age of one year. (See Section 57-40 of the Territorial Public Health Statistics Act in the 1955 Revised Laws of Hawaii which was in effect in 1961.) In 1955 the “secretary of the Territory” was in charge of this procedure. In 1960 it was transferred to the Office of the Lieutenant Governor (“the lieutenant governor, or his secretary, or such other person as he may designate or appoint from his office” §338-41 [in 1961]).
- Certification of Live Birth, released by Obama
In 1982, the vital records law was amended to create a fifth kind of “original birth certificate”. Under Act 182 H.B. NO. 3016-82, “Upon application of an adult or the legal parents of a minor child, the director of health shall issue a birth certificate for such adult or minor, provided that the proof has been submitted to the director of health that the legal parents of such individual while living without the Territory or State of Hawaii had declared the Territory or State of Hawaii as their legal residence for at least one year immediately preceding the birth or adoption of such child.” In this way “state policies and procedures” accommodate even “children born out of State” (this is the actual language of Act 182) with an “original birth certificate on record.” So it is even possible that the birth certificate referred to by Dr Fukino is of the kind specified in Act 182. This possibility cannot be dismissed because such a certificate certainly satisfies Dr Fukino’s statement that “I as Director of Health for the State of Hawai‘i, along with the Registrar of Vital Statistics who has statutory authority to oversee and maintain these type of vital records, have personally seen and verified that the Hawai‘i State Department of Health has Sen. Obama’s original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures.” If this is the case, Dr Fukino would have perpetrated so unusually disgusting a deception that I find it practically incredible (and I greatly doubt that anyone could be that shameless). On the other hand, if the original birth certificate is of types 2, 3, or 4, Dr Fukino’s statement would be only somewhat less deceptive and verbally tricky. I only bring up this possibility to show how cleverly hedged and “lawyered” and basically worthless Dr Fukino’s statement is.
Sections 57-8, 9, 18, 19, 20 & 40 of the Territorial Public Health Statistics Act explain why Barack Obama has refused to release the original vault birth certificate. If the original certificate were the standard BC1 type of birth certificate, he would have allowed its release and brought the controversy to a quick end. But if the original certificate is of the other kinds, then Obama would have a very good reason not to release the vault birth certificate. For if he did, then the tape recording of Obama’s Kenyan grandmother asserting that she was present at his birth in Kenya becomes far more important. As does the Kenyan ambassador’s assertion that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, as well as the sealing of all government and hospital records relevant to Obama by the Kenyan government. And the fact that though there are many witnesses to Ann Dunham’s presence on Oahu from Sept 1960 to Feb 1961, there are no witnesses to her being on Oahu from March 1961 to August 1962 when she returned from Seattle and the University of Washington. No Hawaiian physicians, nurses, or midwives have come forward with any recollection of Barack Obama’s birth.
The fact that Obama refuses to release the vault birth certificate that would instantly clear up this matter almost certainly indicates that the vault birth certificate is probably a BC2 or possibly a BC3.
It is almost certainly a BC 3 or even a BC 4 if the “Certification of Live Birth” posted on the Daily Kos blog and the fightthesmears.com website by the Obama campaign is a forgery. Ron Polarik has made what several experts claim to be a cogent case that it is a forgery. There have been a couple of attempts to refute his argument and Polarik has replied to the most extensive of them. I do not claim expertise in this area, but I think it would be best for journalists and politicians to familiarize themselves with the arguments on both sides before they casually dismiss Polarik’s position without taking the trouble to understand it.
Here are 2 of Polarik’s websites: http://bogusbirthcertificate.blogspot.com/
http://bogusbithcertificate.blogspot.com/
Because the disputants know far more about this subject than I do, I am an agnostic about Polarik’s argument. However, the likelihood that this computer-generated “Certification of Live Birth” was forged, is, I believe, increased by the fact that it has been pretty clearly established that Obama “either didn’t register for the draft or did so belatedly and fraudulently. The documents indicate that it’s one or the other.” http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/004431print.html The forgery of Obama’s selective service registration was necessary, because according to Federal law, “A man must be registered to be eligible for jobs in the Executive Branch of the Federal government and the U.S. Postal Service. This applies only to men born after December 31, 1959.” http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/wars/a/draft2.htm)
It is also very strange that Dr Fukino’s statement in no way attested to (or even addressed the issue of) the authenticity of the “Certification of Live Birth” (and the information that appears on it) that the Daily Kos blog and the Obama campaign posted on line. Dr Fukino merely stated that “I as Director of Health for the State of Hawai‘i, along with the Registrar of Vital Statistics who has statutory authority to oversee and maintain these type of vital records, have personally seen and verified that the Hawai‘i State Department of Health has Sen. Obama’s original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures.”
If there is no hospital or physician record in the vault birth certificate, then he wasn’t born in a hospital in Hawaii. And a home birth or non-hospital birth can then be ruled out for the following reason.
When someone has a home birth or is not born in a hospital, this becomes a part of his family’s lore and is now and again spoken of by his parents. He and his siblings grow up knowing that he was born at home or his uncle’s house, etc. The fact that someone in the campaign told a Washington Post reporter that he was born in Kapioliani hospital and his sister said he was born at Queens hospital indicates that there was not and is not any Obama/Dunham family memory of a home birth or non-hospital birth in Hawaii.
And if there is no hospital record in the original vault birth certificate, then he was not born in a hospital in Hawaii.
Instead of the birth certificate on file at the Hawaii Dept of Health, the Obama campaign posted on the Daily Kos blog and the Fightthesmears website a “Certification of Live Birth”. The Certification of Live Birth is not a copy of the original birth certificate. It is a computer-generated document that the state of Hawaii issues on request to indicate that a birth certificate of some type is “on record in accordance with state policies and procedures”. And there is the problem. Given the statutes in force in 1961, the Certification of Live Birth proves nothing unless we know what is on the original birth certificate. There are several legal areas (involving ethnic quotas and subsidy) for which the state of Hawaii up until June 2009 did not accept its computer-generated Certification of Live Birth as sufficient proof of birth in Hawaii or parentage. Why should the citizens of the United States be content with lower standards for ascertaining the qualifications of their President?
If you combine an awareness of what the Certification of Live Birth posted on the internet really is with 1) a knowledge of the relevant statutes in 1961 and 2) Obama’s stubborn refusal to permit the release of the real birth certificate and his determination to fight any legal actions that would compel him to do so, it becomes clear that there is no logical explanation for Obama’s refusal without taking into consideration the relevant statutes. Then his behavior becomes clear. The Territorial Public Health Statistics Act in the 1955 Revised Laws of Hawaii is the missing piece of the puzzle.
Most people think of a birth certificate as a statement by a hospital or midwife with a footprint, etc. (That may be why some main-stream journalists have straight out lied about this. Jonathan Alter, senior editor at Newsweek magazine, for example, told Keith Olbermann on MSNBC on Feb 20, 2009 that “They [the Republicans] are a party that is out of ideas so they have to resort to these lies about the fact that he’s not a citizen. This came up during the campaign, Keith. The Obama campaign actually posted his birth certificate from a Hawaii hospital online.” But it is Alter who resorted to lying to the American people on television. “The Obama campaign” never “actually posted his birth certificate from a Hawaii hospital online.” On July 17, 2009 CNN’s Kitty Pilgrim lied when she stated that the Obama campaign had produced “the original birth certificate” on the internet and that FactCheck.org had examined the original birth certificate; whether it was forged or not, the Certification of Live Birth that was posted by the campaign and FactCheck.org is not, and by definition, cannot be the original birth certificate or a copy of the original birth certificate. There were no computer generated Certifications of Live Birth in 1961, the year Obama was born. Obama’s original birth certificate (whether it was filed in 1961 or later) was a very different document from the Certification of Live Birth on FactCheck.org. On the FactCheck.org web site, the claim is made that “FactCheck.org staffers have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate.” So FactCheck.org is lying about this as well.
FactCheck.org gets its prestige from a reputation for objectivity. Why would those who run this site choose to tell so obvious a lie and so endanger the site’s reputation? The answer is in the date of the posting, August 21, 2008. It was in mid-August that questions about the Certification of Live Birth began to reach a critical mass and threaten to enter the public discourse. The mostly pro-Obama television and newspaper/magazine media had to be given an excuse and cover for their collective decision to dismiss or ignore the substantial questions about whether Obama met the qualifications for the office set forth in Article II section I of the Constitution. And those reporters and editors who were not in the tank for Obama had to be deceived. After Labor Day the swing voters would begin to pay attention to the Presidential campaign. The truth had to be killed. And with its lie about “how it examined and photographed the original birth certificate“, FactCheck.org killed it.)
Most people would not consider a mailed-in form by one of his parents (who could have been out of the country or whose signature could have been forged by a grandparent) or a sworn statement by one of his grandparents or by his mother or even a sworn statement by himself many years later to be sufficient evidence (when set next to the statements by his maternal grandmother and the Kenyan ambassador that he was born in another country). Unless the American people are shown the original birth certificate, all of these are possibilities. And if Obama refuses to allow the state of Hawaii to release the original birth certificate, it begins to look like he was not born in a Hawaii hospital or at home with the assistance of a doctor or midwife. A reasonable person would acknowledge that there are serious reasons to doubt that Barack Obama was born in the United States. This is especially true because, if Obama was born in a foreign country, his family had a compelling reason to lie about it.
In 1961 if a 17 year old American girl gave birth in a foreign country to a child whose father was not an American citizen, that child had no right to any American citizenship, let alone the “natural born” citizenship that qualifies someone for the Presidency under Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution.
In 1961, the year that Barack Obama was born, under Sec. 301 (a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, Ann Dunham could not transmit citizenship of any kind to Barack Obama.
“ 7 FAM 1133.2-2 Original Provisions and Amendments to Section 301
(CT:CON-204; 11-01-2007)
“a. Section 301 as Effective on December 24, 1952: When enacted in 1952, section 301 required a U.S. citizen married to an alien to have been physically present in the United States for ten years, including five after reaching the age of fourteen, to transmit citizenship to foreign-born children. The ten-year transmission requirement remained in effect from 12:01 a.m. EDT December 24, 1952, through midnight November 13, 1986, and still is applicable to persons born during that period.
“As originally enacted, section 301(a)(7) stated: Section 301. (a) The following shall be nationals and citizens of the United States at birth: (7) a person born outside the geographical limits of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is an alien, and the other a citizen of the United States who, prior to the birth of such person, was physically present in the United States or its outlying possessions for a period or periods totaling not less than ten years, at least five of which were after attaining the age of fourteen years: Provided, That any periods of honorable service in the Armed Forces of the United States by such citizen parent may be included in computing the physical presence requirements of this paragraph.”
The Immigration and Nationality Corrections Act (Public Law 103-416) on October 25, 1994 revised this law to accommodate “a person born outside the geographical limits of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is an alien, and the other a citizen of the United States who, prior to the birth of such person, was physically present in the United States or its outlying possessions for a period or periods totaling not less than five years, at least two of which were after attaining the age of fourteen years”.
But in 1961, if Barack Obama had been born outside of the country, the Dunham family had no way of knowing that in 1994 Congress would pass a law that would retroactively make him a citizen. At that time, the only way to get citizenship for him would be to take advantage of one of the loopholes in the Territorial Public Health Statistics Act.
People can debate the meaning of the term “natural-born citizen” as long as they like but this is clear: If, in 1961, 17 year old Ann Dunham gave birth to a child on foreign soil whose father was not an American citizen, then the Immigration and Nationality Act at that time denied Barack Obama any right to American citizenship of any kind. Therefore if at the time of his birth Obama was ineligible for American citizenship of any kind, then he cannot be a “natural-born citizen”. This is true even if the Immigration and Nationality Act was changed 33 years after he was born. Even if the law was retroactively changed to grant citizenship (but not “natural-born” citizenship) to some of those who had at birth been denied it. If a person is not at the time of his birth an American citizen, he cannot be a natural-born citizen. Therefore, that person is ineligible under Article II, Section1 for the Office of President of the United States.
It is only by examining the 18th century usage and definition of a term that we can ascertain its meaning in the Constitution. In the 18th century, and at the time of the framing and ratification of the Constitution by the states, the term “natural-born” subject or citizen was always used or defined in such a way as to exclude the child of a British or American girl or woman when that child was born in a foreign country and that child’s father was a foreign citizen. No 18th century jurist would have thought the term “natural-born” citizen or subject could have been extended to the child of a British or American girl or woman when that child was born in a foreign country and that child’s father was a foreign citizen.
Here is Blackstone’s classic exposition in 1765 of the legal meaning of the term from the Commentaries on the Laws of England.
William Blackstone, Commentaries 1:354, 357–58, 361–62
1765
“Natural-born subjects are such as are born within the dominions of the crown of England, that is, within the ligeance, or as it is generally called, the allegiance of the king; and aliens, such as are born out of it.. . .
“When I say, that an alien is one who is born out of the king’s dominions, or allegiance, this also must be understood with some restrictions. The common law indeed stood absolutely so; with only a very few exceptions: so that a particular act of parliament became necessary after the restoration, for the naturalization of children of his majesty’s English subjects, born in foreign countries during the late troubles. And this maxim of the law proceeded upon a general principle, that every man owes natural allegiance where he is born, and cannot owe two such allegiances, or serve two masters, at once. Yet the children of the king’s embassadors born abroad were always held to be natural subjects: for as the father, though in a foreign country, owes not even a local allegiance to the prince to whom he is sent; so, with regard to the son also, he was held (by a kind of postliminium) to be born under the king of England’s allegiance, represented by his father, the embassador. To encourage also foreign commerce, it was enacted by statute 25 Edw. III. st. 2. that all children born abroad, provided both their parents were at the time of the birth in allegiance to the king,…might inherit as if born in England: and accordingly it hath been so adjudged in behalf of merchants. But by several more modern statutes these restrictions are still farther taken off: so that all children, born out of the king’s ligeance, whose fathers were natural-born subjects, are now natural-born subjects themselves, to all intents and purposes, without any exception; unless their said fathers were attainted, or banished beyond sea, for high treason; or were then in the service of a prince at enmity with Great Britain.” [The italics are Blackstone’s]
The irresponsible confirmation in the Senate of the irresponsible tallying of votes in the Electoral College does not supersede the clear meaning of Article II, Section 1. If it is allowed to stand, disregard of the Constitution by all branches of the government would be openly established. To all who believe that the Constitution is the government’s basic law, that the Constitution is the only instrument that gives the enactments of Congress and the commands of the Executive validity, it will be clear that the rule of law in the United States is a fiction.
Journalists and politicians complain that we must avoid a Constitutional crisis, but there already is a Constitutional crisis. It has been caused by Obama’s refusal to take the simple step to clear the matter up. The power of the Executive branch has been compromised. Its right to collect taxes and sign Congressional enactments into law, in fact all of its powers, have become problematic. Since their validity under Section I is now doubtful, they depend on the illegal exercise of force. Since officers of the American military take their oath on commissioning to the Constitution and not the President, their obedience to the Commander-in-Chief has lapsed and, if they challenge or resist his authority, any courts-martial will also be an illegal exercise of force. The only way out of the present Constitutional crisis is for Obama to do as McCain did when he was confronted by far less pressing doubts about the circumstances of his birth. He must disclose his vault birth certificate. Since the document has been so suspiciously withheld for so long, it should be subjected to rigorous forensic tests. Then whatever is on it should be judicially assessed together with the claims that have been made that Barack Obama was born on foreign soil.
It should be added that “Obama’s top terrorism and intelligence adviser, John O. Brennan, heads a firm that was cited in March for breaching sensitive files in the State Department’s passport office, according to a State Department Inspector General’s report released this past July.
“The security breach, first reported by the Washington Times and later confirmed by State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, involved a contract employee of Brennan’s firm, The Analysis Corp., which has earned millions of dollars providing intelligence-related consulting services to federal agencies and private companies.
“During a State Department briefing on March 21, 2008, McCormack confirmed that the contractor had accessed the passport files of presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and John McCain, and that the inspector general had launched an investigation.
“Sources who tracked the investigation tell Newsmax that the main target of the breach was the Obama passport file, and that the contractor accessed the file in order to ‘cauterize’ the records of potentially embarrassing information.
“ ‘They looked at the McCain and Clinton files as well to create confusion,’ one knowledgeable source told Newsmax. ‘But this was basically an attempt to cauterize the Obama file.’
“At the time of the breach, Brennan was working as an unpaid adviser to the Obama campaign.
” ‘This individual’s actions were taken without the knowledge or direction of anyone at The Analysis Corp. and are wholly inconsistent with our professional and ethical standards,’ Brennan’s company said in a statement sent to reporters after the passport breach was made public.
“The passport files include ‘personally identifiable information such as the applicant’s name, gender, social security number, date and place of birth, and passport number,’ according to the inspector general report.
“The files may contain additional information including ‘original copies of the associated documents,’ the report added. Such documents include birth certificates, naturalization certificates, or oaths of allegiance for U.S.-born persons who adopted the citizenship of a foreign country as minors.”
“The State Department Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a 104-page report on the breach last July. Although it is stamped ‘Sensitive but Unclassified,’ the report was heavily redacted in the version released to the public, with page after page blacked out entirely.”
http://www.newsmax.com/timmerman/brennan_passport_breach/2009/01/12/170430.html
The following may be relevant:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/apr/19/key-witness-in-passport-fraud-case-fatally-shot/
Key witness in passport fraud case fatally shot
Saturday, April 19, 2008
“A key witness in a federal probe into passport information stolen from the State Department was fatally shot in front of a District church, the Metropolitan Police Department said yesterday.
“Lt. Quarles Harris Jr., 24, who had been cooperating with a federal investigators, was found late Thursday night slumped dead inside a car, in front of the Judah House Praise Baptist Church in Northeast, said Cmdr. Michael Anzallo, head of the department’s Criminal Investigations Division.
“Cmdr. Anzallo said a police officer was patrolling the neighborhood when gunshots were heard, then Lt. Harris was found dead inside the vehicle, which investigators would describe only as a blue car.
“Emergency medics pronounced him dead at the scene.
“City police said they do not know whether his death was a direct result of his cooperation with federal investigators.
“We don’t have any information right now that connects his murder to that case,” Cmdr. Anzallo said.
“Police say a “shot spotter” device helped an officer locate Lt. Harris.
“A State Department spokeswoman yesterday declined to comment, saying the investigation into the passport fraud is ongoing.
“The Washington Times reported April 5 that contractors for the State Department had improperly accessed passport information for presidential candidates Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain, which resulted in a series of firings that reached into the agency’s top ranks.
“One agency employee, who was not identified in documents filed in U.S. District Court, was implicated in a credit-card fraud scheme after Lt. Harris told federal authorities he obtained “passport information from a co-conspirator who works for the U.S. Department of State.” “
There is a possibility that the breaches of the passport files associated with the “credit-card fraud scheme” were a cover for or associated with the breaches of the passport files by the employee of Brennan’s Analysis Corp. This certainly at least should be looked into.
July 11th Addendum to Report
1. Until June 2009, the reasonable doubts about where Obama was born could have quickly and finally been resolved if he had authorized the release by the Hawaiian Dept of Health of his original birth certificate or else applied for it himself and released it to the media. But as these doubts have increased and reached the point where they are no longer a “fringe” phenomenon, the Hawaiian state govt has recently taken certain steps that would create procedural and possibly legal barriers to a resolution of the controversy. Given the slipperiness that characterized the statements of Chiyome Fukino, the Dept’s Director, and Janice Okubo, the Dept’s spokesperson, to the media on this issue, it is, I think, also reasonable to regard these steps with suspicion.
A family that I am acquainted with has a child who was born in Hawaii 6 months ago. They filled out and mailed in a form to the Dept of Health, as did their doctor. In return the Dept sent them in the first week of June, 2009, the same abbreviated computer-generated form that last year on the Daily Kos and subsequently on the Obama campaign web site was called a “Certification of Live Birth”. The form that this family received this year is identical in format to the Certification of Live Birth on the Daily Kos web site with one exception: the title at the top of the form.
On June 12, 2008 the title for this abbreviated form was Certification of Live Birth. The title for the form that this family received in the first week of June 2009 is Certificate of Live Birth. I called The Dept of Health and confirmed that the title of the form had been changed. The bureaucrat that I spoke to said the change had been made “recently”, but could not or would not tell me when. Sometime between June 12, 2008 and the first week of June 2009 the Hawaiian Dept of Health changed the title of this abbreviated form from “Certification of Live Birth” to “Certificate of Live Birth“. Why?
The use of the word “Certificate” rather than “Certification” makes the form feel somewhat more like a traditional birth certificate than the “Certification of Live Birth” that the Daily Kos website and subsequently the Obama campaign posted on the Internet even though, like the “Certification“, it also lacks any information about the hospital, doctor, or midwife. There is no footprint etc. This renaming of the document will be very convenient for the Hawaiian Dept of Health in future stonewalling should any legal pressure be brought against them to produce Obama’s “Certificate of Live Birth”. Instead of producing the original “Certificate of Live Birth”, they will produce the abbreviated “Certification of Live Birth” form that the Dept of Health has now renamed a “Certificate of Live Birth” and claim that they are doing so “in accordance with state policies and procedures” in the words of the Dept’s Director, Dr. Chiyome Fukino.
But whether it is called (as it was last year) a Certification or (as it is now) a Certificate of Live Birth this abbreviated document provides none of the probative information that was or wasn’t on Barack Obama’s original Certificate of Live Birth. Unlike the Certificate of Live Birth of the time when Barack Obama was born, this new Certificate of Live Birth provides no real evidence of where a child was born or indication of where such evidence might be found. It provides no information that would demonstrate to the people of the United States whether there is convincing evidence that he was actually born here or whether a relative or two (or possibly even Barack Obama himself) just made a statement to that effect to a low level bureaucrat. (As is permitted under Section 57-40 of the Territorial Public Health Statistics Act in the 1955 Revised Laws of Hawaii.)
2. On June 7, 2009, a spokeswoman for the Hawaii Department of Health told a rather obvious lie (or engaged in a pretty transparent verbal deception) in another attempt to discourage further investigation into the issue of whether Barack Obama was born on Oahu. “The state Department of Health no longer issues copies of paper birth certificates as was done in the past”, said spokeswoman Janice Okubo. “The department only issues ‘certifications’ of live births, and that is the ‘official birth certificate’ issued by the state of Hawaii, she said. ” [Honolulu Star Bulletin] http://www.starbulletin.com/columnists/kokualine/20090606_kokua_line.html
This statement was false or deliberately very misleading. Here, from a Hawaii state document that was posted on June 10, 2009, is a description of how to apply for “the original Certificate of Live Birth” (the original birth certificate) as opposed to the Certification of Live Birth:
“In order to process your application [to prove native Hawaiian ancestry], DHHL [Department of Hawaiian Homelands] utilizes information that is found only on the original Certificate of Live Birth, which is either black or green. This is a more complete record of your birth than the Certification of Live Birth (a computer-generated printout). Submitting the original Certificate of Live Birth will save you time and money since the computer-generated Certification requires additional verification by DHHL.
“Please note that DOH [Department of Health] no longer offers same day service. If you plan on picking up your certified DOH document(s), you should allow at least 10 working days for DOH to process your request(s), OR four to six weeks if you want your certified certificate(s) mailed to you.”
http://hawaii.gov/dhhl/applicants/appforms/applyhhl
Ms. Okubo’s statement gave the false impression that Obama could not gain access to or release “the original Certificate of Live Birth”, and that it was the DOH’s policy rather than his own reluctance that was responsible for the holding back of this Certificate. This was an obvious deception. The document at the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands website indicates that at the time she made this statement it was false, and that a procedure was in place for application for “the original Certificate of Live Birth.”
Only the information on the original birth certificate, “the original Certificate of Live Birth”, can demonstrate to the people of the United States whether there is convincing evidence that he was actually born here or whether a relative or two (or possibly even Barack Obama himself) just made a statement to that effect to a low level bureaucrat.
3. On July 8, 2009 the web site World Net Daily reported that “The state, which had excluded the controversial document [the Certification of Live Birth] as proof of native Hawaiian status, has changed its policy and now makes a point of including it.”
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=103408
Here is the new statement on the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands web site [July 8, 2009]. “The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands accepts both Certificates of Live Birth [original birth certificates and the recently renamed abbreviated computer printouts] and Certifications of Live Birth [as the abbreviated computer printouts were up till recently called] because they are official government records documenting an individual’s birth… Although original birth certificates (Certificates of Live Birth) are preferred for their greater detail, the State Department of Health (DOH) no longer issues Certificates of Live Birth. When a request is made for a copy of a birth certificate, the DOH issues a Certification of Live Birth.”
http://hawaii.gov/dhhl/applicants/appforms/applyhhl
The web site theobamafile.com picked up this significant change in procedure on the Dept of Hawaiian Homelands website on June 18, 2009. http://www.theobamafile.com/_BogusPOTUS/20090608.htm#HawaiiRuleChange
Sometime between June 10, 2009 and June 18, 2009 the State of Hawaii changed its rule on what documents and data were necessary to prove Hawaiian ancestry, thereby upgrading the apparent status of the abbreviated Certification of Live Birth which it had formerly regarded as insufficiently probative. Why?
Second American Citizen to Join Hunger Strike-Gandhism
Posted on March 25, 2012 by Marivel Guzman
Palestinians Supporters Join in Hunger Strike in Solidarity with Hana Shalabi
How To Fight a Non Violent Resistance Movement such Hunger Strike? Do Israel strike the Fighters with Food?
We have invented the most powerful flying machine, the smallest medical devices, the most dangerous weapon we can imagine and being so technologically advanced we still can not comprehend in its entirely our humanity, but we are trying, little by little we understand more and more of us, our world become so important that we feel the necessity of help in the restoration and the unification of our human family.
What make us humans we ask ourselves? The Soul?, our Heart?, our feelings? what really do we have inside our bodies that make us compassionate or despicable beings? Does all the human beings are able to FEEL?. The Most Powerfull Weapon Our Humanity
Confronted by these questions we find people around the world that have reached that point where they need to become part of the solution, and they found the way to join the struggle in a pacific way, a way that can not be fought with weapons, or propaganda, the Non violent movement in Palestine is finding voices around the globe, making the Israel-Palestinians conflict a Matter of Global Affairs.
Sife Saleem a young journalist from Gaza brought to my attention Sandra Twang Letter to President Obama, a story that needs to be shared, it is very important for all of us in the US to raise our voices on the issues that matter to all of us. For one it is inhumane what it is happening in Palestine and second our money it’s being used without our consent.
Every year our congress allocate more than 3 billions of our tax money to send to Israel, it is not fair, not fair for us as a citizens of the US, being that the Government have cut so many social services and cut to education, and we do not give our permission for such transfer of money to a foreign country, that we know have spied on the US government, have killed Americans..and It is not fair for Palestinians, and it is illegal to be used against innocent civilians.
“When you see a foreign people supporting you and making stand with you, we feel happy specially when you look around, and you see your brother of the Arab world, who don’t look at you and pretend they ignore our struggles. The Solidarity is very helpful in the case of Palestine
to let the world to know the Palestine case, it is strike for Israel because it loses international support, and that help us as Palestinians to share our case and present the right picture to the world.” Sife Saleem writer in Aljazeera Talk.
The first American Citizen to Join the Hunger Strike was Sandra Rose Twang on March 21, and Nancy Williams will join on March 30, 2011 in solidarity with Hana Shalabi.
“On March 30, 2012, I will begin my hunger strike for Palestine. The reason why I choose this date is because I cannot participate in the Global March to Jerusalem. I am a natural born citizen of the United States of America and I oppose the actions of the Israeli government towards the Palestinians. I also oppose the support that my government gives to Israel, while ignoring the fact that the Israeli government violates international human rights laws, on a daily basis. My government does not teach us the truth about what has happened and is still happening there, so I learned for the first time about Palestine in 2010. How I first learned was when I became contacts with someone in Khan Younis, who then told me about Ken O’Keefe. Then I became contacts with him and began following his experience, until now. Also, since 2010, I have been blessed by meeting and speaking with new friends in Palestine, who have shown me nothing but love. I cannot sit here, as an American citizen and not take action”. Nancy Williams
A Plea from an American Peace Activist Sandra Rose Twang to President Obama, announced on March 21 that she will join Hana Shalabi and
70 other prisoners in Israel Jails under administrative detention in a Non Violent Protest against Israel inhumane practice, Sandra Twang has expressed also her commitment to maintain her hunger strike in protest for President Obama public support for Israel crimes, and financial backing for a state that have violated every single International Law, and ignore numerous UN resolutions.
In her Letter from Sandra to U.S. President
“I am ashamed to say that my country in particular has acted in a most egregious way in its veto of any UN response in holding Israel accountable for its crimes.
But now I want to tell you what drove me to this hunger strike.
There is a young woman, Hana Shalabi, now imprisoned in Hasharon Prison in Israel, arrested on February 16, 2012 and is being held under administrative detention, detention without charge or trial. She is not allowed to know what she is accused of, to examine any of the evidence against her, thereby rendering her capability for due process null and void.” Sandra Rose Twang
Gandhi Legacy, Non Violent Resistance
Gandhi was not a pacifist; he believed in the right of those being attacked to strike back and regarded inaction as a result of cowardice to be a greater sin than even the most ill-considered aggression. Gandhi’s calls for the sacrifice of lives in order to shame the oppressor into concessions can easily seem chilling and ruthless.
But Gandhi’s insistence that, in the end, peaceful resistance will always be less costly in human lives than armed opposition, and his understanding that the role of a protest movement is not primarily to persuade people of something new, but rather to get them to act on behalf of what they already accept as right – these principles have profound resonance in both the Israel-Palestine conflict and the wider movement for justice and democracy that began to sweep the world in 2011.
Over 10,000 Palestinian women have been arrested and detained since 1967 under Israeli military orders, which govern nearly every aspect of life in the occupied Palestinian territory. There were 36 Palestinian female prisoners in Israeli prisons prior to the exchange deal concluded by the Israeli government and Hamas in October 2011. Hamas reported that Israel agreed to include all female political prisoners in the exchange deal. However, two women, Lina Jarbuni and Wurud Qassem, who have been in prison since before the first phase of releases on 18 October 2011, and an additional two women, Salwa Hassan and Alaa Jubeh, who were arrested before the second phase of releases on 18 December 2011, are still in Israeli detention.
UNITED NATIONS – A UN human rights expert Wednesday called on Israel to release Hana Shalabi, a Palestinian woman prisoner who has been on a hunger strike for nearly a month. “The situation of Ms. Shalabi is morbid and life-threatening,” said Richard Falk, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories. “This is an appeal to the conscience and to humanity and a desperate call to all of us.” Falk urged the international community to intervene on her behalf. “Israel ought to end its inhumane treatment of Ms. Shalabi. Release her immediately.”
Shalabi supporters join hunger strike, boycott courts
Ma’an News Agency, Mar 20, 2012
PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Thursday expressed his support for Shalabi after meeting her parents at his office in Ramallah.
“She is fighting for her dignity,” the premier said.
Last month, Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, expressed “longstanding concern about the extensive use by Israel of administrative detention without formal charge.”
Ran Cohen, of Physicians for Human Rights in Israel, told Reuters TV on Friday that Shalabi could be risking her life if she remains on hunger strike.
I am ashamed to say that my country in particular has acted in a most egregious way in its veto of any any UN response in holding Israel accountable for its crimes.
But now I want to tell you what drove me to this hunger strike.
There is a young woman, Hana Shalabi, now imprisoned in Hasharon Prison in Israel, arrested on February 16, 2012 and is being held under administrative detention, detention without charge or trial. She is not allowed to know what she is accused of, to examine any of the evidence against her, thereby rendering her capability for due process null and void.
Palestinian hunger striker Hana Shalabi hospitalized
Posted on March 24, 2012 by Marivel Guzman
Administrative detainee Hana Shalabi: 36 Days on Hunger Strike
Updated
PHR-Israel & Addameer: Joint Statement
Ramallah-Jaffa, 6 March 2012- Notwithstanding the Israeli Military Court decision on 4 March to shorten her administrative detention order from six months to four months, Hana Shalabi expressed her undeterred intention to continue her hunger strike, now on its 20th day, in protest of the torture, assault and degrading treatment to which she has been subjected and of her ongoing detention without charge or trial.
Yesterday, 5 March, Hana stated during a visit with Addameer-affiliated lawyer Muna Naddaf that she has not eaten and has only been drinking water since her arrest. During the past four days, she has only been able to drink 1.5 liters of water total due to experiencing extreme nausea, though she has not been vomiting. She stated that she is feeling pain in her chest below her heart and pain above her waist, in addition to dizziness. The lawyer noted that Hana had difficulty speaking without pausing, and would breathe for moments before resuming speech. The lawyer also observed that Hana looked very tired and did not move very much.
Hana reiterated that since February 27 she has refused medical examinations by Israeli Prison Service (IPS) doctors. During the previous visit with Addameer Lawyer Samer Sam’an on 27 February, Hana stated that she would only agree to receive medical attention from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel). On 4 March, the IPS denied the request made by PHR-Israel to allow PHR-Israel doctors to visit Hana. The request was denied on the grounds that granting visiting access to an external doctor is based on the right to a second medical opinion, and since Hana refuses to be examined by doctors from the IPS, she does not qualify as a case where such a visit is granted. On 4 March, PHR-Israel filed a petition to the District Court in Petach Tikva demanding that the IPS approve without delay a visit by PHR-Israel doctors to Hana. The petition, which will be heard tomorrow, 7 March, states that according to the Israeli Medical Association, two weeks after the beginning of a hunger strike the decomposition of muscle tissue commences, including the heart muscle.
Hana confirmed that on 16 February, she was forcibly strip searched by a male soldier and assaulted, merely hours after soldiers brought her to Salem Detention Center following her arrest. In the affidavit given to Addameer Lawyer Samer Sam’an, Hana described the forced strip search and assault at the hands of the soldiers of the Israeli Occupying Forces as “utterly degrading” and that what they did to her was “not acceptable in all customs of the world”. She subsequently began her hunger strike and was placed in solitary confinement.
On 4 March, during the Military Court of First Instance session to review her administrative detention order issued by the Israeli military commander on 23 February, Judge Dalya Kaufman dismissed the request by Hana’s lawyers to call on witnesses to testify to the assault and abuse inflicted upon Hana. The judge stated that the request was denied based on the fact that “the prosecution requested the military police to conduct an investigation”. The judge then confirmed her administrative detention order for a period of four months.
On 5 March, an appeal was filed to the Israeli Military Court of Appeals regarding Hana’s administrative detention order. The session is scheduled for tomorrow, 7 March, at 1:30pm. On 1 March, Hana’s lawyers also filed a complaint to the Israeli Attorney General and to the Israeli military prosecutor regarding the assault.
Notably, during the past week, other Palestinian political prisoners have begun to join in Hana’s hunger strike in protest of the unjust Israeli military court system, which does not afford them due process and does not conform to or abide by International legal standards.
Addameer and PHR-Israel call on the local and international communities, including the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the European Union, to take immediate action and intervene with Israel in the strongest manner possible to pressure Israel to immediately facilitate medical visits to Hana Shalabi, unconditionally release Hana Shalabi and cease the use of administrative detention, and to conduct serious and independent investigation into the assault of Hana Shalabi and end its practice of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment.
More Stories …………..
Palestinians march to support hunger striking prisoner – Palestinians marched near the Old City of Jerusalem in support of hunger striking prisoner Hana Shalabi, who is protesting her administrative detention, meaning imprisonment without charge, by Israel. Demotrix
Palestinian hunger striker Hana Shalabi hospitalized- Female Palestinian prisoner Hana Shalabi, who has been on a hunger strike since February 16, has been hospitalized. “Hana Shalabi was transferred this evening to Israel’s Meir hospital after her state of health deteriorated,” Palestinian Prisoner Affairs Minister Issa Qaraqaa said on Monday. Press TV
American Citizen in Hunger Strike in solidarity with Hana Shalabi and the Plight of the Palestinians People – My name is Sandra Twang, a 56 year old woman who lives in a very small rural village in central New York. I am writing this letter to inform you that I am on a hunger strike, I have almost finished my second day, have eaten nothing for 2 days and I plan to continue, unless something is done about the gross oppression and genocide of the Palestinian peoples. Sandra Twang Hunger Strike
Letter from Sandra to U.S. President -Sandra Twang Hunger Strike
Posted on March 24, 2012 by Marivel Guzman
A Plea from an American Peace Activist Sandra Rose Twang to President Obama
President of the United States Barak Obama
The White House
Washington, DC
Dear Mr. President,
My name is Sandra Twang, a 56 year old woman who lives in a very small rural village in central New York.
I am writing this letter to inform you that I am on a hunger strike, I have almost finished my second day, have eaten nothing for 2 days and I plan to continue, unless something is done about the gross oppression and genocide of the Palestinian peoples.
I learned of Palestine only a few years ago and have been educating myself on the subject since.
What I learned has created such pain in my heart for these people that I can no longer bear it.
What is even more painful is my governments active participation in this genocide by providing 3 billion dollars a year to the government of Israel, military hardware, and the most heinous provision , a blind eye to this genocide of an entire people..
In all instances the United States has stepped away from its legal responsibility to denounce this incredible theft of land and the building of Jewish only settlements pushing the Palestinians into smaller and smaller enclaves which are rapidly becoming open air prisons with the building of an apartheid wall , hundreds of checkpoints and Israeli only roads.
The gross treatment of the Palestinians and the neglect of recognition of their human rights is appalling, their mobility is limited and defined by a government which seems to me to have no understanding of international law.
Their children are stolen from their beds in the middle of the night, by the Israeli Defense Forces who then take them to prison to be interrogated and many times tortured. Many as young as 12 years old, their parents are not allowed to accompany them and there is no legal counsel provided.
The Non-violent protestors, human beings confronting the building of 30 ft cement prison walls around their entire villages , for many the only way out through is a gateway which is a checkpoint with IDF soldiers attending.
A curfew set for when they can leave and when they must return by.
Many Palestinians are farmers, their olive groves on the other side of this prison wall, unable to access them unless the Israeli government allows it, with this cutting them off from their only source of income.
Many non violent Palestinian protestors have been killed while exercising their right to protest these injustices, as has our own youth Rachael Corrie, whose death was dismissed and given no dignity for her incredible sacrifice in her fight to protect the Palestinians.
Then there is the story of Gaza, an enclave totally surrounded by prison walls.
The people of Gaza cannot leave Gaza they are truly prisoners.
In December 2008 thru January 2009, the Israeli government bombed this enclave for 22 days killing more then 1387 people, 320 were children under the age of 18, 107 were women and 773 were civilians only 330 took part in the hostilities. ( B’Tselem’s investigation which is an Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories). Report
.
Because Gaza is totally surrounded by a razor wire and a prison wall there was no place for the civilians to go. Both Israel and Egypt blocked all crossings , and there are no bomb shelters in Gaza because the Israeli government will not allow cement into Gaza.
The severe oppression of Gaza is so horrendous that international activists and human rights organizations around the world have tried to break this horrible siege and blockade .
The people of the world are aware of this crime and because of a lack of response by the governments have taken it upon themselves as human rights defenders to attempt to break this blockade.
The atrocities in Gaza are particularly grotesque in that they involve the random firing of missiles into urban areas , the shooting of farmers whose land lies close to the prison wall , shooting at fisherman who dare to go out beyond 3 miles from their shore . These atrocities go on and on year after year with the international community doing nothing.
I am ashamed to say that my country in particular has acted in a most egregious way in its veto of any any UN response in holding Israel accountable for its crimes.
But now I want to tell you what drove me to this hunger strike.
There is a young woman, Hana Shalabi, now imprisoned in Hasharon Prison in Israel, arrested on February 16, 2012 and is being held under administrative detention, detention without charge or trial. She is not allowed to know what she is accused of, to examine any of the evidence against her, thereby rendering her capability for due process null and void.
She was only released from prison 4 months ago from administrative detention of 2 years, the day of her arrest from her home, violated by the arresting soldiers who beat her and provided no information to her why she was being arrested.
She has protested her arrest and the unjust legal system and refusal to allow her due process by going on a hunger strike. She is as I write this 36 days into her strike and dying , with the Israeli government, cold heatedly refusing to answer her charges of illegal detainment and freeing her.
Hana confirmed that on 16 February, she was forcibly strip searched by a male soldier and assaulted, merely hours after soldiers brought her to Salem Detention Center following her arrest. In the affidavit given to Addameer Lawyer Samer Sam’an, Hana described the forced strip search and assault at the hands of the soldiers of the Israeli Occupying Forces as “utterly degrading” and that what they did to her was “not acceptable in all customs of the world”. She subsequently began her hunger strike and was placed in solitary confinement.
There are more then 300 Palestinians at this time being held under this type of detainment. Many are on hunger strike demanding their right to due process.
I cannot believe that my country allows this type of international crime and continues to support a corrupt government who has no respect for international law or respects for human rights laws or due process.
My heart cries for her but in the same breath her courage is breath taking and I feel that I can not abandon her, and if I do not join her, then I would be as guilty as those who are taking her life.
My own governments silence fills me with fear of who we are. Our silence screams criminality in our continued support of Israeli crimes against these brave people.
So, I am letting you know that I will continue not to eat until you, Mr. Obama, address this issue with a heart and a respect for international and human rights laws.
The Palestinian people have a beautiful culture and they are very intelligent.
Their problem is, they have no saying and have not for some time of their own destiny . If Israel is allowed to continue with these crimes I fear for the Palestinians, because I do not know what happens to a people who are forced to live under such severe oppression generation after generation.
Respectfully and with high hopes,
Sandra Rose Twang
Israel ‘turning blind eye’ to West Bank settlers’ attacks on Palestinians
Posted on March 21, 2012 by Marivel Guzman
EU reports say farmers are bearing the brunt of intimidation in systematic and expanding campaign of violence
A Palestinian tries to put out a fire started by settlers on the West Bank, where confidential EU reports say violence against Palestinians is increasing. Photograph: Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images
Jewish settlers in the West Bank are conducting a systematic and expanding campaign of violence against Palestinian farmers, families and children with the Israeli authorities turning a blind eye, according to confidential reports from senior European Union officials.
In two reports to Brussels from EU heads of mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah, obtained by the Guardian, the officials found that settler violence against Palestinians has more than tripled in three years to total hundreds of incidents.
“Acts of settler violence are becoming a serious concern for the Israeli state which has so far failed to effectively protect the Palestinian population,” says the report sent to EU ambassadors in Brussels last month.
The report notes 411 attacks by settlers last year resulting in Palestinian casualties and damage to property, against 132 attacks in 2009.
The campaign of intimidation is especially targeted at Palestinian farmers and their livelihood, the reports found, noting that settlers damaged or destroyed Palestinian olive groves en mass.
Around 10,000 trees were destroyed last year. But last autumn’s olive harvest season was quieter than previous years.
The Israeli authorities are accused of structuring their security operations to minimize the cost to the settlers of the campaign of harassment, intimidation and violence.
“Over 90% of monitored complaints regarding settler violence filed by Palestinians with the Israeli police in recent years have been closed without indictment,” the February report says.
A previous and more detailed analysis from April last year described the increasing settler violence as “an alarming phenomenon”.
“Discriminatory protections and privileges for settlers compound these abuses and create an environment in which settlers can act with apparent impunity.”
The Israeli authorities’ failure to resolve 92% of 600 reported incidents by April last year effectively encouraged the settlers to step up the violence, the report argued, adding that the perception had been created that “settler violence enjoys the tacit support of the state of Israel”.
The manner in which the Israelis organise security operations in the West Bank militates against the Palestinians enjoying protection.
Children are stoned going to school and Palestinian shepherds and farmers are common targets for violence.
For more than 300,000 Jewish settlers in more than 200 locations in the West Bank, the Israeli military is obliged to intervene if there is retaliatory Palestinian violence. The army, though, is relatively powerless to halt violence against Palestinians since this is the remit of the Israeli police.
“Arguably the single most important deficiency in the provision of an impartial rule of law is the difference in the level of protection afforded to settlers and Palestinians,” the report says.
The EU officials say that, according to Israeli security sources, the campaign of violence is being masterminded by around 100 militant settler leaders, and they point to the potential electoral liability for any Israeli government that seeks to get to grips with the violence.
“In Israeli terms, there is a negative political consequence to cracking down on settler violence and no political gain from protecting violence.”
Apart from deploring the violence and demanding explanations from the Israeli authorities, the EU officials propose scant other action to halt the campaign.
They suggest to their superiors in Brussels that settler leaders urging violence against Palestinians be blacklisted by the EU and barred from traveling in the union
Source The Guradian in UK
Rachel Corrie Legacy
Posted on March 15, 2012 by Marivel Guzman
Rachel Corrie American Hero
International Solidarity Movement got to a hold in March 16,2003 when Rachel Corrie a beautiful young American, only 23 years old was crashed to death by a D9 American made Bulldozer.
“I should at least mention that I am also discovering a degree of strength and of basic ability for humans to remain human in the direst of circumstances – which I also haven’t seen before. I think the word is dignity. I wish you could meet these people. Maybe, hopefully, someday you will.”
– Rachel Corrie, in an email to her mother, February 28 2003
The United Nations (UN) and human rights groups such as Amnesty International and the International Committee of the Red Cross who oppose the house demolitions reject the IDF’s claims, and document numerous instances where they argue the IDF’s claims do not apply.[1] They accuse the Israeli government and IDF of other motives:
Collective punishment, the punishment of an innocent Palestinian “for an offense he or she has not personally committed.
Theft of Palestinian land by annexation to build the Israeli West Bank barrier or to create, expand or otherwise benefit Israeli settlements.
According to the United Nations, about 1,500 homes were demolished by the IDF just in the Rafah area in the period 2000-2004.
In 2004, Human Rights Watch published the report ‘Razing Rafah: Mass Home Demolitions in the Gaza Strip’.The report documented what it described as a “pattern of illegal demolitions” by the IDF in Rafah, a refugee camp and city at the southern end of the Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt where sixteen thousand people lost their homes after the Israeli government approved a plan to expand the de facto “buffer zone” in May 2004. The IDF’s main stated rationales for the demolitions were; responding to and preventing attacks on its forces and the suppression of weapons smuggling through tunnels from Egypt.
Rachel Corrie since their daughter death have started a campaign of Solidarity for Palestine and a fight against the Israel government to find justice for Rachel.
“One of the things we were told in Gaza by very respected Palestinians Psychologists that just concluded a study in thousand Palestinians children, is that they have discovered that many of these Palestinians children no longer have a will to live, that they were so dehumanized, they were so affected by seeing particularly their fathers being beaten by IDF soldiers, that their psychological condition is one of the dimensions of the conflict, that is not widely understood”. Richard A. Falk
Thousands of respect scholars from dozens of universities around the globe have add their voice to the BDS- Boycott and Disinvestment Sanctions intended to press Israel to stop her inhumane treatment of Palestinians in the territories.
Many of those scholars find themselves in the disjunctive to choose between Israel and Israel, some only engage in the aspect to fight for Palestine’s Human Rights inside the “Occupied Territories”, that part of Land that after 1948 partition of Palestine has been stolen inch by inch, others go furthers in lending their support to the core of the conflict, which is the illegal partition of Palestine, they completely deny the legality of the Partition of 1948.
The Palestine-Israel conflict gets more and more complex, and more intrinsic as we go deeper and deeper into the conflict.
The International Solidarity Movement and other organizations around the world have been facing critics from the government and pressure because the illegal place of laws naming Palestinians NGO’s as terrorists organization, move pushed by the Israel Lobby around the world, in their effort to weaken the Palestinian Resistance.
Rachel Corrie was a compassionate being than since early age showed her inner desire to help the weak and helpless.
On March 14, 2003, during an interview with the Middle East Broadcasting network, Corrie said:
“I feel like I’m witnessing the systematic destruction of a people’s ability to survive … Sometimes I sit down to dinner with people and I realize there is a massive military machine surrounding us, trying to kill the people I’m having dinner with.”
When Israel commits her acts of terror, she is expecting to inflict fear on Palestinians and on the peace activist community but it has worked the other way around, every time, she kills an activist, thousands of them sign to go to Palestine to work as human shields.
When Israel murdered the 9 peace activists in the Mavi Marmara, more than a million people signed in the different Gaza Convoys, showing with this that the world is not deter by Israel terror practices.
Europe is Freezing
Posted on March 14, 202 by Marivel Guzman
Africa is Warm
original published in News National Post
Death toll from Europe’s cold snap hits 400 as explosive experts called in to break up Serbian ice
Agence France-Presse Feb 7, 2012 – 10:40 AM ET
Peter Andrews / Reuters
A group of children cross the frozen Vistula River between Poniatowski and Lazienkowski Bridge in the centre of Warsaw February 5, 2012
by Stephanie van den Berg
BELGRADE — Authorities used explosives, icebreakers and tractors Tuesday in the battle to overcome Europe’s big freeze, as dozens more died of hypothermia and tens of thousands remained cut off by snow.
Around 400 people have now died from the cold weather in Europe since the cold snap began 11 days ago.
While there was some respite for people in Ukraine — where more than 130 deaths have been recorded — the mercury plunged overnight to minus 39.4 degrees Celsius in the Kvilda region of the Czech Republic.
More bodies were found either on the streets, in their cars or in their homes in Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Hungary and across the Balkans.
Related
AFP Photo / Patrick Pleul
Sheets of ice cover the river Oder in Frankfurt an der Oder, eastern Germany, on February 7, 2012
Authorities in Serbia said that 70,000 people were trapped in snow-bound villages in the south as officials declared an “emergency situation.”
In a dramatic effort to prevent two of the country’s main waterways from becoming completely blocked, officials called up army explosive experts.
As ice layers threatened to cause widespread floods on the Ibar, Alexander Prodanovic, the country’s top water official, said dynamite would be detonated to break up the huge blocks which had formed.
Authorities also hired icebreaking ships from Hungary to ease the flow on the Danube, the main waterway for all commercial shipping in Serbia. The port authority said the Danube was navigable around Belgrade but with difficulty.
There was similar chaos elsewhere in the Balkans with train linking Croatia’s central coastal town of Split and the capital Zagreb derailing as a result of a snow drift. There were no reports of injuries.
The army, firefighters and rescue services were trying to get food and medicine to the population in several hundred villages in southern Croatia where snow up to 1.4 metres high was piled up.
“This is a disaster, we have been cut off from the rest of the world … Snowploughs cannot reach us, so we have to walk to get some bread and basic things,” Marko Ancic told the Slobodna Dalmacija daily after trekking some 17 kilometres from his village to reach the nearest town.
Large parts of eastern and southern Bosnia were also cut off by the snow and avalanches. There has been no contact since Friday with the hamlet of Zijemlje, some 30 kilometres from the town of Mostar.
“We don’t know what is going on there. They have not had electricity since Friday and phone lines are cut, they have no running water,” Radovan Palavestra, the mayor of Mostar, told AFP.
“There are elderly people who are very fragile and children including a baby of two months.”
A helicopter which should have flown in aid to Zijemlje was unable to take off Tuesday morning because of heavy snowfall.
Daniel Mihailescu / AFP / Getty Images
A car is pictured on a secondary road near Romania’s A2 motorway, connecting Bucharest to Constanta, after the road was closed due to severe weather conditions on February 7, 2012
In Romania, two heavily pregnant women had to be flown out by helicopter in the eastern area of Iasi after their villages were completely cut off. Another pregnant woman had to be ferried to hospital by tractor in the eastern Paltinis area after her ambulance became stuck in the snow.
Schools were shut in large parts of the country, including Bucharest, while many train services were cancelled. Around 40% of roads were also closed, although flights did resume from Bucharest airport.
AFP Photo / Nikolay Doychinov
Yanka Atanasova, 70, cries as she sits in a tent in the flooded village of Biser, Bulgaria on February 7, 2012
Snowstorms lashed Bulgaria, a day after eight people drowned in raging rivers and the icy waters from a broken dam that submerged a whole village to the southeast.
Officials on Tuesday warned of flooding when temperatures go up and snow melts.
European Commissioner for Crisis Response Kristalina Georgieva said “the worst is yet to come” after she visited Biser, which was worst hit by the flooding from the broken dam.
“The next two weeks may be really hard. The warmer weather will cause melting of the snow and the situation will most probably worsen,” private broadcaster bTV quoted her as saying.
A Briton living on the Greek island of Symi drowned in a river which had been swollen by heavy rains as he tried to move his moped to safety.
Eleven people have died so far from the cold and snow in Serbia, with the latest victim a 62-year-old man found dead a kilometre from his home near Arilje in western Serbia and a woman killed by falling ice in the capital Belgrade.
In the central city of Kragujevac, authorities took inmates from a local jail to help clear snow, local media said.
To the south in Albania, the Kukes lake on the border with Kosovo – supplying a hydropower plant at Fierze – was frozen over for the first time in more than a decade, putting more pressure on already strained power supplies.
The numbers killed by hypothermia in Poland rose to 68 after the authorities there recorded another six deaths in the last 24 hours. The majority of those who have died were homeless, many of whom had been drinking heavily.
The cold snap has also seen a sharp rise in the number of people being killed by carbon monoxide poisoning from faulty gas heaters.
According to the state weather forecaster in Ukraine, temperatures there could rise to a relatively modest minus six degrees. But the respite will be short-lived with temperatures expected to plunge to minus 30 by the weekend.
The UN weather service said temperatures would remain low until March.
“We might expect the change in the current cold wave to to start easing from the start of next week up to the end of the month,” Omar Baddour, a scientist at the World Meteorological Organization, told reporters.
It was a similar message from Britain where forecasters said the cold spell could last for two more weeks and heavy snow at the weekend.
And in France, authorities appealed to households to save power where possible as they predicted electricity use could hit a record high.
The cold weather has increased demand for gas in many European countries.
Italy took emergency measures on Monday to deal with what it called critical shortages of Russian gas following the icy weather, while supplies to other members of the European Union mostly improved at the weekend but remained below normal.
Russia, which supplies about a quarter of Europe’s natural gas, reduced westward flows through pipelines across Ukraine last week citing greater domestic demand because of the extreme weather.
With files from Reuters
Mario Laporta / AFP / Getty Images
A policeman gives information to a truck driver during a snowfall, at a highway exit near Candela, on Februery 7, 2012
Israeli Airstrikes Kill Civilians in Gaza
Posted on March 10m 2012 By Marivel Guzman in collaboration with Omar Karem from Gaza, Palestine
Updating!
Israeli Airstrikes Terrorizes Gaza
GAZA — Israeli airstrikes killed 15 Palestinians, most of them civilians, in the Gaza Strip on Friday and early Saturday, and the armed militants retaliated in response to the attacks, sending home made rockets at southern Israel.
Web sites affiliated with Hamas, the Government of Gaza, reported early Saturday that the death toll in the Palestinian enclave had risen to 13, and the the injures 26 so far, 5 in critical conditions. This come when Gaza is deep in the darkness, where the only electrical plant stopped working completely after the fuel stopped entering Gaza. Israel and Egypt has played a great role on this situation. Israel has maintained an illegal siege of the strip for more than 4 years, and Egypt have not been cooperative to help in the enter of oil, and diesel to operate the plant.
The first airstrike, part of the illegal target assassinations of Israel killed Zuhair Al-Qissi and his son and law, Mahmoud Hanani, Zuhair Al-Qissi was the leader of PCR-Popular Resistance committee one of the political parties in Gaza.
Around 100 rockets have hit southern Israel as Israeli warplanes bombard the Gaza Strip, wounding 26 Palestinians and four Israelis. Five Palestinians and one Israeli are seriously injured.
In statements to the media on Saturday, the PRC armed wing said it had fired 29 rockets into Israel, while the PFLP’s brigades said it fired two rockets towards Israeli cities
After the first strike, and in retaliation for the assassination Zuhair Al-Quassi at least 20 rockets were fired at Israeli territory. Three civilians were wounded, one seriously, according to the police and emergency services. Israel Radio reported that they were foreign workers. Two rockets were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome anti rocket missile defense system, one crashed into a village near the Israeli port city of Ashdod, shaking the grounds near a house, while others landed in open areas or the sea, causing no injures.
We wonder if the celebrated Israel’s Iron dome anti rocket missile defense system is just waste of money, if they have not been able to stop the “barrage of Rockets” coming from Gaza. According to their own sources they stopped few rockets out of more than 100
As a result of the sudden escalation, the Israeli authorities called for the cancellation of all outdoor public activities in southern Israel that were scheduled for Saturday.
On another attack of Israel past March 22, 4 innocents lost their lives in a similar manner.
“Israel Defense Forces said that Palestinian militants had fired at them. In returning fire, they accidentally hit four members of the same family in the Gaza neighborhood of Sagaya.”, it is common occurrence that Israel target civilians, remember the deadly Attack on 2008-2009 “Cast Lead”, where Israel killed 1500 Palestinians including 600 children, between 3 months and 16 years old.
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A Palestinian carries an injured boy into Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, after Israeli tank fire struck a home on March 22, 2011 |
| Photo Credit Reuters |
Palestinian medics said those killed in the attack were aged 12, 16 and 17 and 58.
The leader who was killed, Zuhair Al-Qissi, was the secretary general of the Popular Resistance Committees, the group that Israel says was responsible for the attack last August, from across the border with Egypt in which eight Israelis were reported killed, those claims were dismissed by independent sources and PRC have denied their involvement.
The Palestinians factions are known for acknowledge their attacks, when they are responsible. The Egyptian border attack could just been another of Israel flag operations to excuse the militarization of the border with Egypt, after the fall of Mubarack, and planting the attack to create the “facts” on the ground.
The P.R.C. came into being after the start of the second uprising, or intifada. It was founded by a group of that split out from the older factions like Hamas, Fatah and the Islamic Jihad. The group maintains good relations with Hamas and joined it to seize an Israeli soldier, in a cross-border raid in 2006. The Israeli soldier was released last year in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, an historical deal negotiated by Hamas and Egyptian authorities.
Hours after the first airstrike, Israeli aircraft struck in eastern Gaza City, killing three other civilians. Witnesses said they were on a hilly area near the “buffer zone” land seized by Israel along the illegal fence, between Gaza and Israel and according to Israel were planing to fire rockets to Israel.
This area is part of cultivation lands, and the villagers need to approach their lands to harvest their crops, International Solidarity Movement activists a group of International stationed in Gaza often are seen accompanying the villagers to get to their lands, waving white flags in an attempt to stop the targeting of civilians.
Vittorio Arrigoni RIP was part of ISM, and he was often going to the fields and to the sea to serve as a shield for the villagers and the fishermen.
Friday’s strikes came after months of Israel incursions in the Gaza Strip, the Israel drones are seen invading Gaza airspace very often, and the activity of IOF personal on the border is a common thread for the besiege population that lives close to the border with Israel.
Israel has been airing videos regarding their tunnel practice in “case of another war” scenario intended to keep the population in fear.
Mr. Qissi was appointed as leader of the P.R.C. after Israel killed his predecessor, Awad al-Nirab, and five other civilians with an airstrike on a house in southern Gaza.
In January, Mr. Qissi had been reported killed, but another militant died in that episode.
Mr. Qissi’s son and law was Mahmoud Hnani, who was deported from the West Bank and settled in Gaza more than four years ago, the PRC. said in a statement.
The two men were traveling in a car when they were hit. Yasmeen Nabeeh, a resident of the southern Gaza City neighborhood of Tal al-Hawa, said she heard a powerful blast and, from her window, saw a blue Volkswagen car burning on the street. A spokesman for an ambulance service said that a bystander was seriously wounded in the bombing.
Israel often targets Gaza “militants” it says are preparing attacks. Al-Qaissi, who is also known as Abu Ibrahim, is the highest profile casualty in Gaza since his predecessor, Kamal Nairab, was killed seven months ago in similar fashion.
Mr. Hnani spent six years in an Israeli prison .
After the first Israeli strike on Friday, a spokesman for the P.R.C. known as Abu Mujahed said that his group was no longer committed to the shaky cease-fire with Israel that has been largely observed by Hamas.
“The response to this crime is open,” Abu Mujahed told reporters.
The funeral for the victims of Israel strikes will be done according to Islam tradition, the third day . Mr Zuhair Al-Qissi will be bury in Rafaf, Palestine on Sunday March 11, 2012.
Timeline:Of Friday Attacks
The Latest Attacked raise the victims to 17 in Gaza Palestine, Israel have not stopped the shelling since Friday..Gaza TV News
NUMBER OF MARTYRS TILL THIS MOMENT SINCE FRIDAY REACH TO 16 AND HERE IS THE NAMES :
1. martyr Fayeq Saad 2-martyr Mutasim Hajjaj 3. martyr Obeid Mohammad Al-garably 4-5 hararh-martyr Hazem karika 6. martyr Shadi Al-seiqali 7-martyr Commander Zuhair Al-Qaysi 8. martyr Mahmoud Hanani 9-martyr Mohammed Maghazi 10. martyr Mahmoud Najem 11. Martyr Ahmed Haggag 12. martyr Mohammed Mansour BORO 13. martyr Kamal Abu champions 14. martyr Hussein Barham Hammad 15. martyr Mahdi Abu Shawish 16. Ahmed Salem Ali
Hani Siliman Gaza, Palestine4:20 am; ISRAELI ARTILLERY SHELLING THE EASTERN AREA OF GAZA CITY WITH 2 MISSILES AT LEAST , ONE MARTYR AT LEAST HIS BODY COMPLETELY BURNED , AMBULANCES RUSHING TO THE AREA Hani Siliman Gaza Palestine
Just in 4 am: Beach Camp Police Station has been attacked by by three missiles from Israeli F16! At least, three people have been injured! Glass chattered and havoc spread! Prof. Said Adbelwahed Gaza Palestine
2:00 am: ISRAELI GUN BOATS OPENING FIRE ON THE WESTERN COAST MIDDLE OF GAZA STRIP WHILE THE DRONES FLYING AT LOW LEVELS Hani Siliman Gaza Palestine
MORE NEWS:
An Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip killed five Palestinians belonging to the Islamic Jihad militant group, Gaza emergency medical services spokesman Adham Abu Selmeya told reporters. 20 other people were also reported to have been injured in the attack. The escalation started on Saturday morning when Israel attacked Gaza Khan Younis Camp. Gaza Is being Attacked Again
New Forensic Evidence Reveals that Megrahi Not Guilty After All
Posted on February 27, 2012 by Marivel Guzman
Convicted Lockerbie Bomber Probably Not Guilty—So Who Is the Real Criminal?
US and UK pushed the courts to release Megrahi on humanitarian grounds, rather that allow him to present his evidence in his appeal. At the Lockerbie trial so-called “key witness” Abdulmajid Gauci would identify Megrahi as the purchaser of certain items of clothing found at the crash site that Gauci claimed were purchased at his shop in Valetta, Malta. But on the witness stand Gauci proved to be a flop at identification. An FBI officer, Harold Hendershot, called to the witness stand to bolster Gauci’s testimony, also appeared to lack credibility.
Megrahi was released and received hero welcome in Libya by Col Muamar Gadhafee.
Gadhafee denied that he was pressure to give up his claim that Libya did not have anything to do with the Pam 103. The economical sanctions were lifted right after Gadhafee allowed the extradition of the two suspects. One of them was found innocent, only Megrahi was found guilty.
Lockerbie bombing: Forensic evidence ‘casts fresh doubt on Megrahi guilt’
The wreckage of Pan Am 103. Picture: AP
By TIM CORNWELL
Published on Monday 27 February 2012 00:00
NEW forensic evidence claiming to destroy key pillars of the case against the Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing will be revealed today.
Forensic examination of a small fragment of circuit board, cited as critical evidence linking Libya to the atrocity that claimed 270 lives on 21 December, 1988, does not originate from the source identified by prosecutors, it is claimed.
The new evidence is detailed in two documentaries on the case against Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, 59, screened today on BBC Scotland and the Al Jazeera network. They coincide with the launch of a book telling the story of Megrahi and featuring extensive interviews with him, released by the Scottish company Birlinn.
The book, too, is said to probe deeply into the forensic evidence in the case.
In the BBC Scotland documentary, Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer, says he “forgives” Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci, who identified him as purchasing clothes which were found packed around the bomb, on a day Megrahi admitted he was in Malta.
“Forgiving him, I am facing my God very soon,” Megrahi says. “I swear I have never been in his shop or buy any clothing from his shop. I swear with my God, which is my God and his God as well, I swear I have never been in his shop or buy any clothing from his shop.
“He has to believe this, because when we meet together before the God, I want him to know that before I die. This is the truth.”
The circuit board, found at the crash site, was linked to the bombing because the fragment, labelled PT35b by investigators, was identified as coming from an MST-13 timer made by the Swiss firm Mebo. Megrahi had regular dealings with the firm. The Crown also claimed the timers had only ever been supplied to Libya. Megrahi was described at his trial as a member of the Libyan intelligence services who worked in Malta at the Libyan Arab Airlines office. He was accused of helping to place the bomb on an Air Malta flight, from which it was transferred to the doomed Pan Am 103.
Megrahi’s defence team was not able to secure access to the fragment to conduct its own expert analysis before the trial, or his first unsuccessful appeal, the documentary is said to claim.
But in preparation for the second appeal, which Megrahi abandoned when he was released on compassionate grounds after a cancer diagnosis, his defence team was able to examine the fragment and other key pieces of evidence.
Their experts claimed it contained no trace of explosive residue. But, more importantly, defence experts also claimed it was made of a different combination of materials to the MST-13s, meaning it did not originate with the Mebo device.
The BBC confirmed yesterday that their documentary explored forensic evidence.
The two programmes feature an interview Megrahi gave in December to his friend George Thomson, a former police officer and criminal defence specialist who was part of his legal team for four years.
Today also sees the publication of John Ashton’s book, Megrahi: You Are My Jury – The Lockerbie Evidence, published by Birlinn. Mr Ashton, an investigative journalist, was also in Megrahi’s defence team and worked closely with him to produce the book.
BBC Scotland insisted last night that, while the interview in the documentary was conducted by Thomson, the programme itself “was produced in accordance with our guidelines on impartiality”.
The Rev John Mosey, a British parent who lost his daughter in the bombing, said he expected both the book and the documentaries to launch a major re-examination of the Lockerbie case.
For those sceptical of the trial and conviction, it “promises evidence of things that we have been saying for many years”, he added.
He had closely followed the circuit-board evidence at Megrahi’s lengthy trial, he said. “It was extremely, extremely dodgy. It was very, very suspicious.
“The way it suddenly appeared, embedded in a shirt collar, with the information on the page overwritten and changed, all police procedures were thrown out of the window.”
But Susan Cohen, an American whose daughter also died in the bombing, said: “None of this sounds any different from what I’ve heard before. With these documentaries, is there going to be a panel afterwards, someone who is representing someone who is not the voice for Megrahi propaganda?
“This is simply allowing this conspiracy theory to flourish. In all these years nothing has ever, ever come out that really shows any significance.”
Megrahi, the only man convicted in the Lockerbie bombing, was said to be three months from death when he was released from a Scottish prison in August 2009 following a decision by justice secretary Kenny MacAskill. He remains alive in Libya, but in the December interview clearly considers himself close to death.
The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC), which investigated Megrahi’s 2001 conviction, found six reasons why it may have been a miscarriage of justice and sent the case back to the Appeal Court. The appeal ended when he was released.
Among the SCCRC’s reasons were inconsistencies in Mr Gauci’s statements and controversy surrounding an identification parade in Kamp van Zeist at which he identified Megrahi. It is understood the documentary makers gained access to the SCCRC’s investigations into the case.
Megrahi was interviewed in his bed in his home in Tripoli. Looking frail and straining to make his words audible, Megrahi laments that he will die while still branded “the Lockerbie bomber”.
Asked by Mr Thomson what he would say to Mr Gauci if he were in the room, he says: “I’d say he dealt with me very wrongly. I have never seen him in my life before he came to the court. But I do forgive him.”
• Many believe convicted killer Mohammed Abu Talb is the real Lockerbie bomber.
Talb was freed from prison in Sweden in 2010. He was serving a life sentence for terrorist attacks in Copenhagen and Amsterdam using explosive devices.
He was the original suspect for the attack on Pan Am Flight 103 until 1990, when attention switched to Libya.
At the time of the Lockerbie trial, Talb admitted he and members of his family were involved in the fight to liberate Palestine. But he denied he was “a murderer and a liar”, and claimed he had given up the military struggle before the Lockerbie bombing.
The trial in Kamp van Zeist heard Talb had used many aliases as a member of the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front, including one that translated as “he who takes revenge”.
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Lockerbie bombing: New book claims Megrahi was ‘innocent victim of dirty politics and judicial folly’
Scottish publisher Birlinn launches into the Lockerbie controversy today with the publication of a book that promises the fullest account yet of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi’s story in his own words.
Gaza in its Darkest Hour
Posted on February 18, 2012 by Akashma Online News
UPDATED
Nothing seems to change in Gaza. Politicians come and go, Israel attacking again. The leaders of the world silence. The United Nations busy with PR and budgets. While Gaza still in the dark. The visit of two royals delegations in the past might had put Gaza in the news for few hours, but nothing really change.
Gaza, Palestine
Gaza, Palestine/-Gaza in its darkest hour after the fuel stopped getting to the only electrical plant of Gaza after Israel bombed the other plants in the assault of 2008-2009.
When we talk about Tunnels in Gaza we have to talk about the Bedouins Tribes that control the Rafah border.
Before the Egyptian Revolution I have the opportunity to talk to my Egyptian friends about all themes, but one of my favorites was to talk about Palestine.
Some of my friends have this idea that most of their economical problems, and security situation is due to Palestinians crossing illegally the border.
And that the security problem is according to them to the terrorists that are financed by Iran and Hezbollah, that was the propaganda feed thru all the regimen of Mubakark that was in bed with Israel, and kept the country deprived, oppressed, with more than 2,000,000 people incarcerated for their political views, specially the then illegal Muslim brotherhood that they said was financed from Iran to destabilize the country.
Off course this idea is not shared for the majority of Egyptians, they know their own problems were created along the way, since British Empire decided to colonize these great lands of the Nile.
With this notion I have to mention also, that they do not see themselves as an Arab people but proudly they refer themselves as the Pharaoh people, some how superior race, or more intellectually advanced.
I m not sure that the tribes of Bedouins share the same idea, but for sure they are merchants that travel the deserts selling goods, and having a semi sedentary life only to raise their live stock of sheep.
These same tribes now controlling the border with Gaza, where the tunnels are dug.
They control completely the entrances of the tunnels, and according to reports from CNN, after the revolution, No police dare to get closer to the Tribes and their controlled lands of the Sinai.
They control the smuggling weapons, and the official sell of weapons that enter Gaza for the official government as well, they gauge the food, medicines and fuel, And Fuel being of of the commodities that can bring more profits. One of the most disturbing news coming directly from Tel Avid is that they also controlled the human traffic coming to Israel, women to be sold as prostitutes and migrant workers to be exploit by Israeli farmers.
“For centuries their identity was nomadic. They roamed the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula with little care for national borders or sovereign rule. Modern life has persuaded many Bedouin to opt for a more sedentary existence in the various countries they inhabit, but they haven’t shaken their reputation as professional outlaws.
Nowhere is that reputation more pronounced than in North Sinai, where they control much of the smuggling into Gaza. Their motivation is profit, not any particular affinity with the Palestinian people.
And it’s big business.” CNN
Ibrahim, from the Sawarka tribe around El Arish, the North Sinai governate’s capital, says he “chipped in” with some partners to build five tunnels into Gaza costing about $100,000 each. The tunnels are used to transport big-ticket items such as cars, most of them these days with Libyan number plates. Ibrahim shows off his array of battered old Mercedes, Kias, even a Range Rover. Usually, he sends about 10 cars through the tunnels at a time, once or twice a week.
Salem is a friend of Ibrahim’s from the neighboring Tarabin tribe. Neither wanted to use his full name for fear of police reprisal. Salem smuggles weapons, olives, tomatoes and canned food through the tunnels into Gaza. Olives cost about $100 per carton. Animals, such as a tiger or small elephant for the Gaza zoo, cost as much as $20,000, Salem said.
“But there’s a red line,” he said. “We refuse to allow suicide bombers through the tunnels to bomb Israeli targets from the Egyptian side. And we won’t smuggle hostages,either. I was once offered $500,000 to smuggle an Israeli hostage to Islamist groups in Gaza. I refused.”
Truth is that most of the problems facing Gaza; from water, food, construction material, medical equipment and most important Fuel Supplies are due to Israel Unfair and illegal blockade of the Mediterranean Port of Gaza, and Now added to the latest punitive measures implemented for Israel, punishing the innocent population of Gaza for the Unity deal reach by the two main factions, the Price Gouging in the Egyptian fuel prices had put Gaza in its darkest moments.
Hamas and Fatah have decided to work as a team and elect their leaders in the next elections, decision that was not welcome by Israel.
A Palestine United will be a invincible force against the tactics of divide and conquer used by Israel.
The Unity will boots the mood of Palestinians and will give them a respite in this internal conflict.
The constant harassment from both of the parties in Gaza and West Bank have been a tremendous drain of energy in the fight against the occupation.
Egypt wants to stop the passage of fuel through tunnels under the border between the countries, the official Rafah terminal is not equipped for goods transfers and its development is restricted to people only by an agreement between Egypt, Israel and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority. We wonder whose interest serve this close door agreement that undermine the well being of almost 2 million people in Gaza…
The agreement still in force since 2006, after Hamas won the election in 2007, Israel and PA have tried to castigate Hamas for wining the elections; for the PA a political pressure exercised to their political enemy, and for Israel to push the PA to take back Gaza.
There is no secret that PA has been a playmate to implement most of the policies dictated by Israel, and Hamas has not.
But the internal agreements convened in Cairo and Doha has not bring benefits for Gaza, even thought the fuel is a bare necessity for Gaza to run the hospitals, schools, Official business and households is not meet yet.
As Monday the 20 of February Fuel from Egypt was yet to be transferred to Gaza despite assurances it would arrive on Sunday to alleviate an energy crisis, a power authority official said Sunday afternoon.
“The current crisis is a political problem that started six years ago. The Israeli occupation, the Palestinian Authority’s refusal to provide the Gaza Strip with funds, and the policy of Egypt which is dealing with Gaza out of security calculations, have all contributed to the current situation,” said Hamas government spokesman Fawzi Barhoum.
The constant battle for public support have pushed Hamas to put the PR campaign first, instead of the welfare of Gaza. The refusal t0 buy the Israel fuel has been the pivotal point in this electricity shortage. I m that sounds to said but, we know that Israel is the occupying power, and control what enters and don’t. Most of the deals are done behind doors, and what transpire is obvious.
If Israel control the money that enters Gaza, and Israel collect the taxes of the Palestinians society, and the money donated by the International community is obvious to assume that Israel and the Government of Gaza have their mechanism to transfer the money, the goods, and the embargo as well.
Israel ‘approved’ companies provide much of the fuel necessities of Gaza, the rest is bought, and smuggle thru the tunnels.
Last year when the European Union stop the funneling of funds to Gaza, the first blackest days started to feel in Gaza, and the deterioration of the electrical Plant due to the impossibility to import parts, and the lack of fuel to run it, put Gaza in the Dark.The only plant was providing electricity on schedule. Where only the people working for the government knew exactly when will the light will come.
Heart of darkness
Karl Schembri Photo
-Wasfi Al Nider sits motionless on a couch with his legs stretched looking at a small screen. Whenever it goes blank, it is the sign of yet another power cut hitting Gaza. But unlike the frustrations of thousands of others working on computers or watching TV, the screen the 63-year-old is looking at is connected to his blood and a kidney dialysis machine.
“Whenever there is a blackout, I’m in Allah’s hands,” Wasfi says. “The machine just stops, blood stops circulating, I just cry. Then we have to wait until the generator starts.”- A journalist Jorney
Thousands of electrical devices were ruined because the electrical unannounced cuts, if you did not have Outrage Plug Protector, you were out of luck, and your computer most probably was blown out.
The entrance of fuel thru the tunnels not never stopped completely, and the smuggling of petrol that serve the private residents also never stopped. The dark side of Gaza can be see in the belt of the refugee camps, and in the impoverished neighborhoods that can not effort generators and/or fuel.
Gaza like any other society in the world, regardless of its state of war, and blockade to the outside of the world, has it blocks of ‘Rich’ families that never have felt the blockade, at least not with full force as the rest of the population.
Gaza is comprised mostly of refugee camps, where thousands of Palestinians linger waiting for freedom, not every one enjoy the benefit of being connected to the ‘Grid’, still now thousands of families live in tents, and in half destroy homes that lit their nights with candles and if they are lucky enough to have a working person they will have little money to share electricity provided by a better accommodated neighbor that have the luxury to have a generator.
Most of the petrol that enters under the line ‘Tunnels’ comes with a stiffly tag price, not all the fuel that enters Gaza is controlled by the Government.
Gaza like any other region of the world, have their hustlers, ‘this active group’ of Palestinians that are not deterred by the occupation, or the blockade and they find the ways to make ‘little money’ even if it means doubling the prices of the already expensive fuel prices.
This business goes both ways, in the Egyptian side and the Palestinians side in Rafah where all the tunnels are situated.
Sad as it sounds it is a reality, and Money it is the wheel that moves Gaza Society.
As I m finishing this article some developments are moving along in Gaza on the order of fuel, they received some Diesel from Egypt under a contract but not enough to satisfy the whole Gaza. They were talking of 5000 littler of diesel a day will cross to Gaza, but Gaza needs 100,000 littler of Gas at least to serve a population of almost 2,000,000.
Who is Behind Wikileaks?
Posted on February 14, 2012 by Marivel Guzman
Who is Behind Wikileaks?
First Published in Global Research Center for Research on globalizationGlobal Research, December 13, 2010
“World bankers, by pulling a few simple levers that control the flow of money, can make or break entire economies. By controlling press releases of economic strategies that shape national trends, the power elite are able to not only tighten their stranglehold on this nation’s economic structure, but can extend that control world wide. Those possessing such power would logically want to remain in the background, invisible to the average citizen.” (Aldous Huxley)
Wikleaks is upheld as a breakthrough in the battle against media disinformation and the lies of the US government.
Unquestionably, the released documents constitute an important and valuable data bank. The documents have been used by critical researchers since the outset of the Wikileaks project. Wikileaks earlier revelations have focussed on US war crimes in Afghanistan (July 2010) as well as issues pertaining to civil liberties and the “militarization of the Homeland” (see Tom Burghardt, Militarizing the “Homeland” in Response to the Economic and Political Crisis, Global Research, October 11, 2008)
In October 2010, WikiLeaks was reported to have released some 400,000 classified Iraq war documents, covering events from 2004 to 2009 (Tom Burghardt, The WikiLeaks Release: U.S. Complicity and Cover-Up of Iraq Torture Exposed, Global Research, October 24, 2010). These revelations contained in the Wikileaks Iraq War Logs provide “further evidence of the Pentagon’s role in the systematic torture of Iraqi citizens by the U.S.-installed post-Saddam regime.” (Ibid)
Progressive organizations have praised the Wikileaks endeavor.
Our own website Global Research has provided extensive coverage of the Wikileaks project.
The leaks are heralded as an immeasurable victory against corporate media censorship.
But there is more than meets the eye.
Even prior to the launching of the project, the mainstream media had contacted Wikileaks.
There are also reports from published email exchanges (unconfirmed) that Wikileaks had, at the outset of the project in January 2007, contacted and sought the advice of Freedom House. This included an invitation to Freedom House (FH) to participate in the Wikileaks advisory board:
“We are looking for one or two initial advisory board member from FH who may advise on the following:
1. the needs of FH as consumer of leaks exposing business and political corruption 2. the needs for sources of leaks as experienced by FH 3. FH recommendations for other advisory board members 4. general advice on funding, coallition [sic] building and decentralised operations and political framing” (Wikileaks Leak email exchanges, January 2007).There is no evidence of FH followup support to the Wikileaks project. Freedom House is a Washington based “watchdog organization that supports the expansion of freedom around the world”. It is chaired by William H. Taft IV who was legal adviser to the State Department under G. W. Bush and Deputy Secretary of Defense under the Reagan administration.
Wikileaks had also entered into negotiations with several corporate foundations with a view to securing funding. (Wikileaks Leak email exchanges, January 2007):
The linchpin of WikiLeaks’s financial network is Germany’s Wau Holland Foundation. … “We’re registered as a library in Australia, we’re registered as a foundation in France, we’re registered as a newspaper in Sweden,” Mr. Assange said. WikiLeaks has two tax-exempt charitable organizations in the U.S., known as 501C3s, that “act as a front” for the website, he said. He declined to give their names, saying they could “lose some of their grant money because of political sensitivities.” Mr. Assange said WikiLeaks gets about half its money from modest donations processed by its website, and the other half from “personal contacts,” including “people with some millions who approach us….” (WikiLeaks Keeps Funding Secret, WSJ.com, August 23, 2010)
Acquiring covert funding from intelligence agencies was, according to the email exchanges, also contemplated. (See Wikileaks Leak email exchanges, January 2007)
At the outset in early 2007, Wikileaks acknowledged that the project had been “founded by Chinese dissidents, mathematicians and startup company technologists, from the US, Taiwan, Europe, Australia and South Africa…. [Its advisory board] includes representatives from expat Russian and Tibetan refugee communities, reporters, a former US intelligence analyst and cryptographers.” (Wikileaks Leak email exchanges, January 2007).
Wikileaks formulated its mandate on its website as follows: “[Wikileaks will be] an uncensorable version of Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis. Our primary interests are oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to those in the west who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their own governments and corporations,” CBC News – Website wants to take whistleblowing online, January 11, 2007, emphasis added).
This mandate was confirmed by Julian Assange in a June 2010 interview in The New Yorker:
“Our primary targets are those highly oppressive regimes in China, Russia and Central Eurasia, but we also expect to be of assistance to those in the West who wish to reveal illegal or immoral behavior in their own governments and corporations. (quoted in WikiLeaks and Julian Paul Assange : The New Yorker, June 7, 2010, emphasis added)
Assange also intimated that “exposing secrets” “could potentially bring down many administrations that rely on concealing reality—including the US administration.” (Ibid)
From the outset, Wikileaks’ geopolitical focus on “oppressive regimes” in Eurasia and the Middle East was “appealing” to America’s elites, i.e. it seemingly matched stated US foreign policy objectives. Moreover, the composition of the Wikileaks team (which included Chinese dissidents), not to mention the methodology of “exposing secrets” of foreign governments, were in tune with the practices of US covert operations geared towards triggering “regime change” and fostering “color revolutions” in different parts of the World.
The Role of the Corporate Media: The Central Role of the New York Times
Wikileaks is not a typical alternative media initiative. The New York Times, the Guardian and Der Spiegel are directly involved in the editing and selection of leaked documents. The London Economist has also played an important role.
While the project and its editor Julian Assange reveal a commitment and concern for truth in media, the recent Wikileaks releases of embassy cables have been carefully “redacted” by the mainstream media in liaison with the US government. (See Interview with David E. Sanger, Fresh Air, PBS, December 8, 2010)
This collaboration between Wikileaks and selected mainstream media is not fortuitous; it was part of an agreement between several major US and European newspapers and Wikileaks’ editor Julian Assange.
The important question is who controls and oversees the selection, distribution and editing of released documents to the broader public?
What US foreign policy objectives are being served through this redacting process?
Is Wikileaks part of an awakening of public opinion, of a battle against the lies and fabrications which appear daily in the print media and on network TV?
If so, how can this battle against media disinformation be waged with the participation and collaboration of the corporate architects of media disinformation?
Wikileaks has enlisted the architects of media disinformation to fight media disinformation: An incongruous and self-defeating procedure.
America’s corporate media and more specifically The New York Times are an integral part of the economic establishment, with links to Wall Street, the Washington think tanks and the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
Moreover, the US corporate media has developed a longstanding relationship to the US intelligence apparatus, going back to “Operation Mocking Bird”, an initiative of the CIA’s Office of Special Projects (OSP), established in the early 1950s.
Even before the Wikileaks project got off the ground, the mainstream media was implicated. A role was defined and agreed upon for the corporate media not only in the release, but also in the selection and editing of the leaks.
In a bitter irony, the “professional media”, to use Julian Assange’s words in an interview with The Economist, have been partners in the Wikileaks project from the outset.Moreover, key journalists with links to the US foreign policy-national security intelligence establishment have worked closely with Wikileaks, in the distribution and dissemination of the leaked documents. I
n a bitter irony, Wikileaks partner The New York Times, which has consistently promoted media disinformation is now being accused of conspiracy. For what? For revealing the truth? Or for manipulating the truth? In the words of Senator Joseph L. Lieberman:
“I certainly believe that WikiLleaks has violated the Espionage Act, but then what about the news organizations — including The Times — that accepted it and distributed it?” Mr. Lieberman said, adding: “To me, The New York Times has committed at least an act of bad citizenship, and whether they have committed a crime, I think that bears a very intensive inquiry by the Justice Department.”
(WikiLeaks Prosecution Studied by Justice Department – NYTimes.com, December 7, 2010)
This “redacting” role of The New York Times is candidly acknowledged by David E Sanger, Chief Washington correspondent of the NYT:
“We went through [the cables] so carefully to try to redact material that we thought could be damaging to individuals or undercut ongoing operations. And we even took the very unusual step of showing the 100 cables or so that we were writing from to the U.S. government and asking them if they had additional redactions to suggest.”
(See PBS Interview; The Redacting and Selection of Wikileaks documents by the Corporate Media, PBS interview on “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross: December 8, 2010, emphasis added).
Yet Sanger also says later in the interview: “It is the responsibility of American journalism, back to the founding of this country, to get out and try to grapple with the hardest issues of the day and to do it independently of the government.” (ibid) “Do it independently of the government” while at the same time “asking them [the US government] if they had additional redactions to suggest”?
David E. Sanger cannot be described as a model independent journalist. He is member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Aspen Institute’s Strategy Group which regroups the likes of Madeleine K. Albright, Condoleeza Rice, former Defense Secretary William Perry, former CIA head John Deutch, the president of the World Bank, Robert. B. Zoellick and Philip Zelikow, former executive director of the 9/11 Commission, among other prominent establishment figures.
(See also F. William Engdahl, Wikileaks: A Big Dangerous US Government Con Job, Global Research, December 10, 2010). It is worth noting that several American journalists, members of the Council on Foreign Relations have interviewed Wikileaks, including Time Magazine’s Richard Stengel (November 30, 2010) and The New Yorker’s Raffi Khatchadurian.
(WikiLeaks and Julian Paul Assange : The New Yorker, June 11, 2007) Historically, The New York Times has served the interests of the Rockefeller family in the context of a longstanding relationship.
The current New York Times chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, son of Arthur Ochs Sulzberger and grandson of Arthur Hays Sulzberger who served as a Trustee for the Rockefeller Foundation.
Ethan Bronner, deputy foreign editor of The New York Times as well as Thomas Friedman among others are also members of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
(Membership Roster – Council on Foreign Relations)
In turn, the Rockefellers have an important stake as shareholders of several US corporate media.
The Embassy and State Department Cables It should come as no surprise that David E. Sanger and his colleagues at the NYT centered their attention on a highly “selective” dissemination of the Wikileaks cables, focussing on areas which would support US foreign policy interests:
Iran’s nuclear program, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan’s support of Al Qaeda, China’s relations with North Korea, etc.
These releases were then used as source material in NYT articles and commentary.
The Embassy and State Department cables released by Wikileaks were redacted and filtered.
They were used for propaganda purposes. They do not constitute a complete and continuous set of memoranda. From a selected list of cables, the leaks are being used to justify a foreign policy agenda.
A case in point is Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program, which is the object of numerous State Department memos, as well as Saudi Arabia’s support of Islamic terrorism.
Iran’s Nuclear Program The leaked cables are used to feed the disinformation campaign concerning Iran’s Weapons of Mass Destruction. While the leaked cables are heralded as “evidence” that Iran constitutes a threat, the lies and fabrications of the corporate media concerning Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program are not mentioned, nor is there any mention of them in the leaked cables.
The leaks, once they are funnelled into the corporate news chain, edited and redacted by the New York Times, indelibly serve the broader interests of US foreign policy, including US-NATO-Israel war preparations directed against Iran.
With regard to “leaked intelligence” and the coverage of Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program, David E. Sanger has played a crucial role. In November 2005, The New York Times published a report co-authored by David E. Sanger and William J. Broad entitled “Relying on Computer, U.S. Seeks to Prove Iran’s Nuclear Aims”.
The article refers to mysterious documents on a stolen Iranian laptop computer which included “a series of drawings of a missile re-entry vehicle” which allegedly could accommodate an Iranian produced nuclear weapon:
“In mid-July, senior American intelligence officials called the leaders of the international atomic inspection agency to the top of a skyscraper overlooking the Danube in Vienna and unveiled the contents of what they said was a stolen Iranian laptop computer. The Americans flashed on a screen and spread over a conference table selections from more than a thousand pages of Iranian computer simulations and accounts of experiments, saying they showed a long effort to design a nuclear warhead, according to a half-dozen European and American participants in the meeting. The documents, the Americans acknowledged from the start, do not prove that Iran has an atomic bomb. They presented them as the strongest evidence yet that, despite Iran’s insistence that its nuclear program is peaceful, the country is trying to develop a compact warhead to fit atop its Shahab missile, which can reach Israel and other countries in the Middle East.”(William J. Broad and David E. Sanger Relying on Computer, U.S. Seeks to Prove Iran’s Nuclear Aims – New York Times, November 13, 2005, emphasis added) These “secret documents” were subsequently submitted by the US State Department to the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA, with a view to demonstrating that Iran was developing a nuclear weapons program. They were also used as a pretext to enforce the economic sanctions regime directed against Iran, adopted by the UN Security Council. While their authenticity has been questioned, a recent article by investigative reporter Gareth Porter confirms unequivocally that the mysterious laptop documents are fake. (See Gareth Porter, Exclusive Report: Evidence of Iran Nuclear Weapons Program May Be Fraudulent, Global Research, November 18, 2010). The drawings contained in the documents leaked by William J. Broad and David E. Sanger do not pertain to the Shahab missile but to an obsolete North Korean missile system which was decommissioned by Iran in the mid-1990s. The drawings presented by US State Department officials pertained to the “Wrong Missile Warhead”: In July 2005, … Robert Joseph, US undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, made a formal presentation on the purported Iranian nuclear weapons program documents to the agency’s leading officials in Vienna. Joseph flashed excerpts from the documents on the screen, giving special attention to the series of technical drawings or “schematics” showing 18 different ways of fitting an unidentified payload into the re-entry vehicle or “warhead” of Iran’s medium-range ballistic missile, the Shahab-3. When IAEA analysts were allowed to study the documents, however, they discovered that those schematics were based on a re-entry vehicle that the analysts knew had already been abandoned by the Iranian military in favor of a new, improved design. The warhead shown in the schematics had the familiar “dunce cap” shape of the original North Korean No Dong missile, which Iran had acquired in the mid-1990s. … The laptop documents had depicted the wrong re-entry vehicle being redesigned. … (Gareth Porter, op cit, emphasis added) David E, Sanger, who worked diligently with Wikileaks under the banner of truth and transparency was also instrumental in the New York Times “leak” of what Gareth Porter describes as fake intelligence. (Ibid) While this issue of fake intelligence received virtually no media coverage, it invalidates outright Washington’s assertions regarding Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons. It also questions the legitimacy of the UN Security Council Sancions regime directed against Iran. Moreover, in a bitter irony, the selective redacting of the Wikileaks embassy cables by the NYT has usefully served not only to dismiss the central issue of fake intelligence but also to reinforce, through media disinformation, Washington’s claim that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. A case in point is a November 2010 article co-authored by David E. Sanger, which quotes the Wikileaks cables as a source: “Iran obtained 19 of the missiles from North Korea, according to a [Wikileaks] cable dated Feb. 24 of this year…. (WikiLeaks Archive — Iran Armed by North Korea – NYTimes.com, November 28, 2010). These missiles are said to have the “capacity to strike at capitals in Western Europe or easily reach Moscow, and American officials warned that their advanced propulsion could speed Iran’s development of intercontinental ballistic missiles.” (Ibid, emphasis added). Wikileaks, Iran and the Arab World The released wikileaks cables have also being used to create divisions between Iran on the one hand and Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States on the other: “After WikiLeaks claimed that certain Arab states are concerned about Iran’s nuclear program and have urged the U.S. to take [military] action to contain Iran, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took advantage of the issue and said that the released cables showed U.S. concerns regarding Iran’s nuclear program are shared by the international community.” Tehran Times : WikiLeaks promoting Iranophobia, December 5, 2010) The Western media has jumped on this opportunity and has quoted the State Department memoranda released by Wikleaks with a view to upholding Iran as a threat to global security as well as fostering divisions between Iran and the Arab world. “The Global War on Terrorism” The leaks quoted by the Western media reveal the support of the Gulf States and Saudi Arabia to several Islamic terrorist organizations, a fact which is known and amply documented. What the reports fail to mention, however, which is crucial in an understanding of the “Global War on Terrorism”, is that US intelligence historically has channelled its support to terrorist organizations via Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. (See Michel Chossudovsky, America’s “War on Terrorism”, Global Research, Montreal, 2005). These are US sponsored covert intelligence operations using Saudi and Pakistani intelligence as intermediaries. In this regard, the use of the Wikleaks documents by the media tends to sustain the illusion that the CIA has nothing to do with the terror network and that Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states are “providing the lion’s share of funding” to Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba, among others, when in fact this financing is undertaken in liaison and consultation with their US intelligence counterparts: “The information came to light in the latest round of documents released Sunday by Wikileaks. In their communiques to the State Department, U.S. embassies in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states describe a situation in which wealthy private donors, often openly, lavishly support the same groups against whom Saudi Arabia claims to be fighting.” ( Wikileaks: Saudis, Gulf States Big Funders of Terror Groups – Defense/Middle East – Israel News – Israel National News) Similarly, with regard to Pakistan: The cables, obtained by WikiLeaks and made available to a number of news organizations, make it clear that underneath public reassurances lie deep clashes [between the U.S. and Pakistan] over strategic goals on issues like Pakistan’s support for the Afghan Taliban and tolerance of Al Qaeda,…” (Wary Dance With Pakistan in Nuclear World, The New York Times December 1, 2010) Reports of this nature serve to provide legitimacy to US drone attacks against alleged terrorist targets inside Pakistan. The corporate media’s use and interpretation of the Wikileaks cables serves to uphold two related myths: 1) Iran has nuclear weapons program and constitutes a threat to global security. 2) Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are state sponsors of Al Qaeda. They are financing Islamic terrorist organizations which are intent upon attacking the US and its NATO allies. The CIA and the Corporate Media The CIA’s relationship to the US media is amply documented. The New York Times continues to entertain a close relationship not only with US intelligence, but also with the Pentagon and more recently with the Department of Homeland Security. “Operation Mocking Bird” was an initiative of the CIA’s Office of Special Projects (OSP), established in the early 1950s. Its objective was to exert influence on both the US as well as the foreign media. From the 1950s, members of the US media were routinely enlisted by the CIA. The inner workings of the CIA’s relationship to the US media are described in Carl Bernstein’s 1977 article in Rolling Stone entitled The CIA and the Media: “[M]ore than 400 American journalists who [had] secretly carried out assignments for the Central Intelligence Agency, according to documents on file at CIA headquarters. [1950-1977]Some of these journalists’ relationships with the Agency were tacit; some were explicit. … Reporters shared their notebooks with the CIA. Editors shared their staffs. Some of the journalists were Pulitzer Prize winners,… Most were less exalted: foreign correspondents who found that their association with the Agency helped their work….; Among the executives who lent their cooperation to the Agency were Williarn Paley of the Columbia Broadcasting System, Henry Luce of Tirne Inc., Arthur Hays Sulzberger of the New York Times, Barry Bingham Sr. of the LouisviIle Courier‑Journal, and James Copley of the Copley News Service. Other organizations which cooperated with the CIA include the American Broadcasting Company, the National Broadcasting Company, the Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters, Hearst Newspapers, Scripps‑Howard, Newsweek magazine, the Mutual Broadcasting System, the Miami Herald and the old Saturday Evening Post and New York Herald‑Tribune. (The CIA and the Media by Carl Bernstein) Bernstein suggests, in this regard, that “the CIA’s use of the American news media has been much more extensive than Agency officials have acknowledged publicly or in closed sessions with members of Congress” (Ibid). In recent years, the CIA’s relationship to the media has become increasingly complex and sophisticated. We are dealing with a mammoth propaganda network involving a number of agencies of government. Media disinformation has become institutionalized. The lies and fabrications have become increasingly blatant when compared to the 1970s. The US media has become the mouthpiece of US foreign policy. Disinformation is routinely “planted” by CIA operatives in the newsroom of major dailies, magazines and TV channels: “A relatively few well-connected correspondents provide the scoops, that get the coverage in the relatively few mainstream news sources, where the parameters of debate are set and the “official reality” is consecrated for the bottom feeders in the news chain.”(Chaim Kupferberg, The Propaganda Preparation of 9/11, Global Research, September 19, 2002). Since 2001, the US media has assumed a new role in sustaining the “Global War on Terrorism” (GWOT) and camouflaging US sponsored war crimes. In the wake of 9/11, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld created the Office of Strategic Influence (OSI), or “Office of Disinformation” as it was labeled by its critics: “The Department of Defense said they needed to do this, and they were going to actually plant stories that were false in foreign countries — as an effort to influence public opinion across the world.'” (Interview with Steve Adubato, Fox News, 26 December 2002, see also Michel Chossudovsky, War Propaganda, Global Research, January 3, 2003). Today’s corporate media is an instrument of war propaganda, which begs the question: why would the NYT all of a sudden promote transparency and truth in media, by assisting Wikileaks in “spreading the word”; and that people around the World would not pause for one moment and question the basis of this incongruous relationship. On the surface, nothing proves that Wikileaks is a CIA covert operation. However, given the corporate media’s cohesive and structured relationship to US intelligence, not to mention the links of individual journalists to the military-national security establishment, the issue of a CIA sponsored PsyOp must necessarily be addressed. Wikileaks Social and Corporate Entourage Wikileaks and The Economist have also entered into what seems to be a contradictory relationship. Wikileaks founder and editor Julian Assange was granted in 2008 The Economist’s New Media Award. The Economist has a close relationship to Britain’s financial elites. It is an establishment news outlet, which has, on balance, supported Britain’s involvement in the Iraq war. The Economist’s Editor-in-Chief, John Micklethwait was a participant in the June 2010 Bilderberg conference. The Economist also bears the stamp of the Rothschild family. Sir Evelyn Robert Adrian de Rothschild was chairman of The Economist from 1972 to 1989. His wife Lynn Forester de Rothschild currently sits on The Economist’s board. The Rothschild family also has a sizeable shareholder interest in The Economist. Former Editor of The Economist (1974-86), Andrew Stephen Bower Knight is currently Chairman of the J. Rothschild Capital Management Fund. He is also reported to have been member of the Steering Group (1986) of the Bilderberg. The broader question is why would Julian Assange receive the support from Britain’s foremost establishment news outfit which has consistently been involved in media disinformation? Are we not dealing with a case of “manufactured dissent”, whereby the process of supporting and rewarding Wikileaks for its endeavors, becomes a means of controlling and manipulating the Wikileaks project, while at the same time embedding it into the mainstream media. It is also worth mentioning another important link. Julian Assange’s lawyer Mark Stephens of Finers Stephens Innocent (FSI), a major London elite law firm, happens to be the legal adviser to the Rothschild Waddesdon Trust. While this in itself does prove anything, it should nonetheless be examined in the broader context of Wikileaks’ social and corporate entourage: the NYT, the CFR, The Economist, Time Magazine, Forbes, Finers Stephens Innocent (FSI), etc. Manufacturing Dissent Wikileaks has the essential features of a process of “manufactured dissent”. It seeks to expose government lies. It has released important information on US war crimes. But once the project becomes embedded in the mould of mainstream journalism, it is used as an instrument of media disinformation: “It is in the interest of the corporate elites to accept dissent and protest as a feature of the system inasmuch as they do not threaten the established social order. The purpose is not to repress dissent, but, on the contrary, to shape and mould the protest movement, to set the outer limits of dissent. To maintain their legitimacy, the economic elites favor limited and controlled forms of opposition… To be effective, however, the process of “manufacturing dissent” must be carefully regulated and monitored by those who are the object of the protest movement ” (See Michel Chossudovsky, “Manufacturing Dissent”: the Anti-globalization Movement is Funded by the Corporate Elites, September 2010) What this examination of the Wikileaks project also suggests is that the mechanics of New World Order propaganda, particularly with regard to its military agenda, has become increasingly sophisticated. It no longer relies on the outright suppression of the facts regarding US-NATO war crimes. Nor does it require that the reputation of government officials at the highest levels, including the Secretary of State, be protected. New World Order politicians are in a sense “disposable”. They can be replaced. What must be protected and sustained are the interests of the economic elites, which control the political apparatus from behind the scenes. In the case of Wikileaks, the facts are contained in a data bank; many of those facts, particularly those pertaining to foreign governments serve US foreign policy interests. Other facts tend, on the other hand to discredit the US administration. With regard to financial information, the release of data pertaining to a particular bank instigated via Wikileaks by a rival financial institution, could potentially be used to trigger the collapse or bankrutpcy of the targeted financial institution. All the Wiki-facts are selectively redacted, they are then “analyzed” and interpreted by a media which serves the economic elites. While the numerous pieces of information contained in the Wikileaks data bank are accessible, the broader public will not normally take the trouble to consult and scan through the Wikileaks data bank. The public will read the redacted selections and interpretations presented in major news outlets. A partial and biased picture is presented. The redacted version is accepted by public opinion because it is based on what is heralded as a “reliable source”, when in fact what is presented in the pages of major newspapers and on network TV is a carefully crafted and convoluted distortion of the truth. Limited forms of critical debate and “transparency” are tolerated while also enforcing broad public acceptance of the basic premises of US foreign policy, including its “Global War on Terrorism”. With regard to a large segment of the US antiwar movement, this strategy seems to have succeeded: “We are against war but we support the ‘war on terrorism'”. What this means is that truth in media can only be reached by dismantling the propaganda apparatus, –i.e. breaking the legitimacy of the corporate media which sustains the broad interests of the economic elites as well America’s global military design. In turn, we must ensure that the campaign against Wikileaks in the U.S., using the 1917 Espionage Act, will not be utilized as a means to wage a campaign to control the internet. In this regard, we should also stand firm in preventing the prosecution of Julian Assange in the US. Note: Minor changes were added to this article on December 14 and 26, 2010
The Global Economic Crisis Michel Chossudovsky Andrew G. Marshall (editors) This book can be ordered directly from Global Research Global Research Articles by Michel Chossudovsky Bookmark and Share Subscribe to the Global Research E-Newsletter Shop Global Research ! Please support Global Research Global Research relies on the financial support of its readers. Your endorsement is greatly appreciated Disclaimer:
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61 Homes Demolished in Gaza!
Posted by Marivel Guzman on February 12, 2012
By Barbara Lubin
Al Sammack Restaurant The Fisherman-Destroyed
I am writing this letter to you late at night and I am asking you to help me. Over the years I have asked for you to step up and reach out to the people here in Palestine because to be honest with you are the only people I know who have responded over and over again throughout the years. This is an emergency and people’s lives are depending on all of us to help.
Sometimes I feel like I have seen it all and there is nothing left to surprise me in life and then there are days like TODAY.
I woke up early because ever since I arrived in Gaza I have been going to bed very early – sometimes as early as 6:00 P.M. This is because on our way here Dr. Mona El-Farra and I were in a horrible automobile accident somewhere between Cairo and Gaza. We were very lucky, just very bad bruises, much luckier than those in the other little mini car that crashed head on at a very fast speed into our car. All of them were taken away to the hospital bloody and screaming. I will never get over the images of the mother, father, grandmother and 3 children laying on the ground waiting to be taken to the hospital. So I have been going to bed early trying to recover from this and then getting up very early and spending the days going to visit MECA’s projects here in the Gaza Strip.
This morning there was a lot of noise outside Dr. Mona’s apartment building so I got out of bed to see what was happening. Dr. Mona lives on the 10th floor in an apartment building in Gaza City facing the beach. About a block down the road there was a group of very old homes on the beach where 61 families have lived since 1948. Some of them have lived there since the early days of the first intifada when Sharon [Ariel Sharon, an Israeli government minister during the first intifada] came to Gaza and demolished hundreds of Palestinian homes to make the roads wide enough for the Israeli tanks to enter the cities. These wide roads were called Sharon Highways. Imagine the shock of the Palestinians to see their own elected government behaving the same way as the Israelis did. They and their sons and daughters are fishermen and fisherwomen. I had met the families a few days ago when one of the daughters, Ibtisam, came to see Dr. Mona. Dr. Mona El-Farra is the person you go to in Gaza if you have a problem or need help. She knows everyone. Ibtisam was very upset and she asked Dr. Mona and me to come and speak with her father. So we walked down the street to where the she lived and went into her house where I met the whole family. The problem was that the government (not the Israeli Government, the government in Gaza) was demanding that all 61 families move out of their homes in 3 days but the families refused saying that they had lived next to the sea in their homes for 63 years. But they were willing to discuss this as long as the government found housing for all of them near to the sea.
This morning without any more discussion about 100 male and female police officers came to tell the families that they had 1 hour to get all their belongings out of their homes because they were going to demolish the houses. Dr. Mona and I ran down to the homes and pushed our way through the police and the onlookers and found our friend and her family. Everyone begged me to take pictures but the police made it clear that they would take away anyone’s camera if they caught them taking photos.
I did get some pictures without being seen [the photos are too large to send via internet from Gaza but we will post them when Barbara returns to the US] and I called Dennis Bernstein at KPFA and talked to him which was pretty difficult because the police kept coming over and threatening Mona and me and all the men, women and children around us and shoving us with their bully clubs. People were screaming and crying. Everyone was going into their homes and carrying out whatever they could. An old man probably around my age (70) just sat in front of his candy store staring out in disbelief.
Mona and I stayed as long as we could unable to stop what was going on, begging the government stormtroopers to stop this nightmare and let us help with some kind of negotiation to deal with the situation, at least to figure out where the families were going to stay. But no all they did was push all of us around and give the peoples a few more minutes to get what they could out of their homes and then they started to threaten Mona and me with arrest and jail. As Mona and I ran from the scene I turned around only to see the enormous earth movers start leveling the homes and I became sick because all I could think about was beautiful, heroic Rachel [Corrie]’s last moments.
As soon as we got to Mona’s apartment we opened the window in her living room on the 10th floor and watched the government of Gaza carry out it’s dastardly acts. I want to tell you that ever since I arrived in Gaza it has been cold and windy with rain storms like I have never seen. There are times during the day and night when you can’t see 6 inches in front of you and the fact that there is only electricity in Gaza for 8 hours a day on and off makes if almost impossible live. This is the first time in 5 days that I have been able to use internet.
It is late, Mona and I are exhausted. We have just come home from the Mosque (one of about 15 enormous mosques that have recently been built, some right on the beach near the fishermen’s homes) where the families are sitting women and children in one room and men in another. Some of the men have built a huge bonfire outside and are sitting and standing in front of it trying to stay warm. There is only one tall building left and it is about to fall. At about 3:00A.M. Mona, Talal, Mohammed and I [Talal works with MECA’s partner Afaq Jadeeda Association and Mohammed is a MECA volunteer] jump into cars and drive all around Gaza waking up merchants and getting them to come down to their stores and open them so we can buy 65 warm blankets and pillows for the people. And hundreds of dollars of food to tide them over tonight.
When we arrived with the trucks loaded with these supplies everyone came running to us, crying and thanking us. It is not easy finding merchants who will take VISA here in the Gaza Strip. I have been to the bank window taking as much money as I possibly can from my own account. This is where you come in. You must help me. We need to feed these families and help them get lodging today and we can’t do it on our own. We called the Red Cross and they said they would try to get here today. Well that’s not good enough. Please call them yourself and demand that they come and help right now and please, please make as large a contribution as you can to help me buy the necessary things to keep people here going. To feed the families and help them find shelter.
I am too tired to go on. I must sleep but knowing what the men, women and children in the Mosque face tomorrow and in the future will give me the strength I need to help them tomorrow but I can’t do it without your financial help. I know you are thinking that you just gave donations to MECA at the end of the year but that money went to our projects. Now you must call everyone that you know and ask them to help because this project will save lives. We can’t stand by without doing everything we can to help. We must show these Palestinian mothers, fathers and children that we as Americans can do more than provide f16 fighters, apache helicopters, tanks and all the other weapons that we have given to Israel that have been used to kill and injure them.
Good Night, Barbara
Barbara Lubin
According to the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) website, “ the Middle East Children’s Alliance is the fiscal sponsor for ISM-USA.” Donations for ISM’s campaign to “interfere with the construction of the annexation barrier” can be made to “MECA (ISM-USA Fund).”
MECA organizes delegations to “Palestine/Israel” where participants can “witness the impact of the Israeli occupation and…learn about refugees, land confiscation, political prisoners…” Trip highlights include learning “about the origins of the Palestinian refugees and the Right of Return, and how it can be implemented” (emphasis added).
MECA founder and Executive Director Barbara Lubin wrote “I think that the Jewish State is racist to the core.” Lupin refers to the 1948 “ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population” and wrote that “[t]he concept of ‘Jewish morality’ is truly dead. We can be fascists, terrorists, and Nazis just like everybody else.”
In an interview, MECA Director of Gaza Projects, Dr. Mona El-Farra, explained that MECA refused USAID funding because it came with the condition that they promise “not [to] give any help or any aid whatsoever for the families of the militiamen, or their relatives, or anyone related to ‘terrorist attacks’” because “we consider it resistance” (emphasis added).
MECA raised funds for British MP George Galloway’s “Viva Palestine” convoy “following the massacre in Gaza.”
Partners include pro-Palestinian groups such as Addameer, Badil, the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, Bat Shalom, and Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP). Also partners with the Lajee Center, which refers to the “Israeli regime of Apartheid, colonization, and belligerent occupation.”
Is Hamas Being Too Extreme?
Posted on February 05, 2012 by Marivel Guzman in Collaboration with Omar Karem
I m Omar Karem, I m Palestinian, Live in Gaza. I m amateur photographer, writer and blogger, I m not spy of Israel Or CIA, I do not belong to any political parties, I belong to Palestine and fight to Liberate her. I m being continuously harassed, detained, interrogated for no apparent reason other than being Photographers and having many friends inside and outside Palestine.The situation in Gaza is devastating for all its residents, the Israeli Illegal Siege has taken the industry to almost a complete halt, the farmers unable to export their products have two options, to feed them to the animals or to stop cultivating. The fishing industry after all the assaults in the fishermen and the 3 mile limit has paralyzed the fishing industry in Gaza. The Hospitals are running on generators which are not sufficient to satisfy the energy needs of the medical equipment, the whole Gaza Strip is immersed in desperation and need for food and products. And in top of all the necessity that the people live due to the blockade and the Occupation itself, Hamas has not stopped it harassment against the citizens.
There are many accounts of abuses from the security forces of Hamas against journalists and regular citizens that dare to hold a camera, illegal detentions, incarceration, and confiscation of laptops and cameras, and cell phones are common complain.
Since last January that the Gaza Youth Broke the Silence and they published the Gaza Broke the Youth Manifest, Hamas has stepped the assault in journalist, students and ordinary citizens that all they ask is to end the Israel Occupation and the Internal Divisions
Gaza, Palestine(Akashma Web Blogs) Gaza is under attack, Israel have stepped up her attacks in the Besieged Gaza Strip and even under such circumstances the Youth of Gaza leading “The Initiative Call Home” staged a protest in the Square of the Unknown Soldier in Gaza City before they were ordered to evacuated the Plaza. The protest led by Young Palestinians to end the internal divisions is a sign that the Revolution that started in Tunisia and Egypt has sparked the light in Palestine. There is not to say that they did not want to brake the old rule, but with the air of Revolution and the global support is a good moment to engage the world in their calls for Freedom.
The protest was broken up by security agencies of the Government by force, today they organized a sit-in group where Young People peacefully gathered to demand an end to the internal divisions, in the Square of the unknown soldier in Gaza City, Palestine. Their demands have been growing stronger since last December when the Youth of Gaza Broke Out, a movement started growing support around the world, when they declare in their Famous “Gaza Youth’s Manifesto For Change” made public by blogger, Opinion Maker Online Newspaper and many others News Outlets around the world.
Such Manifesto was not welcome for factions inside Palestine and for many activists around the world, they saw in this Youth Manifesto more divisions, but in reality was a desperate call for a change. Free Gaza Today
Omar Karem a photojournalist in Gaza and co-founder of Akashma Web Blogs have seen the rage of the security forces of Hamas in many occasions while covering the events in Gaza, the public sit ins demonstrating against the division, in the protests to support Egypt, in the March 15 but in On March 18, 2011 he was violently assaulted on the street in Center of Gaza, and forced to accompanied some security men for ‘questioning!’, but he was not take to the police department office, but to some rooms around the Unknown Soldier Square, ” before the incident occurred he witnessed how some other security officers also approached two foreign women and took their cameras. When he was in those small rooms, he saw how two other women were there probably arrested. He made a public denounce to Mr Hammad head of Security in the Interior Minister of Gaza, he was being treated as criminal and not as a Palestinians that is fighting against the same aggressor Israel. And again on February 01, 2012 after the demonstrations on Beit Hanoun he was arrested, his laptop, camera, and phone confiscated, his home searched and given an order to appear again for interrogation at Hamas Security Headquarters of Monday February 6 2012.
The internal division and the paranoia is taking its toll, Hamas sees enemies in every person that walks in Gaza, not realizing that elections sooner of later will take place and they can not stage a victory, they need to win Palestinians to their side, unifying the people that has been divided for so many years of internal conflict.
Israeli occupation forces broke up the peaceful March on Tuesday with live bullets. Israeli occupation forces opened fire towards a peaceful march was headed for the buffer zone north of Beit Hanoun, accompanied International Peace Activists . March gained access to about 50 meters near the Beit Hanoun “Erez”, adding that “the fire heavily towards the march led us to turn it off and return for fear of casualties, and, fearing for the lives of the people. Palestine News
Please come with no banners, no flags, no colors, security forces please do not give bad image to the world. Do not copy the practices of Israel, we are tired of repression and oppression. Support us, in the new Palestine Nation that we all try to build. Tomorrow is a new day, to rectify the errors, to take lessons of the past. Inshallah Omar Karem, Gaza, March 15 2011 Palestine One Nation
He is being accused by the Security Forces of Hamas of being Israel collaborator, CIA operative, FATAH member, Egypt Spy all absurd and nonsense charges that he denies categorically, for Hamas the idea of a Gazawan to externalize his opinions as a Citizens of the besieged Gaza or as a journalist telling the world the crimes that Israel commits everyday is censored as if this was a crime against the state.
The way I see Hamas now throwing punches to the wind in its effort to curtail the opposition ideas to a system that is not working. Hamas has lose sight of what it is important. Israel was and still the enemy of the people, the people of Gaza are not enemies of the state, they all fighting for a common enemy, and all the Gaza society has to be united to be able to defeat so strong enemy, and Hamas as the government elected by the people of Gaza has to show restrain in its security extremes or lose the sympathy of the citizens that put them in the chair.
Many Arab/Muslim activists reject our movement & consider us as some Zionist machinery because in the manifesto, we’ve been denouncing Hamas – among others. It’s always amazing to see the shortcuts people’s minds can take and how good they are at condemning without even trying to understand. We’d like to remind all our goal: yes we are frustrated and tired of being oppressed, killed, humiliated and kept from even leaving to study in other countries, yes we denounce political parties governing us because they didn’t help in anything, but we denounce ALL of them, not ONLY Hamas. Abu Yasan Gybo
No crime go unpunished, no deeds go unrewarded, if Hamas saw its victory in Gaza was because its support for its people, they need to stop the the harassment and see that the times are changing and they need to be the leaders to their people and not their oppressors.
It turned out that our crime is that we’ve been very active in the March 15 protests that called for unity between Fatah and Hamas. We were interrogated separately, but had the same reaction when we felt that they deal with this movement as a crime and actually going after its members now. We tried to explain that we didn’t go against anyone and what we called for was in our cause’s interest which is the only thing that matters to us! What we did understand from their questions is that we’ve “as in March 15 members” been meeting with politicians (both Palestinian and foreign), implementing their agendas as getting funded by them and asking them for visas. Also sitting with Israelis “which means we’re spies” and they’re holding all kinds of evidences against us! Gazanism
The youth of Gaza are in their twenties, they dress sporty, they are University Students, they are the facebook activist, the twitters, youtubers, this generation that want to change the old ideas, they want a new Palestine without the rigor of religion, without the stamp of millitary flavor, their envision a new Palestine United by their flag, their Land, culture and her people, they want to forget about the political parties that have damage so much the reputation of Palestine.
It takes courage to speak the truth in a place such Gaza, that even with close to two million souls crumble down in a tiny strip of land, the news goes faster that Israel Bullets and the arrests of activists are to the order of the day. But with all the oppression and repression and Israel Occupation Gazawans don’t give up their hopes for a better Gaza, a New Gaza Palestine where diversity will be found only in the cultures and the International Peace Activists that have shared their struggles and not in the party lines that seems to divide the people.
Now all the lies are exposed, the internal fights need to settled, the youth of Gaza is forcing the old leaders to rethink their role, to lead Palestine as a Nation and come as one voice. They created a big platform where all the dissidents voices can be heard and the obsolete policies and old practices be clean away.
Palestine One Nation Surviving Time
Posted on January 22, 2012 by Marivel Guzman in collaboration with Omar Karem
Palestine Divided by the Wall of Hopelessness?
The Holy Land fighting ancient enemies The Holy Books
And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. It was a good land, flowing with milk and honey and inhabited by several tribes of people.- Exo 3:8
Palestine have many enemies, unfortunately!. …and against all the Odds, Palestinians resilience has proved to be stronger than the most powerful forces on the face of the Earth. Even thought that for the last 100 years this ancient holy land has been victim of criminal intent, pillage and murder, she still standing because you can defeat the armies but you can’t defeat a Nation.
The information being distributed in the social networks has been great to raise awareness inside Palestine and around the world, but has not been enough to contra-rest the propaganda being spread for more than 65 years, and certainly not enough to fight the Religious notion that Palestine is the promise Land and the Jews the chosen people.
Sadly there are thousands of Palestinians inside West Bank, and Gaza that live in a state of imaginary peace and comfort and they conform a block designed by the Zionist Entity with years of tricks with military strangulation and social makeup , these Palestinians Citizens have no mood or humor to side with the resistance fighters of the rest of the Palestinians Society, to join their voices with the thinkers, the fighter minds, the displaced in refugee camps,.. they themselves are enemies of the Palestinian Cause, living inside an occupied country where they have their work, they do not suffer to survive, they can travel abroad with ease and their sons and daughters live in shielded comfort zone. Their children don’t see the need to throw rocks, they don’t feel the necessary to voice their anger to the occupier forces, they grew up to their pain and their settle inside the occupation with built tirelessness transformed in apathy, they finally have left the fight to the politicians, which at the same time do nothing other to live the occupation.
Some of the higher ranking politicians in Palestinian Politics were swallowed by this phenomenon and they don’t see it other way, they were also molded to the occupation. They live in an endless planing for the future, where meetings take their full schedule that there is no time to really act as a citizen living in an occupied land. Off course there are the few dissidents minds which mostly are sitting inside Israel, Hamas and PA jails.
According to Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and prisoner advocacy groups, there are currently over 6000 Palestinian prisoners, including legislators, in Israeli jails, many of whom have been rounded up without charge or trial. Independent sources put the number of the inmates at 11,000.
The latest arrests are part of an Israeli suppression campaign targeting senior Palestinian figures’ activities.
The crackdown is believed to be aimed at preventing reconciliation between Hamas and its rival Palestinian faction, Fatah. Press TV
It is very sad to recognized millions of Palestinians in the exile think more or less this way, and even the militias are accustomed to fight, they have been mentally trained to die for the land, they become to think that as long as they keep fighting and dying they believe to fulfill their duty as a Muslim and as Palestinians and they are not ready to accept changes that goes against what they grew to live and believe. They are exhausted to try and they keep doing the only thing that “works”…keeping Israel in an endless state of uncomfortably bother, if they kill one “Jew” is a victory even if it mean nothing in the big scale, but Israel uses it as an excuse to kill: The Ratio is 8 to 1.
All the divisions we see in Palestine were engineered in that way, the political factions do not want to let go the little thing they think they have “achieved”. The UN Club-former league of Nations created the facts in the ground to make more believable the division of the land.
There are hundreds of NGO’s around the world that are collecting millions of dollars in Palestine Name or using Palestine Cause but they have become operational businesses, most of the money being used primarily in renting expensive hotels to “Expose the Occupation” and to collect donations, even the real concerned citizens that take part of the convoys that are continuously entering Gaza, they are more and more being attached to the occupation system.
I hate to give any score of victory to the Zionist Entity, but our compassion being used to add more efforts to bring Aid to Gaza and to helping few patients to foreign hospitals for treatment, all being done with good heart but it seems that is not really helping to end the occupation, or stopping the apartheid system, unfortunately we are being sucked to be part of the occupation.
Yesterday I was discussing the situation with Hassan Hammad, he has lived in and out the US for more than 30 years, he lost his Palestinians Identity Card and can not live nor work in Palestine, but can visit. He has completely lost hope on Palestine, according to him Israel control the PA, education, money, road, borders and in simple words, “Israel has created a sense of political Palestinians Participation with the PA, but in reality Israel control everything that is said and done and the little achievement that we have in Palestine is because Israel wanted that way, but if she want she will militarily occupy Ramallah tomorrow, and none can do anything, but Israel does not want to bother again, it is too much hustle ”
I tell him that the situation is different now, that the world is supporting Palestine, than more than 150 countries have recognized Palestine, and again he said. “Where are the 150 country armies, are they defending Palestine or they just talking?”
It is hard to argue against his hopelessness, he have lived the occupation, the curfews, checkpoints, tear gas, jail, bullets, humiliation, his first son died inside her wife womb because the curfew was enforced severely during the first intifada and she needed cesarean to deliver. He has bad memories of Palestine and see a bleak future.
Off course I do not really blame Palestinians, they have been the victims all along, victims that they have forged their mind, living, and misery to fit inside the occupation, I whole blame the Zionist Entity, the Christian loonies and the Elite around the world that have used the “Middle East” conflict to divide the minds and lands of the world in their path of destruction making with this The Stronger Industry men have ever seen. “The War Complex Machine”.
Palestine is One Nation under Siege, The psychological war that Israel wages against her people is more provocative than the physical one. The uncertainty of tomorrow is in every Palestinian mind, they are not allowed to plan a future for themselves, for their children or for their lands.
Israel continual incursions in Gaza air space and overnights raid in West Bank keep the population in an upheaval situation every day. The destruction of Gaza dwellings and the complete disruption of their social life have made Palestinians to look for ways to heal their uncertain condition as a ‘Nation’ under the grip of a military power that have drained the natural resources and the energy of the people of the Holy Land.
The world is changing their view on the Palestine-Israel conflict and every day more and more people around the world are adding their efforts to the global resistance, against the occupation, being virtual activist or International Observer we all are taking part of Palestine struggle, just do not allow to be part of the Apartheid System.
Views articulated by Palestinians in Gaza are more optimists than those in the exile, the hopes for a better tomorrow are stronger than the oppression of the occupation.
Now days in Gaza where the intifada continue until now and the borders between Israeli and Gaza people are closed the numbers of educated people is rising and reaching high levels. Now in Gaza, we have the best computer programmers, best scientists and the most percentage of highly educated people Compared to census thousands of master degrees hundreds of Ph Ds
Youth groups aiming to raise the The level of social awareness: In radio stations, media, news agencies took the obligation to show to the world about our case, which has been covered by the Israel’s media propaganda machine all the time dispersing lies, making itself look as a victim, but now our case, our voices is full of freedom and power, willing from all our hearts to make every one in this world to understand and to know about our rights.
Palestine is a Nation of not a beggar – by Omar Mansour Gaza, Palestine
He could not imagine his son, as a journalist struggling with his pen to write against the corruption that prevents such things as justice, purity and freedom, because the advocates of justice and freedom in and around Gaza have their own law, which prevents others from speaking the truth.
This is the bleak picture cameras can pick up if approached from Gaza borders, and the question arises, what is needed from the Palestinian Gazans to do in order to live their life with dignity, freedom, justice, security and Peace?. Gaza Heart and Mind – by Kamal Sobeh
Frequency Technology – HAARP Search, Research and Reach
Posted on January 19, 2012 by Marivel Guzman
The Military’s Pandora’s Box
by Dr. Nick Begich and Jeane Manning
This article was prepared to provide a summary of the contents of a book written in 1995 which describes an entirely new class of weapons. The weapons and their effects are described in the following pages. The United States Navy and Air Force have joined with the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, to build a prototype for a ground based “Star Wars” weapon system located in the remote bush country of Alaska.
The individuals who are demanding answers about HAARP are scattered around the planet. As well as bush dwellers in Alaska, they include: a physician in Finland; a scientist in Holland; an anti-nuclear protester in Australia; independent physicists in the United States; a grandmother in Canada, and countless others.
Unlike the protests of the 1960s the objections to HAARP have been registered using the tools of the 1990s. From the Internet, fax machines, syndicated talk radio and a number of alternative print mediums the word is getting out and people are waking up to this new intrusion by an over zealous United States government.
The research team put together to gather the materials which eventually found their way into the book never held a formal meeting, never formed a formal organization. Each person acted like a node on a planetary info-spirit-net with one goal held by all — to keep this controversial new science in the public eye. The result of the team’s effort was a book which describes the science and the political ramifications of this technology.
That book, Angels Don’t Play this HAARP: Advances in Tesla Technology, has 230 pages. This article will only give the highlights. Despite the amount of research (350 footnoted sources), at its heart it is a story about ordinary people who took on an extraordinary challenge in bringing their research forward.
HAARP Boils the Upper Atmosphere
HAARP will zap the upper atmosphere with a focused and steerable electromagnetic beam. It is an advanced model of an “ionospheric heater.” (The ionosphere is the electrically-charged sphere surrounding Earth’s upper atmosphere. It ranges between 40 to 60 miles above the surface of the Earth.)
Put simply, the apparatus for HAARP is a reversal of a radio telescope; antenna send out signals instead of receiving. HAARP is the test run for a super-powerful radiowave-beaming technology that lifts areas of the ionosphere by focusing a beam and heating those areas. Electromagnetic waves then bounce back onto earth and penetrate everything — living and dead.
HAARP publicity gives the impression that the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program is mainly an academic project with the goal of changing the ionosphere to improve communications for our own good. However, other U.S. military documents put it more clearly — HAARP aims to learn how to “exploit the ionosphere for Department of Defense purposes.” Communicating with submarines is only one of those purposes.
Press releases and other information from the military on HAARP continually downplay what it could do. Publicity documents insist that the HAARP project is no different than other ionospheric heaters operating safely throughout the world in places such as Arecibo, Puerto Rico, Tromso, Norway, and the former Soviet Union. However, a 1990 government document indicates that the radio-frequency (RF) power zap will drive the ionosphere to unnatural activities.
” … at the highest HF powers available in the West, the instabilities commonly studied are approaching their maximum RF energy dissipative capability, beyond which the plasma processes will ‘runaway’ until the next limiting factor is reached.”
If the military, in cooperation with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, can show that this new ground-based “Star Wars” technology is sound, they both win. The military has a relatively-inexpensive defense shield and the University can brag about the most dramatic geophysical manipulation since atmospheric explosions of nuclear bombs. After successful testing, they would have the military megaprojects of the future and huge markets for Alaska’s North Slope natural gas.
Looking at the other patents which built on the work of a Texas’ physicist named Bernard Eastlund, it becomes clearer how the military intends to use the HAARP transmitter. It also makes governmental denials less believable. The military knows how it intends to use this technology, and has made it clear in their documents. The military has deliberately misled the public, through sophisticated word games, deceit and outright disinformation.
The military says the HAARP system could:
Give the military a tool to replace the electromagnetic pulse effect of atmospheric thermonuclear devices (still considered a viable option by the military through at least 1986)
Replace the huge Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) submarine communication system operating in Michigan and Wisconsin with a new and more compact technology
Be used to replace the over-the-horizon radar system that was once planned for the current location of HAARP, with a more flexible and accurate system
Provide a way to wipe out communications over an extremely large area, while keeping the military’s own communications systems working
Provide a wide area earth-penetrating tomography which, if combined with the computing abilities of EMASS and Cray computers, would make it possible to verify many parts of nuclear nonproliferation and peace agreements
Be a tool for geophysical probing to find oil, gas and mineral deposits over a large area
Be used to detect incoming low-level planes and cruise missiles, making other technologies obsolete
The above abilities seem like a good idea to all who believe in sound national defense, and to those concerned about cost-cutting. However, the possible uses which the HAARP records do not explain, and which can only be found in Air Force, Army, Navy and other federal agency records, are alarming. Moreover, effects from the reckless use of these power levels in our natural shield — the ionosphere — could be cataclysmic according to some scientists.
Two Alaskans put it bluntly. A founder of the NO HAARP movement, Clare Zickuhr, says “The military is going to give the ionosphere a big kick and see what happens.”
The military failed to tell the public that they do not know what exactly will happen, but a Penn State science article brags about that uncertainty. Macho science? The HAARP project uses the largest energy levels yet played with by what Begich and Manning call “the big boys with their new toys.” HAARP is an experiment in the sky, and experiments are done to find out something not already known. Independent scientists told Begich and Manning that a HAARP-type “skybuster” with its unforeseen effects could be an act of global vandalism.
HAARP History
The patents described below were the package of ideas which were originally controlled by ARCO Power Technologies Incorporated (APTI), a subsidiary of Atlantic Richfield Company, one of the biggest oil companies in the world. APTI was the contractor that built the HAARP facility. ARCO sold this subsidiary, the patents and the second phase construction contract to E-Systems in June 1994.
E-Systems is one of the biggest intelligence contractors in the world — doing work for the CIA, defense intelligence organizations and others. $1.8 billion of their annual sales are to these organizations, with $800 million for black projects — projects so secret that even the United States Congress isn’t told how the money is being spent.
E-Systems was bought out by Raytheon, which is one of the largest defense contractors in the world. In 1994 Raytheon was listed as number forty-two on the Fortune 500 list of companies. Raytheon has thousands of patents, some of which will be valuable in the HAARP project. The twelve patents below are the backbone of the HAARP project, and are now buried among the thousands of others held in the name of Raytheon. Bernard J. Eastlund’s U.S. Patent # 4,686,605, “Method and Apparatus for Altering a Region in the Earth’s Atmosphere, Ionosphere; and/or Magnetosphere,” was sealed for a year under a government Secrecy Order.
The Eastlund ionospheric heater was different; the radio frequency (RF) radiation was concentrated and focused to a point in the ionosphere. This difference throws an unprecedented amount of energy into the ionosphere. The Eastlund device would allow a concentration of one watt per cubic centimeter, compared to others only able to deliver about one millionth of one watt.
This huge difference could lift and change the ionosphere in the ways necessary to create futuristic effects described in the patent. According to the patent, the work of Nikola Tesla in the early 1900’s formed the basis of the research.
What would this technology be worth to ARCO, the owner of the patents? They could make enormous profits by beaming electrical power from a powerhouse in the gas fields to the consumer without wires.
For a time, HAARP researchers could not prove that this was one of the intended uses for HAARP. In April, 1995, however, Begich found other patents, connected with a “key personnel” list for APTI. Some of these new APTI patents were indeed a wireless system for sending electrical power. Eastlund’s patent said the technology can confuse or completely disrupt airplanes’ and missiles’ sophisticated guidance systems. Further, this ability to spray large areas of Earth with electromagnetic waves of varying frequencies, and to control changes in those waves, makes it possible to knock out communications on land or sea as well as in the air.
The patent said:
“Thus, this invention provides the ability to put unprecedented amounts of power in the Earth’s atmosphere at strategic locations and to maintain the power injection level particularly if random pulsing is employed, in a manner far more precise and better controlled than heretofore accomplished by the prior art, particularly by detonation of nuclear devices of various yields at various altitudes… ”
“…it is possible not only to interfere with third party communications but to take advantage of one or more such beams to carry out a communications network even though the rest of the world’s communications are disrupted. Put another way, what is used to disrupt another’s communications can be employed by one knowledgeable of this invention as a communication network at the same time.”
“… large regions of the atmosphere could be lifted to an unexpectedly high altitude so that missiles encounter unexpected and unplanned drag forces with resultant destruction.”
“Weather modification is possible by, for example, altering upper atmosphere wind patterns by constructing one or more plumes of atmospheric particles which will act as a lens or focusing device.
… molecular modifications of the atmosphere can take place so that positive environmental effects can be achieved. Besides actually changing the molecular composition of an atmospheric region, a particular molecule or molecules can be chosen for increased presence. For example, ozone, nitrogen, etc., concentrations in the atmosphere could be artificially increased.”
Begich found eleven other APTI Patents. They told how to make “Nuclear-sized Explosions without Radiation,” Power-beaming systems, over-the-horizon radar, detection systems for missiles carrying nuclear warheads, electromagnetic pulses previously produced by thermonuclear weapons and other Star-Wars tricks. This cluster of patents underlay the HAARP weapon system.
Related research by Begich and Manning uncovered bizarre schemes. For example, Air Force documents revealed that a system had been developed for manipulating and disturbing human mental processes through pulsed radio-frequency radiation (the stuff of HAARP) over large geographical areas. The most telling material about this technology came from writings of Zbigniew Brzezinski (former National Security Advisory to U.S. President Carter) and J.F. MacDonald (science advisor to U.S. President Johnson and a professor of Geophysics at UCLA), as they wrote about use of power-beaming transmitters for geophysical and environmental warfare. The documents showed how these effects might be caused, and the negative effects on human heath and thinking.
The mental-disruption possibilities for HAARP are the most disturbing. More than 40 pages of the book, with dozens of footnotes, chronicle the work of Harvard professors, military planners and scientists as they plan and test this use of the electromagnetic technology. For example, one of the papers describing this use was from the International Red Cross in Geneva. It even gave the frequency ranges where these effects could occur — the same ranges which HAARP is capable of broadcasting.
The following statement was made more than twenty-five years ago in a book by Brzezinski which he wrote while a professor at Columbia University:
“Political strategists are tempted to exploit research on the brain and human behavior. Geophysicist Gordon J.F. MacDonald, a specialist in problems of warfare, says accurately-timed, artificially-excited electronic strokes could lead to a pattern of oscillations that produce relatively high power levels over certain regions of the earth … in this way one could develop a system that would seriously impair the brain performance of very large populations in selected regions over an extended period”
” … no matter how deeply disturbing the thought of using the environment to manipulate behavior for national advantages, to some, the technology permitting such use will very probably develop within the next few decades.”
In 1966, MacDonald was a member of the President’s Science Advisory Committee and later a member of the President’s Council on Environmental Quality. He published papers on the use of environmental control technologies for military purposes. The most profound comment he made as a geophysicist was, “the key to geophysical warfare is the identification of environmental instabilities to which the addition of a small amount of energy would release vastly greater amounts of energy.” While yesterday’s geophysicists predicted today’s advances, are HAARP program managers delivering on the vision?
The geophysicists recognized that adding energy to the environmental soup could have large effects. However, humankind has already added substantial amounts of electromagnetic energy into our environment without understanding what might constitute critical mass. The book by Begich and Manning raises questions:
Have these additions been without effect, or is there a cumulative amount beyond which irreparable damage can be done?
Is HAARP another step in a journey from which we cannot turn back?
Are we about to embark on another energy experiment which unleashes another set of demons from Pandora’s box?
As early as 1970, Zbigniew Brzezinski predicted a “more controlled and directed society” would gradually appear, linked to technology. This society would be dominated by an elite group which impresses voters by allegedly superior scientific know-how. Angels Don’t Play This HAARP further quotes Brzezinski:
“Unhindered by the restraints of traditional liberal values, this elite would not hesitate to achieve its political ends by using the latest modern techniques for influencing public behavior and keeping society under close surveillance and control. Technical and scientific momentum would then feed on the situation it exploits,” Brzezinski predicted.
His forecasts proved accurate. Today, a number of new tools for the “elite” are emerging, and the temptation to use them increases steadily. The policies to permit the tools to be used are already in place. How could the United States be changed, bit by bit, into the predicted highly-controlled technosociety? Among the “steppingstones” Brzezinski expected were persisting social crises and use of the mass media to gain the public’s confidence.
In another document prepared by the government, the U.S. Air Force claims: “The potential applications of artificial electromagnetic fields are wide-ranging and can be used in many military or quasi-military situations… Some of these potential uses include dealing with terrorist groups, crowd control, controlling breaches of security at military installations, and antipersonnel techniques in tactical warfare. In all of these cases the EM (electromagnetic) systems would be used to produce mild to severe physiological disruption or perceptual distortion or disorientation. In addition, the ability of individuals to function could be degraded to such a point that they would be combat ineffective. Another advantage of electromagnetic systems is that they can provide coverage over large areas with a single system. They are silent and countermeasures to them may be difficult to develop… One last area where electromagnetic radiation may prove of some value is in enhancing abilities of individuals for anomalous phenomena.”
Do these comments point to uses already somewhat developed? The author of the government report refers to an earlier Air Force document about the uses of radio frequency radiation in combat situations. (Here Begich and Manning note that HAARP is the most versatile and the largest radio-frequency-radiation transmitter in the world.)
The United States Congressional record deals with the use of HAARP for penetrating the earth with signals bounced off of the ionosphere. These signals are used to look inside the planet to a depth of many kilometers in order to locate underground munitions, minerals and tunnels. The U.S. Senate set aside $15 million dollars in 1996 to develop this ability alone — earth-penetrating-tomography. The problem is that the frequency needed for earth-penetrating radiation is within the frequency range most cited for disruption of human mental functions. It may also have profound effects on migration patterns of fish and wild animals which rely on an undisturbed energy field to find their routes.
As if electromagnetic pulses in the sky and mental disruption were not enough, T. Eastlund bragged that the super-powerful ionospheric heater could control weather.
Begich and Manning brought to light government documents indicating that the military has weather-control technology. When HAARP is eventually built to its full power level, it could create weather effects over entire hemispheres. If one government experiments with the world’s weather patterns, what is done in one place will impact everyone else on the planet. Angels Don’t Play This HAARP explains a principle behind some of Nikola Tesla’s inventions — resonance — which affect planetary systems.
Bubble of Electric Particles
Angels Don’t Play This HAARP includes interviews with independent scientists such as Elizabeth Rauscher. She has a Ph.D., a long and impressive career in high-energy physics, and has been published in prestigious science journals and books. Rauscher commented on HAARP. “You’re pumping tremendous energy into an extremely delicate molecular configuration that comprises these multi-layers we call the ionosphere.”
“The ionosphere is prone to catalytic reactions,” she explained, “if a small part is changed, a major change in the ionosphere can happen.”
In describing the ionosphere as a delicately balanced system, Dr. Rauscher shared her mental picture of it — a soap-bubble-like sphere surrounding Earth’s atmosphere, with movements swirling over the surface of the bubble. If a big enough hole is punched through it, she predicts, it could pop.
Slicing the Ionosphere
Physicist Daniel Winter, Ph.D., of Waynesville, North Carolina, says, “HAARP high-frequency emissions can couple with longwave (extremely-low-frequency, or ELF) pulses the Earth grid uses to distribute information as vibrations to synchronize dances of life in the biosphere.” Dan terms this geomagnetic action ‘Earth’s information bloodstream,’ and says it is likely that coupling of HAARP HF (high-frequency) with natural ELF can cause unplanned, unsuspected side effects.
David Yarrow of Albany, New York, is a researcher with a background in electronics. He described possible interactions of HAARP radiation with the ionosphere and Earth’s magnetic grid: “HAARP will not burn holes in the ionosphere. That is a dangerous understatement of what HAARP’s giant gigawatt beam will do. Earth is spinning relative to thin electric shells of the multilayer membrane of ion-o-speres that absorb and shield Earth’s surface from intense solar radiation, including charged particle storms in solar winds erupting from the sun. Earth’s axial spin means that HAARP — in a burst lasting more than a few minutes — will slice through the ionosphere like a microwave knife. This produces not a hole but a long tear — an incision.”
Crudely Plucking the Strings
Second concept: As Earth rotates, HAARP will slice across the geomagnetic flux, a donut-shaped spool of magnetic strings — like longitude meridians on maps.
HAARP may not ‘cut’ these strings in Gaia’s magnetic mantle, but will pulse each thread with harsh, out-of-harmony high frequencies. These noisy impulses will vibrate geomagnetic flux lines, sending vibrations all through the geomagnetic web. ”
“The image comes to mind of a spider on its web. An insect lands, and the web’s vibrations alert the spider to possible prey. HAARP will be a man-made microwave finger poking at the web, sending out confusing signals, if not tearing holes in the threads. ”
“Effects of this interference with symphonies of Gaia’s geomagnetic harp are unknown, and I suspect barely thought of. Even if thought of, the intent (of HAARP) is to learn to exploit any effects, not to play in tune to global symphonies. ”
Among other researchers quoted is Paul Schaefer of Kansas City. His degree is in electrical engineering and he spent four years building nuclear weapons. “But most of the theories that we have been taught by scientists to believe in seem to be falling apart,” he says. He talks about imbalances already caused by the industrial and atomic age, especially by radiation of large numbers of tiny, high-velocity particles “like very small spinning tops” into our environment. The unnatural level of motion of highly-energetic particles in the atmosphere and in radiation belts surrounding Earth is the villain in the weather disruptions, according to this model, which describes an Earth discharging its buildup of heat, relieving stress and regaining a balanced condition through earthquakes and volcanic action.
Feverish Earth
“One might compare the abnormal energetic state of the Earth and its atmosphere to a car battery which has become overcharged with the normal flow of energy jammed up, resulting in hot spots, electrical arcing, physical cracks and general turbulence as the pent-up energy tries to find some place to go.”
In a second analogy, Schaefer says “Unless we desire the death of our planet, we must end the production of unstable particles which are generating the earth’s fever. A first priority to prevent this disaster would be to shut down all nuclear power plants and end the testing of atomic weapons, electronic warfare and ‘Star Wars’.” Meanwhile, the military builds its biggest ionospheric heater yet, to deliberately create more instabilities in a huge plasma layer — the ionosphere — and to rev up the energy level of charged particles.
Electronic Rain From The Sky
They have published papers about electron precipitation from the magnetosphere (the outer belts of charged particles which stream toward Earth’s magnetic poles) caused by man-made very low frequency electromagnetic waves. “These precipitated particles can produce secondary ionization, emit X-rays, and cause significant perturbation in the lower ionosphere.”
Two Stanford University radio scientists offer evidence of what technology can do to affect the sky by making waves on earth; they showed that very low frequency radio waves can vibrate the magnetosphere and cause high-energy particles to cascade into Earth’s atmosphere. By turning the signal on or off, they could stop the flow of energetic particles.
Weather Control
Avalanches of energy dislodged by such radio waves could hit us hard. Their work suggests that technicians could control global weather by sending relatively small ‘signals’ into the Van Allen belts (radiation belts around Earth). Thus Tesla’s resonance effects can control enormous energies by tiny triggering signals.
The Begich/ Manning book asks whether that knowledge will be used by war-oriented or biosphere-oriented scientists.
The military has had about twenty years to work on weather warfare methods, which it euphemistically calls weather modification. For example, rainmaking technology was taken for a few test rides in Vietnam. The U.S. Department of Defense sampled lightning and hurricane manipulation studies in Project Skyfire and Project Stormfury. And they looked at some complicated technologies that would give big effects. Angels Don’t Play This HAARP cites an expert who says the military studied both lasers and chemicals which they figured could damage the ozone layer over an enemy. Looking at ways to cause earthquakes, as well as to detect them, was part of the project named Prime Argus, decades ago. The money for that came from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA, now under the acronym ARPA.) In 1994 the Air Force revealed its Spacecast 2020 master plan which includes weather control. Scientists have experimented with weather control since the 1940’s, but Spacecast 2020 noted that “using environmental modification techniques to destroy, damage or injure another state are prohibited.” Having said that, the Air Force claimed that advances in technology “compels a reexamination of this sensitive and potentially risky topic.”
40 Years of Zapping the Sky?
As far back as 1958, the chief White House advisor on weather modification, Captain Howard T. Orville, said the U.S. defense department was studying “ways to manipulate the charges of the earth and sky and so affect the weather” by using an electronic beam to ionize or de-ionize the atmosphere over a given area.
In 1966, Professor Gordon J. F. MacDonald was associate director of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the University of California, Los Angeles, was a member of the President’s Science Advisory Committee, and later a member of the President’s Council on Environmental Quality.
He published papers on the use of environmental-control technologies for military purposes. MacDonald made a revealing comment: “The key to geophysical warfare is the identification of environmental instabilities to which the addition of a small amount of energy would release vastly greater amounts of energy. ” World-recognized scientist MacDonald had a number of ideas for using the environment as a weapon system and he contributed to what was, at the time, the dream of a futurist. When he wrote his chapter, “How To Wreck The Environment,” for the book Unless Peace Comes, he was not kidding around. In it he describes the use of weather manipulation, climate modification, polar ice cap melting or destabilization, ozone depletion techniques, earthquake engineering, ocean wave control and brain wave manipulation using the planet’s energy fields.
He also said that these types of weapons would be developed and, when used, would be virtually undetectable by their victims. Is HAARP that weapon? The military’s intention to do environmental engineering is well documented, U.S. Congress’ subcommittee hearings on Oceans and International Environment looked into military weather and climate modification conducted in the early 1970’s. “What emerged was an awesome picture of far-ranging research and experimentation by the Department of Defense into ways environmental tampering could be used as a weapon,” said another author cited in Angles Don’t Play This HAARP.
The revealed secrets surprised legislators. Would an inquiry into the state of the art of electromagnetic manipulation surprise lawmakers today? They may find out that technologies developed out of the HAARP experiments in Alaska could deliver on Gordon MacDonald’s vision because leading-edge scientists are describing global weather as not only air pressure and thermal systems, but also as an electrical system.
Small Input – Big Effect
HAARP zaps the ionosphere where it is relatively unstable. A point to remember is that the ionosphere is an active electrical shield protecting the planet from the constant bombardment of high-energy particles from space. This conducting plasma, along with Earth’s magnetic field, traps the electrical plasma of space and holds it back from going directly to the earth’s surface, says Charles Yost of Dynamic Systems, Leicester, North Carolina. “If the ionosphere is greatly disturbed, the atmosphere below is subsequently disturbed.”
Another scientist interviewed said there is a super-powerful electrical connection between the ionosphere and the part of the atmosphere where our weather comes onstage, the lower atmosphere.
One man-made electrical effect — power line harmonic resonance — causes fallout of charged particles from the Van Allen (radiation) belts, and the falling ions cause ice crystals (which precipitate rain clouds). What about HAARP? Energy blasted upward from an ionospheric heater is not much compared to the total in the ionosphere, but HAARP documents admit that thousandfold-greater amounts of energy can be released in the ionosphere than injected. As with MacDonald’s “key to geophysical warfare,” “nonlinear” effects (described in the literature about the ionospheric heater) mean small input and large output. Astrophysicist Adam Trombly told Manning that an acupuncture model is one way to look at the possible effect of multi-gigawatt pulsing of the ionosphere. If HAARP hits certain points, those parts of the ionosphere could react in surprising ways.
Smaller ionospheric heaters such as the one at Arecibo are underneath relatively placid regions of the ionosphere, compared to the dynamic movements nearer Earth’s magnetic poles. That adds another uncertainty to HAARP — the unpredictable and lively upper atmosphere near the North Pole.
HAARP experimenters do not impress commonsense Alaskans such as Barbara Zickuhr, who says “They’re like boys playing with a sharp stick, finding a sleeping bear and poking it in the butt to see what’s going to happen.”
Could They Short-Circuit Earth?
Earth as a spherical electrical system is a fairly well-accepted model. However, those experimenters who want to make unnatural power connections between parts of this system might not be thinking of possible consequences. Electrical motors and generators can be caused to wobble when their circuits are affected. Could human activities cause a significant change in a planet’s electrical circuit or electrical field? A paper in the respected journal Science deals with manmade ionization from radioactive material, but perhaps it could also be studied with HAARP-type skybusters in mind:
“For example, while changes in the earth’s electric field resulting from a solar flare modulating conductivity may have only a barely detectable effect on meteorology, the situation may be different in regard to electric field changes caused by manmade ionization… ” Meteorology, of course, is the study of the atmosphere and weather. ionization is what happens when a higher level of power is zapped into atoms and knocks electrons off the atoms. The resulting charged particles are the stuff of HAARP. “One look at the weather should tell us that we are on the wrong path,” says Paul Schaefer, commenting on HAARP-type technologies.
Angels Don’t Play This HAARP: Advances in Tesla Technology is about the military’s plan to manipulate that which belongs to the world — the ionosphere. The arrogance of the United States government in this is not without precedent.
Atmospheric nuclear tests had similar goals. More recently, China and France put their people’s money to destructive use in underground nuclear tests. It was recently reported that the US government spent $3 trillion dollars on its nuclear program since its beginnings in the 1940’s. What new breakthroughs in life science could have been made with all the money spent on death?
Begich, Manning, Roderick and others believe that democracies need to be founded on openness, rather than the secrecy which surrounds so much military science. Knowledge used in developing revolutionary weapons could be used for healing and helping mankind. Because they are used in new weapons, discoveries are classified and suppressed. When they do appear in the work of other independent scientists, the new ideas are often frustrated or ridiculed, while military research laboratories continue to build their new machines for the killing fields.
However, the book by Manning and Begich gives hope that the military industrial academic bureaucratic Goliath can be affected by the combined power of determined individuals and the alternative press. Becoming informed is the first step to empowerment.
Prof Shillony on Japan’s Role In Arab-Israel Peace
Posted on January 11, 2012 by Marivel Guzman
Newsletter No. 1594
Editorial-Opinion
May 15, 2010
BEN-AMI SHILLONY ON JAPAN’S ROLE IN ARAB-ISRAELI PEACE
Professor Ben-Ami Shillony (Shingetsu Member No. 74) of Hebrew University in Jerusalem has submitted to the Shingetsu Newsletter an opinion article recently published in the Asahi Shinbun. The following is a slightly revised version of that article.
Japan Can Promote Peace in the Middle East
The recent visit of Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to Japan came at a time when both countries find themselves on a collision course with their long-time patron, the United States.
In both cases, the confrontation involves construction. The Hatoyama Cabinet is criticized by the Obama administration for its inability to carry out the agreement for the relocation of the Futenma airfield to another part of Okinawa Prefecture. The Netanyahu government is admonished for its inability to stop the construction of Jewish housing on the West Bank and in Jerusalem.
Both Israel and Japan are afraid that their cordial relationship with Washington is undergoing a change. The Israelis are concerned that the Obama administration, despite its pro-Israeli pronouncements, will pursue closer ties with the more populous Arab world. There is a similar concern in Japan that despite its friendly pronouncements, the United States is going to regard China as its most important partner in East Asia. A continued inability of Japan and Israel to solve the Futenma and the settlement cases bodes ill for the future relations of these countries with the United States.
The present visit also sheds light on the state of relations between Japan and Israel. The Japanese have a favorable opinion of the Jews. This already started 106 years ago, when Jacob Schiff, the Jewish president of the Kuhn, Loeb and Co. investment bank in New York (which in 1977 merged with Lehman Brothers) extended substantial loans to Japan to help it win the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905.
Another outstanding Jew who captured the imagination of the Japanese was Albert Einstein, who visited Japan in 1922. Both Schiff and Einstein admired Japan, creating in Japan the image of the rich and clever Jew.
Zionism, the return of the Jews to their ancient homeland in Palestine, had many supporters in prewar Japan. The Christian evangelist Uchimura Kanzo hailed it as the harbinger of the messianic age.
In 1920, when the League of Nations had to determine the future of Palestine after World War I, the delegates of the Big Four Powers (Britain, France, Italy and Japan) met in San Remo, Italy, and decided to allocate the mandate over Palestine to Britain on the basis of the Balfour Declaration. The Balfour Declaration of 1917, which pledged to establish a Jewish national home in Palestine, was thus accorded legal international status.
In 1922, the Shanghai Zionist Association expressed its gratitude to Japan by inscribing the name of the Japanese foreign minister, Viscount Uchida Yasuya, in the Golden Book of the Jewish National Fund in Jerusalem.
During World War II, Japan was an ally of Nazi Germany. But instead of killing Jews, as Hitler did, it saved thousands of them, enabling them to find refuge in Japan and in Japanese-held territories. Japan tried, during the war, to lure the Muslims of Asia and supported Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the anti-British mufti of Jerusalem, who spent the wartime years in Berlin.
Nevertheless, in February and March 1945, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia declared war on Japan.
During the war, Japan was sympathetic to the anti-British Zionist Revisionist movement (the forerunner of the present Likud Party in Israel), allowing its youth movement Beitar to function freely in Manchuria and Shanghai.
In 1952, following the end of the allied occupation, Japan and Israel established diplomatic relations. Israel was the first country in the Middle East to establish diplomatic ties with Japan after World War II. Japan was also the first country in Asia to establish diplomatic ties with Israel.
During the 58 years since then, relations between the two countries have withstood many pressures. Since the mid-1980s, relations have steadily developed.
The Japanese have a high regard for Israeli high-tech and many Israeli companies are doing good business in Japan despite the economic depression. Last month, the company Better Place, of the Israeli innovator and entrepreneur Shai Agassi, in conjunction with Tokyo’s Nihon Kotsu taxi company, started a pilot project of electrically operated taxis.
Japan is admired in Israel for both its traditional arts and its modern achievements. Hundreds of Israeli students study Japanese language and culture at Israeli universities and thousands of Israeli tourists flock to Japan.
Last year, the Japanese writer Murakami Haruki received the Jerusalem Literature Prize.
Japan and Israel can work together to promote peace in the Middle East. Japan is respected by both Arabs and Israelis for being objective and friendly.
Since 1996, a contingent of Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force has been operating in the Golan Heights, as part of the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). The Japanese government is extending economic aid to Palestinian refugees and to various projects of the Palestinian Authority.
A greater economic and diplomatic Japanese presence in the region will be beneficial to the peace process. But there is also a cultural role that Japan can play to promote peace in the Middle East. In 2005, the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs organized a conference on Culture and Peace at the ancient Horyuji temple in Nara. Professor Sari Nusseibeh, president of the Al-Quds University in Jerusalem, was invited to represent the Arab side and I was invited to represent the Israeli side. The organizers were surprised to see that we did not quarrel. On the contrary, we shook hands and proposed jointly that Japan establish a Center of Japanese Culture in Jerusalem that would serve both our universities and our peoples.
By studying and admiring a third culture, Palestinians and Israelis can learn to understand and respect each other. The proposal was welcomed by the agency’s president, professor Hayao Kawai, who promised to do his best to carry it out. But Kawai died two years later, and nothing came out of that plan.
I still believe that promoting Japanese culture in Jerusalem can promote peace in the Middle East.
***************************
The Shingetsu Institute for the Study of Japanese-Islamic Relations
Website: http://www.shingetsuinstitute.com
E-Mail: shingetsu_institute@hotmail.com
Political Palestinians Prisoners Make the Headlines
Posted on January 11, 2012 by Marivel Guzman
Diaries: Live from Palestine
How my uncle in Gaza filled me with hope of return
By Fidaa Elaydi
The Electronic Intifada
Maghazi refugee camp
10 January 2012
Hazem Elaydi Released After 20 years in Israel Prison
Political Prisoners or Conscience Prisoners Come Home after Long Wait
The author’s uncle, Hazem Elaydi, comforts his mother in the family’s home in Maghazi refugee camp.
The date is 21 December 2011, a day that will live within me for the rest of my life. As I went through the Rafah crossing, my eyes scanned the faces of every man before me; I was searching for my uncle, Hazem Elaydi. I had not seen him in more than twenty years, since before he was illegally imprisoned by Israel during the first intifada. I traveled across the world to see him after his release during the prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas in October.
Every time I travel to Palestine, my first few days in my homeland are always filled with tears and covered by a cloud of disbelief. The sheer joy of being home makes me feel as if I’m in a dream, that I could not be so lucky as to return to my homeland yet again, and this last trip was no exception.
Photography Credit Omar Karem
I remember first seeing his smiling face. Even as I ran to his arms, I stared at his face trying to remember its details in case I really was dreaming and would soon wake up from this beautiful fantasy. As I hugged him, I tried to learn his scent, hoping that I could add this detail to the archive of my memory of him to draw on later when I was no longer near him. As we rode from Rafah to the old family home where my father, aunts and uncles were all born and raised in Maghazi refugee camp, I stared at him. I tried to learn the shape of his smile, the shades of black, brown and gray in his beard, the fine lines forming around his eyes, the depth of his voice and the innocent and child-like quality of his uniquely high-pitched laugh.
Photography Credit Omar Karem
When we arrived, we sat in the family room and I quickly stole the seat next to him. I held his hand and wondered what I could say to him to show him how happy I was to meet him. I wanted to be articulate, but he cannot understand my native tongue. I wanted to impress him without being obnoxious. I wanted him to know me and be proud of me but I was too intimidated to speak. Instead, I sat silent and tried to force myself to believe that I wasn’t dreaming.
Everyone in my family asked me what I did when I first saw my uncle. Did I cry like my older brother? Did I pass out from shock like my cousin? My reaction included neither tears nor the loss of consciousness. Although it’s not as exciting a story, my reaction to seeing him came in small, nearly overwhelming doses of sudden awareness.
That first day, when I was sitting in my father’s childhood home, reality slowly set in. Last year, I sat in this room as my family welcomed me back to Gaza after six years of being away. This time was different. This time was not about welcoming me home or asking me about Egypt or my brothers; this time I was sitting in this room to meet my uncle. The uncle I knew only from photos, stories and a few sporadic phone calls. Now I am in his presence.
All those countless times I begged for his release in my prayers were fruitful. All those moments of anguish when my grandmother desperately cried for him have been offset by her joy of seeing him. I looked around and saw my 17-year-old cousin who was named after my uncle and met him for the first time two months ago. It was real. My uncle was among us and free and himself and unafraid and I was there with him. My eyes swelled with tears and I suppressed them. The time to cry had passed and now was a time for smiles and laughter, I told myself.
I remember the first time I heard someone call out my uncle’s name to ask him a question. I don’t remember the question or who was asking, I just remember realizing that finally my uncle was near enough for us to merely call his name when we wanted to speak with him.
Here to stay
I remember the first time someone made reference to “Hazem’s house.” Again, I cannot remember the context, but I can remember the overpowering joy I felt as awareness of the realness of his release set in. He has a house, I thought, his own house. This is not temporary; he’s here to stay. I’m not imagining this. I forced myself not to cry. I looked at my dear uncle and smiled; the moments I have with him are limited to the length of my visit and I will not spend them trying to convince myself of something it took me two weeks to come to terms with back in October. He is here and I will make the best of it.
I tried to learn his personality, his sense of humor, the way he spoke to people, his mannerisms, and everything else that Skype conversations and phone calls can’t give away. I realized that he was very different from anyone I knew. Unlike most people I knew in Gaza, he never interrupted anyone in conversation. He was respectful and patient and always paid very close attention when others spoke to him. Everyone who met him instantly trusted him. There was something about him; there was honesty in his eyes, thoughtfulness in his facial expression, wisdom in the curve of his brow. Something about him made me instantly feel like I could trust him with all of my secrets and feel like they were safer than before.
He always gave humble advice in every context and topic of conversation, but he never preached. He offered the best solutions to every issue and cited where the wisdom of his advice came from. When we were invited to dinner at two places the same night, he was the one that resolved the issue. When my brothers’ haircuts were too wild for Gaza’s conservative culture, instead of staring and judging, he explained to them people’s reactions. When my cousins and I had a sudden desire to go to the beach in the middle of a winter afternoon, he took us and let us stay as long as we wanted. He is easy going and took everything in life in small doses. He was our tie to occupation and injustice before his release and now he is our anchor.
Photography Omar Karem
My uncle’s release not only brought great joy to my family and reunited all of my aunts and uncles both in Gaza and the diaspora, but it also changed the dynamic of our family. It felt like a lot of the pettiness that often exists with large families seemed to disappear from ours for a while. My grandmother is more upbeat and focuses her attention on choosing for me a husband and sharing stories from a time when Palestine’s air was free and her trees more fruitful. The cousins we worried about have been tamed by the influence of a respected uncle. And finally, we no longer have to hang posters, photos and plaques bearing his face on our walls to feel his presence. My uncle Hazem is with us and we treasure him even more than before.
I tried to learn who my uncle was and observe him so that when my ten-day opportunity to get to know him was over, I’d have plenty to draw on when I later tried to remember him. I memorized how much he adored his wife, how gentle and patient he was with his young nieces and nephews, how understanding he was with me and my older cousins, how accommodating and affectionate he was with his mother, and how contemplative he seemed in the moments he had to himself.
Instant remorse
As a Palestinian who only knows her homeland through short visits, the most difficult part of my trips home is leaving. This time was the worst. I avoided saying goodbye to my uncle for as long as I could. I made up excuses, came up with stories to share and favors to ask and staged family photos, but the impeding sorrow was unavoidable. As soon as my uncle released me from the last hug I was able to share with him, I felt instant remorse.
Why did I go to bed so early when my family was having our evening gatherings? Why didn’t I sit with my uncle more? Why didn’t I say more when I was with him? Why didn’t we book a later flight? Do I really need to go back to school? Why didn’t I take an extra year off? What if I come back to Gaza in the summer? I realized that my trip had been too short and that I spent far too much of it eating and sleeping or sitting around waiting for electricity, an Internet connection, or bath water to heat up. In the end, I was grateful for the beautiful opportunity to get to know my uncle and his incredible wife and to see the way my family had changed with his presence. Now, I look forward to my next opportunity to see my uncle.
Oddly, this experience has led me to wonder about the moment I will meet another Palestinian that I have heard stories about my entire life and have a deep attachment to but have never met: my Palestinian hometown of Bir al-Saba.
Many refugees in the diaspora have grown so accustomed to their lives outside of their hometowns that they no longer identify with their ancestral villages and towns. My uncle’s release has taught me that nothing is too far out of our reach. My imagination was never creative enough to piece together an alternate reality where my uncle Hazem was no longer a prisoner. Even with my hopelessness, this miracle occurred. When I try to picture Bir al-Saba, I see images of Maghazi Camp, the Sinai Desert and photos of Bedouins I’ve seen in books and online.
Now when I remember meeting my uncle, I think about my coming encounter with Bir al-Saba and learning her history, roads, buildings, schools, wells and her market. I think about memorizing her scent and her landscape; the colors in her sunsets; how dark it must get before the first stars begin to appear in her sky; and how warmly she will welcome me and her other estranged children.
Even though the right of return seems far-fetched to so many refugees, meeting my uncle has reinvigorated my belief in this right. His release is proof that the victims of injustice should never lose hope because history and experience have proven that all types of oppression eventually come to an end. Like I said before, I always tied the release of my uncle to the freedom of Palestine and to our return to our hometown and, after meeting him and experiencing the miracle of his release, I believe this even more strongly.
Fidaa Elaydi is a Palestinian boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) activist and law student. She is visiting Gaza to meet her uncle, a political prisoner who was released in the October 2011 prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas. She is a third-generation refugee who strongly believes in the right of return.
Meeting My Uncle After 20 Years in Israel Jail was an experience many felt in Palestine, after this historic deal took place in Egypt between Hamas and Israel. One Israel Soldier was exchanged for 1027 Political Palestinian Prisoners, including 27 women and 14 children.
The Euphoria started spreading around the world when the news broke out that our Palestinians heroes will be coming home.
Since early in the morning on this day October 18, 2011 thousands of people started gathering in different parts of Palestine to welcome The Heroes coming home.
The Red Cross was preparing the buses that have to be used to transport hundreds of Palestinians to 3 different spots in Palestine, Rafah Gaza Border to be officialy received by Haniyeh, Twenty-two female and 96 male prisoners are to pass through Beituniya on their way to Ramallah, where they will meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Rafah Egypt, Khaled Meshaal the leader of Hamas in Damascus will be arriving in Cairo where 40 Palestinians will be welcome by him, as the first step to find their next home, there are 3 countries already confirmed to take some of them into exile; Turkey was confirmed yesterday, Qatar and Syria the other two countries.
The Peace Process Has Failed – Marwan Barghouti
Posted On January 3, 2011 by Marivel Guzman
Marwan Barghouti
Ramallah – 
Political Editor – Marwan Barghouti, a deputy in the Legislative Council and Member of the Central Committee of the “open” on “the importance of maintaining the National Authority and to continue the struggle to convert it to an independent state with full sovereignty,” but said “I call to review many of the functions of the authority in order to achieve and enhance the national steadfastness in confronting the occupation and settlements, including supports and supports the peaceful popular resistance and the abandonment of all forms of cooperation with the occupation. ”
He said in a letter marking the forty-seventh of the start of the Palestinian revolution, “The peace process had failed and ended there is no longer any point to make desperate attempts to breathe life into the dead body and the need to move towards Palestinian strategy and a new national long let them and confirmed them.”
He said: “It is time to adopt this strategy and go until the end, which is based primarily on the bet on our people and strength of living and generations young and wings his sons, and considered in 2012 in the Popular Resistance peaceful and extensive in the face of settlement and aggression and the Judaization of Jerusalem and the siege and barriers, and continue to work in the United Nations to extract membership of the State of Palestine in all international forums and in the United Nations, and not retreat to the pressure exerted by the United States and Israel, and continue to work to a wider international boycott of Israel economically and politically, the media, diplomatically and militarily, to stop all forms of cooperation with them, as well as raise the pace and expand the County Products and Israeli goods and the evacuation of the markets Palestinian them. ”
Barghouti has stressed out “the importance of the great national achievement that has been the release of hundreds of activists in the swap deal between Hamas and Israel is the duty of the National Authority and the PLO and the factions working to free all prisoners and detainees and to develop a comprehensive national strategy to achieve this national goal.”
He said: “I will bless the Palestinian reconciliation and the understandings reached and I call on all parties and factions and leaders to work with sincerity and seriousness of the implementation of the Agreement on Reconciliation, translated on the ground and guided by a document of prisoners of national reconciliation with evidence of a program and a common denominator for all.”
He called for accelerating the reform and development (m. T.. Q) and holding elections for membership of the National Council and the participation of all factions, which, in addition to holding presidential and legislative elections in an atmosphere of unity and cohesion and solidarity, and to reject internal violence and media incitement and stop violations of human rights and respect for the rule of law and freedom of the press The media and public and individual freedoms, and the fight against corruption more effectively, including the symbols of corruption affects those who are not accountable to this day one of them, stressing the importance of transparency and integrity and the right of our people in his money in the account and to punish those who violate the sanctity of trust and responsibility.
And, consequently, the literal text of the message issued by the militant leader Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinian people on the occasion of the forty-seventh anniversary of the start of the Palestinian revolution:
“I would like on this occasion, dear to our hearts greeting, reverence and gratitude of our people and great at home and in exile and the Diaspora and the masses of our Arab and Islamic countries, all free, friends, and solidarity with the struggle of our people, and I greet reverence and gratitude to the martyrs of our great people and the martyrs of our Arab and Islamic countries, led by the martyr leader Yasser Arafat and his companions founders, led by Prince of Abu Jihad martyrs, I would also like to congratulate the leadership and cadres, members and supporters of Fatah movement and its organizations and the Libyan People’s everywhere.
This anniversary at a time when Israel and its government fascism, war and aggression is not unprecedented on our people and our land, and are primarily aimed at the Judaization of Jerusalem and the destruction and the liquidation of its Arab and Muslim and Christian, is aimed at occupying the city Bmekdsadtha and its neighborhoods, its residents and their homes, and the settlement cancer continues to pace is the most comprehensive and broader since the occupation began in 1967 in order to abort the project independent Palestinian state on land occupied in 1967, and comes in light of international failure to completely stop Israel when alone, and required them to halt settlement building and end the occupation and accept the decisions of international legitimacy, and that Israel was exploiting the case of worry experienced by the Arab world even temporarily because of the revolution taking place in Arab democracy that many Arab countries, as they exploit the ongoing Palestinian division, and the state deficit in the face of this aggression Continued settlement.
As I turn to the Palestinian people on this anniversary, which derive strength and determination and all the meanings of sacrifice and redemption and absolute faith in the justice of our cause and the purity of the blood of our martyrs and the pain and suffering of our people throughout the country and in refugee camps and in the diaspora and the diaspora, we promise our great people to remain flag raised Whisk until the end occupation and the establishment of our independent state with full sovereignty and its capital Jerusalem and the return of refugees to their homes and free all prisoners and detainees and stressed the following:
1 – bless the Palestinian reconciliation and the understandings reached and I call on all parties and factions and leaders to work with sincerity and seriousness of the implementation of the Agreement on Reconciliation, translated on the ground and guided by a document of national reconciliation with the prisoners and a program guide and a common denominator for all.
I also call on the Palestinian factions and the Palestinian leadership to reconciliation with the Palestinian people, because the reconciliation between the factions are not enough do not provide a real solution, because Mr. Faisal, the government was and remains our great revolutions and uprisings maker and maker of the legendary steadfastness in the face of occupation and aggression.
2 – The peace process had failed and ended there is no longer any point to make desperate attempts to breathe life into the body of the dead, and I call to stop the export of illusions could be built upon, and the need to move towards Palestinian strategy and a new national long let them and confirmed them. The time has come to adopt this strategy and go until the end, based primarily on the bet on our people and strength of living and generations young and wings his sons, and considered in 2012 in the Popular Resistance peaceful and extensive in the face of settlement and aggression and the Judaization of Jerusalem and the siege and barriers, and continue to work in the United Nations to extract the membership of the State of Palestine in all international forums and in the United Nations, and not retreat to the pressure exerted by the United States and Israel, and continue to work to a wider international boycott of Israel economically and politically, the media, diplomatically and militarily, to stop all forms of cooperation with them, as well as increase the frequency and expand the County Products and Israeli goods and the evacuation of the Palestinian markets them.
3 – While emphasizing the importance of preserving the national authority and to continue the struggle to convert it to an independent state with full sovereignty, I call to review many of the functions of the authority in order to achieve and enhance the national steadfastness in the face of the occupation and settlements, including supports and supports the Popular Resistance peaceful and renounce all forms of cooperation with the occupation. And work to strengthen the economy of steadfastness and support groups affected by the occupation, particularly the parents in Jerusalem and the institutions of the city of all kinds, and the villages and communities affected by the wall, and support the families of martyrs and prisoners, the wounded and unemployed workers and graduates, in addition to expanding the People’s Committees at all sites of resistance to occupation and settlement and aggression.
4 – To accelerate the reform and development (m. T.. Q) and holding elections for membership of the National Council and the participation of all factions, which, in addition to holding presidential and legislative elections in an atmosphere of unity and cohesion and solidarity, and to reject internal violence and media incitement and stop violations of human rights and respect for the rule of law and freedom of the press The media and public and individual freedoms, and the fight against corruption more effectively, including the symbols of corruption affects those who are not accountable to this day one of them, stressing the importance of transparency and integrity and the right of our people in his money in the account and to punish those who violate the sanctity of trust and responsibility.
5 – I extend my greetings and appreciation for the peoples of our Arab rebel that have achieved victory in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and I call on leaders of new parties and governments and the masses to adopt a new policy towards the Palestinian issue based political support, economic and media and financial support to Palestine and the struggle of its people, and support the unity of the Palestinian people and their national reconciliation and resistance to the occupation and support democracy in Palestine and the use of influence and weight in favor of the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people and their just struggle for freedom, return and independence.
6 – As we emphasize the importance of the great national achievement that has been the release of hundreds of activists in the swap deal between Hamas and Israel is the duty of the National Authority, (m. T.. Q) and the factions working to free all prisoners and detainees and to develop a comprehensive national strategy to achieve this national goal.
7 – I call on the sons of the “Open” venerated and agents of the principles of open and maxims and its program to take the initiative and the leadership of the Popular Resistance peaceful and engage the broadest and in all locations and squares, the movement of “open” used to be in the place of leadership since the start of the Palestinian revolution to lead in the leadership of AD. T. P and the establishment of the PA, in uprisings Alambarkian must be at the helm of the now peaceful popular resistance.
Long live the Palestinian people, the great
Long live the movement of the “Open” … Long live the unity
Yes to resist the occupation and settlement
Yes to freedom, independence and return
Glory to the martyrs and healing to the wounded and freedom for the prisoners
Brother
Marwan Barghouti
* Hadarim prison cell No. 28
Khan Younis Refugee Camp Gaza, Palestine
Khan Younis refugee camp
Excerpts From UNRWA Office, From Gaza, Palestine
Posted On January 1, 2011 by Marivel Guzman
All the content is for information only, awareness and diffusion of the tragedy that Gaza lives right now due to Israel Siege and ultimately largely to the long occupation that have severed the lives of an entire Country.
Khan Yoinis in Gaza Strip, Palestine is just a minor example of the damage of Israel Occupation, the public institution that serve to prologue the occupation and in their roles of Aid Agencies perpetuate the occupation are as guilty as Israel is.
UNRWA is a branch of UN created specifically to Aid Refugees of Conflicts created by war/enterprises organized by the UN Club. UN is an organization that primary intention when created was to avert wars, but as we seen over and over UN is the maker of war and conflicts.
Even thought UNRWA “Aid” alleviates some necessities for the refugees that are registered with this Institution, the great necessity is left unattended.
Construction Material, Food, Health Products and Machinery are primordial to take Gaza out of its misery, but Israel and its Allies with lame excuses are deeping the entire population in despair with no immediate solution offered to Gaza residents but the crumbs of a subsidized Aid.
The governments in charge of UN and its branches give their “Donations” and they look the other way, and pretend everything will be OK. Well nothing is ok, in fact UNRAW is underfunded and its inability. to mitigate the suffering of the refugees is well known.
“UNRWA relies almost entirely upon donations from individuals, institutional donors and governments. Every dollar you donate to UNRWA helps restore dignity to the lives of refugees who are unable to support themselves due to the loss of livelihoods under the blockade” Form UNRWA Office, and yet astronomical salaries are paid to top executives. The latest post offering for UNRWA official in Gaza was in November 2011, Head of UNRWA office in Gaza. ”
“UNRWA offers an attractive compensation package including annual salary starting at $111,950 net tax free with dependants or $102,847 single, plus post adjustment of 57% (subject to change without notice). Other benefits, subject to eligibility, include education grant, dependency allowance, home leave, pension fund, health insurance and 6 weeks annual leave. Staff members based in Gaza are entitled to additional benefits, subject to eligibility, including expanded leave provisions, hardship pay, and R&R leave every 6 weeks (according to the UN classification of the duty station and subject to change without notice). While Gaza is a non-family duty station, eligible staff members may set up a second household in a nearby location to have their family nearby. Initial contract is for one year, with the possibility of further extensions. Note: following the assessment of relevant academic qualifications and work experience, the Agency reserves the right to appoint the incumbent at one grade below the advertised level.”
There are more than 11,000 personnel in Gaza that work for UNRWA, most of the recruiters are foreigners from around the world, there are “some” jobs that are given to people from Gaza but are the lowest paid.
Gaza counts with a tremendously educated population graduated from their Universities, they are more than qualified to take top UNRWA posts , they speak Arabic, they know the local custom, they know the internal conflict, they are directly involved in Gaza life, they should be given the opportunity to be part of the solution or at least to take advantage of this foreign “Aid” more directly, will serve to revive in little scale their economy as the Money will stay in Gaza and will not be spend in Israel, as most of the foreign workers are to freely cross the Eretz crossing to Israel in weekly bases.
“It juz shows the magnitude of what’s on display at the moment. Yet the infinite potential of the educated youth who are more than capable of doin much of the needed work to help readdress & reconstruct Gaza’s economy given the chance await for the dawn of a new day. I have no doubt having met with many of the young people I rubbed shoulders with in Gaza that they would flourish when the blockade is eventually broken. Until then the greatest asset of Gaza (which is its people) especially the young have to continue to be battle strong. It’s easier said than done I’m afraid.” Mohammad Hamza
Absolutely! true. Every country in the world has more or less the same problems that Gaza is suffering; extreme poverty belts, severe unemployment, underfunded social programs like health, and after school programs, political internal conflicts, religious division, corruption in the government spheres, plus a Political Blockade imposed by Israel and blessed by the UN country security council members, and an on going military occupation, all this incorporated to the Public Aid System aka Foreign Welfare that makes Gaza a Unique Spot on Earth.
Which can be considered a blessing in any country which is a highly educated society. in Gaza is kind of a soft burden, because an Educated Society is not easy manageable and highly susceptible to change, highly educated society makes it citizens to understand the problematic of the country and will try to do something about it, civil disobedience, non violent resistance movements and violent movement as well, all intended to change the Status Quo of the occupation and the internal dynamics of the political process that seems not help but to keep the population “Controlled”.
It is happening in Gaza, we saw it with the March 15 March, where the youth came together to yell to their leaders what is wrong with them, a move that was not welcome by the authorities but at the end they have to take in consideration, the magnitude of the wave around the world, and in an unprecedented move that surprise world leaders and the world, the two strong internal factions came to an agreement.
Now the Odds are in the hands of time and the World, that every day are taking more notice of the conflict and are speaking up, adding their efforts to the ongoing resistance movement inside Gaza.
What Gaza needs is not Aid, but to be liberated, to be allowed to trade their products, to import material to reconstruct the destroyed infrastructure, to let it be a free region, to take advantage of it’s potential as a fishing port, and tourist destination. Khan Younis, Gaza Stritp, Palestine.
Khan Younis
Khan Younis refugee camp is located about two kilometers from the Mediterranean coast, north of Rafah. It lies west of the town of Khan Younis, a major commercial center and stop-off point on the ancient trade route to Egypt.
After the 1948 war, 35,000 refugees took shelter in the camp, having fled their homes during the hostilities. Most were from the Be’er Sheva area. Today, Khan Younis camp is home to nearly 72,000 refugees.
Blockade
Life for nearly all refugees in the camp is more difficult because of the blockade of Gaza, with much higher unemployment. Fewer families can provide for themselves, leaving a staggering proportion of the population dependent on UNRWA’s food and cash assistance. Ninety per cent of the camp’s water is unfit for human consumption, so basic hygiene is another big concern.
Reconstruction
Over the years, many of the refugees living in Khan Younis lost their shelters in Israel Defense Forces operations. Prior to the imposition of the blockade, UNRWA had commenced a significant re-housing project to accommodate all those who had lost their shelters. However, the blockade prevented UNRWA from bringing in construction materials to complete the project, leaving thousands of people without permanent shelters.
UNRWA only received permission in 2010 to bring in the materials to complete a number of housing units for refugees whose shelters were demolished years ago. UNRWA estimates that it must construct a minimum of 10,000 shelters to re-house refugees currently living in unacceptable conditions and/or who have lost their homes as a result of the conflict.
DONOR OPIUM, the impact of international aid to Palestine
This documentary film, directed by Mariam Shahin and George Azar, and funded by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, features Palestinian criticism of this externally funded “development”.
For twenty years now the international donor community has financially supported Palestinian institution-building, infrastructure development, the economy, public employees’ salaries, health and education, social welfare, the police, electricity production, private credit guarantees, and the bigger part of the civil society organizations with regards to democracy promotion, human rights, tolerance, women rights etc.
Peace and the establishment of a Palestinian state have been the declared goals of all the support. But actual results are the fragmentation and pacification of the Palestinian people.
Statistics
- Nearly 72,000 registered refugees
- 25 school buildings, 22 running double-shifts, accommodating a total of 38 schools
- One food distribution centre
- Three health centres
- Demographic profile:
Programmes in the camp
- Health
- Education
- Relief and social services
- Microfinance and microenterprise
- Reconstruction and recovery
- Emergency food and cash assistanceaid
Major problems
- Overcrowding
- Housing shortage
- High unemployment
- Access to adequate water and electricity supplies
MK ULTRA – NOT CONSPIRACY BUT TRUTH
MK-ULTRA:
MK Ultra was a code name declassified in the 1970’s Church Committee and other lawsuits brought against the government where the public was informed that thousands of people, patients from hospitals, mental health patients, prisoners in the justice system, and even public citizens were selected for testing without their consent.
Testing was conducted in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. Some claim they still go on today and provide evidence.
The testing includes torture, drugs, and exotic hypnosis experiments in an effort to explore the mind, propaganda, and other related patterns.
One sub department of the operation included a group of lunatic scientists who were looking to create an assassins program, to see if it was possible to kidnap someone, say an enemy in a country, conduct hypnosis and other techniques learned in Mk Ultra, and send them back to the country with a plan to assassinate their leaders. That plan is what scares people most. MK Ultra was carried out by the CIA illegally, and in the 1970s, hundreds of patients sued the federal government for damages, and the government settled and paid millions of dollars.
Now here is the really trippy, scary info. Some of these patients where MK Ultra was used include Ted Kazinsky (the unabpmber), mark David Chapman (the man who shot Lennon), Sirhan Sirhan (the man who shot Bobby Kennedy) and even Lee
Harvey Oswald is rumored to have attended a base in japan before heading to Russia where MK Ultra experiments were taking place.
David Ferrie, Oswalds boss for a long period of time, is said to have been an MK Ultra specialist and specialized in hypnosis, and believe it or not, sexual molestation to mess with his patients heads. David Ferrie was a convicted child predator who left the Catholic Church to train Black Operations hitmen for the invasion of Cuba.
David Ferrie taught the Louisiana Civial Air Patrol, where both Lee Harvey Oswald and Barry Seal joined as 15 year old children. Barry Seal became the primary operative in Iran-Contra, who ran drugs for the CIA and was an active contract hitman, Oswlad was accused of killing John F Kennedy. David Ferrie was murdered, made to look like a suicide, the night before his testimony in a trial Jim Garrison brought against the CIA where he accused Ferrie and others of using Oswald as a patsy.
New videos found
Project MK-ULTRA, or MKULTRA, was the code name for a covert CIA mind-control and chemical interrogation research program, run by the Office of Scientific Intelligence. The program began in the early 1950s, continuing at least through the late 1960s, and it used United States citizens as its test subjects. The published evidence indicates that Project MK-ULTRA involved the surreptitious use of many types of drugs, as well as other methods, to manipulate individual mental states and to alter brain function.
Project MK-ULTRA was first brought to wide public attention in 1975 by the U.S. Congress, through investigations by the Church Committee, and by a presidential commission known as the Rockefeller Commission. Investigative efforts were hampered by the fact that CIA Director Richard Helms ordered all MK-ULTRA files destroyed in 1973; the Church Committee and Rockefeller Commission investigations relied on the sworn testimony of direct participants and on the relatively small number of documents that survived Helms’ destruction order.
Although the CIA insists that MK-ULTRA-type experiments have been abandoned, 14-year CIA veteran Victor Marchetti has stated in various interviews that the CIA routinely conducted disinformation campaigns and that CIA mind control research continued. In a 1977 interview, Marchetti specifically called the CIA claim that MK-ULTRA was abandoned a “cover story.”
On the Senate floor in 1977, Senator Ted Kennedy said:
“The Deputy Director of the CIA revealed that over thirty universities and institutions were involved in an ‘extensive testing and experimentation’ program which included covert drug tests on unwitting citizens “at all social levels, high and low, native Americans and foreign.” Several of these tests involved the administration of LSD to ‘unwitting subjects in social situations.’ At least one death, that of Dr. Olson, which resulted from these activities. The Agency itself acknowledged that these tests made little scientific sense. The agents doing the monitoring were not qualified scientific observers.”
Project ARTICHOKE was a CIA project that researched interrogation methods and arose from Project BLUEBIRD on August 20, 1951, run by the Office of Scientific Intelligence. A memorandum by Richard Helms to CIA director Allen Welsh Dulles indicated Artichoke became Project MKULTRA on April 13, 1953.
The project studied hypnosis, forced morphine addiction (and subsequent forced withdrawal), and the use of other chemicals, among other methods, to produce amnesia and other vulnerable states in subjects.
Artichoke was an offensive program of mind control that gathered together the intelligence divisions of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and FBI. In addition, the scope of the project was outlined in a memo dated January 1952 that stated, “Can we get control of an individual to the point where he will do our bidding against his will and even against fundamental laws of nature, such as self preservation?”
Operation LAC (Large Area Coverage) was a U.S. Army Chemical Corps operation, which dispersed microscopic zinc cadmium sulfide (ZnCdS), particles over much of the United States. The purpose was to determine the dispersion and geographic range of biological or chemical agents.
3-quinuclidinyl benzilate (QNB, BZ, EA-2277), IUPAC name 1-azabicyclo[2.2.2]Oct-3-yl α-hydroxy-α-phenylbenzeneacetate, is an odorless military incapacitating agent. Its NATO code is BZ. The Iraqi incapacitating agent Agent 15 is believed either to be the same as or similar to BZ.
BZ is a glycolate anticholinergic compound related to atropine, scopolamine, hyoscyamine, and other deliriants. Dispersal would be as an aerosolized solid (primarily for inhalation) or as an agent dissolved in one or more solvents for ingestion or percutaneous absorption.
Acting as a competitive inhibitor of acetylcholine at postsynaptic and postjunctional muscarinic receptor sites in smooth muscle, exocrine glands, autonomic ganglia, and the brain, BZ decreases the effective concentration of acetylcholine seen by receptors at these sites. Thus, BZ causes PNS effects that, in general, are the opposite of those seen in nerve agent poisoning. CNS effects include stupor, confusion, and confabulation with concrete and panoramic illusions and hallucinations, and with regression to automatic “phantom” behaviors such as plucking and disrobing
Physostigmine, which increases the concentration of acetylcholine in synapses and in neuromuscular and neuroglandular junctions, is a specific antidote.
Geopolitics of Confusion
Posted Originally on Opinion Maker on 29. Dec, 2011 by Nadir Mir
US – NATO attack on Pakistan
By Brig Nadir Mir
US – NATO attacked a non NATO Ally Pakistan!
The attack was unprovoked, wanton, cowardly and ruthless. It was open aggression and violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty. US – NATO aggression was condemned or Pakistan received support and sympathy from China, Russia, Iran, OIC (Saudi Arabia) – Turkey. Even UK expressed regrets; France supports an inquiry into the issue. Germany was obviously disappointed by Pakistan’s cancellation of participation at Bonn Conference
US filled with hubris even refused to apologize, while Delhi was gloating over the death of Pakistani Soldiers and its predicament. The Pakistani Nation is livid with rage and united to defend Pakistan. The American sanctioned attack (no other power on the planet can dare to attack Pakistan at its own) is radicalizing Pakistan. The beleaguered (mini minority) corrupt and treacherous elite in Pakistan are finding excuses to explain American aggression.
The time has come to end the Geopolitics of Confusion!
Firstly why was this aggression launched?
A long list of answers can be compiled, some are presented here:
A strategy of deflection to keep away from the ‘Memo’.
Gunship raid, attack (live) rehearsal – against Pakistan’s nuclear sites. (Helicopters at night used even earlier for ‘snatch operations’ like the Abbotabad Raid).
Daily Beast article which claims this as ‘Obama’s Foreign Policy Doctrine’ and terms it as ‘Off Shore Balancing’ (with money and bravado in short supply, avoid land battle. Use of heliborne/drone/air power for foreign policy ends of USA).
Condition Pakistan to stay prostrate during expected ‘war against Iran’ by Israel / US (urgency of expected strike on Persia)
Intimidate Pakistan before Bonn Conference. (Absurd but irrational Globalists can do anything)
Pakistan’s (offensive) containment. Degrade, disgrace Pakistan Army and drive a wedge in the Pakistani Nation. (The opposite effects have been achieved. The Pakistani Nation stands united and supports the Army vehemently)
Secondly who is with and against Pakistan?
With Pakistan stand its brave plus patriotic Armed Forces, and the nationalistically motivated people of Pakistan. The soldiers and masses stand together against foreign threats. Externally to varying – degrees Pakistan is supported by China – Russia – Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia – OIC. Almost the entire region is against US sponsored wars, or longevity for its military presence. The Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan are already in a state of war with USA. Most of the world respects Pakistan (Pakistan’s nomination to Security Council seat was testament). India is of course completely untrustworthy. It can always launch ‘Cold Start’ offensive on any pretext in harmony with US MILITARY STRIKE – against Pakistan. (In December a major Indian Army Exercise is underway in the deserts against Pakistan). Still the regional Geopolitics would have to be viewed by Delhi, more than Pakistan’s offer of MFN.
Russian support can prove a game changer for Pakistan. It would tilt the scales, Russia – China and not only China supporting Pakistan. Deterring USA to an extent, while inhibiting India from joining US for an attack on Pakistan. (Besides Pakistan’s conventional forces and nuclear deterrent – tactical weapons included, could keep India at bay)
The British even as America’s most Allied Ally are not openly clashing with Pakistan. (Both due to British Policy and British vulnerability at home. More so, the fate of the British Embassy in Tehran clearly indicates an Iranian – British clash). In fact Pakistan’s relations with the British, French and Germans (major NATO members) have been good. They could even be better if NATO withdraws from Afghanistan. (There would be little to have friction on). Pakistan – German friendship should improve further. Germany is the true and future leader of Europe and respected by Pakistanis.
Now the question who is against Pakistan?
A brutally candid answer is:
Firstly, Pakistan’s own corrupt, treacherous and incompetent elite, a mini minority which wants to keep robbing and exploiting the Pakistani Nation. They seek solace and work for foreign powers (USA – India). The treacherous elite would sell the Motherland for a song. They want to serve as slave overseers for a shackled Nation. Selling it to the first bidder. Yesterday it was USA alone but now it is USA – India. This is the Pakistan Corruption – Treachery Nexus, who are more loyal to Washington – Delhi than many Americans and Indians and of course Anti Pakistan. (After all in USA, Americans are challenging the system – Occupy Wall Street, LA etc or Anna Hazara ‘Anti corruption Drive’ in India)
Secondly the cabal of America’s Globalists, military – industrial complex, left over Neo cons who still want to conquer the world. (Despite being chastened in Iraq – Afghanistan). On the contrary, the good hearted, charity giving and amiable people of America many of whom are now questioning this perpetual war quest. They seek jobs and living at home rather than wars abroad! The White House and State Department are confused in the Geopolitical labyrinth of Afghanistan.
The war lovers of course love war. They want to continue the war in Afghanistan and start new ones in Iran – Pakistan! (Not divining that the combined Geopolitical space of Afghanistan – Pakistan – Iran – Iraq will prove a Giant Black hole (even for Uncle Sam).
Thirdly, Delhi the serpent, is always bidding its time to strike Pakistan. Still the complex and multi faceted (Delhi does not want to lose Tehran / Moscow affinity) regional Geopolitics weighs heavy on Indian minds . As does the fear of nuclear holocaust from a Pakistani response.
Veteran Indian Diplomat MK Bhadrakumar had predicted a ‘Persian Response’ by Pakistan for this attack, (asymmetrical plus Strategic Defiance). Simon Tisdall warning in ‘Pakistan has had enough’ had opinioned that an Iranian type Revolution in Pakistan could be one outcome in future.
‘A hot flash in the Cold War with Pakistan’ is how the Atlantic titled its article. The only people who still think in terms of an alliance in the Global War on terror are Pakistan’s dimwitted, thieving, treacherous elite! The rest of the world is quite clear on the real issues, which are:
Pakistan’s Denuclearization (through ‘Memo of Treachery’ or American Geo strategy)
America’s partial withdrawal from Afghanistan
From the MemoGate to Gunship attack etc, are all tactics of one supreme over arching strategy to denuke Pakistan. (War hawks controlled, Indian influenced).
Washington wants to keep its ‘Strike or Nuclear Grab Option’ open against Pakistan (before or after war with Iran). For this herculean task there are three pre requisites.
Treacherous elite support within Pakistan. (Memo and related kind)
Prepositioning, maintaining secret – clandestine forces, Special Forces in Pakistan in disguise. (To act as path finders, initial strike force)
Afghanistan Bases (operations for denuking strike)
Without these three pre requisites any Strategic Denuclearization Scenario remains fiction and outside the realm of feasibility. (Any attempt against Pakistan’s nuclear sites will have catastrophic consequences any way).
Strategic logic dictates that all three pre requisites (for denuclearization attempt) be denied to foreign forces.
· The treacherous elite have to be marginalized.
· Secretly positioned clandestine foreign forces eliminated or expelled.
· Afghan Bases Denied. (Complete pull out of all foreign forces from Afghanistan has to be Pakistan’s avowed policy)
Besides Pakistan’s brave soldiers, the Nation stands united. China, Russia and Iran at the very least seek Pakistan’s strategic autonomy from NATO. EU – NATO can be divided more so with Turkish support. British are cautious, French non hostile, Germans Peace Seeking. In America, the Afghan war has divided them, even as they unite for the war against Iran.
Pakistan should lobby for:
· An immediate ceasefire in Afghanistan and Pakistan – Afghanistan border.
· The political face of Taliban for talks.
· Early resolution of Baluch problem, where Empire (US – NATO) will strike back in Pakistan. (The next front being attacked by western – Indian Geo-strategy – Charter of Freedom for Baluchistan etc)
· Complete and early withdrawal of all US – NATO forces from Afghanistan and Pakistan. (Disagree to any stay behind NATO forces in Afghanistan).
· Moscow – Islamabad synergism can prove a game changer. Supply routes to NATO in Afghanistan should be jointly blocked by Pakistan and Russia as part of a Peace Policy.
(‘Next War – Iran’ written by this scribe for Opinion Maker has been published by Pravda Ru and Windows to Russia. A view in Moscow is that Pakistan and Russia can together choke NATO in Afghanistan!)
· Pakistan needs to muster more tangible support from China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey on Afghanistan while keeping it cool with India for the present (through diplomacy – deterrence).
The problem in Afghanistan is very simple.
The Americans lost the war, but do not want to admit it.
There is still time for them to declare victory and go home today. Tomorrow may be a different day!US – NATO attack on Pakistan
How Congress is Signing its own Arrest Warrants in the NDAA Citizen Arrest bill
Published: December 12th, 2011
Author:Naomi Wolf
I never thought I would have to write this: but—incredibly—Congress has now passed the National Defense Appropriations Act, with Amendment 1031, which allows for the military detention of American citizens. The amendment is so loosely worded that any American citizen could be held without due process. The language of this bill can be read to assure Americans that they can challenge their detention — but most people do not realize what this means: at Guantanamo and in other military prisons, one’s lawyer’s calls are monitored, witnesses for one’s defense are not allowed to testify, and one can be forced into nudity and isolation. Incredibly, ninety-three Senators voted to support this bill and now most of Congress: a roster of names that will live in infamy in the history of our nation, and never be expunged from the dark column of the history books.
They may have supported this bill because—although it’s hard to believe—they think the military will only arrest active members of Al Qaida; or maybe, less naively, they believe that ‘at most’, low-level dissenting figures, activists, or troublesome protesters might be subjected to military arrest. But they are forgetting something critical: history shows that those who signed this bill will soon be subject to arrest themselves.
Our leaders appear to be supporting this bill thinking that they will always be what they are now, in the fading light of a once-great democracy — those civilian leaders who safely and securely sit in freedom and DIRECT the military. In inhabiting this bubble, which their own actions are about to destroy, they are cocooned by an arrogance of power, placing their own security in jeopardy by their own hands, and ignoring history and its inevitable laws. The moment this bill becomes law, though Congress is accustomed, in a weak democracy, to being the ones who direct and control the military, the power roles will reverse: Congress will no longer be directing and in charge of the military: rather, the military will be directing and in charge of individual Congressional leaders, as well as in charge of everyone else — as any Parliamentarian in any society who handed this power over to the military can attest.
Perhaps Congress assumes that it will always only be ‘they’ who are targeted for arrest and military detention: but sadly, Parliamentary leaders are the first to face pressure, threats, arrest and even violence when the military obtains to power to make civilian arrests and hold civilians in military facilities without due process. There is no exception to this rule. Just as I traveled the country four years ago warning against the introduction of torture and secret prisons – and confidently offering a hundred thousand dollar reward to anyone who could name a nation that allowed torture of the ‘other’ that did not eventually turn this abuse on its own citizens — (confident because I knew there was no such place) — so today I warn that one cannot name a nation that gave the military the power to make civilian arrests and hold citizens in military detention, that did not almost at once turn that power almost against members of that nation’s own political ruling class. This makes sense — the obverse sense of a democracy, in which power protects you; political power endangers you in a militarized police state: the more powerful a political leader is, the more can be gained in a militarized police state by pressuring, threatening or even arresting him or her.
Mussolini, who created the modern template for fascism, was a duly elected official when he started to direct paramilitary forces against Italian citizens: yes, he sent the Blackshirts to beat up journalists, editors, and union leaders; but where did these militarized groups appear most dramatically and terrifyingly, snapping at last the fragile hold of Italian democracy? In the halls of the Italian Parliament. Whom did they physically attack and intimidate? Mussolini’s former colleagues in Parliament — as they sat, just as our Congress is doing, peacefully deliberating and debating the laws. Whom did Hitler’s Brownshirts arrest in the first wave of mass arrests in 1933? Yes, journalists, union leaders and editors; but they also targeted local and regional political leaders and dragged them off to secret prisons and to torture that the rest of society had turned a blind eye to when it had been directed at the ‘other.’ Who was most at risk from assassination or arrest and torture, after show trials, in Stalin’s Russia? Yes, journalists, editors and dissidents: but also physically endangered, and often arrested by militarized police and tortured or worse, were senior members of the Politburo who had fallen out of favor.
Is this intimidation and arrest by the military a vestige of the past? Hardly. We forget in America that all over the world there are militarized societies in which shells of democracy are propped up — in which Parliament meets regularly and elections are held, but the generals are really in charge, just as the Egyptian military is proposing with upcoming elections and the Constitution itself. That is exactly what will take place if Congress gives the power of arrest and detention to the military: and in those societies if a given political leader does not please the generals, he or she is in physical danger or subjected to military arrest. Whom did John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, say he was directed to intimidate and threaten when he worked as a ‘jackal’, putting pressure on the leadership in authoritarian countries? Latin American parliamentarians who were in the position to decide the laws that affected the well-being of his corporate clients. Who is under house arrest by the military in Myanmar? The political leader of the opposition to the military junta. Malalai Joya is an Afghani parliamentarian who has run afoul of the military and has to sleep in a different venue every night — for her own safety. An on, and on, in police states — that is, countries with military detention of civilians — that America is about to join.
US Congress people and Senators may think that their power protects them from the treacherous wording of Amendments 1031 and 1032: but their arrogance is leading them to a blindness that is suicidal. The moment they sign this NDAA into law, history shows that they themselves and their staff are the most physically endangered by it. They will immediately become, not the masters of the great might of the United States military, but its subjects and even, if history is any guide — and every single outcome of ramping up police state powers, unfortunately, that I have warned for years that history points to, has come to pass — sadly but inevitably, its very first targets.
LINKS:
National Defense Appropriations Act
Indefinite military detention for U.S. citizens now in the hands of a secretive conference committee
December 8, 2011 – by Donny Shaw
http://bit.ly/sxolqr
Libya In The News: Old Libya
FRANÇAIS 189 عربي 9 ESPAÑOL 146 ENGLISH 201 PORTUGUÊS 20 DEUTSCH 28 ITALIANO 57 فارسى 1 РУССКИЙ 10 POLSKI 1
Targeting of Christian Syrians and Black Libyans: The “Clash of Civilizations” is on the march
by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
21 NOVEMBER 2011
Divide and conquer stratagems are back with a vengeance throughout the Arab world, fanning the flames of discontent and undermining national sovereignty. The stage is being set for a contrived “clash of civilizations,” closely following the 1982 plan of Israeli strategist Oded Yinon, for which any form of peaceful coexistence among the various ethnic and religious groups living in Arab countries spells disaster and must be stamped out. Nazemroaya analyses the process already underway.
“THE ART OF WAR”
Armed business in Libya
by Manlio Dinucci
ROME (ITALY) | 14 NOVEMBER 2011
The “new Libya” is a mirror for larks, with entrepreneurs scrambling for mega-deals. However, the current state of instability makes any construction project extremely risky. The oil and food supply sectors are the only ones that offer long-term guarantees. Provided of course that businessmen are protected … this is where the private military companies come in.
Bob Powell: ’We’ve been lied to by every media outlet in the world about Libya’
13 NOVEMBER 2011
Upon recently uncovering information that the “revolution” in Libya was anything but a popular uprising, Bob Powell, host and producer of “The Truth Is Viral” on Above Top Secret decided to share it with his audience in the latest episode of his show.
In an efficiently packaged presentation, he exposes the real reasons behind the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi without leaving any stone unturned, from the CIA trained and equipped al-Qaeda terrorists assisted by Qatari Army soldiers, to the (…)
NATO WAR CRIMES
Libyan humanitarian activist vs. NATO
13 NOVEMBER 2011
Setting a momentous precedent, 34-year old Khaled K. El-Hamedi filed a lawsuit against NATO after his entire family was killed in a bombing raid on 20 June 2011 at 2:30 a.m. While in Libya, Voltaire Network’s Thierry Meyssan reported on the “The Sorman massacre”, denouncing NATO’s strategy of deliberately targeting the family members of Libyan leaders, aided by undercover agents who marked the targets for the strikes. Khaled K. El-Hamedi brings us his personal testimony of the barbarism that destroyed his loved ones, his life and his entire country.
Allied forces deployed in Libya since mid-February
10 NOVEMBER 2011
According to Nathalie Guibert of Le Monde, the French and British military General Staff negotiated the division of Libyan waters between their respective submarines a month before NATO’s intervention, that is when the Benghazi disorders erupted.
The French daily further reported that four nuclear attack submarines (SNA) were deployed off the coast of Libya during Operation “Unified Protector”. One of them allegedly started running intelligence missions by end of February.
Such reports (…)
In 1978, Imam Sadr was indeed Muammar Gaddafi’s victim
10 NOVEMBER 2011
Muammar Gaddafi’s former personal aide, Ahmad Ramadan al-Asaibie, gave an interview to journalist Jenan Moussa, released by the UAE-based television channel Al-Aan on 8 November 2011.
In the 80’s, Colonel Ahmed Ben Ramadan had coordinated the pro-Libyan forces in Chad, before taking command of the Libyan Revolutionary Guard. In the 90s, he headed the “Guide”’s Intelligence Bureau.
He claims to have witnessed the arrival at Muammar Gaddafi’s Headquarters of Iman Mosa el Sadr and his two (…)
5 000 Qatari troops helped to colonize Libya
7 NOVEMBER 2011
Having long claimed that it participated in the fighting in Libya by only sending a few planes, Qatar admitted some ten days that it actually deployed hundreds of ground troops.
However, Voltaire Network has consistently reported a massive presence of Qatari ground forces (and to a lesser extent, Jordan). Qatar had built a small airport in southern Libya and used the one in Cyrenaica to transport its troops. It disembarked reinforcements in Tripoli when the capital was taken.
Moreover, (…)
General Bouchard acknowledges that NATO’s informants in Libya were journalists
3 NOVEMBER 2011
In a 31 October 2011 interview on Radio Canada, Lieutenant-General Charles Bouchard, who led Operation Unified Protector in Libya, revealed that an analysis unit was set up at NATO headquarters in Naples. It’s mission was to study and decipher what was happening on the ground, that is to say both the movements of the Libyan Army and those of the “rebels.”
To fortify the unit, several information networks were created. “The intelligence came from many sources, including the media who were on (…)
Al Qaeda takes possession of emblematic Benghazi Courthouse
3 NOVEMBER 2011
Mustafa Abdul Jalil, the former Justice Minister of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya who became chairman of the National Transitional Council, announced the rebels’ intention to turn Libya into an Islamic state and implement Sharia as the only law.
From the first month of NATO’s bombing campaign in Libya, Voltaire Network highlighted Al Qaeda’s role in the destabilization of the country to justify foreign military intervention.
According to journalist Elhelwa Sheriff, the Al Qaeda flag is (…)
NATO Secretary General statement on end of Libya mission
by Anders Fogh Rasmussen
BRUSSELS (BELGIUM) | 28 OCTOBER 2011
Today, we confirmed the decision taken by the North Atlantic Council a week ago. Our operation for Libya will end on October 31. Until then, together with our partners, we will continue to monitor the situation. And if needed, we will continue to respond to threats to civilians.
We have fully complied with the historic mandate of the United Nations to protect the people of Libya, to enforce the no-fly zone and the arms embargo. Operation Unified Protector is one of the most successful in (…)
Libya’s former UN ambassador fears for life in jail
27 OCTOBER 2011
Libyan ex-PM Abuzed Dorda has suffered broken legs and other injuries following what relatives claim was a murder attempt by guards. The Libyan, meanwhile, says his wounds were sustained during an escape bid.
Dorda’s son-in-law, Adel Khalifa, wrote to the UN Security Council’s Nigerian president, U. Joy Ogwu, according to a web report by Foreign Policy magazine, which has a copy of the email.
“Most of you may have known and dealt with Mr. Dorda during his tenure as Prime Minister of Libya,” (…)
Libya and Gaddafi: setting the record straight
26 OCTOBER 2011
The following video, by an anonymous author, has circulated virally on the internet. It presents irrefutable facts which paint an image of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime diametrically opposed to what has systematically been conveyed by the NATO-subservient media.
Eloquently entitled “Libya & Gaddafi: The Truth you are not supposed to know,” the enormous attention galvanized by this video is a sign of the mounting outrage as public opinion opens its eyes to the fabrications and lies foisted (…)
An African perspective: “Three reasons why Gaddafi has to die”
25 OCTOBER 2011
Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi overthrew the repressive Libyan monarchy of King Idris in 1969, nationalised the oil and banking industry and with the profits oversaw Africa’s first communication satellite in 2007, free health care and education for the Libyan people. He was working towards the unification of Africa to create a single African trading bloc and a single African currency based on gold and dinar, along with a united African military force.
In the following video, taped before (…)
Gaddafi’s son: ‘We continue our resistance to full revenge. I am in Libya, alive and free’
23 OCTOBER 2011
The son and heir apparent of the late Colonel Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam, is still in Libya. He is free and will go on with resistance, he reportedly claimed in an address to supporters aired by Syria’s Arrai TV Channel, loyal to the Libyan ex-leader.
“We continue our resistance. I am in Libya, I am alive, free and intend to go to the very end and exact revenge,” Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency quotes Saif al-Islam as saying on the Syrian Channel on Saturday night.
Earlier contradictory reports (…)
Chávez: Gaddafi’s assassination will not be the end of Libyan resistance
23 OCTOBER 2011
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez condemned the killing of Libyan head of state Muammar Gaddafi as an “assassination” and “a disregard for human life”.
Chávez stated that Gaddafi would be remembered as “a fighter and a martyr” and opined that the conflict in Libya isn’t finished, because in the North African country “there is a people, a dignity, and the Yankee empire will not be able to dominate”.
“The most lamentable thing is that in its [the US] determination to master the world, and its European (…)
Clinton: “We came, we saw, he died!”
21 OCTOBER 2011
Paraphrasing Emperor Julius Caesar following his victory over Pharnaces II (“Veni, Vedi, Vici”, meaning “I came, I saw, I conquered.”), US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, chortling before CBS cameras, reacted to Muammar Gaddafi’s death and the end of the war on Libya by declaring “We came, we saw, he died!”
The lynching of Muammar Gaddafi
by Thierry Meyssan
BEIRUT (LEBANON) | 21 OCTOBER 2011
The death of Muammar al-Gaddafi was hailed with an explosion of joy in all the government palaces of Western countries, but not by the Libyan people. For Thierry Meyssan, this militarily useless murder was perpetrated by the Empire not only as an example, but also to deconstruct Libya’s tribal society.
Barack Obama on Announcement of Death of Libya’s Qadhafi
by Barack Obama
WASHINGTON D.C. (USA) | 20 OCTOBER 2011
Good afternoon, everybody. Today, the government of Libya announced the death of Muammar Qaddafi. This marks the end of a long and painful chapter for the people of Libya, who now have the opportunity to determine their own destiny in a new and democratic Libya.
For four decades, the Qaddafi regime ruled the Libyan people with an iron fist. Basic human rights were denied. Innocent civilians were detained, beaten and killed. And Libya’s wealth was squandered. The enormous potential of the (…)
Mali: Masses March in Support of Muammar Gaddafi
18 OCTOBER 2011
Mass demonstrations took place Friday in Mali against the European-American aggression on the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and the leader of the Libyan revolution, Colonel Muammar Qaddafi.
The protesters wore T-shirts and placards bearing the image of Colonel Gaddafi and chanted their readiness to die to save Libya. International brigades are being formed to stand up against the re-colonization of Africa.
The Jamahariya devoted part of its oil revenues to the development (…)
DOCUMENTARY BY JULIEN TEIL: “HUMANITARIAN WAR IN LIBYA : THERE IS NO EVIDENCE !”
Lybia: Human rights impostors used to spawn NATO’s fraudulent war
by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
17 OCTOBER 2011
The names change but the methods remain the same. In Iraq the imperial war facilitator was Ahmed Chalabi. In Libya he goes by the name of Soliman Bouchuiguir, a shadowy human rights figure whose baseless allegations against Gaddafi were endorsed by the UN system and its affiliated human rights agencies without the slightest verification. Each one in his own way, Nazemroaya and Teil shed light on a failed system of international law and justice, which has made itself complicit in NATO’s war crimes in Libya.
Sirte martyred by NATO
15 OCTOBER 2011
The religious leaders of Sirte (Libya) have issued a fatwa authorizing the surviving residents to eat dogs and cats.
About one month ago some 3 000 soldiers and 80 000 civilians were trapped in the city, besieged by the forces of the National Transitional Council, overseen by officers of the International Coalition, and bombed by NATO.
Sirte no longer receives food supplies. Electricity and water are cut off. Hospitals stopped functioning. The city is in ruins.
Only 10 000-20 000 people (…)
Testimony by Lizzy Phelan: “The war on Libya is a war on Africa”
14 OCTOBER 2011
Back in the UK, after several months spent in Libya covering NATO war crimes and uncovering mainstream media lies, freelance journalist Lizzie Phelan continues to fight for truth and justice on behalf of the Libyan people. Her testimony below is a gripping example of her commitment.
Lizzie Phelan spent her last days in Libya – where she was reporting for PressTV – trapped in the Rixos Hotel, together with Thierry Meyssan, Mahdi Nazemroaya and two other members of the Voltaire Network (…)
Rebel Claims of Libya ‘Mass Graves’ Come Up Empty, Again
9 OCTOBER 2011
The NTC loses yet more credibility!
Since the ouster of Moammar Gadhafi, the rebel claims that the former dictator had killed some 50,000 people in the civil war began to be scrutinized, and suffered from a major lack of actual bodies.
The above photo, taken in March 2011, shows a row of empty graves but no victims.
The rebels acted quite vindicated yesterday, announcing some 900 bodies were found in a “mass grave.”
The problem is once again, it never happened. The rebel National (…)
Washington targeting China’s Achilles heel
by F. William Engdahl
FRANKFURT (GERMANY) | 7 OCTOBER 2011
While nervously watching China edging closer to becoming the predominant world power in the 21st century, Washington has also been keeping a keen eye on China’s heavy reliance on foreign oil to meet its growing energy needs. Engdahl analyses the oil trap that Washington has laid for China in Libya and through AFRICOM’s deployment across Africa.
Witch hunts in “free” Libya
by Lizzie Phelan
LONDON (UNITED KINGDOM) | 22 SEPTEMBER 2011
While NATO’s mandate enjoins it to protect civilians, the Alliance allows the forces of the Libyan National Transition Council to continue their abuses. After hunting down black Africans, the summary executions now extend to members of the Qadhadhfa tribe, that of the fallen Leader. Hundreds of thousands of African workers have already fled the country to escape death; the time has now come for certain Libyans to take the road to exile if they want to survive.
Walter Fauntroy, Feared Dead in Libya, Returns Home—Guess Who He Saw Doing the Killing
by Valencia Mohammed
WASHINGTON D.C. (USA) | 21 SEPTEMBER 2011
Former US Congressman Walter Fauntroy had traveled to Libya as a goodwill negotiator to try to stop the war. Trapped inside the Rixos Hotel together with the team of Voltaire Network journalists, he narrowly escaped death: we can testify that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had personally given the order to execute him. He owes his salvation to his faith and the intervention of a high-profile US military official. Back in the U.S., he gave an interview to “Afro” magazine.
Muammar Gaddafi: “Jamahiriya Government Can Never Be Defeated”
20 SEPTEMBER 2011
Summary of leader Muammar Gaddafi’s statement made in an audio message broadcast on Syria’s Arrai television on Tuesday, 20 September:
“All should be aware that the government of Libya is the Jamahiriya government, that the power belongs to the men and women of the Popular Conferences and the People’s Committees in Libya. This Government by the People will never fail nor fall. It embodies the millions of Libyans and for that reason it can’t fall. Anyone who says Qaddafi’s government has fallen (…)
Civilian deaths in Libya: who’s killing who?
17 SEPTEMBER 2011
In Libya, where NATO-backed NTC forces are attempting to wipe out the last remaining pro-Gaddafi strongholds, civilians are still being killed but normally-vocal countries backing a UN resolution to protect them have gone strangely quiet.
British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy paid a visit this week to survey their handiwork. The first heads of state to visit Tripoli since the city fell to rebel forces say their countries’ work in spearheading the NATO (…)
NATO’s War Crimes in Libya: Sanctions against defiance
by James Petras
NEW YORK (UNITED STATES) | 14 SEPTEMBER 2011
Faced with the deteriorating global situation and a wave of popular uprisings breaking away from Western hegemony, NATO powers counter-attacked in the most resolute manner. According to James Petras, the destruction of an independent and secular regime like Libya was meant to send the following unequivocal message “to whom it may concern”: any independent Third World regime can be overthrown; colonial puppet regimes can be forced upon a devastated people; colonialism is still thriving; and imperial rule is here again.
Special Declaration by ALBA-TCP Countries on Libya and Syria
13 SEPTEMBER 2011
Caracas, Venezuela
12 September 2011
The Foreign Affairs Ministers of the member states of ALBA (the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America) gathered in Caracas on September 9 and condemned the NATO intervention in Libya and the illegal military aggression carried out under a UN Security Council resolution, saying that it opportunistically takes advantage of the internal political conflict in that country. This follows two prior ALBA statements on the issue this year: the (…)
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